Strange Days

[jseal]

1900 ~ Birthday of John T. Scopes, defendant in the “Monkey Trial (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm)”.

1904 ~ Birthday of Clifford D. Simak (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/clifford-d-simak/), Science Fiction Author.

1924 ~ Death of Joseph Conrad, Author. (Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim)

1924 ~ Birthday of Leon Uris, American Writer. (Exodus, QB VII)

1943 ~ Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private (http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Patton_George.html) at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice.

1948 ~ Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist, publicly accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been part of a Communist underground (http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/hiss-chambers-nyt.html).

1958 ~ The USS Nautilus (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0803.html#article) traveled beneath the Arctic ice cap.

1972 ~ U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2003 ~ The U.S. Anglican Church approved the appointment of an openly homosexual bishop (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/3/newsid_3909000/3909559.stm).

2008 ~ Death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/), Russian writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1970.

[jseal]

1782 ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (http://www.mozartproject.org/) married Constanze Weber (http://themozartcafe.homestead.com/Constanze.html).

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

1875 ~ Death of Hans Christian Andersen (http://hca.gilead.org.il/), Writer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Louis Armstrong (http://www.satchmo.net/), Jazz Musician.

1914 ~ The UK declared war on Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0804.html#article).

1961 ~ Birthday of President Obama (http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/President_Obama/).

1964 ~ The bodies of three missing civil rights workers were found (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/4/newsid_2962000/2962638.stm) buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.

1977 ~ President Carter signed legislation creating the U.S. Department of Energy.

1991 ~ The cruise ship Oceanos sinks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFux2AAMso) off the coast of South Africa.

2000 ~ Death of Leslie Glass, Porn Actress.

[jseal]

1885 ~ The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty (http://www.nps.gov/stli/historyculture/index.htm) was laid.

1962 ~ Death of Marilyn Monroe (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/5/newsid_2657000/2657289.stm), Actress.

1962 ~ Nelson Mandela imprisoned, not to be released until 1990.

1963 ~ The U.S., UK, and U.S.S.R. signed a nuclear test ban treaty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0805.html#article).

1973 ~ Arab gunmen opened fire and threw grenades (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/5/newsid_4533000/4533763.stm) into a passenger lounge at Athens airport.

1980 ~ Birthday of Kaylani Lei (http://www.clubkaylanilei.com/tour1/), Porn Actress.

1981 ~ The federal government began firing air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.

1984 ~ Death of Richard Burton, Actor.

1987 ~ Birthday of Lexi Belle (http://www.lexibelle.com/home.php), Porn Actress.

2000 ~ Death of Sir Alec Guinness (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000027/bio), Actor.

[jseal]

1809 ~ Birthday of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet (http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html).

1881 ~ Birthday of Alexander Fleming (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio.html), awarded he Nobel Prize in Medicine 1945.

1911 ~ Birthday of Lucille Ball, Actress, Comedienne.

1943 ~ Birthday of Jon Postel, creator of DNS (http://www.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm).

1945 ~ A nuclear bomb codenamed Little Boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0806.html#article).

1961 ~ Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/6/newsid_2944000/2944638.stm) spent a day in orbit.

1965 ~ U.S. release of the Beatles’ album "Help!".

1972 ~ Birthday of Geri Halliwell, British Pop Singer (Spice Girls (http://www.thespicegirls.com/)).

1990 ~ The UN Security Council ordered a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

1991 ~ Tim Berners-Lee released his idea for the "World Wide Web (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5242252.stm)".

[jseal]

1560 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Bathory (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_131.html), serial killer.

1867 ~ Birthday of Mata Hari (http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hari/1.html) (Margaretha Zelle), spy.

1942 ~ Birthday of Garrison Keillor (http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/), radio host.

1947 ~ Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft "Kon-Tiki (http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/kontiki.htm)", arrived at the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.

1957 ~ Death of Oliver Hardy, Comedian & Actor.

1964 ~ U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0807.html#article), giving President Johnson broad powers to deal with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.

1966 ~ Birthday of Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia.

1974 ~ French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

1978 ~ President Carter declared a federal emergency at Love Canal (http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/specialcollections/lovecanal/).

1998 ~ Bombing of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_3131000/3131709.stm) that killed 224 people and injured over 4,500.

[jseal]

1879 ~ Birthday of Emiliano Zapata (http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/316-emiliano-zapata-1879-1919), Mexican Revolutionary.

1902 ~ Birthday of P.A.M. Dirac (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/dirac-bio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1931 ~ Birthday of Roger Penrose (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Penrose.html), British physicist .

1937 ~ Birthday of Dustin Hoffman, Actor (The Graduate, Tootsie, Kramer vs. Kramer).

1945 ~ The U.S. ratified the United Nations Charter.

1963 ~ Britain's ''Great Train Robbery (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/8/newsid_2714000/2714055.stm)'' took place when thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.

1966 ~ The Beatles' released "Revolver”

1974 ~ U.S. President Nixon announced his resignation (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0808.html#article) effective August 9.

1988 ~ U.N. Secretary-General Cuellar announced a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/iraniraq.htm).

1996 ~ Death of Frank A Whittle (http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/innovators/fwhittle.html), inventor of the Jet engine.

[jseal]

1173 ~ Construction of the (Leaning) Tower of Pisa (http://www.italyguides.it/us/pisa/leaning_tower.htm) began.

1483 ~ Opening of the Sistine Chapel (http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Main.html).

1842 ~ The U.S.-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains was defined.

1945 ~ A nuclear bomb codenamed Fat Man was dropped on the city of Nagasaki (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0809.html#article).

