Strange Days

[jseal]

1743 ~ Birthday of Luigi Boccherini, Italian Composer.

1861 ~ Serfdom was abolished in Russia.

1915 ~ The Battle of Gallipoli (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/dardanelles_feb15.htm) began.

1942 ~ Some 250 Japanese warplanes attacked Darwin, Australia (http://www.users.bigpond.com/battleforAustralia/battaust/DarwinAirraids.html). The attack killed at least 243 people.

1942 ~ President Franklin Roosevelt signed the order allowing the U.S. military to relocate Japanese-Americans to internment camps (http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/evactxt.html).

1945 ~ About 30,000 U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0219.html#article).

1964 ~ Paul Simon wrote "The Sounds of Silence”, the song which would take him and Art Garfunkel to stardom.

1980 ~ Bon Scott (http://www.trevormarshall.com/bon.htm), the lead singer of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC, died after a night of heavy drinking.

1986 ~ The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station (http://www.satobs.org/mir.html#configuration).

1997 ~ Death of Deng Xiaoping (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/19/newsid_2565000/2565613.stm), the last of China's major Communist revolutionaries.

[jseal]

1626 ~ Death of John Dowland, Composer.

1792 ~ President Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office (http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/welcome.htm).

1902 ~ Birthday of Ansel Adams (http://www.anseladams.com/), Photographer.

1904 ~ Birthday of Alexei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union.

1927 ~ Birthday of Sidney Poitier (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/poitier_s.html), Actor.

1952 ~ The film The African Queen (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043265/) opened in New York City.

1958 ~ An announcement was made that the Sheerness Docks, established the in the 17th century by Samuel Pepys, were to close (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/20/newsid_2552000/2552135.stm).

1962 ~ John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0220.html#article) aboard Friendship 7.

1966 ~ Death of Chester Nimitz, American admiral.

2001 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested (http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/hanssen/hanssen.htm) and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.

[jseal]

1875 ~ Birthday of Jeanne Calment (http://www.supercentenarian.com/oldest/jeanne-calment.html). She lived for 122 years 164 days, the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history.

1893 ~ Birthday of Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist.

1903 ~ Birthday of Anaïs Nin (http://www.anaisnin.com/), Writer.

1907 ~ Birthday of W. H. Auden, Poet.

1916 ~ The Battle of Verdun (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/verdun.htm) began. French casualties during the battle were estimated at 550,000 with German losses set at 434,000, half of the total being fatalities.

1947 ~ Edwin Land demonstrated the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera (http://www.clickondavid.com/polaroid.html), to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

1953 ~ Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.

1965 ~ Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0221.html#article) by members of the Nation of Islam.

1988 ~ TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart confessed to his congregation that he was guilty of an unspecified sin (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/21/newsid_2565000/2565197.stm), and said he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Reports linked Swaggart to a prostitute.

1995 ~ When he landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Steve Fossett became the first man to make a solo baloon flight across the Pacific Ocean (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=21).

[jseal]

1632 ~ Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" was published.

1732 ~ Birthday of George Washington (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gw1.html), 1st U.S. President.

1857 ~ Birthday of Robert Baden-Powell (http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/britishcavalry/13thhussarsbadenpowell.htm), Chief Scout of the World.

1879 ~ Frank Woolworth (http://www.citywatertown.org/history/woolworth.html) opened a five-cent store in Utica, N.Y.

1935 ~ Airplanes were no longer permitted to fly over the White House.

1946 ~ George Kennan, the American charge d'affaires in Moscow, sent an 8,000-word telegram - the "Long Telegram (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/documents/episode-1/kennan.htm)" - to the Department of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union, and U.S. policy toward the communist state. Kennan's analysis provided one of the most influential underpinnings for America's Cold War policy of containment.

1980 ~ In the Olympic competition, the U.S. Ice Hockey team defeated the Soviets (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0222.html#article) 4–3 at Lake Placid, NY.

1987 ~ Death of Andy Warhol, Celebrity

1994 ~ Double agent Aldrich Ames was arrested (http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/ames/1.html).

1997 ~ Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute announced that a sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/22/newsid_4245000/4245877.stm).

[dicksbro]

Subject: February 23rd

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1633 ~ Birthday of Samuel Pepys (http://www.pepys.info/), Diarist.



1685 ~ Birthday of Georg Friederich Händel (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/handel.html), Composer.



1836 ~ The siege of the Alamo began (http://members.tripod.com/aries46/alamo13d.htm) in San Antonio , Texas.



1855 ~ Death of Carl Friedrich Gauss, Mathematician & Physicist.



1893 ~ Rudolf Diesel received a patent for the diesel engine.



1915 ~ Birthday of Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay.



1927 ~ President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission (http://www.oswego.edu/~messere/FRCpage.html), forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.



1945 ~ The Stars and Stripes raised over Iwo Jima (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/23/newsid_3564000/3564547.stm). The 28th Regiment of the 5th Marine Division took Mount Suribachi.



1954 ~ Lasting prevention of polio (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0223.html#headlines) reported in vaccine tests.



1965 ~ Death of Stan Laurel (http://www.goldensilents.com/comedy/laurelhardy.html), Actor & Comedian.


Sorry that this was late getting in. Spent all day yesterday in bed running 101.5 fever and genereally feeling like crap. Hopefully, the worst is over now.

[dicksbro]

Subject: February 24th

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

303 ~ The Roman Emperor Galerius published his edict that began the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.



1786 ~ Birthday of Wilhelm Grimm (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wgrimm.htm), Philologist & Folklorist.



1803 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court, in Marbury v. Madison (http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/landmark/marbury.html), established the principle of judicial review.



1856 ~ Death of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician.



1868 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0224.html#article).



1903 ~ The U.S. signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.



1942 ~ Birthday of Joseph Lieberman (http://lieberman.senate.gov/), U.S. Senator.



1949 ~ At White Sands NM, "Project Bumper (http://www.wsmr-history.org/BumperAction1.htm)” a WAC CORPORAL attached to a German built V-2 rocket, reached a height of 250 miles above sea level, the first rocket to reach outer space. The entire trip took 6-1/2 minutes from firing.



1955 ~ Birthday of Steve Jobs, Computer Pioneer.



1981 ~ Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/24/newsid_2516000/2516759.stm).



2001 ~ Death of Claude E. Shannon (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Shannon.html), "father of information theory".





Search the Web:
Carl Friedrich Gauss

[jseal]

1723 ~ Death of Sir Christopher Wren (http://www.explore-stpauls.net/oct03/textMM/WrensTombN.htm), Architect.

1841 ~ Birthday of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (http://www.renoir.org.yu/), Painter & Sculptor.

1870 ~ Hiram R. Revels, R-Miss., became the first black member of the U.S. Senate (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0225.html#article).

1901 ~ Incorporation of the United States Steel Corporation (http://www.uss.com/corp/company/profile/history.asp).

1943 ~ Birthday of George Harrison (http://www.georgeharrison.com/), Beatle.

1970 ~ Death of Mark Rothko, American painter.

1983 ~ Death of Tennessee Williams, playwright.

1986 ~ Corazon Aquino assumed the Philippine presidency (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/25/newsid_4694000/4694530.stm) after Ferdinand E. Marcos fled.

1994 ~ Baruch Goldstein opened fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death.

2004 ~ Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ (http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2004-02-29-1.html)" was released in the U.S., and became the highest-grossing R-rated film ever made.

[jseal]

1797 ~ The Bank of England issued the first one pound note.

1802 ~ Birthday of Victor Hugo, Poet.

1848 ~ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published “The Communist Manifesto (http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html)” in London.

1852 ~ Birthday of John Harvey Kellogg (http://www.newsoftheodd.com/article1016.html), inventor of dry cereal.

1918 ~ Birthday of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

1935 ~ Robert Watson-Watt gave the first demonstration of RADAR (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/radar_and_the_battle_of_britain.htm).

1991 ~ Tim Berners-Lee introduced WorldWideWeb (http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/peopleofpower/bernerslee.html), the first web browser.

1991 ~ On Baghdad Radio, Saddam Hussein announced that he had ordered his forces to withdraw from Kuwait (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/26/newsid_4716000/4716868.stm).

1993 ~ A van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0226.html#article) in New York City exploded, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.

2001 ~ The Taliban destroyed two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan (http://youtube.com/watch?v=RDbrZaoXh4I), Afghanistan.

[jseal]

1807 ~ Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet ("Paul Revere's Ride (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/longf01.html)", "A Psalm of Life (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/longf03.html#19)", "The Song of Hiawatha (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/hiawatha.html)", etc.).

1833 ~ Birthday of Alfred von Schlieffen (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWschlieffen.htm), German field marshal.

1854 ~ The U.S. Republican Party was organized (http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-022/?action=more_essay) in Ripon, Wisconsin as a party opposed to the expansion of slavery.

1887 ~ Death of Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist.

1901 ~ Birthday of Linus Pauling, double Nobel Prize winner: Chemistry 1954 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1954/pauling-bio.html) and Peace 1962 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1962/pauling-bio.html).

1953 ~ James Watson and Francis Crick announced that they had determined the chemical structure of DNA. The formal announcement followed in the April 25 publication of Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/archive.html). For those who would like to learn more about this interesting development (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2003/dna_at_50/default.stm). In Crick’s own words (http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/Crick3.pdf).

1979 ~ Death of "Mr. Ed", the talking horse.

1983 ~ The final episode of M*A*S*H was broadcast in the U.S.

1986 ~ Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/28/newsid_2802000/2802181.stm) in central Stockholm.

1993 ~ Four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) agents and six Branch Davidians were killed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0228.html#article) when the agents tried to serve warrants on the Davidians.

[jseal]

1592 ~ Birthday of Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer.

1792 ~ Birthday of Gioacchino Rossini (http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/bio26313.htm), Italian composer.

1860 ~ Birthday of Herman Hollerith (http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/hollerith/), American statistician.

1868 ~ Birthday of Ludwig I of Bavaria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_I_of_Bavaria).

1904 ~ Birthday Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader.

1940 ~ Hattie McDaniel (http://members.aol.com/ttelracs/Hattie.htm) became the first African American to win an Academy Award.

1960 ~ An earthquake in Morocco (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/29/newsid_3829000/3829809.stm) killed over 3,000 people.

1968 ~ President Johnson's Kerner Commission warned that racism was causing America to move “toward two societies, one black, one white -- separate and unequal. (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0229.html#article)”.

1984 ~ Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced he would retire (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/29/newsid_2514000/2514563.stm).

2004 ~ Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned as President of Haiti.

[jseal]

1810 ~ Birthday of Frédéric Chopin (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/chopin.html), Composer & Pianist.

1872 ~ U.S. Congress authorized creation of Yellowstone National Park (http://www.nps.gov/yell/).

1896 ~ Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity.

1904 ~ Birthday of Glenn Miller, Bandleader.

1912 ~ Georg Ritter von Trapp, head of the singing family memorialized in the musical "The Sound of Music (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059742/)", married Agathe.

1927 ~ Birthday of Harry Belafonte (http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=12103211), Musician & Actor.

1932 ~ The infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0301.html#article).

1950 ~ Klaus Fuchs (http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Fuchs.shtml) was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.

1954 ~ The Castle Bravo 15-megaton hydrogen bomb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/1/newsid_2781000/2781419.stm) was detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It produced the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the U.S.

1992 ~ Sen. Brock Adams, D-Wash., abandoned his re-election campaign after eight women accused him in a Seattle Times report of sexual abuse and harassment.

[Oldfart]

If Castle Bravo scared you, read about Tsar Bomba, estimated yield about 50 megatons.

[jseal]

1836 ~ The Republic of Texas declared its independence (http://www.lsjunction.com/docs/tdoi.htm) from Mexico.

1877 ~ Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0302.html#article).

1904 ~ Birthday of Dr. Seuss, Author.

1930 ~ Death of D. H. Lawrence (http://www.dh-lawrence.org.uk/), Writer.

1931 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Gorbachev (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1990/gorbachev-bio.html), the eighth and last leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

1939 ~ Death of Howard Carter (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0509.html), British archaeologist.

1963 ~ Release of Please Please Me (http://www.warr.org/beatles.html#PPM) in the U.K., the first LP from The Beatles (http://www.beatles.com/).

1969 ~ The maiden flight of the Concorde (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/2/newsid_2514000/2514535.stm).

1982 ~ Deathof Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction author.

2004 ~ Al Qaeda carried out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.

[Oldfart]

And they're still making movies of Phil Dick's stories.

[jseal]

1706 ~ Death of Johann Pachelbel (http://www.hoasm.org/VIB/Pachelbel.html), Composer.

1847 ~ Birthday of Alexander Graham Bell (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96mar/bell.html), Scottish inventor.

1923 ~ Birthday of James Doohan (http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/12920.html), Actor.

1931 ~ ”The Star-Spangled Banner (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0194015.html)” officially became the national anthem of the U.S.

1939 ~ In Bombay, Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast to protest the British rule in India.

1983 ~ Death of Hergé (http://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/herge.htm), Belgian comics creator.

1985 ~ England’s coal miners accept defeat (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/3/newsid_2515000/2515019.stm) and vote to return to work after a year long strike.

1987 ~ Death of Danny Kaye, American Actor, Singer, & Comedian.

1991 ~ An amateur video captured the beating of Rodney King (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0303.html#article) by Los Angeles police officers.

2002 ~ Switzerland voted to become a member of the United Nations.

[Oldfart]

20 years since we lost Danny Kaye?

Sadly missed, Mr Kaminsky.

[jseal]

1193 ~ Death of Saladin (http://www.fidnet.com/~weid/medievalpeople.htm#saladin), Kurdish sultan.

1678 ~ Birthday of Antonio Vivaldi (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/vivaldi.html), Italian Composer.

1804 ~ The Battle of Vinegar Hill (http://www.hawkesburyhistory.org.au/articles/Battle_of_Vinegar.html), New South Wales.

1861 ~ The "Stars and Bars (http://www.usflag.org/history/confederatestarsandbars.html)" was adopted as the flag of the Confederate States of America.

1877 ~ Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet “Swan Lake” first performed.

1936 ~ First flight of airship Hindenburg (http://www.nlhs.com/hindenburg.htm) (LZ-129), in Germany.

1975 ~ Charlie Chaplin was knighted (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/4/newsid_2794000/2794107.stm) by Queen Elizabeth.

1994 ~ Four terrorists were convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.

1997 ~ U.S. President Clinton prohibited federal funding for any research on human cloning (http://www.public-i.org/Content.aspx?id=267).

2005 ~ Death of Nicola Calipari, Italian secret service agent.

[jseal]

1512 ~ Birthday of Gerardus Mercator (http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/mercator.html), Flemish Geographer & Cartographer.

1658 ~ Birthday of Antoine Cadillac (http://www.historydetroit.com/people/antoine_cadillac.asp), founder of Detroit.

1887 ~ Birthday of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian musician & Composer.

1908 ~ Birthday of Rex Harrison (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0305.html), English actor.

1946 ~ Winston Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech (http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/ironcurtain.htm), "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent…”.

1953 ~ Death of Josef Stalin (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1221.html), Soviet dictator.

1970 ~ The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty came into effect.

1993 ~ Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was banned from athletics for life (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/5/newsid_2515000/2515379.stm) after failing a drug test for a second time.

1953 ~ North and South Korean representatives met for the first time in 25 years for peace talks.

2004 ~ Martha Stewart was convicted (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june04/martha.html) of obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she dumped her Imclone Systems Inc. stock just before the price dropped.

[jseal]

1475 ~ Birthday of Michelangelo Buonarroti (http://www.glbtq.com/arts/michelangelo_art.html), Italian artist.

1806 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet.

1836 ~ After a 13 day seige, the Mexican army commanded by General Antonio López de Santa Anna captured the Alamo (http://www.thealamo.org/).

1857 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0306.html#headlines) in a federal court.

1869 ~ Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.

1888 ~ Death of Louisa May Alcott, Novelist.

1926 ~ Birthday of Alan Greenspan (http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/alangreenspan.html), American economist.

1957 ~ The former UK colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/6/newsid_2515000/2515459.stm).

1982 ~ Death of Ayn Rand (http://www.friesian.com/rand.htm), Author.

1987 ~ 197 people died when a car ferry capsized (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/6/newsid_2515000/2515923.stm) just outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

[jseal]

1274 ~ Death of Thomas Aquinas (http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/aquinas.htm), Philosopher.

1850 ~ U.S. Senator Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html) in order to prevent a possible civil war.

1875 ~ Birthday of Maurice Ravel (http://www.maurice-ravel.net/), Composer.

1867 ~ Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone (patent # 174,464).

1965 ~ In Selma, Alabama (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0307.html#article), State troopers and local law enforcement forcefully broke up a group of 600 civil rights marchers.

1967 ~ Death of Alice B. Toklas, inspiration for a million brownies.

1969 ~ Golda Meir elected Prime Minister (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/7/newsid_4205000/4205843.stm) of Israel.

1999 ~ Death of Stanley Kubrick (http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/030899obit-kubrick.html), Film Director.

2004 ~ An investiture ceremony was held for V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly homosexual bishop (http://www.nhepiscopal.org/bishop/bishop.html).

2006 ~ Apple was granted the patent to the iPod.

[jseal]

1714 ~ Birthday of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Composer. Not to be confused with his father Johann Sebastian Bach.

1862 ~ The iron-clad CSS Virginia (http://cssvirginia.org/) (formerly USS Merrimack) was launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

1869 ~ Birthday of Hector Berlioz (http://www.hberlioz.com/), Composer.

1917 ~ Death of Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German aircraft manufacturer.

1917 ~ The first stage of the Russian Revolution, the February Revolution (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0308.html#article) started in St. Petersburg.

1942 ~ Death of José Raúl Capablanca (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/capablanca/capablanca.htm), Cuban chess player.

1950 ~ The Soviet Union claimed to have an atomic bomb.

1959 ~ George Lincoln Rockwell founded the American Nazi Party (http://www.americannaziparty.com/about/index.php) in Arlington, Virginia.

1983 ~ President Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganevilempire.htm).

2001 ~ The wreck of Bluebird (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/8/newsid_2795000/2795085.stm), Donald Campbell's speedboat, was recovered.

[Oldfart]

I still thought it was Monitor V Merrimac. D'oh!

[jseal]

That is also the way I was taught it - way back then. :)

[jseal]

1454 ~ Birthday of Amerigo Vespucci, Explorer & Cartographer.

1934 ~ Birthday of Yuri Gagarin, Cosmonaut (http://www.guardian.co.uk/netnotes/article/0,,470879,00.html), first human in space.

1943 ~ Birthday of Bobby Fischer, chess player.

1945 ~ A fire storm in Tokyo (http://history.independence.co.jp/ww2/eng/phtop.html#raid2), caused by incendiary bombs from American bombers killed over 100,000 people.

1954 ~ CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy's anti-Communism campaign on "See It Now (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/seeitnow/seeitnow.htm)”.

1959 ~ The debut of the Barbie doll (http://www.dolls4play.com/barbiehistory.html).

1967 ~ Stalin's daughter defected to the West (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/9/newsid_2801000/2801709.stm).

1990 ~ Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells confirmed he would rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005208), effectively killing the Accord.

1996 ~ Death of George Burns, Actor.

2005 ~ The final broadcast by Dan Rather (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/08/eveningnews/main678731.shtml) on CBS Evening News.

[jseal]

1844 ~ Birthday of Pablo de Sarasate (http://www.karadar.com/Dictionary/sarasate.html), Violinist.

1913 ~ Death of Harriet Tubman (http://www.harriettubmanbiography.com/), American abolitionist.

1949 ~ Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as “Axis Sally (http://www.historynet.com/culture/womens_history/3032576.html?showAll=y&c=y)”, was convicted in Washington, D.C., of treason.

1957 ~ Birthday of Osama bin Laden (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/osamabinladen.html), Terrorist.

1965 ~ Neil Simon's play ''The Odd Couple'' opened on Broadway.

1969 ~ James Earl Ray pleaded guilty (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/10/newsid_2516000/2516725.stm) in Memphis, Tenn., to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

1977 ~ Astronomers discovered rings around Uranus (http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Uranus/UranusPlanet.html).

1982 ~ The U.S. placed an embargo on Libyan oil because of Libya’s support of terrorist groups.

1985 ~ Death of Konstantin Chernenko (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0310.html#article), Soviet leader.

1993 ~ Dr. David Gunn was shot to death outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic.

[jseal]

1941 ~ President Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0311.html#article).

1952 ~ Birthday of Douglas Adams, Science Fiction/Comedy novelist.

1955 ~ Death of Alexander Fleming (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio.html), Biologist.

1959 ~ Birthday of Nina Hartley (http://www.ninahartley.co.uk/aboutnina.html), American porn star.

1968 ~ Death of John Wyndham, Author.

1985 ~ Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/11/newsid_2538000/2538327.stm).

1993 ~ Janet Reno was confirmed by the U.S. Senate (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/govt/admin/reno.htm), becoming the first female U.S. Attorney General.

1996 ~ John Howard (http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/meetpm.asp?pmId=25) became the twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia.

1997 ~ Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

2004 ~ Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain, killed 191 people and wounded at least 1,800 in an attack linked to al-Qaida (http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/madrid.htm).

[jseal]

1912 ~ The Girl Scouts (http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/history/low_biography/) (née Girl Guides) were started in the U.S.

1913 ~ Canberra officially named.

1922 ~ Birthday of Jack Kerouac (http://www.beatmuseum.org/kerouac/JackKerouac.html), Writer.

1925 ~ Birthday of Harry Harrison, Science Fiction author.

1938 ~ Anschluss (http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2Timeline/Prelude10.html): German troops occupied Austria; annexation declared the following day.

1947 ~ The “Truman Doctrine (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0312.html#article)” established.

1987 ~ ”Les Misérables (http://www.lesmis.com/)” opened on Broadway.

1994 ~ The Church of England ordained its first female priests.

1999 ~ Death of Sir Yehudi Menuhin (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/12/newsid_2540000/2540427.stm), violinist.

2001 ~ The Taliban destroyed two giant Buddha statues (http://transcripts.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/03/12/afghan.buddha.02/) in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

[jseal]

1781 ~ The planet Uranus (http://www.solarviews.com/eng/uranus.htm) was discovered by Sir William Herschel (http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/Bios/wherschel.html).

1855 ~ Birthday of Percival Lowell, Astronomer.

1868 ~ The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0313.html#article) began in the U.S. Senate.

1906 ~ Death of Susan B. Anthony, civil rights and women's suffrage activist.

1925 ~ A law in Tennessee, the Butler Act (http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/tenness4.html#tbdi), was passed, prohibiting the teaching of evolution.

1938 ~ Death of Clarence Darrow (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/darrow.htm), Attorney.

1947 ~ The musical “Brigadoon (http://www.durham.net/~neilmac/brigdoon.htm)” opened on Broadway.

1954 ~ Viet Minh forces begin the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ against the French.

1964 ~ Kitty Genovese was murdered (http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/kitty_genovese/1.html) in an incident which shocked the world and prompted investigation into the Bystander effect.

1979 ~ The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousted Prime Minister Eric Gairy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/13/newsid_2804000/2804259.stm) in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada.

[jseal]

1681 ~ Birthday of Georg Philipp Telemann (http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxtel.html), German Composer.

1804 ~ Birthday of Johann Strauss Sr (http://www.johann-strauss.org.uk/composers/index.php3?content=johann1).

1835 ~ Birthday of Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian Astronomer.

1879 ~ Birthday of Albert Einstein (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html), physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in physics 1921.

1883 ~ Death of Karl Marx (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/bio/index.htm), political theorist.

1900 ~ The Gold Standard Act was ratified (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0314.html#article), placing U.S. currency on the gold standard.

1942 ~ First successful use of penicillin to treat a patient.

1943 ~ The SS under the command Sturmbannführer Amon Goth began the 'liquidation' of the Kraków Ghetto (http://www.jewishkrakow.net/en/waryears.php?id=krakowghetto).

1964 ~ A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

1984 ~ Gerry Adams (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/14/newsid_2543000/2543503.stm), head of Sinn Féin, was wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast.

[jseal]

44 B.C. ~ Julius Caesar was assassinated (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/ides1.html) by a group of Roman senators.

1877 ~ The first Test cricket match (http://www.abcofcricket.com/cfb1/cfb5/cfb5.htm), between England and Australia.

1898 ~ Death of Henry Bessemer, English metallurgist.

1906 ~ Rolls-Royce Ltd. (http://www.rolls-royce.com/history/timeline/default.jsp) was registered.

1916 ~ Addressing a joint session of Congress, President Lyndon Johnson called for new legislation to guarantee every American's right to vote (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0315.html#article).

1937 ~ Death of H. P. Lovecraft, horror writer.

1975 ~ Death of Aristotle Onassis (http://www.greece.org/poseidon/work/modern-times/onassis.html), shipping magnate.

1990 ~ British journalist Farzad Bazoft was executed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/15/newsid_2543000/2543475.stm) for spying.

1991 ~ Germany formally regained complete independence after World War II.

2004 ~ Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna (http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2004-05/release.shtml), the farthest "planet" in the Solar system so far observed.

[Oldfart]

jseal,

I was unaware that LBJ was in Presidency a year before USA joined the Allies in WW1.

Another thing to argue at PAGAN.

[jseal]

Oops!

That SHOULD read 1966.

TY

[jseal]

1521 ~ Ferdinand Magellan (http://www.answers.com/topic/ferdinand-magellan) reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.

1736 ~ Death of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer.

