Strange Days

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April 28th

1442 ~ Birthday of King Edward IV of England.

1788 ~ Maryland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland) became the 7th state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

1889 ~ Birthday of António de Oliveira Salazar, Dictator.

1920 ~ Azerbaijan was added to the Soviet Union.

1906 ~ Birthday of Kurt Gödel, Mathematician.

1952 ~ The United States occupation of Japan ended.

1908 ~ Birthday of Oskar Schindler, Businessman.

1969 ~ Charles de Gaulle resigned as President of France.

1937 ~ Birthday of Saddam Hussein, Dictator.

2003 ~ Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store released, sells 1,000,000 songs in first week.

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1429 ~ Joan of Arc relieved Orleans from English siege.

1770 ~ James Cook discovered Botany Bay, Australia.

1863 ~ Birthday of William Randolph Hearst, Publisher.

1879 ~ Birthday of Sir Thomas Beecham, Conductor.

1899 ~ Birthday of Edward "Duke" Ellington, Jazz Pianist, Bandleader.

1901 ~ Birthday of Michinomiya Hirohito, Emperor

1936 ~ Birthday of Zubin Mehta, Conductor.

1945 ~ Adolf Hitler married his long-time partner Eva Braun and designated Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor.

1946 ~ Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders were indicted for war crimes.

1988 ~ Glasnost: Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised increased religious freedoms.

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313 ~ Roman emperor Licinius unified the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule.

1777 ~ Birthday of Carl Friedrich Gauss, Mathematician, Astronomer and Physicist.

1803 ~ Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation overnight.

1870 ~ Birthday of Franz Lehár, Composer.

1877 ~ Birthday of Alice B. Toklas, Muse.

1893 ~ Birthday of Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Foreign Minister.

1938 ~ Birthday of Larry Niven, Science Fiction Author.

1945 ~ Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commited suicide after being married for one day.

1948 ~ The Land Rover unveiled at the Amsterdam Auto Show.

1975 ~ Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops occupied Saigon, ending the war.

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305 ~ Diocletian and Maximian retired from the office of Roman Emperor.

1707 ~ The Act of Union joined England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1786 ~ Premier night of the opera “The Marriage of Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

1830 ~ Birthday of Mother Jones, Labor Activist.

1852 ~ Birthday of Calamity Jane, Riflewoman.

1840 ~ The Penny Black, the world's first official adhesive postage stamp went on sale

1923 ~ Birthday of Shimon Peres, Israeli Statesman.

1932 ~ Birthday of Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League.

1944 ~ Birthday of Rita Coolidge, singer

2004 ~ Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union.



Day of the International Solidarity of Workers (particularly in Communist countries).

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1660 ~ Birthday of Alessandro Scarlatti, Composer.

1670 ~ The Hudson's Bay Company formed in England.

1729 ~ Birthday of Empress Catherine II of Russia.

1892 ~ Birthday of Manfred von Richthofen, Pilot.

1903 ~ Birthday of Dr. Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, Olympic gold medalist, Author.

1904 ~ Birthday of Bing Crosby, Actor and Singer.

1933 ~ The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness monster reported.

1939 ~ Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive baseball games played came to an end. The record stood for 57 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. broke it.

1952 ~ The first commercial jet plane, the BOAC Comet, entered service.

1997 ~ Tony Blair became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule. At 44, he was the youngest prime minister in 185 years.

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612 ~ Birthday of Constantine III, Byzantine Emperor.

1469 ~ Birthday of Nicolò Machiavelli, Historian and Political Author.

1810 ~ Lord Byron swims the Hellespont. It was one of those things that couldn’t be done.

1889 ~ Birthday of Golda Meir, PM of Israel.

1906 ~ Birthday of Mary Astor, Actress.

1912 ~ The first victims of the RMS Titanic are buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1951 ~ London's Royal Festival Hall opens.

1959 ~ Birthday of Ben Elton, Comedian & Author.

1982 ~ Falklands War: The HMS Sheffield is hit by an Exocet missile and sinks.

2000 ~ Datapoint, the company that commissioned the Intel 8008 microprocessor, declares bankruptcy.


Today is World Press Freedom Day.

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1825 ~ Birthday of Thomas Henry Huxley, Scientist and staunch defender of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

1928 ~ Birthday of Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt.

1936 ~ Birthday of El Cordobes, Bullfighter.

1930 ~ British police arrest Mahatma Gandhi.

1941 ~ Birthday of George Will, Writer.

1942 ~ Battle of the Coral Sea began.

1942 ~ Birthday of Tammy Wynette, Country Musician.

1961 ~ American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" began a bus trip through the South.

1970 ~ Kent State massacre: The Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the United States' invasion of Cambodia. Four students are killed, 9 wounded.

1979 ~ Margaret Thatcher appointed PM of the United Kingdom.

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1809 ~ Mary Kies became the first woman to be awarded a US patent.

1813 ~ Birthday of Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher.

1818 ~ Birthday of Karl Marx, Political philosopher.

1821 ~ Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor.

1891 ~ Carnegie Hall had its grand opening and first public performance (Tchaikovsky was the guest conductor).

1843 ~ Birthday of Michael Palin, comedian ("Monty Python").

1925 ~ Biology teacher John Scopes arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

1961 ~ Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into space. He made a space flight of 15 minutes, making less than one complete orbit.

1980 ~ The Special Air Service stormed the Iranian embassy in London after a time of siege.

1995 ~ Death of Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion.

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1758 ~ Birthday of Maximilian Robespierre, Revolutionary.

1856 ~ Birthday of Sigmund Freud, Psychiatrist.

1889 ~ The Eiffel Tower officially opened to the public.

1915 ~ Birthday of Orson Welles, Director.

1915 ~ Birthday of Theodore H. White, Writer.

1931 ~ Birthday of Willie Mays, Athlete.

1937 ~ The German zeppelin “Hindenburg” caught fire and was destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

1954 ~ Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

1994 ~ Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officially opened the Chunnel.

2004 ~ The last episode of the television sitcom Friends aired.

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558 ~ In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapsed. Justinian immediately ordered the dome rebuilt.

1812 ~ Birthday of Robert Browning, Poet.

1832 ~ Greece became independent.

1833 ~ Birthday of Johannes Brahms, Composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1909 ~ Birthday of Edwin H. Land, inventor and founder of Polaroid.

1915 ~ The RMS “Lusitania” is sunk by a German U-boat killing 1,198.

1919 ~ Birthday of Eva Peron, wife of Argentina's President Juan Peron.

1945 ~ General Alfred Jodl signed unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document took effect the next day.

1998 ~ Apple Computer unveiled the iMac.

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1794 ~ French chemist Antoine Lavoisier was executed by guillotine.

1821 ~ Birthday of Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross and recipient of the 1901 Nobel Peace Prize.

1895 ~ Birthday of Fulton J. Sheen, Bishop, television personality.

1902 ~ In Martinique, Mount Pelee erupted, destroying the town of St. Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a small handful of St. Pierre's residents survived the blast.

1926 ~ Birthday of Sir David Attenborough, pioneering television presenter and producer.

1933 ~ Mahatma Gandhi began a 21 day fast in protest of British oppression in India.

1937 ~ Birthday of Thomas Pynchon, Novelist.

1945 ~ Birthday of Keith Jarrett, Jazz Musician.

1984 ~ The Soviet Union announced that it would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

1999 ~ Nancy Mace became the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college.

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1429 ~ Joan of Arc defeated the English troops besieging Orleans.

1800 ~ Birthday of John Brown, American abolitionist.

1873 ~ Birthday of Howard Carter, British archaeologist.

1892 ~ Birthday of Zita of Bourbon-Parma, last empress of Austria-Hungary.

1901 ~ Australia opened its first parliament in Melbourne.

1920 ~ Birthday of Richard Adams, Author.

1927 ~ The Australian Parliament first convened in Canberra.

1950 ~ Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.

1986 ~ Death of Tenzing Norgay, Mountaineer.

1994 ~ Nelson Mandela inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

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1534 ~ Jacques Cartier discovered Newfoundland.

1774 ~ Louis XVI became King of France.

1801 ~ The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declared war on the United States.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Wilkes Booth, Actor & Assassin.

1863 ~ Death of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate general.

1899 ~ Birthday of Fred Astaire, Singer, Dancer, Actor.

1902 ~ Birthday of David O. Selznick, Hollywood film producer.

1924 ~ J. Edgar Hoover appointed head the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1940 ~ Winston Churchill appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1960 ~ The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus completed the first under water circumnavigation of the earth.

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330 ~ Byzantium was renamed Constantinople.

1812 ~ Prime Minster Spencer Perceval was assassinated in the lobby of the British House of Commons.

1857 ~ Indian Mutiny: Indian rebels seized Delhi.

1888 ~ Birthday of Irving Berlin, composer.

1895 ~ Birthday of Jiddu Krishnamurti, Philosopher

1904 ~ Birthday of Salvador Dalí, Painter.

1918 ~ Birthday of Richard Feynman, Physicist.

1927 ~ The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy" in "Academy Awards," was founded.

1933 ~ Birthday of Louis Farrakhan, Black Muslim leader

1997 ~ IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeated Garry Kasparov to become the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

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1820 ~ Birthday of Florence Nightingale, Nurse.

1870 ~ Manitoba became a province of Canada.

1845 ~ Birthday of Gabriel Fauré, Composer.

1885 ~ The four day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel French Canadians against the Canadian government, came to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.

1914 ~ Birthday of Howard K. Smith, Journalist.

1918 ~ Birthday of Julius Rosenberg, Spy.

1928 ~ Birthday of Burt Bacharach, Composer.

1949 ~ The Soviet Union lifted its Blockade of Berlin.

1958 ~ A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement was signed between the United States and Canada.

2000 ~ The Tate Modern opened in London.

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1607 ~ Jamestown, Virginia was settled as an English colony.

1787 ~ Captain Arthur Phillip left England with eleven ships full of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia.

1842 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan, Composer.

1888 ~ Brazil abolished slavery.

1907 ~ Birthday of Dame Daphne du Maurier, Author.

1917 ~ Three peasant children claimed to see the Blessed Virgin Mary near Fatima, Portugal.

1931 ~ Birthday of Jim Jones, Cult leader.

1937 ~ Birthday of Roger Zelazny, Author.

1950 ~ Birthday of Stevie Wonder, Singer.

1981 ~ Mehemet Ali Agca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Square in Rome.

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1727 ~ Birthday of Thomas Gainsborough, Artist.

1796 ~ Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination.

1870 ~ The first game of rugby in New Zealand was played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.

1884 ~ Birthday of Claude Dornier, Aircraft Designer.

1885 ~ Birthday of Otto Klemperer, Conductor.

1912 ~ Birthday of Ben Hogan, Golfer.

1925 ~ Death of H. Rider Haggard, Author.

1940 ~ World War II: The Netherlands surrendered to Germany.

1948 ~ Israel declared itself to be an independent state and a provisional government was established.

1955 ~ Eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union signed a mutual-defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

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1048 ~ Birthday of Omar Khayyam, Poet.

1567 ~ Birthday of Claudio Monteverdi, Composer.

1811 ~ Paraguay gained independence from Spain.

1859 ~ Birthday of Pierre Curie, Physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics.

1869 ~ Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association.

1911 ~ The United States Supreme Court declared Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1915 ~ Birthday of Paul Samuelson, Economist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics.

1948 ~ Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attacked Israel.

1970 ~ The Beatles' last LP, “Let It Be”, was released in the United States.

1986 ~ Death of Theodore H. White, Writer.

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1204 ~ Baldwin, Count of Flanders crowned first Latin Emperor of Byzantium.

1532 ~ Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor of England.

1568 ~ Mary Queen of Scots fled to England.

1718 ~ Birthday of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician.

1866 ~ Charles Elmer Hires invented root beer.

1905 ~ Birthday of Henry Fonda, Actor.

1919 ~ Birthday of Liberace, Pianist.

1966 ~ Birthday of Janet Jackson, Entertainer.

1969 ~ Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, landed on Venus.

1975 ~ India annexed Sikkim.

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1653 ~ Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River.

1749 ~ Birthday of Edward Jenner, inventor of vaccine.

1846 ~ The Saxophone was patented by Adolphe Sax.

1866 ~ Birthday of Erik Satie, Composer.

1900 ~ During the Boer War, British troops relieved Mafeking.

1900 ~ Birthday of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

1943 ~ The US Army contracted with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.

1954 ~ The United States Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas”.

1966 ~ Birthday of Qusay Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein.

1995 ~ Jacques Chirac assumed the presidency of France.

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1652 ~ Rhode Island passed the first law in North America making slavery illegal.

1765 ~ Fire destroyed one quarter of Montreal, Quebec.

1850 ~ Birthday of Oliver Heaviside, Physicist.

1872 ~ Birthday of Bertrand Russell, Mathematician and Philosopher.

1883 ~ Birthday of Walter Gropius, Architect.

1896 ~ The United States Supreme Court ruled in “Plessy v. Ferguson” that "separate but equal" is constitutional.

1919 ~ Birthday of Dame Margot Fonteyn, Ballet dancer.

1937 ~ Birthday of Brooks Robinson, best Third Baseman ever.

1972 ~ Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.

1980 ~ Mount St. Helens erupted, killing 57 and causing US$ 3 billion in damage.

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1536 ~ Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII beheaded for adultery.

1568 ~ Queen Elizabeth I of England had Mary Queen of Scots arrested.

1795 ~ Birthday of Johns Hopkins, Philanthropist.

1890 ~ Birthday of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader.

1897 ~ Oscar Wilde released from prison.

1925 ~ Birthday of Malcolm X, Civil Rights activist.

1925 ~ Birthday of Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge leader.

1942 ~ Birthday of Gary Kildall, Computer Programmer.

1971 ~ Mars 2 launched by the Soviet Union.

2001 ~ Zhonghua Sun put to death by People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized.

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325 ~ First Council of Nicaea - first "Ecumenical Council" of the Christian Church.

1799 ~ Birthday of Honoré de Balzac, Author.

1806 ~ Birthday of John Stuart Mill, Philosopher.

1874 ~ Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a US patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

1901 ~ Birthday of Max Euwe, world chess champion

1902 ~ Cuba gained independence from the United States.

1915 ~ Birthday of Moshe Dayan, General.

1927 ~ Charles Lindbergh took off on the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1932 ~ Amelia Earhart took off on the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot.

1940 ~ The first prisoners arrived at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

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1471 ~ Birthday of Albrecht Dürer, Graphic Artist.

1844 ~ Birthday of Henri Rousseau, Artist.

1856 ~ Lawrence, Kansas captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.

1881 ~ The American Red Cross established by Clara Barton.

1898 ~ Birthday of Armand Hammer, physician, Entrepreneur

1945 ~ Humphrey Bogart married actress Lauren Bacall.

1916 ~ Birthday of Harold Robbins, Novelist.

1956 ~ Bikini Atoll nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.

1930 ~ Birthday of Malcolm Fraser, twenty-second Prime Minister of Australia.

1991 ~ Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi assassinated by a terrorist female suicide bomber near Madras.

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1430 ~ Joan of Arc captured and later sold to the English.

1533 ~ The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catharine of Aragon declared null and void.

1707 ~ Birthday of Carolus Linnaeus, Botanist.

1848 ~ Birthday of Otto Lilienthal, Engineer.

1900 ~ Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (awarded for heroism in the Battle of Fort Wagner during the American Civil War).

1921 ~ Birthday of James Blish, science fiction author.

1933 ~ Birthday of Joan Collins, Actress.

1934 ~ Bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by Texas Rangers.

1951 ~ Birthday of Anatoly Karpov, chess world champion.

1995 ~ Official announcement of the Java programming language.

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1626 ~ Peter Minuit bought Manhattan.

1689 ~ The Act of Toleration passed the English Parliament protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics were intentionally excluded).

1743 ~ Birthday of Jean-Paul Marat, Revolutionary.

1819 ~ Birthday of Queen Victoria.

1844 ~ First electrical telegram sent by Samuel F. B. Morse from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C., saying "What hath God wrought?".

1870 ~ Birthday of Jan Christiaan Smuts, Statesman and soldier.

1893 ~ Birthday of Walter Baade, Astronomer.

1895 ~ Playwright Oscar Wilde convicted on a morals charge in London and is sentenced to prison.

1941 ~ Birthday of Bob Dylan.

1993 ~ Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.

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1085 ~ Alfonso VI of Castile took Toledo, Spain back from the Moors.

1521 ~ The Diet of Worms ended with the Edict of Worms declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.

1803 ~ Birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essayist & Poet.

1889 ~ Birthday of Igor Sikorsky, developer of a working helicopter.

1892 ~ Birthday of Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia.

1925 ~ John T. Scopes was indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

1929 ~ Birthday of Beverly Sills, Soprano.

1961 ~ President Kennedy announced his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade.

1963 ~ In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organization of African Unity was established.

1973 ~ Mike Oldfield released “Tubular Bells”.

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1538 ~ Geneva evicted John Calvin.

1799 ~ Birthday of Aleksandr Pushkin, Author.

1805 ~ In Milan's cathedral, Napoleon I of France was crowned King of Italy.

1868 ~ The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended, with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote.

1878 ~ Birthday of Isadora Duncan, Dancer.

1886 ~ Birthday of Al Jolson.

1896 ~ Nicholas II became Tsar of Russia.

1907 ~ Birthday of John Wayne ("The Duke"), Actor.

1912 ~ Birthday of Jay Silverheels, Actor.

1972 ~ Willandra National Park was established in Australia.

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1703 ~ Tsar Peter the Great founded the city of Saint Petersburg.

1794 ~ Birthday of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Entrepreneur.

1907 ~ Birthday of Rachel Carson, Author.

1907 ~ A Bubonic plague outbreak began in San Francisco, California.

1911 ~ Birthday of Vincent Price, Actor.

1923 ~ Birthday of Henry Kissinger, American diplomat and recipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Peace.

1934 ~ Birthday of Harlan Ellison, science fiction Author.

1941 ~ German pocket battleship Bismarck was sunk in the North Atlantic killing 2,300.

1968 ~ George W. Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard.

1972 ~ Presidents Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon signed the SALT I agreements

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1371 ~ Birthday of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.

1588 ~ The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, began to set sail from Lisbon.

1759 ~ Birthday of William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of Great Britain.

1892 ~ John Muir organized the Sierra Club.

1908 ~ Birthday of Ian Fleming, author of James Bond books.

1934 ~ The Dionne quintuplets are born to Olivia and Elzire Dionne, becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy.

1925 ~ Birthday of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone.

1936 ~ Alan Turing submitted “On Computable Numbers” for publishing. This is an article with considerably greater impact than "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", in which he proposed the famous “Turing Test”.

1944 ~ Birthday of Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City.

1964 ~ The Palestine Liberation Organization was formed.

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1453 ~ Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, marking the end of Byzantium.

1630 ~ Birthday of King Charles II of England.

1733 ~ Right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves upheld at Quebec City.

1763 ~ Birthday of Patrick Henry, Patriot.

1874 ~ Birthday of G. K. Chesterton, Author.

1906 ~ Birthday of T.H. White, Author.

1913 ~ Igor Stravinsky's ballet score “The Rite of Spring” was premiered in Paris.

1917 ~ Birthday of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, U.S. President

1919 ~ Observation of shifted star positions during a solar eclipse confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

1953 ~ Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

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1431 ~ Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

1672 ~ Birthday of Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia.

1806 ~ Andrew Jackson killed a man in a duel after the man accused Jackson's wife of bigamy.

1908 ~ Birthday of Mel Blanc, voice for Barney Rubble, Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, and others.

1909 ~ Birthday of Benny Goodman, Clarinetist & Bandleader.

1922 ~ The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated.

1922 ~ Birthday of Hal Clement, science fiction writer.

1934 ~ Birthday of Aleksei Leonov, first person to walk in space.