1962 ~ Death of Hermann Hesse (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1946/hesse-autobio.html), German-born writer, awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1969 ~ Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murdered five people (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/9/newsid_2998000/2998214.stm) including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and, Abigail Folger.

1975 ~ Death of Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer.

1986 ~ The Headington Shark (http://www.headington.org.uk/shark/) was erected in Oxford.

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

2006 ~ Death of James van Allen (http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/vanallen.html), American physicist.

[jseal]

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan's 5 ships set sail from Seville (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1519magellan.html) to circumnavigate the globe.

1675 ~ Foundation stone set of the Royal Observatory (http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.13496), Greenwich.

1846 ~ The Smithsonian Institution (http://www.si.edu/) was chartered following a $500,000 donation by scientist Joseph Smithson.

1896 ~ Death of Otto Lilienthal, Aviation Pioneer.

1945 ~ Death of Robert Goddard, Rocket Scientist.

1988 ~ A distressing reminder of my mortality (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/10/newsid_2528000/2528665.stm).

1990 ~ The Magellan space probe (http://www.solarviews.com/eng/magellan.htm) arrived at Venus.

1995 ~ Norma McCorvey (http://www.leaderu.com/common/roev.html), '”Jane Roe” in the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which legalized abortion, announced she had joined the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.

2003 ~ Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yuri-Malenchenko/142771299068038) became the first man to marry in space.

2008 ~ Death of Isaac Hayes, Musician & Actor.

[dicksbro]

Two Magellan items in sharing the same day. Wow! What are the odds. 1519 and 1990. :thumbs:

[Oldfart]

1519 and 1990.

Does that put the odds at one in 3509?

[jseal]

480 B.C. ~ Persians under Xerxes defeated Spartans under King Leonidas in the Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans fight to the last man.

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

1253 ~ Death of Saint Clare of Assisi, Patron Saint of television (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_of_Assisi).

1905 ~ Birthday of Erwin Chargaff (http://www.macroevolution.net/erwin-chargaff.html), biochemist.

1919 ~ Death of Andrew Carnegie (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/), Industrialist & Philanthropist.

1929 ~ Babe Ruth (http://www.baberuth.com/biography/) became the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs.

1950 ~ Birthday of Steve Wozniak (http://www.woz.org/), Computer Pioneer.

1972 ~ The last U.S. ground combat unit left South Vietnam.

1984 ~ U.S. President Reagan joked during a voice test for a paid political radio address that he had ''signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. (http://www.jeremygilby.com/Stuff/bombing.au)''

1994 ~ Death of Peter Cushing (http://www.petercushing.com/), British actor.

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

[jseal]

1859 ~ Birthday of Katherine Lee Bates, Poet (America the Beautiful (http://www.brownielocks.com/americathebeautifulWAVE.html) [arranged & performed by Ray Charles]).

1887 ~ Birthday of Erwin Schrödinger (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger-bio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1927 ~ Birthday of Mstislav Rostropovich, Cellist.

1953 ~ The Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/Sovatmtest.html).

1960 ~ The first communications satellite, “Echo I (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/echo.htm)”, was launched.

1964 ~ Death of Ian Fleming (http://www.klast.net/bond/flem_bio.html), Novelist.

1981 ~ The IBM PC (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm) was introduced.

1982 ~ Death of Henry Fonda, Actor.

2002 ~ The Russian submarine Kursk (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/k-141-kursk.htm) sank in the Barents Sea.

2004 ~ New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey came out of the closet at the press conference when he announced his resignation from the office.

[jseal]

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

1860 ~ Birthday of Annie Oakley (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oakley/), Sharpshooter.

1899 ~ Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock (http://hitchcock.tv/), Director.

1910 ~ Death of Florence Nightingale (http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/index.php), English nurse.

1942 ~ Walt Disney's animated cartoon "Bambi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLvX-erABqY)" premiered.

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

1961 ~ The Berlin Wall (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0813.html#article) began to be built.

1966 ~ Beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution.

1973 ~ Birthday of Brittany Andrews (http://www.clubbrittany.com/main.php), Porn Actress.

1997 ~ The popular, controversial animated series "South Park (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121955/)" debuted.

[jseal]

1862 ~ Birthday of Ernest Thayer, Poet (Casey at the Bat (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_case.shtml)).

1880 ~ After 632 years, Cologne Cathedral was completed (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-cathedral.htm).

1945 ~ Japan surrendered (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0814.html#article), ending World War II.

1947 ~ Birthday of Maddy Prior (http://www.maddyprior.co.uk/), English folk singer.

1971 ~ Rod Stewart released "Maggie May".

1980 ~ Workers went on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, in a job action that resulted in the creation of the Solidarity labor movement (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_2802000/2802553.stm).

1985 ~ Birthday of Ashlynn Brooke (http://www.ashlynnbrooke.com/tour1/), Porn Actress.

1988 ~ Death of Enzo Ferrari, Automobile Designer.

1994 ~ Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal (http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/jackal/1.html), was captured.

2003 ~ A blackout hit the northeastern U.S. and part of Canada; 50 million people lost power.

[jseal]

778 ~ The Battle of Roncevaux Pass (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html), in which Roland was killed.

1769 ~ Birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95aug/napoleon.html), general and politician.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison (http://www.thomasedison.com/) made the first-ever recording - "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

1890 ~ Birthday of Jacques Ibert, French Composer.

1945 ~ The Allies proclaimed V-J Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/15/newsid_3581000/3581971.stm), one day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.

