Strange Days

[jseal]

1885 ~ Louis Riel (http://www.shsb.mb.ca/Riel/indexenglish.htm), Canadian rebel leader and "Father of Manitoba", executed for high treason.

1895 ~ Birthday of Paul Hindemith, Composer.

1920 ~ Qantas was registered under the name of “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited”.

1922 ~ Birthday of Gene Amdahl, computer scientist (http://coverclock.blogspot.com/2006/10/gene-amdahl-and-albert-einstein.html).

1933 ~ The U.S. and the USSR (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1116.html#article) established diplomatic relations.

1945 ~ Operation Paperclip (http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/project_paperclip.htm): The U.S. Army secretly admited 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.

1959 ~ The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music)" opened on Broadway.

1960 ~ Death of Clark Gable, Actor.

1979 ~ Sir Anthony Blunt (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/16/newsid_3907000/3907233.stm), a former security service officer, identified as the fourth man in the "Philby affair (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SSphilby.htm)".

2006 ~ Death of Milton Friedman (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1976/friedman-autobio.html), American economist.

[jseal]

1871 ~ The National Rifle Association was granted a charter by the state of New York.

1887 ~ Birthday of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-leaders/ww2/montgomery.htm).

1929 ~ Death of Herman Hollerith, Statistician.

1944 ~ Birthday of Danny DeVito, American actor.

1960 ~ Birthday of RuPaul (http://www.rupaul.com/bio/index.shtml), American drag entertainer.

1968 ~ Birthday of Amber Michaels (http://www.ambermichaels.com/), German Porn Actress.

1970 ~ In one of the greatest successes of the Soviet lunar exploration program (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunarussr.html), The USSR landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1 (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990109.html).

1970 ~ Douglas Engelbart received a patent for the first computer mouse (http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_computer_mouse_patent.htm).

1997 ~ An Islamic extremist group killed 60 tourists (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/17/newsid_2519000/2519581.stm) at Luxor, Egypt.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California (http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/3333/).

[jseal]

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1836 ~ Birthday of Sir William S. Gilbert (http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/html/gilbert.html), Dramatist.

1916 ~ World War I (http://www.firstworldwar.com/): First Battle of the Somme, (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/somme.htm) which started on July 1, ended in stalemate – Approx. 1,120,000 casualties, 310,000 killed or missing.

1926 ~ George Bernard Shaw refused to accept the money for his Nobel Prize (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1925/shaw-bio.html), saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."

1928 ~ The animated short Steamboat Willie (http://www.disneyshorts.org/years/1928/steamboatwillie.html), the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, was released.

1968 ~ Death of Niels Bohr (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1922/bohr-bio.html), Danish physicist, awarded the The Nobel Prize in Physics 1922.

1976 ~ Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1118.html#article) after the dictatorship of General Franco.

1978 ~ Jonestown, Guyana mass suicide (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm): 914 die, including 276 children.

2003 ~ The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry.

2004 ~ Fox hunting outlawed in England and Wales.

[jseal]

1805 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand de Lesseps, Suez Canal engineer.

1828 ~ Death of Franz Schubert (http://home.swipnet.se/~w-18046/schub.html), Austrian Composer.

1863 ~ U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/gadrft.html) at the military cemetery dedication ceremony (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1119.html#article) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

1884 ~ Birthday of José Raúl Capablanca (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/capablanca/capablanca.htm), Cuban Chess Grand Master.

1917 ~ Birthday of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India.

1941 ~ World War II: The Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sank each other (http://www.hmassydney.com.au/) off the coast of Western Australia.

1969 ~ The second Apollo mission, Apollo 12 (http://www.astronomytoday.com/exploration/apollo.html), landed on the Moon – in “the Ocean of Storms”.

1977 ~ Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/19/newsid_2520000/2520467.stm) and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.

1990 ~ Pop group Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy Award because they did not sing at all on the "Girl You Know It’s True" album.

1998 ~ Lewinsky scandal (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/resources/lewinsky/timeline/): The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against President Clinton.

[jseal]

1889 ~ Birthday of Edwin Hubble (http://www.edwinhubble.com/), Astronomer.

1924 ~ Birthday of Benoît Mandelbrot (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Mandelbrot.html), Mathematician.

1945 ~ Nuremberg Trials (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1120.html#article) began: Trials of 20 German Nazi leaders charged with war crimes during World War II started at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.

1947 ~ The Princess Elizabeth (http://www.britainexpress.com/royals/queen.htm) married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (http://www.britainexpress.com/royals/philip.htm) at Westminster Abbey in London.

1975 ~ Death of Francisco Franco, Spanish Head of State (1936-1975).

1976 ~ Death of Trofim Lysenko, Russian biologist.

1995 ~ Diana, Princess of Wales, admitted to adultery (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_4341000/4341436.stm) during a television interview.

1998 ~ The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html), was launched.

1998 ~ A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declared accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin (http://mideastnews.com/laden20.htm)" in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

2007 ~ Death of Ian Smith, Rhodesian politician.

[jseal]

1898 ~ Birthday of René Magritte, Belgian painter (http://www.magritte.com/5_1.cfm?img=04).

1953 ~ Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced that the skull of the "Piltdown Man" was a hoax.

1964 ~ Verrazano Narrows Bridge (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1121.html#article) opened.

1969 ~ The first ARPANET link was established.

1976 ~ Birthday of Dasha, Czech Porn actress.

1979 ~ The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/21/newsid_4187000/4187184.stm) was attacked by a mob and razed.

1980 ~ Lake Peigneur drained (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHol4ICeDoo) into an underlying salt deposit.

1985 ~ U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_pollard.html) for giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison.

1995 ~ Toy Story (http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/ts/) was released as the first feature-length film created using only computer-generated imagery.

1996 ~ Death of Abdus Salam (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1979/salam-bio.html), awarded one third of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1979.

[dicksbro]

1985 ~ U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_pollard.html) for giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison.
Just think, if he'd been a child molester, he probably would already be released and living in a house near you living on a government allowance. :mad:

[jseal]

1718 ~ English pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was killed in battle off the coast of Virginia.

1890 ~ Birthday of Charles de Gaulle, General, President of France.

1963 ~ Death of C. S. Lewis (http://cslewis.drzeus.net/bio/), Author.

1963 ~ Death of Aldous Huxley, Author. (Brave New World (http://www.huxley.net/))

1963 ~ President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1122.html#article).

1968 ~ The Beatles released The White Album (http://www.beatletracks.com/btwhite.html).

1977 ~ British Airways began London to New York City supersonic Concorde service (http://www.concordesst.com/).

1981 ~ Death of Hans Adolf Krebs (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1953/krebs-bio.html), German physician and biochemist, awarded one half The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953.

1990 ~ UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549189.stm).

2006 ~ Death of Pat Dobson, part of the Orioles' "Big Four" pitching staff along with Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Jim Palmer.

[themi01]

UGA VII died this week though I am not an alum I am a fan

[jseal]

1860 ~ Birthday of Billy the Kid (http://www.aboutbillythekid.com/), Outlaw.

1869 ~ The "Cutty Sark (http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/index.cfm)" was launched. It is the last example of a Clipper ship.

1887 ~ Birthday of Boris Karloff, Actor.

1888 ~ Birthday of Harpo Marx, Comedian.

1943 ~ U.S. Marines seized control of the Tarawa and Makin atolls (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1123.html#article) from the Japanese.

1955 ~ Death of Shemp Howard, actor, comedian (The Three Stooges)

1963 ~ The first episode of the science fiction TV series "Doctor Who (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056751/)" aired on the BBC.

1993 ~ Rachel Whiteread won both the Turner Prize award for best British modern artist (http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/) and the K Foundation art award for the worst artist (http://www.websters-dictionary-online.com/definition/K+FOUNDATION+ART+AWARD) of the year.

2001 ~ Convention on Cybercrime (http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/185.htm) is signed in Budapest, Hungary.

2002 ~ Sectarian violence force the Miss World contest to move to London from Nigeria (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/23/newsid_3226000/3226740.stm).

[jseal]

1642 ~ Abel Tasman (http://gutenberg.net.au/pages/tasman.html) became the first European to discover the island of Tasmania.

1853 ~ Birthday of Bat Masterson, Gunslinger, Policeman, Sports Reporter.

1859 ~ British naturalist Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1228)", a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection.

1868 ~ Birthday of Scott Joplin (http://www.scottjoplin.org/biography.htm), Musician.

1941 ~ Birthday of Pete Best, original drummer of The Beatles.

1947 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10 (http://www.answers.com/topic/hollywood-ten) after they refused to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1963 ~ Death of Lee Harvey Oswald (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1124.html#article), assassination suspect.

1989 ~ The Velvet Revolution: The leadership of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia resigned (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/24/newsid_2546000/2546883.stm).

1991 ~ Death of Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen).

1998 ~ America Online announced it would acquire Netscape Communications (http://news.com.com/2100-1023-218360.html?legacy=cnet).

[jseal]

1844 ~ Birthday of Karl Benz (http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbenz.htm), Engineer.

1867 ~ Alfred Nobel patented dynamite.

1913 ~ Birthday of Lewis Thomas, Physician & Essayist (http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Thomas/mahlers-ninth.html).

1940 ~ Woody Woodpecker first appeared in the film "Knock Knock (http://www.toonopedia.com/woody.htm)"

1952 ~ Birthday of Imran Khan, Pakistani test cricketer.

1968 ~ Death of Upton Sinclair, Journalist, Politician, Writer.

1974 ~ Death of U Thant (http://www.un.org/Overview/SG/sg3bio.html), Burmese UN Secretary-General.

1986 ~ The Iran-Contra affair (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1125.html#article) became public knowledge.

1998 ~ The Turkish government led by PM Mesut Yilmaz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/25/newsid_4141000/4141566.stm) collapsed after losing a no-confidence motion over corruption allegations.

1999 ~ Six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez was rescued (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/elian/etc/eliancron.html) by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida.

[jseal]

1922 ~ Birthday of Charles M. Schulz, Cartoonist.

1939 ~ Birthday of Tina Turner, the Queen of Rock & Roll.

1942 ~ President Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1126.html#article), beginning in December.

1968 ~ Cream (http://www.popmatters.com/books/reviews/c/cream-worlds-first.shtml) played their farewell concert.

1976 ~ The Band (http://theband.hiof.no/history/part_0.html) played their farewell concert.

1981 ~ Birthday of Aurora Snow (http://www.aurorasnowxxx.com/Aurora%20Snow%20HOME2.htm), Porn Star.

1981 ~ Death of Max Euwe (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Euwe.html), World Chess Master.

1983 ~ £25m in gold was stolen (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/26/newsid_2529000/2529235.stm) from a warehouse near Heathrow airport.

2003 ~ Last ever flight (http://www.concordeatfilton.org.uk/history/) by Concorde.

2008 ~ Ten coordinated terrorist attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists killed 164 and injured more than 250 people in Mumbai (Bombay), India.

[jseal]

8 BC ~ Death of Horace (http://www.crystalinks.com/horace.html), poet. Remembered for, among other things, “Carpe Diem” (seize the day).

1095 ~ Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html) at the Council of Clermont.

1895 ~ Alfred Nobel (http://nobelprize.org/nobel/alfred-nobel/) signed his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he died.

1921 ~ Birthday of Alexander Dubcèk, Czech politician.

1942 ~ Birthday of Jimi Hendrix, musician.

1946 ~ Indian P.M. Jawaharlal Nehru appealed to the U.S. and the USSR to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster".

India would later develop its indigenous nuclear WMD.

1973 ~ The U.S. Senate confirmed President-to-be Gerald Ford (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1127.html#article) as vice president, succeeding Spiro Agnew, who'd resigned.

1977 ~ Birthday of Mika Tan (http://www.mikatan.com/pages/faq.html), American Porn actress.

1978 ~ Birthday of Shy Love (http://shylove.com/tour1/?nats=NDQ0OjQ6NTE,0,0,0,0), Porn Star.

1990 ~ John Major (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/27/newsid_2528000/2528847.stm) followed Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the UK.

[jseal]

1811 ~ Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yftk_cnbwKQ&feature=related), the "Emperor Concerto," premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.

1820 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Engels, social philosopher.

1943 ~ President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1128.html#article).

1954 ~ Death of Enrico Fermi (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1938/fermi-bio.html), Physicist.

1969 ~ The Rolling Stones (http://www.rollingstones.com/home.php) released the classic album Let It Bleed (http://album.lyricsfreak.com/r/rolling+stones/let+it+bleed_20009171.html).

1969 ~ Birthday of Lexington Steele (http://www.lexsteele.com/home.php), Porn Actor.

1994 ~ Death of Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer.

1994 ~ Death of Jerry Rubin, social activist.

1994 ~ Norway voted to reject membership (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/28/newsid_4208000/4208314.stm) in the European Union for the second time.

2000 ~ The eighth tar drop fell in the University of Queensland pitch drop experiment (http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/pitchdrop/pitchdrop.shtml).

[jseal]

1643 ~ Death of Claudio Monteverdi, Composer.

1832 ~ Birthday of Louisa May Alcott (http://www.louisamayalcott.org/), Writer.

1890 ~ At West Point, New York, the U.S. Naval Academy defeated the U.S. Military Academy 24-0 in the first Army–Navy football game (http://www.phillylovesarmynavy.com/).

1898 ~ Birthday of C. S. Lewis (http://cslewis.drzeus.net/), Writer.

1944 ~ The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock (http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/blbio.htm) and Vivien Thomas (http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/vthomas.htm).

1947 ~ The UN passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1129.html#article).

1975 ~ The name "Micro-soft" (for "microcomputer software") is first used in a letter from Bill Gates to Paul Allen.

1982 ~ Birthday of Krystal Steal, Porn Actress.

1990 ~ The UN Security Council passed Security Council Resolution 678 (http://www.fas.org/news/un/iraq/sres/sres0678.htm), authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

2001 ~ Death of George Harrison (http://www.georgeharrison.com/), musician.

[jseal]

1667 ~ Birthday of Jonathan Swift (http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/swift.htm), Writer & Satirist.

1835 ~ Birthday of Mark Twain, Writer (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court).

1872 ~ First international soccer match played at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland.

1874 ~ Birthday of Sir Winston Churchill (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/biography), British political leader & Writer.

1936 ~ In London, the Crystal Palace (http://www.victorianstation.com/palace.html) was destroyed in a fire. It had been built for the 1851 Great Exhibition.

1939 ~ Soviet forces crossed the Finnish border in several places and bombed Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the Winter War (http://www.winterwar.com/).