1967 ~ The Nigerian state of Biafra seceded, sparking a civil war.

1982 ~ Cal Ripken, Jr. played the first of 2,632 consecutive Major League baseball games.

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1048 ~ Birthday of Omar Khayyam, Persian Poet, Astronomer & Philosopher

1678 ~ Lady Godiva processed through Coventry.

1819 ~ Birthday of Walt Whitman, Poet.

1902 ~ The last Afrikaner resistance forces signed a peace treaty with the British at Pretoria, ending the Second Boer War, and ensuring British control of South Africa.

1912 ~ Birthday of Alfred Deller, Early modern countertenor.

1916 ~ The Battle of Jutland, the first and the only full-scale battleship engagement during World War I

1938 ~ Birthday of John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1939 ~ Birthday of Terry Waite, humanitarian.

1974 ~ Syria and Israel signed a disengagement agreement to resolve the Yom Kippur War.

2003 ~ The final flight of an Air France Concorde.

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1495 ~ Friar John Cor recorded the first known batch of scotch whisky.

1780 ~ Birthday of Carl von Clausewitz, general.

1801 ~ Birthday of Brigham Young, Mormon church leader.

1829 ~ Captain James Stirling established the Swan River Colony in Western Australia.

1890 ~ The U.S. Census Bureau began using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.

1926 ~ Birthday of Marilyn Monroe, Actress.

1928 ~ Birthday of Georgi Dobrovolski, Cosmonaut.

1938 ~ The first Superman comic was published.

1965 ~ Birthday of Nigel Short, British International Grand Master.

1980 ~ The Cable News Network began broadcasting.

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455 ~ The Vandals entered Rome, and plundered the city for two weeks.

1615 ~ First Récollet missionaries arrived at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.

1740 ~ Birthday of Marquis de Sade, Author.

1840 ~ Birthday of Thomas Hardy, Poet & Novelist.

1857 ~ Birthday of Edward Elgar, Composer

1904 ~ Birthday of Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic Gold Medalist, Actor

1925 ~ Wally Pipp, first baseman of the New York Yankees, asked for a day off due to a headache. He was replaced in the lineup by Lou Gehrig, who also started the next 2,128 consecutive games.

1952 ~ Television broadcasting began in Canada, at Montreal, Quebec.

1953 ~ Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the first to be televised.

1990 ~ Death of Rex Harrison, Actor.

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1098 ~ The Crusaders took Antioch.

1808 ~ Birthday of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America.

1875 ~ Death of Georges Bizet, Composer.

1888 ~ The poem “Casey at the Bat”, by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was published.

1899 ~ Death of Johann Strauss Jr., Composer.

1918 ~ Birthday of Lili St. Cyr, Ecdysiast.

1930 ~ Birthday of Marion Zimmer Bradley, Science Fiction Author.

1937 ~ The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson.

1944 ~ Charles de Gaulle became Prime Minister of France.

1989 ~ The government of China sent troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square.

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780 BC ~ The earliest solar eclipse was recorded in China.

1738 ~ Birthday of King George III of Great Britain.

1792 ~ Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Great Britain.

1878 ~ The Ottoman Empire ceded Cyprus to the United Kingdom.

1928 ~ Birthday of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Sex Therapist & Author.

1929 ~ Birthday of John Drew Barrymore, Actor.

1940 ~ German forces entered Paris.

1944 ~ Birthday of Michelle Phillips, Actress & Singer.

1965 ~ Birthday of Mick Doohan, Australian motorcycle racer.

1989 ~ Solidarity's victory in the first partly free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe.

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1718 ~ Birthday of Thomas Chippendale, Furniture Maker.

1723 ~ Birthday of Adam Smith, Economist.

1752 ~ Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning is electricity (kite + key + lightning)

1833 ~ Ada Lovelace met Charles Babbage.

1883 ~ Birthday of John Maynard Keynes, Economist.

1887 ~ Birthday of Pancho Villa, Revolutionary.

1939 ~ Birthday of Joe Clark, sixteenth Prime Minister of Canada.

1944 ~ Allied soldiers entered Rome. It was the first capital of an Axis nation to fall.

1977 ~ The Apple II personal computer went on sale.

1995 ~ Bose-Einstein condensate first created.

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1622 ~ Birthday of Claude-Jean Allouez, Jesuit missionary and explorer.

1683 ~ Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum opened as the world's first university museum.

1756 ~ Birthday of John Trumbull, Painter.

1844 ~ The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London.

1903 ~ Birthday of Aram Khachaturian, Composer.

1933 ~ The first drive-in theater opened, in Camden, New Jersey.

1935 ~ The Birthday of the current and 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.

1944 ~ Operation Overlord commenced with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France.

1956 ~ The Birthday of Björn Borg, tennis player.

1984 ~ Indian Armed Forces attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar, following an order from Indira Gandhi.

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1491 ~ Birthday of Jacques Cartier, Explorer.

1594 ~ Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.

1848 ~ Birthday of Paul Gauguin, Painter

1929 ~ Vatican City became a sovereign state.

1942 ~ The Battle of Midway ended in a decisive American victory.

1944 ~ Nazi SS troops executed 23 Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy.

1954 ~ Death of Alan Turing, mathematician, computer scientist.

1981 ~ The Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor.

1981 ~ Anna Kournikova, tennis player and inspiration for computer virus.


Today is the first day of the Vestalia (penus vestae) in honor of Vesta as observed by the Roman Empire.

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452 ~ Attila the Hun invaded Italy.

1625 ~ Birthday of Giovanni Cassini, Scientist.

1776 ~ American invaders driven back at Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

1810 ~ Birthday of Robert Schumann, Composer.

1866 ~ The Canadian Parliament met for the first time in Ottawa.

1867 ~ Birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect.

1887 ~ Herman Hollerith received a patent for his punch card calculator.

1910 ~ Birthday of John W. Campbell Jr., Science Fiction Writer, Publisher, Editor.

1916 ~ Birthday of Francis Crick, scientist, Nobel laureate.

1949 ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell was published.

2004 ~ First transit of Venus since 1882; the next one will occur on June 6, 2012.

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1534 ~ Jacques Cartier became the first European to discover the St. Lawrence River.

1672 ~ Birthday of Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia.

1775 ~ Guy Carleton prepared to face an American invasion at Quebec.

1810 ~ Birthday of Otto Nicolai, Composer.

1891 ~ Birthday of Cole Porter, Composer and Lyricist.

1916 ~ Birthday of Les Paul, Guitarist.

1934 ~ Donald Duck’s first appearance.

1940 ~ World War II: Norway surrendered to Germany.

1942 ~ World War II: The American Philippine Department surrendered to Japan.

1997 ~ The British lease on the New Territories in Hong Kong expired.

[jseal]

1688 ~ Birthday of James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Old Pretender".

1692 ~ Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop was hanged as a witch.

1829 ~ First boat race between Oxford and Cambridge.

1835 ~ Birthday of Rebecca Felton, first woman US Senator.

1898 ~ Spanish-American War: American Marines landed in Cuba.

1901 ~ Birthday of Frederick Loewe, Composer.

1915 ~ Birthday of Saul Bellow, author, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1921 ~ Birthday of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

1935 ~ Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in New York City.

1990 ~ Nelson Mandela is released from prison.

[jseal]

1509 ~ Marriage of King Henry VIII of England and Katherine of Aragon.

1572 ~ Birthday of Ben Jonson, Dramatist.

1770 ~ Captain James Cook ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef.

1776 ~ Birthday of John Constable, Painter.

1864 ~ Birthday of Richard Strauss, Composer & Conductor.

1901 ~ New Zealand annexed the Cook Islands.

1910 ~ Birthday of Jacques Cousteau, Explorer.

1963 ~ The University of Alabama was desegregated as Governor George Wallace stepped aside.

1979 ~ Death of John Wayne, Actor & Icon.

2004 ~ Cassini-Huygens makes its closest flyby of Phoebe.

[jseal]

1897 ~ Birthday of Anthony Eden, British Prime Minister.

1929 ~ Birthday of Anne Frank, Nazi victim.

1931 ~ Al Capone indicted for violating United States Prohibition laws.

1941 ~ Birthday of Chick Corea, musician.

1942 ~ Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

1963 ~ ”Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premiered.

1975 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi found guilty of corrupt election practices in 1971.

1987 ~ Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

1991 ~ NAFTA talks opened in Toronto, Ontario.

2003 ~ Death of Gregory Peck, Actor.

[jseal]

1774 ~ Rhode Island became the first American colony to outlaw the importation of slaves.

1811 ~ Birthday of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Author.

1865 ~ Birthday of William Butler Yeats, poet and dramatist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature.

1892 ~ Birthday of Basil Rathbone, Actor.

1897 ~ Birthday of Paavo Nurmi, Runner.

1970 ~ "The Long and Winding Road" became the Beatles' last #1 song.

1983 ~ Pioneer 10 became the first manmade object to leave the solar system.

1995 ~ French president Jacques Chirac announced the resumption of nuclear tests in Polynesia.


I close this evening with a quote from “The Second Coming”, penned by Mr. Yeats in 1921, about our own times:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Poets are indeed the antennae of civilizations!

[jseal]

1671 ~ Birthday of Tomaso Albinoni, Composer.

1775 ~ The United States Army was established.

1864 ~ Birthday of Alois Alzheimer, Physician.

1872 ~ Trade unions legalized in Canada.

1909 ~ Birthday of Burl Ives, Musician & Actor.

1919 ~ Alcock and Brown departed St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

1928 ~ Birthday of Ernesto (Che) Guevara, Revolutionary

1940 ~ World War II: The Wehrmacht occupied Paris.

1946 ~ Birthday of Donald Trump, business tycoon

1982 ~ War between United Kingdom and Argentina over the Falkland Islands ends.

[jseal]

1094 ~ Valencia fell to El Cid.

1330 ~ Birthday of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales.

1843 ~ Birthday of Edvard Grieg, Composer.

1909 ~ Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa met at Lords and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.

1911 ~ Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation (IBM) was incorporated.

1914 ~ Birthday of Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1919 ~ Alcock and Brown completed first nonstop transatlantic flight at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland.

1943 ~ Birthday of Xaviera Hollander, Prostitute, Author.

1956 ~ John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time.

1995 ~ Death of John Atanasoff, computer pioneer

[jseal]

1487 ~ Battle of Stoke Field, the last battle of the Wars of the Roses.

1755 ~ French and Indian War: French surrendered Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.

1806 ~ Birthday of Edward Davy, Physician, Chemist & Inventor.

1829 ~ Birthday of Geronimo, Apache Warrior & Leader.

1884 ~ The first roller coaster in the United States began operation at Coney Island, New York.

1890 ~ Birthday of Stan Laurel, Actor & Comedian.

1963 ~ Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.

1902 ~ Birthday of Barbara McClintock, Geneticist.

1912 ~ Birthday of Enoch Powell, British Politician.

1977 ~ Leonid Brezhnev became president of the USSR.

[jseal]

1597 ~ Sir Francis Drake claimed a land he called ‘Nova Albion’ (modern California) for England.

1703 ~ Birthday of John Wesley, theologian, founder of Methodists.

1775 ~ American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill - The British forces took Bunker Hill outside of Boston.

1818 ~ Birthday of Charles Gounod, Composer.

1882 ~ Birthday of Igor Stravinsky, Composer.

1885 ~ The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor.

1900 ~ Birthday of Martin Bormann, Nazi official.

1917 ~ Birthday of Dean Martin, Singer & Actor.

1944 ~ Iceland became independent from Denmark and formed a republic.

1953 ~ Workers Uprising: The Soviet Union ordered a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.

[jseal]

1778 ~ American Revolutionary War: British troops abandoned Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1815 ~ Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Waterloo led to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for a second time.

1873 ~ Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.

1928 ~ Aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean.

1940 ~ Appeal of June 18 by Charles de Gaulle.

1942 ~ Birthday of Sir Paul McCartney, Singer & Guitarist for The Beatles.

1964 ~ Birthday of Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein.

1983 ~ Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

[jseal]

1306 ~ Forces of Earl of Pembroke defeat Bruce's Scottish rebels at the Battle of Methven.

1623 ~ Birthday of Blaise Pascal, Mathematician.

1865 ~ Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas are finally informed of their freedom. June 19th is unofficially celebrated as Juneteenth in the United States.

1882 ~ Birthday of William F. Halsey Jr., American admiral.

1896 ~ Birthday of Wallis Warfield, Duchess of Windsor.

1945 ~ Birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi, politician and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

1947 ~ Birthday of Salman Rushdie, Author.

1953 ~ Executions of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, convicted spies.

1976 ~ King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden married Silvia Sommerlath.

1978 ~ First appearance of the comic strip “Garfield”.

[jseal]

166 BC ~ The Third Macedonian War ended with the Battle of Pydna, when the Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated and captured the Macedonian King Perseus.

1757 ~ Birthday of George Vancouver, Navigator & Naval Surveyor.

1837 ~ Birthday of Paul Morphy, Chess Phenomenon.

1846 ~ The saxophone was patented by Adolphe Sax.

1856 ~ Birthday of H. Rider Haggard, Author.

1906 ~ Birthday of Billy Wilder, Director.

1941 ~ In one of - if not THE - turning points of World War II, in Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union.

1944 ~ Three years to the day of the start of Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration began against Army Group Centre.

1976 ~ The Canadian House of Commons abolished capital punishment.

2002 ~ Death of Ann Landers, Columnist.

[jseal]

1534 ~ Birthday of Oda Nobunaga, Japanese warlord.

1757 ~ Indian Mutiny: Battle of Plassey - 3000 British troops defeated a 50,000 strong Indian army.

1894 ~ Birthday of Alfred Kinsey, Sexologist.

1894 ~ Birthday of Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, Duke of Windsor.

1894 ~ International Olympic Committee was founded at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

1912 ~ Birthday of Alan Turing, Mathematician.

1969 ~ Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the US Supreme Court by retiring chief justice Earl Warren.

1927 ~ Birthday of Bob Fosse, Choreographer.

1989 ~ The movie “Batman” was released in the United States.

1993 ~ Lorena Bobbitt cut off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.

[jseal]

1314 ~ Scotland regained its independence at the Battle of Bannockburn, when forces led by Robert the Bruce beat Edward II of England.

1519 ~ Death of Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara.

1692 ~ Kingston, Jamaica founded.

1842 ~ Birthday of Ambrose Bierce, Author

1901 ~ First exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work opens.

1915 ~ Birthday of Fred Hoyle, Cosmologist & Science Fiction Author.

1918 ~ First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.

1948 ~ Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union made overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.



Holidays and observances:
Feast day of St. John the Baptist
Discovery Day in Newfoundland and Labrador (celebrating the 1497 discovery by John Cabot)

[jseal]

1767 ~ Death of Georg Philipp Telemann, Composer.

1788 ~ Virginia ratified the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 10th state of the United States.

1867 ~ The Battle of Little Big Horn and the death of Colonel George Custer.

1894 ~ Birthday of Hermann Oberth, Physicist and one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.

1900 ~ Birthday of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

1901 ~ Death of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Composer.

1903 ~ Birthday of George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), Author.

1950 ~ The beginning of the Korean War.

1991 ~ Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia.

1997 ~ Death of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Explorer, Scientist.

[jseal]

1483 ~ Richard III became King of England.

1541 ~ Death of Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistador & conqueror of the Inca Empire.

1819 ~ The bicycle was patented.

1824 ~ Birthday of Lord Kelvin, physicist, inventor of the Kelvin temperature scale.

1898 ~ Birthday of Willy Messerschmitt, Aircraft Designer.

1912 ~ Birthday of Jay Silverheels, Actor.

1933 ~ Birthday of Claudio Abbado, Conductor.

1945 ~ The charter of the United Nations was signed.

1963 ~ John F. Kennedy spoke the famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner".

1964 ~ The Beatles released the album “A Hard Day's Night”.

[jseal]

1149 ~ Death of Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, in the battle of Inab.

1759 ~ General James Wolfe started a siege of Quebec.

1838 ~ Birthday of Paul von Mauser, weapon designer. “…When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin”, I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General ,The Pirates of Penzance, 1880, Gilbert & Sullivan

1880 ~ Birthday of Helen Keller, Spokeswoman for the deaf and blind.

1905 ~ Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin.

1930 ~ Birthday of Ross Perot, Billionaire and Politician.

1950 ~ US President Truman sent troops to fight in the Korean War.

1967 ~ World's first ATM installed in Enfield, London.

1977 ~ France granted independence to Djibouti.

2001 ~ Death of Jack Lemmon, Actor.

[jseal]

1389 ~ Ottoman forces defeated the Serbian army in Kosovo, opening the way for the Ottoman conquest of Southeastern Europe.

1491 ~ Birthday of Henry VIII, king of England.

1712 ~ Birthday of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Philosopher.

1838 ~ Queen Victoria crowned.

1902 ~ Birthday of Richard Rodgers, Composer.

1914 ~ Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophia were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, the proximate cause of World War I.

1926 ~ Birthday of Mel Brooks, Filmmaker.

1948 ~ Birthday of Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.

1950 ~ Seoul captured by troops from North Korea.

2004 ~ 2004 Canadian election.

[jseal]

1786 ~ Alexander Macdonnell and over five hundred Highlanders left Scotland to settle in Ontario, Canada.

1850 ~ Coal discovered on Vancouver Island.

1861 ~ Birthday of Dr. William Mayo, surgeon and founder of the Mayo Clinic.

1895 ~ Doukhobors burned their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government.

1900 ~ Birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Pilot and Writer.

1910 ~ Birthday of Frank Loesser, Composer and Lyricist.

1963 ~ Birthday of Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violinist.

1974 ~ Isabel Peron sworn in as President of the Argentine Republic.

1995 ~ The US Space Shuttle delivered a relief crew of two cosmonauts to the Russian Mir space station.

2003 ~ Death of Katharine Hepburn, Actress.

[jseal]

1817 ~ Birthday of Joseph Dalton Hooker, Botanist.

1864 ~ President Lincoln granted Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation".

1908 ~ Tunguska impact event occurred in Siberia.

1917 ~ Birthday of Lena Horne, Actress & Singer.

1934 ~ Night of the Long Knives in Germany.

1934 ~ Death of Ernst Röhm, Nazi government official.

1936 ~ ”Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell published.

1943 ~ Birthday of Florence Ballard, Singer & member of the Supremes.

1966 ~ Birthday of Mike Tyson, World Champion Boxer.

1971 ~ Crew of Soyuz 11 spacecraft killed when air supply escaped through faulty valve.

[jseal]

1646 ~ Birthday of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1863 ~ Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War began.

1872 ~ Birthday of Louis Blériot, first man to fly across the English Channel.

1881 ~ World's first international telephone call, between St. Stephen, New Brunswick and Calais, Maine

1916 ~ First day of the First Battle of the Somme. On this first day, 20,000 soldiers of the British Army were killed, and 40,000 wounded.

1925 ~ Death of Erik Satie, Composer.

1961 ~ Birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales.

1962 ~ Independence of Rwanda and Burundi.

2000 ~ Death of Walter Matthau, Actor.

2004 ~ Saturn Orbit Insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UT and ends at 02:48 UT.

[jseal]

1679 ~ Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi - led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.

1714 ~ Birthday of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Composer.

1839 ~ 53 African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué took over the slave ship Amistad.

1877 ~ Birthday of Hermann Hesse, Writer

1900 ~ First Zeppelin flight on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany

1906 ~ Birthday of Hans Bethe, Nobel-winning nuclear physicist.

1925 ~ Birthday of Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo.

1937 ~ Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator

1942 ~ Birthday of Vicente Fox, president of Mexico.

1976 ~ North and South Vietnam united to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

[jseal]

323 ~ Battle of Adrianople: Constantine the Great defeated Licinius, who fled to Byzantium.

1608 ~ Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.

1844 ~ The last pair of Great Auks was killed.