1947 ~ India and Pakistan became independent (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0815.html#article) from British rule.

1948 ~ Republic of Korea (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/korea.html) established south of 38th Parallel.

1964 ~ Birthday of Melinda French Gates, wife of Bill Gates.

1967 ~ Death of René Magritte, Surrealist painter.

1969 ~ First day of Woodstock (http://www.squidoo.com/woodstock_69) Music and Art Festival.

[jseal]

1858 ~ President Buchanan inaugurated the new transatlantic telegraph cable (http://atlantic-cable.com/) by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria.

1888 ~ Birthday of Lawrence of Arabia (http://telawrence.info/telawrenceinfo/index.htm).

1899 ~ Death of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist (Bunsen Burner).

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

1954 ~ The first edition of Sports Illustrated (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/swimsuit/home/index.htm) was published.

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

1977 ~ Death of Elvis Presley (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0816.html#article), Singer, Actor.

1981 ~ Birthday of Taylor Rain (http://www.clubtaylorrain.com/index.php), Porn Actress.

2000 ~ Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominated Vice President Al Gore for president.

2003 ~ Death of Idi Amin (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/16/newsid_3921000/3921361.stm), Ugandan dictator.

[jseal]

1601 ~ Birthday of Pierre de Fermat (http://www.simonsingh.net/books/fermats-last-theorem/who-was-fermat/), Mathematician.

1943 ~ The US Army Air Force had its wrist slapped smartly with the loss of 147 B-17's shot down or damaged beyond repair during the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission

1882 ~ Birthday of Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer.

1911 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Botvinnik (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/botvinnik/botvinnik.htm), World Chess Champion.

1962 ~ East German border guards shot and mortally wounded 18-year-old Peter Fechter (http://www.videofact.com/cold_war/berlin/berlin10e_1.html), who had attempted to cross over the Berlin Wall into the western sector.

1970 ~ Venera 7 was launched (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1970-060A). It became the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet, Venus.

1972 ~ Birthday of Ken Ryker, Porn Actor (http://xhamster.com/movies/584966/ken_ryker_fucks_twink.html).

1992 ~ Death of Al Parker (http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/reviews/112000re.htm), Porn Actor.

1998 ~ President Clinton admitted having an affair (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/17/newsid_4537000/4537597.stm) with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

2008 ~ Michael Phelps became the first Olympian to win eight gold medals in the same Olympics.

[Oldfart]

1943 ~ The US Army Air Force had its wrist slapped smartly with the loss of 147 B-17's shot down or damaged beyond repair during the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission

It made for a very expensive interruption to ball bearing production. 147 lost B-17s and injured/dead in the returned aircraft push the casualties over 1500, possibly 1800 aircrew.

[jseal]

1227 ~ Death of Genghis Khan (http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/vexhibit/genghis/intro.htm), Mongol leader.

1587 ~ Birthday of Virginia Dare (http://www.outerbanks.com/manteo/history/vadare.htm); the first English child born in the Americas.

1774 ~ Birthday of Meriwether Lewis, Explorer.

1877 ~ Asaph Hall discovered Phobos, the moon of Pluto.

1919 ~ Death of Joseph E. Seagram (http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7695), Canadian extraordinaire.

1920 ~ The 19th Amendment to US constitution was ratified (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment19/), guaranteeing women's right to vote.

1958 ~ Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita (http://books.google.com/books?id=utvB0I_0SZsC&dq=Lolita&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=dveJSvyRJYzCMKrdmbgP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=&f=false) was published in the U.S.

1963 ~ James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0818.html#article).

1969 ~ Jimi Hendrix played the unofficial last day of Woodstock (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/18/newsid_2760000/2760911.stm).

1991 ~ Downfall of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was put under house arrest while he was vacationing in the Crimea.

[Oldfart]

The Battle of Long Tan

The newly arrived 1st Australian Task Force established its Phuoc Tuy operations base in 1966 at Nui Dat, a piece of high ground surrounded by rubber plantations.


The Viet Cong had achieved dominion in the province and decided to inflict a politically unacceptable defeat on the Australians. Their plan was to lure the Australians from their base by firing recoilless rifle and mortar shells into it. They theorised that the Australians would sweep the area around the base in an attempt to stop the attacks, and the Viet Cong would ambush the sweeping forces.

On the night of 16/17 August 1966, the Viet Cong fired a barrage of shells into Nui Dat, wounding 24 Australians. Prior to this event, the Australians had become aware, from radio intercepts and sightings, that a large enemy force was operating close to the base. Australian patrols sent out specifically to find the Viet Cong had not encountered the force.

On 18 August 1966 D Company of 6RAR was patrolling in the area of the Long Tan rubber plantation when, at about 3.15pm, the lead platoon (11 Platoon, commanded by 2Lt Gordon Sharp, a national serviceman) encountered a small group of Viet Cong who fled leaving one of their number killed by the Australians. The aggressive patrolling continued until, at about 4.08pm, the main body of the Viet Cong 275 Regiment was encountered. The Viet Cong attacked vigorously with mortars, rifle and machine gun fire.



In pouring rain, the Australians returned fire with platoon weapons and artillery which was firing from the Nui Dat base, some five kilometres to the west. Close air support was also called for but couldn't be used because the target was unable to be identified accurately in the conditions.

At 5pm D Company's commander, Major Harry Smith, radioed for ammunition resupply. Two RAAF Iroquois helicopters which happened to be at Nui Dat to transport a concert party were tasked and flew at tree top level into the battle area where they successfully delivered the sorely needed boxes of ammunition.