1900 ~ Death of Oscar Wilde (http://www.cmgworldwide.com/historic/wilde/), Writer.

1994 ~ The burning Achille Lauro abandoned (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/30/newsid_2525000/2525643.stm) off east Africa.

1995 ~ President Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1130.html#article).

1999 ~ The anti-globalization movement caught police unprepared and forced the cancellation of opening ceremonies of a WTO meeting.

[jseal]

1083 ~ Birthday of Anna Comnena (http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/heroine5.html), Byzantine historian.

1824 ~ U.S. presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college (http://www.thegreenpapers.com/Hx/ElectoralCollege.html) votes in the election, the House of Representatives was given the task to decide the winner, as stipulated by the Twelfth Amendment.

1835 ~ Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.

1935 ~ Birthday of Woody Allen, Film Director & Actor & Comedian.

1954 ~ Birthday of Annette Haven (http://www.annettehavenonline.com/annette_haven_main.html), Porn actress.

1955 ~ Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/1/newsid_4398000/4398912.stm) to a white man and was arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws.

1959 ~ The Antarctic Treaty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1201.html#article) signed, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity.

1964 ~ Death of J. B. S. Haldane (http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/causes-of-evolution/), Scottish geneticist.

1990 ~ English and French Channel Tunnel workers met (http://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/December/01/about.html;jsessionid=A89257236450367A41DF85D2189DD790.public2) beneath the English Channel.

1991 ~ Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.

[jseal]

1814 ~ Death of Marquis de Sade (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/desade.htm), Writer.

1859 ~ Militant abolitionist leader John Brown was hanged (http://www.wvculture.org/History/jnobrown.html) for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.

1942 ~ Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (http://www.atomicmuseum.com/tour/manhattanproject.cfm).

1954 ~ Senator McCarthy was censured (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1202.html#article) for conduct unbecoming to a senator.

1961 ~ Cuban leader Fidel Castro (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/244974.stm) declared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.

1971 ~ Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain formed the United Arab Emirates.

1981 ~ Birthday of Isabella Soprano, Porn Actress.

1990 ~ Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (http://cocaine.org/colombia/pablo-escobar.html) was shot and killed in Medellín.

1991 ~ Apple release the first version of QuickTime (http://developer.apple.com/quicktime/).

2001 ~ Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

[jseal]

1815 ~ Death of John Carroll (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03381b.htm) - First Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S.

1857 ~ Birthday of Joseph Conrad (http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/), Writer.

1894 ~ Death of Robert Louis Stevenson, Writer.

1919 ~ Death of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/renoir.html), Painter.

1947 ~ ''A Streetcar Named Desire (http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/streetcar/index.html)'' by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.

1967 ~ At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, Lewis Washkansky became the first human to receive a heart transplant. The transplant team was headed by Christiaan Barnard (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bmbarn.html).

1984 ~ Bhopal Disaster (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1203.html#article): A leak from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed nearly 3,000 people in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

1989 ~ Formal end of the Cold War (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/3/newsid_4119000/4119950.stm).

1999 ~ NASA lost contact with the Mars Polar Lander just before it entered the Martian atmosphere.

1999 ~ Death of Madeline Kahn, Actress & Comedian.

[Oldfart]

25 years since Bhopal?

Amazing.

[jseal]

1110 ~ The Crusaders captured Sidon.

1642 ~ Death of Cardinal Richelieu, French statesman.

1674 ~ Father Jacques Marquette founded a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan which would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois.

1679 ~ Death of Thomas Hobbes (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/hobbes.html), political philosopher.

1849 ~ Birthday of Crazy Horse (http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/crazyhorse.htm), American Indian leader.

1872 ~ The Mary Celeste (http://www.fortogden.com/maryceleste.html) was found by the British brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged.

1945 ~ The U.S. Senate approved United States participation in the United Nations (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1204.html#article).

1976 ~ Death of Benjamin Britten (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/4/newsid_2519000/2519877.stm), Composer.

1980 ~ Led Zeppelin (http://www.led-zeppelin.com/) announced its breakup.

1981 ~ Birthday of Courtney Cummz (http://www.courtneycummz.net/tour1/?nats=ODozOjM,0,0,0,0), Porn actress.

[jseal]

1791 ~ Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (http://www.mozartproject.org/), Composer.

1847 ~ Jefferson Davis was elected to the U.S. Senate.

1890 ~ Birthday of Fritz Lang (http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/lang/filmography.html), film director.

1901 ~ Birthday of Werner Heisenberg (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1932/heisenberg-bio.html), awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1932.

1901 ~ Birthday of Walt Disney, film producer.

1926 ~ Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/Potemkin.html), debuted.

1933 ~ Prohibition ended (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1205.html#article): The Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This overturned the 18th Amendment, which had outlawed the inter-state sale of alcohol.

1969 ~ Life Magazine reported the My Lai Massacre (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,107922,00.html).

1995 ~ The Sri Lankan armed forces took Jaffna (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/5/newsid_4618000/4618661.stm) from the Tamil Tigers.

2006 ~ Death of David Bronstein, Ukrainian-born chess grandmaster.

[Neige]

1909 ~ Foundation of les Canadiens de Montréal!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jseal]

1884 ~ The Thirteenth Amendment (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment13/) to the U. S. Constitution, banning slavery, was ratified.

1889 ~ Death of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America.

1917 ~ A munitions explosion (http://www.halifaxexplosion.org/intro.html) killed more than 1,900 people and destroyed part of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1920 ~ Birthday of Dave Brubeck, jazz musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Conductor.

1947 ~ Everglades National Park (http://www.nps.gov/ever/) in Florida was dedicated by President Truman.

1957 ~ The first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit, Vanguard TV3, was renamed 'Flopnik (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK6a6Hkp94o)'.

1989 ~ Marc Lépine killed 14 women (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-398/disasters_tragedies/montreal_massacre/) in Montreal, Quebec.

1992 ~ In Ayodhya, India, Hindus demolished the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/6/newsid_3712000/3712777.stm).

2002 ~ Death of Philip Berrigan (http://www.jonahhouse.org/danProfile.htm), civil rights activist.

[dicksbro]

I didn't realize that Dave Brubeck was born in 1920. Wow! Loved his music. He, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. :thumbs:

[jseal]

43 BC ~ Death of Cicero, Roman politician and author.

1787 ~ Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1928 ~ Birthday of Noam Chomsky (http://www.chomsky.info/), Linguist.

1941 ~ The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1207.html#article) brought the U.S. into World War II.

1963 ~ Instant replay is used for the first time in a Army-Navy game.

1970 ~ Death of Rube Goldberg, best known for his cartoons depicting Rube Goldberg machines (http://www.rubegoldberg.com/).

1971 ~ Birthday of Chasey Lain (http://www.perfectchasey.com/biography.php), Porn Actress.

1972 ~ Launch of Apollo 17 (http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/imagery/apollo/AS17/a17.htm), the last manned lunar landing mission.

1975 ~ Indonesia invaded East Timor (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/EastTimor_KH.html).

1993 ~ Death of Wolfgang Paul (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1989/paul-autobio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1989.

[jseal]

1542 ~ Birthday of Mary, Queen of Scots.

1864 ~ Death of George Boole, Mathematician.

1925 ~ Birthday of Sammy Davis Jr. (http://www.sammydavis-jr.com/), Actor & Singer.

1939 ~ Birthday of James Galway (http://www.jamesgalway.com/), Irish flutist.

1941 ~ The U.S. entered World War II when Congress declared war against Japan (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1208.html#article).

1953 ~ President Eisenhower gave the "Atoms for Peace (http://web.archive.org/web/20070524054513/http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/atoms.htm)" speech.

1978 ~ Death of Golda Meir (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/meir.html), former Prime Minister of Israel.

1980 ~ Mark Chapman murdered former Beatle John Lennon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/8/newsid_2536000/2536321.stm).

1991 ~ Leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed an agreement ending the U.S.S.R. and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0813056.html).

1993 ~ U.S. participation in The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law by President Clinton.

[jseal]

1608 ~ Birthday of John Milton, Poet & Writer.

1868 ~ Birthday of Fritz Haber (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1918/haber-bio.html), German chemist, Nobel prize winner in 1918.

1906 ~ Birthday of Grace Murray Hopper (http://gracehopper.org/2008/about/about-grace-hopper/), American computer pioneer.

1961 ~ Tanganyika became independent from the UK.

1961 ~ Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes in Israel.

1968 ~ First demonstration of the computer mouse. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7768481.stm)

1992 ~ Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1209.html#article).

1993 ~ The Hubble Space Telescope was repaired (http://www.stsci.edu/hst/HST_overview/) by astronauts of STS-61.

1996 ~ Death of Mary Leakey (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/klmno/leakey_mary.html), Archeologist & Anthropologist.

2004 ~ Canada's Supreme Court (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/samesexrights/2004scc079.wpd.txt) ruled that homosexual marriage was constitutional.

[jseal]

1815 ~ Birthday of Ada Lovelace (http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html), first computer programmer.

1830 ~ Birthday of Emily Dickinson, Poet.

1896 ~ Death of Alfred Nobel (http://nobelprize.org/nobel/alfred-nobel/biographical/timeline/index.html), chemist, founder of the Nobel Prize.

1907 ~ President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1941 ~ Japanese forces landed in the Philippines, captured Guam and sank the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse (http://www.forcez-survivors.org.uk/).

1948 ~ the U.N. General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1210.html#article).

1953 ~ Dr. Albert Schweitzer (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1952/schweitzer-bio.html) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1978 ~ Prime Minister Menachem Begin and President Anwar Sadat (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1978/index.html) were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2002 ~ The High Court of Australia handed down its judgment in the internet defamation case of Gutnick v Dow Jones (http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v8n4/nicholson84.html).

2005 ~ Death of Richard Pryor, comedian & actor.

[dicksbro]

2005 ~ Death of Richard Pryor, comedian & actor.
Richard Pryor was a Peorian! Born and raised here, he grew up in his grandmothers brothel. How about that? :)

[Oldfart]

Richard pryor died in 1815?

[dicksbro]

Richard pryor died in 1815?
Sorry about that. Not sure what happened. Either he actually died in 2005 :boink: or he was a whole lot older than he looked. :D

[jseal]

Whenever Oldfart catches me that way, I always write it off as due to quantum fluctuations in the ether - hardware failure. :roflmao:

[jseal]

1725 ~ Birthday of George Mason (http://www.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/gmason/mason.htm), "Father of the Bill of Rights (http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html)".

1803 ~ Birthday of Hector Berlioz, Composer.

1882 ~ Birthday of Max Born (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/born-bio.html), physicist and 1954 Nobel laureate.

1931 ~ The Statute of Westminster (http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/StatuteofWestminster.html) gave legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland.

1941 ~ Germany and Italy declared war on the United States (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1211.html#article).

1969 ~ Birthday of Vishwanathan Anand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2010), World Chess Champion.

1981 ~ Birthday of Nikki Benz (http://www.nikkibenz.com/main.php), Porn Actress.

1994 ~ Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered Russian troops into Chechnya (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_2801000/2801807.stm).

1997 ~ The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was made available for signature.

2001 ~ The People's Republic of China joined the World Trade Organization.

[Oldfart]

Whenever Oldfart catches me that way, I always write it off as due to quantum fluctuations in the ether - hardware failure. :roflmao:

Sheesh!

This is what I get for keeping you guys honest.

mutter mutter There ain't no justice mutter mutter

[dicksbro]

Filling in for jseal this weekend. He'll be back on Monday.


1531 ~ Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City.

1911 ~ The capital of India moved from Calcutta to New Delhi.

1915 ~ Birthday of Frank Sinatra (http://www.franksinatra.com/), Singer & Actor.

1927 ~ Birthday of Robert Noyce (http://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/addlbios/noyce.html), one of the men credited with the invention of the integrated circuit.

1963 ~ Kenya gained its independence (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1212.html#article) from the UK. Uhuru!

1967 ~ Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones avoided a prison term (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/12/newsid_3237000/3237849.stm) for narcotics.

1979 ~ Rhodesia changed its name to Zimbabwe.

1999 ~ Death of Joseph Heller (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/heller.htm), Author.

2000 ~ The U.S.Supreme Court released its decision in Bush v. Gore (http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2000/2000_00_949/).

2006 ~ Death of Peter Boyle (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001967/), Actor.

[dicksbro]

Jseal will be back tomorrow!

1642 ~ Abel Janszoon Tasman (http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/tasman.htm) reached New Zealand.

1784 ~ Death of Samuel Johnson (http://www.samueljohnson.com/briefbio.html), Essayist.

1818 ~ Birthday of Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady.

1925 ~ Birthday of Dick Van Dyke (http://dick-van-dyke.fantribute.com/bio.html), Actor & Comedian.

1939 ~ The Admiral Graf Spee engaged Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles in the Battle of the River Plate (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_the_river_plate.htm).

1945 ~ Execution of Irma Grese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irma_Grese), Nazi war criminal.

1981 ~ Martial law imposed in Poland (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1213.html#article) to try to control the Solidarity labor movement.

1996 ~ Kofi Annan elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

2003 ~ Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3317429.stm) near Tikrit.

2006 ~ The Chinese River Dolphin was declared extinct.

[jseal]

1546 ~ Birthday of Tycho Brahe (http://www.nada.kth.se/~fred/tycho/index.html), Astronomer.

1900 ~ Max Planck published his study of the quantum theory (http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Physics-Max-Planck.htm).

1911 ~ First expedition reached the South Pole (http://www.south-pole.com/p0000101.htm), led by Roald Amundsen.

1939 ~ USSR was expelled (http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1939/391214a.html) from the League of Nations.

1946 ~ The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

1962 ~ Birthday of Ginger Lynn Allen (http://www.gingerlynn.com/), Porn Actress.

1981 ~ Israel annexed the Golan Heights (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1214.html#article).

1985 ~ Death of Roger Maris (http://www.rogermarismuseum.com/), NYY Home Run King.

1989 ~ Death of Andrei D. Sakharov, Russian physicist, awarded the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize.

1995 ~ The Dayton Agreement (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/14/newsid_2559000/2559699.stm) was signed in Paris to end the Yugoslav wars.

[jseal]

1791 ~ The U.S. Bill of Rights (http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=4) ratified.

1890 ~ Death of Sitting Bull (http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/sittingbull.htm), leader of Lakota tribe.

1916 ~ France defeated Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1215.html#article) in Battle of Verdun.

1916 ~ Birthday of Maurice Wilkins (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/wilkins-bio.html), New Zealand-born physicist, co-recipient of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contribution to the elucidation of the structure of DNA.

1919 ~ Birthday of Max Yasgur, owner of the Woodstock Festival site.