1789 ~ Birthday of Georg Ohm (http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/ohmlawexperiments.html), German physicist and developer of Ohm's Law.

1850 ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter (http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/sl.html)" was first published.

1898 ~ Death of Aubrey Beardsley, British Artist.

1926 ~ Robert Goddard (http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/goddard.html) launched the first liquid-fueled rocket (http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/f_goddard.html), at Auburn, Massachusetts.

1968 ~ The My Lai Massacre (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0316.html#article) was carried out by U.S. troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley.

1978 ~ Aldo Moro was kidnapped (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDmoro.htm) by left-wing urban guerrillas in Italy and was later killed by his captors.

1984 ~ William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists; he died in captivity.

1988 ~ The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq was attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4304000/4304853.stm) killing 5,000.

[jseal]

180 ~ Death of Marcus Aurelius (http://www.roman-emperors.org/marcaur.htm), Roman emperor.

461 ~ Death of Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland.

1673 ~ Jacques Marquette & Louis Jolliet began their exploration of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river.

1782 ~ Death of Daniel Bernoulli, Mathematician.

1834 ~ Birthday of Gottlieb Daimler, Engineer & Inventor.

1845 ~ The rubber band was patented (http://www.versteegde.nl/Bambustic/RubberBands/) by Stephen Perry.

1919 ~ Birthday of Nat King Cole (http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9253026), Singer. Oh! what a singer!

1942 ~ Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0317.html#article) during World War II.

1959 ~ Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (http://www.tibet.com/DL/biography.html), fled Tibet and traveled to India.

1973 ~ The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Burst_of_Joy.jpg) was taken.

Feastdays & Holidays

Catholicism ~ Feast day of St Patrick (http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/stpatricksday/?page=history): a public holiday in Ireland and Montserrat, widely celebrated in North America.

[jseal]

1844 ~ Birthday of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (http://www.vic.spb.ru/RK/nrklife.htm), Composer.

1850 ~ American Express was founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo.

1869 ~ Birthday of Neville Chamberlain (http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page135.asp), UK PM.

1962 ~ France and Algeria signed an agreement ending the Algerian War (http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/algeria1954.htm).

1965 ~ Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov became the first man to walk in space (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0318.html#article).

1978 ~ Death of Leigh Brackett (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/brackett.htm), Science Fiction author.

1990 ~ 12 paintings, collectively worth $100 million, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/topten/isabella.htm), Massachusetts. This was the largest art theft in U.S. history.

1992 ~ Microsoft shipped Windows 3.1.

1992 ~ South Africa voted to end apartheid (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/18/newsid_2524000/2524695.stm).

2003 ~ Death of Adam Osborne, British computer pioneer.

[jseal]

1687 ~ Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, was murdered.

1813 ~ Birthday of David Livingstone, Missionary & Explorer.

1848 ~ Birthday of Wyatt Earp (http://www.wyattearp.net/), Policeman & Gunfighter.

1906 ~ Birthday of Adolf Eichmann (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/biographies/eichmann.htm), Nazi official.

1915 ~ The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0319.html#article) for the second time.

1932 ~ Sydney Harbor Bridge (http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/harbourbridge/) opened.

1950 ~ Death of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Author.

1953 ~ The Academy Awards were first televised.

1982 ~ Argentines landed on South Georgia Island (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/19/newsid_2543000/2543639.stm), precipitating the Falklands War.

1987 ~ Death of Louis-Victor de Broglie (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1929/broglie-bio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1929.

Feastdays & Holidays

The swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano (http://www.sanjuancapistrano.net/swallows/) in California.

[jseal]

1727 ~ Death of Sir Isaac Newton (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Newton.html), Physicist.

1815 ~ Napoleon returned to Paris after escaping from Elba, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.

1828 ~ Birthday of Henrik Ibsen, Playwright.

1852 ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin (http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/ecp/10/223/0001/html/00010000.html)" was published.

1916 ~ Albert Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity (http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/GenRelativity.html).

1928 ~ Birthday of Fred Rogers, children's television host.

1969 ~ John Lennon married Yoko Ono (http://www.iamthebeatles.com/article1316.html) in Gibraltar.

1995 ~ A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0320.html#article) killed 12 and wounded 1,300 people.

2000 ~ Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2000/03/25/brown/index.html), once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured following a shootout in Atlanta.

2003 ~ U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/20/newsid_3495000/3495453.stm) from Kuwait.

[jseal]

1685 ~ Birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (hTTp://www.jsbach.org/), Composer.

1839 ~ Birthday of Modest Mussorgsky (hTTp://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mussorgsky.hTml), Russian composer.

1867 ~ Birthday of Florenz Ziegfeld (hTTp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/Today/mar21.hTml), Broadway Impresario.

1945 ~ UK Troops liberated Mandalay, Burma.

1960 ~ Police fired on demonsTraTors in Sharpeville (hTTp://news.bbc.co.uk/onThisday/hi/daTes/sTories/march/21/newsid_2653000/2653405.sTm), SouTh Africa, killing 69 and wounding 180.

1963 ~ The federal peniTenTiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, AlcaTraz, was closed.

1965 ~ Rev. King led 3,200 people on The sTarT of a civil righTs march from Selma To MonTgomery (hTTp://www.nyTimes.com/learning/general/onThisday/big/0321.hTml#arTicle), Alabama.

1980 ~ PresidenT CarTer announced a U.S. boycoTT of The 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow (hTTp://www.olympic.org/uk/games/pasT/index_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1980) To proTesT The SovieT Invasion of AfghanisTan.

1999 ~ BerTrand Piccard and Brian Jones became The firsT men To circumnavigaTe The EarTh in a hoT air balloon (hTTp://records.fai.org/documenTs.asp?from=balloons&id=5960).

2000 ~ The U.S. Supreme CourT ruled The governmenT lacked auThoriTy To regulaTe Tobacco as an addicTive drug.

[jseal]

1683 ~ Anne HuTchinson (hTTp://www.17Thc.us/index.php?id=16) was expelled from MassachuseTTs Bay Colony for religious dissenT.

1687 ~ DeaTh of Jean BapTisTe Lully, French Composer.

1832 ~ DeaTh of Johann Wolfgang von GoeThe (hTTp://www.imagi-naTion.com/moonsTruck/clsc20.hTml), WriTer & PoeT.

1882 ~ U.S. Congress ouTlawed polygamy.

1923 ~ BirThday of Marcel Marceau (hTTp://www.culTurevulTure.neT/TheaTer/MarcelMarceau.hTml), Mime.

1963 ~ The BriTish SecreTary of STaTe for War, John Profumo, denied improper involvemenT wiTh The model ChrisTine Keeler (hTTp://news.bbc.co.uk/onThisday/hi/daTes/sTories/march/22/newsid_4271000/4271221.sTm).

1963 ~ The BeaTles' firsT album, Please Please Me, was released in The UK.

1972 ~ The Equal RighTs AmendmenT (hTTp://www.nyTimes.com/learning/general/onThisday/big/0322.hTml#arTicle) To The U.S. ConsTiTuTion was senT To The sTaTes for raTificaTion.

1993 ~ The InTel CorporaTion shipped The firsT PenTium chips (hTTp://www.pcguide.com/ref/cpu/fam/g5P54-c.hTml).

2004 ~ DeaTh (by Israeli Hellfire missile) of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (hTTp://www.cbc.ca/news/background/middleeasT/yassin.hTml), co-founder and spiriTual leader of Hamas.

[jseal]

1749 ~ Birthday of Pierre Simon de Laplace, Mathematician & Astronomer.

1775 ~ Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech - "give me liberty or give me death (http://lexrex.com/enlightened/writings/libertyordeath.htm)" in Williamsburg, Virginia.

1857 ~ Elisha Otis's first elevator was installed at 488 Broadway, New York City.

1882 ~ Birthday of Emmy Noether (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Noether_Emmy.html), Mathematician. Now there's a lady who had a tough row to hoe!

1912 ~ Birthday of Wernher von Braun (http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/bio.html), Engineer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Roger Bannister (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ban0bio-1), athlete, first "Miracle Mile"

1983 ~ President Ronald Reagan made his initial proposal (http://www.school-for-champions.com/speeches/reagan_sdi_1983.htm) to develop technology to intercept missiles.

1989 ~ Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced cold fusion (http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/1258) at the University of Utah.

1989 ~ A 1,000-foot diameter Near-Earth asteroid (4581 Asclepius) missed the Earth by 400,000 miles.

2001 ~ The Russian space station Mir was de-orbited (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast10mar_1.htm), breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.

[jseal]

1874 ~ Birthday of Harry Houdini (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/houdini/), Magician.

1882 ~ Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.

1882 ~ Death of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (http://www.hwlongfellow.org/), Poet.

1893 ~ Birthday of Walter Baade (http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/Baade/index.html), Astronomer.

1905 ~ Death of Jules Verne, Author.

1944 ~ In occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.

1965 ~ Ranger 9 broadcast live TV (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/24/newsid_4063000/4063187.stm) as it crashed-landed onto the Moon.

1980 ~ Archbishop Óscar Romero was killed by gunmen (http://www.catholicherald.com/royal/royal8.htm) while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.

1989 ~ The Exxon Valdez spilled 270,000 barrels of oil (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0324.html#article) after running aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound.

1999 ~ NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (http://beqiraj.com/kosova/de/allied_force/). This marked the first time NATO attacked a sovereign nation.

[jseal]

1634 ~ The first settlers arrived in Maryland (http://www.marylandtheseventhstate.com/article1001.html) (led by Lord Baltimore).

1807 ~ The Slave Trade Act became law (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/abolition.htm), abolishing slavery in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1867 ~ Birthday of Arturo Toscanini, Conductor.

1881 ~ Birthday of Béla Bartók, Composer.

1918 ~ Death of Claude Debussy, Composer.

1942 ~ Birthday of Aretha Franklin (http://www.torontolife.com/guide/arts-and-entertainment/pop/aretha-franklin/), Singer.

1957 ~ The European Economic Community (http://www.historiasiglo20.org/europe/traroma.htm) was established (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg).

1975 ~ King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/25/newsid_4233000/4233595.stm) by a nephew with a history of mental illness.

1992 ~ Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/krikalev.html) returned to Earth from the Mir space station after a 10-month stay, during which his native country, the Soviet Union, ceased to exist.

1998 ~ President Clinton acknowledged during his Africa tour that "we did not act quickly enough (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/jan-june98/rwanda_3-25a.html)" to stop the slaughter of one million Rwandans four years earlier.

[jseal]

1827 ~ Death of Ludwig van Beethoven (http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyChronology.html), Composer.

1874 ~ Birthday of Robert Frost, Poet.

1892 ~ Death of Walt Whitman (http://www.whitmanarchive.org/), Poet.

1904 ~ Birthday of Joseph Campbell (http://www.jcf.org/index2.php), Author & Mythologist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Tennessee Williams, Playwright.

1964 ~ The musical “Funny Girl (http://www.barbra-archives.com/Performances/streisand_funnygirl_broadway.html)”, starring Barbra Streisand, opened on Broadway.

1979 ~ Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter signed the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0326.html#article) in Washington, DC.

1981 ~ The "Gang of Four", Roy Jenkins, David Owen, William Rodgers and Shirley Williams, founded the Social Democratic Party (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/26/newsid_2531000/2531151.stm).

1997 ~ The 39 Heaven's Gate cult suicides.

1999 ~ The Melissa worm (http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-1999-04.html) infected e-mail systems around the world.

[jseal]

1836 ~ Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texans at Goliad, Texas.

1845 ~ Birthday of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1901/rontgen-bio.html), physicist, awarded the first Nobel Prize in physics.

1863 ~ Birthday of Sir Henry Royce (http://www.royce.org.au/), automobile pioneer.

1871 ~ First international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.

1886 ~ Birthday of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe.html), Architect.

1958 ~ Nikita Khrushchev became Premier (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0327.html#article) of the USSR.

1968 ~ Death of Yuri Gagarin (http://www.abamedia.com/rao/gallery/gagarin/), the first man in space.

1972 ~ Death of M. C. Escher (http://www.mcescher.com/), Dutch artist.

1977 ~ A KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/27/newsid_2531000/2531063.stm), killing 582 people.

2002 ~ Passover Massacre: A suicide bomber killed 28 people in Netanya, Israel.

[IowaMan]

1903 ~ Chicago's National League baseball team, which had previously been known as the White Stockings, Colts, Cowboys, Broncos, Rainmakers, and Orphans, is referred to as the Cubs by Fred Hayner and George Rice of the Chicago Daily News, because of the number of young players on the team. The paper even created a logo, as the name would stick.

[jseal]

1881 ~ Death of Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer.

1903 ~ Birthday of Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist.

1910 ~ Henri Fabre becomes the first man to fly a seaplane (http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0872854.html) after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.

1939 ~ Generalissimo Franco entered Madrid, essentially ending the Spanish Civil War (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Spanish-Civil-War.htm).

1943 ~ Death of Sergei Rachmaninoff (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/rachmaninov.html), composer and pianist.

1947 ~ The last episode of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (http://members.tripod.com/~crozee/buck/) played on radio.

1965 ~ Conclusion of the 'Selma to Montgomey (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/28/newsid_4264000/4264241.stm)' Civil Rights march.

1979 ~ One of the nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0328.html#article) was severely damaged in what remains as the largest nuclear incident in U.S. history.

1987 ~ Death of Maria von Trapp, Singer.

2004 ~ Death of Peter Ustinov (http://www.unicef.org/media/media_20193.html), Actor.

[jseal]

1799 ~ New York passed a law aimed at abolishing slavery in the state.

1867 ~ Queen Victoria gave Royal Assent to the British North America Act (http://www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/constitution/constitution13_e.html) which established the Dominion of Canada on July 1.

1899 ~ Birthday of Lavrenty Beria, Soviet Communist leader.

1912 ~ Death of Robert Falcon Scott, Explorer.

1973 ~ The last U.S. troops left South Vietnam (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0329.html#article), ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.

1981 ~ First running of the London Marathon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/29/newsid_2530000/2530955.stm).

1982 ~ Queen Elizabeth gave Royal Assent to the Canada Act 1982 (http://www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/constitution/constitution16_e.html), setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982.

1984 ~ The Baltimore Colts (http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/balticolts/baltcolts.html) of the NFL moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night.

2004 ~ Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO (http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2004/03-march/e0329a.htm) as full members.

2004 ~ Death of Alistair Cook (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/cookealista/cookealista.htm), Journalist.

[jseal]

1135 ~ Birthday of Moses Maimonides (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/maimonides-islamic/), Medieval Jewish Philosopher.

1746 ~ Birthday of Francisco Goya, Spanish painter and engraver.

1842 ~ Anesthesia (http://www.asahq.org/Newsletters/1998/02_98/Pediatric_0298.html) (ether) was used for the first time in an operation.

1853 ~ Birthday of Vincent van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm), Painter.

1870 ~ Texas was readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

1951 ~ Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/30/newsid_3704000/3704209.stm) were convicted of espionage.

1951 ~ Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC I (http://mywebpage.netscape.com/reitery2k/univac1.htm) computer to the U.S. Census Bureau.

1977 ~ Death of Sergey Ilyushin (http://www.answers.com/topic/sergey-ilyushin), Russian aerospace engineer.

1981 ~ President Reagan was shot (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0330.html#article) and seriously injured.

1998 ~ German automaker BMW bought Rolls-Royce for $570 million.

[jseal]

1621 ~ Birthday of Andrew Marvell, English poet.

1732 ~ Birthday of Joseph Haydn, Composer.

1837 ~ Death of John Constable (http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/constabl/p-constable2.htm), Painter.

1855 ~ Death of Charlotte Brontë (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/bronteov.html), Author.

1918 ~ Daylight Savings Time went into effect in the United States for the first time.

1959 ~ The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crossed the border into India (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2788000/2788343.stm) and was granted political asylum.

1968 ~ President Johnson (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0331.html#article) announced he would not run for re-election.

1970 ~ After 12 years in orbit, Explorer 1 (http://www.ispyspace.com/Explorer_1.html) burnt up when it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.

1991 ~ The end of the Warsaw Pact (http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/13/opinion/edbyrne.php).

1995 ~ Latina superstar Selena (http://www.q-productions.com/) was killed by the president of her fan club.

[jseal]

1815 ~ Birthday of Otto von Bismarck (http://www.ssa.gov/history/ottob.html), Politician.

1884 ~ Birthday of Florence Blanchfield, the first woman to receive a regular commission in the U.S. Army.

1873 ~ Birthday of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Composer, Pianist & Conductor.

1917 ~ Death of Scott Joplin (http://www.scottjoplin.org/biography.htm), Musician & Composer.

1918 ~ The Royal Flying Corps was replaced by the Royal Air Force.

1945 ~ World War II: U.S. forces invaded Okinawa (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0401.html#article).

1970 ~ President Nixon signed a measure banning cigarette advertising (http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/nc/nc2b_10.htm) on radio and TV.

1976 ~ Apple Computer Company was formed (http://www.apple-history.com/?page=history&section=h1) by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

2001 ~ Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2464000/2464667.stm) was arrested and taken to prison.

2001 ~ A U.S. intelligence gathering plane collided with a PRC Army fighter jet. The Navy crew made an emergency landing in Hainan, PRC and was detained.

Feastdays & Holidays

April Fools Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm)

[jseal]

1725 ~ Birthday of Giacomo Casanova (http://www.dickinson.edu/~emery/Casanova.htm), adventurer and writer.

1805 ~ Birthday of Hans Christian Andersen (http://www.online-literature.com/hans_christian_andersen/), Danish writer.

1875 ~ Birthday of Walter Chrysler, automobile pioneer.

1917 ~ President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0402.html#article).

1917 ~ The first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Jeannette Rankin, took her seat as a representative from Montana.

1966 ~ Death of C.S. Forester, Author.

1978 ~ Dallas premiered (http://www.ultimatedallas.com/) on CBS, beginning a 13-year run.

1982 ~ Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands (http://www.naval-history.net/F15invasion.htm), starting the war.

1986 ~ A grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter were sucked out of a TWA jet (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/2/newsid_4357000/4357159.stm) when it was bombed by a group calling itself the Ezzedine Kassam Unit of the Arab Revolutionary Cells

2005 ~ Death of Pope John Paul II (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pope/).

[jseal]

1882 ~ Death of Jesse James (shot in the back and killed for the reward).

1895 ~ The libel trial started by Oscar Wilde (http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/oscar_wilde/6.html) against the Marquess of Queensbury began, eventually resulting in Wilde's arrest, trial and imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.

1897 ~ Death of Johannes Brahms (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/brahms.html), Composer.

1901 ~ Death of Richard D'Oyly Carte (http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/carte/index.html), Impresario.

1934 ~ Birthday of Jane Goodall (http://www.janegoodall.org/default.asp), Zoologist.

1946 ~ Masaharu Homma, the Japanese general responsible for the Bataan Death March (http://home.comcast.net/~rgrokett/POW/index.htm), was executed in the Philippines.

1948 ~ President Truman signed the Marshall Plan (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0403.html#article).

1991 ~ Death of Graham Greene, English writer.

1996 ~ Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was arrested (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/3/newsid_2460000/2460423.stm) at his Montana cabin.

2000 ~ Microsoft was ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws.

[jseal]

1884 ~ Birthday of Isoroku Yamamoto (http://www.angelfire.com/ia/totalwar/Yamamoto.html), naval commander.

1885 ~ Birthday of Arthur Murray, dancer.

1902 ~ British financier Cecil Rhodes (http://www.britishempire.co.uk/biography/rhodes.htm) left £6 million in his will to provide scholarships for Americans at Oxford University in England.

1949 ~ Twelve nations signed The North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (http://www.nato.int/docu/basictxt/treaty.htm).

1964 ~ The Beatles (http://www.beatles.com/core/beatles/intro/) occupied all of the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States.

1968 ~ Martin Luther King Jr. (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0404.html#article) was assassinated.

1979 ~ Death of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/4/newsid_2459000/2459507.stm), Pakistan Prime Minister (hanged).

1984 ~ President Reagan called for an international ban on chemical weapons.

1984 ~ Winston Smith, the main character of George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four (http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/0.html), began writing in his secret diary.

1994 ~ Netscape Communications Corporation was founded by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark.

[jseal]

1588 ~ Birthday of Thomas Hobbes (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/hobbes.html), English philosopher.

1614 ~ In Virginia, Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe.

1792 ~ President Washington cast the first presidential veto (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/first_veto.htm), rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

1827 ~ Birthday of Joseph Lister (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/b.gardner/Lister.html), Surgeon.

1908 ~ Birthday of Herbert von Karajan (http://www.karajan.co.uk/), Austrian conductor.

1930 ~ In an act of civil disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi (http://www.mibazaar.com/2007/03/today-in-history-mahatma-gandhis-salt.html) breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.

1942 ~ The Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Colombo, Sri Lanka, and sank the Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire southwest of the island.

1951 ~ Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0405.html#article) were sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.

1964 ~ Death of General Douglas MacArthur, US Army.

1976 ~ Death of Howard Hughes (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/5/newsid_4739000/4739940.stm), aviation pioneer.

[jseal]

1528 ~ Death of Albrecht Dürer (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/durer/), Artist.

1866 ~ Birthday of Butch Cassidy, Outlaw.

1909 ~ Robert Peary and Matthew Henson became the first men to reach the North Pole (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0406.html#article).

1917 ~ The United States declared war on Germany.

1928 ~ Birthday of James D. Watson (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/watson-bio.html), Geneticist, co-discoverer of structure of DNA, awarded 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

1933 ~ Hostess Twinkies (http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/twinkie.htm) were invented.

1971 ~ Death of Igor Stravinsky (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/stravinsky.html), Composer.

1992 ~ Death of Isaac Asimov (http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html), Science-fiction author.

1994 ~ The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/6/newsid_2472000/2472195.stm) in a plane crash near Rwanda's capital.

2001 ~ Algerian national Ahmed Ressam, accused of bringing explosives into the U.S. days before the millennium celebrations, was convicted twice in the same day - first in France for belonging to a group supporting Islamic militants, then in Los Angeles on terror charges.

...a bad day for Ahmed.

[Oldfart]

Poor Ahmed, tough audience.

[jseal]

1614 ~ Death of El Greco (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/greco/) (Domenikos Theotocopoulos), artist.

1770 ~ Birthday of William Wordsworth, English poet.

1795 ~ France adopted the meter as the unit of length.

1862 ~ Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0407.html#article) in Tennessee.

1891 ~ Death of P. T. Barnum (http://www.ringling.com/explore/history/ptbarnum_1.aspx), Circus Impresario.

1947 ~ Death of Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer and industrialist.

1953 ~ Dag Hammarskjöld (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1961/hammarskjold-bio.html) was elected United Nations Secretary General.

1964 ~ IBM announced the System/360 (http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Bistro/8502/360a.html).

1968 ~ Death of Jim Clark (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/7/newsid_2837000/2837559.stm), racing driver.

1969 ~ The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of First Request for Comment (http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/) (RFC).

[jseal]

1820 ~ The Venus de Milo (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/G/greek/venus_de_milo.jpg.html) was discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.

1848 ~ Death of Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer.

1889 ~ Birthday of Sir Adrien Boult, English Conductor.

1945 ~ Pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (http://www.dbonhoeffer.org/) was executed at the POW camp at Flossenbürg.

1953 ~ Jomo Kenyatta was convicted (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/8/newsid_2887000/2887641.stm) of being a member of the Mau Mau.

1973 ~ Death of Pablo Picasso (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0408.html#article), artist.

1974 ~ Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record.

1975 ~ Frank Robinson managed his first game (http://www.thebaseballpage.com/players/robinfr02.php) as major league baseball's first African American manager.

1983 ~ Death of Omar Bradley (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/omarnels.htm), general.

2005 ~ The funeral of Pope John Paul II (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/08/pope.funeral/index.html).

[Oldfart]

Zimbabwe had an excellent model in Kenya, murder and disruption.

[jseal]

1865 ~ Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0409.html#article).

1906 ~ Birthday of Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor.

1940 ~ Operation Weserübung (http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=93): Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.

1942 ~ HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire (http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/remembering1942/vampire/index.htm) were sunk off Ceylon’s (Sri Lanka) east coast by Japanese naval aircraft.

1926 ~ Birthday of Hugh Hefner (http://www.playboyenterprises.com/home/content.cfm?content=t_template&packet=00061D22-C172-1C7A-9B578304E50A011A&MmenuFlag=profile), Editor & Publisher.

1928 ~ Birthday of Tom Lehrer, Musician & Satirist (http://www.iankitching.me.uk/humour/lehrer/).

1959 ~ Death of Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect.

1974 ~ Birthday of Jenna Jameson (http://www.jennajameson.com/), porn star.

1991 ~ Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

2003 ~ Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/9/newsid_3502000/3502633.stm), beheading a toppled statue of the dictator in downtown Baghdad.

[scotzoidman]

1926 ~ Birthday of Hugh Hefner (http://www.playboyenterprises.com/home/content.cfm?content=t_template&packet=00061D22-C172-1C7A-9B578304E50A011A&MmenuFlag=profile), Editor & Publisher.


1974 ~ Birthday of Jenna Jameson (http://www.jennajameson.com/), porn star.

Coincidence? I think not...

[Oldfart]

Cynic.

[jseal]

1847 ~ Birthday of Joseph Pulitzer, Journalist & Publisher.

1912 ~ The RMS Titanic (http://www.hants.gov.uk/titanic.html) left port in Southampton, England.

1919 ~ Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and killed by government forces.

1932 ~ Birthday of Omar Sharif (http://www.filmreference.com/film/44/Omar-Sharif.html), Egyptian actor (Doctor Zhivago, anad many others).