The combination of aggressive fire from D Company soldiers plus devastating artillery fire from Nui Dat had swung the battle in the Australians' favour but the Viet Cong continued to manoeuvre to gain the upper hand. Meanwhile, A Company of 6RAR had been ordered to move to the support of the beleaguered D Company.





They did so mounted in armoured personnel carriers from 1st APC Squadron which forded a flooded stream and then shortly afterward encountered a substantial enemy force. 2 Platoon of A Company dismounted and advanced on the enemy who fled.

Although the Viet Cong could still be seen massing in failing light at 6.55pm as the relief force arrived in the D Company area, the enemy force melted away as darkness descended. The battle of Long Tan was over.

The Australians consolidated their position for the night and then commenced evacuation of their wounded using the lights from APCs to guide in helicopters. During the night the Viet Cong cleared many of their wounded and dead from the battle field. A number of the wounded Australians lay there all through the long terrifying night, as the Viet Cong moved around them.

Morning revealed that the Viet Cong force, estimated at 2,500, had been badly mauled. 245 Viet Cong bodies were found in the battle area. It was apparent that the Viet Cong commanders had failed to appreciate the effectiveness of artillery fire and had paid dearly as a result.

The Australians had lost 18 killed, 17 from D Company (including the young platoon commander of 11 platoon) and one from 1st APC Squadron, and 24 wounded.

The above account has been compiled primarily from information contained in Diggers - From 6 June 1944 to 1994 by George Odgers.

[jseal]

Very cool! That has a reality independent of American prime time news reporting

[jseal]

1881 ~ Birthday of George Enescu (http://www.enescusociety.org/), Romanian composer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.

1934 ~ The creation of the position Führer approved in a German plebiscite (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0819.html#article).

1967 ~ Death of Hugo Gernsback, "The Father of Magazine Science Fiction". Although few now know him, the annual Science Fiction Achievement awards are named the "Hugos" in his honor.

1942 ~ About 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/19/newsid_3560000/3560309.stm), France, suffering about 50 percent casualties.

1960 ~ A tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage (http://www.americanheritage.com/content/day-we-shot-down-u-2).

1977 ~ Death of Groucho Marx, Comedian & Actor.

1981 ~ Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sent two Sukoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two U.S. F-14 Tomcats over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets shot down the Libyan fighters (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1386573).

The more things change, the more they stay the same. :rolleyes2

1994 ~ Death of Linus Pauling (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1962/pauling-bio.html), Scientist & Peace Activist.

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

2003 ~ A suicide truck bomb struck U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello (http://www.sergiovdmfoundation.org/en/home.html).

[jseal]

1882 ~ Piotr Tchaikovsky's “1812 Overture (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo48YpNOesQ)” debuted in Moscow.

1890 ~ Birthday of H. P. Lovecraft (http://www.hplovecraft.com/), Horror Writer.

1940 ~ UK PM Winston Churchill (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/) paid tribute to the RAF, saying, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

1941 ~ Birthday of Slobodan Milosevic (http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/milosevic.html), former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

1948 ~ Birthday of Robert Plant, British Musician (Led Zeppelin).

1968 ~ Warsaw Pact troops and tanks invaded Czechoslovakia (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0820.html#top) to end the Prague Spring of political liberalization.

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

1998 ~ The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Quebec could not legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval (http://scc.lexum.org/en/1998/1998scr2-217/1998scr2-217.html).

1998 ~ The U.S. launched cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

2001 ~ Death of Sir Fred Hoyle (http://www.hoyle.org.uk/), Astronomer, Science Fiction Writer.

[jseal]

1858 ~ The first of seven debates between U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas was held.

1872 ~ Birthday of Aubrey Beardsley, English Illustrator (http://www.artpassions.net/cgi-bin/show_image.pl?../galleries/beardsleye/examherald_e.jpg).

1904 ~ Birthday of Count Basie (http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_basie_count.htm), Bandleader.

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

1940 ~ Death of Leon Trotsky (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/index.htm), exiled Russian revolutionary.

1959 ~ Hawaii was admitted as the 50th U.S. state (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0821.html#article).

1973 ~ Birthday of Sergey Brin (http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/execs.html#sergey), Co-founder of Google.

1983 ~ Philippine opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was murdered (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/21/newsid_2534000/2534945.stm) moments after stepping off a plane at Manila International Airport.

1986 ~ Suffocating gas erupted from volcanic Lake Nyos (http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geo5xx/geos577/projects/kayzar/html/lake_nyos_disaster.html) in Cameroon, killing more than 1,700.

1991 ~ A hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

[jseal]

1485 ~ The Battle of Bosworth Field (http://www.pomian.demon.co.uk/bosworth.htm) ended the Wars of the Roses.

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

1862 ~ Birthday of Claude Debussy, Composer.

1893 ~ Birthday of Dorothy Parker (http://www.dorothyparker.com/), Writer & Wit .

1902 ~ Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to ride in an automobile (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0822.html#article).

1920 ~ Birthday of Ray Bradbury (http://www.raybradbury.com/), science fiction author and fantasy author (Fahrenheit 451).

1962 ~ The Savannah (http://www.atomicinsights.com/jul95/failure.html), the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completed its maiden voyage.

1978 ~ Death of Jomo Kenyatta (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/22/newsid_2500000/2500553.stm), Kenya's founding father.

2001 ~ For the Geeks among us, a sad day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_room_coffee_pot). The Trojan room coffee pot is switched off for the last time.