1958 ~ Death of Wolfgang Pauli (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1945/pauli-bio.html), Physicist.

1961 ~ An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentenced Adolph Eichmann to death.

1966 ~ Death of Walt Disney (http://www.norsknettskole.no/fag/ressurser/itstud/fuv/gunnargrodal/bio.htm), Animator & Cartoonist.

1982 ~ Spain reopened the border with Gibraltar (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15/newsid_2559000/2559887.stm).

1994 ~ Netscape Navigator 1.0 first released.

[jseal]

1689 ~ The English Bill of Rights (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/england.asp) adopted.

1770 ~ Birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beethoven), Composer.

1775 ~ Birthday of Jane Austen (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jausten.htm), Writer.

1893 ~ World premiere of Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony".

1901 ~ Birthday of Margaret Mead, Anthropologist.

1917 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur C. Clarke (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aclarke.htm), Science Fiction Writer.

1944 ~ The Battle of the Bulge (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/17/newsid_3515000/3515538.stm) began.

1944 ~ A V-2 rocket hit the Rex Cinema (http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html) in Antwerp killing 567 people.

1950 ~ President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1216.html#article) in order to fight “Communist imperialism”.

1998 ~ President Clinton ordered a sustained series of air strikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of UN weapons inspectors.

2007 ~ Death of Dan Fogelberg, Singer & Songwriter.

[jseal]

1778 ~ Birthday of Sir Humphry Davy, English chemist & physicist.

1830 ~ Death of Simón Bolívar (http://www.carpenoctem.tv/military/bolivar.html), Latin American politician & Activist.

1843 ~ A Christmas Carol (http://www.stormfax.com/1dickens.htm), by Charles Dickens, was first published.

1903 ~ The first controlled, powered heavier-than-air flight (http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2002-000128.html) occurred when the Wright brothers took to the air, both of them twice at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1961 ~ India seized Goa from Portugal. (http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1960s/Goa01.html)

1969 ~ The USAF, in closing Project Blue Book (http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/projectbluebook.htm), announced that its UFO investigations found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.

1976 ~ Birthday of Zsanett Égerházi, Hungarian-born Porn Actress.

1979 ~ Birthday of Jaimee Foxworth, mainstrean & Porn Actress.

1982 ~ ”Tootsie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084805/)” opened in theaters.

1989 ~ The pilot episode of The Simpsons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson_family) aired in the U.S.

[jseal]

1737 ~ Death of Antonio Stradivari (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/strd/hd_strd.htm), Italian violin maker.

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1863 ~ Birthday of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (d. 1914)

1912 ~ Official presentation of the discovery of Piltdown Man (http://home.tiac.net/~cri_a/piltdown/piltdown.html).

1936 ~ Death of Andrija Mohorovičić (http://istrianet.org/istria/illustri/mohorovicic/), Croatian seismologist.

1957 ~ The first U.S. civilian nuclear facility to generate electricity (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1218.html#article) went online.

1989 ~ The British Labour Party (http://www.labour.org.uk/home) under Neil Kinnock dropped its policy on trade union closed shops (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/18/newsid_2538000/2538439.stm).

1996 ~ "Ebonics" was declared a language or dialect by the outgoing school board of Oakland, California, whose vote was overturned by the incoming board. The Clinton administration declared "black English" a form of slang that did not belong in the classroom (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/govt/admin/stories/riley122596.htm).

2002 ~ California Governor Grey Davis announced that the state would face a budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier. The budget issue was used to support his 2003 recall from office (http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/07/recall.main/).

2006 ~ Death of Joseph Barbera, of Hanna-Barbera, creators of The Flintstones, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, and Yogi Bear.

[Oldfart]

Joe Barbera brought the Smurfs to the screen in their animated form, but they were

the brainchild of a Belgian cartoonist in the '50s. Wikipedia says that "The Belgian

cartoonist Peyo introduced the Smurfs to the world in a series of comic strips, making

their first appearance in the Belgian magazine Spirou on October 23, 1958."

[dicksbro]

Joe Barbera brought the Smurfs to the screen in their animated form, but they were the brainchild of a Belgian cartoonist in the '50s. Wikipedia says that "The Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced the Smurfs to the world in a series of comic strips, making their first appearance in the Belgian magazine Spirou on October 23, 1958."
Interesting little tidbit there, OF. I didn't know that.

[jseal]

1733 ~ Benjamin Franklin first published Poor Richard's Almanack.

1848 ~ Death of Emily Brontë (http://www.classicreader.com/author/13/about/), Author.

1888 ~ Birthday of Fritz Reiner, Conductor.

1906 ~ Birthday of Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician.

1971 ~ Birthday of Tiffany Towers, Porn Actress (http://www.tnaflix.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ca822d98e539754dae9c).

1979 ~ ”Kramer vs. Kramer (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079417/)”, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, opened in theaters.

1984 ~ The UK and People's Republic of China signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1219.html#article), which returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

1997 ~ "Titanic (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/)" the highest-grossing movie of all-time, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, opened in theaters.

1988 ~ The House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Clinton (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/housevote/housevote.htm) over the Lewinsky scandal.

2003 ~ Libya announced that it would begin to destroy its weapons of mass destruction (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/19/newsid_4002000/4002441.stm).

[jseal]

1833 ~ Birthday of Samuel Mudd (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWmudd.htm), physician, convicted conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

1860 ~ South Carolina became the first state to secede (http://www.civilwarhome.com/scordinance.htm) from the US.

1901 ~ Birthday of Robert Van de Graaff (http://www.jemisonmansion.com/index.php?page=3), Physicist & Inventor.

1968 ~ Death of John Steinbeck (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-bio.html), awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1962.

1989 ~ American troops invaded Panama to remove dictator Manuel Noriega (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1220.html#article).

1991 ~ Paul Keating became the 24th Prime Minister of Australia.

1995 ~ IFOR (Implementation Force), a NATO-led multinational force, began peacekeeping in Bosnia. The task of IFOR was transfered to SFOR (Stabilisation Force) on 21-DEC-96, and transfered to EUFOR (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXbHkkD1jh4) on 02-DEC-05.

1996 ~ Death of Carl Sagan (http://www.planetary.org/about/founders/carl_sagan.html), Astronomer & Writer.

1999 ~ Vermont's Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples.

1999 ~ Macau was returned to the People's Republic of China (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/7066.htm) by Portugal.

[jseal]

1804 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Disraeli, Politician & Writer.

1898 ~ Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium (http://nobelprize.org/physics/articles/curie/).

1913 ~ The first crossword puzzle (http://www.crosswordtournament.com/more/wynne.html) was published, in the New York World.

1918 ~ Birthday of Kurt Waldheim, U.N. Secretary-General & Federal President of Austria.

1940 ~ Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Writer.

1942 ~ Birthday of Hu Jintao (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/zhuanti/Zhuanti_403.html), Chinese president.

1945 ~ Death of George S. Patton (http://www.generalpatton.com/biography.html), U.S. General.

1958 ~ Charles de Gaulle became the first leader of the Fifth Republic (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/21/newsid_3285000/3285109.stm).

1979 ~ Apollo 8 (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo8info.html) was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.

1988 ~ A terrorist bomb exploded in Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1221.html#article) killing 270, including 11 on the ground.

[jseal]

1858 ~ Birthday of Giacomo Puccini, Composer.

1864 ~ Savannah, Georgia fell to the Union (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1222.html#article) army of General Sherman.

1880 ~ Death of George Eliot, Writer.

1942 ~ Adolf Hitler signed the order to develop the V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2 (http://www.v2rocket.com/index.html))rocket as a weapon.

1944 ~ Battle of the Bulge – German troops under the command of General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz demand the surrender of U.S. troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"

1989 ~ Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opened (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/22/newsid_2539000/2539765.stm), ending the division of East and West Germany.

1975 ~ Birthday of Crissy Moran, former (http://www.myspace.com/yourfriendcrissy) Porn Actress (http://www.porneskimo.com/crissy%20moran.htm).

2001 ~ The Afghan Northern Alliance (http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/northern_alliance.htm), handed over power in Afghanistan to the government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

2001 ~ Richard Reid (http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/31/reid.transcript/) tried to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes.

2001 ~ Cc the cat (http://www.wowzone.com/clonecat.htm), the first cloned pet, was born.

[cowgirltease]

Leave it to jseal to know EVERYTHING that happened on this day lol... In 2001 I was headed home from a nervous breakdown from my husband leaving me for my sister-in -law and my father dying...yeah he's a member here.. Remember that DARLIN???? haha no worries.. I have a good man now...... Left my baggage on the plane home. :P

[jseal]

1790 ~ Birthday of Jean François Champollion, Egyptologist. He deciphered the Rosetta Stone (http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/rosetta.html).

1823 ~ “A Visit From St. Nicholas (http://holyjoe.net/poetry/moore.htm)”, by Clement Clarke Moore, was first published.

1834 ~ Death of Thomas Malthus, Demographer and Economist.

1888 ~ Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear.

1947 ~ The transistor was first demonstrated (http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/miraclemo.html) at Bell Laboratories.

1953 ~ Death of Lavrenty Beria, Soviet Communist leader.

1956 ~ British and French forces withdrawn from Suez (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/23/newsid_3294000/3294305.stm), Egypt.

1972 ~ Death of Andrei Tupolev, Soviet aircraft designer (http://www.tupolev.ru/english/Show.asp?SectionID=47).

1986 ~ Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1223.html#article).


Feastdays & Holidays

Fans of Seinfeld - Festivus (http://www.festivusbook.com/) (for the restofus) held.

[jseal]

1818 ~ "Silent Night (http://www.carols.org.uk/silent_night.htm)" composed by Franz Xaver Gruber.

1873 ~ Death of Johns Hopkins (http://www.library.jhu.edu/collections/specialcollections/archives/jacob.html/), Baltimore philanthropist and businessman.

1910 ~ Birthday of Fritz Leiber, Science Fiction writer.

1914 ~ World War I: The "Christmas truce (http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/christmastruce.htm)" begins.

1914 ~ Death of John Muir, Naturalist.

1951 ~ Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors (http://www.nauticom.net/www/planet/files/singersAmahl1.htm)", the first opera written specifically for TV, was first broadcast

1957 ~ Birthday of Hamid Karzai, first democratically elected President of Afghanistan.

1968 ~ The Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/24/newsid_4083000/4083587.stm), read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast.

1974 ~ Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin (http://www.ntlib.nt.gov.au/tracy/advanced/cyc_tracy.html), Australia.

1992 ~ President Bush pardoned 6 people involved in the Iran-Contra scandal (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1224.html#article).

[jseal]

800 ~ Coronation of Charlemagne (http://www.chronique.com/Library/MedHistory/charlemagne.htm) as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

1066 ~ Coronation of William the Conqueror (http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon22.html) as king of England, at Westminster Abbey (http://www.westminster-abbey.org/), London.

1223 ~ Saint Francis of Assisi assembled the first Nativity scene (http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0238.html).

1821 ~ Birthday of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross.

1868 ~ President Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.

1938 ~ Birthday of Karel Čapek (http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notebooks/capek.html), Czech author, inventor of the word robot.

1977 ~ Deathof Charlie Chaplin (http://www.charliechaplin.com/en/infos), Entertainer.

1989 ~ Death of Nicolae Ceauşescu (http://www.ceausescu.org/), Romanian dictator (executed).

1991 ~ Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on TV to announce his resignation (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1225.html#article) as the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).

2000 ~ Death of Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher.

Feastdays & Holidays

The Nativity of Jesus (http://www.christmasarchives.com/quran.html).

[jseal]

1610 ~ Elizabeth Bathory (http://www.abacom.com/~jkrause/bathory.html)'s crimes were uncovered.

1791 ~ Birthday of Charles Babbage, Mathematician and designer of computing machines.

1792 ~ Final trial of Louis XVI of France began.

1890 ~ Death of Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist.

1893 ~ Birthday of Mao Zedong (http://www.china.org.cn/english/Life/52253.htm), Chinese Politician.

1941 ~ Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1226.html#article).

1948 ~ Cardinal Mindszenty arrested in Hungary.

1966 ~ The first Kwanzaa (http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/origins1.shtml) was celebrated.

1991 ~ Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolved the USSR (http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/index.htm).

2004 ~ A tsunami triggered by an earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/26/newsid_4631000/4631713.stm) left more than 216,000 people dead or missing, mostly in southern Asia.

Feastdays & Holidays

Boxing Day (http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxingday.asp).

[jseal]

1571 ~ Birthday of Johannes Kepler, astronomer.

1822 ~ Birthday of Louis Pasteur (http://php.pasteur.net/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=14), Scientist.

1831 ~ Charles Darwin (http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/96feb/darwin.html) embarked on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle.

1871 ~ The world's first cat show was held at the Crystal Palace in London.

1904 ~ James Barrie's play Peter Pan (http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/quickstep/1103/barrie_james.htm) premiered in London.

1932 ~ Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City.

1945 ~ The World Bank (http://www.worldbank.org/) was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.

1945 ~ Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted Indonesia (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/id.html) sovereignty.

1985 ~ Naturalist Dian Fossey (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/fghij/fossey_dian.html) was found murdered in Rwanda.

2001 ~ The U.S. announced plans to hold Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g4mOZQZCTQoyqqgbms6XH7ud4c_wD9CP8IB80), Cuba.

[jseal]

1065 ~ Westminster Abbey (http://www.castles-abbeys.co.uk/Westminster-Abbey.html) consecrated.

1836 ~ Spain recognized Mexico’s independence.

1869 ~ William F. Semple patented chewing gum.

1895 ~ The Lumiere Brothers (http://www.holonet.khm.de/Visual_Alchemy/lumiere.html) gave birth to Cinema at the Grand Cafe in Paris.

1937 ~ Death of Maurice Ravel (http://www.maurice-ravel.net/), French composer.

1951 ~ The Peak District (http://www.cressbrook.co.uk/visits/) became the UK’s first National Park.

1969 ~ Birthday of Linus Torvalds (http://www.linux.org/info/linus.html), Benevolent Dictator for Life of Linux.

1970 ~ Birthday of Francesca Le (http://www.clubfrancesca.com/tour1/?nats=ODoxMjozNQ,0,0,0,0), Porn Actress.

1973 ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn published Gulag Archipelago.

1989 ~ Death of Hermann Oberth (http://www.mufon.com/znews_oberth.html), German physicist.

[jseal]

1170 ~ Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by knights acting under the orders of Henry II.

1851 ~ The first Young Men's Christian Association (http://www.ymca.net/about_the_ymca/history_of_the_ymca.html) (YMCA) in the U.S. opened in Boston.