1947 ~ Jackie Robinson (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0410.html#article) broke the color barrier in MLB.

1954 ~ Death of Auguste Lumière (http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/LUMIERE_BIO.html), Cinema Pioneer.

1963 ~ The American submarine USS Thresher (http://navysite.de/ssn/ssn593.htm) and its crew was lost off Cape Cod, Mass.

1966 ~ Death of Evelyn Waugh (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ewaugh.htm), Writer.

1970 ~ Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles had broken up.

1998 ~ The Belfast Agreement (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/10/newsid_2450000/2450823.stm) was signed.

[jseal]

1814 ~ Napoleon abdicated (http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110901/standard/downfall.html) and was exiled to Elba.

1893 ~ Birthday of Dean Acheson, former U.S. Secretary of State.

1906 ~ Death of James Bailey, co-founder with Phineas Barnum of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus (http://www.ringling.com/).

1932 ~ Birthday of Joel Grey, American singer and actor.

1945 ~ U.S. forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005198).

1951 ~ President Truman replaced General MacArthur (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0411.html#article) with Lieutenant-General Ridgway.

1961 ~ Bob Dylan (http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/bobdylan/biography) made his singing début in New York City.

1961 ~ Start of war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/11/newsid_2476000/2476225.stm).

1979 ~ Idi Amin (http://www.cbv.ns.ca/dictator/Amin.html) deposed as president of Uganda.

2007 ~ Death of Kurt Vonnegut, American author.

[jseal]

65 ~ Death of Lucius Annaeus Seneca (http://www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/seneca_001.html), Philosopher, Dramatist & Statesman.

1861 ~ The American Civil War began when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter (http://www.us-civilwar.com/sumter.htm) in South Carolina.

1895 ~ Birthday of Lily Pons (http://www.operaitaliana.com/autori/interprete.asp?ID=6), Opera Soprano.

1937 ~ Frank Whittle ground-tested the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft (http://www.aircraftenginedesign.com/custom.html3.html).

1940 ~ Birthday of Herbie Hancock, Musician.

1944 ~ Birthday of John Kay, of Steppenwolf.

1945 ~ President Franklin Roosevelt died (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0412.html#article).

1961 ~ Yuri Gagarin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin) became the first man in space aboard Vostok 1.

1980 ~ Death of William R. Tolbert, Jr., President of Liberia (Disemboweled by assassins).

1984 ~ Arthur Scargill, the man who led the destruction of the National Union of Mineworkers ruled out a national ballot of miners (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/12/newsid_2843000/2843003.stm) on whether to continue their strike.

[jseal]

1570 ~ Birthday of Guy Fawkes (http://www.guyfawkes.me.uk/), Gunpowder Plot conspirator.

1598 ~ Henry IV of France granted freedom of religion to Hguenots.

1742 ~ George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah (http://gfhandel.org/messiah.htm) premiered in Dublin, Ireland.

1743 ~ Birthday of Thomas Jefferson (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tj3.html), 3rd U.S. President.

1826 ~ Death of Franz Danzi, German composer.

1829 ~ The British Parliament granted freedom of religion to Roman Catholics.

1892 ~ Birthday of Arthur Harris (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWharris.htm), commander of RAF's Bomber Command in World War II.

1964 ~ Sidney Poitier broke the color barrier (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/13/newsid_2524000/2524235.stm) when he was awarded the “Best Actor” Oscar.

1970 ~ Apollo 13 was almost lost (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0413.html#article) when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst.

1990 ~ The Soviet Union admitted committing the Katyn Massacre (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/01/spotlight/).

[Oldfart]

Hadn't heard of Katyn. We're a lovely species.

[Booger]

2000 - Metallica, along with E/M Ventures and Creeping Deaths Music _ all copyright owners of sound recordings and musical compositions created by the veteran hard rock outfit _ jointly file suit against Napster, Inc., the University of Southern California, Yale University, and Indiana University to halt alleged pirating of Metallica music.

1999 - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers release… — 1999 - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers release their album Echo.

1986 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Kiss,” Prin… — 1986 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Kiss,” Prince & the Revolution.

1982 - David Crosby is arrested on charges of drug… — 1982 - David Crosby is arrested on charges of drug possession in Dallas. It’s the second time in three weeks he’s been busted in the Texas city.

1979 - Dave Lee Roth collapses from exhaustion onstage… — 1979 - Dave Lee Roth collapses from exhaustion onstage in Spokane, Wash., during a Van Halen concert.

1974 - Wings: Band on the Run: US… — 1974 - Wings: Band on the Run: US LP is no. 1 chart topper.

1973 - Roger Daltrey releases first solo LP, produced… — 1973 - Roger Daltrey releases first solo LP, produced by Adam Faith, entitled Daltrey.

1969 - Led Zeppelin Headlines at Kimbells in Southsea, UK… — 1969 - Led Zeppelin Headlines at Kimbells in Southsea, Songs performed during this period include: Train Kept a Rollin’, I Can’t Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, As Long As I Have, You, Killing Floor, White Summer / Black Mountainside, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, You Shook Me, How Many More Times, Communication Breakdown, Pat’s Delight (drum solo).

1967 - The Rolling Stones give their first perform… — 1967 - The Rolling Stones give their first performance behind the Iron Curtain. Warsaw, Poland’s Palace of Culture. Police use tear gas to subdue 2,000 fans.

1966 - At Abbey Road, the Beatles record “Paperback Writer.” — 1966 - At Abbey Road, the Beatles record “Paperback Writer.”

1965 - Beatles rename Eight Arms to Hold You… — 1965 - Beatles rename Eight Arms to Hold You. Song becomes Help and is recorded at Abbey Road.

1964 - The Beatles announce that the title of their first… — 1964 - The Beatles announce that the title of their first film is A Hard Day’s Night.

1962 - The Star Club opens in Hamburg, with the Beatles as its house band. The association between the group and venue would later make the Star Club world famous.

1957 - Elvis Presley: All Shook Up US 45… — 1957 - Elvis Presley: All Shook Up US 45 i sno. 1 chart topper.

[jseal]

Hadn't heard of Katyn. We're a lovely species.
Alas, all too true. Nasties everywhere.

[jseal]

1629 ~ Birthday of Christiaan Huygens, Mathematician.

1759 ~ Death of Georg Friedrich Handel (http://gfhandel.org/), Composer.

1865 ~ President Lincoln was shot (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0414.html#article) by John Wilkes Booth.

1904 ~ Birthday of Sir John Gielgud, Actor.

1912 ~ RMS Titanic (http://home.gwi.net/~paul/) struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage.

1935 ~ Death of Emmy Noether (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Noether_Emmy.html), Mathematician.

1939 ~ ''The Grapes of Wrath'' by John Steinbeck was published.

1964 ~ Death of Rachel Carson (http://www.rachelcarson.org/), Writer & Ecologist.

1988 ~ The USSR pledged to leave Afghanistan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/14/newsid_4419000/4419833.stm).

1999 ~ A hailstorm in Sydney, Australia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Sydney_hailstorm) caused at least A$1.7 billion damages.

[Booger]

1980 - Pete Townshend releases his solo album Empty Glass.

1980 - Bruce Springsteen: A resolution is introduced in the New Jersey Assembly to make Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” the official state song. The resolution fails to be passed.

1980 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Call Me,” Blondie. Chart Toppers ranks the song as the No. 1 single of 1980.

1974 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia),” MFSB featuring the Three Degrees. The song is the theme to the TV program “Soul Train.”

1969 - The Beatles record “The Ballad of John and Yoko” at Abbey Road.

1969 - Led Zeppelin enter the English albums chart with their self-titled debut in its third week of release.

1967 - David Bowie releases his novelty single “The Laughing Gnome.” Using music hall stylings and a sped-up voice, the song becomes a hit only in 1983.

1965 - The Beatles announce that the title of their second film has been changed from Eight Arms to Hold You to Help!

1965 - Elvis Presley’s latest film, Girl Happy, opens nationwide.

1963 - The Beatles are introduced to the Rolling Stones for the first time backstage in Richmond, England. George Harrison says he’s particularly impressed by the unsigned band’s performance.

1955 - Fats Domino releases “Ain’t That a Shame.”

[jseal]

1452 ~ Birthday of Leonardo da Vinci.

1707 ~ Birthday of Leonhard Euler (http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Euler/RouseBall/RB_Euler.html), Mathematician.

1802 ~ William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy come across a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring him to write "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww260.html)".

1912 ~ The RMS Titanic sank (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0415.html#article).

1912 ~ Birthday of Kim Il-sung, "Great Leader" & President of North Korea .

1924 ~ Birthday of Sir Neville Marriner, Conductor.

1945 ~ British & Canadian troops liberate Bergen-Belsen (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005224)

1955 ~ The first McDonald's restaurant (http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/museum_info.html) opened in Des Plaines, Illinois.

1994 ~ Representatives of 124 countries signed the Marrakesh Agreements which replaced the GATT with the WTO (http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/tif_e.htm).

1998 ~ Death of Pol Pot (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_2491000/2491333.stm), Cambodian Dictator.

[Booger]

2003 - Reggae artist Ziggy Marley releases his first solo album, “Dragonfly,” via Private Music. The oldest son of Bob Marley, the artist fronted the Melody Makers through nine studio albums on Capitol, Virgin, and Elektra.

2003 - Fleetwood Mac release their album Say You Will. The disc reunites the band with AWOL songwriter Lindsey Buckingham, but vocalist Christine McVie opts to sit this one out. Say You Will enters the chart at No. 3.

2003 - Heartland rocker Melissa Etheridge announces she’s become engaged to her partner of two years, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels.

2001 - Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman), the gangly punk rock icon whose signature yelp melded with the Ramones’ three-chord thrash to signify the New York punk revolution, dies at the age of 49 of complications from lymphoma.

1996 - Jerry Garcia’s ashes are scattered near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. A portion of the remains of the Grateful Dead guitarist had already been deposited into the Ganges in India.

1982 - Billy Joel breaks a wrist when his motorcycle and an auto collide. He is hospitalized and has surgery.

1977 - Lynyrd Skynyrd give a gold album for One More for the Road to Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson. The band donates another gold record to Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, where the double live album was recorded.

1973 - Topping the singles charts are Tony Orlando & Dawn with the shamelessly sentimental “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.”

1971 - The Beatles win an Oscar for Best Film Music (Original Song Score) for the Paul McCartney-penned “Let It Be.”

1971 - Rolling Stone announces that the Illinois Crime Commission has compiled a list of “drug-oriented rock records.” The list includes Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”

1969 - Archie Bell of the Drells is released from military service after a tour of Vietnam.

1962 - Chart Toppers No. 1 Pop Hit: “Good Luck Charm,” Elvis Presley.

1951 - Chart Toppers No. 1 Pop Hit: “How High the Moon,” Les Paul & Mary Ford.

[jseal]

1867 ~ Birthday of Wilbur Wright (http://wright.nasa.gov/wilbur.htm), Pioneer Pilot.

1889 ~ Birthday of Charlie Chaplin, Actor, Writer & Film Producer.

1912 ~ Harriett Quimby (http://www.harrietquimby.org/) became the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.

1918 ~ Birthday of Spike Milligan, Comedian.

1921 ~ Birthday of Peter Ustinov, Writer, Actor & Film Director.

1927 ~ Birthday of Joseph Ratzinger (http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bratz.html), German Shepard.

1943 ~ Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD (http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/LSD.html).

1947 ~ The explosive nature of ammonium nitrate fertilizer (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0416.html#article) first tested in the wild.

1947 ~ Bernard Baruch coined the term Cold War (http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0029690.html) to describe the relationship between the U.S. and the USSR.

1993 ~ The UN voted to make Srebrenica a 'safe haven' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/16/newsid_4253000/4253441.stm).

[Booger]

2003 - Soul/R&B legend Luther Vandross is hospitalized after suffering a stroke. The artist is hospitalized and begins a slow recovery.

2001 - 63-year-old American composer John Corigliano wins the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in music for his “Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra.

1999 - Hip-hop entrepreneur and superstar Sean “Puffy” Combs turns himself in for and is charged in connection with an alleged assault in New York of Interscope Records executive Steven Scoute. Sources confirm that the beating came as a result of Nas video Hate Me Now, in which the artist and Combs, who participated in the shoot for the song willingly, are depicted hanging from crosses in mock crucifixion.

1994 - Bonnie Raitt : Longing In Their Hearts : US LP is no. 1 chart topper.

1994 - Jazz crooner and pianist Harry Connick Jr. marries model and video director Jill Goodacre in New Orleans.

1993 - David Lee Roth is busted by police after allegedly buying marijuana in New York’s Washington Square Park.

1993 - Billy Burnette announces he’s leaving Fleetwood Mac. He wants to concentrate on recording country music.

1993 - Paul McCartney headlines an Earth Day concert at the Hollywood Bowl with Ringo Starr, Steve Miller and Don Henley. He hasn’t performed there since he appeared with the Beatles in 1965.

1990 - At London’s Wembley Stadium, artists including Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Simple Minds, and Tracy Chapman take part in a musical celebration of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.

1977 - Fleetwood Mac release “Dreams,” which becomes their first chart-topping single.

1976 - When songwriter Boz Scaggs tries to go backstage at the Austin club Antone’s to see Bobby “Blue” Bland, he’s knocked out by two bouncers.

1974 - Queen play their first American concert at Denver’s Regis College.

1973 - Paul McCartney appears in the TV special James Paul McCartney with his wife, Linda, and his band Wings.

1972 - Electric Light Orchestra makes its live debut at the Greyhound Club in Surrey, England. The group has seven top 10 hits, the biggest of which is “Don’t Bring Me Down” in 1979.

1966 - Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence enters UK LP chart.

1965 - Hollies open their first US tour at the Paramount Theatre, Brooklyn.

1964 - Animals debut on UK chart with Baby Let Me Take You Home.

1963 - The Beatles perform on BBC TV for the first time on The 625 Show.

1956 - Rock `n’ roll pioneer Buddy Holly’s first single, “Blue Days, Black Nights,” is released.

[jseal]

1521 ~ Martin Luther appeared before the Holy Roman Emperor at Worms (http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/martin-luther.html), Germany, and was cross-examined about his thoughts on religious reform.

1741 ~ Birthday of Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1790 ~ Death of Benjamin Franklin (http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/), Politician, Inventor, Diplomat, & Printer.

1837 ~ Birthday of J.P. Morgan, Financier, Art Collector, & Philanthropist.

1861 ~ The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union (http://www.janus.umd.edu/Feb2002/Cote/01.html).

1894 ~ Birthday of Nikita Khrushchev (http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/khrushchev-nikita.htm), Soviet politician & Premier 1958-1964.

1903 ~ Birthday of Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist.

1961 ~ Cuba was invaded at the “Bay of Pigs (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0417.html#article)” by a U.S. supported invasion force of 1,500 Cuban exiles, who were defeated by Fidel Castro's forces.

1984 ~ Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher was killed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/17/newsid_2488000/2488369.stm) by gunfire coming from the Libyan People's Bureau in central London.

2003 ~ Death of Dr. Robert Atkins (http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/04/17/obit.atkins/), noted for the Atkin's Diet.

[Booger]

1995 - Courtney Love and her band Hole perform for the sixth season premiere of MTV’s Unplugged.

1986 - Following the American bombing of Libya, Stevie Ray Vaughan cancels his European tour in fear of reprisals.

1982 - Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast hits No. 1 on the British albums charts.

1982 - Paul McCartney becomes the first composer to have simultaneous hits on the black and country music charts.

1980 - Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley performs at the Independence Day celebration in Salisbury, Zimbabwe.

1979 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Knock on Wood,” Amii Stewart. The single is a disco rendition of Eddie Floyd’s song.

1971 - All four Beatles have solo singles in UKcharts: Paul McCartney: Another Day, Ringo Starr: It Don’t come Baby, John Lennon, Power To The People and George Harrison: My Sweet Lord.

1970 - Johnny Cash performs at the White House. President Nixon requests “A Boy Named Sue.”

1969 - The Band step out from behind Bob Dylan for the first time to perform solo at San Francisco’s Winterland auditorium.

1964 - Leading the band Them, an 18-year-old Van Morrison rocks the Maritime Hotel, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the group’s debut performance.

1955 - Fats Domino’s Ain’t That a Shame released in US is no. 1 chart topper.

[jseal]

1480 ~ Birthday of Lucrezia Borgia (http://www.nndb.com/people/160/000092881/), Renaissance ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI.

1772 ~ Birthday of David Ricardo (http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/ricardo.htm), Economist.

1775 ~ Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott (http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/oth1/revere_paul.htm) rode to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons.

1819 ~ Birthday of Franz von Suppé (http://www.johann-strauss.org.uk/composers/index.php3?content=suppe), Croatian /Austrian composer.

1955 ~ Death of Albert Einstein (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html), Physicist.

1958 ~ A federal court ruled that poet Ezra Pound should be released from an insane asylum.

1980 ~ Independence Day in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia).

1978 ~ The U.S. Senate narrowly backed President Carter's (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/18/newsid_2525000/2525147.stm) controversial Panama Canal treaty.

1983 ~ A suicide bomber destroyed the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.

1999 ~ Wayne Gretzky (http://www.gretzky.com/) played his last National Hockey League game, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

[Booger]

1998 - Country group Diamond Rio are inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. The band opens their performance with their first number one hit “Meet in the Middle.

1992 - Albums by Def Leppard, Bruce Springsteen and Wynonna debut in the top four spots on Chart Toppers’s pop album chart. The albums are Def Leppard’s “Adrenalize,” Springsteen’s “Human Touch” and “Lucky Town” and Wynonna’s “Wynonna.” (Wynonna Judd launches her solo career with the album and drops her last name to distance herself from her success as half of the mother-daughter duo The Judds.)

1983 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Come on Eileen,” Dexys Midnight Runners.

1977 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” Thelma Houston

1965 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Game of Love,” Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders.

1944 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “It’s Love-Love-Love,” Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians. It is one of Lombardo’s 26 No. 1 pop songs. Lombardo’s is the only dance band to ever sell more than 100 million records.

[IowaMan]

1906 ~ An earthquake with a magnitude estimated of up to 8.3 rattled the San Francisco Bay Area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake) and was felt up and down the West Coast of the United States.

[jseal]

1775 ~ American Revolutionary War began with the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

1861 ~ The first bloodshed of the American Civil War (http://www.mdoe.org/riots_balt_1861.html). A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland attacked Federal Army troops marching through the city.

1881 ~ Death of Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the U.K.

1882 ~ Death of Charles Darwin, Biologist & Author.

1912 ~ Birthday of Glenn Seaborg (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1951/seaborg-bio.html), Chemist and Nobel Prize winner.

1956 ~ Actress Grace Kelly married Rainier III (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/19/newsid_2720000/2720723.stm) of Monaco.

1989 ~ Death of Daphne du Maurier (http://www.dumaurier.org/), Author.

1993 ~ A siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed the structure after federal agents smashed their way in (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/waco/keystories.htm).

1995 ~ Oklahoma City bombing (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0419.html#article): The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was bombed, killing 168.

2005 ~ Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope; he took the name Benedict XVI (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/19/pope.tuesday/index.html).

[Booger]

2003 - At their Montreal concert, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band are joined by Max Weinberg’s daughter Allie on keyboards.

2001 - David Lee Roth reveals that he briefly reunited with Van Halen in July and wrote some “astonishing” music. They haven’t called back since.

2000 - Madonna denies tabloid reports that a routine scan shows she is expecting a baby boy. “I don’t know the sex of my baby,” she says in a statement.

1989 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Like a Prayer,” Madonna.

1970 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “ABC,” The Jackson 5. The song is the group’s second consecutive No. 1 single.

1960 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Stuck on You,” Elvis Presley. The song is Presley’s first to be released in stereo and his first since being released from the Army.

[jseal]

1657 ~ The Jews of New York City (then New Amsterdam) were granted freedom of religion.

1862 ~ The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur.

1889 ~ Birthday of Adolf Hitler (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/index.htm), German dictator, "Der Führer".

1912 ~ Death of Bram Stoker, Author (Dracula).

1918 ~ Manfred von Richthofen (http://www.acepilots.com/wwi/ger_richthofen.html) shot down his 79th and 80th victims - his final victories.

1968 ~ Pierre Trudeau (http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten/nominee/trudeau-pierre.html) first became Prime Minister of Canada.

1968 ~ English politician Enoch Powell made his controversial Rivers of Blood (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/20/newsid_2489000/2489357.stm) speech.

1971 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0420.html#article).

1979 ~ U.S. President Carter was attacked by a Swamp Rabbit (http://www.narsil.org/politics/carter/killer_rabbit.html).

1999 ~ Columbine High School Massacre (http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/a/columbine.htm)

[Booger]

1999 - The “No Security” tour, the Rolling Stones’ first arena outing in 20 years wraps with a make-up date at the San Jose Arena in California. The tour grosses more than.

1996 - Tickets ranging in price from $27.50 - $85.00 go on sale for the KISS reunion tour. This marks the first time in 15 years that all four original members of the ’70’s rock group join together in original costume and face paint.

1991 - Credence Clearwater Revival founder John Fogerty marries Julie Lebiedzinksi in Bristol, Ind.

1988 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Where Do Broken Hearts Go,” Whitney Houston.

1968 - Deep Purple makes its live debut in Denmark. The group’s three top 10 albums are “Machine Head,” “Made in Japan” and “Burn.”

1964 - The Elvis Presley movie “Viva Las Vegas” premieres.

1961 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Runaway,” Del Shannon. Shannon is the first artist to take a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney onto the U.S. pop charts. His version of “From Me to You” hits the Hot 100 on June 29, 1963, before the release of the Beatles debut American single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

[jseal]

1649 ~ The Maryland Toleration Act (http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1601-1650/maryland/mta_i.htm), which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.

1816 ~ Birthday of Charlotte Brontë, Author.

1836 ~ Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/fho73.html) defeat Mexican troops under General Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Muir (http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/), Environmentalist.

1910 ~ Death of Mark Twain (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0421.html#article), author.

1912 ~ The New York Giants and New York Yankees played an exhibition game to benefit survivors of the RMS Titanic.

1926 ~ Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp) of the United Kingdom.

1944 ~ Women in France were enfranchised.

1960 ~ Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia (http://www.geocities.com/thetropics/3416/), transferring the seat of national government from Rio de Janeiro.

1992 ~ The first extrasolar planets (http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/alex/pulsar_planets.htm) were announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.

[Booger]

2005 - Onstage in Asbury Park, N.J., Bruce Springsteen takes a stand against hunger by donating all of the proceeds from a tour rehearsal show to World Hunger Year (WHY), which was co-founded in 1975 by late singer/songwriter Harry Chapin and Bill Ayres.

2001 - R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck is arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport for allegedly assaulting two crew members on an overnight flight from Seattle to London. Buck is charged with two counts of common assault, a public order offense, criminal damage, disobeying an aircraft commander and being drunk on an aircraft.

1999 - Universal Denmark’s single to benefit Kosovar refugees, “Selv En Drabe” (Even A Drop), breaks the territory’s first-day sales record, moving 66,000 units, according to the label.

1999 - Brooks & Dunn debut their newest video, “South of Santa Fe,” while internet site country.com simultaneously streams the video using Microsoft Windows Media technology. It is the first time that a country video debuts simultaneously on TV and the Internet.

1975 - No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” B.J. Thomas. The song has the longest title of any No. 1 single.

1969 - Janis Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band play London’s Royal Albert Hall.

1962 - Elvis Presley: Good Luck Charm US 45 is no. 1 chart topper this day in ROCK History.

1961 - The Beatles debut at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, England.

1956 - Elvis Presley: Heartbreak Hotel US 45 is no. 1 chart topper this day in rock.

[jseal]

1724 ~ Birthday of Immanuel Kant, Philosopher.

1870 ~ Birthday of Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary.

1889 ~ The Oklahoma Land Rush (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0422.html#article) began.

1904 ~ Birthday of Robert Oppenheimer (http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Oppenheimer.shtml), American physicist.

1943 ~ Albert Hofmann wrote his first report about the hallucinogenic properties of LSD.

1970 ~ First Earth Day (http://www.earthday.net/resources/history.aspx) celebrated.

1984 ~ Death of Ansel Adams (http://www.anseladams.com/), Photographer.

1997 ~ A four-month siege of the Japanese embassy in Peru ended (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/22/newsid_4297000/4297347.stm) when commandos stormed and captured the building, rescuing 71 hostages. Interestingly, all 14 rebels died.

2000 ~ In a pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/22/newsid_2489000/2489485.stm) from his relatives' home in Miami; the 6-year-old boy was reunited with his father.

2002 ~ Death of Linda Lovelace (http://www.linda-lovelace.com/), Porn Star.


Feastdays & Holidays

Earth Day : Canada (http://www.earthday.ca/pub/index.php), U.S. (http://earthday.gov/)

[jseal]

1564 ~ Birthday of William Shakespeare (http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/content/view/12/12), Playwright.

1858 ~ Birthday of Max Planck (http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1918/planck-bio.html), Physicist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in physics 1918.

1891 ~ Birthday of Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet Composer.

1954 ~ Hank Aaron (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/detail.jsp?playerId=110001) hit his first major league home run.

1968 ~ Birthday of Timothy McVeigh, American Terrorist.

1969 ~ Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0423.html#article) for assassinating Sen. Robert Kennedy.

1984 ~ American announcement of the isolation of the AIDS virus (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/23/newsid_2524000/2524039.stm).