1854 ~ Birthday of Leos Janacek, Composer.

1883 ~ Birthday of Franz Kafka, Author.

1890 ~ Idaho was admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.

1935 ~ Death of André Citroën, automobile pioneer.

1938 ~ World record for a steam railway locomotive was set in England, by the "Mallard", which reached a speed of 126 mph.

1964 ~ President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial segregation in public places.

1998 ~ Death of Danielle Bunten Berry, a.k.a. Dan Bunten, software developer.

[jseal]

1054 ~ A supernova was observed by the Chinese and American Indians near the star ζ Tauri. For several months it remained bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.

1776 ~ The Continental Congress of the British colonies in America approved a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, forming the United States of America.

1807 ~ Birthday of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian patriot.

1826 ~ Death of John Adams, 2nd president of the United States and Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States. In a remarkable coincidence, both of these framers of the United States Declaration of Independence died on the 50th anniversary of its adoption.

1865 ~ “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” is published.

1883 ~ Birthday of Rube Goldberg, Cartoonist.

1918 ~ Birthday of Ann Landers, advice columnist.

1924 ~ Birthday of Eva Marie Saint, Actress: “North by Northwest”, “On the Waterfront”.

1946 ~ After over 400 years, the Philippines achieved full independence.

1976 ~ Israeli commandos raided Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing most passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers.

[jseal]

1687 ~ Isaac Newton's “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” published.

1781 ~ Birthday of Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore.

1830 ~ France invaded Algeria.

1853 ~ Birthday of Cecil Rhodes, South African politician.

1951 ~ William Shockley invented the junction transistor.

1880 ~ Birthday of Jan Kubelík, violinist.

1962 ~ Algeria became independent from France.

1909 ~ Birthday of Andrei Gromyko, president of the Soviet Union.

1971 ~ The voting age in the United States was reduced to 18 from 21.

1996 ~ Birthday of Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal.

[jseal]

1483 ~ Richard III crowned king of England.

1885 ~ Louis Pasteur successfully tested his vaccine against rabies.

1917 ~ Arabian troops led by T.E. Lawrence captured Aqaba from the Turks.

1923 ~ Birthday of Nancy Reagan, Actress, former US First Lady.

1964 ~ ”A Hard Day's Night”, the first Beatles film, premieres.

1935 ~ Birthday of Tenzin Gyatso, (Lhamo Dhondrup) fourteenth and current Dalai Lama.

1937 ~ Birthday of Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pianist & Conductor.

1946 ~ Birthday of Sylvester Stallone, Actor.

1946 ~ Birthday of George W. Bush, US President.

1974 ~ The radio program “A Prairie Home Companion” made its first live broadcast.

2004 ~ PixiesPace mourns the loss of one of their own, skipthisone. He was only 31.

[jseal]

1534 ~ First known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick.

1887 ~ Birthday of Marc Chagall, Painter.

1898 ~ US President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.

1907 ~ Birthday of Robert Heinlein, Science Fiction Writer.

1915 ~ Birthday of Yul Brynner, Actor.

1922 ~ Birthday of Pierre Cardin, Fashion Designer.

1940 ~ Birthday of Ringo Starr, Drummer and Singer.

1946 ~ Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini became the first American to be canonized.

1969 ~ French was made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government.

1978 ~ The Solomon Islands became independent from the United Kingdom.

[Lilith]

Today is also ironically "The Day the Clowns Cried"

http://www.historybuff.com/library/reffire.html

[jseal]

1099 ~ First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders mocked them.

1663 ~ Charles II of England granted John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.

1695 ~ Death of Christiaan Huygens, Dutch scientist and namesake of Saturn satellite probes.

1758 ~ French and Indian War: French forces held Fort Carillon against British at Ticonderoga, New York.

1822 ~ Death of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet ("Ozymandias", "Ode to the West Wind”, …).

1838 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, inventor of rigid dirigibles.

1839 ~ Birthday of John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil.

1889 ~ The first issue of the Wall Street Journal was published.

1933 ~ Birthday of Marty Feldman, Comedian & Actor (“Blazing Saddles”, “Young Frankenstein”,…).

1997 ~ Mayo Clinic researchers warned that the dieting-drug "fen-phen" could cause severe heart and lung damage.

[jseal]

48 BC ~ Julius Caesar barely avoided a catastrophic defeat to Pompey at the Battle of Dyrrhachium.

1509 ~ Birthday of John Calvin, Reformer.

1789 ~ Alexander Mackenzie reached Mackenzie River Delta.

1856 ~ Birthday of Nikola Tesla, Physicist, Mathematician, Inventor, and Electrical Engineer.

1903 ~ Birthday of John Wyndham, Author.

1920 ~ Birthday of David Brinkley, television reporter.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe began to attack British convoys in the English Channel, opening the Battle of Britain.

1962 ~ Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, was launched into orbit.

1985 ~ The Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk in Auckland Harbor by French DGSE agents.

1989 ~ Death of Mel Blanc, Voice Actor.

[jseal]

1302 ~ Battle of the Golden Spurs - the Flemish cities beat the French army. The battle showed that mounted knights were not invincible and so marked the beginning of their decline in European warfare.

1274 ~ Birthday of Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland.

1533 ~ King Henry VIII of England was excommunicated.

1754 ~ Birthday of Thomas Bowdler, Literary Censor.

1798 ~ The United States Marine Corps is established.

1811 ~ Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro published his memoir about molecular content of gases.

1857 ~ Birthday of Alfred Binet, Psychologist

1899 ~ Birthday of E. B. White, Writer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Cordwainer Smith, Writer.

1995 ~ Bosnian Serbs captured the Muslim city of Srebrenica. Many inhabitants were murdered.

[jseal]

1690 ~ William of Orange's army won the Battle of the Boyne.

1730 ~ Birthday of Josiah Wedgwood, Potter.

1812 ~ Americans invaded Canada at Windsor, Ontario.

1817 ~ Birthday of Henry David Thoreau, Writer, Philosopher.

1901 ~ Birthday of Sir William Osler, Physician, Author, Professor of Medicine.

1908 ~ Birthday of Milton Berle, Comedian.

1934 ~ Birthday of Van Cliburn, Pianist.

1937 ~ Birthday of Bill Cosby, Comedian, Actor, Educator.

1967 ~ Four days of race riots began in Newark, New Jersey that claimed the lives of 27 people.

1998 ~ KDE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE) 1.0 released.

[jseal]

100 BC ~ Birthday of Julius Caesar, statesman and military leader.

1793 ~ Death of Jean Paul Marat, French revolutionary.

1864 ~ Birthday of John Jacob Astor IV, entrepreneur.

1908 ~ Women competed in modern Olympics for the first time.

1909 ~ Gold discovered near Cochrane, Ontario.

1942 ~ Birthday of Harrison Ford, Actor

1946 ~ Birthday of Cheech Marin, Actor, Comedian.

1951 ~ Death of Arnold Schoenberg, Composer.

1977 ~ The New York City Blackout of 1977 lasted for 25 hours and resulted in looting and other disorder.

1982 ~ Montreal hosted the first baseball All-Star Game outside the United States.

[jseal]

1602 ~ Birthday of Jules Mazarin, Statesman and Cardinal.

1789 ~ French Revolution: Parisians stormed the Bastille Prison in Paris and freed seven political prisoners.

1881 ~ Death of Billy the Kid

1904 ~ Birthday of Isaac Bashevis Singer, author

1904 ~ Death of Anton Chekhov - Russian playwright and short story writer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Gerald Ford, American president.

1933 ~ In Germany, all political parties were outlawed except the Nazi Party.

1965 ~ Mariner 4 flyby of Mars.

1965 ~ Death of Adlai Stevenson, US presidential candidate.

2002 ~ During Bastille Day celebrations, Jacques Chirac escaped an assassination attempt.

[jseal]

1099 ~ Crusaders took the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after a difficult siege during First Crusade.

1207 ~ John of England expeled Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton.

1573 ~ Birthday of Inigo Jones, Architect.

1606 ~ Birthday of Rembrandt, (Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn) Artist

1779 ~ Birthday of Clement Moore, Author, Poet.

1796 ~ Birthday of Thomas Bulfinch, mythologist, author “Bulfinch's Mythology”

1799 ~ In the Egyptian village of Rosette, French Captain Pierre Bouchard found the Rosetta Stone.

1815 ~ Napoléon Bonaparte surrendered from aboard HMS Bellerophon.

1911 ~ Birthday of Edward Shackleton, Explorer.

1916 ~ In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing incorporated Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

[jseal]

622 ~ Beginning of the Islamic calendar by Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab.

1783 ~ Following the American War of Independence, grants of land in Canada to American loyalists announced.

1872 ~ Birthday of Roald Amundsen, explorer, first to reach the South Pole.

1911 ~ Birthday of Ginger Rogers, Actress & Dancer.

1942 ~ On orders from the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers rounded up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprisoned them.

1945 ~ The US successfully detonateed a test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1969 ~ Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida to become the first manned space mission to land on the moon.

1981 ~ Death of Harry Chapin, Singer & Songwriter.

1999 ~ Birthday of John F. Kennedy Jr.

2001 ~ The FBI arrested Dmitry Sklyarov at a convention in Las Vegas, Nevada for violating a provision of the DMCA.

[jseal]

180 ~ Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa were executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.

1674 ~ Birthday of Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter.

1762 ~ Catherine the Great became empress of Russia after the murder of Peter III.

1787 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Krupp, Industrialist.

1790 ~ Death of Adam Smith, Scottish economist.

1897 ~ The Klondike gold rush began when the first successful prospectors arrived in Seattle, Washington.

1918 ~ Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, their children and staff were murdered by Bolsheviks.

1945 ~ World War II: Potsdam Conference - At Potsdam, the three main Allied leaders began their final summit of the war.

1955 ~ Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.

1997 ~ The F.W. Woolworth Company closed after 117 years in business.

[jseal]

64 ~ Great fire of Rome: A fire began to burn in the merchant area of Rome and burned out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly played his lyre and sung while watching the blaze from a safe distance.

1635 ~ Birthday of Robert Hooke, Scientist.

1853 ~ Birthday of Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch Physicist and Nobel laureate.

1898 ~ Marie and Pierre Curie announced the discovery of a new element and proposed to call it polonium.

1918 ~ Birthday of Nelson Mandela, South African Revolutionary & President.

1921 ~ Birthday of John Glenn, Astronaut and Politician.

1922 ~ Birthday of Thomas Kuhn, Philosopher of Science.

1925 ~ Adolf Hitler published his personal manifesto “Mein Kampf”.

1976 ~ Gymnast Nadia Comaneci, aged 14, scored first ever perfect 10 at Olympics.

1994 ~ In Buenos Aires, an explosion destroyed a building housing several Jewish organizations killing 96 and injuring many more.

[jseal]

1533 ~ Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I as Queen of England after having that title for just nine days.

1814 ~ Birthday of Samuel Colt, Inventor.

1834 ~ Birthday of Edgar Degas, Impressionist Painter.

1873 ~ William Gosse became the first European to discover Ayers Rock and named it in honor of South Australian Premier Sir Henry Ayers.

1898 ~ Birthday of Herbert Marcuse, Communist Philosopher.

1922 ~ Birthday of George McGovern, WWII Bomber pilot & sometime Presidential Candidate.

1942 ~ World War II: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz ordered the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an effective American convoy system.

1976 ~ Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal was created.

1985 ~ Death of Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish science fiction writer.

1989 ~ A Douglas DC-10 carrying United Airlines flight 232 crashed in Sioux City, Iowa killing 112 but due to extraordinary efforts by the pilot and his crew, 184 on board survive. *** There is an interesting article on this in the current issue of Scientific American. ***

[jseal]

1871 ~ British Columbia joined the confederation of Canada.

1919 ~ Birthday of Sir Edmund Hillary, mountain climber.

1923 ~ Death of Pancho Villa, Revolutionary.

1938 ~ Birthday of Natalie Wood, actress: From Here to Eternity, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story.

1938 ~ Birthday of Dame Diana Rigg, actress: Mrs. Peel.

1940 ~ Billboard magazine published its first "Music Popularity Chart."

1944 ~ Adolf Hitler survived the “July 20 Plot” assassination attempt led by Claus von Stauffenberg.

1960 ~ Ceylon elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first female head of government.

1969 ~ Apollo 11 landed on the Moon (http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/imagery/apollo/AS11/a11sum.htm) and Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin become the first humans to walk on its surface.

1974 ~ Turkey invaded Cyprus

[jseal]

1865 ~ In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shot Dave Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.

1870 ~ Death of Josef Strauss, Composer.

1899 ~ Birthday of Ernest Hemingway, Author.

1920 ~ Birthday of Isaac Stern, Violinist.

1925 ~ High school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.

1948 ~ Birthday of Garry Trudeau, Cartoonist.

1954 ~ The Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

1967 ~ Death of Basil Rathbone, Actor.

1970 ~ After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed.

2004 ~ In an interview broadcast in Australia, filmmaker Michael Moore described Australian Prime Minister John Howard as "someone with half a brain".

[jseal]

1793 ~ Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific Ocean becoming the first European to complete a transcontinental crossing north of Mexico.

1796 ~ Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company named an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.

1822 ~ Birthday of Gregor Mendel, pioneering Geneticist.

1887 ~ Birthday of Gustav Ludwig Hertz, quantum physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.

1898 ~ Birthday of Alexander Calder, Artist.

1933 ~ Wiley Post became the first man to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

1934 ~ Death of John Dillinger, bank robber, shot at the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

1967 ~ Death of Carl Sandburg, Poet.

1992 ~ Colombian drug boss Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison in Medellín, fearing extradition to the United States.

2003 ~ Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay killed.

[jseal]

1829 ~ William Burt patented the first “typewriter”.

1892 ~ Birthday of Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia.

1926 ~ Fox Film bought the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.

1962 ~ Telstar relayed the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.

1972 ~ Landsat 1 launched, first Earth-resources satellite.

1982 ~ The International Whaling Commission voted to end commercial whaling by 1985-86.

1973 ~ Birthday of Monica Lewinsky, Congressional intern.

1983 ~ Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 crash-landed in Gimli, Manitoba.

2004 ~ International Whaling Commission: The beginning of the end of the whaling ban.

[jseal]

1701 ~ Detroit, Michigan founded.

1783 ~ Birthday of Simón Bolívar, South American liberator.

1802 ~ Birthday of Alexandre Dumas, Playwright & Novelist.

1847 ~ Brigham Young lead 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.

1898 ~ Birthday of Amelia Earhart, Aviator.

1910 ~ James MacGillivray published first account of Paul Bunyan in the Detroit News.

1943 ~ World War II: Operation Gomorrah began: British and Canadian aeroplanes bombed Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of bombs killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.

1969 ~ Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

1980 ~ Death of Peter Sellers, Actor.

1991 ~ Death of Isaac Bashevis Singer, Author, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978.

[jseal]

306 ~ Constantine I proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.

1799 ~ At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeated 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.

1834 ~ Death of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet.

1848 ~ Birthday of Arthur Balfour, UK Prime Minister.

1907 ~ Korea became a protectorate of Japan.

1909 ~ Louis Bleriot made the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine (Calais to Dover in 37 minutes).

1920 ~ Birthday of Rosalind Franklin, Scientist.

1917 ~ Sir Thomas Whyte introduced the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure.

1978 ~ Birthday of first test-tube baby, Louise Brown.

1997 ~ Death of Ben Hogan, one of the world's best known golfers.

[jseal]

1469 ~ The Wars of the Roses: Rebel victory at the Battle of Edgecote Moor

1856 ~ Birthday of George Bernard Shaw, Author & Playwright, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1925.

1887 ~ L. L. Zamenhof published "Dr. Esperanto's International Language".

1895 ~ Birthday of Aldous Huxley, Author.

1908 ~ Birthday of Salvador Allende, President of Chile.

1928 ~ Birthday of Stanley Kubrick, movie director.

1943 ~ Birthday of Mick Jagger, Musician.

1947 ~ Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.

It seems that a new set up is on the way.

1956 ~ Egypt seizes Suez Canal

1991 ~ Paul Reubens, better known as Pee Wee Herman, was arrested for masturbating at a Sarasota, Florida adult theatre.

[jseal]

1694 ~ A Royal Charter was granted to the Bank of England.

1794 ~ French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre was arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 "enemies of the Revolution".

1844 ~ Death of John Dalton, English chemist.

1866 ~ An Atlantic cable was successfully laid, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time.

1904 ~ Birthday of Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1978.

1940 ~ Bugs Bunny makes his official debut in the animated cartoon “A Wild Hare”.

1955 ~ The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends (started on May 9, 1945).

2003 ~ Death of Bob Hope.

[jseal]

1540 ~ Thomas Cromwell was executed on order from the king on charges of treason. A great-great grand nephew, Oliver, also became involved in politics.

1741 ~ Death of Antonio Vivaldi, Composer.

1750 ~ Death of Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer.

1794 ~ Maximilien Robespierre was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd, for sending thousands of others to a similar fate during the French Revolution.

1817 ~ Death of Jane Austen, Author.

1866 ~ Birthday of Beatrix Potter, Author.

1929 ~ Birthday of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.

1914 ~ World War I begins: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

1965 ~ Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

1996 ~ Kennewick Man, the remains of a prehistoric man, was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

[jseal]

1588 ~ Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada was defeated by the English navy off the coast of Gravelines, France.

1793 ~ John Graves Simcoe decided to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.

1856 ~ Death of Robert Schumann, Composer.

1871 ~ Birthday of Grigori Rasputin, Russian Spiritualist.

1907 ~ Sir Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts movement with the first scout camp at Brownsea Island.

1883 ~ Birthday of Benito Mussolini, Italian Dictator.

1890 ~ Death of Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter.

1954 ~ First part of The Lord of the Rings was published in the UK.

1958 ~ The United States Congress formally created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

1981 ~ Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales.

[jseal]

1818 ~ Birthday of Emily Brontë, English novelist

1863 ~ Birthday of Henry Ford, American industrialist

1898 ~ Death of Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor.

1930 ~ In Montevideo, Uruguay won the first Football World Cup.

1945 ~ World War II: A Japanese submarine sank the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen in the worst single loss in the history of the United States Navy.

1947 ~ Birthday of Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor, 38th Governor of California

1966 ~ At Wembley Stadium, host England won the first televised Football World Cup, beating Germany 4 to 2.

1971 ~ Apollo 15 landed on the Moon.

1975 ~ Death of James Blish, science fiction author.

2003 ~ In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line.

[jseal]

1498 ~ On his third voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus became the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

1556 ~ Death of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits

1703 ~ Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet.

1803 ~ Birthday of John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer.

1886 ~ Death of Franz Liszt, Composer.

1912 ~ Birthday of Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics

1917 ~ The Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) started in Flanders. With casualties from both sides exceeding 550,000, the name Passcheddaele has come to be used as a synonym for pointless slaughter.

"...I died in Hell
(they called it Passchendaele) my wound was slight
and I was hobbling back; and then a shell
burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell
into the bottomless mud, and lost the light"
Siegfried Sassoon

1945 ~ Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrendered to Allied soldiers in Austria.

1971 ~ Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts became the first to ride in a lunar rover.

2001 ~ Death of Poul Anderson, science fiction author.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Ferdinand and Isabella drove the Jews out of Spain.

1619 ~ First Black slaves landed in Jamestown, Virginia.

1744 ~ Birthday of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Scientist.

1779 ~ Birthday of Francis Scott Key, Composer of "The Star-Spangled Banner"

1790 ~ The first census of the United States was completed. The total population of the thirteen states was 3,929,214.

1819 ~ Birthday of Herman Melville, writer

1932 ~ Birthday of Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League

1944 ~ Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation began in Warsaw, Poland.

1990 ~ Iraq invades Kuwait.

1992 ~ Death of Mikhail Tal, world chess champion.