1890 ~ Defeat at the Battle of Wounded Knee (http://ga.essortment.com/woundedkneewha_rqen.htm) effectively ended American Indian resistance to European settlement of the U.S.

1916 ~ Death of Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk.

1937 ~ The Constitution of Ireland, changing the Irish Free State into Eire (http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=322&HistoryID=aa31), went into effect.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe began dropping incendiary bombs on London (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1229.html#article).

1951 ~ Birthday of Stanley Tookie Williams (http://crime.about.com/od/deathrow/a/tookie2.htm), Gang Leader, Author, & Racist Murderer.

1975 ~ The UK's Sex Discrimination Act (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/29/newsid_2547000/2547249.stm) went into effect.

1845 ~ Birthday of Alexis Amore (http://www.clubalexisamore.com/tour1.html), Peruvian Porn Actress.

1989 ~ Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

[jseal]

1853 ~ The U.S. bought some 45,000 sq miles of land from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase.

1879 ~ The Pirates of Penzance (http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pirates/html/index.html) was first performed.

1911 ~ Sun Yat-sen (http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/sunyat.html) was elected the first president of the Republic of China.

1922 ~ The Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed by the confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine, and Transcaucasian Federation.

1924 ~ Edwin Hubble (http://www.edwinhubble.com/hubble_bio_001.htm) announced the existence of other galaxies.

1937 ~ Birthday of Gordon Banks, the best Goalkeeper ever.

1973 ~ Birthday of Nacho Vidal (http://tour.nachovidalhardcore.com/tour/?nats=fslfsl:ppsnoexit:nachovidalhardco,0,0,0,0), Spanish Porn Actor.

1981 ~ Birthday of Haley Paige (http://www.haleyxxx.com/haley_paige_mainpage.html), Porn Actress.

1993 ~ Israel and the Vatican (http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Vatican/vs002a.htm) established diplomatic relations.

2006 ~ Saddam Hussein hanged (http://www.trueblueliberal.com/2006/12/31/he-is-already-history/) for crimes committed during his brutal reign.[/QUOTE]

[jseal]

404 ~ The last gladiatorial contest took place in Rome.

1879 ~ Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.

1880 ~ Birthday of George Marshall (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1953/marshall-bio.html), U.S. Secretary of State, recipient of 1953 Nobel Peace Prize.

1943 ~ Birthday of John Denver, Singer & Songwriter.

1960 ~ The farthing coin (http://www.treasurerealm.com/coinpapers/england/farthing.html) ceased to be legal tender.

1964 ~ One of my boyhood heroes, Donald Campbell set the world water speed record (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/31/newsid_3243000/3243010.stm), the only man to set both the world land and water speed records in the same year.

1980 ~ Death of Marshall McLuhan (http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/mcluhan.html), Canadian writer.

1995 ~ The last new Calvin and Hobbes (http://calvinethobbes.free.fr/english/c_der.html) cartoon strip was published.

1999 ~ control of the Panama Canal and the Panama Canal Zone (http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html) passed to Panama from the U.S.A.

1999 ~ Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/31/newsid_4102000/4102107.stm). Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president.

[jseal]

1752 ~ Birthday of Betsy Ross, American seamstress.

1801 ~ Discovery of 1 Ceres (http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/asteroids_and_comets/ceres.html), first known asteroid.

1879 ~ Birthday of E. M. Forster (http://musicandmeaning.com/forster/), English novelist.

1895 ~ Birthday of J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director.

1901 ~ Establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia (Federation).

1983 ~ The ARPANET (http://www.dei.isep.ipp.pt/docs/arpa.html) officially changed to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.

1985 ~ The Internet's Domain Name System (http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/docs/whatis.html) created.

1995 ~ The World Trade Organization (http://www.wto.int/) came into existence.

1997 ~ Kofi Annan was appointed Secretary General of the United Nations.

2002 ~ Euro banknotes and coins (http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/cash/index_en.htm) became legal tender.

[jseal]

1727 ~ Birthday of James Wolfe (http://www.militaryheritage.com/wolfe.htm), British general in French and Indian War.

1872 ~ Brigham Young (http://unicomm.byu.edu/about/brigham.aspx) was arrested for bigamy (25 wives).

1882 ~ John D. Rockefeller united his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h957.html).

1904 ~ Death of James Longstreet (http://www.civilwarhome.com/longbio.htm), Confederate general.

1905 ~ The Russian fleet surrender at Port Arthur, China brought the Russo-Japanese War to a close (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0102.html#article).

1920 ~ Birthday of Isaac Asimov (http://www.asimovonline.com/), Russian-born American science fiction author.

1929 ~ Canada and the United States agreed on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.

1974 ~ President Nixon signed a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH.

1994 ~ Death of Dixy Lee Ray, governor of Washington State & chaired the Atomic Energy Commission.

1996 ~ U.S. peacekeepers arrive in Bosnia (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/2/newsid_2547000/2547285.stm).

[jseal]

106 BC ~ Birthday of Cicero (http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/cicero.htm), Roman Statesman & Philosopher.

1521 ~ Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther (http://www.pbs.org/empires/martinluther/).

1777 ~ General George Washington defeats General Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1290.html).

1795 ~ Birthday of Josiah Wedgwood (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REwedgwood.htm), British potter.

1861 ~ Delaware voted to not secede from the United States.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien (http://www.tolkiensociety.org/index.html), South African-born Writer & Philologist.

1956 ~ Birthday of Mel Gibson, Australian Actor & Director.

1979 ~ Death of Conrad Hilton, American hotelier.

1959 ~ Alaska was admitted as the 49th U.S. state (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0103.html#article).

1993 ~ Presidents George Bush and Boris Yeltsin (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/3/newsid_4114000/4114673.stm) signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow. (START).

[jseal]

1785 ~ Birthday of Jakob Grimm, German philologist, elder half of the Grimm Brothers (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html).

1948 ~ Burma gained its independence from the UK.

1958 ~ Sputnik 1 burned up on reentry into Earth's atmosphere (launched 4 October, 1957).

1960 ~ Death of Albert Camus, French Philosopher & Writer.

1961 ~ Death of Erwin Schrödinger (http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger-bio.html), Austrian Physicist, awarderd the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1965 ~ Death of T.S. Eliot (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1948/eliot-bio.html), awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1948.

1965 ~ In his State of the Union address, President Johnson outlined his ''Great Society'' goals (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0104.html#article).

1967 ~ Donald Campbell died (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/4/newsid_2728000/2728987.stm) while trying to break the water speed record.

1980 ~ Birthday of Bobbi Eden (http://www.bobbi-eden.com/t1-nats/?nats=MC4wLjE5LjE5LjAuMC4wLjAuMA), Dutch Porn Actress.

2004 ~ The first of two NASA Mars Rovers, Spirit, landed successfully on Mars (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20040104a.html).

[jseal]

1914 ~ Ford Motor Company (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0105.html#article) announced a $10,000,000 employee give away, and the eight-hour workday.

1929 ~ Birthday of Walter Mondale, American Politician

1933 ~ Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge (http://goldengatebridge.org/research/dates.php) began in San Francisco Bay.

1952 ~ PM Churchill began his last visit to the U.S. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/5/newsid_3304000/3304505.stm)

1970 ~ Death of Max Born (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/born-bio.html), German physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1954.

1972 ~ President Nixon funded the Space Shuttle (http://www.spaceline.org/rocketsum/shuttle-program.html) program development .

1981 ~ Death of Harold C. Urey (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1934/urey-bio.html), American chemist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1934.

1997 ~ Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.

2003 ~ Death of Roy Jenkins, British Politician.

2005 ~ Eris (http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/), the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, was discovered using images taken in 2003.

[jseal]

1412 ~ Birthday of Joan of Arc, Saint & French Patriot.

1822 ~ Birthday of Heinrich Schliemann (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/schliemann_heinrich.html), Archaeologist.

1838 ~ Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrated his telegraph, in Morristown, NJ.

1838 ~ Birthday of Max Bruch, German composer.

1884 ~ Death of Gregor Mendel (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10180b.htm), the father of genetics.

1918 ~ Death of Georg Cantor, German mathematician.

1942 ~ The Pan American Airways “Pacific Clipper (http://www.flyingclippers.com/panam.html)” returned to New York after making the first round-the-world trip by a commercial airplane.

1946 ~ William Joyce (http://www.heretical.com/British/joyce.html) (Lord Haw-Haw) hanged for treason.

1993 ~ Death of Rudolf Nureyev (http://www.nureyev.org/biographie_russie.php), Russian ballet dancer.

1994 ~ Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/6/newsid_4095000/4095661.stm) at Cobo Arena in Detroit. Four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan's rival, Tonya Harding, were later sentenced to prison.


Feastdays & Holidays

Latin Christianity - Epiphany (http://www.cresourcei.org/cyepiph.html).

[jseal]

1610 ~ The astronomer Galileo Galilei sighted the four moons of Jupiter which are now known as the “Galilean moons (http://www.solarviews.com/eng/galdisc.htm)”.

1899 ~ Birthday of Francis Poulenc, French composer.

1916 ~ Birthday of Paul Keres (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=21922), Estonian chess player.

1922 ~ Birthday of Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flutist.

1943 ~ Death of Nikola Tesla (http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm), Inventor & Electrical Engineer.

1953 ~ President Truman, in his State of the Union address, announced that the U.S. had developed a hydrogen bomb (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Library/Teller.html).

1979 ~ Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0107.html#article), the Cambodian capital, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.

1980 ~ The Carter Administration authorized giving a $1.5 billion loan to bail out the Chrysler Corporation (http://www.chrysler.com/en/).

1990 ~ The Leaning Tower of Pisa (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pisa/) was closed to the public.

1999 ~ President Clinton's impeachment trial began in the Senate. (He was later acquitted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.)

[jseal]

1642 ~ Death of Galileo Galilei (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Galileo.html), Astronomer.

1735 ~ Birthday of John Carroll, first Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S.

1918 ~ President Wilson announced his "Fourteen Points (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0108.html#article)" for the aftermath of World War I.

1925 ~ Birthday of Gerald Durrell (http://www.durrellwildlife.org/index.cfm?a=7), Naturalist & Writer.

1926 ~ Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud (http://www.toursaudiarabia.com/ibn-saud.html) became the King of Saudi Arabia.

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Hawking (http://www.hawking.org.uk/index.php/about-stephen), English theoretical physicist.

1958 ~ Bobby Fischer (http://www.chess-poster.com/great_players/fischer.htm) won the U.S. Chess Championship.

1994 ~ Valeri Polyakov began his record setting 437 days in space.

1996 ~ Death of Francois Mitterrand (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FRmitterrand.htm), French president.

1999 ~ Cosmologists announced that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.

[dicksbro]

1999 ~ Cosmologists announced that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.

Is that why there are spiral galaxies ... they're all doing wheelies? :spin:


:D

[Oldfart]

Yes, and the Magellenic clouds are the smoke.

[dicksbro]

And of course they've identified the doppler shift to the red zone ... and here I thought I'd just stayed up too late and my eyes were bloodshot. :shrug:

[Oldfart]

Doppler shift's still easier than a 4 on the floor.

[dicksbro]

Four on the floor ... all with bloodshot eyes? Must have been quite a party. :D

[Oldfart]

It was a blast.

[jseal]

1793 ~ Jean-Pierre Blanchard became the first person to fly in a balloon in the U.S.

1839 ~ The Daguerreotype photography (http://www.daguerre.org/home.php) process publicly demonstrated.

1861 ~ The "Star of the West" was fired upon as it attempted to deliver supplies to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. This was the "Casus belli" of the American Civil War.

1861 ~ Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union.

1903 ~ Hallam Tennyson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallam_Tennyson,_2nd_Baron_Tennyson), son of the poet Alfred Tennyson, became the second Governor-General of Australia.

1913 ~ Birthday of Richard Nixon (http://www.nixoncenter.org/), U.S. President.

1941 ~ Birthday of Joan Baez (http://www.joanbaez.com/), Singer & Activist.

1951 ~ United Nations headquarters (http://www.inetours.com/New_York/Pages/United_Nations.html) officially opened.

1968 ~ The Surveyor 7 space probe (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0109.html#article) made a soft landing on the moon,.

2005 ~ Mahmoud Abbas won (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/9/newsid_4514000/4514342.stm) the election for a successor to Yasser Arafat.

[dicksbro]

1951 ~ United Nations headquarters (http://www.inetours.com/New_York/Pages/United_Nations.html) officially opened.
http://bestsmileys.com/sad/6.gif

[Oldfart]

Wiki has the completion date as 1950 and 1952.

1951 seems a compromise.

[jseal]

If you can't trust an internet tourist agency, who can you trust?

[jseal]

1776 ~ Thomas Paine published Common Sense (http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/).

1862 ~ Death of Samuel Colt (http://www.colt.com/law/history.asp), Inventor.

1927 ~ The film Metropolis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6ZpVwFAlFg) by Fritz Lang premiered.

1929 ~ Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, made his debut.

1945 ~ Birthday of Rod Stewart (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTGxpTdyN0&feature=related), English Rocker.

1946 ~ The first General Assembly of the United Nations (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0110.html#article) convened in London.

1949 ~ Birthday of Linda Lovelace (http://web.archive.org/web/20060205122958/completelindalovelace.com/html/intro.html), Pornographic Actress.

1951 ~ Death of Sinclair Lewis, Author.

1994 ~ Lorena Bobbitt went on trial (http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/severed_penis/) for cutting off the penis of her husband, John.

2003 ~ North Korea withdrew from a global treaty barring it from making nuclear weapons.

[Oldfart]

1810 - Napoleon divorced Josephine to give himself a chance of an heir.

[jseal]

1693 ~ Eruption of Mt. Etna (http://www.volcanolive.com/etna.html).

1787 ~ William Herschel discovered the first two moons of Uranus, Titania & Oberon (http://www.solarviews.com/eng/uranus.htm).

1801 ~ Death of Domenico Cimarosa, Italian Composer.

1843 ~ Death of Francis Scott Key, Lawyer.

1935 ~ Amelia Earhart (http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/bio.html) began a trip from Honolulu to Oakland, Calif., becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0111.html#article).

1938 ~ Birthday of Arthur Scargill (http://www.minersadvice.co.uk/yourview21_scargill_fantasy.htm), Union Leader.

1962 ~ An avalanche in Peru (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/11/newsid_3306000/3306665.stm) killed some 4,000 people.

1973 ~ American League baseball teams voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule on a trial basis.

1980 ~ Nigel Short (http://www.chessgames.com/player/nigel_short.html) became the youngest chess player, at 14 years old, to be awarded the degree of International Master.