1998 ~ Death of James Earl Ray (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/23/newsid_2914000/2914267.stm), Assassin.

2004 ~ President Bush eased Reagan-era sanctions against Libya in return for Moammar Gadhafi's giving up weapons of mass destruction.

2007 ~ Death of Boris Yeltsin (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/23/russia.guardianobituaries), Soviet strongman and the architect of the dismantling of the USSR.

[jseal]

1731 ~ Death of Daniel Defoe (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_18c/defoe/), English Writer.

1898 ~ Spain declared war on the U.S. (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0424.html#article) over Cuba.

1905 ~ Birthday of Robert Penn Warren, Writer, Pulitzer Prize winner, first American Poet Laureate.

1916 ~ The Easter uprising began (http://users.bigpond.net.au/kirwilli/1916/) when some 1,600 Irish nationalists seized several key sites in Dublin.

1942 ~ Birthday of Barbra Streisand, American Singer & Actress.

1967 ~ Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died (http://www.astronautix.com/astros/komarov.htm) in Soyuz 1.

1986 ~ Death of Wallis Simpson (http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/wallis.html), Mistress & Wife of The Duke of Windsor.

1990 ~ The Hubble Space Telescope was launched (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/24/newsid_4098000/4098760.stm) by Space Shuttle Discovery.

1996 ~ The main assembly of the Palestine Liberation Organization voted to revoke clauses in its charter that called for an armed struggle to destroy Israel.

2004 ~ Death of Estée Lauder (http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/lauder.html), Cosmetics pioneer.

[jseal]

1719 ~ Robinson Crusoe (http://www.deadmentellnotales.com/onlinetexts/robinson/crusoe.shtml) by Daniel Defoe was published.

1792 ~ The French national anthem, “La Marseillaise” was composed.

1840 ~ Birthday of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1900 ~ Birthday of Wolfgang Pauli (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1945/pauli-bio.html), Physicist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1945.

1906 ~ Birthday of William J. Brennan, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice.

1915 ~ Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to remove the Ottoman Turkish Empire from WWI.

1917 ~ Birthday of Ella Fitzgerald (http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/), Jazz Singer.

1945 ~ The United Nations was organized (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0425.html#article) in San Francisco, California, by 50 nations.

1953 ~ Francis Crick and James Watson (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_2932000/2932793.stm) published MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF NUCLEIC ACIDS (http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/watsoncrick.pdf): A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.

1980 ~ Tehran hostage rescue mission failed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_2503000/2503899.stm).

Feastdays & Holidays

Australia, New Zealand ~ ANZAC Day (http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac_tradition.htm)

[jseal]

1711 ~ Birthday of David Hume (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/), Philosopher & Historian.

1785 ~ Birthday of John Audubon, Naturalist & Illustrator.

1935 ~ Birthday of Carol Burnett (http://www.carolburnettfan.com/), Singer, Actress & Comedienne.

1937 ~ Planes from the Condor Legion, an adjunct of the Luftwaffe, bombed the Basque town of Guernica (http://www.mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/picasso/guernica.htm) during the Spanish Civil War.

1945 ~ The Battle of Bautzen: The last successful German armoured offensive of WWII.

1964 ~ Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania (http://www.tanzania.go.tz/index2E.html).

1986 ~ The world's worst nuclear accident (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0426.html#article) occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union.

1989 ~ Death of Lucille Ball (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ball_l.html), Actress & Comedienne.

1994 ~ South Africa held its first multiracial elections.

2005 ~ Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon ended (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/26/newsid_4918000/4918584.stm).

[jseal]

1521 ~ Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1519magellan.html) was killed in the Philippines.

1667 ~ John Milton sold the copyright of Paradise Lost (http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/clspg117.htm) for £10.

1791 ~ Birthday of Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code.

1813 ~ U.S. troops captured York (http://www.gov.on.ca/ont/portal/!ut/p/.cmd/cs/.ce/7_0_A/.s/7_0_252/_s.7_0_A/7_0_252/_l/en?docid=004690) (present day Toronto), the capital of Ontario.

1822 ~ Birthday of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th U.S. President (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ug18.html).

1891 ~ Birthdayof Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet composer.

1904 ~ The Australian Labor Party became the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson (http://www.alp.org.au/people/watson_john.php).

1945 ~ Soviet and American armies link up (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/27/newsid_3563000/3563723.stm) at the Elbe.

1999 ~ Death of Al Hirt (http://www.spaceagepop.com/hirt.htm), Musician.

2007 ~ Death of Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor.

[Oldfart]

I bet Milton's pissed off when he thinks of the number of copies he could have had royalties on.

[jseal]

1789 ~ Mutiny on the HMS Bounty (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15411). Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift.

1906 ~ Birthday of Kurt Gödel (http://kgs.logic.at/index.php?id=23), mathematician.

1937 ~ Birthday of Saddam Hussein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein), former leader of Iraq.

1941 ~ Birthday of Ann-Margret, Swedish-born actress.

1945 ~ Benito Mussolini (http://www.answers.com/Benito%20Mussolini) and his mistress Clara Petacci (http://www.answers.com/topic/clara-petacci) were killed by members of the Italian resistance movement while trying to flee Italy (http://members.aol.com/Custermen85/ILDUCE/Mussolini.htm).

1947 ~ Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0428.html#article).

1952 ~ The U.S. occupation of Japan ended.

1969 ~ Charles de Gaulle (http://www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_degaulle.html) resigned as President of France.

2001 ~ Dennis Tito became the world's first space tourist (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/28/newsid_2501000/2501015.stm).

2003 ~ Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store launched.

[jseal]

1863 ~ Birthday of William Randolph Hearst, American publisher.

1893 ~ Birthday of Harold Urey (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1934/urey-bio.html), American chemist, awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

1936 ~ Birthday of Zubin Mehta (http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showIndividual&entity_id=16269&source_type=A), Indian-born American conductor.

1945 ~ Start of Operation Manna (http://www.heureka.clara.net/lincolnshire/operation-manna.htm).

1945 ~ American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp (http://www.humanitas-international.org/archive/dachau-liberation/) in Germany.

1951 ~ Death of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher.

1958 ~ The Broadway musical, My Fair Lady (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/29/newsid_2500000/2500351.stm), opened in London.

1980 ~ Death of Alfred Hitchcock, director.

1992 ~ Rioting broke out in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers accused of beating Rodney King (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0429.html#article).

1997 ~ The Chemical Weapons Convention (http://www.opcw.org/factsandfigures/index.html), a worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons, went into effect.

[jseal]

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

1877 ~ Birthday of Alice B. Toklas (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/toklas.htm), Muse and Brownie Chef.

1883 ~ Death of Édouard Manet, Impressionist Painter.

1916 ~ Birthday of Claude Shannon (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Shannon.html), the "father of information theory”.

1938 ~ Birthday of Larry Niven, Science Fiction author.

1945 ~ Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun (http://www.auschwitz.dk/Braun.htm) committed suicide after being married for one day.

1948 ~ The Land Rover was introduced (http://www.allisons.org/ll/4/LandRover/S1/).

1973 ~ President Nixon took responsibility for the Watergate scandal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/30/newsid_2933000/2933155.stm).

1975 ~ The South Vietnamese government in Saigon fell (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0430.html#article) to Communist forces.

1993 ~ CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free (http://tenyears-www.web.cern.ch/tenyears-www/Welcome.html) to everyone.

[Oldfart]

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Larry,

Happy birthday to you.

[jseal]

1840 ~ The Penny Black postage stamp put on sale (http://www.geocities.com/dakshina_kan_pa/art11/penny.htm) in the UK.

1869 ~ The Folies Bergères (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHDtVfSdY0s) opened in Paris. Edouard Manet’s “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (http://www.abcgallery.com/M/manet/manet46.html)” recalls the lot of one of the employees.

1904 ~ Death of Antonín Dvořák, Czech Composer.

1939 ~ Birthday of Judy Collins, American folk singer.

1941 ~ Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kane2/) premiered in New York City.

1944 ~ Birthday of Rita Coolidge, Singer.

1960 ~ Gary Powers was shot down (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0501.html#article) in a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union.

1978 ~ Death of Aram Khachaturian (http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/kachcata.htm), Armenian composer.

1982 ~ RAF aircraft attack two airstrips near Port Stanley (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/1/newsid_2480000/2480155.stm) in the Falkland Islands.

2004 ~ Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union (http://europa.eu/).

[jseal]

1519 ~ Death of Leonardo da Vinci, inventor, painter.

1660 ~ Birthday of Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian Composer.

1729 ~ Birthday of Empress Catherine II (http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/catherine.html) of Russia.

1892 ~ Birthday of "The Red Baron", Manfred von Richthofen (http://www.briggsenterprises.com/bluemax/).

1933 ~ The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness monster (http://www.nessie.co.uk/) was reported.

1945 ~ The Soviet Union announced the capture of Berlin (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0502.html#article).

1952 ~ The De Havilland Comet 1 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/2/newsid_2480000/2480339.stm), the world's first jet airliner, launched the jet age.

1955 ~ Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (http://bookreviews.nabou.com/reviews/catonahottinroof.html).

1982 ~ The British submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/2/newsid_2480000/2480241.stm).

1997 ~ The Tony Blair became Prime Minister of the UK.

[jseal]

1469 ~ Birthday of Niccolò Machiavelli (http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/macv.htm), Italian Historian & Political Author.

1616 ~ Death of William Shakespeare Playwright & Poet.

1844 ~ Birthday of Richard D'Oyly Carte (http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~melbear/richard.htm), English Impresario.

1898 ~ Birthday of Golda Meir (http://www.mscd.edu/~golda/), Prime Minister of Israel.

1937 ~ Gone With the Wind (http://www.gwtw.org/gonewiththewind.html), a novel by Margaret Mitchell, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (http://www.pulitzer.org/cgi-bin/year.pl?452,27).

1945 ~ Indian forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.

1946 ~ The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imtfech.htm) began in Tokyo against Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

1971 ~ Anti-war protesters began four days of demonstrations intended to shutting down Washington, D.C. (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0503.html#article)

1990 ~ The Latvian parliament met to declare independence (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/3/newsid_2481000/2481337.stm) from the USSR.

2006 ~ Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison.

[jseal]

1825 ~ Birthday of Thomas Henry Huxley (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/thuxley.html), "Darwin's Bulldog", English Scientist.

1852 ~ Birthday of Alice Liddell (http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/), for whom Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland.

1929 ~ Birthday of Audrey Hepburn, Film and Stage Actress Extraordinaire.

1942 ~ The Battle of the Coral Sea (http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww2/bfa/coralsea.html), the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began during World War II.

1953 ~ Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea".

1970 ~ The Ohio National Guard opened fire on Kent State (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0504.html#article) University students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

1975 ~ Death of Moe Howard, actor, comedian; member of the Three Stooges.

1979 ~ Margaret Thatcher became the UK’s first female Prime Minister (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/4/newsid_2503000/2503195.stm).

1980 ~ Death of Josip Tito (http://www.titoville.com/), President of Yugoslavia.

1982 ~ The HMS Sheffield was sunk by an Exocet missile (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/4/newsid_2504000/2504155.stm) during the Falklands War.

[jseal]

1807 ~ Death of P.D.Q. Bach (http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/4458/pdqbach.html), fictitious Composer.

1818 ~ Birthday of Karl Marx (http://www.marxists.org/), Political Philosopher.

1891 ~ NYC’s Carnegie Hall (http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/the_basics/art_museum_archives.html) had its grand opening and first public performance, with Pyotr Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

1925 ~ Biology teacher John Scopes was arrested (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm) for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution in Dayton, Tennessee.

1944 ~ Birthday of John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor (Gimli).

1948 ~ Birthday of Bill Ward, British Musician (Black Sabbath).

1961 ~ Alan Shepard (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0505.html#article) became the first American to travel into space.

1980 ~ Great Britain’s SAS stormed the Iranian embassy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/5/newsid_2510000/2510873.stm) in London after a six day siege.

1992 ~ Wolfenstein 3D (http://www.3drealms.com/wolf3d/) was released, the first-ever first-person shooter computer game.

1995 ~ Death of Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion.

[dicksbro]

1856 ~ Birthday of Sigmund Freud (http://www.freudfile.org/), psychiatrist, founder of Psychoanalysis.

1862 ~ Death of Henry David Thoreau, American author and philosopher.

1915 ~ Birthday of T.H. White, Writer.

1915 ~ Birthday of Orson Welles, Director.

1937 ~ The German zeppelin Hindenburg (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0506.html#article) caught fire and was destroyed while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

1940 ~ John Steinbeck (http://www.steinbeck.org/MainFrame.html) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

1953 ~ Birthday of Tony Blair (http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1954 ~ Roger Bannister (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_2511000/2511575.stm) became the first man to run the mile in under four minutes.

1994 ~ Queen Elizabeth and French President François Mitterrand (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_2511000/2511653.stm) opened the Chunnel.

1994 ~ Paula Jones (http://www.nndb.com/people/923/000023854/) filed suit against President Clinton, alleging he'd sexually harassed her in 1991.

[dicksbro]

1825 ~ Death of Antonio Salieri, Composer.

1833 ~ Birthday of Johannes Brahms (http://www.johannesbrahms.org/), Composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1915 ~ World War I: A German U-boat sank the RMS Lusitania (http://www.lusitania.net/), killing 1,198 people.

1919 ~ Birthday of Eva Peron (http://www.evitaperon.org/), wife of Argentine President Juan Peron.

1933 ~ Birthday of Johnny Unitas (http://www.johnnyunitas.com/), American football star.

1945 ~ General Alfred Jodl signed unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in World War II (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0507.html#article).

1954 ~ The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (http://www.dienbienphu.org/english/index.htm) ended in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).

1999 ~ Kosovo War: Three Chinese embassy workers were killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft “mistakenly” bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. President Clinton called the attack a “tragic mistake”.

2007 ~ The tomb of Herod the Great (http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodians/herod_the_great01.html) was discovered.

[dicksbro]

1915 ~ World War I: A German U-boat sank the RMS Lusitania (http://www.lusitania.net/), killing 1,198 people.[/I]

I noticed the History Channel was running a docu-drama on the sinking of the Lusitania. Rather nicely done.

[Oldfart]

Dien Bien Phu, thought to be the last great bayonet charge (if you don't count the Brits at Goose Green).

[dicksbro]

1794 ~ French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~meg3c/classes/tcc313/200Rprojs/lavoisier2/home.html) was tried, convicted, and guillotined all on one day in Paris.

1873 ~ Death of John Stuart Mill, Empiricist Philosopher.

1895 ~ Birthday of Fulton J. Sheen (http://www.allendrake.com/elpasohistory/sheen/index.htm), bishop and television personality.

1968 ~ Birthday of Jamie Summers (http://www.jamiesummersxxx.com/), American porn star.

1973 ~ The Second Battle of Wounded Knee (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0508.html#article) ended.

1978 ~ David Berkowitz pleaded guilty to the ''Son of Sam'' killings.

1984 ~ The Soviet Union announced that it would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/8/newsid_2518000/2518931.stm).

1985 ~ Death of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

1988 ~ Death of Robert A. Heinlein (http://www.heinleinsociety.org/index.html), Science Fiction writer.

1999 ~ The Citadel (http://www.citadel.edu/), South Carolina's formerly all-male military school, graduated its first female cadet (http://citadel.edu/library/Knob/knob_m.htm#macen).

[dicksbro]

1860 ~ Birthday of J.M. Barrie (http://www.online-literature.com/barrie/), Author, creator of Peter Pan.

1874 ~ Birthday of Howard Carter (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/carter_howard.html), British archaeologist.

1901 ~ Australia opened its first parliament in Melbourne.

1903 ~ Death of Paul Gauguin (http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gauguin/gauguin.html), French Post-Impressionist painter.

1949 ~ Birthday of Billy Joel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ1_M_L_RSI), American musician.

1961 ~ Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles became the first player in baseball history to hit grand slams in consecutive innings.

1972 ~ Israeli commandos liberated a hijacked Sabena airliner (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_4326000/4326707.stm) at Lod airport in Tel Aviv.

1974 ~ The U.S. Congress’s House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

1986 ~ Death of Tenzing Norgay (http://www.tenzing-norgay.com/pages/tenzingnorgaysherpa.html), Mountaineer.

1994 ~ Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0509.html#article).

[dicksbro]

1818 ~ Death of Paul Revere, engraver, American Patriot.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Wilkes Booth, Actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

1857 ~ The Indian Mutiny began (http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/1857/1857.html) when the Sepoys revolted against the British Army.

1869 ~ The first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. was completed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0510.html#article) at Promontory, Utah.

1872 ~ Victoria Woodhull (http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/) became the first woman nominated for U.S. President.

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

1924 ~ J. Edgar Hoover (http://www.fbi.gov/libref/directors/hoover.htm) became director of the FBI.

1940 ~ British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, and Winston Churchill formed a new government (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/10/newsid_3497000/3497115.stm).

1981 ~ François Mitterrand (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FRmitterrand.htm) became the first Socialist President of France..

2002 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen was given a life sentence (http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/05/10/hanssen.sentenced/index.html) without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Russia.

[dicksbro]

1904 ~ Birthday of Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter.

1918 ~ Birthday of Richard Feynman (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-bio.html), American Physicist.

1930 ~ Birthday of Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist.

1973 ~ Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0511.html#article).

1981 ~ Death of Bob Marley (http://www.bobmarley.com/), Reggae musician.

1987 ~ The first heart-lung transplant took place in Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 ~ Death of Kim Philby (http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/362/11934_philby.html), Spy.

1997 ~ IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeated Garry Kasparov (http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/games/game6/html/c.2.shtml) in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

1998 ~ India announced that it had tested a group of nuclear weapons (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/11/newsid_3664000/3664259.stm).

2001 ~ Death of Douglas Adams (http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1233876/), Science Fiction author.

[dicksbro]

1820 ~ Birthday of Florence Nightingale (http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/flo2.htm), Nurse.

1845 ~ Birthday of Gabriel Fauré, Composer.

1884 ~ Death of Bedrich Smetana, Composer.

1889 ~ Death of John Cadbury, Chocolate Entrepreneur.

1918 ~ Birthday of Julius Rosenberg (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/rosenb/ROS_BJRO.HTM), Spy.

1943 ~ Axis forces in North Africa surrendered (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0512.html#article).

1962 ~ Douglas MacArthur delivered his famous "Duty, Honor, Country (http://www.nationalcenter.org/MacArthurFarewell.html)" valedictory speech at West Point.

1971 ~ Mick Jagger married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/12/newsid_2884000/2884833.stm) in St Tropez.

2000 ~ The Tate Modern (http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/) art gallery opened in London.

2003 ~ Al Qaeda killed 26 people in the Riyadh compound bombings (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/14/attack/main553938.shtml).

[dicksbro]

1787 ~ Captain Arthur Phillip left Portsmouth, England with eleven ships of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia (http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020292b.htm).

1842 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan (http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/html/sullivan2a.html) of Gilbert & Sullivan, Composer.

1861 ~ Queen Victoria issued a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognized the breakaway Confederate states as having belligerent rights.

1865 ~ More than a month after the surrender of the Northern Army of Virginia by General Lee, the last land battle of the Civil War ended with a Confederate victory in Texas at the Battle of Palmito Ranch.

1888 ~ Brazil abolished slavery.

1912 ~ The Royal Flying Corps (http://www.army.mod.uk/aac/history/index.htm) (now the Royal Air Force) was established in the U.K.

1937 ~ Birthday of Roger Zelazny (http://zelazny.corrupt.net/zelazny.php), Science Fiction author.

1940 ~ Winston Churchill made his "blood, tears, toil and sweat (http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/churchill.htm)" speech to the House of Commons.

1981 ~ Mehmet Ali Agca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0513.html#article) at St. Peter's Square in Rome.

1995 ~ Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to climb Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/13/newsid_2843000/2843951.stm).


Tomorrow, jseal will return to posting Strange Days. :wave:

[jseal]

1787 ~ Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution (http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/).

1925 ~ Death of H. Rider Haggard, Author.

1944 ~ Birthday of George Lucas, film Director & Producer.

1948 ~ The independent state of Israel was proclaimed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0514.html#article).

1955 ~ The USSR and seven other communist bloc countries signed a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/14/newsid_3771000/3771065.stm).

1969 ~ Birthday of Cate Blanchett, Australian actress (Galadriel (http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/g/galadriel.html)).

1973 ~ Skylab 1 (http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/history/skylab/skylab.htm), the first American space station, was launched.

1978 ~ Death of Robert Menzies (http://www.menziesvirtualmuseum.org.au/), twelfth Prime Minister of Australia.

1998 ~ Death of Frank Sinatra (http://www.franksinatra.com/), Singer & Actor.

2004 ~ Piers Morgan was fired as editor of the Daily Mirror for publishing photographs of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers that were shown to be fake.

[dicksbro]

Good to have you back, jseal! :thumbs:

[Oldfart]

(Best Foghorn Leghorn impression) Yaisss!

[jseal]

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

1886 ~ Death of Emily Dickinson (http://www.emilydickinson.org/), Poet.

1911 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Standard Oil Company (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0515.html#article), requiring its break up under the Sherman Anti-Trust act.

1919 ~ The Winnipeg General Strike (http://www.histori.ca/peace/page.do?pageID=347) began.

1930 ~ Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess (http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/innovators/echurch.html), on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois.

1953 ~ Birthday of Mike Oldfield, English composer (Tubular Bells (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpPwC7QRvFQ&feature=related)).

1957 ~ Britain tested its first hydrogen bomb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/15/newsid_2510000/2510335.stm) in Operation Grapple.

1972 ~ George C. Wallace was shot (http://www.trivia-library.com/a/assassination-attempts-george-c-wallace-alabama-governor-part-1.htm) and left paralyzed while campaigning for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination.

1988 ~ The Soviet Union began withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan.

1991 ~ Edith Cresson became France's first female Prime Minister.

[jseal]

1868 ~ The U.S. Senate failed to convict President Andrew Johnson (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0516.html#article) of the articles of impeachment against him.

1905 ~ Birthday of Henry Fonda (http://www.henry-fonda.com/), Actor.

1919 ~ Birthday of Liberace (http://www.liberace.org/), American pianist.

1943 ~ The Jewish Warsaw ghetto uprising (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16/newsid_3501000/3501730.stm) ended.

1955 ~ Birthday of Olga Korbut, gymnast.

1966 ~ Birthday of Janet Jackson, Super Bowl Half Time Flasher.

1966 ~ The Chinese Cultural Revolution (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2006/05/19/2003309005) started when The Communist Party issued the "May 16 Notice".

1969 ~ The Soviet space probe Venera 5 (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1969-001A) landed on Venus.

2002 ~ Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121765/) opened in theaters.

2005 ~ Newsweek magazine retracted its Koran abuse story that started protests in Afghanistan.

[jseal]

1872 ~ Birthday of Bertrand Russell (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html), Logician & Philosopher, awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950.

1910 ~ The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet (http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/stellar_bodies/halleys_comet/32/index.html).

1911 ~ Death of Gustav Mahler, Austrian Composer.

1919 ~ Birthday of Dame Margot Fonteyn (http://www.ballet.co.uk/old/legend_js_margot_fonteyn.htm), Ballet dancer.

1937 ~ Birthday of Brooks Robinson, Baseball Hall of Famer (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/detail.jsp?playerId=121301).

1944 ~ Monte Cassino fell to the Allies (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_3544000/3544047.stm).

1974 ~ India became the sixth nuclear nation (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/India/IndiaSmiling.html) by successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon.

1975 ~ Death of Leroy Anderson, American Composer.

1980 ~ Mount St. Helens in Washington state exploded (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0518.html#article), leaving 57 people dead or missing.

2004 ~ Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage.

[jseal]

1536 ~ Anne Boleyn (http://tudorhistory.org/boleyn/), the second wife of Henry VIII of England was beheaded for adultery.

1795 ~ Birthday of Johns Hopkins (http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/photos/philanthropy/html/hopkins.htm), Philanthropist.

1890 ~ Birthday of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader.

1915 ~ Death of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, ANZAC stretcher bearer at Gallipoli.

1921 ~ The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act (http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1920s/QuotaAct1918.html), which established national quotas for immigrants.

1925 ~ Birthday of Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge leader.

1935 ~ Death of T. E. Lawrence, English soldier ("Lawrence of Arabia (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0519.html#article)").

1965 ~ Tui Malila, the longest living animal known (http://www.extremescience.com/OldestLivingcreature.htm), died in Tonga at the age of either 188 or 192.

2001 ~ Sun Zhonghua (http://www.indopedia.org/Zhonghua_Sun.html) was killed by People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized under the "One child" policy.

2004 ~ PM Blair hit with a purple flour filled condom (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/19/newsid_4516000/4516355.stm).

[jseal]

1772 ~ Birthday of Sir William Congreve, English inventor (“By the rockets’ red glare (http://collections.nasm.si.edu/code/emuseum.asp?style=browse&currentrecord=1&page=search&profile=objects&searchdesc=Congreve&quicksearch=Congreve%2032-pounder)”).

1806 ~ Birthday of John Stuart Mill (http://utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm), English philosopher.

1873 ~ Levi Strauss (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Strauss.html) and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

1883 ~ The eruption of Krakatoa began (http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Krakatau.html), leading ultimately to the volcano's destruction three months later.

1896 ~ Death of Clara Schumann, German Pianist and Composer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Max Euwe, Dutch world chess champion.

1927 ~ Charles Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, (http://www.charleslindbergh.com/history/paris.asp) on the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, arriving in Paris the next day.