[jseal]

338 BC ~ Philip of Macedon crushed Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea.

216 BC ~ Battle of Cannae: Hannibal destroyed the Roman army of Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Publius Terentius Varro in what is considered one of the great masterpieces of tactics.

1754 ~ Birthday of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, Architect & City Planner.

1870 ~ Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway opened in London.

1921 ~ Death of Enrico Caruso, Tenor.

1932 ~ Birthday of Peter O'Toole, Actor.

1934 ~ Adolf Hitler became Führer of Germany.

1951 ~ Birthday of Lance Ito, Judge

1976 ~ Death of Fritz Lang, Film Director.

1997 ~ Australian ski instructor Stuart Diver was rescued as the sole survivor from the Thredbo landslide in New South Wales, Australia, in which 18 lives were lost.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.

1887 ~ Birthday of Rupert Brooke, Poet.

1900 ~ Birthday of John T. Scopes, defendant in the Monkey Trial.

1904 ~ Birthday of Clifford D. Simak, Science Fiction Author.

1914 ~ First World War: Germany declared war against France.

1924 ~ Death of Joseph Conrad, Writer.

1941 ~ Birthday of Martha Stewart, Home Economist.

1948 ~ Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.

1958 ~ Nuclear submarine USS Nautilus traveled beneath the Arctic ice cap.

2000 ~ George W. Bush accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Philadelphia.

[jseal]

1735 ~ Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he published was true.

1789 ~ The feudal system was abolished in France.

1792 ~ Birthday of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet

1840 ~ Birthday of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Sexologist.

1875 ~ Death of Hans Christian Andersen, Writer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Louis Armstrong, Jazz Musician.

1914 ~ World War I: The United Kingdom declared war on Germany and the United States proclaimed neutrality.

1929 ~ Birthday of Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO.

1944 ~ A tip from a Dutch informer lead the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they found Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.

1987 ~ The Federal Communications Commission rescinded the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to "fairly" present controversial issues.

[jseal]

1305 ~ William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, was captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.

1583 ~ Sir Humphrey Gilbert established first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland.

1861 ~ American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issued the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).

1884 ~ The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.

1895 ~ Death of Friedrich Engels, Socialist Philosopher.

1930 ~ Birthday of Neil Armstrong, Astronaut.

1962 ~ Death of Marilyn Monroe, Actress.

1984 ~ Death of Sir Richard Burton, Actor.

1963 ~ United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union signed a nuclear test ban treaty.

2000 ~ Death of Sir Alec Guinness, Actor.

[jseal]

1776 ~ Birthday of Amedeo Avogadro, Chemist.

1806 ~ Francis I, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicated, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire.

1809 ~ Birthday of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet.

1881 ~ Birthday of Alexander Fleming, scientist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Lucille Ball, Actress, Comedienne.

1926 ~ Gertrude Ederle became first woman to swim the English Channel.

1945 ~ World War II: An nuclear bomb codenamed Little Boy was dropped by the American B-29 Enola Gay on the city of Hiroshima in Japan at 8:16 a.m., killing 80,000.

1943 ~ Birthday of Jon Postel, creator of DNS.

1962 ~ Jamaica became independent.

1991 ~ Tim Berners-Lee released his idea for the "World Wide Web"

[jseal]

1516 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Bathory, serial killer.

1742 ~ Birthday of Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary War general.

1782 ~ George Washington ordered the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic "Purple Heart".

1816 ~ Simón Bolívar triumphed over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.

1876 ~ Birthday of Mata Hari (Margaretha Zelle), spy.

1942 ~ Birthday of Garrison Keillor, radio host.

1944 ~ IBM dedicated the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).

1947 ~ Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, grounded on the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.

1957 ~ Death of Oliver Hardy, Comedian, & Actor

1998 ~ Bombing of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya killed 224 people and injures over 4,500.

[jseal]

1879 ~ Birthday of Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolutionary.

1902 ~ Birthday of Paul Dirac, Physicist.

1918 ~ World War I: Battle of Amiens - Canadian troops, backed by Australians, began a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff will later call this the "black day of the German army".

1929 ~ The German airship Graf Zeppelin began a round-the-world flight (ended on August 29).

1930 ~ Birthday of Andy Warhol, Painter.

1931 ~ Birthday of Sir Roger Penrose, Mathematical Physicist.

1937 ~ Birthday of Dustin Hoffman, Actor.

1945 ~ The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States, and that nation became the first to join the new international organization.

1963 ~ Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers stole 2.6 million pounds in bank notes.

1974 ~ US President Richard Nixon announced his resignation (effective August 9).

[dicksbro]

In 1579 on August 8, the cornerstone was laid for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory. Now there's a bit of trivia for ya'. :)

[jseal]

48 BC ~ Roman Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar defeated Pompey decisively at Pharsalus and Pompey fled to Egypt.

117 ~ Death of Trajan, Roman Emperor.

378 ~ Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens was defeated by the Visigoths in present-day Turkey. Valens was killed along with 2/3 of his army.

1842 ~ Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.

1896 ~ Birthday of Jean Piaget, Child Psychologist.

1945 ~ World War II: An atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" was detonated over the city of Nagasaki, Japan at 11:02 AM (local time), killing about 75,000.

1962 ~ Death of Hermann Hesse, Author.

1969 ~ Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murdered five people including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and, Abigail Folger.

1975 ~ Death of Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer.

1995 ~ Death of Jerry Garcia, guitarist: Grateful Dead.

[jseal]

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan's 5 ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe.

1792 ~ French Revolution: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.

1809 ~ Ecuador declares independence from Spain.

1900 ~ Birthday of Wolfgang Pauli, physicist.

1920 ~ World War I: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives signed the Treaty of Sevres which divided up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies. (note to self – don’t lose wars)

1945 ~ Death of Robert Goddard, Rocket Scientist.

1948 ~ ”Candid Camera” makes its television after being on radio for a year as “Candid Microphone”.

1954 ~ At Messena, New York, the ground breaking ceremony for the St. Lawrence Seaway was held.

1988 ~ Japanese American Internment: US President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans who were either interned or relocated by in the United States during World War II.

1990 ~ The Magellan space probe reaches Venus.

[jseal]

480 B.C. ~ Persians under Xerxes defeated Spartans under King Leonidas in the Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans fight to the last man. The Persian and Greek fleets also fight the indecisive Battle of Artemisium.

The Battle of Thermopylae has served as an example to officers and soldiers alike of what courage and self-sacrifice could achieve. It is still remembered, almost 2,500 years later, as a classic example of virtue.

1905 ~ Birthday of Erwin Chargaff, biochemist.

1933 ~ Birthday of Jerry Falwell, Christian preacher and politician.

1934 ~ Federal prison opened at Alcatraz Island.

1948 ~ Olympic games opened in London.

1900 ~ Death of Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist.

1966 ~ John Lennon held a press conference in Chicago excusing himself from the "Jesus affair".

2003 ~ NATO took over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

[jseal]

1099 ~ First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders defeated Saracens and the Kingdom of Jerusalem is established under Godfrey of Bouillon.

1851 ~ Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine.

1859 ~ Birthday of Katherine Lee Bates, poet, author of "America the Beautiful".

1887 ~ Birthday of Erwin Schrödinger, physicist.

1927 ~ Birthday of Mstislav Rostropovich, Cellist.

1928 ~ Death of Leos Janacek, Czech composer.

1953 ~ The Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb.

1960 ~ “Echo I”, the first communications satellite, launched.

1964 ~ Birthday of Ian Fleming, Novelist.

1981 ~ The IBM PC was introduced.

[jseal]

1521 ~ Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) fell to conquistador Hernán Cortés.

1704 ~ War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.

1860 ~ Birthday of Annie Oakley, Sharpshooter.

1899 ~ Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock, Director.

1926 ~ Birthday of Fidel Castro, Revolutionary and Politician.

1942 ~ Walt Disney's animated cartoon "Bambi" premiered.

1946 ~ Death of H. G. Wells, Writer.

1948 ~ Birthday of Kathleen Battle, Opera Singer.

1960 ~ Central African Republic & Chad declared independence from France.

1961 ~ The Berlin Wall began to be erected.

[jseal]

1840 ~ Birthday of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, psychologist.

1863 ~ Birthday of Ernest Thayer, poet: “Casey at the Bat”.

1880 ~ After 632 years, Cologne Cathedral completed.

1945 ~ World War II: Japan surrenders, ending the war.

1947 ~ Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain at midnight, Pakistan commemorating the event on August 14 and India on August 15.

1951 ~ Death of William Randolph Hearst, newspaper magnate.

1953 ~ The Whiffle ball, a ball that curved when it was thrown, was invented by David Mullany Sr. for his 13-year-old son.

1971 ~ Rod Stewart released "Maggie May".

1980 ~ Lech Walesa lead strikes at Gdansk, Poland shipyards.

1988 ~ Death of Enzo Ferrari, Automobile Designer.

[jseal]

1519 ~ Panama City, Panama founded.

1769 ~ Birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte, general and politician.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison made the first-ever recording - "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

1888 ~ Birthday of Lawrence of Arabia.

1912 ~ Birthday of Julia Child, Cook, Writer.

1948 ~ Republic of Korea established south of 38th Parallel.

1951 ~ Death of Artur Schnabel, Pianist.

1967 ~ Death of René Magritte, Surrealist painter.

1969 ~ First day of Woodstock Music and Art Festival.

I was able to talk my cousin out of going to this. She had called me a month or so earlier and said she could get a couple of tickets if we wanted to go. It was inconvenient to get to, and when I said so, she agreed, and so….

1994 ~ Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos", was captured.

[jseal]

1894 ~ Birthday of George Meany, Labor Union leader.

1896 ~ Gold discovered in the Klondike.

1899 ~ Death of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist.

1913 ~ Birthday of Menachem Begin, Israeli soldier and politician.

1930 ~ First color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, was made by Ub Iwerks.

1948 ~ Death of Babe Ruth, baseball player.

1960 ~ Cyprus gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1962 ~ The Beatles fired Pete Best and replaced him with Ringo Starr.

1977 ~ Death of Elvis Presley, Singer, Actor.

1984 ~ Carmaker John De Lorean was acquitted of all eight counts of possessing and distributing cocaine.

[jseal]

1601 ~ Birthday of Pierre de Fermat, Mathematician.

1786 ~ Birthday of Davy Crockett, Frontiersman, Soldier.

1807 ~ Robert Fulton's first American steamboat, the Clermont, left New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.

1882 ~ Birthday of Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer.

1911 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Botvinnik, World Chess Champion.

1915 ~ Jewish American Leo Frank was lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia.

1929 ~ Birthday of Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot.

1960 ~ Gabon gained independence from France.

1962 ~ East German border guards killed 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin. Mr. Fecher thus became, at the tender age of 18, the most famous of the victims of the Berlin Wall.

1998 ~ Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admitted before the nation that he "misled people" about his relationship.

[jseal]

293 BC ~ Oldest known Roman temple to Venus founded, institution of Vinalia Rustica began.

1227 ~ Death of Genghis Khan, Mongol leader.

1587 ~ Birthday of Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Gov. John White of the Colony of Roanoke. She was the first English child born in the Americas.

1750 ~ Birthday of Antonio Salieri, Composer.

1774 ~ Birthday of Meriwether Lewis, Explorer.

1877 ~ Asaph Hall discovered Phobos.

1920 ~ 19th Amendment to US constitution was passed, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

1925 ~ Birthday of Brian Aldiss, Writer.

1938 ~ The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, was dedicated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1991 ~ Collapse of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev put under house arrest while he was vacationing in the Crimea. The coup was led by eight high-ranking hard-liners (the coup collapsed in less than 72 hours).

[jseal]

1692 ~ Salem Witch Trials: In Salem, Massachusetts five women and a clergyman were executed after being convicted of witchcraft.

1839 ~ Presentation of Jacque Daguerre's new photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences.

1871 ~ Birthday of - Orville Wright, Aviator.

1902 ~ Birthday of Ogden Nash, Poet.

1921 ~ Birthday of Gene Roddenberry, Producer.

1934 ~ The first All-American Soap Box Derby was held in Dayton, Ohio.

1946 ~ Birthday of Bill Clinton, U.S. President.

1960 ~ Cold War: In Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.

1981 ~ Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sent two Sukoi Su-22 fighter jets to take on a couple of United States fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroyed the Libyan fighters.

1994 ~ Death of Linus Pauling, Chemist.

He was a physical chemist, among the most influential chemists of the twentieth century, and one of the most important scientists of all time. He was one of the first quantum chemists, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against above-ground nuclear testing, becoming one of only two people to receive the Nobel Prize in more than one field, the other being Marie Curie.

[jseal]

1882 ~ Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow.

1890 ~ Birthday of H. P. Lovecraft, Horror Writer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Jim Reeves, country and western singer

1940 ~ Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's ice-ax. He died the next day.

1941 ~ Birthday of Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

1944 ~ Birthday of Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India.

1968 ~ 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.

1991 ~ Collapse of the Soviet Union: Estonia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1998 ~ The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Quebec could not legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.

2001 ~ Death of Sir Fred Hoyle, Astronomer, Science Fiction Writer.

[jseal]

1614 ~ Death of Elizabeth Bathory, serial killer.

1872 ~ Birthday of Aubrey Beardsley, illustrator.

1904 ~ Birthday of Count Basie (William Allen Basie), bandleader.

1923 ~ Birthday of Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel.

1936 ~ Birthday of Wilt Chamberlain, Basketball Hall of Famer.

1940 ~ Death of Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary.

1944 ~ Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations.

1959 ~ Hawaii was admitted as the 50th U.S. state.

1986 ~ Toxic gas erupted from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing over 1700 people.

1983 ~ Assignation of Benigno S. Aquino Jr., Philippine opposition leader.

[jseal]

1485 ~ Death of Richard III of England.

1770 ~ James Cook's expedition arrived on the east coast of Australia.

1851 ~ The first America's Cup was won by the yacht “America”.

1862 ~ Birthday of Claude Debussy, Composer.

1893 ~ Birthday of Dorothy Parker, Writer & Wit. "You can lead a horticulture, but you cannot make her think." and "She delivered a striking performance that ran the gamut of emotions, from A to B." are among her more memorable quotes.

1910 ~ Japan annexed Korea.

1920 ~ Birthday of Ray Bradbury, science fiction author and fantasy author (Fahrenheit 451).

1962 ~ The Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completed its maiden voyage.

1978 ~ Death of Kenya's founding father, Jomo Kenyatta.

2001 ~ For the Geeks among us, a sad day. The Trojan room coffee pot is switched off for the last time.

[jseal]

93 ~ Death of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman governor of Britain.

1754 ~ Birthday of King Louis XVI of France.

1829 ~ Birthday of Moritz Cantor, Mathematician.

1833 ~ Slavery abolished in the British colonies.

1912 ~ Birthday of Gene Kelly, Dancer & Actor.

1942 ~ Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

1951 ~ Birthday of Queen Noor of Jordan.

1962 ~ First live television connection between the United States and Europe, via the Telstar satellite.

1966 ~ Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

1990 ~ West Germany and East Germany announced that they would unite.

[jseal]

79 ~ Mount Vesuvius erupted. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae were buried in volcanic ash.

79 ~ Death of Pliny the Elder, Roman polymath.

1456 ~ The printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed.

1814 ~ British troops invaded Washington, D.C. and burnt down the White House and several other buildings.

1880 ~ Birthday of Joshua Lionel Cowen, inventor of the toy electric train.

1929 ~ Birthday of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader.

1932 ~ Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).

1951 ~ Birthday of Orson Scott Card, novelist

1960 ~ Birthday of Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player.

1992 ~ Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida.

[jseal]

1635 ~ Birthday of Sir Henry Morgan, Privateer.

1825 ~ Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil.

1830 ~ Belgium seceded from the Netherlands.

1867 ~ Death of Michael Faraday, Scientist.

1875 ~ Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel.

1900 ~ Birthday of Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, Scientist. Nobel Prize in Medicine 1953.

1900 ~ Death of Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher.

1918 ~ Birthday of Leonard Bernstein, Conductor, Composer.

1944 ~ World War II: Paris was liberated by the Allies.

1989 ~ Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune.

[jseal]

55 BC ~ Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

1071 ~ Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert.

1429 ~ Joan of Arc entered Paris.

1498 ~ Michelangelo commissioned to carve the Pieta.

1676 ~ Birthday of Robert Walpole, British PM

1740 ~ Birthday of Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, inventor, worked on first hot air balloon.

1743 ~ Birthday of Antoine Lavoisier, Chemist.

1883 ~ Eruption of Mount Krakatoa.

1920 ~ The 19th amendment to U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote.

1975 ~ Death of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia.

[jseal]

479 BC ~ Battle of Plataea concluded the Persian invasion of Greece, Mardonius routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army.

1770 ~ Birthday of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosopher.

1776 ~ Battle of Long Island, in present day Brooklyn, New York British forces under General William Howe defeated the Americans under General George Washington.

1813 ~ Napoleon defeated the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.

1828 ~ The Russians defeat the Turks at Akhaltzikke.

1861 ~ Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1899 ~ Birthday of C.S. Forester, Author.

1900 ~ British defeat Boer commandos at Bergendal.

19928 ~ Kellogg-Briand Pact (http://wikisource.org/wiki/Kellogg-Briand_Treaty), outlawing war, signed by sixty nations.

1979 ~ An IRA bomb killed Lord Mountbatten and 3 others on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland killed 18 British soldiers.

[jseal]

430 ~ Death of Augustine of Hippo, Philosopher, Theologian.

1749 ~ Birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Philosopher, Scientist.

1828 ~ Birthday of Leo Tolstoy, Author.

1845 ~ First issue of Scientific American magazine published.

1850 ~ Richard Wagner's opera “Lohengrin” premiered.

1897 ~ Birthday of Charles Boyer, Actor.

1917 ~ Ten suffragists were arrested when picketing the White House.

1963 ~ During a civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream” speech.

1972 ~ During the Olympic Games of Munich, Mark Spitz won his first of seven gold medals in swimming events.

1996 ~ Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales are divorced.

[jseal]

1261 ~ Urban IV became Pope, the last man to do so without first being a Cardinal.

1632 ~ Birthday of John Locke, Philosopher.

1885 ~ Gottlieb Daimler patented the world's first motorcycle.

1923 ~ Birthday of Lord Richard Attenborough, Film Director.

1936 ~ Birthday of John McCain, American politician.

1949 ~ The Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

1952 ~ Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" in Woodstock, New York.

1958 ~ Birthday of Michael Jackson, Celebrity.

1966 ~ Last Beatles concert, in San Francisco.

1991 ~ The Downfall of the Soviet Union: Supreme Soviet suspended all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.

[jseal]

1797 ~ Birthday of Mary Shelley, Writer.

1850 ~ Honolulu, Hawaii became a city.

1871 ~ Birthday of Ernest Rutherford, Physicist.

1930 ~ Birthday of Warren Buffett, Entrepreneur.

1941 ~ Siege of Leningrad began.

1943 ~ Birthday of Jean-Claude Killy, French alpine skier.

1963 ~ Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders went into operation.

1967 ~ Thurgood Marshall confirmed as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1999 ~ East Timorese voted for independence in a referendum.

2003 ~ Death of Charles Bronson, Actor.

[jseal]

1834 ~ Birthday of Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (La Gioconda - It contains "The Dance of the Hours")

1888 ~ Mary Ann Nichols murdered. She was perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims.

1897 ~ Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope, the first movie camera.

1920 ~ First radio news program broadcast in Detroit, Michigan.

1935 ~ Birthday of Frank Robinson, Baseball Player, Manager.

1945 ~ Birthday of Itzhak Perlman, Violinist.

1980 ~ Solidarity labor union formed in Poland.

1879 ~ Birthday of Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Mahler). This woman knew how to live!

1994 ~ Irish Republican Army declares a “complete” cease-fire.