2008 ~ Death of Sir Edmund Hillary, the 1st man to climb Mount Everest (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/).

[jseal]

1665 ~ Death of Pierre de Fermat, Mathematician.

1893 ~ Birthday of Hermann Göring (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWgoring.htm), Nazi official.

1915 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives defeated (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0112.html#article) a proposal to give women the right to vote.

1969 ~ On a day that will be long remembered in infamy, Joe Namath and the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III, and became the first team from the American Football League to win American Football's championship.

1976 ~ Death of Agatha Christie (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/christie.htm), Mystery Writer.

1991 ~ U.S. Congress authorized the use of military force (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/12/newsid_4534000/4534588.stm) to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

1992 ~ In the film ”2001: A Space Odyssey”, the computer HAL 9000 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/quotes) was activated on this date.

2003 ~ Death of Maurice Gibb, Bee Gee.

2003 ~ Death of Leopoldo Galtieri (http://www.guardian.co.uk/argentina/story/0,,873601,00.html), Dictator of Argentina.

2006 ~ A stampede broke out during the Hajj pilgrimage (http://www.islam101.com/hajj/index.htm) in Saudi Arabia, killing 363 people.

[jseal]

1929 ~ Death of Wyatt Earp.

1939 ~ The Black Friday (http://www.abc.net.au/blackfriday/home/default.htm) bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres in Australia, killing 71 people.

1941 ~ Death of James Joyce, Writer.

1942 ~ The United States began Japanese American internment (http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/anthropology74/index.htm).

1948 ~ Death of James Joyce, Irish novelist (Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake).

1978 ~ Death of Hubert H. Humphrey (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=h000953), U.S. Vice President & Minnesota Senator.

1990 ~ Douglas Wilder took office as the first elected African American governor (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0113.html#article).

1992 ~ Japan apologized for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves (http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~soh/cw-links.htm) for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

1993 ~ American, British and French (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/13/newsid_2554000/2554275.stm) fighter jets bomb Iraq.

2009 ~ Death of Patrick McGoohan, Actor (The Prisoner (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061287/)).

[jseal]

1784 ~ The Continental Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/parisrat.asp), formally ending the American War of Independence.

1857 ~ Birthday of Albert Schweitzer (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1952/schweitzer-bio.html), Christian Missionary & winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1952.

1898 ~ Death of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Dodgson.html) - who wrote ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' under the pen name Lewis Carroll, Writer & Mathematician.

1943 ~ President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill opened a wartime conference in Casablanca (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0114.html#article).

1954 ~ Baseball player Joe Dimaggio and actress Marilyn Monroe were married at San Francisco City Hall.

1957 ~ Death of Humphrey Bogart (http://bogartfilms.warnerbros.com/), Actor.

1978 ~ Death of Kurt Gödel (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Godel.html), Mathematician.

1993 ~ Whitewater prosecutors questioned first lady Hillary Clinton at the White House about the gathering of FBI background files on past Republican political appointees.

2005 ~ The Huygens probe (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm) landed on Saturn's moon Titan.

2009 ~ Death of Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican actor.

[jseal]

1605 ~ The first edition of “Don Quixote (http://www.online-literature.com/cervantes/don_quixote/)” by Miguel de Cervantes was published in Madrid.

1794 ~ Death of Edward Gibbon, Historian.

1909 ~ Ernest Shackleton's expedition (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/surviving/quest.html) found the magnetic South Pole.

1920 ~ Prohibition began in the U.S. as the 18th Amendment to the Constitution took effect.

1923 ~ Birthday of Dian Fossey, American zoologist.

1970 ~ Muammar al-Qaddafi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/16/newsid_3359000/3359461.stm) was proclaimed premier of Libya.

1972 ~ Birthday of Kobe Tai (http://www.kobetai.com/main.php?), Porn actress.

1977 ~ The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame (http://www.filmfame.com/).

1991 ~ The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0116.html#article).

2003 ~ The Space Shuttle Columbia took off on its final mission, STS-107 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVoHb_aqw_o).

[jseal]

1893 ~ Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown when Queen Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0117.html#article).

1899 ~ Birthday of Nevil Shute (http://www.nevilshute.org/index.php), Author.

1929 ~ Popeye the Sailor Man (http://www.math.pitt.edu/~bard/bardware/popeye/popeye.html) first appeared in the "Thimble Theatre" comic strip.

1942 ~ Birthday of Muhammad Ali (http://www.ali.com/), the world's greatest heavyweight Boxer.

1964 ~ Death of T.H. White, author.

1977 ~ Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/17/newsid_2530000/2530413.stm) at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade.

1995 ~ A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the city of Kobe, Japan; more than 6,000 people were killed.

1997 ~ Death of Clyde Tombaugh (http://www.klx.com/clyde/), discoverer of Pluto.

2001 ~ Faced with an electricity crisis, California used rolling blackouts to cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people.

2008 ~ Death of Bobby Fischer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer), chess player extraordinaire.

[Oldfart]

1966 - A B-52 bomber collided with a tanker and nuclear bombed Spain.

[jseal]

^^^ Oopsies! ^^^

[jseal]

1535 ~ Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro (http://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/pizarro/pizarro_flat.html).

1779 ~ Birthday of Peter Roget (http://www.connected-earth.com/Galleries/Pioneersandpersonalities/R/Roget/), Lexicographer.

1882 ~ Birthday of A. A. Milne (http://www.just-pooh.com/milne.html), Author.

1892 ~ Birthday of Oliver Hardy (http://www.oliverhardy.com/), Comedian & Actor.

1936 ~ Death of Rudyard Kipling, Writer & Poet

1944 ~ The New York Met hosted its first jazz concert.Among the performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, and Artie Shaw.

1944 ~ Birthday of Paul Keating (http://www.keating.org.au/), twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia.

1967 ~ The “Boston Strangler” was convicted in Cambridge, Mass., of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses.

1990 ~ Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/scandal/barry.htm).

1991 ~ Iraq attacked Tel Aviv and Haifa (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/18/newsid_4588000/4588486.stm) with Scud missiles.

[Oldfart]

^^^ Oopsies! ^^^

The plane in Spain falls mainly on the . . . . .

[dicksbro]

The plane in Spain falls mainly on the . . . . .
... people on the ground. :(

[jseal]

Lol!

[jseal]

1809 ~ Birthday of Edgar Allan Poe (http://www.eapoe.org/), Poet & short story Author.

1839 ~ Birthday of Paul Cézanne (http://www.abcgallery.com/C/cezanne/cezanne.html), Painter.

1853 ~ Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premiered.

1937 ~ Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0119.html#article) by flying from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in just under 7 ½ hours.

1943 ~ Birthday of Janis Joplin, Blues/Rock Singer.

1966 ~ Indira Gandhi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/19/newsid_3745000/3745625.stm) was elected prime minister of India.

1977 ~ President Gerald Ford pardoned Tokyo Rose.

1983 ~ The Apple Lisa (http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/lisa.htm), the first commercial personal computer to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, was announced..

1983 ~ Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie (http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/barbie-irr-file.html) was arrested in Bolivia.

2008 ~ Death of Suzanne Pleshette, Actress (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012000071.html).

[jseal]

1907 ~ Death of Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian Chemist and inventor of the Periodic table.

1920 ~ Birthday of Federico Fellini (http://simplycharly.com/fellini/peter_bondanella_interview.htm), Italian film director.

1930 ~ Birthday of Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut.

1942 ~ Nazi officials arrived at a ''final solution (http://www.ghwk.de/engl/kopfengl.htm)'' to Europe's Jewry, during a conference at Lake Wannsee in Berlin.

1961 ~ John F. Kennedy sworn in (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/20/newsid_2506000/2506929.stm) as U.S. President.

1967 ~ The first pulsar (http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/pulsars/pulsars.html) was discovered.

1981 ~ The American hostages held by Iran (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0120.html#article) were released following Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.

1984 ~ Death of Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic swimming gold medalist & Actor (Tarzan).

1986 ~ Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel (http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-heritage/background/tunnel.htm).

1993 ~ Death of Audrey Hepburn (http://www.audreyhepburn.com/), actress.

[jseal]

1793 ~ King Louis XVI of France, condemned for treason, was executed on the guillotine.

1911 ~ The first Monte Carlo Rally (http://www.acm.mc/ramc/ramc_main.php?page=2010/presentation_2010.php&lng=en).

1924 ~ Death of Vladimir Lenin (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0121.html#article), first leader of the U.S.S.R.

1941 ~ Birthday of Plácido Domingo (http://www.placidodomingo.com/index.php?id_kunden=196), tenor Opera Singer.

1950 ~ Death of George Orwell (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/21/newsid_2669000/2669789.stm), Writer.

1954 ~ The USS Nautilus (http://www.ssn571.com/), the world’s first nuclear powered submarine, was launched.

1959 ~ Death of Cecil B. DeMille, Movie Director.

1968 ~ Start of the Battle of Khe Sanh (http://www.historynet.com/magazines/vietnam/8189002.html?featured=y&c=y).

1998 ~ Pope John Paul II (http://www.zpub.com/un/pope/pope-cuba.html) began his first visit to Cuba.

2003 ~ The U.S. Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as America's largest minority group.

[jseal]

1788 ~ Birthday of Lord Byron (http://englishhistory.net/byron/contents.html), Poet.

1840 ~ British colonists reached New Zealand.

1879 ~ Zulu troops defeated British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana (http://www.britishbattles.com/zulu-war/isandlwana.htm).

1909 ~ Birthday of U Thant, 3rd UN Secretary General.

1953 ~ "The Crucible (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_CRU.HTM)", a drama by Arthur Miller, opened on Broadway.

1970 ~ The Boeing 747 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/22/newsid_3725000/3725963.stm) went on its first regularly scheduled commercial flight, from New York to London.

1973 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court, in the Roe vs. Wade (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0122.html#article) decision, legalized abortions, using a trimester approach.

1973 ~ Death of Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th U.S. President.

1984 ~ The Apple Macintosh was introduced with the famous television commercial "1984 (http://www.uriahcarpenter.info/1984.html)" (requires QuickTime and patience [but is generally considered to be one of the better commercials ever made]).

1992 ~ Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman astronaut (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jan&day=22).

[dm383]

I've just had a "flick" through this thread ...... awesome work, jseal!

I couldn't believe it's 6½ years since I started this thread! :faint:

DM

[Oldfart]

Nor that it's 8 1/2 years since you joined.

[Oldfart]

7 1/2, I've forgotten how to do numbers.

[jseal]

... I couldn't believe it's 6½ years since I started this thread! :faint:

DM
I'm glad you did and, judging from the hit count, so do many others.

Thank you :thumb:

[jseal]

1789 ~ Georgetown College (http://www.georgetown.edu/), founded by Archbishop John Carroll, became the first Catholic, Jesuit college in the U.S.

1832 ~ Birthday of Edouard Manet (http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg90/gg90-main1.html), Impressionist artist.

1849 ~ Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.

1857 ~ Birthday of Andrija Mohorovičić (http://www.istrianet.org/istria/illustri/mohorovicic/), Croatian seismologist.

1862 ~ Birthday of David Hilbert, Mathematician.

1968 ~ North Korea seized the USS Pueblo (http://www.usspueblo.org/), charging it had intruded into the communist nation's territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was held for 11 months.

1973 ~ President Nixon appeared on national television to announce "peace with honor" in Vietnam (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0123.html#article).

1989 ~ Death of Salvador Dalí, Artist.

2002 ~ Daniel Pearl (http://www.danielpearl.org/) was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan.

2004 ~ Death of Bob Keeshan (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/keeshanbob/keeshanbob.htm), TV's “Captain Kangaroo”.

[jseal]

1776 ~ Birthday of E.T.A. Hoffmann (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hoffman.htm), Poet & Composer.

1888 ~ Birthday of Ernst Heinkel, aircraft designer.

1908 ~ The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.

1927 ~ Alfred Hitchcock released his first film, “The Pleasure Garden”.

1945 ~ Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz (http://remember.org/jacobs/).

1961 ~ Marilyn Monroe divorced Arthur Miller (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/24/newsid_4588000/4588212.stm).

1965 ~ Death of Winston Churchill (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0124.html#article), Englishman.

1984 ~ The Apple Macintosh went on sale (http://static.hugi.is/misc/movies/1984macintro.mov). Only 24 years ago! [requires QuickTime – worth the wait]

1993 ~ Death of Thurgood Marshall (http://www.oyez.org/justices/thurgood_marshall), U.S. Supreme Court justice.

2003 ~ The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm) officially began operation.

[jseal]

1627 ~ Birthday of Robert Boyle, Chemist.

1759 ~ Birthday of Robert Burns (http://www.rabbie-burns.com/index.cfm), Poet.

1882 ~ Birthday of Virginia Woolf, Writer.

1890 ~ Nellie Bly completed her round-the-world journey in 72 days (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/world/).

1919 ~ The League of Nations (http://www.indiana.edu/~league/) was founded.

1947 ~ Death of Al Capone (http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone.html), Gangster.

1971 ~ General Idi Amin becomes Ugandan President Idi Amin (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/25/newsid_2506000/2506423.stm) after a coup.

1977 ~ Rene Levesque told a Wall Street audience at the Economic Club of New York that “separation is inevitable (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jan&day=25)”.

1998 ~ During his visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II called for the release of political prisoners and political reforms and also condemned American isolation of the country.

2004 ~ Opportunity landed on Mars (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/).

[jseal]

1885 ~ Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquered Khartoum.

1905 ~ The Cullinan Diamond (http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/cullinandiamonds.html) was found near Pretoria, South Africa.

1905 ~ Birthday of Maria von Trapp, Singer.

1925 ~ Birthday of Paul Newman (http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0000056/), Actor.

1961 ~ Birthday of Wayne Gretzky (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jan&day=26), Canadian hockey Player, Coach, Owner.

1972 ~ Death of Mahalia Jackson (http://www.pbs.org/americanrootsmusic/pbs_arm_saa_mahaliajackson.html), Gospel Music (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4590574.stm) singer.

1988 ~ The musical "Phantom of the Opera (http://www.playbill.com/features/article/97206.html)", by Andrew Lloyd Webber opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater.

1996 ~ First lady Hillary Clinton testified before a grand jury connected to the Whitewater probe (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0852144.html).

1998 ~ U.S. President Clinton denied on television he had "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26/newsid_2672000/2672291.stm).

2005 ~ Following her confirmation by the Senate, Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State.

Feastdays & Holidays

Australia~ Australia Day (http://www.australiaday.gov.au/)

[jseal]

1606 ~ The trial of Guy Fawkes and other Gunpowder Plot (http://www.gunpowder-plot.org/) conspirators began.