1940 ~ The first prisoners arrive at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1961 ~ U.S. marshals were sent to restore order in Montgomery, Alabama (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0520.html#article).

2000 ~ Death of Jean Pierre Rampal (http://www.ffaire.com/rampal/), French flutist.

[jseal]

1471 ~ Birthday of Albrecht Dürer, German painter and graphic artist.

1881 ~ Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org/museum/history/brief.asp).

1895 ~ Death of Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Andrei Sakharov (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1975/sakharov-autobio.html), physicist and human rights activist, awarded the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize.

1924 ~ Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/leopold.htm) murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".

1933 ~ Birthday of Maurice André, trumpeter.

1956 ~ The U.S. detonated the first airborne hydrogen bomb (http://www.shundahai.org/US_Atmospheric_Nuclear_Tests_Database.htm#Redwing) over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1991 ~ Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21/newsid_2504000/2504739.stm) by a female suicide bomber.

2000 ~ Death of Sir John Gielgud (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9402EFDC1F3AF930A15756C0A9669C8B63), British actor.

2004 ~ Stanislav Petrov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) was awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983.

[jseal]

1813 ~ Birthday of Richard Wagner (http://www.trell.org/wagner/), Composer.

1840 ~ Transporting British convicts to the New South Wales colony was abolished.

1856 ~ In one of the more impressive expressions of American democracy, Congressman Preston Brooks (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000885) of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001068) with a cane in the hall of the U.S. Senate because of a speech Sumner had made which attacked Southerners (http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm) who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas.

1859 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/), Physician & Writer.

1885 ~ Death of Victor Hugo, French author.

1907 ~ Birthday of Sir Laurence Olivier (http://www.laurenceolivier.com/), Actor & Director.

1907 ~ Birthday of Hergé (http://lambiek.net/artists/h/herge.htm), comic book creator.

1947 ~ The Truman Doctrine (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0522.html#article) was enacted.

1969 ~ The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/22/newsid_3034000/3034569.stm).

1972 ~ Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka, adopted a new constitution, and joined the British Commonwealth.

[jseal]

1430 ~ Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English.

1701 ~ Captain William Kidd (http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/CaptainKidd.htm) was hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and murder.

1848 ~ Birthday of Otto Lilienthal, aviation pioneer.

1873 ~ Canada's North West Mounted Police (http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/history/origins2_e.htm) force was established.

1906 ~ Death of Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer.

1908 ~ Birthday of John Bardeen, the only man to have been awarded the Nobel prize in Physics twice; 1956 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/bardeen-bio.html) & 1972 (http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1972/bardeen-bio.html).

1934 ~ Death of Bonnie and Clyde (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0523.html#article), Outlaws.

1951 ~ The Tibetan government is forced to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (http://www.tibet.net/en/diir/pubs/phri/17point/data/17ptsfs.html) with the People's Republic of China.

1951 ~ Birthday of Anatoly Karpov (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/karpov/karpov.htm), Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion.

1977 ~ More than 100 children and six teachers were taken hostage (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/23/newsid_2503000/2503933.stm) in a primary school in northern Holland.

[jseal]

1819 ~ Birthday of Queen Victoria (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp).

1844 ~ The first telegram was sent by Samuel Morse, from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C., saying "What hath God wrought? (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mmorse&fileName=071/071009/071009page.db)".

1883 ~ The Brooklyn Bridge (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0524.html#article) was opened.

1941 ~ The German battleship Bismarck sank the battlecruiser HMS Hood (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-atl/batlt-41/bismk-c3.htm) in the North Atlantic, killing all but three crewmen.

1941 ~ Death of Lancelot Holland, British admiral, died in sinking of the HMS Hood.

1941 ~ Birthday of Bob Dylan, Singer and Songwriter.

1969 ~ Death of Willy Ley (http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/L/Ley.html), rocket scientist.

1976 ~ BOAC and Air France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde (http://www.concordesst.com/) service to Washington.

2001 ~ 23 people were killed and hundreds injured at a wedding party in Jerusalem when the floor collapsed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBgR_BiWOlc&NR=1).

2001 ~ Democrats gained control of the U.S. Senate for when Sen. Jeffords of Vermont declared himself an independent.

[jseal]

1803 ~ Birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Quotable Individual (http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson/).

1889 ~ Birthday of Igor Sikorsky, developer of the helicopter.

1895 ~ Playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted (http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/oscar_wilde/13.html) of a morals charge in London and sentenced to prison.

1925 ~ John T. Scopes was indicted (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0525.html#article) in Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

1926 ~ Birthday of Miles Davis, Jazz Musician

1929 ~ Birthday of Beverly Sills, Soprano.

1953 ~ The U.S. conducted its only nuclear artillery test (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Upshotk.html).

1961 ~ President Kennedy set the US goal to put the first man on the moon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/25/newsid_4369000/4369187.stm) by the end of that decade.

1963 ~ The Organisation of African Unity (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/25/newsid_2502000/2502771.stm) was set up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1977 ~ Star Wars (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6679425.stm) was released.

[jseal]

1703 ~ Death of Samuel Pepys, English civil servant, famous for his diary (http://www.pepysdiary.com/).

1868 ~ The Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0526.html#article) with his acquittal.

1896 ~ The first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (http://www.mdleasing.com/djia.htm) published

1897 ~ Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (http://www.balletmet.org/Notes/Bloodline.html) went on sale in London.

1907 ~ Birthday of John Wayne (http://www.jwayne.com/biography.shtml), Actor.

1907 ~ Birthday of Rachel Carson (http://www.rachelcarson.org/), Environmental writer.

1908 ~ The first commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made at Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Iran.

1928 ~ Birthday of Jack Kevorkian, Physician.

1951 ~ Birthday of Sally Ride, Astronaut.

2002 ~ The Mars Odyssey found signs of water ice (http://www.daviddarling.info/archive/2002/archiveMay02.html) deposits on the planet Mars.

[jseal]

1837 ~ Birthday of Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter.

1877 ~ Birthday of Isadora Duncan (http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/isadora.html), Dancer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Henry Kissinger (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1973/kissinger-bio.html), American diplomat, recipient of The Nobel Peace Prize 1973.

1933 ~ The Walt Disney Co. released the cartoon The Three Little Pigs (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/badwolf.htm), with its hit song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

1934 ~ Birthday of Harlan Ellison, Science Fiction author.

1937 ~ The Golden Gate Bridge (http://www.factmonster.com/spot/goldengate.html) opened to pedestrian traffic.

1941 ~ The German battleship Bismarck was sunk.

1963 ~ Jomo Kenyatta led his party, Kenya African Nation Union, to victory in the Kenya’s first general election (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/27/newsid_2496000/2496069.stm).

1964 ~ Death of Jawaharlal Nehru (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0527.html#article), independent India’s first PM.

1995 ~ Actor Christopher Reeve (Superman (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001659/)) was paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event.

[jseal]

1908 ~ Birthday of Ian Fleming (http://www.ianflemingcentre.com/Default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1), author of James Bond books.

1925 ~ Birthday of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone.

1934 ~ Birthday of The Dionne quintuplets (http://www.cnn.com/US/9711/19/dionne.quints/), the world's first surviving quintuplets.

1936 ~ Alan Turing submitted On Computable Numbers (http://abelard.org/turpap2/tp2-ie.asp#section-1) for publication.

1964 ~ The Palestine Liberation Organization (http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_plo_backgd.php) was formed.

1971 ~ Death of Audie Murphy, American actor & war hero.

1982 ~ British forces defeat the Argentines at the Battle of Goose Green during the Falklands War.

1987 ~ Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow's Red Square (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,819972,00.html) after evading Soviet air defenses.

1984 ~ President Reagan led a state funeral (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0528.html#article) at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.

1998 ~ Pakistan matched India (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/28/newsid_2495000/2495045.stm) with five nuclear test blasts.

[jseal]

1903 ~ Birthday of Bob Hope (http://www.bobhope.com/), British-born Comedian & Actor.

1906 ~ Birthday of T.H. White (http://www2.netdoor.com/~moulder/thwhite/), English author.

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

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

1919 ~ Arthur Eddington's observation of shifted star positions during a solar eclipse confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity (http://www.firstscience.com/site/articles/coles.asp).

1953 ~ Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0529.html#article) became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1972 ~ Three Japanese Red Army gunmen opened fire on crowds (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/29/newsid_2542000/2542263.stm) at Lod (now Ben Gurion) International Airport, Israel, killing 26 people and injuring dozens more.

1998 ~ Death of Barry Goldwater, U.S. senator & presidential candidate.

1999 ~ The Discovery Space Shuttle completed the first docking with the International Space Station (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html).

2005 ~ French voters rejected the European Union's proposed constitution (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/29/AR2005052900644.html).

[jseal]

1431 ~ Death of Joan of Arc (http://archive.joan-of-arc.org/joanofarc_short_biography.html), Condemned Heretic (burned at the stake in Rouen, France).

1640 ~ Death of Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rubens/earth-water.jpg).

1778 ~ Death of Voltaire, French philosopher & Author.

1926 ~ Birthday of Christine Jorgensen (http://www.transgenderzone.com/features/ChristineJorgensen.htm), transsexual activist.

1942 ~ 1,047 British bombers launched a 90-minute attack (http://www.answers.com/topic/bombing-of-cologne-in-world-war-ii) on Cologne, Germany.

1964 ~ Death of Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-American nuclear physicist.

1982 ~ Baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr played the first of 2,632 consecutive games. His streak ended on September 20, 1998.

1989 ~ The 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tiananmen_Square_protests.jpg)" statue was unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.

1997 ~ Child molester Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka - a case that inspired ''Megan's Law (http://www.megans-law.net/)',' which requires that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.

2001 ~ Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/30/newsid_2542000/2542475.stm) was convicted of corruption.

[jseal]

1669 ~ Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys made the last entry in his diary.

1678 ~ The first Godiva Procession, in commemoration of the legendary ride (http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/parsonal/godiva.htm).

1819 ~ Birthday of Walt Whitman (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/poet/whitman.html), American Poet.

1889 ~ A dam broke near Johnstown, Pa (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0531.html#article), drowning more than 2,000.

1916 ~ British and German fleets fought the Battle of Jutland (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/jutland.htm) off Denmark.

1923 ~ Birthday of Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

1927 ~ The Ford Model T (http://www.modelt.ca/background-fs.html) assembly line shut down after a production run of 15,007,003.

1938 ~ Birthday of Peter Yarrow, American folk singer ("Peter, Paul and Mary").

1957 ~ Playwright Arthur Miller was convicted of contempt of Congress (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/31/newsid_4417000/4417523.stm).

1996 ~ Death of Timothy Leary (http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/sixties/leary.html), LSD advocate.

[jseal]

1494 ~ :angel: Friar John Cor (http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s2.cfm?id=87282004) :angel: recorded the first known batch of scotch whisky.

1801 ~ Birthday of Brigham Young, Mormon Church leader.

1804 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer.

1918 ~ The Battle for Belleau Wood (http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/ct_bw.htm) began, during which came forth the famous phrase "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?" Heroes indeed!

1926 ~ Birthday of Marilyn Monroe (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000054/bio), Actress.

1938 ~ Action Comics issued the first Superman comic (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/yeung/actioncomics/cover.html).

1958 ~ Charles de Gaulle (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/1/newsid_2995000/2995283.stm) became premier of France.

1965 ~ Birthday of Nigel Short, English chess player.

1968 ~ Death of Helen Keller (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0601.html#article), American humanitarian.

1967 ~ The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (http://www.beatletracks.com/btsgtppr.html) was released.

[jseal]

1740 ~ Birthday of Marquis de Sade (http://www.crimelibrary.com/classics/marquis/), Famous French Pervert.

1835 ~ Start of P.T. Barnum (http://www.ptbarnum.org/)’s circus’ first tour of the U.S.

1840 ~ Birthday of Thomas Hardy, Poet & Novelist.

1857 ~ Birthday of Edward Elgar, English Composer.

1897 ~ Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he was dead, was quoted (http://www.twainquotes.com/quotesatoz.html) as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

1946 ~ Italians voted to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic.

1953 ~ Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0602.html#article) of the United Kingdom.

1966 ~ First U.S. Lunar soft landing (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/2/newsid_4081000/4081677.stm), by Surveyor 1.

1990 ~ Death of Rex Harrison (http://www.thegoldenyears.org/harrison.html), English actor.

2003 ~ ESA’s Mars Express (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html) was launched.

[jseal]

1875 ~ Death of Georges Bizet, French composer.

1888 ~ The poem Casey at the Bat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PgfWd3Fyuo&feature=related), by Ernest Thayer, was published in the SF Examiner.

1899 ~ Death of Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer.

1924 ~ Death of Franz Kafka (http://www.kafka-franz.com/kafka-Biography.htm), Austrian novelist.

1925 ~ Birthday of Tony Curtis, Actor.

1926 ~ Birthday of Allen Ginsberg (http://www.allenginsberg.org/), American poet.

1937 ~ The Duke of Windsor (http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9542031) married American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson (http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19370104,00.html), for whom he had abdicated the British throne.

1965 ~ Edward White became the first American astronaut to walk in space (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0603.html#article).

1969 ~ The science fiction television series Star Trek aired its final new episode (http://www.tv.com/star-trek/turnabout-intruder/episode/24962/summary.html?tag=episodes;title;0) after being canceled by NBC.

1982 ~ The Israeli ambassador to Britain was shot (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/3/newsid_2496000/2496109.stm) on a London street.

[jseal]

1798 ~ Death of Giacomo Casanova (http://users.dickinson.edu/~emery/Casanova.htm), Italian Lover.

1919 ~ Birthday of Robert Merrill, American Baritone.

1928 ~ Birthday of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, German-American Sex Therapist.

1940 ~ The Allies completed the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/4/newsid_3500000/3500865.stm), France.

1944 ~ Birthday of Michelle Phillips, American Singer (The Mamas & the Papas (http://www.classicbands.com/mamas.html)).

1975 ~ Birthday of Angelina Jolie, American Actress.

1984 ~ The album ''Born in the U.S.A. (http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/BornInTheUSA.html)'' by Bruce Springsteen was released.

1986 ~ Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to espionage (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_pollard.html) for selling top secret U.S. military intelligence to Israel.

1989 ~ The Tiananmen Square Massacre (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0604.html#article).

1998 ~ Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing (http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/).

[jseal]

1723 ~ Birthday of Adam Smith (http://www.econlib.org/Library/Enc/bios/Smith.html), Scottish Economist.

1883 ~ Birthday of John Keynes (http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/keynes.htm), English Economist.

1910 ~ Death of O. Henry, American author.

1944 ~ The first of the three Axis capitals, Rome, was liberated.

1947 ~ At a speech at Harvard University, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall called for economic aid to Europe.

1963 ~ UK Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigned over a sex scandal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/5/newsid_2660000/2660375.stm).

1967 ~ Israel began the “Six Day War (http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_sixday_backgd.php)” with a pre-emptive attack on Egypt.

1968 ~ Sen. Robert Kennedy was shot (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0605.html#article) in Los Angeles, CA.

1975 ~ Death of Paul Keres (http://www.phileo.demon.co.uk/uk_files.htm#PK), Estonian chess player.

2004 ~ Death of Ronald Reagan (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rr40.html).

[jseal]

1683 ~ Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum (http://www.ashmolean.org/) opened to the public as the world's first university museum.

1832 ~ Death of Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher.

1844 ~ The Young Men's Christian Association (http://www.ymca.net/about_the_ymca/history_of_the_ymca.html) (YMCA) was founded in London.

1868 ~ Birthday of Robert Falcon Scott, English Explorer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Sukarno, first President of Indonesia.

1944 ~ D-Day began (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0606.html#article) with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France.

1961 ~ Death of Carl Jung (http://www.cgjungpage.org/), Swiss psychologist.

1984 ~ Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/6/newsid_2499000/2499341.stm) in Amritsar.

1985 ~ Authorities in Brazil exhumed a body later identified as that of Dr. Josef Mengele (http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blmengele.htm), the Nazi doctor who conducted medical experiments on inmates at Auschwitz.

2002 ~ The Wye Oak (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/eastern/wyeoak.html), Maryland's honorary state tree, was destroyed in a thunderstorm.

[jseal]

1099 ~ Beginning of Siege of Jerusalem (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulk2.html).

1848 ~ Birthday of Paul Gauguin (http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gauguin/gauguin.html), French Post-Impressionist Painter.

1897 ~ Birthday of George Szell, Hungarian Conductor.

1917 ~ Birthday of Dean Martin, Singer & Actor.

1929 ~ Vatican City (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0607.html#article) became a sovereign state.

1942 ~ The U.S. beat the Japanese in the Battle of Midway (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3499000/3499378.stm).

1952 ~ Birthday of Liam Neeson, Northern Irish Actor.

1954 ~ Death of Alan Turing (http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/), Mathematician, Computer Scientist.

1981 ~ The Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/osiraq.htm).

2000 ~ U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the breakup of Microsoft. (http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm)

[Oldfart]

Osirak.

Now Israel's threatening to do the same in Iran.

Pattern emerging here Folks?

As a bit of trivia, one of the IAF pilots on this raid died in a shuttle crash.

[jseal]

Ilan Ramon took part in the bombing of the Osiraq nuclear reactor? How about that! You can learn something every day.

Thanks Oldfart. :)

[jseal]

632 ~ Death of Muhammad (http://www.pbs.org/muhammad/timeline_flash.shtml), founder of Islam.

1810 ~ Birthday of Robert Schumann, Composer.

1876 ~ Death of George Sand, Author.

1887 ~ Herman Hollerith (http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/hollerith.html) received a patent for his punch card calculator.

1916 ~ Birthday of Professor Francis Harry Compton Crick (http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1962/crick-bio.html), OM FRS, most noted for being one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. Awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1962.

1910 ~ Death of George Mallory (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/lost/), English mountain climber.

1949 ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four (http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/summaries/1984.html) by George Orwell was published.

1968 ~ James Earl Ray was arrested in London (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0608.html#article) in connection with the murder of Martin Luther King.

1982 ~ An Argentine air attack sank the Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram supply ships (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/8/newsid_2500000/2500607.stm) in the Falklands.

1998 ~ Charlton Heston assumed the presidency of the National Rifle Association.

[jseal]

1810 ~ Birthday of Otto Nicolai, Composer.

1870 ~ Death of Charles Dickens, English author.

1891 ~ Birthday of Cole Porter (http://www.coleporter.org/), Composer.

1916 ~ Birthday of Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense, former president of the World Bank.

1934 ~ Donald Duck debuted (http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/characterstandard/donald/debut/debut.html) in The Wise Little Hen.

1954 ~ Beginning of the end of the McCarthy Era (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0609.html#article).

1959 ~ The USS George Washington (http://www.answers.com/topic/uss-george-washington-ssbn-598) launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles ("Boomers").

1970 ~ Assassination attempt on King Hussein (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/9/newsid_4461000/4461735.stm) of Jordan.

1973 ~ Secretariat won the Triple Crown (http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/triple-crown/winners.aspx).

2004 ~ The FCC (http://www.fcc.gov/) agreed to a $1.75 million settlement with Clear Channel (http://www.clearchannel.com/) to resolve indecency complaints against Howard Stern (http://www.howardstern.com/) and other radio personalities.

[jseal]

1829 ~ First Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge (http://www.theboatrace.org/article/introduction/history).

1846 ~ The California Republic declared independence from Mexico.

1915 ~ Birthday of Saul Bellow, Canadian-born American author, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1921 ~ Birthday of Prince Philip (http://www.royal.gov.uk/OutPut/Page5551.asp), Duke of Edinburgh.

1922 ~ Birthday of Judy Garland (http://www.jgdb.com/), Singer & Actress.

1967 ~ End of the Six-Day War (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0610.html#article).

1971 ~ Death of Michael Rennie, English actor (Klaatu in the classic science fiction film "The Day the Earth Stood Still").

1977 ~ The Apple II personal computer (http://oldcomputers.net/byteappleII.html) started shipping.

1999 ~ Yugoslav troops departed Kosovo (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/10/newsid_4482000/4482403.stm), prompting NATO to suspend its air war.

2004 ~ Death of Ray Charles (http://www.raycharles.com/the_man_biography.html), Singer & Musician.

[jseal]

1776 ~ The Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.

1892 ~ The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, opened in Melbourne.

1937 ~ Death of R. J. Mitchell, British aircraft designer, developer of the Spitfire (http://www.deltaweb.co.uk/spitfire/).

1939 ~ Birthday of Jackie Stewart (http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/stew_bio.htm), Race car driver.

1942 ~ The U.S. and the USSR signed a lend lease agreement (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0611.html#article) to aid the Soviet war effort in WWII.

1963 ~ Death of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc (http://www.quangduc.com/) by self-imolation in Saigon (http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=170&Itemid=115&bandwidth=high) to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.

1979 ~ Death of John Wayne (http://www.johnwayne.com/), Actor.

1987 ~ Margaret Thatcher became the first British PM in 160 years to win a third consecutive term in office (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/11/newsid_2511000/2511095.stm).

2001 ~ Death of Timothy McVeigh, terrorist (executed).

2004 ~ Cassini-Huygens (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm) made its closest flyby of Phoebe.

[jseal]

1924 ~ Birthday of George Bush senior, 41st President of the U.S.

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

1963 ~ Death of Medgar Evers (http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/evers_medgar/), American civil rights activist.

1967 ~ In Loving v. Virginia (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=388&invol=1), the U.S. Supreme Court declared all state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

1975 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was convicted (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/12/newsid_2511000/2511691.stm) on electoral corruption charges.

1979 ~ Bryan Allen flew the man powered Gossamer Albatross (http://www.donaldmonroe.com/gossamer_albatross_photography) across the English Channel.

1987 ~ Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0612.html#article).

1991 ~ Boris Yeltsin (http://youtube.com/watch?v=t98Eq0c9Gus&feature=user) was elected the first President of the Russian Federation.

1997 ~ Major league baseball began interleague play.

2003 ~ Death of Gregory Peck (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/peck_g.html), Actor.

[jseal]

1865 ~ Birthday of William Butler Yeats (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bio.html), Poet, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1923.

1892 ~ Birthday of Basil Rathbone, Actor.

1944 ~ Germany launched the first V1 “Buzz Bomb (http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/v1.html)” attack on England.

1966 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0613.html#article) them (Miranda v. Arizona).

1967 ~ Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall (http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm) was nominated as the first black Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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

1982 ~ Fahd became King of Saudi Arabia (http://www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com/main/b.htm) upon the death of his brother, Khalid.

1986 ~ Death of Benny Goodman (http://www.bennygoodman.com/), the ''King of Swing,'.

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

2005 ~ A jury acquitted Michael Jackson (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/13/newsid_4939000/4939536.stm) of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch.

[jseal]

1671 ~ Birthday of Tomaso Albinoni (http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxalb.html), Italian Composer.

1736 ~ Birthday of Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French mathematician. The unit of electrical charge, the coulomb, and Coulomb's law are named after him.

1775 ~ The U.S. Army (http://www.army.mil/) was founded.

1909 ~ Birthday of Burl Ives (http://www.burlives.com/burlmain.htm), American Folk Singer, Author & Actor.

1919 ~ John Alcock and Arthur Brown (http://www.aviation-history.com/airmen/alcock.htm) depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

1940 ~ WWII: German troops enter Paris (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/14/newsid_4485000/4485727.stm).

1952 ~ The keel was laid for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus (http://www.ussnautilus.org/history.html).

1982 ~ Argentine forces in the capital Port Stanley unconditionally surrender to British forces, bringing the Falklands War to an end (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0614.html#article).

1991 ~ Death of Dame Peggy Ashcroft, British actress.

1994 ~ Death of Henry Mancini, American composer .

[jseal]

1215 ~ King John put his seal to the Magna Carta at Runnymede (http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/magna.html), England.

1836 ~ Arkansas became the 25th state.

1844 ~ Charles Goodyear received a patent for a process to strengthen rubber.

1843 ~ Birthday of Edvard Grieg, Norwegian Composer.

1904 ~ More than 1,000 people died in a fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0615.html#article).

1916 ~ President Wilson signed a bill granting a federal charter (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode36/usc_sup_01_36_06_II_08_B_10_309.html) to the Boy Scouts of America, stating that their purpose is to:

"... promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues ..."

1978 ~ King Hussein of Jordan married Lisa Halaby (http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/MidEast/02/ander/ander.htm), who became Queen Noor.

1995 ~ Death of John Vincent Atanasoff (http://www.angelfire.com/ma/kilenm/2k03ppl.html), computer pioneer.

1996 ~ In Manchester, U.K., a terrorist bomb injured over 200 people (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/15/newsid_2527000/2527009.stm).

1996 ~ Death of Ella Fitzgerald (http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=28), Jazz singer.

[jseal]

1829 ~ Birthday of Geronimo, Apache Warrior & Leader.

1858 ~ Abraham Lincoln gave his “House Divided (http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/house.htm)” speach in Springfield, Illinois. A brilliant piece of argument!

1890 ~ Birthday of Stan Laurel, Comedian.

1912 ~ Birthday of Enoch Powell, British politician.

1933 ~ Start of President Roosevelt’s New Deal (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0616.html#article).

1938 ~ Birthday of Joyce Carol Oates (http://jco.usfca.edu/), novelist.

1948 ~ The Miss Macao passenger seaplane became the first skyjacking of a commercial plane (http://www.answers.com/topic/miss-macao).

1963 ~ Valentina Tereshkova (http://www.gale.com/free_resources/whm/bio/tereshkova_v.htm) became the first woman in space.