1997 ~ Death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris.

[jseal]

September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 30 days. The name comes from the Latin septem, for "seven" -- September was originally the seventh month of the year, before January and February were inserted.

In Canada and the United States, Labour Day (U.S. - Labor Day) is observed on the first Monday in September.


September begins on the same day of the week as December every year.
September's flower is the morning glory.
September's birthstone is the sapphire.


1653 ~ Birthday of Johann Pachelbel, Composer.

Remember the theme music of “Ordinary People”? That’s “Pachelbel’s Canon” (which is not really a Canon).

1875 ~ Birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Writer, creator of Tarzan.

1905 ~ Alberta and Saskatchewan join the Canadian confederation.

1907 ~ Birthday of Walter Reuther, Labor Union leader.

1914 ~ The last Passenger Pigeon died in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1935 ~ Birthday of Seiji Ozawa, Conductor.

1939 ~ World War II: Nazi Germany attacked Poland, beginning the war.

1972 ~ In Reykjavik, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beat Russian Boris Spassky and became the world chess champion.

Where are you now Bobby?

1983 ~ Cold War: Korean Air Flight KAL-007 shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft entered Soviet airspace.

1985 ~ A joint American-French expedition located the wreck of the RMS Titanic.

[jseal]

31 BC ~ Battle of Actium - Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra. This date is often used for the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1666 ~ Great Fire of London: A large fire broke out in London in the house of Charles II's baker on Pudding Lane near London Bridge. The fire burned for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died.

1853 ~ Birthday of Wilhelm Ostwald, Chemist.

1898 ~ Battle of Omdurman - British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeated Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, establishing British dominance in the Sudan.

1936 ~ Birthday of Andrew Grove, co-founder and chairman of Intel.

1938 ~ Death of Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games.

1944 ~ Diarist Anne Frank and her family were placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrived three days later.


1945 ~ The final official surrender of Japan was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, bringing World War II to an end.

1948 ~ Birthday of Christa McAuliffe, Teacher, Astronaut.

1964 ~ Death of Alvin York, Hero. He was the most decorated American soldier of World War I.

[jseal]

1651 ~ Battle of Worcester - Charles II of England was defeated in the last main battle of the English Civil War.

1658 ~ Death of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England.

1777 ~ The Flag of the United States flew in battle for the first time, at Cooch's Bridge in Maryland.

1838 ~ Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a free Black seaman, future abolitionist Frederick Douglass boarded a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from slavery.

1875 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand Porsche, German automotive engineer.

1893 ~ Death of James Harrison, Australian pioneer of mechanical refrigeration.

1935 ~ Sir Malcolm Campbell reached 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 MPH.

1954 ~ The last new episode of the “Lone Ranger was aired on radio after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years.

1962 ~ Death of e. e. cummings, poet.

1969 ~ Death of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese revolutionary.

[jseal]

476 ~ Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed.

1761 ~ Los Angeles founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (the City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula).

1824 ~ Birthday of Anton Bruckner, Composer.

1888 ~ George Eastman registered the trademark Kodak, and received a patent for his camera which uses roll film.

1891 ~ Birthday of Fritz Todt, developer of the German autobahn, the archtype for the limited access highway.

1907 ~ Death of Edvard Grieg, Norwegian Composer.

1944 ~ World War II: The British 11th Armored Division liberated the city of Antwerp in Belgium.

1965 ~ Death of Albert Schweitzer, Physician.

1972 ~ Mark Spitz won his seventh swimming gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, becoming the first Olympian to win seven gold medals.

1995 ~ Death of William Kunstler, Attorney.

[jseal]

1735 ~ Birthday of Johann Christian Bach, composer, son of Johann Sebastian Bach.

1774 ~ First Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1793 ~ In France, the French National Convention voteed to implement terror measures to enforce the principles of the French Revolution. The ensuing "Reign of Terror" lasted until the spring of 1794 and killed 35,000-40,000 people.

1847 ~ Birthday of Jesse James, outlaw.

1857 ~ Birthday of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Scientist, Inventor.

1882 ~ The first United States Labor Day parade held in New York City.

1950 ~ Birthday of Cathy Guisewite, Cartoonist.

1960 ~ Cassius Clay won the gold medal in boxing at the Rome Olympic Games.

1972 ~ Munich Massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacked Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.

1997 ~ Death of Mother Teresa, Inspiration.

[jseal]

1522 ~ The “Vittoria”, one of the surviving ships of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returned to San Lucar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.

1620 ~ The Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.

1766 ~ Birthday of John Dalton, British chemist and physicist.

1901 ~ American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot and fatally wounded US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1928 ~ Birthday of Robert M. Pirsig, author, creator of the Metaphysics of Quality.

1941 ~ Holocaust: The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word "Jew" inscribed, was extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.

1966 ~ Death of Hendrik Verwoerd, South African Prime Minister.

1986 ~ In Istanbul, two Arab terrorists from Abu Nidal's terror organization killed 22 and wounded six inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Sabbath services.

1991 ~ The Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic states.

1995 ~ Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's record of playing 2,131 consecutive baseball games.

[jseal]

1776 ~ World's first submarine attack. American submersible craft Turtle attempted to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe's flagship Eagle in New York Harbor.

1822 ~ Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.

1901 ~ The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ended with the signing of the Peking Protocol.

1908 ~ Birthday of Dr. Michael DeBakey, Heart Surgeon and inventor of the MASH.

1912 ~ Birthday of David Packard, Electrical Engineer

1940 ~ World War II: The Blitz – Under orders from Adolf Hitler, the Luftwaffe began to bomb London. This was the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.

1949 ~ Birthday of Lee McGeorge Durrell author, television presenter, zookeeper.

1977 ~ Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The US agreed to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

1994 ~ Death of James Clavell, Author.

1997 ~ Death of Mobutu Sese Seko, dictator of Zaire.

[jseal]

828 ~ Birthday of Ali al-Hadi, Shia Imam.

1636 ~ The Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes Harvard College as the first college founded in the Americas.

1841 ~ Birthday of Antonin Dvorak, Composer.

1886 ~ Birthday of Siegfried Sassoon, Poet.

1888 ~ The first season of The Football League began in England with 12 clubs.

1925 ~ Birthday of Peter Sellers, Actor.

1930 ~ 3M began marketing Scotch transparent tape.

1943 ~ World War II: General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announced the surrender of Italy to the Allies.

1949 ~ Death of Richard Strauss, Composer.

1966 ~ The first episode of the science fiction television series "Star Trek" aired.

[jseal]

1585 ~ Birthday of Cardinal Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu, French statesman.

1737 ~ Birthday of Luigi Galvani, Italian Physician and Physicist.

1754 ~ Birthday of William Bligh, British naval officer.

1776 ~ The Continental Congress officially named their new country the United States.

1824 ~ Birthday of Anton Bruckner, Austrian Composer.

1828 ~ Birthday of Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (Anna Karenina, War and Peace).

1839 ~ John Herschel took the first astronomical glass plate photograph.

1945 ~ Admiral Grace Hopper discovered the first computer bug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bug)- a moth.

1956 ~ Elvis Presley appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for the first time.

2001 ~ Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated in Afghanistan.

[jseal]

1913 ~ First paved coast-to-coast highway opened in the U.S.

1927 ~ France won the first Davis Cup.

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist.

1945 ~ Vidkun Quisling sentenced to death for collaboration with Nazi Germany.

1960 ~ Birthday of Colin Firth, Actor (Shakespeare in Love, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually)

1967 ~ The people of Gibraltar voted to remain a British dependency rather than becoming part of Spain.

1971 ~ Death of Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union.

1977 ~ France's last execution is performed by guillotine.

1990 ~ The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, the largest church in Africa and perhaps the world, consecrated by Pope John Paul II.

2002 ~ Switzerland, known for its neutrality, finally joined the United Nations.

[jseal]

1297 ~ Battle of Stirling Bridge - Scots of William Wallace defeat English.

1711 ~ Birthday of William Boyce, Composer.

1914 ~ World War I: Australian forces defeat Germans in New Britain.

1917 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand Marcos, Philippine political figure.

1922 ~ British Mandate of Palestine began.

1935 ~ Birthday of Gherman Titov, Cosmonaut.

1948 ~ Death of Muhammed Ali Jinnah, first Governor-General of Pakistan.

1973 ~ A military coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet toppled elected Marxist President Salvador Allende.

1997 ~ Scotland voted to re-establish its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England and the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

2001 ~ The September 11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City, part of The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and crashed a passenger airliner in Pennsylvania. In total, almost 3,000 (http://www.september11victims.com/september11victims/victims_list.htm) are killed.

[jseal]

1880 ~ Birthday of H.L. Mencken, Journalist, Author.

1888 ~ Birthday of Maurice Chevalier, Singer, Actor.

1913 ~ Birthday of Jesse Owens, Athlete.

1921 ~ Birthday of Stanislaw Lem, science fiction writer.

1933 ~ Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, came up with the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.

1940 ~ Cave paintings discovered in Lascaux, France.

1947 ~ Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

1959 ~ Bonanza premiered. First regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color.

1977 ~ Death of Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist.

2003 ~ The United Nations lifted sanctions against Libya after Libya agreed to accept responsibility and make payment of US $2.7 billion to the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

[jseal]

1321 ~ Death of Dante Alighieri, writer (La Divina Commedia)

1813 ~ The British fail to capture Baltimore, Maryland. Turning point in the War of 1812.

1819 ~ Birthday of Clara Schumann, Pianist, Composer.

1857 ~ Birthday of Milton S. Hershey, chocolate entrepreneur and founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company.

1874 ~ Birthday of Arnold Schoenberg, Composer.

1899 ~ Henry Bliss became the first person in the Western Hemisphere to be killed in an automobile accident.

1940 ~ German bombs damaged Buckingham Palace.

1948 ~ Margaret Chase Smith was elected senator, and became the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

1977 ~ Death of Leopold Stokowski, Conductor.

1999 ~ Bomb explodes in Moscow, Russia. At least 119 people are killed.

[jseal]

1752 ~ The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (September 2 was followed directly by September 14 that year).

1760 ~ Birthday of Luigi Cherubini, Composer.

1812 ~ Russian army burnt Moscow to prevent Napoleon from capturing it.

1814 ~ Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

1849 ~ Birthday of Ivan Pavlov, Scientist.

1879 ~ Birthday of Margaret Sanger, birth control advocate.

1927 ~ Death of Isadora Duncan, Dancer.

1959 ~ The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.

1975 ~ The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI.

1982 ~ Death of Princess Grace of Monaco.

[jseal]

1789 ~ Birthday of James Fenimore Cooper, Author.

1821 ~ Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador proclaimed independent.

1867 ~ Birthday of Bruno Walter, Conductor

1885 ~ Death of P.T. Barnum's famous Elephant, Jumbo, hit by locomotive while crossing tracks, died instantly. Was later stuffed and put on display with the circus.

1890 ~ Birthday of Agatha Christie, Author.

1916 ~ Tanks were used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.

1929 ~ Birthday of Murray Gell-Mann, Physicist.

1935 ~ Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of citizenship.

1950 ~ United States forces landed at Incheon, Korea.

1959 ~ Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

[jseal]

1810 ~ Independence of Mexico from Spain.

1914 ~ Birthday of Allen Funt, radio & television personality.

1925 ~ Birthday of B. B. King, Musician.

1927 ~ Birthday of Peter Falk, Actor.

1955 ~ Play-Doh is introduced to the world.

1963 ~ Malaysia formed from Malaya, Singapore, British North Borneo and Sarawak.

1975 ~ Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia.

1977 ~ Death of Maria Callas, Diva

1991 ~ Manuel Noriega trial begins in the United States.

1992 ~ Black Wednesday - the Pound Sterling was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and to devalue against the Deutschmark.

[jseal]

1394 ~ King Charles VI of France orders all Jews expelled from France.

1743 ~ Birthday of Marquis de Condorcet, mathematician, philosopher, and political scientist.

1787 ~ The text of the United States Constitution was agreed in Philadelphia, PA.

1900 ~ Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeated Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.

1908 ~ Death of Lt. Thomas Selfridge, first to die in an airplane crash. Orville Wright was the pilot.

1929 ~ Birthday of Sir Stirling Moss, Formula One racer.

1939 ~ The Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defence War of 1939.

1978 ~ The Camp David Accords were signed by Israeli and Egyptian representitives.

1980 ~ Death of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, former president of Nicaragua.



Today is the feast day of Hildegard of Bingen

[jseal]

1709 ~ Birthday of Samuel Johnson, Essayist, Critic, Poet.

1819 ~ Birthday of Leon Foucault, Physicist.

1851 ~ New York Times began publishing.

1905 ~ Birthday of Greta Garbo, Actress.

1927 ~ Columbia Broadcasting System went on the air.

1943 ~ The Jewish rebels were massacred at Sobibor.

1961 ~ Death of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations.

1970 ~ Death of Jimi Hendrix, Rock Musician.

1971 ~ Birthday of Lance Armstrong, Cyclist Extraordinaire.

1990 ~ Liechtenstein became member of the UN

[jseal]

1737 ~ Birthday of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Declaration of Independence Signer, US Senator.

1900 ~ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid committed their first robbery together.

1909 ~ Birthday of Ferry Porsche, automobile pioneer.

1927 ~ Death of Isadora Duncan, considered mother of modern dance.

1935 ~ Death of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, rocket scientist, physicist.

1941 ~ Birthday of Mama Cass Elliott, musician.

1945 ~ Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) sentenced to death in London.

1955 ~ Juan Peron was deposed in Argentina.

1983 ~ Saint Kitts and Nevis gains independence from Great Britain.

1989 ~ A terrorist bomb explodes in a UTA DC-10 above Niger killing 171.

[jseal]

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan began his voyage around the world.

1797 ~ The USS Constitution was launched in Boston, Massachusetts.

1842 ~ Birthday of Sir James Dewar, Chemist.

1878 ~ Birthday of Upton Sinclair, Writer, Politician.

1908 ~ Death of Pablo de Sarasate, Violinist.

1928 ~ Birthday of Doctor Joyce Brothers, psychologist, advice columnist.

1946 ~ First Cannes Film Festival.

1948 ~ Birthday of George R. R. Martin, Science Fiction Writer.

1973 ~ Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match.

2000 ~ After playing 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles, baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr took a day off.

[BIBI]

2004....BIBI'sspacebarquitspacing

[jseal]

1756 ~ Birthday of John MacAdam, road builder.

1780 ~ Benedict Arnold gave the British the plans to West Point.

1866 ~ Birthday of H. G. Wells, science fiction author.

1874 ~ Birthday of Gustav Holst, Composer.

1896 ~ British force under Horatio Kitchener took Dongola in the Sudan.

1906 ~ Birthday of Aristotle Onassis, shipping tycoon.

1937 ~ J. R. R. Tolkien published “The Hobbit”.

1947 ~ Birthday of Stephen King, Author.

1964 ~ Malta became independent from the United Kingdom.

2003 ~ Galileo mission was terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere.

[jseal]

1784 ~ Russia established a colony at Kodiak, Alaska.

1791 ~ Birthday of Michael Faraday, Scientist.

1828 ~ Death of Shaka Zulu, Zulu leader.

1869 ~ Richard Wagner's opera “Das Rheingold” opened in Munich.

1949 ~ Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon.

1960 ~ Mali gained independence from France.

1980 ~ Iraq invaded Iran.

1997 ~ Bentalha massacre in Algeria; over 200 villagers killed.

1999 ~ Death of George C. Scott, Actor.

2001 ~ Death of Isaac Stern, Violinist.

[jseal]

63 B.C. ~ Birthday of Augustus Caesar, Roman Emperor.

1779 ~ USS Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, won a battle against the British warships Serapis and Countess of Scarborough off the coast of England.

1806 ~ Discovery of Neptune by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; verified by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.

1884 ~ Herman Hollerith patented his mechanical adding machine.

1916 ~ Birthday of Aldo Moro, Italian politician murdered by terrorists.

1920 ~ Birthday of Mickey Rooney, actor.

1930 ~ Birthday of Ray Charles, U.S. R&B and jazz musician, singer.

1932 ~ The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd renamed Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1949 ~ Birthday of Bruce Springsteen, singer, songwriter.

1999 ~ NASA announced that it lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.

[jseal]

622 ~ Muhammad completed his hegira from Mecca to Medina

1664 ~ Netherlands surrendered New Amsterdam to England.

1755 ~ Birthday of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the American Supreme Court.

1890 ~ As a pre-condition to Utah being admitted to the United States, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – the Mormons - officially renounced polygamy.

1896 ~ Birthday of F Scott Fitzgerald, Novelist.

1908 ~ The first Ford Model T built.

1936 ~ Birthday of Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets.

1957 ~ President Dwight Eisenhower sent National Guard troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce desegregation.

1991 ~ Death of Dr. Seuss, Writer.

1993 ~ Broderbund released the computer game “Myst”.

[jseal]

1066 ~ Battle of Stamford Bridge, which marked the end of the Viking era.

1513 ~ Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reached the Pacific Ocean.

1683 ~ Birthday of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer.

1890 ~ Yosemite National Park established in California.

1897 ~ Birthday of William Faulkner, Novelist.

1903 ~ Birthday of Mark Rothko, Painter.

1906 ~ Birthday of Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer.

1932 ~ Birthday of Glenn Gould, Pianist.

1981 ~ Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the 102nd Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the first woman to hold the office.

1996 ~ The last of the Magdalen Asylums was closed in Ireland.

[BIBI]

Today-2004

BIBI "finally" bought a new keyboard!!!

[jseal]

1687 ~ The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed after an explosion caused by the bombing from the Venetian forces besieging the Ottoman Turks.

1777 ~ British troops occupied Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.

1820 ~ Death of Daniel Boone, American icon.

1888 ~ Birthday of T. S. Eliot, Poet.

1898 ~ Birthday of George Gershwin, Composer.

1945 ~ Death of Béla Bartók, Composer.

1948 ~ Birthday of Olivia Newton-John, Singer.

1950 ~ United Nations troops recaptured Seoul from the North Koreans.

1957 ~ Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story opened on Broadway.

1983 ~ Australia II, first non-American winner, won the “Americas Cup”.

[jseal]

1389 ~ Birthday of Cosimo de Medici, Florentine ruler.

1540 ~ Jesuit Order received its charter from Pope Paul III.

1722 ~ Birthday of Samuel Adams, Patriot & Brewer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Thomas Nast, political cartoonist.

1917 ~ Death of Edgar Degas, Impressionist painter.

1921 ~ Death of Engelbert Humperdinck, Composer.

1940 ~ The Tripartite Pact signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.

1986 ~ Cliff Burton, bassist for Metallica, died after being crushed by the band's tour bus during their European tour.

1996 ~ In Afghanistan, the Taliban captured the capital city Kabul. They then dragged former leader Mohammad Najibullah out of the U.N. compound and hanged him from a traffic light pole.

2002 ~ East Timor joins the United Nations.

[jseal]

1066 ~ William the Conqueror invaded England, landing at Pevensey, Sussex.

1781 ~ American forces backed by a French fleet began the siege of Yorktown Heights, Virginia during the American Revolutionary War.

1841 ~ Birthday of Georges Clemenceau, French politician.

1915 ~ Birthday of Ethel Rosenberg, Spy.

1925 ~ Birthday of Seymour Cray, Computer Scientist.

1939 ~ Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.

1953 ~ Death of Edwin Hubble, Astronomer.

1958 ~ France ratifies a new constitution; the Fifth Republic (and current) of France was formed.

1988 ~ Death of Charles Addams, Cartoonist, creator of “The Adams Family”.

2000 ~ Death of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada

[jseal]

61 BC ~ Pompey the Great celebrated his third triumph, for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars.

1547 ~ Birthday of Miguel de Cervantes, Author.

1758 ~ Birthday of Horatio Nelson, British admiral.