1756 ~ Birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer.

1832 ~ Birthday of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (http://www.cs.indiana.edu/metastuff/wonder/wonderdir.html)” under the pen name Lewis Carroll.

1945 ~ The Red Army liberated the concentration camp at Auschwitz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/27/newsid_3520000/3520986.stm) in southern Poland.

1967 ~ More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons (http://www.atomicarchive.com/Treaties/Treaty4.shtml).

1967 ~ Astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee were killed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0127.html#article) in a fire during a test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft.

1977 ~ The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.

1997 ~ It was revealed that French museums had retained nearly 2,000 pieces of art stolen by Nazis.

1998 ~ U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton called the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" on the “Today Show (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/)”.

2009 ~ Death of John Updike, American Novelist (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/remembering-upd/index.html).

[jseal]

1521 ~ The Diet of Worms began.

1547 ~ Death of Henry VIII (http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/TheTudors/HenryVIII.aspx), King of England.

1596 ~ Death of Sir Francis Drake, Explorer & Soldier.

1788 ~ The first penal colony was established at Botany Bay (http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/convicts/), Australia.

1822 ~ Birthday of Alexander Mackenzie (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jan&day=28), Prime Minister of Canada.

1887 ~ Birthday of Artur Rubinstein, Polish Pianist.

1935 ~ Iceland became the first country to legalize abortion.

1939 ~ Death of William Butler Yeats (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bio.html), awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1986 ~ Space Shuttle Challenger exploded (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0128.html#article) just after takeoff killing all seven astronauts onboard.

2004 ~ Lord Hutton published his report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/03/hutton_inquiry/hutton_report/html/chapter01.stm) into the death of Dr. David Kelly.

Feastdays & Holidays

Catholicism ~ Feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas (http://www.stthomasu.ca/publications/transitions/jan2002/aquinas.htm).

[Oldfart]

1788 ~ The first penal colony was established at Botany Bay, Australia???

The flag was raised on the 26th January 1788. The colony itself was proclaimed on the 7th February that year.

[jseal]

Ah well, I was close.

[Oldfart]

Yes, I've lost the occasional weekend as well. No biggie.

[jseal]

Lol!

[jseal]

1845 ~ Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven (http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html)" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.

1856 ~ Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross (http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/vcross.htm).

1880 ~ Birthday of W.C. Fields, Actor.

1933 ~ Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWhindenburg.htm).

1936 ~ The first members of baseball's Hall of Fame (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/), including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, N.Y.

1956 ~ Death of H. L. Mencken, Journalist.

1962 ~ Death of Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist.

1963 ~ Death of Robert Frost (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0129.html#article), Poet.

1996 ~ France ended nuclear testing (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/29/newsid_4665000/4665676.stm).

2002 ~ In his State of the Union Address, President Bush coined the term "Axis of Evil (http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/01/print/20020129-11.html)".

[jseal]

1649 ~ King Charles I of England was beheaded.

1862 ~ The first Union ironclad warship, the USS Monitor (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/monitor/) was launched.

1933 ~ The first episode of the ''Lone Ranger'' radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.

1937 ~ Birthday of Boris Spassky (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/spassky/spassky.htm), World Chess Champion.

1948 ~ Mahatma Gandhi (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0130.html#article) was assassinated.

1968 ~ Viet Cong guerillas and North Vietnamese soldiers launched the Tet offensive (http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/dialogue/hayward-tet.html#2r).

1969 ~ Last public performance by The Beatles (http://www.thebeatles.com/).

1972 ~ Thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/30/newsid_2452000/2452145.stm)”.

1991 ~ The first major ground battle of the Gulf War (http://militaryphotos.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-29251.html) was fought at the frontier port of Al Khafji in Saudi Arabia.

2003 ~ Richard Reid, the "Shoe bomber" jailed for life.

[Oldfart]

With the Monitor, it's interesting the trend toward calling the Merrimack the CSS Virginia.

[dicksbro]

The loss of Mahatma Gandhi was truly one of those horribly sad events in the world's history. A great man of peace was lost making the world a poorer place.

[Oldfart]

An unusual choice of words.

Ghandi would have been happier with the world as a poorer, simpler and nicer place in keeping with his ascetic ideals. It was never going to happen, but it was a lovely thought.

[jseal]

With the Monitor, it's interesting the trend toward calling the Merrimack the CSS Virginia.
With distance come perspective.

[jseal]

1606 ~ Guy Fawkes (http://www.britannia.com/history/g-fawkes.html) was executed for his part in the Gunpowder Plot.

1797 ~ Birthday of Franz Schubert, Composer.

1865 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0131.html#article).

1919 ~ Birthday of Jackie Robinson, Baseball Player & Barrier Breaker.

1929 ~ The Soviet Union exiled Leon Trotsky (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/index.htm).

1956 ~ Death of A. A. Milne, Author (Winnie the Pooh).

1958 ~ James Van Allen discovered the Van Allen radiation belt (http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/FAQs2.html#q16).

1961 ~ Ham (http://www.primatesworld.com/SpaceMonkeys.html) became the first chimpanzee in space.

1996 ~ An explosives-filled truck rammed into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/31/newsid_4083000/4083095.stm), Sri Lanka killing 91 and injuring 1,400.

2000 ~ Family doctor Harold Shipman (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/shipman-britains-worst-serial-killer-572930.html) was given 15 life sentences at Crown Court after being found guilty of multiple murders.

[jseal]

1851 ~ Death of Mary Shelley (http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/43/frameset.html), English Author (Frankenstein).

1896 ~ Puccini’s opera La Bohème (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/bohem/tlaboheme.html) premiered in Turin.

1920 ~ The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was established.

1929 ~ Frenchman Charles Rigoulet became the first weightlifter to lift over 400 pounds (181 kg) in the "clean and jerk" method.

1960 ~ Four black college students began a sit-in protest against racial segregation at a lunch counter (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0201.html#article) in Greensboro, N.C., where they'd been refused service.

1970 ~ Birthday of Jill Kelly (http://www.jillkelly.com/main.html), Porn actress.

1979 ~ Patty Hearst (http://www.answers.com/topic/patty-hearst), whose prison sentence for bank robbery had been commuted by President Jimmy Carter, left a federal prison near San Francisco.

2003 ~ Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/1/newsid_3416000/3416589.stm) upon reentry killing all seven astronauts.

2004 ~ Hundreds of people were killed and injured in a stampede duringthe Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

2004 ~ Super Bowl XXXVIII: One team defeated the other team, 32-29. During the half-time show Janet Jackson's right breast was bared (http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/12180/detail/).

[jseal]

1870 ~ The Cardiff Giant (http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_cardiff_giant/) - supposedly the petrified remains of a human discovered in Cardiff, N.Y. - was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum.

1875 ~ Birthday of Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist.

1887 ~ In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day was observed.

1905 ~ Birthday of Ayn Rand (http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_aynrand_biography), Writer, Philosopher.

1943 ~ The German 6th Army surrendered at Stalingrad (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0202.html#article).

1969 ~ Death of Boris Karloff, English actor.

1970 ~ Death of Bertrand Russell (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html), Mathematician & Philosopher.

1709 ~ Birthday of Brandy Talore (http://www.clubbrandy.com/t1/), Porn actress.

1990 ~ At the opening of Parliament in Cape Town, President FW de Klerk announced the dismantling of apartheid (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/2/newsid_2524000/2524997.stm) in South Africa..

Feastdays & Holidays

U.S. & Canada – Groundhog Day (http://www.stormfax.com/ghogday.htm)

[Oldfart]

"1709 ~ Birthday of Brandy Talore, Porn actress."

Hey, we've finally found a porn queen old enough for PF.

[jay-t]

:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

[jseal]

OOoooops.

[pinkFlames]

:rofl:

[jseal]

1809 ~ Birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, Composer.

1870 ~ The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html) was ratified.

1874 ~ Birthday of Gertrude Stein (http://ellensplace.net/gstein1.html), Writer.

1894 ~ Birthday of Norman Rockwell, Illustrator.

1907 ~ Birthday of James Michener, American author.

1917 ~ The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0203.html#article) after Germany announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1947 ~ You want winter weather? You want COLD? Snag, Yukon recorded a temperature of -62.8°C, the lowest official temperature ever measured in Canada (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007500).

1959 ~ Rock 'n' Roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash. Don McLean immortalized the tragedy in “American Pie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAsV5-Hv-7U&feature=related)”.

1966 ~ The Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft made the first controlled landing on the Moon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_4063000/4063471.stm).

1974 ~ Birthday of Julie Meadows (http://www.juliemeadows.com/), Porn actress.

[jseal]

1861 ~ In Montgomery, Alabama the Confederate States of America was formed by delegates from six break-away United States.

1902 ~ Birthday of Charles Lindbergh (http://www.lindberghfoundation.org/docs/index.php/lindbergh-history/charles-lindbergh), U.S. aviator.

1913 ~ Birthday of Rosa Parks, U.S. civil rights activist.

1928 ~ Death of Hendrik Lorentz (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1902/lorentz-bio.html), Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate.

1974 ~ The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped Patty Hearst (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0204.html#article) in Berkeley, California.

1987 ~ Death of Liberace, "Mr. Showmanship (http://www.liberace.org/index.php/about-liberace)".

1997 ~ O. J. Simpson was found to be civilly liable (http://www.cnn.com/US/9702/04/simpson.verdict1/index.html) for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

1998 ~ A magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit northeast Afghanistan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/4/newsid_2534000/2534279.stm), killing an estimated 5,000 people.

2004 ~ The online social network Facebook (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook) was founded

2006 ~ Death of Betty Friedan, American feminist.

[jseal]

1878 ~ Birthday of André-Gustave Citroën (http://www.autonews.com/files/euroauto/inductees/citroen.htm), automobile pioneer.

1897 ~ The Indiana House of Representatives passed a measure redefining the area of a circle and the value of π (http://pi.ytmnd.com/). The bill died in the state Senate.

1917 ~ The U.S. Congress passed, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, a law severely curtailing the immigration of Asians.

1919 ~ Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith created United Artists.

1924 ~ The Royal Greenwich Observatory (http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server.php?show=conWebDoc.13496&navId=005000002) began to broadcast hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".

1934 ~ Birthday of Hank Aaron (http://www.biography.com/articles/Hank-Aaron-9173497?part=0), Athlete.

1937 ~ President Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of Supreme Court justices (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0205.html#article); critics charged Roosevelt was attempting to "pack" the court.

1958 ~ A hydrogen bomb was lost by the U.S. Air Force (http://www.tybeetyme.com/tb/index.htm) off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1962 ~ French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algerian independence.

1982 ~ Laker Airways collapsed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/5/newsid_2535000/2535297.stm) owing £270 million to banks and other creditors.

[jseal]

1840 ~ Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, founding document of New Zealand.

1895 ~ Birthday of Babe Ruth (http://www.baberuth.com/about/facts.html), Athlete.

1913 ~ Birthday of Mary Leakey (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0006E1CC-7860-1C76-9B81809EC588EF21), Anthropologist.

1952 ~ The UK’s King George VI died (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0206.html#article); he was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.

1959 ~ Jack Kilby (http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/kilbyctr/jackbuilt.shtml) of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1971 ~ Alan Shepard became the first man to hit a golf ball on the Moon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/6/newsid_4093000/4093061.stm).

1983 ~ Former Gestapo commandant Klaus Barbie extradited to France (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/6/newsid_4149000/4149443.stm) from Bolivia to stand trial for war crimes.

1993 ~ Death of Arthur Ashe (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/features/1997/arthurashe/biography.html), Athlete.

2002 ~ Death of Max Perutz, Austrian molecular biologist, Nobel laureate (Doctoral students James Watson & Francis Crick ).

2004 ~ An explosion in a Moscow subway car during rush hour killed 41 people in a terrorist attack blamed on Chechen separatists.

[jseal]

1812 ~ Birthday of Charles Dickens, Novelist.

1834 ~ Birthday of Dmitri Mendeleev, chemist and inventor of the Periodic table of the chemical elements.

1883 ~ Birthday of Eubie Blake (http://www.eubieblake.org/), Musician, Composer.

1905 ~ The Great Baltimore Fire (http://www.mdch.org/fire/) destroyed more than 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.

1964 ~ The Beatles arrived in New York (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7/newsid_4185000/4185201.stm) for their first American tour, touching off rock 'n' roll's “British invasion”.

1971 ~ Women became entitled to vote in Switzerland.

1979 ~ Death of Dr. Josef Mengele (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007060), accused Nazi war criminal.

1984 ~ Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart went on the first untethered spacewalk (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0207.html#article).

1990 ~ The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Committee_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union) agreed to let other political parties compete for control of the country, thereby giving up its monopoly on power.

1992 ~ The European Union (http://europa.eu/) was formed.

[jseal]

1587 ~ Mary, Queen of Scots was executed.

1828 ~ Birthday of Jules Verne, Author.

1855 ~ The Devil's Footprints (http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/fortean/devils_foot.html) mysteriously appeared in southern Devon.

1910 ~ The Boy Scouts of America (http://www.scouting.org/media/anniversary/history.html) was incorporated by William D. Boyce.

1925 ~ Birthday of Jack Lemmon, Actor.

1932 ~ Birthday of John Williams (http://www.johnwilliams.org/reference/biography.html), Composer & Conductor.

1952 ~ Princess Elizabeth proclaimed herself Queen (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/8/newsid_2536000/2536619.stm).

1957 ~ Death of John von Neumann (http://www.nas.edu/history/members/neumann.html), Mathematician.

1993 ~ General Motors sued NBC, alleging that the program "Dateline NBC" had rigged two crashes to show that GM pickups were prone to fires (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,305709,00.html). NBC settled the lawsuit the following day.

1996 ~ President Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0208.html#article) at the Library of Congress.

[jseal]

1825 ~ After no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams President (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ja6.html).

1881 ~ Death of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Author.

1900 ~ Davis Cup competition established.

1906 ~ Death of Paul Laurence Dunbar (http://www.dunbarsite.org/), Poet.

1910 ~ Birthday of Jacques Monod (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1965/monod-bio.html), biochemist, winner of 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

1943 ~ American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0209.html#article).

1950 ~ Senator Joseph McCarthy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/9/newsid_3703000/3703305.stm) charged that the U.S. State Department was infested with Communists.

1971 ~ Satchel Paige (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/mlb_negro_leagues_profile.jsp?player=paige_satchel) became the first Negro League player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1984 ~ Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov died at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev.