1976 ~ Riots broke out in the black South African township of Soweto (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/16/newsid_2514000/2514467.stm).

1977 ~ Death of Wernher von Braun (http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/bio.html), rocket scientist.

[jseal]

1631 ~ Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Shah Jahan I, build her a tomb, the Taj Mahal (http://judypat.com/india/tajmahal.htm).

1882 ~ Birthday of Igor Stravinsky, Russian Composer.

1885 ~ The Statue of Liberty (http://www.nps.gov/stli/historyculture/index.htm) arrived in New York.

1898 ~ Birthday of M.C. Escher (http://www.mcescher.com/), Dutch Artist.

1928 ~ Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0617.html#article).

1929 ~ Birthday of Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player.

1945 ~ Birthday of Eddy Merckx (http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/8230.0.html), Belgian Cycling Champion.

1818 ~ Birthday of Ken Livingstone, English politician (first Mayor of London).

1961 ~ Rudolf Nureyev (http://www.nureyev.org/index.php) defected at Le Bourget airport in Paris.

1974 ~ The Irish Republican Army bombed the UK’s House of Parliament (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/17/newsid_2514000/2514827.stm).

[jseal]

1178 ~ Five Canterbury monks saw what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed (http://www.weblore.com/richard/june_18_1178_impact_crater.htm) on the Moon.

1815 ~ British and Prussian troops defeated the French under Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/waterloo.htm) in Belgium.

1928 ~ Death of Roald Amundsen, Explorer, first to the South Pole.

1942 ~ Birthday of Paul McCartney (http://www.askmen.com/men/entertainment/49_paul_mccartney.html), Singer & Songwriter.

1942 ~ Birthday of Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.

1945 ~ William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) was charged with treason.

1948 ~ The UN Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0618.html#article).

1967 ~ Jimi Hendrix burned his guitar (http://members.tripod.com/Yelnats_Yarkled/Monterey/page7.html) on stage at the Monterey Pop Festival.

1979 ~ Presidents Carter and Brezhnev signed the SALT II (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/18/newsid_4508000/4508409.stm) strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.

1983 ~ Sally Ride became the first American woman in space (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ride-sk.html).

[jseal]

1623 ~ Birthday of Blaise Pascal, Mathematician.

1865 ~ More two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas were finally informed of their freedom (http://www.juneteenth.com/).

1896 ~ Birthday of Wallis Warfield, the future Duchess of Windsor.

1934 ~ The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/federalcommu/federalcommu.htm) (FCC) was established.

1937 ~ Death of J.M. Barrie, Author, creator of the character Peter Pan.

1944 ~ First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_the_philippine_sea.htm).

1945 ~ Birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html), Politician, recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

1953 ~ Death of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, convicted spies (http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/dl/Rosenbergs/Rosenbergsfiles.html).

1964 ~ The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0619.html#article) after surviving a filibuster in the Senate.

1982 ~ An Italian banker, Roberto Calvi, was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/19/newsid_3092000/3092625.stm) in London.

[jseal]

1819 ~ Birthday of Jacques Offenbach, Composer.

1837 ~ Queen Victoria (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp) ascended to the British throne.

1877 ~ Alexander Graham Bell installed the first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario.

1899 ~ Birthday of Jean Moulin (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWmoulin.htm), leader of the French Resistance in WW II.

1909 ~ Birthday of Errol Flynn, Actor.

1942 ~ Birthday of Brian Wilson, one of The Beach Boys (http://www.thebeachboys.com/home.aspx).

1948 ~ The Ed Sullivan Show (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/E/htmlE/edsullivans/edsullivans.htm), (née Toast of the Town) debuted.

1967 ~ Muhammad Ali was convicted (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0620.html#article) of violating Selective Service laws.

1995 ~ Shell Oil abandoned plans to dump (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/20/newsid_4509000/4509527.stm) its Brent Spar oil rig at sea.

2002 ~ Death of Erwin Chargaff (http://post.queensu.ca/~forsdyke/bioinfo1.htm), biochemist.

[jseal]

1527 ~ Death of Niccolò Machiavelli (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/machiavelli/), Italian Historian & Political Author.

1788 ~ The U.S. Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

1905 ~ Birthday of Jean-Paul Sartre (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1964/sartre-bio.html), Philosopher & Playwright, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1964.

1908 ~ Death of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian Composer.

1919 ~ Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German fleet (http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/scuttle.html) in Scapa Flow, Orkney.

1945 ~ The battle for Okinawa ended (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/21/newsid_3564000/3564489.stm); 12,520 Americans and 110,000 Japanese were killed in the 83-day campaign.

1964 ~ Three civil rights workers disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0621.html#article) Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later.

1989 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that flag burning is protected speech (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=491&page=397) under the Constitution.

2004 ~ SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded space plane to achieve spaceflight (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/SS1_touchdown_040621.html).

2005 ~ Death of Jaime Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila.

[scotzoidman]

Can I add another?

1991: Most Honorable #2 son was born on this day.

[Oldfart]

Happy Birthday to Most Honorable #2 son, Scotzoidman-san.

[jseal]

1856 ~ Birthday of H. Rider Haggard (http://kirjasto.sci.fi/haggard.htm), Author.

1874 ~ Death of Howard Staunton, English chess master, and inspiration for the standard for tournament chess pieces (http://www.houseofstaunton.com/history.html).

1940 ~ WWII: France forced to sign armistice with Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0622.html#article).

1941 ~ WWII: Germany invaded the USSR (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/22/newsid_3526000/3526691.stm).

1969 ~ Death of Judy Garland, Singer & Actress.

1976 ~ Canadian House of Commons voted to abolish capital punishment.

1986 ~ Diego Maradona scored both the Hand of God goal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o) and the Goal of the Century (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk-kXwjASEE&feature=related) against England during the FIFA World Cup in Mexico City.

1987 ~ Death of Fred Astaire (http://themave.com/Astaire/), Dancer & Actor.

1978 ~ Discovery of the first satellite of Pluto, Charon.

2002 ~ Death of Ann Landers (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Landers.html), Columnist.

[jseal]

1894 ~ Birthday of Alfred Kinsey, Sexologist.

1912 ~ Birthday of Alan Turing (http://www.alanturing.net/), Mathematician.

1927 ~ Birthday of Bob Fosse (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/fosse/fosse.html), Choreographer.

1940 ~ Adolf Hitler toured Paris in now occupied France.

1943 ~ Birthday of Vint Cerf, co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and one of the “Fathers of the Internet".

1947 ~ President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act overridden (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0623.html#article).

1956 ~ Gamal Abdel Nasser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser) elected president of Egypt.

1985 ~ An Air India Boeing 747 was blown apart off the coast of Ireland (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/23/newsid_2518000/2518857.stm) by Sikh extremists.

1993 ~ Lorena Bobbitt sexually mutilated her husband (http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/severed_penis/index.html) after he allegedly raped her.

1995 ~ Death of Jonas Salk (http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/salk.html), developer of the Salk polio vaccine.

[jseal]

1314 ~ Scotland regained its independence in the Battle of Bannockburn (http://www.braveheart.co.uk/macbrave/history/bruce/banseq.htm), when Scotland's King Robert I defeated the English.

1519 ~ Death of Lucrezia Borgia (http://www.dragonrest.net/histories/lucrezia.html), duchess of Ferrara.

1896 ~ Birthday of Jack Dempsey (http://www.cmgww.com/sports/dempsey/biography.htm), Heavyweight boxer.

1910 ~ Japan invaded Korea (http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/webcourse/key_points/kp_11.htm).

1915 ~ Birthday of Fred Hoyle (http://www.hoyle.org.uk/home.html), cosmologist and science fiction author.

1948 ~ Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the U.S. to organize the Berlin Airlift (http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/berlin_airlift/large/docs.php).

1949 ~ The first episode of Hopalong Cassidy was aired on NBC.

1957 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.

1985 ~ STS-51-G Discovery completed its mission, with Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as the Payload Specialist.

1997 ~ The Roswell Incident debunked (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0624.html#article) by the USAF.

[jseal]

1876 ~ Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry were wiped out in the Battle of Little Big Horn (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0625.html#article).

1894 ~ Birthday of Hermann Oberth (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/SPACEFLIGHT/oberth/SP2.htm), Physicist & one of the founding fathers of Rocketry and Astronautics.

1903 ~ Birthday of George Orwell, Writer.

1950 ~ The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/25/newsid_2699000/2699641.stm).

1975 ~ Birthday of Vladimir Kramnik (http://www.kramnik.com/), Russian chess player.

1991 ~ Croatia (http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/croatia.htm) and Slovenia (http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/slovenia.htm) declared their independence from Yugoslavia.

1993 ~ Kim Campbell (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/primeministers/h4-3481-e.html) became the first female Prime Minister of Canada.

1997 ~ An unmanned cargo ship crashed into Russia's Mir space station, knocking out half of the station's power and rupturing a pressurized laboratory.

1997 ~ Death of Jacques-Yves Cousteau (http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/25/cousteau.obit/index.html), French Explorer, Scientist & Inventor.

1998 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 unconstitutional.

[jseal]

1824 ~ Birthday of Lord Kelvin (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Thomson.html), Physicist.

1898 ~ Birthday of Willy Messerschmitt (http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/bf109/Bf109WMBio.html), Aircraft Designer.

1933 ~ Birthday of Claudio Abbado, Conductor.

1934 ~ Initial flight of the first practical helicopter (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/reitsch.html), the Focke-Wulf 61. You must scroll down a bit through the Hanna Reitsch page to get to the FW-61 entry, but her write up of her experience it is an interesting read.

1959 ~ Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/newsid_2988000/2988148.stm) inaugurated the St Lawrence Seaway.

1963 ~ President Kennedy visited West Berlin (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0626.html#article), where he offered American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany: "Ich bin ein Berliner (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6nQhss4Yc)".

1964 ~ The Beatles released the album A Hard Day's Night (http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=39).

1997 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment, and thus unconstitutional.

2003 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas (http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html).

2007 ~ Liz Claiborne, Belgian born fashion designer.

[jseal]

1829 ~ Death of James Smithson, English scientist and philanthropist.

1838 ~ Birthday of Paul von Mauser, Weapon Designer.

1880 ~ Birthday of Helen Keller (http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_keller.hcsp), spokeswoman for the Deaf and Blind.

1893 ~ Crash of the New York Stock Exchange.

1905 ~ Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin (http://flot.sevastopol.info/eng/ship/predreadnoughts/potemkin.htm).

1950 ~ The U.S. decided to send armed forces to fight in the Korean War (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0627.html#article).

1954 ~ The world's first nuclear power station went on line (http://bellona.no/bellona.org/english_import_area/international/russia/npps/24072) in Obninsk, near Moscow.

1957 ~ First British Smoking Causes Lung Cancer (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/27/newsid_2956000/2956618.stm) report released.

1967 ~ The world's first ATM installed in Enfield (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6230194.stm), London.

2001 ~ Death of Jack Lemmon (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/28/lemmon.obit/), Actor & Film Director.

[Oldfart]

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Paul von Mauser ( and thanks for my G98),

Happy Birthday to you.

[jseal]

1577 ~ Birthday of Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish Baroque Painter.

1712 ~ Birthday of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/ROUSSEAU.HTM), Franco-Swiss Philosopher.

1880 ~ The Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was captured (http://www.glenrowan1880.com/) at Glenrowan.

1914 ~ Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophia were killed by a Serbian nationalist, the casus belli of World War I (http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914/ferddead.html).

1919 ~ The Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending World War I (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0628.html#article).

1926 ~ Birthday of Mel Brooks, Filmmaker.

1992 ~ Death of Mikhail Tal (http://www.geocities.com/lifemasteraj/m_tal.html), eighth World Chess Champion.

1996 ~ The Citadel voted to admit women (http://www.cnn.com/US/9606/28/citadel.update/index.html), ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.

2004 ~ The U.S.-led coalition transferred sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/28/newsid_4517000/4517865.stm).

2006 ~ Death of George Unwin, British WWII fighter ace.

[jseal]

1861 ~ Death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poet. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… (http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/elizabethbarrettbrowning/poems/sonnetsfromtheportuguese/howdoilovetheeletmecounttheways.html)”

1868 ~ Birthday of George Ellery Hale, Astronomer.

1895 ~ Death of Thomas Henry Huxley, Scientist. "Darwin's Bulldog (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/2/l_022_09.html)"

1922 ~ France granted 1 km² at Vimy Ridge (http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/vimy/vmemory&CFID=16246983&CFTOKEN=55502061) "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".

1963 ~ Birthday of Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violinist.

1974 ~ Isabel Peron is sworn in as first female president for Argentina (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/29/newsid_2857000/2857121.stm).

1995 ~ U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with Russian space station Mir (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0629.html#article).

1995 ~ The Sampoong Department Store collapse (http://www.hazardcards.com/card.php?id=8) disaster.

2003 ~ Death of Katharine Hepburn, Actress.

2007 ~ Apple released the iPhone (http://www.apple.com/iphone/).

[jseal]

1817 ~ Birthday of Joseph Dalton Hooker, Botanist & Champion of Charles Darwin.

1905 ~ During his annus mirabilis, Albert Einstein published the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies (http://lorentz.phl.jhu.edu/AnnusMirabilis/AeReserveArticles/specrel.pdf) (PDF) in which he introduced special relativity.

That must have been an exciting period to be a physicist!

1908 ~ Tunguska impact (http://www-th.bo.infn.it/tunguska/) event occurred in Siberia.

1934 ~ Night of the Long Knives (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/roehm.htm), Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany took place.

1936 ~ ''Gone with the Wind (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200161.txt)'' by Margaret Mitchell published.

1943 ~ Birthday of Florence Ballard, American Singer (The Supremes (http://www.history-of-rock.com/supremes.htm)).

1971 ~ The crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft died (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_2523000/2523365.stm) when the landing capsule depressurized after separating from the main craft.

1985 ~ Birthday of Mike Tyson, American boxer.

1990 ~ East and West Germany merged their economies.

1997 ~ The UK returns sovereignty over Hong Kong (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0630.html#article) to the PRC.

[jseal]

1646 ~ Birthday of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (http://www.friesian.com/leibniz.htm), German Mathematician & Philosopher.

1863 ~ The American Civil War battle of Gettysburg began (http://www.civilwarhome.com/gettyscampaign.htm).

1906 ~ Birthday of Estée Lauder, Cosmetics Pioneer.

1916 ~ On the first day of the Battle of the Somme (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/somme.htm) 18,000 British soldiers were killed, and 40,000 wounded.

1925 ~ Death of Erik Satie, French Composer.

1963 ~ The British Government admitted that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_philby.html).

1980 ~ "O Canada (http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10175)" became the national anthem of Canada.

2000 ~ Death of Walter Matthau, Actor.

2004 ~ Cassini-Huygens was successfully inserted into orbit (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/1/newsid_4640000/4640793.stm) around Saturn.

2004 ~ Death of Marlon Brando (http://www.marlonbrando.com/), Actor.

[jseal]

1906 ~ Birthday of Hans Bethe (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1967/bethe-bio.html), German-born Physicist., awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1967.

1937 ~ Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0702.html#article) over the Pacific Ocean.

1947 ~ Something the Army Air Force later said was a weather balloon crashed near Roswell, N.M. (http://www.coverups.com/roswell/index.htm) Eyewitness accounts gave rise to speculation it might have been an alien spacecraft.

1961 ~ Death of Ernest Hemingway (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html), Author, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1954.

1964 ~ President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/2/newsid_3787000/3787809.stm).

1966 ~ France began nuclear weapons testing at Moruroa (http://atomicforum.org/france/france.html) in the South Pacific.

1982 ~ Larry Walters attached 45 helium balloons to a lawn chair (http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp) and ascended into history and to a height of 11,000 feet.

1997 ~ Death of Jimmy Stewart, Actor.

1999 ~ Death of Mario Puzo, Author (The Godfather).

2007 ~ Death of Beverly Sills, Opera Soprano.

[jseal]

1863 ~ The final day of the battle of Gettysburg (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0703.html#article).

1883 ~ Birthday of Franz Kafka, Czech-born German author.

1935 ~ Death of André Citroën (http://www.citroen.com/CWW/en-US/HISTORY/ANDRECITROEN/TheMan/), Automobile Pioneer.

1938 ~ World speed record, 126 mph, set for a steam railway locomotive, by the Mallard (http://www.wandleys.demon.co.uk/mallard.htm).

1962 ~ Algeria became independent (http://www.algeria.com/) after 132 years of French rule.

1969 ~ Death of Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones).

1969 ~ A test flight of the Soviet N1 rocket ended in a spectactular failure (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/239925/russian_moon_rocket_disaster/).

1971 ~ Death of Jim Morrison (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/newsid_3776000/3776701.stm), lead singer of The Doors.

1986 ~ Death of Rudy Vallee, Singer, Actor, Bandleader, & Entertainer.

1988 ~ USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/flight801/stories/july88crash.htm) over the Persian Gulf.

[jseal]

1776 ~ The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence (http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration.html).

1845 ~ American writer Henry David Thoreau (http://thoreau.eserver.org/) began a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond (http://www.concord.org/~kathy/Walden/WaldenPond.html) near Concord, Mass.

1855 ~ The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems Leaves of Grass (http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/logr/log_029.html) was published.

1883 ~ Birthday of Rube Goldberg, Cartoonist.

1885 ~ Birthday of Louis B. Mayer, Movie Executive (one of the M’s in MGM).

1934 ~ Death of Maria Curie (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html), Polish-born scientist, recipient of he Nobel Prize in Physics 1903.

1971 ~ Birthday of Koko, the sign-language gorilla (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/koko/).

1976 ~ The U.S. celebrated its Bicentennial (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0704.html#article).

1976 ~ Israeli commandos rescued 100 hostages at Entebbe (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm) Airport, Uganda.

2006 ~ North Korea tested four short-range, one medium-range, and a long-range missle over the Sea of Japan.

[jseal]

1810 ~ Birthday of Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum (http://www.ptbarnum.org/), Circus Owner.

1853 ~ Birthday of Cecil Rhodes (http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/scramble/rhodes.htm), South African Politician.

1911 ~ Birthday of Georges Pompidou, President of France.

1937 ~ Spam was introduced the Hormel Foods Corporation.

1948 ~ British National Health Service (http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/316/7124/6) (NHS) Act enacted.

1951 ~ William Shockley (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/shockley-bio.html) invented the junction transistor.

1961 ~ Birthday of Isabelle Poulenard, French soprano.

1975 ~ Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles' championship (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0705.html#article).

1989 ~ Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a suspended prison term (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/5/newsid_2772000/2772471.stm) for his part in the Iran-Contra affair.

1996 ~ Birthday of Dolly the sheep (http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/dolly/index.asp), first cloned mammal.

[jseal]

1935 ~ Birthday of Tenzin Gyatso (http://www.dalailama.com/), 14th and current Dalai Lama.

1957 ~ Althea Gibson (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0706.html#article) became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title.

1962 ~ Death of William Faulkner, American Novelist.

1964 ~ A Hard Day's Night (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058182/), the first Beatles film, premiered.

1971 ~ Death of Louis Armstrong (http://www.satchmo.net/bio/), Jazz Musician.

1973 ~ Death of Otto Klemperer, German Conductor.

1974 ~ The radio program A Prairie Home Companion (http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/) was first broadcast.

1989 ~ The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea was destroyed (http://www.ukooa.co.uk/issues/health/faq.cfm) by explosions and fires killing 167 oil workers.

1997 ~ The rover Sojourner rolled onto the Martian landscape (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/6/newsid_4105000/4105727.stm) to begin inspecting soil and rocks.

1998 ~ Death of Roy Rogers, Cowboy Actor & Singer.

[jseal]

1860 ~ Birthday of Gustav Mahler, Austrian Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Marc Chagall, Russian-born Painter.

1898 ~ The U.S. annexed Hawaii as a territory.

1907 ~ Birthday of Robert Heinlein (http://www.heinleinsociety.org/), Science Fiction Writer.

1930 ~ Death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/acdsocy.html), Scottish Writer.

1940 ~ Birthday of Ringo Starr (http://www.ringostarr.com/), Beatle.

1947 ~ The Roswell UFO incident (http://alienresearch.wikia.com/wiki/Roswell_incident).

1980 ~ Sharia law (http://www.zikr.co.uk/content/view/32/52/) established in Iran.

1981 ~ President Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0707.html#article) to become the first female justice on the Supreme Court.

2005 ~ Terrorist bombings in London (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/7/newsid_4942000/4942238.stm) killed 52 victims and four suicide bombers.

[scotzoidman]

And on the Seventh hour,
Of the Seventh day,
Of the Seventh Month,
mrs zoid came into this world.

I'll be giving her her birthday spankin's later ;)

[Oldfart]

Slap her for us too.

[jseal]

1822 ~ Death of Percy Shelley (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRshelley.htm), English poet (http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/).

1838 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, German Inventor.

1882 ~ Birthday of Percy Grainger (http://www.percygrainger.net/), Australian Composer.

1889 ~ In the last championship bare-knuckle boxing match, John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain (http://www.ibhof.com/sullivan.htm).

1889 ~ The first issue of the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/public/us) published.

1950 ~ General Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of UN forces (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0708.html#article) in Korea.

1986 ~ Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria (http://www.bookrags.com/biography/kurt-waldheim/) despite a controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.

1994 ~ Death of Kim Il-sung, North Korean despot.

1997 ~ The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland were invited to join NATO. (How times change! Whoda ever thunk it!)

1997 ~ Mayo Clinic researchers warned that the dieting-drug "fen-phen" could cause severe heart and lung damage (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/hazard/fenphen.html).

[jseal]

1896 ~ William Jennings Bryan delivered his “Cross of Gold (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0709.html#article)” speech.

1879 ~ Birthday of Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer (Pines of Rome, Ancient Airs and Dances).

1900 ~ Queen Victoria gave royal assent to an act creating the Commonwealth of Australia (http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/history.html), uniting separate colonies under one federal government.

1911 ~ Birthday of John A. Wheeler, American physicist (coined the terms black hole and wormhole).

1916 ~ Birthday of Edward Heath (http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page128.asp), P.M. of the UK

1974 ~ Death of Earl Warren (http://www.landmarkcases.org/brown/warren.html), Governor of California, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1989 ~ Two bombs exploded in Mecca, killing one pilgrim and wounding 16 others.

1995 ~ The Grateful Dead (http://www.dead.net/) played their last concert, at Soldier Field in Chicago.

1997 ~ Mike Tyson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9EjHpAtYUc&feature=related)'s boxing license was suspended and he was fined $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield's ear in a televised match.

2001 ~ The Big Bang Theory (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/9/newsid_2498000/2498637.stm) of the origin of the universe received substantial support.

[jseal]

1839 ~ Birthday of Adolphus Busch, German-born Brewer.

1856 ~ Birthday of Nikola Tesla (http://www.pbs.org/tesla/), Croatian physicist.

1895 ~ Birthday of Carl Orff, German Composer.

1925 ~ The "Monkey Trial" of John Scopes began in Dayton, Tennessee.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe began the Battle of Britain (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0710.html#article).

1962 ~ The world's first active communications satellite (http://roland.lerc.nasa.gov/~dglover/sat/telstar.html), Telstar (http://roland.lerc.nasa.gov/~dglover/sat/telstar.gif), and first privately sponsored space launch.

1985 ~ The Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior was sunk (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/10/newsid_2499000/2499283.stm) in Auckland Harbor by French agents.

1997 ~ Scientists reported their DNA analysis findings which support the Out of Africa (https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html) hypothesis of human evolution.

2002 ~ At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents was sold for $76.2 million (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,753262,00.html).

2003 ~ Death of Lord Shawcross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartley_Shawcross), U.K. chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.

[jseal]

1798 ~ The U.S. Marine Corps (http://www.marines.com/page/usmc.jsp?flashRedirect=true) was re-created by an act of Congress.

1859 ~ Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities (http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/twocities/)" was published.

1899 ~ Birthday of E. B. White (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebwhite.htm), American Writer. (Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan.)

1914 ~ Babe Ruth (http://www.baberuth.com/) made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.

1920 ~ Birthday of Yul Brynner, Russian-born actor.

1937 ~ Death of George Gershwin, American Composer.

1994 ~ Death of Savannah (http://adultoutlook.com/nsmith/savannah/index.html), Porn Star.

1979 ~ Skylab deorbited (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0711.html#article).

1989 ~ Death of Sir Laurence Olivier, Actor.

1995 ~ Bosnian Serbs capture the city of Srebrenica (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_4080000/4080690.stm).

[gekkogecko]

"Deorbited". Yeah, there's a good euphamism.

[jseal]

1536 ~ Death of Erasmus (http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/erasmus.html), Dutch Writer & Philosopher.

1690 ~ William of Orange's army won the Battle of the Boyne (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,342562,00.html).

1730 ~ Birthday of Josiah Wedgwood (http://www.wedgwoodusa.com/about/history.asp), English Potter.

1773 ~ Death of Johann Joachim Quantz, German Flutist & Composer.

1862 ~ Medal of Honor (http://www.cmohs.org/) authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1943~ Birthday of Christine McVie, British singer, musician, & songwriter (Fleetwood Mac).

1943 ~ Turning point of CITADEL (http://www.uni.edu/~licari/citadel.htm) (Battle of Kursk).

1962~ The Rolling Stones perform their first public concert.

1984 ~ Walter Mondale named Geraldine Ferraro (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0712.html#article) his Vice Presidential running mate.