1901 ~ Birthday of Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist.

1938 ~ Appeasement: Britain and France, Nazi Germany and Italy signed the Munich Agreement allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

1944 ~ Soviet forces invaded Yugoslavia.

1954 ~ CERN opened for business.

1960 ~ Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

1978 ~ Death of Pope John Paul, who reigned just 33 days.

2004 ~ The asteroid 4179 Toutatis is projected to pass within 4 lunar distances of Earth.

[jseal]

1882 ~ Birthday of Hans Geiger, German physicist.

1895 ~ Madagascar became a French protectorate.

1913 ~ Death of Rudolf Diesel, German inventor.

1924 ~ Birthday of Truman Capote, Author.

1947 ~ World Series, featuring New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, was televised for the first time.

1954 ~ The submarine USS Nautilus was commissioned as the first nuclear reactor powered vessel.

1960 ~ The last episode of "The Howdy Doody Show" aired.

1980 ~ Ethernet specifications published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation.

1982 ~ ”Cheers” premiered.

1991 ~ President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti was forced from office.

[jseal]

1800 ~ Spain cedes Louisiana to France via Treaty of San Ildefonso.

1865 ~ Birthday of Paul Dukas, Composer.

1881 ~ Birthday of William Boeing, Engineer.

1903 ~ Birthday of Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist.

1918 ~ Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence capture Damascus.

1924 ~ Birthday of Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States.

1949 ~ The People's Republic of China is declared by Mao Zedong.

1977 ~ Soccer star Pelé retired.

1985 ~ Death of E.B. White, Author.

1988 ~ Mikhail Gorbachev named head of the Supreme Soviet.

[jseal]

1187 ~ Saladin captured Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.

1800 ~ Birthday of Nat Turner, American leader of slave uprising.

1836 ~ Charles Darwin returned to England after a 5-year journey aboard the HMS Beagle collecting data he will later use to develop his theory of evolution.

1852 ~ Birthday of William Ramsay, Scottish chemist.

1869 ~ Birthday of Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Indian political leader.

1890 ~ Birthday of Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor.

1927 ~ Death of Svante Arrhenius, Swedish scientist.

1935 ~ Italy invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1950 ~ The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in US newspapers.

1967 ~ Thurgood Marshall sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.

[jseal]

1283 ~ David ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, becomes the first man executed by drawing and quartering.

1712 ~ Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor.

1873 ~ Birthday of Emily Post, etiquette advisor.

1900 ~ Birthday of Thomas Wolfe, author.

1916 ~ Birthday of James Herriot, veterinarian, author.

1925 ~ Birthday of Gore Vidal, author.

1929 ~ The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is renamed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

1967 ~ Death of Woody Guthrie, folk musician.

1990 ~ The re-unification of Germany. East Germany ceases to exist.

1995 ~ O. J. Simpson found not guilty of murder.

[jseal]

1830 ~ Creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands.

1880 ~ Birthday of Damon Runyon, Writer.

1883 ~ First run of the Orient Express.

1903 ~ Birthday of John Vincent Atanasoff, one of the inventors of the digital electronic computer.

1924 ~ Birthday of Charlton Heston, Actor.

1941 ~ Birthday of Anne Rice, horror/fantasy writer.

1943 ~ Birthday of H. Rap Brown, civil rights activist.

1957 ~ Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1991 ~ The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was opened for signature.

1993 ~ At the climax of the Russian constitutional crisis, Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered the army to begin storming the Russian parliament building.


Holidays: Australian Labour Day

[jseal]

October 5th

1713 ~ Birthday of Denis Diderot, philosopher.

1813 ~ Death of Tecumseh, American Indian leader.

1882 ~ Birthday of Robert Goddard, rocket scientist.

1902 ~ Birthday of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation.

1908 ~ Bulgaria declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

1936 ~ Birthday of Václav Havel, playwright, president of the Czech Republic.

1944 ~ Canadian Air Force pilots shot down the first German Jet fighter over France.

1962 ~ The Beatles released their first hit, "Love Me Do," in Britain.

1972 ~ Montreal, Quebec: British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

2000 ~ Mass demonstrations in Belgrade lead to the resignation of Slobodan Milosevic.

[jseal]

1600 ~ Jacopo Peri's “Euridice”, the earliest surviving opera, premiered in Florence.

1846 ~ Birthday of George Westinghouse, Engineer & Inventor.

1887 ~ Birthday of Le Corbusier, Swiss architect.

1892 ~ Death of Alfred Tennyson, British poet laureate.

1908 ~ Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1914 ~ Birthday of Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer, leader of the “Kon-Tiki” expedition.

1927 ~ Opening of “The Jazz Singer”, first talking movie.

1948 ~ Birthday of Gerry Adams, Irish politician.

1981 ~ Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated.

1995 ~ The first extrasolar planet was discovered orbiting 51 Pegasi, in the constellation of Pegasus.

[jseal]

1571 ~ Ottoman Empire defeated at the battle of Lepanto.

1849 ~ Death of Edgar Allan Poe, American writer.

1885 ~ Birthday of Niels Bohr, Physicist

1886 ~ Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba.

1900 ~ Birthday of Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official and leader of the SS.

1908 ~ Crete revolts against the Ottoman Empire and aligns with Greece.

1931 ~ Birthday of Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and anti-apartheid activist.

1955 ~ Birthday of Yo-Yo Ma, Cellist.

1985 ~ “Achille Lauro” hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.

2003 ~ California governor Gray Davis is recalled from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[jseal]

451 ~ At Chalcedon, a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor, the first session of the Council of Chalcedon began.

1871 ~ The Great Chicago Fire destroyed about 17,450 buildings, killed about 250 people and left another 90,000 homeless.

1895 ~ Birthday of Juan Perón, former president of Argentina.

1918 ~ World War I - In the Argonne Forest in France, United States Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.

1920 ~ Birthday of Frank Herbert, Science Fiction writer

1949 ~ Birthday of Sigourney Weaver, Actress.

1967 ~ Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia.

1967 ~ Death of Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1982 ~ Poland bans Solidarity.

1992 ~ Death of Willy Brandt, German politician.

[jseal]

1446 ~ The Hangul alphabet is created in Korea.

1585 ~ Birthday of Heinrich Schütz, Composer.

1776 ~ Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.

1835 ~ Birthday of Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer.

1859 ~ Birthday of Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer.

1940 ~ Birthday of John Lennon, Musician & Songwriter.

1942 ~ Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.

1970 ~ The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.

1974 ~ Death of Oskar Schindler, businessman.

1989 ~ In Leipzig, East Germany protesters demand the legalization of opposition groups and democratic reforms.

[jseal]

680 ~ Death of Husayn bin Ali, grandson of Muhammad.

732 ~ Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks Charles Martel and his men, defeated a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe.

1813 ~ Birthday of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer.

1845 ~ In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opened with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.

1875 ~ Death of Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Novelist & Poet.

1917 ~ Birthday of Thelonious Monk, jazz pianist.

1966 ~ Simon and Garfunkel released the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

1970 ~ In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte became the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1985 ~ United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercepted an Egyptian plane carrying the “Achille Lauro” cruise ship hijackers and forced it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they were arrested.

1985 ~ Death of Yul Brynner, Actor and Orson Welles, Director & Actor.

[texascubfan]

Today's date: Oct. 10, 2004

On this date in 1835 Gail Borden, of condensed milk fame, began publishing the weekly newspaper "Telegraph and Texas Register" at San Felipe de Austin. It was the only newspaper in existence in Texas at the time of independence.

[jseal]

1779 ~ Death of Casimir Pulaski, Polish fighter for American independence.

1809 ~ Death of Meriwether Lewis, explorer.

1844 ~ Birthday of Henry Heinz, food manufacturer.

1896 ~ Death of Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer.

1899 ~ Boer War: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State began.

1919 ~ Birthday of Art Blakey, jazz drummer.

1931 ~ Manhattan Project: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was presented with a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging the United States to rapidly develop an atomic bomb program.

1961 ~ Death of Chico Marx, comedian. One of the Marx Brothers.

1975 ~ “Saturday Night Live” premiered. George Carlin is the guest host.

1986 ~ Cold War: US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.

[jseal]

1307 ~ All Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into "admitting" heresy.

1792 ~ In Washington, DC, the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) laid.

1812 ~ War of 1812: Battle of Queenston Heights - United States forces are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock.

1925 ~ Birthday of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the UK.

1945 ~ Death of Milton S. Hershey, founder of Hershey Chocolate Company.

1946 ~ France adopted the constitution of the Fourth Republic.

1959 ~ Birthday of Marie Osmond, Singer & Actress.

1974 ~ Death of Ed Sullivan, television personality.

1977 ~ Four Palestinians hijacked a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demanded release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction.

1982 ~ Birthday of Ian Thorpe, swimmer.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean. The explorer believes he has reached East Asia.

1609 ~ "Three Blind Mice" published by London teenage songwriter Thomas Ravenscroft.

1817 ~ Birthday of Bahá'u'lláh, prophet founder of the Bahá'í Faith

1822 ~ Brazil becomes formally independent of Portugal.

1870 ~ Death of Robert E. Lee, United States Civil War general (Confederate).

1872 ~ Birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer.

1935 ~ Birthday of Luciano Pavarotti, opera singer.

1968 ~ Summer Olympics open in Mexico City, Mexico.

1997 ~ Death of John Denver, singer.

2000 ~ In Aden, Yemen, the “USS Cole” is badly damaged by two suicide bombers , killing 17 crewmembers and wounding at least 39.

[jseal]

1066 ~ Battle of Hastings - The Norman invasion forces of William the Conqueror defeated the English army and kill King Harold II of England.

1882 ~ Birthday of Eamon de Valera, Irish politician and patriot.

1894 ~ Birthday of E. E. Cummings, American poet.

1926 ~ ”Winnie-the-Pooh”, by A.A. Milne, was published.

1940 ~ Birthday of Cliff Richard, British rock singer.

1944 ~ World War II: Given the choice between a public treason trial and a certain death by firing squad or suicide with honor, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel chose the latter.

1947 ~ Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.

1962 ~ Cuban Missile Crisis began: A U-2 flight over Cuba took photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.

1964 ~ American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1994 ~ PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat (Palestine), Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (Israel) and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Israel) shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

[jseal]

70 BC ~ Birthday of Virgil, Roman poet.

1582 ~ Pope Gregory XIII implemented the Gregorian Calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain October 4 of this year was followed directly by October 15, skipping over 10 days. Other countries follow at various later dates.

1764 ~ While visiting Rome, Edward Gibbon observed a group of barefoot friars singing vespers in the ruined Temple of Jupiter, a sight which inspired him to begin work on a history that will be published as “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”

1844 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher.

1881 ~ Birthday of P. G. Wodehouse, British comic novelist.

1908 ~ Birthday of John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist.

1917 ~ World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari was executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.

1951 ~ Television sitcom “I Love Lucy” premiered starring comedian Lucille Ball and her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz.

1964 ~ Death of Cole Porter, Composer.

1970 ~ 35 construction workers died when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapsed.

[jseal]

1793 ~ Marie Antoinette was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.

1854 ~ Birthday of Oscar Wilde, Irish writer.

1859 ~ John Brown lead raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.

1886 ~ Birthday of David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel.

1925 ~ Birthday of Angela Lansbury, actress

1934 ~ Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong began their Long March.

1970 ~ Anwar Sadat elected President of Egypt.

1981 ~ Death of Moshe Dayan, Israeli general.

1978 ~ Karol Józef Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II.

2004 ~ Ramadan begins at the sighting of the moon.

[jseal]

1469 ~ Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. Their marriage lead to the unification of Aragon and Castile in a single country, Spain.

1781 ~ General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia.

1888 ~ Thomas Edison filed a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1912 ~ Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.

1915 ~ Birthday of Arthur Miller, Playwright.

1937 ~ Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's three almost identical nephews, first appeared in a newspaper comic strip.

1956 ~ Birthday of Mae Jemison, Astronaut.

1970 ~ Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labor Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1972 ~ Birthday of Eminem, rap music performer.

1979 ~ Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

[jseal]

1900 ~ Death of John Taverner, Composer.

1851 ~ "Moby-Dick", a novel by Herman Melville, was first published as "The Whale".

1871 ~ Death of Charles Babbage, mathematician and inventor of computing machines.

1908 ~ Death of Charles Gounod, composer.

1919 ~ Birthday of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Company was founded by a consortium to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

1926 ~ Birthday of Chuck Berry, Musician.

1931 ~ Death of Thomas Edison, inventor.

1939 ~ Birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald, Assassin.

1977 ~ German Autumn: a set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of the Lufthansa airplane by the Red Army Faction (RAF) came to an end when Schleyer was executed and various RAF members committed suicide. The German government stated that it would never again negotiate with terrorists.

[jseal]

1453 ~ The French recapture of Bordeaux brought the Hundred Years War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.

1745 ~ Death of Jonathan Swift, Author.

1873 ~ Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1912 ~ Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.

1914 ~ First Battle of Ypres began.

1931 ~ Birthday of John Le Carré, Novelist.

1943 ~ Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.

1950 ~ Death of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Poet.

1985 ~ The first Blockbuster Video store opened in Dallas, Texas.

2003 ~ Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

[jseal]

1632 ~ Birthday of Sir Christopher Wren, Architect.

1740 ~ Maria Theresa took the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refused to honor the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession began.

1803 ~ United States Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

1882 ~ Birthday of Bela Lugosi, Actor.

1891 ~ Birthday of Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya.

1931 ~ Birthday of Mickey Mantle, baseball star.

1944 ~ The Soviet army captured Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia.

1947 ~ The House Un-American Activities Committee began its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood.

1973 ~ The Sydney Opera House opened.

1984 ~ Death of Paul Dirac, Physicist.

[jseal]

1772 ~ Birthday of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet.

1805 ~ Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar - British fleet led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish off the coast of Spain.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and benefactor of the Nobel Prize.

1879 ~ Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tested the first practical electric light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out).

1912 ~ Birthday of Sir Georg Solti, Conductor.

1917 ~ Birthday of Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz Musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Ursula K. Le Guin, Science Fiction Author.

1944 ~ The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia was hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg (441 pound) bomb off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.

1966 ~ A coal tip fell on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.

1994 ~ North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States signed an agreement that required North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.

[jseal]

1797 ~ 3,200 feet above Paris, Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump.

1811 ~ Birthday of Franz Liszt, Composer.

1836 ~ Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1844 ~ Birthday of Sarah Bernhardt, Actress.

1906 ~ Death of Paul Cezanne, Painter.

1920 ~ Birthday of Timothy Leary, writer, drug guru.

1943 ~ Birthday of Catherine Deneuve, Actress.

1943 ~ Kassel: The RAF delivered the second firestorm air raid on this city of 236,000 people, killing 10,000, leaving 150,000 homeless.

1962 ~ Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy announced that American spy planes had discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation.

1966 ~ The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album.

[jseal]

4004 BC ~ The universe was created, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar.

1723 ~ War of Jenkins' Ear started: British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declares war on Spain.

1892 ~ Birthday of Gummo Marx, actor, comedian, Marx Brothers.

1915 ~ Woman's suffrage: In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women marched up Fifth Avenue to demand the right to vote.

1935 ~ Birthday of Chi Chi Rodriguez, golf champion.

1940 ~ Birthday of Pelé, Football Player Extraordinaire.

1942 ~ World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein started - At El Alamein in Egypt, British forces begin a major offensive against Axis forces.

1942 ~ Birthday of Michael Crichton, writer.

1958 ~ Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced a new set of comic strip characters “The Smurfs”.

1998 ~ Death of Dr. Barnett Slepian, physician.

[jseal]

1632 ~ Birthday of Anton van Leeuwenhoek, microbiologist.

1799 ~ Death of Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1929 ~ "Black Thursday" crash of the New York Stock Exchange.

1935 ~ Italy invaded Ethiopia.

1945 ~ Founding of the United Nations.

1948 ~ Death of Franz Lehár, Composer.

1956 ~ Soviet Union invaded Hungary.

1980 ~ Government of Poland legalized Solidarity trade union.

1991 ~ Death of Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series.

2003 ~ Concorde made its last commercial flight, bringing the first era of civil supersonic transport to a close.

[jseal]

1400 ~ Death of Geoffrey Chaucer, Poet.

1825 ~ Birthday of Johann Strauss II, Composer.

1838 ~ Birthday of Georges Bizet, Composer.

1854 ~ Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade).

1881 ~ Birthday of Pablo Picasso, Painter & Sculptor.

1900 ~ United Kingdom annexed the Transvaal.

1924 ~ First appearance of "Little Orphan Annie”

1936 ~ Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini created the Rome-Berlin Axis.

1971 ~ United Nations seats the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China.

1993 ~ Death of Vincent Price, Actor.

[jseal]

For those who may be interested, here are a couple of links about this amazing event.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3944699.stm

You can listen and follow along to Lord Tennyson as he reads his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/poetry/outloud/tennyson.shtml

[jseal]

1685 ~ Birthday of Domenico Scarlatti, Composer.

1759 ~ Birthday of Georges Jacques Danton, leader of the French Revolution.

1881 ~ The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1905 ~ Norway became independent from Sweden.

1918 ~ Erich von Ludendorff is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1947 ~ The Maharaja of Kashmir agreed to allow his kingdom to join India.

1972 ~ Death of Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer.

1994 ~ Announcement of Andrew Wiles correct proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

1999 ~ Britain's House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.

2001 ~ The United States passed the controversial USA Patriot Act into law.

[jseal]

1466 ~ Birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch writer and philosopher, and one of the more civilized people in recorded history.

1728 ~ Birthday of James Cook, British naval captain and explorer.

1782 ~ Birthday of Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer

1811 ~ Birthday of Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine

1914 ~ Birthday of Dylan Thomas, British poet and writer. If you’ve never heard Richard Burton read “Under Milk Wood”, or “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, you have a treat in store for you!

1946 ~ First commercially-sponsored television program airs (Geographically Speaking, sponsored by Bristol-Myers).

1968 ~ Death of Lise Meitner, German physicist.

1990 ~ Death of Xavier Cugat, musician.

1991 ~ Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

2002 ~ Trades unionist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is elected as President of Brazil.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba.

1704 ~ Death of John Locke, Philosopher.

1879 ~ Birthday of E.M. Forster, Novelist.

1886 ~ In New York Harbor, US President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty.

1903 ~ Birthday of Evelyn Waugh, Novelist.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

1918 ~ Czechoslovakia gained its independence from Austria-Hungary.

1940 ~ World War II: Italy invaded Greece.

1955 ~ Birthday of Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft.

1965 ~ In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall steel Gateway Arch was completed.

[jseal]

1675 ~ Leibniz made the first use of the long s, ∫, for integral.

1787 ~ Mozart's opera Don Giovanni received its first performance in Prague.

1863 ~ Sixteen countries meeting in Geneva agreed to form the International Red Cross.

1879 ~ Birthday of Leon Trotsky - Russian revolutionary.

1897 ~ Birthday of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda.

1911 ~ Death of Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher and journalist.

1923 ~ The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. (founded 1281)

1942 ~ Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures held a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis begins: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.

1957 ~ Death of Louis B. Mayer, film producer. The second “M” in “MGM”.

[jseal]

1470 ~ Henry VI of England returned to the throne after Earl of Warwick defeats Yorkists in battle.

1831 ~ Escaped slave Nat Turner was captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in United States history.

1885 ~ Birthday of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1938 ~ Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's “The War of the Worlds”, causing a panic.

1939 ~ Birthday of Grace Slick, singer with Jefferson Airplane.

1961 ~ The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb "Tsar Bomba" over Novaya Zemlya; with a yield greater than 50 megatons, it is still the largest nuclear device ever detonated.

1968 ~ The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, released.

1975 ~ Prince Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain after dictator Francisco Franco concedes that he is too ill to govern.