2007 ~ On a day that will live in MLB infamy, the Baltimore Orioles were whomped by the Texas Rangers, 30 – 3! :yikes:

[jseal]

1305 ~ Execution of William Wallace (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/independence/features_independence_wallace.shtml).

1754 ~ Birthday of King Louis XVI of France.

1833 ~ Slavery was abolished (http://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm) in the English colonies.

1912 ~ Birthday of Gene Kelly (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/kelly_g_homepage.html), Dancer & Actor.

1926 ~ Death of Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor.

1927 ~ Italian-born anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0823.html#article) in Boston.

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

1981 ~ Birthday of Carmen Luvana (http://www.clubcarmen.com/), Porn Actress.

1990 ~ Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/23/newsid_2512000/2512289.stm).

1996 ~ Osama bin Laden's fatwa entitled "A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html)" was published in Al Quds Al Arabi.

[jseal]

1456 ~ The printing of the Gutenberg Bible (http://www.ideafinder.com/features/everwonder/won-printbook.htm) was completed.

1880 ~ Birthday of Joshua Lionel Cowen (http://www.lionel.com/), inventor of the toy electric train.

1929 ~ Birthday of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader.

1932 ~ Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop.

1939 ~ The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8214391.stm) (also known as Nazi-Soviet Pact) was signed.

1960 ~ Birthday of Cal Ripken, Jr. (http://www.ripkenbaseball.com/calripken/bio/), baseball player.

1979 ~ Death of Hanna Reitsch (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/reitsch.html), German test pilot.

1981 ~ Mark Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.

1992 ~ Hurricane Andrew (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0824.html#article) hit South Florida.

2006 ~ "Planet" was redefined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) such that Pluto is no longer considered a planet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#IAU_decision_and_the_.22Great_Pluto_War.22).

[dicksbro]

2006 ~ "Planet" was redefined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) such that Pluto is no longer considered a planet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#IAU_decision_and_the_.22Great_Pluto_War.22).
I suspect if there were folks on Jupiter, their IAU would declare Mercury, Venus and Earth as "Dwarf Planets," too. :shrug:

Too bad, I always liked the planet ... er ... dwarf planet Pluto. :(

[Oldfart]

It's only one small group of astronomers.

We know better.

[jseal]

I'm with you guys.

[jseal]

1835 ~ The New York Sun printed The Great Moon Hoax (http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/moonhoax.html).

1867 ~ Death of Michael Faraday, Scientist.

1875 ~ Matthew Webb became the first man to swim the English Channel (http://www.trivia-library.com/a/first-man-to-swim-the-english-channel-capt-matthew-webb-part-1.htm).

1894 ~ Shibasaburo Kitasato discovered the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and published his findings in The Lancet.

1900 ~ Birthday of Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1953/krebs-bio.html), Scientist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953.

1918 ~ Birthday of Leonard Bernstein, Conductor & Composer.

1944 ~ Paris was liberated by Allied forces (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0825.html#article) after four years of Nazi occupation.

1982 ~ Voyager 2 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/25/newsid_2535000/2535545.stm) spacecraft flew by Neptune.

1987 ~ Birthday of Whitney Stevens (http://whitney-36dd.com/index.php?bill=def), Porn Actress.

1991 ~ Linus Torvalds sent the email announcing his project to create the Linux (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Main_Page) operating system.

[jseal]

55 B.C. ~ Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

1071 ~ The Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert (http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/articles/markham.htm).

1498 ~ Michelangelo commissioned to carve the Pieta (http://www.stpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Pieta/Pieta.htm).

1839 ~ The ship Amistad was captured off Long Island.

1847 ~ Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic.

1910 ~ Birthday of Mother Teresa (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-bio.html) of Calcutta, Blessed.

1920 ~ The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment19/), guaranteeing women the right to vote, was declared in effect (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0826.html#article).

1961 ~ The International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto (http://www.hhof.com/html/gi20300.shtml).

1967 ~ Birthday of Kelly Madison (http://www.kellymadison.com/), porn star.

1996 ~ President Clinton signed welfare reform into law (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=104_cong_bills&docid=f:h3734enr.txt.pdf) under his promise to "end welfare as we know it".

[jseal]

1776 ~ British forces under General William Howe defeated the Americans under General George Washington in the Battle of Long Island (http://www.britishbattles.com/long-island.htm).

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

1828 ~ Krakatoa erupted (http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Krakatau.html); approximately 36,000 people on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra drowned.

1896 ~ Anglo-Zanzibar War (http://www.neatorama.com/2007/02/21/the-worlds-shortest-and-longest-wars/). Lasting only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in recorded history.

1908 ~ Birthday of Lyndon B. Johnson (http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/biographys.hom/lbj_bio.asp), 36th U.S. president.

1939 ~ First jet aircraft flight; a Heinkel He 178, piloted by Erich Warsitz.

1945 ~ American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II.

1947 ~ Birthday of Harry Reems (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/may/22/features.magazine), Porn Star (Deep Throat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Throat_(film)), The Devil in Miss Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_in_Miss_Jones), etc.).

1962 ~ The Mariner 2 space probe launched (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0827.html#article) to Venus.

1967 ~ Death of Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/27/newsid_3767000/3767499.stm).

[jseal]

430 ~ Death of Augustine of Hippo (http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/augustine/), Philosopher, Theologian.

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

1828 ~ Birthday of Leo Tolstoy, Author. His “The Law of Love and the Law of Violence” influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.

1845 ~ First issue of Scientific American (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/08/26/timeline-showcases-life-of-scientific-american-founder-for-magazines-166th-anniversary/) magazine published.