1990~ Russian republic president Boris Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/12/newsid_4493000/4493177.stm).

[Oldfart]

"Deorbited". Yeah, there's a good euphamism.

It wasn't your country they chose to deorbit it onto.

[scotzoidman]

It wasn't your country they chose to deorbit it onto.
Sorry about that, chief, but Oz was the choice of the fates, not NASA...steering was very much kaput by then...

[jseal]

100 BC ~ Birthday of Julius Caesar (http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/caesar-index.html), Soldier & Politician.

1793 ~ French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday (http://www.things.org/music/al_stewart/history/charlotte_corday.html), who was executed four days later.

1837 ~ Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace (http://www.britainexpress.com/London/buckingham-palace.htm) – the first monarch to live there.

1908 ~ Women first included in modern Olympic competition.

1923 ~ The first Hollywood Sign (http://www.hollywoodsign.org/history.html) was dedicated. It read "HOLLYWOODLAND".

1940 ~ Birthday of Patrick Stewart, English actor (Star Trek: The Next Generation).

1955 ~ Ruth Ellis became the last woman in England to be executed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/13/newsid_2745000/2745023.stm).

1960 ~ John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Los Angeles.

1977 ~ A 25-hour blackout hit New York City (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0713.html#article).

1985 ~ Live Aid (http://www.herald.co.uk/local_info/live_aid.html), an international rock concert in London, Philadelphia, Moscow and Sydney, Australia, was held to raise money for Africa's starving people.

[Oldfart]

Sorry about that, chief, but Oz was the choice of the fates, not NASA...steering was very much kaput by then...

Are you saying that they had lost Control?

Carelessness to the Max.

[jseal]

1789 ~ Citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille ( http://www.essortment.com/all/historyofbas_rffz.htm). Generally recognized as the beginning of the French Revolution.

1798 ~ The Sedition Act (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/sedact.htm) made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.

1862 ~ Birthday of Gustav Klimt (http://www.expo-klimt.com/), Austrian Painter & Graphic Artist.

1881 ~ Billy the Kid (http://www.aboutbillythekid.com/) was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett.

1887 ~ Death of Alfred Krupp, German munitions manufacturer.

1912 ~ Birthday of Woody Guthrie (http://www.woodyguthrie.org/), American folk singer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Gerald Ford, U.S. President.

1933 ~ Gleichschaltung (http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww2_gleichschaltung.shtml): All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.

1965 ~ Mariner 4 flyby of Mars took the first close-up photos of another planet (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0714.html#article).

2000 ~ A Florida jury ordered five major tobacco companies to pay smokers $145 billion in punitive damages. (The verdict was later overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.).

[gekkogecko]

Ah, yes, Bastille Day. When the French peasantry said "We mad as hell and we're not gonna take it...we done fucked up."

[jseal]

1099 ~ The Crusaders of the First Crusade took Jerusalem (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-jlem.html).

1606 ~ Birthday of Rembrandt Van Rijn (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/), Dutch artist (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/1650/aristotle-homer.jpg).

1796 ~ Birthday of Thomas Bulfinch (http://www.fivecolleges.edu/mcleary/tbulfinch.html), American Mythologist.

1799 ~ French Captain Pierre Bouchard found the Rosetta Stone (http://www.kingtutshop.com/freeinfo/rosetta-stone.htm).

1870 ~ Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

1918 ~ WWI: Second Battle of the Marne (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0715.html#article) began.

1926 ~ Birthday of Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine Dictator.

1954 ~ First flight of the Boeing 707, the first American jet passenger airliner.

1995 ~ Bosnian Serbs force Muslims out of Srebrenica (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/15/newsid_3736000/3736438.stm).

2002 ~ John Walker Lindh (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/lindh_07-15-02.html), the "American Taliban", pleaded guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.

[jseal]

622 ~ Start of the Islamic calendar (http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-islamic.html).

1872 ~ Birthday of Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer who led the expedition which was the first to reach the South Pole.

1918 ~ IAt Ekaterinburg, Russia, Bolsheviks executed Czar Nicholas II and his family (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0716.html#article).

1945 ~ Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Harry Truman Josef Stalin meet at Potsdam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/16/newsid_4685000/4685683.stm).

1945 ~ The U.S. detonated the first nuclear weapon (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/atomictest.htm) at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1948 ~ Birthday of Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli Violinist.

1955 ~ The original Disneyland park opened.

1969 ~ Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html) to become the first manned mission to land on the moon.

1989 ~ Death of Herbert von Karajan (http://www.winternet.com/~davion/karajan.html), Austrian Conductor.

1994 ~ Death of Julian Schwinger (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/schwinger-bio.html), American physicist, Nobel laureate.

[jseal]

656 ~ Death of Uthman ibn Affan, Third Caliph, assassinated.

1790 ~ Death of Adam Smith (http://www.adamsmith.org/), Scottish Economist.

1794 ~ The execution of the sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne (http://www.carmelite.com/saints/other/newkirk.htm).

1899 ~ Birthday of James Cagney (http://themave.com/Cagney/), Actor.

1947 ~ Birthday of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/royals/camilla.html) (formerly Parker Bowles), former British royal mistress and now wife of Prince Charles.

1961 ~ Death of Baseball hall-of-famer Ty Cobb.

1962 ~ Tha nuclear test shot Little Feller I (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Storax.html) became the last American atmospheric detonation at the Nevada Test Site.

1975 ~ An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0717.html#article) in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.

1979 ~ Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled into exile (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/17/newsid_3870000/3870281.stm) in Miami.

2003 ~ Death of Dr. David Kelly, U.N. Weapons Inspector.

[jseal]

1817 ~ Death of Jane Austen (http://www.jasna.org/info/about_austen.html), English Novelist.

1887 ~ Birthday of Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian Politician & Traitor.

1909 ~ Birthday of Andrei Gromyko, Soviet Diplomat & President.

1918 ~ Birthday of Nelson Mandela (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-bio.html), former President of SA, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1993.

1922 ~ Birthday of Thomas Kuhn (http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Kuhnsnap.html), Philosopher of Science.

1925 ~ Adolf Hitler’s "Mein Kampf (http://www.crusader.net/texts/mk/)" was published.

1927 ~ Birthday of Kurt Masur, Conductor.

1942 ~ The Messerschmitt Me-262 (http://www.vectorsite.net/avme262.html#m2) was test flown using only its jets for the first time.

1969 ~ After a party, Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a wooden bridge (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/tedkennedychappaquiddick.htm) into, into a pond, and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, died.

2001 ~ In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derailment occurred in a tunnel (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-trainfire,0,6380020.special), sparking a fire that lasted days and virtually shut down downtown.

2005 ~ Eric Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer.

[jseal]

1374 ~ Death of Petrarch, Italian Poet & early Humanist.

1692 ~ Five women were hanged following the Salem Witch Trials (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM) for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.

1834 ~ Birthday of Edgar Degas (http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Degas/html/index.html), Impressionist Painter (http://images.google.com/images?q=Edgar+Degas&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADBF&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title).

1848 ~ America’s first women's rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, N.Y. and "Bloomers (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr040.html)" were introduced.

1870 ~ The Franco-Prussian war began.

1898 ~ Birthday of Herbert Marcuse (http://www.marcuse.org/), Communist Philosopher.

1941 ~ Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0719.html#article)" campaign in Europe.

1947 ~ Death of Aung San, Burmese nationalist. Aung San's daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi (http://nobelprize.virtual.museum/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html), is now the leader of the Burmese opposition to the current military regime.

1996 ~ Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic was forced out of office (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/19/newsid_4521000/4521063.stm).

2003 ~ Death of Bill Bright, evangelist, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.

[jseal]

1933 ~ In London, 500,000 marched against anti-Semitism.

1938 ~ Birthday of Dame Diana Rigg (http://www.mindspring.com/~jglane/riggbio.htm), Actress (The Avengers (http://theavengers.tv/forever/), In This House of Brede (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073160/)).

1938 ~ Birthday of Natalie Wood (http://www.starpulse.com/Actresses/Wood,_Natalie/), Actress (Rebel Without a Cause (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048545/), West Side Story (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055614/)).

1944 ~ Adolf Hitler was slightly wounded (http://www.gdw-berlin.de/b12/b12-3-e.php) when a bomb exploded at his Rastenburg headquarters.

1946 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives voted 265-79 to put control of atomic energy in the hands of a civilian body, the Atomic Energy Commission, rather than leave the military in control.

1960 ~ Ceylon elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first female head of government (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556320/Bandaranaike_Sirimavo_Ratwatte_Dias.html).

1969 ~ Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0720.html#article).

1974 ~ Turkey invaded Cyprus (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3866000/3866521.stm).

1999 ~ After 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic, astronaut Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule was lifted to the surface (http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9907/20/grissom.capsule.01/).

2004 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding that Israel tear down the barrier it was building to seal off the West Bank.

[jseal]

1796 ~ Death of Robert Burns (http://www.robertburns.org/), Scottish Poet.

1899 ~ Birthday of Ernest Hemingway, American Author.

1861 ~ First Battle of Bull Run (http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/va005.htm) - the first major battle of the American Civil War began.

1911 ~ Birthday of Marshall McLuhan (http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/main.html), Canadian Communications Theorist.

1925 ~ In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John Scopes was found guilty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0721.html#article) of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.

1948 ~ Birthday of Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), English Singer.

1954 ~ France surrendered North Vietnam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_3894000/3894175.stm) to the Viet Minh.

1970 ~ The Aswan High Dam (http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/nile.htm) in Egypt was completed at the end of eleven years of construction

1994 ~ Tony Blair was declared the winner (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2515000/2515825.stm) of the leadership election of the British Labour Party.

2006 ~ Death Ta Mok, Khmer Rouge war criminal.

[jseal]

1822 ~ Birthday of Br. Gregor Mendel (http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Gregor_Mendel.html), Austrian Geneticist.

1887 ~ Birthday of Gustav Hertz (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1925/hertz-bio.html), German Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1925.

1898 ~ Birthday of Alexander Calder, American Artist.

1933 ~ Wiley Post becomes first man to fly solo around the world.

1934 ~ John Dillinger was shot to death (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0722.html#article) by FBI agents in Chicago.

1967 ~ Death of Carl Sandburg, Poet.

1977 ~ Deng Xiaoping (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/22/newsid_2516000/2516339.stm), returned to Chinese Government.

1992 ~ Pablo Escobar (http://www.cocaine.org/colombia/pablo-escobar.html), fearing extradition to the U.S., escaped from his luxury prison.

1998 ~ Death of Alan Shepard (http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/22/obit.shepard.02/), Astronaut.

2003 ~ Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were killed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/22/newsid_3808000/3808659.stm) when U.S. forces stormed a villa in Mosul, Iraq.

[jseal]

1757 ~ Death of Domenico Scarlatti, Italian Composer.

1892 ~ Birthday of Haile Selassie (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/selassie.htm), Emperor of Ethiopia.

1914 ~ Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0723.html#article) following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.

1929 ~ The Italian government banned the use of "foreign" words.

1942 ~ The Treblinka (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shtetl/treblinka/) extermination camp opened.

1952 ~ Creation of the European Coal and Steel community. This gave birth to European Economic Community (EEC), which itself later became the European Union.

1962 ~ Telstar relayed the first live trans-Atlantic television signal (http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/2006/07/23-july-1962-telstar-relays-first-live.html).

1982 ~ The International Whaling Commission voted a moratorium on commercial whaling (http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/international_policy/treaties/international_whaling_commission/whaling_and_the_international_whaling_commission.html) by 1985-86.

1984 ~ Vanessa Williams (http://www.vanessawilliams.de/indexengl.htm) became the first Miss America to resign her title, because of nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine.

1986 ~ Prince Andrew, Duke of York married Sarah Ferguson (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/23/newsid_2516000/2516203.stm) at Westminster Abbey.

[jseal]

1783 ~ Birthday of Simón Bolívar, South American liberator.

1898 ~ Birthday of Amelia Earhart, American Aviatrix.

1924 ~ The World Chess Federation, FIDE (http://www.fide.com/), was founded in Paris.

1943 ~ The RAF Bomber Command bombed Hamburg by night, USAAF 8th Air Force Bomber Command by day (http://experts.about.com/e/b/bo/Bombing_of_Hamburg_in_World_War_II.htm). By the end of the operation, 9,000 tons of explosive & incendiary bombs created a firestorm which killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.

1959 ~ Khrushchev and Nixon had a war of words in the “Kitchen Debate (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0724.html#article)”.

1967 ~ During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declared in Montreal "Vive le Québec libre! (http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/07/24/1132/)" (Long live free Quebec!). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.

1974 ~ Death of James Chadwick (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1935/chadwick-bio.html), English physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1935.

1980 ~ Birthday of Gauge (http://www.ilovegauge.com/), Porn Star.

1980 ~ Death of Peter Sellers, Actor.

2005 ~ Lance Armstrong (http://www.lancearmstrong.com/) closed out his cycling career with a seventh consecutive Tour de France victory.

[gekkogecko]

1967 ~ During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declared in Montreal "Vive le Québec libre! (http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/07/24/1132/)" (Long live free Quebec!). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.


De Gaulle had that extra special touch of French arrogance that seemed to piss off a lot of people by playing into a lot of Anglic stereotypes about France.

[jseal]

1834 ~ Death of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet. (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html) & Kubla Khan (http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html) )

1907 ~ Korea became a protectorate of Japan.

1909 ~ Louis Bleriot (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/bleriot.html) made the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine. Calais to Dover in 37 minutes.

1917 ~ Sir Thomas Whyte introduced the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).

1848 ~ Birthday of Arthur Balfour, UK PM, remembered for issuing the British declaration of support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

1946 ~ Crossroads Baker (http://www.nv.doe.gov/library/films/film.aspx?ID=66), a 21-kiloton nuclear weapon was detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini atoll.

1956 ~ 51 people died when the Italian liner Andrea Doria (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0725.html#article) collided with the Swedish ship Stockholm.

1978 ~ Louise Brown, the first baby conceived by in-vitro fertilization (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-610-3415/science_technology/infertility/clip2), was born in Oldham, England.

1984 ~ Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya (http://great.russian-women.net/Svetlana_Savitskaya.shtml) became the first woman to walk in space.

2000 ~ An Air France Concorde crashed just after takeoff (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/25/newsid_2797000/2797965.stm) from Paris, killing 113.

[jseal]

1856 ~ Birthday of George Bernard Shaw (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1925/shaw-bio.html), Author, Playwright, awarded t he Nobel Prize in Literature 1925.

1875 ~ Birthday of Carl Jung (http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/carljung.html), Swiss Psychiatrist.

1882 ~ Richard Wagner's "Parsifal (http://www.monsalvat.no/index.htm)" premiered at Bayreuth.

1898 ~ Birthday of Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft engineer and designer.

1928 ~ Birthday of Stanley Kubrick (http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/), Movie Director.

1943 ~ Birthday of Mick Jagger, English Musician. (Rolling Stones)

1947 ~ U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0726.html#article) into law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.

1953 ~ Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution (http://www.cubaverdad.net/revolution.htm) began.

1956 ~ Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/26/newsid_2701000/2701603.stm) sparking international condemnation.

1991 ~ Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman, was arrested for allegedly masturbating at a Sarasota, Florida adult theatre.

[jseal]

1904 ~ Birthday of Isaac Bashevis Singer (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1978/singer-bio.html), Writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1921 ~ Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1923/index.html) announced the discovery of the hormone insulin. He shared the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this.

1946 ~ Death of Gertrude Stein (http://www.ags.uci.edu/~mjpowers/stein_resources.html), American Writer & Cult Figure.

1949 ~ Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet (http://www.dh-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/DH-106/index.html), the first jet-powered airliner.

1953 ~ The Korean War stopped (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0727.html#article). The U.S., People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea signed an armistice agreement.

1974 ~ The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to recommend the first article of impeachment against President Nixon: Obstruction of Justice.

1980 ~ Death of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran.

1984 ~ Death of James Mason, English actor.

1990 ~ Belarus (http://www.belarusguide.com/main/index.html) declared independence from the Soviet Union.

2003 ~ Death of Bob Hope (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/27/newsid_3818000/3818693.stm), English-born Entertainer.

[jseal]

1741 ~ Death of Antonio Vivaldi (http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxvivaldi.html), Italian Composer.

1750 ~ Death of Johann Sebastian Bach, German Composer.

1794 ~ Maximilien Robespierre (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-terror.html), a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine.

1866 ~ Birthday of Beatrix Potter, English Author. (The Tale of Peter Rabbit)

1868 ~ The 14th Amendment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) to the U.S. Constitution passed Congress, which integrated Due Process & Equal Protection into the constitution.

1904 ~ Birthday of Pavel Cherenkov (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1958/cerenkov-bio.html), Soviet Physicist, awarded one third the Nobel Prize in Physics 1958.

1914 ~ World War I began (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0728.html#article) as Austria declared war on Serbia.

1996 ~ The remains of a prehistoric man, Kennewick Man (http://www.kennewick-man.com/), was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

1998 ~ Monica Lewinsky was given blanket immunity from prosecution in exchange for grand jury testimony in the investigation of her relationship with President Bill Clinton.

2004 ~ Death of Professor Francis Harry Compton Crick (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/crick-bio.html), OM FRS, awarded one third the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962.

[jseal]

1890 ~ Death of Vincent van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/), Dutch painter.

1905 ~ Birthday of Dag Hammarskjöld (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1961/hammarskjold-bio.html), UN Secretary-General. Awarded the The Nobel Peace Prize 1961.

1907 ~ Sir Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts movement with the first scout camp at Brownsea Island (http://www.thescoutingpages.org.uk/first_camp.html). :thumb:

1958 ~ The U.S. Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html) (NASA).

1969 ~ Birthday of Adele Stevens (http://www.adele-stevens.com/inside.htm), English porn star.

1974 ~ Death of Mama Cass Elliot, Musician.

1975 ~ Death of James Blish, Science Fiction Writer.

1981 ~ Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0729.html#article).

1993 ~ The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/29/newsid_4561000/4561917.stm) of all charges.

1996 ~ The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act was struck down as too broad in U.S. federal court.

[jseal]

1729 ~ The city of Baltimore was founded (http://www.baltimore.org/visitors/v_bhistory.html).

1792 ~ The French national anthem ''La Marseillaise (http://hymne-national.ifrance.com/)'' by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris.

1818 ~ Birthday of Emily Brontë (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/ebronte/bio.html), English Novelist.

1898 ~ Birthday of Henry Moore (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/moore.html), Sculptor.

1941 ~ Birthday of Paul Anka, Singer and Composer.

1945 ~ World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sank the USS Indianapolis (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0730.html#article).

1966 ~ England won the first televised Football World Cup (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/30/newsid_2644000/2644065.stm), beating Germany 4 to 2.

2003 ~ The last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle (http://www.lasteditionbeetle.com/history.php) manufactured in Mexico.

2006 ~ After 42 years, the BBC show "Top of the Pops" was broadcast for the last time.

2007 ~ Death of Ingmar Bergman, Swedish director.

[jseal]

1556 ~ Death of Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits.

1886 ~ Death of Franz Liszt, Hungarian Composer.

1912 ~ Birthday of Milton Friedman (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1976/friedman-autobio.html), awarded the Nobel Prize in economics, 1976.

1917 ~ The Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres3.htm)) 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

1941 ~ Hermann Göring ordered SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question (http://www.thenausea.com/elements/germany/germany-document1.html)."

1964 ~ Ranger program: Ranger 7 sent back the first close-up photographs of the moon (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0731.html#article).

1965 ~ Birthday of J. K. Rowling, Author.

1970 ~ The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration (http://www.ministryofrum.com/index.php) in the Royal Navy.

1991 ~ Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/31/newsid_4582000/4582773.stm) (START) signed in Moscow.

1999 ~ NASA intentionally crashed the Lunar Prospector (http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/history/index.htm) spacecraft into the Moon, ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.

[jseal]

10 B.C. ~ Birthday of Claudius (http://www.roman-emperors.org/claudius.htm), Roman Emperor.

1774 ~ The element oxygen was discovered by Joseph Priestley.

1779 ~ Birthday of Birthday of Francis Scott Key, Composer of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

1819 ~ Birthday of Herman Melville (http://www.online-literature.com/melville/), Writer.

1834 ~ Slavery was abolished in the British Empire.

1932 ~ Birthday of Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (http://www.jdl.org/).

1936 ~ The Summer Olympic Games opened in Berlin (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0801.html#article).

1944 ~ Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/annefran.htm).

1957 ~ The United States and Canada formed the North American Air Defense Command (http://www.norad.mil/) (NORAD).

1977 ~ Death of Gary Powers, Spy Plane Pilot (http://www.foia.cia.gov/powers.asp).

[jseal]

216 B.C. ~ Hannibal destroyed the double Consular Roman army of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Publius Terentius Varro in the Battle of Cannae (http://www.unrv.com/empire/battle-of-cannae.php).

1776 ~ Delegates to the Continental Congress began to sign the Declaration of Independence (http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/).

1876 ~ Death of James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (http://www.doncollier.com/historic10.htm), Gunfighter.

1921 ~ Death of Enrico Caruso (http://www.gmmy.com/tenors/caruso/), Italian Tenor.

1932 ~ Birthday of Peter O'Toole, Actor. (Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter).

1934 ~ Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.

1939 ~ Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.

1943 ~ PT-109 (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/07/0709_020710_kennedyPT109.html), commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy rammed and sunk.

1976 ~ Death of Fritz Lang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Lang), Film Director (Metropolis (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/synopsis), M, Frau im Mond (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019901/plotsummary)).

1990 ~ Iraq invaded Kuwait (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/2/newsid_2526000/2526937.stm), leading to the Gulf War.

[jseal]

1900 ~ Birthday of John T. Scopes, defendant in the “Monkey Trial (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm)”.

1904 ~ Birthday of Clifford D. Simak (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/clifford-d-simak/), Science Fiction Author.

1924 ~ Death of Joseph Conrad (http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/), Author. (Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim)

1924 ~ Birthday of Leon Uris, American Writer. (Exodus, QB VII)

1943 ~ Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private (http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Patton_George.html) at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice.

1948 ~ Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist, publicly accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been part of a Communist underground (http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/hiss-chambers-nyt.html).

1958 ~ The USS Nautilus (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0803.html#article) traveled beneath the Arctic ice cap.

1972 ~ U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1977 ~ Death of Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus.

2003 ~ The U.S. Anglican Church approved the appointment of an openly homosexual bishop (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/3/newsid_3909000/3909559.stm).

[jseal]

1782 ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (http://www.mozartproject.org/) married Constanze Weber (http://themozartcafe.homestead.com/Constanze.html).

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

1875 ~ Death of Hans Christian Andersen (http://hca.gilead.org.il/), Writer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Louis Armstrong (http://www.satchmo.net/), Jazz Musician.

1914 ~ The UK declared war on Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0804.html#article).

1961 ~ Birthday of Barack Obama, American politician.

1964 ~ The bodies of three missing civil rights workers were found (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/4/newsid_2962000/2962638.stm) buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.

1977 ~ President Carter signed legislation creating the U.S. Department of Energy.

1983 ~ New York Yankee Dave Winfield (http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/WeirdWorld/Durham_Bulls/37862) accidentally killed a seagull during a baseball game and was charged by police for his "act of cruelty to animals".

1991 ~ The cruise ship Oceanos sinks (http://ugv.abcnews.go.com/player.aspx?id=366583) off the coast of South Africa.

[jseal]

1885 ~ The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty (http://www.nps.gov/archive/stli/mainmenu.htm) was laid.

1895 ~ Death of Friedrich Engels, Socialist Philosopher.

1930 ~ Birthday of Neil Armstrong (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/bios/neilabio.html), Astronaut.

1962 ~ Death of Marilyn Monroe (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/5/newsid_2657000/2657289.stm), Actress.

1962 ~ Nelson Mandela imprisoned, not to be released until 1990.

1963 ~ The U.S., UK, and U.S.S.R. signed a nuclear test ban treaty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0805.html#article).

1973 ~ Arab gunmen opened fire and threw grenades (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/5/newsid_4533000/4533763.stm) into a passenger lounge at Athens airport.

1981 ~ The federal government began firing air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.

1984 ~ Death of Richard Burton (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000009/bio), Actor.

2000 ~ Death of Sir Alec Guinness (http://siralecguinness.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/index.jhtml), Actor.

[jseal]

1809 ~ Birthday of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet (http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html).

1881 ~ Birthday of Alexander Fleming (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio.html), awarded he Nobel Prize in Medicine 1945.

1911 ~ Birthday of Lucille Ball, Actress, Comedienne.

1943 ~ Birthday of Jon Postel, creator of DNS (http://www.brainbliss.com/cat02/art05.html).

1945 ~ A nuclear bomb codenamed Little Boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0806.html#article).

1961 ~ Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/6/newsid_2944000/2944638.stm) spent a day in orbit.

1965 ~ U.S. release of the Beatles’ album "Help!".

1972 ~ Birthday of Geri Halliwell, British Pop Singer (Spice Girls (http://www.thespicegirls.com/)).

1990 ~ The UN Security Council ordered a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

1991 ~ Tim Berners-Lee released his idea for the "World Wide Web (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5242252.stm)".

[jseal]

1560 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Bathory (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_131.html), serial killer.

1867 ~ Birthday of Mata Hari (http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hari/1.html) (Margaretha Zelle), spy.

1942 ~ Birthday of Garrison Keillor (http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/), radio host.

1947 ~ Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft "Kon-Tiki (http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/kontiki.htm)", arrived at 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.

1949 ~ Birthday of Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese political leader.