1995 ~ Quebec separatists narrowly lost a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote was 50.6% to 49.4%).

1997 ~ British au pair Louise Woodward found guilty of the baby-shaking death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

[jseal]

1517 ~ Protestant Reformation got under way: Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. For those who would like a unique insight to this happening, click here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3944549.stm) .

1795 ~ Birthday of John Keats, Poet.

1892 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle published “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”.

1926 ~ Death of Harry Houdini, Magician.

1940 ~ World War II: Battle of Britain ended.

1950 ~ Birthday of John Candy, Comedian & Actor.

1954 ~ Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1984 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).

1987 ~ Death of Joseph Campbell, Author and expert on mythology.

[jseal]

1512 ~ The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time.

1604 ~ At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy “Othello” was presented for the first time.

1611 ~ At Whitehall Palace in London, William Shakespeare's romantic comedy “The Tempest” was presented for the first time.

1755 ~ Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.

1892 ~ Birthday of Alexander Alekhine, World Chess Champion.

1923 ~ Birthday of Gordon R. Dickson, Science Fiction author.

1952 ~ The United States successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll.

1963 ~ The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.

1972 ~ Death of Ezra Pound, Poet.


Holidays
All Saints Day. Holiday in Spain, Italy and Croatia.
World Vegan Day

[jseal]

1739 ~ Birthday of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1755 ~ Birthday of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

1815 ~ Birthday of George Boole, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1817 ~ The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opened in Montreal, Quebec.

1920 ~ KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania started broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920.

1930 ~ Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1950 ~ Death of George Bernard Shaw, Playwright.

1960 ~ Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in the “Lady Chatterley's Lover” case.

1988 ~ The Morris worm, the first internet distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.

2004 ~ U.S. Presidential Election between Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush.

[jseal]

1801 ~ Birthday of Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer.

1816 ~ Birthday of Jubal Early, Confederate General.

1838 ~ The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded.

1903 ~ Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia.

1918 ~ Poland declared its independence from Russia.

1954 ~ The first in the Godzilla series of films was released in Japan.

1954 ~ Death of Henri Matisse, French artist.

1957 ~ Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika.

1986 ~ Iran-Contra Affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1993 ~ Death of Leon Theremin, Russian inventor.

[jseal]

1847 ~ Death of Felix Mendelssohn, German composer.

1869 ~ The first issue of scientific journal Nature was published.

1922 ~ In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 ~ Death of Gabriel Fauré, French composer.

1942 ~ World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein - Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel led his forces on a five-month retreat.

1946 ~ Birthday of Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States.

1948 ~ T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1956 ~ Soviet troops invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more are wounded and nearly a quarter million leave the country.

1979 ~ Iran hostage crisis began: Iranian radicals, mostly students, invaded the United States embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages (63 of whom are American).

1995 ~ The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

[jseal]

1605 ~ Gunpowder Plot: A plot by Guy Fawkes to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is foiled when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building.

1872 ~ Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted for the first time (she was later fined $100).

1892 ~ Birthday of J. B. S. Haldane, Geneticist.

1914 ~ United Kingdom annexed Cyprus, and with France declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

1930 ~ Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1977 ~ Death of Guy Lombardo, Conductor.

1979 ~ Death of Al Capp, Cartoonist.

1989 ~ Death of Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist.

1990 ~ Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, was shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.

1999 ~ Microsoft antitrust case: US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued a preliminary ruling that softwaremaker Microsoft had "monopoly power".

[jseal]

1528 ~ Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to set foot on Texas.

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa, Composer.

1861 ~ Birthday of James Naismith, inventor of basketball.

1861 ~ Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British queen as their head of state.

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp, Science Fiction writer.

[jseal]

1665 ~ The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, Chemist, Physicist, recipient of two Nobel Prizes.

1874 ~ A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, was published which is considered the first use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch, chess grandmaster and popularizer of hypermodernism in chess.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus, writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature.

1917 ~ Russian Revolution began: In Russia, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, with the assistance of Bolshevik military leader and philosopher Leon Trotsky, led his revolutionaries in a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the Provisional Government.

1922 ~ Birthday of Al Hirt, Musician.

1926 ~ Birthday of Dame Joan Sutherland, Opera singer.

1940 ~ In Washington, the middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm, four months after the bridge's completion..

1980 ~ Death of Steve McQueen, Actor.

[jseal]

1519 ~ Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomed him with great pomp as would befit a returning god.

1900 ~ Death of John Milton, English poet.

1793 ~ In Paris, the French Revolutionary government opened the Louvre to the public as a museum.

1836 ~ Birthday of Milton Bradley, manufacturer, lithographer, game maker.

1847 ~ Birthday of Bram Stoker, Irish novelist.

1884 ~ Birthday of Hermann Rorschach, psychiatrist.

1895 ~ While experimenting with electricity Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays.

1942 ~ World War II: Operation Torch - United States and United Kingdom forces landed in French North Africa.

1986 ~ Death of Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician.

2002 ~ Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".

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1541 ~ Queen Catherine Howard confined in London Tower.

1731 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Banneker, American scientist.

1888 ~ Jack the Ripper killed Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.

1918 ~ Germany is proclaimed a Republic. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated and choose to live in exile in the Netherlands as a result of the German Revolution.

1934 ~ Birthday of Carl Sagan, American Astronomer & Writer.

1938 ~ Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany's first large-scale act of physical anti-Jewish violence, began.

1953 ~ Death of Dylan Thomas, British poet and author

1965 ~ Several U.S. states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.

1970 ~ Death of Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician.

1989 ~ Cold War: Communist-controlled East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall and allowed its citizens to freely travel to West Germany for the first time since 1961.

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1483 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther, a leader of the Protestant Reformation.

1668 ~ Birthday of François Couperin, French composer.

1775 ~ American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Marines (later renamed the United States Marine Corps) to serve as landing troops for the recently created Continental Navy.

1871 ~ Henry Morton Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1919 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, Soviet inventor, AK-47.

1925 ~ Birthday of Richard Burton, Actor.

1938 ~ Death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey.

1951 ~ Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1975 ~ The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board. Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song about the tragedy.

2084 ~ A transit of Earth from Mars will be visible to hypothetical future Mars colonists.

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1634 ~ Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passed "An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery" (anal sex).

1675 ~ Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the y=x function.

1821 ~ Birthday of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist.

1880 ~ Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly was hung in Melbourne.

1885 ~ Birthday of George Patton, American general.

1904 ~ Birthday of Alger Hiss, American government official, spy.

1918 ~ World War I ends: Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France.

1922 ~ Birthday of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Novelist.

1992 ~ The Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.

2004 ~ Death of Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority.

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1035 ~ Death of Canute the Great.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alexander Borodin, Russian composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Auguste Rodin, French sculptor.

1918 ~ Austria became a republic.

1927 ~ Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

1944 ~ World War II: The Royal Air Force launched one of the more successful precision bombing attacks of war and sunk the German battleship Tirpitz off the coast of Norway.

1969 ~ Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre - Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the My Lai story.

1970 ~ The Oregon Highway Division attempted to destroy a rotting beached Grey whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous exploding whale incident (http://www.hackstadt.com/features/whale/). (scroll to the bottom)

1982 ~ In the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov was selected to become the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Leonid I. Brezhnev.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

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354 ~ Birthday of Saint Augustine of Hippo, Theologian.

1460 ~ Death of Henry the Navigator, Patron of African exploration.

1775 ~ American Revolutionary War: Patriot revolutionary forces under Col. Ethan Allen captured Montreal from British General Guy Carleton.

1850 ~ Birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson, Novelist.

1868 ~ Death of Gioacchino Rossini, Composer.

1940 ~ The animated feature-length film Fantasia was released.

1955 ~ Birthday of Whoopi Goldberg, Entertainer.

1960 ~ Sammy Davis, Jr. married Swedish actress May Britt. Interracial marriage is still illegal in 31 US states out of 50.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first known World Wide Web page.

2002 ~ Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agreed to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.

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1716 ~ Death of Gottfried Leibniz, Philosopher & Mathematician.

1719 ~ Birthday of Leopold Mozart, Austrian musician, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

1832 ~ Death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Declaration of Independence signer, US Senator.

1851 ~ Herman Melville's novel “Moby-Dick” was first published.

1840 ~ Birthday of Claude Monet, French impressionist painter.

1900 ~ Birthday of Aaron Copland, Composer.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began radio service in the United Kingdom.

1940 ~ World War II: In England, the city of Coventry was heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers.

1991 ~ American and British authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.

2001 ~ War on Terror: Northern Alliance fighters took over the capital Kabul.

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1630 ~ Death of Johannes Kepler, astrologer, astronomer and mathematician.

1787 ~ Death of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Composer.

1854 ~ In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, was given the needed royal concession by the Said.

1887 ~ Birthday of Georgia O'Keeffe, Painter.

1891 ~ Birthday of Erwin Rommel, German field marshal.

1942 ~ Birthday of Daniel Barenboim, Pianist & Conductor.

1943 ~ German SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered that Gypsies were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."

1969 ~ Vietnam War: In Washington, DC, 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war.

1971 ~ Intel released the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

1998 ~ Iraqi climbdown averted air strikes: American and British bombers were on their way to Baghdad when they were called off after Iraq's letter was delivered to the United Nations Security Council. "Now Iraq must live up to its obligations," President Bill Clinton Clinton said.

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1532 ~ Francisco Pizarro and his men captured Incan Emperor Atahualpa and his nobles.

1849 ~ A Russian court sentenced Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group: his execution is canceled at the last minute.

1885 ~ Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba", Louis Riel executed for high treason.

1895 ~ Birthday of Paul Hindemith, Composer

1922 ~ Birthday of Gene Amdahl, computer scientist.

1940 ~ World War II: In response to the Luftwaffe leveling Coventry two days before, the Royal Air Force bombed Hamburg.

1945 ~ Cold War: The United States controversially imported 88 German scientists to help in the development of rocket technology.

1960 ~ Death of Clark Gable, Actor.

1965 ~ The Soviet Union launched the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.

2004 ~ Vivendi Universal and Valve Software released Half-Life 2, the sequel to the groundbreaking hit PC game Half-Life.

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1603 ~ English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.

1790 ~ Birthday of August Ferdinand Möbius, Mathematician.

1800 ~ The United States Capitol building in Washington, DC held its first session of Congress.

1869 ~ In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, was inaugurated.

1887 ~ Birthday of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.

1917 ~ Death of Auguste Rodin, Sculptor.

1929 ~ Death of Herman Hollerith, Statistician.

1959 ~ Death of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian Composer.

1970 ~ Douglas Engelbart received a patent for the first computer mouse.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger wasinaugurated Governor of California.

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1421 ~ A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike broke, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.

1626 ~ St. Peter's Basilica was consecrated.

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1836 ~ Birthday of Sir William S. Gilbert, Dramatist.

1883 ~ American and Canadian railroads instituted five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.

1916 ~ World War I: First Battle of the Somme ended - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916. (Stalemate – Approx. 1,120,000 casualties, 310,000 killed or missing)

1928 ~ Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the Cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

1978 ~ Jonestown mass suicide: In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones lead his People's Temple in a mass murder-suicide; 913 die, including 276 children.

1991 ~ Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.

2003 ~ The Local Government Act 2003, repealing Section 28, became effective.

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1493 ~ Christopher Columbus became the first European to go ashore on an island he only named the day before. He named it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico).

1794 ~ The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain signed Jay's Treaty, which attempted to clear up some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War. Interestingly, the American people were very displeased with this, and there were protests against Justice Jay and his treaty. Alexander Hamilton, however, convinced Washington it was the best treaty that could be expected, and Washington agreed to sign it. This action caused Thomas Jefferson to start forming an active and open opposition group to Hamilton and his associates. They began to call themselves Republicans, and would later morph in the Democratic Party.

1805 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat and Suez Canal engineer.

1828 ~ Death of Franz Schubert, Austrian Composer.

1884 ~ Birthday of José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban Chess Grand Master.

1917 ~ Birthday of Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India.

1941 ~ World War II: The Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sank each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen.

1977 ~ Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel when he met with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement. Much of the Arab world was outraged by the visit.

1990 ~ Pop group Milli Vanilli was stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals.

1998 ~ Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton.

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1820 ~ An 80-ton sperm whale attacked the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).

1889 ~ Birthday of Edwin Hubble, Astronomer.

1908 ~ Birthday of Alistair Cooke, Journalist

1910 ~ Death of Leo Tolstoy, Novelist.

1917 ~ World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins – The first successful use of tanks; the British attack ended as another failure.

1924 ~ Birthday of Benoît Mandelbrot, Mathematician.

1945 ~ Nuremberg Trials began: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II started at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.

1947 ~ The Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.

1998 ~ A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declared accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

2003 ~ Michael Jackson was arrested charges of child molestation.

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1695 ~ Death of Henry Purcell, Composer.

1783 ~ In Paris, Jean Rozier and François Laurent made the first untethered hot air balloon flight (flight time: 25 minutes, Maximum height: 100m, distance: 9 km).

1787 ~ Birthday of Samuel Cunard, Shipping Magnate.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound.

1898 ~ Birthday of René Magritte, Belgian painter.

1953 ~ Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced that the skull of the "Piltdown Man" was a hoax.

1969 ~ The first ARPANET link was established.

1974 ~ The Birmingham Pub Bombings by the IRA killed 21 people.

1985 ~ United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested for spying (he was caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison).

1995 ~ Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.

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1718 ~ Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as "Blackbeard") was killed in battle when a British boarding party cornered and then shot and stabbed him more than 25 times.

1890 ~ Birthday of Charles de Gaulle, general, President of France.

1900 ~ Death of Arthur S. Sullivan, Composer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Britten, Composer.

1935 ~ The China Clipper took off from Alameda, California to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean.

1963 ~ Birthday of C. S. Lewis, Author.

1963 ~ Death of Aldous Huxley, Author.

1963 ~ In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy wss assassinated.

1977 ~ British Airways inaugurated regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.

1990 ~ Margaret Thatcher resigned as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

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November 23rd

1644 ~ ”Areopagitica (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/areopagitica/)” by John Milton was published.

1860 ~ Birthday of Billy the Kid, Bandit.

1869 ~ In Dumbarton, Scotland the clipper ship "Cutty Sark" was launched (it was one of the last clipper ships to be built, and the only one surviving to the present day).

1876 ~ Birthday of Manuel de Falla, Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Boris Karloff, Actor.

1888 ~ Birthday of Harpo Marx, Comedian.

1902 ~ Death of Walter Reed, Bacteriologist.

1955 ~ Death of Shemp Howard, actor, comedian (The Three Stooges)

1963 ~ The first episode of the sci-fi TV series "Doctor Who" debuts on the BBC.

1971 ~ The People's Republic of China was given the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council.

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1632 ~ Birthday of Baruch Spinoza, Philosopher.

1642 ~ Here’s on for Grumble! Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).

1853 ~ Birthday of Bat Masterson, Gunslinger, Policeman, Sports Reporter.

1859 ~ British naturalist Charles Darwin published “The Origin of Species”, a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection (it immediately sold out its initial print run).

1868 ~ Birthday of Scott Joplin, Musician.

1947 ~ Red Scare: After refusing to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of Communist influence in the movie industry, the United States House of Representatives voted 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10.

1963 ~ Death of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassination suspect.

1993 ~ In the United Kingdom, 11-year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention").

1991 ~ Death of Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen).

1998 ~ America Online announced it would acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.

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311 ~ Execution of Peter of Alexandria, "The Seal of the Martyrs", believed to be the last one to lose his life for the faith in the Diocletian Persecutions.

1783 ~ American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

1844 ~ Birthday of Karl Benz, Engineer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Lewis Thomas, Physician & Essayist.

1926 ~ Birthday of Poul Anderson, Science Fiction writer.

1940 ~ Woody Woodpecker first appeared in the film "Knock Knock".

1947 ~ New Zealand ratified the Statute of Westminster and thus became independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.

1968 ~ Death of Upton Sinclair, Journalist, Politician, Writer.

1984 ~ 36 of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gathered as Band Aid to record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.

1992 ~ The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly voted to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia starting on January 1, 1993.

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1607 ~ Birthday of John Harvard, after whom Harvard University is named.

1778 ~ Captain James Cook discovered Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands.

1862 ~ Lewis Carroll sent the handwritten manuscript of “Alice's Adventures Underground” to 10-year-old Alice Liddell.

1894 ~ Birthday of Norbert Wiener, mathematician, founder of cybernetics.

1922 ~ Birthday of Charles M. Schulz, Cartoonist.

1922 ~ Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun; the first in over 3000 years.

1942 ~ The film “Casablanca” premiered in New York City.

1956 ~ Death of Tommy Dorsey, Big Band leader.

1983 ~ In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million were stolen from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport.

2003 ~ Last ever flight by Concorde.

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8 BC ~ Death of Horace, poet. Remembered for “carpe diem”, (seize the day) among other things.

1095 ~ Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont.

1895 ~ Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he died.

1907 ~ Birthday of L. Sprague de Camp, Science Fiction writer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Alexander Dubček, Czech politician.

1942 ~ Birthday of Jimi Hendrix, musician.

1946 ~ Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appealed to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster".

Guess what country subsequently developed nuclear weapons and a missile delivery system?

1953 ~ Death of Eugene O'Neill, playwright.

1978 ~ In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.

2001 ~ A hydrogen atmosphere was discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.

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1520 ~ Three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1632 ~ Birthday of Jean-Baptiste Lully, Composer.

1820 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Engels, social philosopher.

1859 ~ Death of Washington Irving, writer.

1905 ~ Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin as a political party whose goal is the independence for all of Ireland.

1919 ~ Lady Astor was elected to be the first female member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

1939 ~ Death of James A Naismith, creator of basketball.

1954 ~ Death of Enrico Fermi, Physicist.

1969 ~ The Rolling Stones released the classic album Let It Bleed.

1989 ~ Cold War: Velvet Revolution - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced it would give up its monopoly on political power.

[jseal]

1643 ~ Death of Claudio Monteverdi, Composer.

1777 ~ San Jose, California, was founded as ‘el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe’. It was the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California.

1797 ~ Birthday of Gaetano Donizetti, Opera Composer.

1832 ~ Birthday of Louisa May Alcott, Writer.

1890 ~ In West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeated the United States Army 24 to 0 in the first Army-Navy football game. Go Navy!

1898 ~ Birthday of C. S. Lewis, Writer.

1947 ~ The United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

1982 ~ Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passed United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that the Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.

1990 ~ Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passed UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

2001 ~ Death of George Harrison, musician.

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1667 ~ Birthday of Jonathan Swift, Writer & Satirist.

1782 ~ American Revolutionary War: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain signed preliminary peace articles which were later formalized in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

1835 ~ Birthday of Mark Twain, Writer.

1872 ~ First ever international football match played at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland.

1874 ~ Birthday of Sir Winston Churchill , British political leader & Writer.

1936 ~ In London, the Crystal Palace was destroyed in a fire (it had been built for the 1851 Great Exhibition).

1900 ~ Death of Oscar Wilde, Writer.

1954 ~ In Sylacauga, Alabama, an 8.5 pound meteorite crashed through her roof and hit Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio. This is the only documented case of anyone being hit by a meteorite.

1989 ~ Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen was killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb.

1999 ~ In Seattle, Washington, the first major mobilization, in the United States, of the anti-globalization movement caught police unprepared and forced the cancellation of opening ceremonies of a World Trade Organization meeting.

[jseal]

1083 ~ Birthday of Anna Comnena, Byzantine historian.

1640 ~ Portugal regained its independence from Spain.

1824 ~ U.S. presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the House of Representatives was given the task to decide the winner, as stipulated by the Twelfth Amendment.

1835 ~ Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.

1918 ~ The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.

1935 ~ Birthday of Woody Allen, Film Director & Actor &Comedian.

1955 ~ American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws (Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr. later led the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott as a result).