1850 ~ Richard Wagner's opera “Lohengrin” premiered, from which comes the Bridal Chorus, traditionally played at Western weddings, and commonly known as "Here Comes the Bride (http://www.trivia-library.com/b/story-and-origins-of-famous-songs-here-comes-the-bride.htm)".

1897 ~ Birthday of Charles Boyer (http://www.themave.com/Boyer/), Actor.

1963 ~ During a civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0828.html#article) in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm)” speech.

1988 ~ Ramstein airshow disaster (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHD0ifsnpVc&feature=related): 75 people were killed and 346 seriously injured.

1990 ~ Iraq declared Kuwait to be a province of Iraq.

1991 ~ The collapse of the USSR: Mikhail Gorbachev (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1990/gorbachev-lecture.html) resigned as Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

[jseal]

1632 ~ Birthday of John Locke (http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Locke.htm), Philosopher.

1896 ~ Chop suey was invented in New York City.

1949 ~ The Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon (http://www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=50) at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

1952 ~ Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" (http://interglacial.com/~sburke/stuff/cage_433.html) in Woodstock, New York.

1957 ~ Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., ended the longest filibuster in Senate history after talking for 24 hours, 18 minutes against a civil rights bill.

1966 ~ The Beatles performed their last concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

1981 ~ Birthday of Lanny Barbie, Canadian Porn actress (http://www.lanniebarby.com/).

1982 ~ Death of Ingrid Bergman (http://www.ingridbergman.com/), Swedish actress.

1991 ~ The Downfall of the Soviet Union: The Supreme Soviet suspended all activities of the Soviet Communist Party (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0829.html#article).

2005 ~ Hurricane Katrina made landfall (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/29/newsid_4947000/4947378.stm) along the Louisiana coast, overwhelming the levees protecting New Orleans and causing massive flooding.

[Oldfart]

2005 ~ Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Louisiana coast, overwhelming the levees protecting New Orleans and causing massive flooding AND DEATH.

[jseal]

2011 ~ Hurricane Irene's current death toll: 21

[jseal]

1862 ~ Confederate armies under Generals Jackson & Longstreet defeated Union forces led by General Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run (http://www.civilwarhome.com/2manassa.htm) in Manassas, Va.

1871 ~ Birthday of Ernest Rutherford (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1908/rutherford-bio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908.

1909 ~ Burgess Shale fossils (http://paleobiology.si.edu/burgess/) discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.

1918 ~ Birthday of Baseball hall-of-famer Ted Williams.

1940 ~ Death of J.J. Thomson (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1906/thomson-bio.html), English physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 1906. Prof. Thomson identified the electron as a subatomic particle, the first one to be discovered. In one of the greater ironies of modern physics his son, G.P. Thomson (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1937/thomson-bio.html) later received the prize for proving that the electron was also, in fact, a wave.

1963 ~ Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0830.html#article) went into operation.

1963 ~ Death of Guy Burgess, English-born Soviet spy.

1987 ~ Thurgood Marshall (http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm) confirmed as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1999 ~ East Timorese voted for independence in a referendum.

2006 ~ Death of Glenn Ford (http://www.glennford.com/), Canadian-born actor.

[jseal]

1879 ~ Birthday of Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel (http://www.alma-mahler.at/engl/almas_life/almas_life.html). This woman knew how to live!

1888 ~ Mary Ann Nichols murdered. She was perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper (http://www.jack-the-ripper-walk.co.uk/jack_the_ripper_history.htm)'s victims.

1918 ~ Birthday of Alan Jay Lerner (http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C42), American composer ( Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady).

1935 ~ Birthday of Frank Robinson (http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-frankrobinson-storygallery,0,6870416.storygallery?coll=bal_sports_baseball_xpromo), Baseball Player, Manager.

1945 ~ Birthday of Itzhak Perlman, Violinist.

1945 ~ Birthday of Van Morrison, Irish musician (“Brown-Eyed Girl", "Moondance" and "Domino").

1962 ~ Trinidad and Tobago became independent.

1980 ~ Solidarity labor union formed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4194204.stm) in Poland.

1997 ~ Death of Diana, Princess of Wales (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0831.html#article), in a car crash in Paris.

2006 ~ Edvard Munch's stolen painting "The Scream (http://www.edvard-munch.com/gallery/anxiety/scream.htm)" was recovered.

[jseal]

1653 ~ Birthday of Johann Pachelbel, Composer. Remember the theme music of “Ordinary People”? That’s “Pachelbel's Canon (http://www.helander.se/stefan/pachelbel/files/canonstr.mid)” (which is not really a Canon).

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

1939 ~ Germany attacked Poland (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0901.html#article), beginning World War II.

1946 ~ Birthday of Barry Gibb, English singer (Bee Gees).

1967 ~ Death of Ilse Koch, "The Bitch of Buchenwald (http://www.scrapbookpages.com/dachauscrapbook/DachauTrials/IlseKoch.html)", Nazi war criminal.

1967 ~ Death of Siegfried Sassoon, English poet.

1972 ~ Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky (http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/7072$wix.htm) to become the world chess champion.

1976 ~ Birthday of Jada Fire (http://www.clubjadafire.com/), Porn actress.

1983 ~ Korean Air Flight KAL-007 was shot down (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/1/newsid_2493000/2493469.stm) by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft entered Soviet airspace.

1985 ~ A joint American-French expedition located the wreck of the RMS Titanic (http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/titanic/technology/technology.html).

[Oldfart]

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

Poor Martha.