2001 ~ The submarine USS Greeneville (http://www.navysite.de/ssn/ssn772.htm) (SSN-772) accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru.

[jseal]

1837 ~ Death of Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian Poet & Novelist.

1840 ~ Queen Victoria (http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensoftheUnitedKingdom/TheHanoverians/Victoria.aspx) of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Albert_of_Saxe_Coburg_Gotha.html).

1890 ~ Birthday of Boris Pasternak (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1958/pasternak-bio.html), Poet, winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize in literature.

1898 ~ Birthday of Bertolt Brecht, Author.

1927 ~ Birthday of Leontyne Price (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Price-Leontyn.htm), Soprano.

1933 ~ The first singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegram Co. in New York. Sic transit gloria mundi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4674782.stm).

1962 ~ Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers was exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0210.html#article).

1996 ~ Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov (http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/33_folder/33_articles/33_kasparovibm.html) for the first time. :(

2005 ~ Death of Arthur Miller (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/miller_a.html), playwright .

2007 ~ Sen. Barack Obama announced his bid for president.

[jseal]

1650 ~ Death of René Descartes (http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm), Philosopher.

1898 ~ Birthday of Leó Szilárd, Physicist & Peace Activist.

1938 ~ BBC Television produced the first science fiction television program, an adaptation of the Karel Capek play R.U.R. (http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/RUR-Capek-1920.htm) (This play coined the term 'robot.')

1941 ~ Birthday of Sergio Mendes, Brazilian musician (Brazil '66).

1945 ~ President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0211.html#article).

1961 ~ The trial of Adolf Eichmann (http://www.remember.org/eichmann/) began in Jerusalem.

1978 ~ China lifted a ban on works by Aristotle (http://www.iep.utm.edu/aristotl/), Shakespeare (http://www.shakespeare-online.com/) and Dickens (http://www.dickensmuseum.com/).

1979 ~ Followers of Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran, after the religious leader returned to his home after his exile.

1986 ~ Death of Frank Herbert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEWM7zIIF9c), Science Fiction author.

1990 ~ South African black activist Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/11/newsid_2539000/2539947.stm).

[jseal]

1809 ~ Birthday of Charles Darwin (http://www.aboutdarwin.com/), Naturalist.

1893 ~ Birthday of Omar Bradley, General.

1924 ~ George Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U40xBSz6Dc)'' premiered in New York City.

1938 ~ Anschluss: German troops enter Austria (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-austria.htm).

1942 ~ Birthday of Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel.

1984 ~ Birthday of Lolly Badcock (http://www.lollybadcockxxx.com/), Porn Actress.

1994 ~ Edvard Munch's "The Scream" was stolen (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/12/newsid_3591000/3591994.stm) from a museum in Norway.

1999 ~ The U.S. Senate voted to acquit President Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

2000 ~ Death of Charles M. Schulz (http://www.animationusa.com/resources/aboutschulz.html), creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip.

2002 ~ The war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic (http://www.c-span.org/milosevic/) began in The Hague.

[jseal]

1883 ~ Death of Richard Wagner, Composer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Chuck Yeager (http://www.chuckyeager.com/), pilot of first supersonic flight.

1935 ~ A jury found Bruno Hauptmann guilty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0213.html#article) of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.

1945 ~ The RAF & USAAF created a firestorm in Dresden (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWdresden.htm), Germany which killed tens of thousands of civilians.

1960 ~ France tested its first nuclear weapon.

1974 ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-autobio.html), winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in literature, was exiled from the Soviet Union.

1988 ~ Winter Olympic Games opened in Calgary (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=13), Alberta.

1991 ~ Hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed when a pair of laser-guided bombs destroyed an underground facility in Baghdad (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/13/newsid_2541000/2541107.stm) identified by U.S. officials as a military installation, but which Iraqi officials said was a bomb shelter.

1997 ~ Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope (http://www.cosmiclight.com/imagegalleries/hst.htm) performed by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

2002 ~ Death of Waylon Jennings, American musician.

[jseal]

1766 ~ Birthday of Thomas Malthus, Economist.

1779 ~ James Cook was killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands (http://www.sandwichislands.com/).

1895 ~ First performance of Oscar Wilde's last play "The Importance of Being Earnest (http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Wilde/earnest/)”.

1929 ~ The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0214.html#article) took place in a Chicago garage.

1945 ~ U.S. President Roosevelt met with King Ibn Saud (http://www.islc.net/~billychaplin/test/pic11.jpg) of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the US-Saudi diplomatic relationship (http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/articles/2005/ioi/050213-roosevelt-uss-quincy.html).

1966 ~ Australian currency was decimalized.

1989 ~ The first of the 24 Global Positioning System satellites was placed into orbit.

1989 ~ Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/14/newsid_2541000/2541149.stm), author of ''The Satanic Verses,'' a novel Khomeini condemned as blasphemous.

2003 ~ Death of Dolly the sheep (http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/dolly/index.asp), the world's first cloned mammal.

Feastdays & Holidays

Catholicism ~ Feast day of Saint Valentine (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/valentinesdayhistory.html).

[jseal]

1874 ~ Birthday of Sir Ernest Shackleton, British polar explorer.

1898 ~ The USS Maine exploded and sank (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0215.html#article) in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260.

1942 ~ Sigapore fell to the Japanese. The Sook Ching (http://japanfocus.org/-Hayashi-Hirofumi/3187) massacre followed.

1954 ~ Birthday of Matt Groening (http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2001/01/30/groening/), Satirist.

1965 ~ Death of Nat “King” Cole, Singer.

1965 ~ A new red and white maple leaf design was adopted as the flag of Canada (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=15) replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

1974 ~ Birthday of Gina Lynn (http://www.ginalynn.com/home.php), Porn actress.

1988 ~ Death of Richard Feynman (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-bio.html), Physicist.

1995 ~ Kevin Mitnick was arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the more "secure" U.S. computer systems.

2005 ~ YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) was launched.

[jseal]

1923 ~ Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0216.html#article).

1935 ~ Birthday of Sonny Bono, Singer & Congressman.

1937 ~ Wallace Carothers (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980325.htm) received a patent for nylon.

1942 ~ Birthday of Kim Jong Il (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/dictators/kim-jong-il/), North Korean leader.

1959 ~ Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_2544000/2544431.stm) after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

1978 ~ The first computer bulletin board system, CBBS, was created in Chicago, Illinois.

1985 ~ Hezbollah (http://www.merip.org/mero/mero073106.html) founded.

1986 ~ The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov ran aground (http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/lermontov.htm) in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.

2001 ~ Death of William Masters, American gynecologist and sexologist (Masters and Johnson).

2005 ~ The Kyoto Protocol (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_4930000/4930554.stm) came into effect.

[jseal]

1653 ~ Birthday of Arcangelo Corelli, Composer.

1801 ~ An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande07.html) was resolved when Jefferson was elected President and Burr Vice President by the House of Representatives.

1844 ~ Birthday of Aaron Montgomery Ward, American department store founder.

1867 ~ The first ship passed through the Suez Canal (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-SuezCana.html).

1895 ~ Swan Lake, one of the more famous ballets, with music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, was first completely performed in Saint Petersburg (http://www.petersburg-russia.com/), Russia.

1962 ~ Death of Bruno Walter, Conductor.

1972 ~ President Nixon departed on his historic trip to China (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0217.html#article).

1973 ~ Birthday of SaRenna Lee (http://www.sweetsamples.com/), Porn actress.

1979 ~ China invaded Vietnam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/17/newsid_2547000/2547811.stm).

1992 ~ Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=498) was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison.

[Oldfart]

Jeffrey Dahmer was so fit he had the body of an 18 year old.

[jseal]

1546 ~ Death of Martin Luther, religious reformer.

1745 ~ Birthday of Alessandro Volta, Physicist, eponym for the unit of the electric potential.

1838 ~ Birthday of Ernst Mach, Austrian Physicist & Philosopher.

1861 ~ In Montgomery, Alabama Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0218.html#article).

1885 ~ Mark Twain's “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (http://etext.virginia.edu/twain/huckfinn.html)” was first published.

1930 ~ While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto (http://www.solarviews.com/eng/pluto.htm).

1933 ~ Birthday of Yoko Ono (http://www.yoko-ono.com/bio.htm), Singer, Artist, wife of John Lennon.

1969 ~ Lulu and Maurice Gibb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/18/newsid_2550000/2550641.stm) of the Bee Gees marry.

1967 ~ Death of J. Robert Oppenheimer (http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Oppenheimer.shtml), American physicist.

2005 ~ The UK law banning fox hunting (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4275753.stm), hare coursing and other sports which kill wild mammals is enforced from this date.

[jseal]

1743 ~ Birthday of Luigi Boccherini, Italian Composer.

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

1942 ~ Some 250 Japanese warplanes attacked Darwin, Australia (http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/darwinbombing/). 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).

1943 ~ Rommel's Afrika Korps began to spank the Allies in the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia (Operation Torch).

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.

[Oldfart]

"Rommel's Afrika Korps began to spank the Allies in the Battle of the Kasserine Pass "

Kinky devils, must have been having fun.

[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.filmsite.org/afri.html) 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 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/crick_and_watson.shtml) 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.

[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.

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.

1982 ~ Birthday of Jenna Haze (http://www.jennahaze.com/home.php), Porn actress.

1983 ~ Birthday of Penny Flame (http://www.pennyflame.com/), Porn actress.

1987 ~ Death of Andy Warhol, Celebrity

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).

[Oldfart]

1997 ~ Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute announced that a sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.

I had an argument with a friend over this. We actually don't know the name of the sheep who was cloned. Dolly was the resultant clone.

[jseal]

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.

[jseal]

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".

[Oldfart]

1949 ~ At White Sands NM, "Project Bumper” 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.

Still using Geman technology 4 1/2 years after the war. The Germans got some things so right, and some so wrong.

[jseal]

... The Germans got some things so right, and some so wrong.
Amen to that!

[jseal]

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

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.

1981 ~ Birthday of Jamie Lynn (http://www.sexyjamie.com/t2/?nats=MzozOjQ,0,0,0,0), Porn actress.

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.

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).

1987 ~ Birthday of Julia Bond (http://www.clubjuliabond.com/index3.html?), Porn actress.

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.

[Oldfart]

"2001 ~ The Taliban destroyed two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan."

The Taliban version of book burning.

[jseal]

1807 ~ Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet (The Song of Hiawatha (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/hiawatha.html), The Village Blacksmith (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/longf02.html), Paul Revere's Ride (http://eserver.org/poetry/paul-revere.html)).

1827 ~ The first Mardi Gras (http://www.mardigras.com/) was celebrated in New Orleans.

1873 ~ Birthday of Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor.

1887 ~ Death of Alexander Borodin, composer.

1900 ~ The British Labour Party (http://www.labour.org.uk/home) was formed.

1902 ~ Birthday of John Steinbeck (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-bio.html), Writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1962.

1912 ~ Birthday of Lawrence Durrell, Writer.

1933 ~ Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, caught fire (http://worldatwar.net/event/reichstagsbrand/). The Nazis, blaming the Communists, used the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.

1951 ~ In a victory for freedom lovers, the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html#22), limiting Presidents to two terms, was ratified.

1991 ~ President Bush declared "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0227.html#article)", and announced a Gulf War ceasefire.

[Oldfart]

"1991 ~ President Bush declared "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated", and announced a Gulf War ceasefire."

Peace in our time.

[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.).

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).

1967 ~ Death of Henry Luce (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/henry-luce/henry-r-luce-and-the-rise-of-the-american-news-media/650/), Publisher (Time, Fortune, Life, Sports Illustrated).

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]

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/).

1910 ~ Birthday of David Niven, English actor.

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.

1961 ~ The Peace Corps (http://www.peacecorps.gov/) was established.

1975 ~ Birthday of Kami Andrews, Porn actress.

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.

[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.

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).

1980 ~ Birthday of Sunny Lane (http://www.sunnylanelive.com/tour1.html), Porn actress.

1982 ~ Death of Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction author.

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

[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.

[jseal]

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.

1973 ~ Birthday of Summer Cummings (http://www.summerc.com/tour01.htm), Porn actress.

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://projects.publicintegrity.org/genetics/report.aspx?aid=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.

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.

2000 ~ Death of Lolo Ferrari, French Porn actress.

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.michelangelo.com/buonarroti.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.alangreenspan.org/), 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.

[dicksbro]

1475 ~ Birthday of Michelangelo Buonarroti (http://www.michelangelo.com/buonarroti.html), Italian artist.

I hope his b'day cake was still fresh. :)

[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.

[jseal]

1454 ~ Birthday of Amerigo Vespucci, Explorer & Cartographer.

1934 ~ Birthday of Yuri Gagarin, Cosmonaut, first human in space.

1943 ~ Birthday of Bobby Fischer (http://www.bobby-fischer.net/), 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, effectively killing the Accord.

1996 ~ Death of George Burns (http://www.georgeburns.com/), Actor.

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

[jseal]

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 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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).

1977 ~ Death of E. Power Biggs, English-born organist.

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.

[Oldfart]

Astronomers discovered rings around Uranus.

Not mine.

[jseal]

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

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

1959 ~ Birthday of Nina Hartley (http://www.nina.com/bio.htm), 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/primeministers/howard/) 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.

2006 ~ Death of Slobodan Milošević (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slobodan_Milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87), President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia.

[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.

1953 ~ Birthday of Ron Jeremy (http://ronjeremy.com/), Porn actor.

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.

[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, 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 (http://www.dienbienphu.org/english/) 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).

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.

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.

1985 ~ Birthday of Eva Angelina (http://www.evaangelinaonline.com/), Porn actress.

[dicksbro]

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

A bit of trivia. Penicillin was first discovered by the British doctor Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928. Many years later he visited Peoria, Illinois, because of the research and experiments being done there by many of Peoria's scientists at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory (NRRL). It was in Peoria, at the NRRL, that the mass production of penicillin took place. :)

http://www.peoriahistoricalsociety.org/images/postcard/NorthRegResearch.jpg

[jseal]

44 B.C. ~ Julius Caesar was assassinated (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0311_040311_idesmarch.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.

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

1966 ~ 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).

1975 ~ Birthday of Veselin Topalov (http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=2900084), Bulgarian chess player, FIDE World Chess Champion 2005 - 2006.

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]

Interestingly, Howard Florey and co came to America looking for medical facilities capable of mas-producing the new drug. It was not with-held until patents had been set in stone, as this was deemed unethical at the time. Patents PF, not patients.

It was a US Department of Agriculture lady who found that canteloupe (rockmelons for us OZ folk) yielded significantly greater amounts of the drug.