1957 ~ Death of Oliver Hardy, Comedian & Actor.

1960 ~ Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent.

1964 ~ U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0807.html#article), giving President Johnson broad powers to deal with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.

1974 ~ French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

1998 ~ Bombing of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_3131000/3131709.stm) that killed 224 people and injured over 4,500.

[jseal]

1879 ~ Birthday of Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolutionary.

1902 ~ Birthday of P.A.M. Dirac (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/dirac-bio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1931 ~ Birthday of Roger Penrose (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Penrose.html), British physicist .

1937 ~ Birthday of Dustin Hoffman (http://www.answers.com/topic/dustin-hoffman), Actor (The Graduate, Tootsie, Kramer vs. Kramer).

1945 ~ The U.S. ratified the United Nations Charter.

1963 ~ Britain's ''Great Train Robbery (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/8/newsid_2714000/2714055.stm)'' took place when thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.

1966 ~ The Beatles' released "Revolver”

1974 ~ U.S. President Nixon announced his resignation (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0808.html#article) effective August 9.

1988 ~ U.N. Secretary-General Cuellar announced a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/iraniraq.htm).

1996 ~ Death of Frank A Whittle (http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/innovators/fwhittle.html), inventor of the Jet engine.

[jseal]

1173 ~ Construction of the (Leaning) Tower of Pisa (http://torre.duomo.pisa.it/index_eng.html) began.

1483 ~ Opening of the Sistine Chapel (http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Main.html).

1842 ~ The U.S.-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains was defined.

1945 ~ A nuclear bomb codenamed Fat Man was dropped on the city of Nagasaki (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0809.html#article).

1962 ~ Death of Hermann Hesse (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1946/hesse-autobio.html), German-born writer, awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1969 ~ Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murdered five people (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/9/newsid_2998000/2998214.stm) including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and, Abigail Folger.

1975 ~ Death of Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer.

1986 ~ The Headington Shark (http://www.headington.org.uk/shark/) was erected in Oxford.

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

2006 ~ Death of James van Allen (http://www.agu.org/inside/awards/vanallen.html), American physicist.

[jseal]

610 ~ In Islamic tradition, this is when Muhammad began to receive the Quran.

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan's 5 ships set sail from Seville (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1519magellan.html) to circumnavigate the globe.

1675 ~ Foundation stone set of the Royal Observatory (http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.13496), Greenwich.

1846 ~ The Smithsonian Institution (http://www.si.edu/) was chartered following a $500,000 donation by scientist Joseph Smithson.

1896 ~ Death of Otto Lilienthal, Aviation Pioneer.

1945 ~ Death of Robert Goddard, Rocket Scientist.

1988 ~ A distressing reminder of my mortality (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/10/newsid_2528000/2528665.stm).

1990 ~ The Magellan space probe (http://www.solarviews.com/eng/magellan.htm) arrived at Venus.

1995 ~ Norma McCorvey (http://www.leaderu.com/common/roev.html), '”Jane Roe” in the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which legalized abortion, announced she had joined the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.

2003 ~ Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko became the first man to marry in space. (http://www.spacetoday.org/SpcStns/ISSwedding.html)

[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 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. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6BDHGa4CEY)

1253 ~ Death of Saint Clare of Assisi, Patron Saint of television (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_of_Assisi).

1905 ~ Birthday of Erwin Chargaff (http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/news/journal/journal-o/fall-2003/dna.html), biochemist.

1919 ~ Death of Andrew Carnegie (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/), Industrialist & Philanthropist.

1929 ~ Babe Ruth (http://www.baberuth.com/flash/about/biograph.html) became the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs.

1943 ~ Birthday of Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani general & President.

1950 ~ Birthday of Steve Wozniak (http://www.woz.org/), Computer Pioneer.

1972 ~ The last U.S. ground combat unit left South Vietnam.

1984 ~ U.S. President Reagan joked during a voice test for a paid political radio address that he had ''signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. (http://radio.about.com/library/reagan_bomb.mp3)''

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

[jseal]

1859 ~ Birthday of Katherine Lee Bates, Poet (America the Beautiful (http://www.brownielocks.com/americathebeautifulWAVE.html) [arranged & performed by Ray Charles]).

1887 ~ Birthday of Erwin Schrödinger (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger-bio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1927 ~ Birthday of Mstislav Rostropovich, Cellist.

1928 ~ Death of Leos Janacek, Czech Composer.

1953 ~ The Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/Sovatmtest.html).

1960 ~ The first communications satellite, “Echo I (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/echo.htm)”, was launched.

1964 ~ Death of Ian Fleming (http://www.klast.net/bond/flem_bio.html), Novelist.

1981 ~ The IBM PC (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm) was introduced.

2002 ~ The Russian submarine Kursk (http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/kursk.htm) sank in the Barents Sea.

2004 ~ New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey came out of the closet at the press conference when he announced his resignation from the office.

[jseal]

1521 ~ Tenochtitlán, present day Mexico City, fell to conquistador Hernán Cortés (http://library.thinkquest.org/J002678F/cortez.htm).

1860 ~ Birthday of Annie Oakley (http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/oakl-ann.htm), Sharpshooter.

1899 ~ Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock (http://hitchcock.tv/), Director.

1910 ~ Death of Florence Nightingale (http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/index.php), English nurse.

1942 ~ Walt Disney's animated cartoon "Bambi (http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/18-Bambi.html)" premiered.

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

1961 ~ The Berlin Wall (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0813.html#article) began to be built.

1966 ~ Beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution.

1984 ~ Death of Tigran Petrosian, Soviet chess player.

1997 ~ The popular, controversial animated series "South Park (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121955/)" debuted.

[jseal]

1862 ~ Birthday of Ernest Thayer, Poet (Casey at the Bat (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_case.shtml)).

1880 ~ After 632 years, Cologne Cathedral was completed (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-cathedral.htm).

1945 ~ Japan surrendered (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0814.html#article), ending World War II.

1947 ~ Birthday of Maddy Prior (http://www.maddyprior.co.uk/), English folk singer.

1960 ~ Birthday of Sarah Brightman (http://sarah-brightman.com/), English soprano.

1971 ~ Rod Stewart released "Maggie May".

1980 ~ Workers went on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, in a job action that resulted in the creation of the Solidarity labor movement (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_2802000/2802553.stm).

1988 ~ Death of Enzo Ferrari, Automobile Designer.

1994 ~ Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal (http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/jackal/1.html), was captured.

2003 ~ A blackout hit the northeastern U.S. and part of Canada; 50 million people lost power.

[jseal]

778 ~ The Battle of Roncevaux Pass (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html), in which Roland was killed.

1769 ~ Birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95aug/napoleon.html), general and politician.

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

1890 ~ Birthday of Jacques Ibert, French Composer.

1945 ~ The Allies proclaimed V-J Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/15/newsid_3581000/3581971.stm), one day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.

1947 ~ India and Pakistan became independent (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0815.html#article) from British rule.

1948 ~ Republic of Korea (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/korea.html) established south of 38th Parallel.

1951 ~ Death of Artur Schnabel, Pianist.

1967 ~ Death of René Magritte, Surrealist painter (http://www.magritte.com/5_1.cfm?img=04).

1969 ~ First day of Woodstock (http://www.geocities.com/Beatlefreak1/) Music and Art Festival.

I was able to talk my cousin out of going to this. :yikes: 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…. :rolleyes:

[Lord Snow]

Wait You Forgot That In 1986 I Was Born On This Day At 12:53 Am!

[jseal]

1858 ~ President Buchanan inaugurated the new transatlantic telegraph cable (http://atlantic-cable.com/) by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria.

1888 ~ Birthday of Lawrence of Arabia (http://telawrence.info/telawrenceinfo/index.htm).

1899 ~ Death of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist (Bunsen Burner (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bunsen-burner.htm)).

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

1954 ~ Birthday of James Cameron, James Cameron, Canadian film director (The Terminator, Aliens, True Lies, The Abyss, and Titanic).

1962 ~ The Beatles fired Pete Best (http://www.petebest.com/) and replaced him with Ringo Starr (http://www.ringostarr.com/).

1977 ~ Death of Elvis Presley (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0816.html#article), Singer, Actor.

1991 ~ Death of Shamu, one of the famous whales of SeaWorld.

2000 ~ Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominated Vice President Al Gore for president.

2003 ~ Death of Idi Amin (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/16/newsid_3921000/3921361.stm), Ugandan dictator.

[Oldfart]

Aha, the telegraph.

Gauss and Weber had one running four years before Mr Morse.

Interestingly, Morse code is still in use today in some mobile phones, whose SMS alert is three short beeps, two long and three short. This is Morse Code for SMS.

[Lord Snow]

SMS? I know SOS, but not that one.

[Oldfart]

I was pretty sure I was right (I learned and forgot it a zillion years ago, but Mr Google reassured me I was correct.

[Lord Snow]

Then what does SMS stand for? I'm lazy and don't feel like doing my own research.

[Oldfart]

Short Message Service, or so I've been told.

[jseal]

1601 ~ Birthday of Pierre de Fermat (http://www.simonsingh.net/Pierre_de_Fermat.html), Mathematician.

1786 ~ Birthday of Davy Crockett, Frontiersman, Soldier.

1943 ~ The US Army Air Force had its wrist slapped smartly with the loss of 147 B-17's shot down or damaged beyond repair during the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission (http://home.att.net/~ww2aircraft/Schweinfurt.html)

1882 ~ Birthday of Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer.

1911 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Botvinnik (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/botvinnik/botvinnik.htm), World Chess Champion.

1962 ~ East German border guards shot and mortally wounded 18-year-old Peter Fechter (http://www.videofact.com/cold_war/berlin/berlin10e_1.html), who had attempted to cross over the Berlin Wall into the western sector.

1970 ~ Venera 7 was launched (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1970-060A). It became the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet, Venus.

1992 ~ Death of Al Parker (http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/reviews/112000re.htm), Porn film actor.

1992 ~ Woody Allen admitted being "romantically involved" with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.

1998 ~ President Clinton admitted having an affair (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/17/newsid_4537000/4537597.stm) with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

[Oldfart]

Bill Clinton? That nice boy? Surely not.

[Lord Snow]

He also didn't inhale.....*eye roll*

[jseal]

1227 ~ Death of Genghis Khan (http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/vexhibit/genghis/intro.htm), Mongol leader.

1587 ~ Birthday of Virginia Dare (http://www.outerbanks.com/manteo/history/vadare.htm); the first English child born in the Americas.

1774 ~ Birthday of Meriwether Lewis, Explorer.

1877 ~ Asaph Hall discovered Phobos, the moon of Pluto.

1920 ~ The 19th Amendment to US constitution was ratified (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment19/), guaranteeing women's right to vote.

1958 ~ Vladimir Nabokov (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/books/1999/nabokov/)'s controversial novel Lolita was published in the U.S.

1963 ~ James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0818.html#article).

1969 ~ Jimi Hendrix played the unofficial last day of Woodstock (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/18/newsid_2760000/2760911.stm).

1979 ~ Birthday of Selena Silver (http://www.rogreviews.com/interviews/selena_silver.asp?), Porn actress.

1991 ~ Downfall of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was put under house arrest while he was vacationing in the Crimea.

[jseal]

1881 ~ Birthday of George Enescu (http://www.enescusociety.org/), Romanian composer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek

1934 ~ The creation of the position Führer approved in a German plebiscite (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0819.html#article).

1939 ~ Birthday of Ginger Baker, English musician (Cream).

1942 ~ About 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/19/newsid_3560000/3560309.stm), France, suffering about 50 percent casualties.

1960 ~ A tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage (http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2000/5/2000_5_36.shtml).

1977 ~ Death of Groucho Marx, Comedian & Actor.

1981 ~ Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sent two Sukoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two U.S. F-14 Tomcats over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets shot down the Libyan fighters (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1386573).

1994 ~ Death of Linus Pauling (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1962/pauling-bio.html), Scientist & Peace Activist.

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 was awarded 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.

2003 ~ A suicide truck bomb struck U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/hchr/cv.htm).

[jseal]

1882 ~ Piotr Tchaikovsky's “1812 Overture (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzMGzBKRttU)” debuted in Moscow.

1890 ~ Birthday of H. P. Lovecraft (http://www.hplovecraft.com/), Horror Writer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Jim Reeves, country and western singer.

1940 ~ UK PM Winston Churchill paid tribute to the RAF, saying, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=388#so_much_owed)”

1941 ~ Birthday of Slobodan Milosevic (http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/milosevic.html), former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

1968 ~ Warsaw Pact troops and tanks invaded Czechoslovakia (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0820.html#top) to end the Prague Spring of political liberalization.

1991 ~ Downfall 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 (http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/1998/1998rcs2-217/1998rcs2-217.html).

1998 ~ The U.S. launched cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

2001 ~ Death of Sir Fred Hoyle (http://www.cf.ac.uk/maths/wickramasinghe/hoyle.html), Astronomer, Science Fiction Writer.

[jseal]

1858 ~ The first of seven debates (http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/debates.htm) between U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas was held.

1872 ~ Birthday of Aubrey Beardsley, English Illustrator (http://www.artpassions.net/cgi-bin/show_image.pl?../galleries/beardsleye/examherald_e.jpg).

1904 ~ Birthday of Count Basie (http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_basie_count.htm), Bandleader.

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

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

1940 ~ Death of Leon Trotsky (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/index.htm), exiled Russian revolutionary.

1959 ~ Hawaii was admitted as the 50th U.S. state (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0821.html#article).

1983 ~ Philippine opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was murdered (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/21/newsid_2534000/2534945.stm) moments after stepping off a plane at Manila International Airport.

1986 ~ Suffocating gas erupted from volcanic Lake Nyos (http://pagesperso-orange.fr/mhalb/nyos/) in Cameroon, killing more than 1,700.

1991 ~ A hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

[jseal]

1485 ~ The Battle of Bosworth Field (http://www.pomian.demon.co.uk/bosworth.htm) ended the Wars of the Roses.

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

1862 ~ Birthday of Claude Debussy, Composer.

1893 ~ Birthday of Dorothy Parker (http://www.dorothyparker.com/), Writer & Wit .

1902 ~ Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to ride in an automobile (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0822.html#article).

1920 ~ Birthday of Ray Bradbury (http://www.raybradbury.com/), science fiction author and fantasy author (Fahrenheit 451).

1962 ~ The Savannah (http://www.atomicinsights.com/jul95/failure.html), the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completed its maiden voyage.

1978 ~ Death of Jomo Kenyatta (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/22/newsid_2500000/2500553.stm), Kenya's founding father.

2001 ~ For the Geeks among us, a sad day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_room_coffee_pot). The Trojan room coffee pot is switched off for the last time.

2007 ~ On a day that will live in MLB infamy, the Baltimore Orioles were whomped by the Texas Rangers, 30 – 3! :yikes:

[jseal]

1305 ~ Execution of William Wallace (http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-vision_reflections/wallace_2774.jsp).

1754 ~ Birthday of King Louis XVI (http://wsu.edu/~dee/REV/LOUISXVI.HTM) of France.

1806 ~ Death of Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist.

1833 ~ Slavery was abolished (http://www.anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/huk-1833act.htm) in the English colonies.

1912 ~ Birthday of Gene Kelly (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/kelly_g_homepage.html), Dancer & Actor.

1926 ~ Death of Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor.

1927 ~ Italian-born anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0823.html#article) in Boston.

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

1990 ~ Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/23/newsid_2512000/2512289.stm).

1996 ~ Osama bin Laden's fatwa entitled "A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html)" was published in Al Quds Al Arabi.

[jseal]

1456 ~ The printing of the Gutenberg Bible (http://www.ideafinder.com/features/everwonder/won-printbook.htm) was completed.

1880 ~ Birthday of Joshua Lionel Cowen (http://www.lionel.com/), 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.

1939 ~ The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (also known as Nazi-Soviet Pact) was signed.

1960 ~ Birthday of Cal Ripken, Jr. (http://www.ripkenbaseball.com/calripken/bio/), baseball player.

1979 ~ Death of Hanna Reitsch (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/reitsch.html), German test pilot.

1993 ~ Michael Jackson was accused of child abuse (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/24/newsid_2512000/2512077.stm).

1992 ~ Hurricane Andrew (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0824.html#article) hit South Florida.

2006 ~ "Planet" was redefined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) such that Pluto is no longer considered a planet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#IAU_decision_and_the_.22Great_Pluto_War.22).

[Oldfart]

If you want to know the story of a giant woman in a petite package, look up Hanna.

[jseal]

1835 ~ The New York Sun printed The Great Moon Hoax (http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/moonhoax.html).

1867 ~ Death of Michael Faraday, Scientist.

1875 ~ Matthew Webb became the first man to swim the English Channel (http://www.trivia-library.com/a/first-man-to-swim-the-english-channel-capt-matthew-webb-part-1.htm).

1894 ~ Shibasaburo Kitasato discovered the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and published his findings in The Lancet.

1900 ~ Birthday of Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1953/krebs-bio.html), Scientist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953.

1900 ~ Death of Friedrich Nietzsche (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/), Philosopher.

1918 ~ Birthday of Leonard Bernstein, Conductor & Composer.

1944 ~ Paris was liberated by Allied forces (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0825.html#article) after four years of Nazi occupation.

1982 ~ Voyager 2 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/25/newsid_2535000/2535545.stm) spacecraft flew by Neptune.

1991 ~ Linus Torvalds sent the email announcing his project to create the Linux (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Main_Page) operating system.

[jseal]

55 B.C. ~ Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

1071 ~ The Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert (http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/articles/markham.htm).

1498 ~ Michelangelo commissioned to carve the Pieta.

1839 ~ The ship Amistad (http://www.amistadamerica.org/) was captured off Long Island.

1847 ~ Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic.

1910 ~ Birthday of Mother Teresa (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-bio.html) of Calcutta, Blessed.

1920 ~ The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment19/), guaranteeing women the right to vote, was declared in effect (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0826.html#article).

1961 ~ The International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto (http://www.hhof.com/html/gi20300.shtml).

1967 ~ Birthday of Kelly Madison (http://www.kellymadison.com/), porn star.

1996 ~ President Clinton signed welfare reform into law (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=104_cong_bills&docid=f:h3734enr.txt.pdf) under his promise to "end welfare as we know it".

[jseal]

1776 ~ British forces under General William Howe defeated the Americans under General George Washington in the Battle of Long Island (http://www.britishbattles.com/long-island.htm).

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

1828 ~ Krakatoa erupted (http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Krakatau.html); approximately 36,000 people on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra drowned.

1896 ~ Anglo-Zanzibar War (http://www.neatorama.com/2007/02/21/the-worlds-shortest-and-longest-wars/). With a duration of only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in recorded history.

1908 ~ Birthday of Lyndon B. Johnson (http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/biographys.hom/lbj_bio.asp), 36th U.S. president.

1939 ~ First jet aircraft flight; a Heinkel He 178, piloted by Erich Warsitz.

1945 ~ American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II.

1947 ~ Birthday of Harry Reems (http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/feature.jsp?id=146685&page=1), Porn Star.

1962 ~ The Mariner 2 space probe launched (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0827.html#article) to Venus.

1967 ~ Death of Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/27/newsid_3767000/3767499.stm).

[Oldfart]

Ah, the Anglo-Zanzibar War. Bang!! OK , we give up.

Bloody marvellous.

[IowaMan]

They must've had a better exit strategy than the U.S. :p

[Oldfart]

No, they stayed there for the next zillion years, a bit like Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

[jseal]

430 ~ Death of Augustine of Hippo (http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/augustine/), Philosopher, Theologian.

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

1828 ~ Birthday of Leo Tolstoy (http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/), Author. His “The Law of Love and the Law of Violence” influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.

1845 ~ First issue of Scientific American (http://www.sciam.com/) magazine published.

1850 ~ Richard Wagner's opera “Lohengrin” premiered, from which comes the Bridal Chorus, traditionally played at Western weddings, and commonly known as "Here Comes the Bride (http://www.trivia-library.com/b/story-and-origins-of-famous-songs-here-comes-the-bride.htm)".

1897 ~ Birthday of Charles Boyer (http://www.themave.com/Boyer/), Actor.

1963 ~ During a civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0828.html#article) in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm)” speech.

1988 ~ Ramstein airshow disaster (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ5gMoKlqpI&feature=related): 75 people were killed and 346 seriously injured.

1990 ~ Iraq declared Kuwait to be a province of Iraq.

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

[jseal]

1632 ~ Birthday of John Locke (http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Locke.htm), Philosopher.

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

1896 ~ Chop suey was invented (http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/chopsuey.asp) in New York City.

1949 ~ The Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon (http://www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=50) at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

1952 ~ Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" (http://interglacial.com/~sburke/stuff/cage_433.html) in Woodstock, New York.

1957 ~ Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., ended the longest filibuster in Senate history after talking for 24 hours, 18 minutes against a civil rights bill.

1966 ~ The Beatles performed their last concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

1981 ~ Birthday of Lanny Barbie, Canadian Porn actress (http://www.lanniebarby.com/).

1991 ~ The Downfall of the Soviet Union: The Supreme Soviet suspended all activities of the Soviet Communist Party (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0829.html#article).

2005 ~ Hurricane Katrina made landfall (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/29/newsid_4947000/4947378.stm) along the Louisiana coast, overwhelming the levees protecting New Orleans and causing massive flooding.[/QUOTE]

[jseal]

1797 ~ Birthday of Mary Shelley, Author (Frankenstein (http://www.sangfroid.com/frank/)).

1862 ~ Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run (http://www.civilwarhome.com/2manassa.htm) in Manassas, Va..

1871 ~ Birthday of Ernest Rutherford (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1908/rutherford-bio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908.

1918 ~ Birthday of Baseball hall-of-famer Ted Williams (http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/willite01.shtml).

1940 ~ Death of J.J. Thomson (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1906/thomson-bio.html), English physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 1906. Prof. Thomson identified the electron as a subatomic particle, the first one to be discovered. In one of the greatest ironies of modern physics his son, G.P. Thomson (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1937/thomson-bio.html) later received the prize for proving that the electron was also, in fact, a wave.

1963 ~ Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0830.html#article) went into operation.

1963 ~ Death of Guy Burgess, English-born Soviet spy.

1987 ~ Thurgood Marshall (http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm) confirmed as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1999 ~ East Timorese voted for independence in a referendum.

2006 ~ Death of Glenn Ford (http://www.glennford.com/), Canadian-born actor.

[jseal]

1879 ~ Birthday of Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel (http://www.alma-mahler.at/engl/almas_life/almas_life.html). This woman knew how to live!

1888 ~ Mary Ann Nichols murdered. She was perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper (http://www.jack-the-ripper-walk.co.uk/jack_the_ripper_history.htm)'s victims.

1918 ~ Birthday of Alan Jay Lerner, American composer ( Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady (http://www.foxhome.com/myfairlady/index_frames.html)).

1935 ~ Birthday of Frank Robinson (http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-frankrobinson-storygallery,0,6870416.storygallery?coll=bal_sports_baseball_xpromo), Baseball Player, Manager.

1945 ~ Birthday of Itzhak Perlman, Violinist.

1945 ~ Birthday of Van Morrison, Irish musician (“Brown-Eyed Girl", "Moondance" and "Domino").

1962 ~ Trinidad and Tobago (http://www.visittnt.com/) became independent.

1980 ~ Solidarity labor union formed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4194204.stm) in Poland.

1997 ~ Death of Diana, Princess of Wales (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0831.html#article), in a car crash in Paris.

1998 ~ North Korea reportedly launched its first satellite.

[jseal]

1653 ~ Birthday of Johann Pachelbel, Composer. Remember the theme music of “Ordinary People”? That’s “Pachelbel's Canon (http://www.helander.se/stefan/pachelbel/files/canonstr.mid)” (which is not really a Canon).

1875 ~ Birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs (http://www.tarzan.org/official_biography_part1.html), Writer, creator of Tarzan.

1914 ~ The last Passenger Pigeon died (http://www.eco-action.org/dt/pigeon.html) in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1939 ~ Germany attacked Poland (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0901.html#article), beginning World War II.

1946 ~ Birthday of Barry Gibb, English singer (Bee Gees).

1967 ~ Death of Siegfried Sassoon, English poet.

1972 ~ Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky (http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/7072$wix.htm) to become the world chess champion.

1976 ~ Birthday of Jada Fire (http://www.clubjadafire.com/), Porn actress.

1983 ~ Korean Air Flight KAL-007 was shot down (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/1/newsid_2493000/2493469.stm) 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 (http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/titanic/technology/technology.html).

[jseal]

31 B.C. ~ Battle of Actium (http://luna.cas.usf.edu/~murray/actium/brochure.html): 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 ~ The Great Fire of London (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/londonfire.htm) started in Pudding Lane at the house of Thomas Farrinor near London Bridge. Samuel Pepys, a neighbor, was woken by the fire at around 1 AM. The fire burned for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died.

1752 ~ The UK adopted the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.

1898 ~ The Battle of Omdurman (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/empire/episodes/episode_68.shtml): British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeated Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, establishing British dominance in the Sudan.

1945 ~ The official surrender of Japan was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0902.html#article) 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, schoolteacher & astronaut.

1964 ~ Death of Alvin York (http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/sgtayork.htm), Hero. He was the most decorated American soldier of World War I.

1969 ~ Death of Ho Chi Minh (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNhochiminh.htm), Vietmamese Revolutionary, President & Prime Minister.

1973 ~ Death of J. R. R. Tolkien (http://www.tolkiensociety.org/), British writer.

1991 ~ The U.S. recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.