[jseal]

31 B.C. ~ Battle of Actium (http://luna.cas.usf.edu/~murray/actium/brochure.html): Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra. This date is often used for the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1666 ~ The Great Fire of London (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/londonfire.htm) started in Pudding Lane at the house of Thomas Farrinor near London Bridge. Samuel Pepys, a neighbor, was woken by the fire at around 1 AM. The fire burned for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died.

1898 ~ The Battle of Omdurman (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/empire/episodes/episode_68.shtml): British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeated Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, establishing British dominance in the Sudan.

1945 ~ The official surrender of Japan was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0902.html#article) from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, bringing World War II to an end.

1948 ~ Birthday of Christa McAuliffe (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/mcauliffe.html), schoolteacher & astronaut.

1964 ~ Death of Alvin York (http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/sgtayork.htm), Hero. He was the most decorated American soldier of World War I.

1969 ~ Death of Ho Chi Minh, Vietmamese Revolutionary, President & Prime Minister.

1973 ~ Death of J. R. R. Tolkien (http://www.tolkiensociety.org/), British writer.

1974 ~ Birthday of Inari Vachs, Porn Actress.

1991 ~ The U.S. recognized the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

[jseal]

301 ~ San Marino, the world's oldest republic still in existence, was founded by Saint Marinus.

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

1875 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand Porsche (http://www.autohistory.org/feature_6.html), German automotive engineer.

1893 ~ Death of James Harrison (http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/089.html#366), Australian pioneer of mechanical refrigeration.

1939 ~ World War II: France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/3/newsid_3493000/3493279.stm).

1954 ~ The last new episode of The Lone Ranger (http://www.radiohof.org/adventuredrama/loneranger.html) was aired on radio after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years.

1962 ~ Death of e. e. cummings (http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/eecummings/), poet.

1976 ~ The Viking 2 spacecraft landed on Mars (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0903.html#article) and took the first close-up, color photos of the planet's surface.

1995 ~ eBay (http://www.ebay.com/) founded.

2004 ~ More than 300 people died at the end of a three-day siege at a school in Beslan, Russia.

[jseal]

476 ~ Romulus Augustus (http://www.roman-empire.net/collapse/romulus.html), the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed.

1781 ~ Los Angeles was founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula (The City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula (http://www.lasangelitas.org/articles/city_of_angels_name.htm)).

1824 ~ Birthday of Anton Bruckner, Composer.

1888 ~ George Eastman registered the trademark Kodak.

1907 ~ Death of Edvard Grieg (http://www.mnc.net/norway/EHG.htm), Norwegian Composer.

1957 ~ The Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel (http://www.edsel.com/).

1957 ~ The Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution in Great Britain came to the conclusion that outlawing homosexuality impinged upon civil liberties (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/4/newsid_3007000/3007686.stm).

1965 ~ Death of Albert Schweitzer (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1952/schweitzer-bio.html), Physician, J.S. Bach interpreter, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1952.

1995 ~ Death of William Kunstler, Attorney.

1998 ~ Google was founded (http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/history.html) by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

[dicksbro]

1781[/B] ~ Los Angeles was founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula (The City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula (http://www.lasangelitas.org/articles/city_of_angels_name.htm)).
I assume they changed it to Los Angeles so that they didn't need envelopes 18" long just to write the address? :spin:

(Gotta' admit though, "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula" has a nice ring to it. :boink:

:D

[jseal]

1793 ~ The French National Convention voted to implement terror measures to enforce the principles (http://britannia.com/history/euro/1/2_2.html) of the French Revolution.

1847 ~ Birthday of Jesse James (http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/outlaws/james/1.html), outlaw.

1857 ~ Birthday of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (http://www.spaceline.org/history/21.html), Visionary & Pioneer of Astronautics.

1882 ~ The first Labor Day parade in the U.S. was held in New York City.

1939 ~ The U.S. declared its neutrality in World War II.

1957 ~ “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac was published.

1972 ~ A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacked Israeli athletes (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0905.html#article) at the Munich Olympic Games.

1735 ~ Birthday of AnnMarie (http://www.annmarierios.com/annmarieriosvideos.php?page=3), Porn Actress.

1982 ~ Death of Douglas Bader (http://www.acesofww2.com/UK/aces/bader.htm), World War II RAF fighter pilot.

1997 ~ Death of Mother Teresa (http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/), Inspiration.

[dicksbro]

:wish: Rest in Peace, Mother Teresa. Rest in Peace. :wish:

[jseal]

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

1766 ~ Birthday of John Dalton (http://dl.clackamas.cc.or.us/ch104-04/dalton's.htm), British chemist and physicist. He was one of the earlier proponents of the atomic theory.

1847 ~ Henry Thoreau (http://www.transcendentalists.com/1thorea.html) left Walden Pond (http://www.walden.org/Explore/Walden_Woods_Ecosystem/Walden_Pond) and moved in with Ralph Waldo Emerson (http://www.transcendentalists.com/1emerson.html) and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.

1928 ~ Birthday of Robert Pirsig, Author (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (http://www.ram.org/ramblings/books/zen_and_the_art_of_motorcycle_maintenance.html)).

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

1965 ~ India invaded West Pakistan. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/6/newsid_3632000/3632092.stm)

1986 ~ Birthday of Raven Riley (http://tour4.ravenriley.com/?nats=NjM6Mzox&p=1), Porn Actress.

1995 ~ Cal Ripken Jr. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTpElAoGBZE) broke Lou Gehrig's record of playing 2,131 consecutive baseball games.