Florey was vilified by a group of society who blamed him and his wonder-drug for allowing the population explosion to occur.

[jseal]

... Florey was vilified by a group of society who blamed him and his wonder-drug for allowing the population explosion to occur.
And rightly so! How wicked can you get?!?!? Saving the lives of all those people who should have died! :yikes:

[Oldfart]

Yes, we'd have a population of less than half, without so many of those irritating complications like China, India, Africa, poor people and the sickly. The concept of mega-cities like Tokyo and Mexico City just couldn't happen.

It's like sticking equal parts of good and bad into a blender, then trying to name the result.

[jseal]

1521 ~ Ferdinand Magellan (http://www.mariner.org/education/ferdinand-magellan-and-first-circumnavigation-world) 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.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/dr_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.

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.dalailama.com/), 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.

1979 ~ Birthday of Stormy Daniels, Porn actress.

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.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/neville-chamberlain), 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 ~ In the largest art theft in U.S. history, 12 paintings, collectively worth more than $100 million, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/topten/isabella.htm), Massachusetts.

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 born 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.

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.

2008 ~ Death of Arthur C. Clarke (http://www.clarkefoundation.org/), Science Fiction author.

Feastdays & Holidays

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

[jseal]

43 B.C. ~ Birthday of Ovid, Roman poet.

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.

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, Broadway Impresario.

1945 ~ UK troops liberated Mandalay, Burma.

1960 ~ Police fired on demonstrators in Sharpeville (http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/sharpeville/menu.htm), South Africa, killing 69 and wounding 180.

1963 ~ The federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz (http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz), was closed.

1965 ~ Rev. King led 3,200 people on the start of a civil rights march from Selma To Montgomery (http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm), 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://www.orbiterballoon.com/).

2000 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the government lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug.

[jseal]

1683 ~ Anne Hutchinson (http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=84) 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.marceaufoundation.org/), Mime.

1963 ~ The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/22/newsid_4271000/4271221.stm), denied improper involvement with the model Christine Keeler (http://www.trivia-library.com/a/where-are-they-now-christine-keeler-and-the-profumo-affair-part-2.htm).

1963 ~ The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkjGsG7tpwc), 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.

2004 ~ Death (by Israeli Hellfire missile) of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/mar/23/guardianobituaries.israel), co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas.

[Oldfart]

"Death (by Israeli Hellfire missile) of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas."

I wonder if there was intentional irony in the Hamas leader dying in a blaze of hellfire?

[jseal]

يموت ملؤها الكره للإنسان!

[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 man to run the "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://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/60minutes/main4952167.shtml) 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 (http://www.julesverne.ca/), Author.

1944 ~ In occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardeatine_Massacre) 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 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. 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.

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.

1978 ~ Birthday of Teanna Kai (http://www.teannakailive.com/index1.php), Porn actress.

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" 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.

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

1904 ~ Birthday of Joseph Campbell (http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php?categoryid=11), Author & Mythologist.

1964 ~ The musical “Funny Girl (http://barbra-archives.com/live/60s/funny_girl_broadway_1.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.

1983 ~ Death of Anthony Blunt, British art historian and spy.

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.

2005 ~ Death of James Callaghan, UK Prime Minister.

[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.

[jseal]

1881 ~ Death of Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer.

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.

1980 ~ Birthday of Birthday of Minori Aoi (葵みのり), Japanese Porn actress.

1987 ~ Death of Maria von Trapp, Singer.

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

[IM1469]

1797 - Nathaniiel Briggs patented a washing machine

1939 - Spanish Civil War ended

1941 - Virginia Woolf Drowned herself

2000 - Supreme Court unanimously ruled that an anonymous tip does not justify a stop and frisk action against a person.

[jseal]

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.

1985 ~ Death of Jeanine Deckers, better known as "The Singing Nun" due to her 1963 hit song "Dominique (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHhyyRByuJ0)".

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, Journalist.

[Oldfart]

"Death of Jeanine Deckers, better known as "The Singing Nun" due to her 1963 hit song "Dominique"."

I was surprised to read in Wiki that she and her partner of 10 years committed suicide after being hounded by the Belgian Government for back taxes.

[jseal]

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

1746 ~ Birthday of Francisco Goya, Spanish painter (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Francisco_Goya/colossus.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.artinthepicture.com/paintings/Francisco_Goya/The-Colossus/&h=698&w=598&sz=23&tbnid=MHVLA2aDNvsqDM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFrancisco%2BGoya&usg=__lBOaeXIUU82WX4c-EqZJKBESJk4=&ei=plmxS4i0J4K78ga3uPDnAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=3&ct=image&ved=0CA4Q9QEwAg) 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.

1945 ~ A defecting German pilot delivered a Messerschmitt Me 262A (http://www.stormbirds.com/project/index.html)-1 to the Allies.

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 computer to the U.S. Census Bureau.

1977 ~ Death of 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 (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/marvbib.htm), English poet.

1732 ~ Birthday of Joseph Haydn, Composer.

1837 ~ Death of John Constable, Painter.

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-entered the Earth's atmosphere.

1976 ~ Birthday of Ashton Moore (http://www.clubashton.com/main.php?s=3&p=1&w=101338&t=0), Porn actress.

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.buzzle.com/editorials/3-10-2005-66935.asp), adventurer and writer.

1805 ~ Birthday of 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 (http://www.csforester.org/), 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/#/history/Introduction) 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.

1975 ~ Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

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 ~ 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.

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.

2008 ~ Death of Charlton Heston (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og0QBldrKd4&feature=related), Actor & activist.

[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.

[jseal]

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

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.

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-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PR360.html).

1967 ~ Birthday of Runa Akasaka (赤坂ルナ), Japanese Porn actress.

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.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1.html) (RFC).

1978 ~ Development of the neutron bomb was canceled by President Carter.

[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.

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 as major league baseball's first African American manager.

1982 ~ Birthday of Judy Star (http://www.judystarxxx.com/main.htm), Canadian porn actress.

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

2005 ~ The funeral of Pope John Paul II (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/johnpaul.html).

[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 actress.

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.

[jseal]

1847 ~ Birthday of Joseph Pulitzer, Journalist & Publisher.

1912 ~ The RMS Titanic (http://www.titanichistoricalsociety.org/) 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.

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.

1986 ~ Birthday of Roman Heart, American Porn actor.

2007 ~ Death of Kurt Vonnegut (http://www.vonnegut.com/), 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.

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.

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.

1999 ~ President Clinton was cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.

2009 ~ Death of Marilyn Chambers, Porn actress, best known for her performance in "Behind the Green Door".

[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.

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.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Nl_Q-EjbA).

2008 ~ Death of John Wheeler, American physicist, inventor of the terms "black hole", "quantum foam" and "wormhole".

[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.

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.

2003 ~ The Human Genome Project was completed (http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/50yr.shtml) with 99% of the human genome sequenced.

[jseal]

1452 ~ Birthday of Leonardo da Vinci (http://www.mos.org/leonardo/).

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.

1985 ~ Birthday of Amy Reid, Porn actress.

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.

[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).

[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://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/n_10035/), noted for the Atkin's Diet.

[jseal]

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 (http://www.internal.org/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.

2002 ~ Death of Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer.

[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 (http://darwin-online.org.uk/), Biologist & Author.

1912 ~ Birthday of Glenn Seaborg, 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.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/biography/documents/hf_ben-xvi_bio_20050419_short-biography_en.html).

[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.

1937 ~ Birthday of George Takei (http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/cast/69078.html), American actor.

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).

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

[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.

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.

1918 ~ Manfred von Richthofen, the German fighter ace known as "The Red Baron", was shot down and killed.

1926 ~ Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II (http://www.royal.gov.uk/HMTheQueen/HMTheQueen.aspx) 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.

[jseal]

1724 ~ Birthday of Immanuel Kant, Philosopher.

1870 ~ Birthday of Vladimir Lenin (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/index.htm), Russian revolutionary.

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

1904 ~ Birthday of Robert Oppenheimer, 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 actress.


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 (http://www.prokofiev.org/biography/index.html), Soviet Composer.

1954 ~ Hank Aaron 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).

1985 ~ Coca-Cola changed its formula and released New Coke (http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_newcoke.html).

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://www.easter1916.net/) 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.

1997 ~ Death of Pat Paulsen (http://www.paulsen.com/pat/), American comedian and politician.

[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://www.encyclopedia.com/video/QXWyFHFhimA-failed-rescue-mission-us-hostages.aspx).

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.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html) 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.tanzaniaodyssey.com/).

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).[/QUOTE]

[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.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/1812/niagara-1813.aspx) (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/labor-history).

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.

[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.

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.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWdegaulle.htm) 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.

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/about-opcw/), a worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons, went into effect.

2008 ~ Death of Albert Hofmann (http://www.hofmann.org/), the Swiss chemist who first synthesized LSD .

[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.

[jseal]

1840 ~ The Penny Black postage stamp put on sale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black) 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.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/manet_bar/)” recalls the lot of one of the employees.

1904 ~ Death of Antonín Dvořák, Czech Composer.

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/).

2008 ~ Death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the "DC Madam".

[jseal]

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

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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w9UX973lXU&feature=related).

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 ~ Tony Blair became Prime Minister of the UK.

1999 ~ Death of Oliver Reed, English actor.

[jseal]

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

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/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.

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

1946 ~ The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (http://www.trial-ch.org/en/tribunals/the-international-military-tribunal-for-the-far-east.html) 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.

2002 ~ Death of Barbara Castle, British politician.

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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3s8sEYzHWQ).

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).

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.

2009 ~ Death of Dom DeLuise, American comedian and actor.

[jseal]

1807 ~ Death of P.D.Q. Bach (http://www.schickele.com/pdqbio.htm), fictitious Composer.

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

1891 ~ NYC’s Carnegie Hall 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 (http://www.tuckborough.net/gimli.html)).

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

1973 ~ Birthday of Brooke Ashley, a former Porn actress.

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.

[jseal]

1856 ~ Birthday of Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist, founder of Psychoanalysis.

1862 ~ Death of Henry David Thoreau (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/), American author and philosopher.

1915 ~ Birthday of T.H. White (http://www2.netdoor.com/~moulder/thwhite/), 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 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.

[jseal]

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.

[jseal]

1794 ~ French chemist Antoine Lavoisier was tried, convicted, and guillotined all on one day in Paris.

1873 ~ Death of John Stuart Mill (http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm), Empiricist Philosopher.

1895 ~ Birthday of Fulton J. Sheen, 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 (http://www.physics.emory.edu/~weeks/misc/sturgeon.html), 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.

[jseal]

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.billyjoel.com/), 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).

[jseal]

1818 ~ Death of Paul Revere (http://www.paulreverehouse.org/bio/), engraver, American Patriot.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Wilkes Booth (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/booth.html), 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.

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).

1946 ~ First successful launch of a V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.

1960 ~ The nuclear submarine USS Triton completed the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.

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.

[jseal]

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.

1957 ~ Birthday of Peter North (http://www.peternorth.com/en?s=1), Canadian Porn Star.

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).

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.douglasadams.com/), Science Fiction author.

[jseal]

1820 ~ Birthday of Florence Nightingale (http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/cms/index.php/florence-introduction), Nurse.

1845 ~ Birthday of Gabriel Fauré, Composer.

1884 ~ Death of Bedrich Smetana, Composer.

1889 ~ Death of John Cadbury (http://www.cadbury.co.uk/cadburyandchocolate/ourstory/Pages/OurstoryDetail.aspx?id=1801_john_cadbury_born&category=family&era=1820_1860&mode=detail), Chocolate Entrepreneur.

1918 ~ Birthday of Julius Rosenberg, 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).

[jseal]

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/other_sullivan/html/index.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.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWRFC.htm) (now the Royal Air Force) was established in the U.K.

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.

1981 ~ Birthday of Sunny Leone (http://www.sunnyleone.com/#), Canadian/American Porn actress.

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).

[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.

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).

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.

1986 ~ The Pride of Baltimore (http://www.pride2.org/index.php) is lost at sea.

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.

[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.

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.

1969 ~ Death of Robert R. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965934-1,00.html), first confirmed death from AIDS in North America .

1979 ~ Birthday of McKenzie Lee, English Porn actress.

2002 ~ Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones opened in theaters.

2005 ~ Newsweek magazine retracted its Koran abuse story that started protests in Afghanistan.

[jseal]

1749 ~ Birthday of Edward Jenner (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/edward_jenner.htm), inventor of vaccination.

1935 ~ Death of Paul Dukas (http://www.naxos.com/person/Paul_Dukas/26016.htm), French composer.

1936 ~ Birthday of Dennis Hopper, Actor & Director.

1943 ~ The RAF carried out the Dambusters raid (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/17/newsid_3623000/3623223.stm).

1954 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court issued their decision in Brown v. Board of Education (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0517.html#article).

1974 ~ Thirty-three people were killed by terrorist bombings in Ireland (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/17/newsid_4311000/4311459.stm).

1992 ~ Death of Lawrence Welk (http://www.spaceagepop.com/welk.htm), American musician.

1996 ~ President Bill Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in - Megan's Law (http://www.megans-law.net/).

2004 ~ Same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts.

2009 ~ Dalia Grybauskaitė was elected the first female President of Lithuania.

[jseal]

1872 ~ Birthday of Bertrand Russell (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html), Logician & Philosopher, awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950.

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://baseballhall.org/hof/robinson-brooks).

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.

2009 ~ The Armed Forces of Sri Lanka defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, ending almost 26 years of fighting (http://www.lakdiva.org/army/digital_globe.html).

[jseal]

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.

1983 ~ Birthday of Eve Angel (http://eveangelofficial.com/home), Hungarian Porn actress.

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://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19680020000)”).

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.

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).

1977 ~ Birthday of Tiger Tyson, Porn actor.

2000 ~ Death of Jean Pierre Rampal (http://www.ffaire.com/rampal/), French flutist.

2002 ~ Death of Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist.

[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).

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".

1956 ~ The U.S. detonated the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1978 ~ Birthday of Briana Banks, German/American Porn actress.

1981 ~ Birthday of Belladonna (http://www.enterbelladonna.com/guests/page.php?node=index), Porn actress.

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/hist/hh-ps/index-eng.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 was forced to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (http://www.freetibet.org/about/china-tibet-seventeen-point-agreement) 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/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensoftheUnitedKingdom/TheHanoverians/Victoria.aspx).

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.

1974 ~ Death of Duke Ellington, American composer and musician.

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://youtube.com/watch?v=8QJABLh7EIg&feature=related).