1959 ~ Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed - 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, signed a treaty which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent. This was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.

1964 ~ Death of J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist.

1990 ~ Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France met 40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first ground connection between the island of Great Britain and the mainland of Europe since the last ice age.

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1547 ~ Death of Hernán Cortés, Spanish explorer and conqueror.

1804 ~ At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned as the first Emperor of France in a thousand years.

1814 ~ Death of Marquis de Sade, Writer

1859 ~ Militant abolitionist leader John Brown was hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.

1915 ~ Albert Einstein completed his presentations before the Prussian Academy of Sciences of the general theory of relativity.

1923 ~ Birthday of Maria Callas, Opera Singer.

1942 ~ Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiatd the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" was then sent to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt).

1961 ~ Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.

1972 ~ Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister of Australia. His first action using executive power was to withdraw all Australian personnel from the Vietnam War.

1990 ~ War on Drugs: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot and killed in Medellín.

[jseal]

1815 ~ Death of John Carroll - First Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S.

1854 ~ Eureka Stockade: More than twenty gold miners at Ballarat, Australia were killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licenses. Claimed by some to be the birth of Australian democracy.

1857 ~ Birthday of Joseph Conrad, Writer,

1894 ~ Death of Robert Louis Stevenson, Writer.

1917 ~ After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opened to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29, 1907 and September 11, 1916).

1919 ~ Death of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Painter.

1967 ~ At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, Lewis Washkansky became the first human to receive a heart transplant. The transplant team was headed by Christiaan Barnard.

1970 ~ October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross was released by the Front de Libération du Québec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Government of Canada grants five terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.

1984 ~ Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed more than 3,800 people in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

1989 ~ Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end.

[jseal]

1110 ~ First Crusade: The Crusaders conquered Sidon.

1642 ~ Death of Cardinal Richelieu, French statesman.

1674 ~ Father Jacques Marquette founded a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan which would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois.

1679 ~ Death of Thomas Hobbes, political philosopher.

1849 ~ Birthday of Crazy Horse, American Indian leader.

1872 ~ The crewless American ship Mary Celeste was found by the British brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged.

1952 ~ Great Smog of 1952: A "killer fog" descended on London. "Smog" for "smoke" and "fog" becomes a word.

1976 ~ Death of Benjamin Britten, Composer.

1991 ~ Pan Am Airlines ceased operations.

1991 ~ Journalist Terry Anderson was released after a seven years' captivity as a hostage in Beirut. He was the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

1766 ~ In London, James Christie held his first sale. He later founded Christie's, the world's oldest auction house.

1791 ~ Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer.

1839 ~ Birthday of George Armstrong Custer, American general.

1890 ~ Birthday of Fritz Lang, film director.

1901 ~ Birthday of Werner Karl Heisenberg, physicist.

1901 ~ Birthday of Walt Disney, film producer.

1926 ~ Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin", debuted.

1933 ~ Prohibition ends: Utah became the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, establishing the required 3/4th of states needed to enact the amendment. This overturned the 18th Amendment, which had outlawed the sale of alcohol in the United States.

1945 ~ Flight 19, a United States Navy training flight was lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

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1768 ~ First edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica waspublished.

1884 ~ The Halifax explosion killed more than 1900 people, and destroyed part of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1896 ~ Birthday of Ira Gershwin, Lyricist.

1920 ~ Birthday of Dave Brubeck, jazz musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Conductor.

1933 ~ Federal judge John M. Woolsey ruled that the James Joyce novel Ulysses was not obscene.

1972 ~ Launch of the last manned Saturn V, carrying the Apollo 17 astronauts on the last manned lunar landing mission.

1989 ~ The École Polytechnique Massacre: a man killed 14 young women in Montreal, Quebec.

1992 ~ In Ayodhya, India, right-wing Hindus belonging to the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and allied organizations demolished the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque, which they claim was built upon the birth place of Lord Rama.

2002 ~ Death of Philip Berrigan, civil rights activist.

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43 B.C. ~ Death of Cicero, Roman politician and author.

1761 ~ Birthday of Marie Tussaud, museum proprietress and waxwork modeler.

1817 ~ Death of William Bligh, British naval officer.

1905 ~ Birthday of Gerard Kuiper, Astronomer.

1928 ~ Birthday of Noam Chomsky, Linguist.

1941 ~ The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor officially brought the United States into World War II.

1965 ~ Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.

1970 ~ Death of Rube Goldberg, cartoonist.

1975 ~ Indonesia invaded East Timor.

1982 ~ First US execution by lethal injection was carried out.

[jseal]

1542 ~ Birthday of Mary Queen of Scots.

1864 ~ Death of George Boole, Mathematician.

1914 ~ Battle of the Falkland Islands fought.

1925 ~ Birthday of Sammy Davis Jr., Actor & Singer.

1939 ~ Birthday of James Galway, Irish flutist.

1949 ~ Chinese Civil War: The capital of the Republic of China was moved from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.

1978 ~ Death of Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel.

1980 ~ Mark David Chapman kills former Beatle John Lennon.

1991 ~ Leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine met and signed an agreement ending the U.S.S.R. and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve in Belarus.

1993 ~ The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.

[jseal]

1608 ~ Birthday of John Milton, Poet & Writer.

1793 ~ New York City's first daily newspaper, the “American Minerva”, is established by Noah Webster.

1851 ~ First YMCA in North America established in Montreal.

1868 ~ Birthday of Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel prize winner in 1918.

1937 ~ Battle of Nanjing began. The Rape of Nanjing followed (http://www.historywiz.com/nanjing.htm )

1950 ~ Harry Gold sentenced to thirty years in jail for stealing United States nuclear weapon secrets for the Soviet Union.

1961 ~ Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes in Israel.

1962 ~ Birthday of Tanganyika became a republic.

1987 ~ First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

1996 ~ Death of Mary Leakey, Archeologist & Anthropologist.

[jseal]

1815 ~ Birthday of Ada Lovelace, first computer programmer.

1822 ~ Birthday of César Franck, Composer & Organist

1830 ~ Birthday of Emily Dickinson, Poet.

1864 ~ William Tecumseh Sherman reached Savannah, Georgia, ending his "March to the Sea".

1896 ~ Death of Alfred Nobel, chemist, founder of the Nobel Prize.

1901 ~ Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize.

1931 ~ Japanese forces landed in the Philippines, captured Guam and sank the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse.

1953 ~ Dr. Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1965 ~ The Grateful Dead played their first concert, at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

1984 ~ Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize.

[jseal]

1725 ~ Birthday of George Mason, American patriot, "Father of the Bill of Rights"

1803 ~ Birthday of Hector Berlioz, Composer.

1882 ~ Birthday of Max Born, physicist and 1954 Nobel laureate.

1918 ~ Birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, 1970 Nobel laureate.

1931 ~ Statute of Westminster gave legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland.

1937 ~ Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom became effective.

1941 ~ Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

1943 ~ Birthday of John Kerry, US politician.

1981 ~ Muhammad Ali's last fight – he lost to Trevor Berbick.

1994 ~ A small bomb exploded on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing done by Ramzi Yousef to test explosives that would have been used in Project Bojinka (http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/Bojinka.html).

[jseal]

1531 ~ Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City.

1901 ~ First radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean by Guglielmo Marconi.

1913 ~ Mona Lisa recovered in Florence, two years after it was stolen.

1915 ~ Birthday of Frank Sinatra, Singer & Actor.

1927 ~ Birthday of Robert Noyce, one of the men credited with the invention of the integrated circuit.

1939 ~ Finland defeated the Soviet Union in the Battle of Tolvajärvi, their first major victory in the Winter War.

1963 ~ Kenya gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1971 ~ Death of David Sarnoff, radio and television pioneer.

1999 ~ Death of Joseph Heller, Author.

2003 ~ Death of Keiko, the killer whale in the “Free Willy” movies.

[jseal]

1204 ~ Death of Maimonides, Sephardi Philosopher.

1642 ~ Abel Janszoon Tasman reaches New Zealand.

1784 ~ Death of Samuel Johnson, Essayist.

1816 ~ Birthday of Werner von Siemens, Engineer, Inventor & Industrialist.

1925 ~ Birthday of Dick Van Dyke, Actor & Comedian.

1938 ~ 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen built the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.

1949 ~ The Knesset voted to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.

1974 ~ Malta became a republic.

1996 ~ Kofi Annan elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

2003 ~ Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured near Tikrit.

[jseal]

1503 ~ Birthday of Nostradamus, Astrologer & Mathematician.

1546 ~ Birthday of Tycho Brahe, Astronomer.

1799 ~ Death of George Washington, first President of the United States.

1900 ~ Max Planck published his study of the quantum theory.

1902 ~ First telegraph cable laid across the Pacific Ocean.

1911 ~ First expedition reached the South Pole, led by Roald Amundsen.

1939 ~ USSR expelled from the League of Nations.

1962 ~ Birthday of Ginger Lynn Allen, Actress.

1962 ~ Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

1995 ~ The Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris to end the Yugoslav wars.

[jseal]

37 ~ Birthday of Nero, Roman emperor.

1702 ~ Forty-seven ronin, formerly in the service of Asano Naganori, assaulted the household of Kira Yoshinaka, and killed him in vengeance for their lord. Their display of the ideals of bushido became a national legend.

1832 ~ Birthday of Gustave Eiffel, civil engineer.

1852 ~ Birthday of Antoine Henri Becquerel, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics.

1916 ~ France defeated Germany in Battle of Verdun.

1923 ~ Birthday of Freeman Dyson, Physicist.

1952 ~ Death of Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Physicist.

1961 ~ An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentenced Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust.

1966 ~ Death of Walt Disney, Animator & Cartoonist.

1994 ~ Netscape Navigator 1.0 first released.

[jseal]

1653 ~ Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1770 ~ Birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer.

1773 ~ The Boston Tea Party.

1775 ~ Birthday of Jane Austen, Writer.

1893 ~ World premiere of Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony"

1901 ~ Birthday of Margaret Mead, Anthropologist.

1917 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer.

1928 ~ Birthday of Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction Writer.

1944 ~ World War II: The Battle of the Bulge began. A V-2 rocket hit the Rex Cinema in Antwerp killing 567 people.

1998 ~ Operation Desert Fox: American and British aircraft began to bomb Iraqi targets after Iraq obstructed UN weapons inspectors.

[jseal]

1778 ~ Birthday of Humphry Davy, chemist.

1830 ~ Death of Simón Bolívar, Latin American politician & Activist.

1843 ~ ”A Christmas Carol”, a fictional short story by Charles Dickens, was first published.

1903 ~ The first controlled, powered heavier-than-air flight occurred when the Wright brothers took to the air, both of them twice at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1961 ~ India seized Goa from Portugal.

1969 ~ U.S. Air Force announced that its UFO investigations found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.

1973 ~ The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

1982 ~ ”Tootsie” opened in theaters.

1989 ~ Brazil held its first free election in 25 years.

1989 ~ The first half-hour length episode of The Simpsons debuted with their Christmas special, "Simpsons Roasting Over an Open Fire".

[jseal]

1642 ~ Abel Tasman landed at Mohua Golden Bay becoming the first European in New Zealand.

1737 ~ Death of Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker.

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1863 ~ Birthday of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (d. 1914)

1865 ~ Slavery was abolished in the United States, with the passing of the 13th Amendment.

1912 ~ Piltdown Man "discovered"

1916 ~ Battle of Verdun ended, with an estimated 700,000 casualties.

1936 ~ Death of Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist.

1946 ~ Birthday of Steven Spielberg, movie director.

2002 ~ California Governor Grey Davis announced that the state would face a budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier. The budget issue was used to support his 2003 recall from office.

[jseal]

1732 ~ Benjamin Franklin first published Poor Richard's Almanack.

1848 ~ Death of Emily Brontë, Author.

1888 ~ Birthday of Fritz Reiner, Conductor.

1906 ~ Birthday of Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician.

1961 ~ The Indian Army invaded the Portuguese colony of Goa.

1962 ~ Nyasaland seceded from Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

1974 ~ The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, went on sale.

1979 ~ ”Kramer vs. Kramer” opened in theaters, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep.

1984 ~ The United Kingdom and People's Republic of China signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

1988 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal.

[jseal]

1833 ~ Birthday of Samuel Mudd, physician, possible conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

1860 ~ South Carolina became the first state to secede from the United States.

1901 ~ Birthday of Robert Van de Graaff, Physicist & Inventor.

1915 ~ Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.

1968 ~ Death of John Steinbeck, writer.

1982 ~ Death of Artur Rubinstein, musician.

1995 ~ NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.

1996 ~ Death of Carl Sagan, Astronomer & Writer.

1999 ~ Vermont's Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples.

1999 ~ Macau was returned to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.

[jseal]

1118 ~ Birthday of Thomas Becket, lord chancellor and archbishop of Canterbury.

1375 ~ Death of Giovanni Boccaccio, writer.

1804 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Disraeli, Politician & Writer.

1872 ~ HMS Challenger sailed from Portsmouth on the 4 year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography.

1898 ~ Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

1914 ~ First feature-length silent film comedy, “Tillie's Punctured Romance”, starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin, was released.

1940 ~ Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Writer.

1945 ~ Death of George S. Patton, U.S. General.

1988 ~ A terrorist bomb exploded in Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270, including 11 on the ground.

1999 ~ The Spanish Civil Guard intercepted a Madrid-bound van driven by ETA and loaded with 950 kg of explosives. The next day, another van loaded with 750 kg was found not far from there. Shortly after 9/11, ETA confirmed their plan had been to blow down Torre Picasso.

[jseal]

1858 ~ Birthday of Giacomo Puccini, Composer.

1880 ~ Death of George Eliot, Writer

1898 ~ The Dreyfus affair began in France when Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly convicted of treason.

1939 ~ Death of Ma Rainey, blues singer.

1944 ~ German forces demanded the surrender of Allied troops at Bastogne, Belgium.

1989 ~ Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.

1989 ~ Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opened after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.

1990 ~ Lech Wałęsa sworn in as President of Poland.

2001 ~ Birthday of Cc the cat, first cloned pet.

2001 ~ Richard Reid tried to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes.

[jseal]

December 23rd

1790 ~ Birthday of Jean François Champollion, Egyptologist. He deciphered the Rosetta Stone.

1823 ~ “A Visit From St. Nicholas”, by Clement Clarke Moore, was first published

1834 ~ Death of Thomas Malthus, Demographer and Economist

1939 ~ Death of Anthony Fokker, aircraft manufacturer.

1947 ~ The transistor was first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

1953 ~ Death of Lavrenty Beria, Soviet Communist leader.

1954 ~ The first organ transplant of a kidney was performed by Doctors Murray and Harrison in Boston. Dr. Murray would later win a Nobel prize for his pioneering work.

1979 ~ Soviet military occupies Kabul, Afghanistan.

2012 ~ The Mayan calendar comes to an end (may also be December 21). This day was predicted by the Mayans to be when life on Earth is going to end.

Feastdays & Holidays

Fans of Seinfeld - Festivus (for the restofus) held.

[jseal]

1491 ~ Birthday of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit order)

1818 ~ Silent Night composed by Franz Xaver Gruber.

1818 ~ Birthday of James Prescott Joule, Physicist.

1910 ~ Birthday of Fritz Leiber, Science Fiction writer.

1914 ~ Birthday of John Muir, Naturalist.

1957 ~ Birthday of Hamid Karzai, first democratically elected President of Afghanistan.

1968 ~ The crew of the USS Pueblo was released by North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of spying.

1974 ~ Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, Australia.

2003 ~ The Spanish police prevented ETA from detonating 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 PM inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.

[jseal]

800 ~ Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

1066 ~ Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

1223 ~ Saint Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.

1642 ~ Birthday of Sir Isaac Newton, physicist and mathematician.

1821 ~ Birthday of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross.

1914 ~ World War I: The "Christmas truce" began.

1918 ~ Birthday of Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president.

1938 ~ Birthday of Karel Čapek, Czech author, inventor of the word robot.

1989 ~ Death of Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (executed).

1991 ~ Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).

[jseal]

1620 ~ Elizabeth Bathory's crimes were uncovered.

1791 ~ Birthday of Charles Babbage, Mathematician and designer of computing machines.

1792 ~ Final trial of Louis XVI of France began in Paris.

1890 ~ Death of Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist.

1893 ~ Birthday of Mao Zedong, Chinese Politician.

1925 ~ Turkey adopted the Gregorian Calendar.

1933 ~ FM radio was patented.

1966 ~ The first Kwanzaa was celebrated.

1982 ~ TIME magazine's “Man of the Year” was for the first time given to a non-human; a computer.

1998 ~ Iraq announced its intention to fire upon US and British warplanes that patroled the northern and southern "no-fly zones".

[jseal]

1571 ~ Birthday of Johannes Kepler, astronomer.

1822 ~ Birthday of Louis Pasteur, Scientist.

1831 ~ Charles Darwin embarked on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle.

1904 ~ James Barrie's play Peter Pan premiers in London.

1943 ~ Birthday of Cokie Roberts, journalist.

1949 ~ Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted Indonesia sovereignty.

1978 ~ Spain became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.

1985 ~ Naturalist Dian Fossey is found murdered in Rwanda.

1985 ~ Palestinian guerrillas killed twenty people inside Rome and Vienna airports.

2002 ~ Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya.

[jseal]

45 BC ~ 45 BC - Julian calendar went into effect.

404 ~ Last known gladiator competition in Rome.

1752 ~ Birthday of Betsy Ross, American seamstress.

1801 ~ Discovery of 1 Ceres, first known asteroid.

1879 ~ Birthday of E. M. Forster, English novelist.

1892 ~ Ellis Island opens to begin accepting immigrants to the United States.

1894 ~ Birthday of Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian mathematician

1901 ~ Establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia (Federation).

1983 ~ The ARPANET officially changed to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.

2002 ~ Euro banknotes and coins became legal tender.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrendered.

1727 ~ Birthday of James Wolfe, British general in French and Indian War.

1757 ~ The United Kingdom captures Calcutta, India.

1872 ~ Brigham Young was arrested for bigamy (25 wives).

1882 ~ John D. Rockefeller united his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.

1901 ~ Female fair-ground boxer, Mrs. Grace O'Malley, mother of 6, from Great Howard street, Liverpool, KO'ed twelve Yorkshire miners in an all comers bout, with a prize purse of five shillings

1904 ~ Death of James Longstreet, Confederate general.

1920 ~ Birthday of Isaac Asimov, Russian-born American science fiction author.

1929 ~ Canada and the United States agreed on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.

1942 ~ World War II: Manila was captured by Japanese forces.

[jseal]

106 B.C. ~ Birthday of Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher.

1521 ~ Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther.

1833 ~ Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien, South African-born writer and philologist.

1899 ~ The first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in the New York Times.

1925 ~ Benito Mussolini announced that he was taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

1945 ~ Birthday of Stephen Stills, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

1956 ~ Birthday of Mel Gibson, Australian actor and director.

1979 ~ Death of Conrad Hilton, American hotelier.

1993 ~ In Moscow, George Bush and Boris Yeltsin signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

[jseal]

1643 ~ Birthday of Isaac Newton, English scientist and philosopher.

1710 ~ Birthday of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Composer.

1785 ~ Birthday of Jakob Grimm, German philologist, one half of the Brothers Grimm.

1809 ~ Birthday of Louis Braille, Inventor of a writing system for the blind.

1847 ~ Samuel Colt sold his first revolver pistol to the United States government.

1884 ~ The Fabian Society was founded in London.

1948 ~ Burma gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1961 ~ Death of Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist.

1965 ~ Death of T. S. Eliot, Anglo-American poet.

1967 ~ Death of Donald Campbell when his jet-powered “Bluebird K7” crashed during an attempt to break the water speed record.

2004 ~ Spirit, the first of two NASA Mars Rovers, landed successfully on Mars.