1996 ~ Eddie Murray (http://baseballhall.org/hof/murray-eddie) became the 15th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Oriole Park in Baltimore, Maryland.

2005 ~ The California Legislature became the first legislative body in the U.S. to approve same-sex marriages.

[jseal]

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

1907 ~ RMS Lusitania set sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.

1908 ~ Birthday of Dr. Michael DeBakey (http://www.debakeydepartmentofsurgery.org/home/content.cfm?content_id=287), Heart Surgeon and inventor of the MASH.

1912 ~ Birthday of David Packard, Electrical Engineer.

1940 ~ The Blitz (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0907.html#article) – Under orders from Adolf Hitler, the Luftwaffe began to bomb London. This was the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.

1977 ~ The U.S. agreed to transfer control of the Panama Canal (http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html) to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

1986 ~ Desmond Tutu (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-bio.html) becomes the first black African to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.

1992 ~ Ciskei soldiers kill 24 at political rally (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/7/newsid_2502000/2502607.stm).

1994 ~ Death of James Clavell, Author (Shogun) & Screenwriter (To Sir, with Love (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062376/); The Great Escape (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057115/)).

1997 ~ Death of Mobutu Sese Seko (http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/07/mobutu.wrap/), dictator of Zaire.

[jseal]

1636 ~ Harvard College (http://www.college.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do) founded as the first college in the Americas.

1886 ~ Birthday of Siegfried Sassoon (http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/sassoon.htm), Poet (http://www.radix.net/~bbrown/sassoon.html).

1925 ~ Birthday of Peter Sellers (http://www.petersellers.com/), Actor (A Shot in the Dark, Dr. Strangelove, The Pink Panther, etc.).

1930 ~ 3M began marketing Scotch transparent tape.

1941 ~ Siege of Leningrad (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/leningrad.htm) began.

1944 ~ London was hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.

1949 ~ Death of Richard Strauss, Composer.

1966 ~ The first episode of the science fiction television series “Star Trek (http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/episode/68672.html)” aired.

1970 ~ Death of Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven.

1974 ~ President Ford granted an unconditional pardon (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0908.html#article) to former President Nixon.

1981 ~ Death of Hideki Yukawa, the Japanese physicist who proposed the meson elementary particle, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1949 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1949/yukawa-bio.html).

[jseal]

1585 ~ Birthday of Cardinal Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/95sep/richelieu.html), French statesman.

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

1828 ~ Birthday of Leo Tolstoy (http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/), Russian novelist (Anna Karenina, War and Peace).

1945 ~ Admiral Grace Hopper discovered the first computer bug (http://www.waterholes.com/~dennette/1996/hopper/bug.htm).

1967 ~ Birthday of Anna Malle, Porn Star.

1976 ~ Death of Mao Zedong (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0909.html#article), chief architect of the Chinese Communist Revolution.

1987 ~ Extradition to Belgium of twenty-five English football fans (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/9/newsid_2503000/2503885.stm) involved in the Heysel stadium disaster.

1993 ~ The Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.) officially recognized Israel as a legitimate state.

2001 ~ The leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Massoud, was assassinated (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0110/junger.html) in Afghanistan.

2003 ~ Death of Edward Teller (http://www.webofstories.com/play/13356;jsessionid=76ECF850DA1FCFD6BDCC7A8E78368B61), Hungarian-born physicist, "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb".

[jseal]

1846 ~ Elias Howe was granted a patent for the sewing machine.

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Jay Gould (http://www.stephenjaygould.org/), American paleontologist.

1943 ~ World War II: German forces began their occupation of Rome.

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

1960 ~ Birthday of Colin Firth (http://www.firth.com/), Actor (Shakespeare in Love, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually, The King's Speech).

1971 ~ Death of Nikita Khrushchev (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSkhrushchev.htm), Premier of the Soviet Union.

1977 ~ Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of murder, became the last person to be executed by the guillotine (http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/guillotine.html) in France.

1990 ~ The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro (http://www.answers.com/topic/basilica-of-our-lady-of-peace-of-yamoussoukro), the largest church in Africa and perhaps the world, consecrated by Pope John Paul II.

2000 ~ British paratroopers rescued (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/10/newsid_2504000/2504535.stm) six held hostage by the "West Side Boys".

2008 ~ CERN (http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/Welcome.html)'s Large Hadron Collider (http://press.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHC-en.html) (LHC) is finally powered up.

[jseal]

1297 ~ William Wallace led a Scottish army to defeat the English in the Battle of Stirling Bridge (http://www.scotclans.com/history/1297_stirling.html).

1711 ~ Birthday of William Boyce (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXiHTJ5Ncog), Composer.

1914 ~ In one of the earlier military engagements of WWI, Australian forces defeat Germans in New Britain.

1948 ~ Death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah ( http://www.storyofpakistan.com/person.asp?perid=P009&Pg=1), first Governor-General of Pakistan.

1973 ~ A military coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/11/newsid_3199000/3199155.stm) toppled elected Marxist President Salvador Allende.

1987 ~ CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather (http://www.ratherbiased.com/), angry over being preempted for a tennis match, walked off the set, leaving affiliates with six minutes of an empty news desk.

1987 ~ Death of Lorne Greene, Canadian actor.

2001 ~ The September 11 terrorist attacks (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0911.html#article) destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City, part of The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and crashed a passenger airliner in Pennsylvania. In total, almost 3,000 were killed.

2002 ~ Death of Johnny Unitas (http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=219), Football Hall of Famer.

2007 ~ Russia tests the largest conventional weapon ever, the "Father of All Bombs".

[jseal]

490 B.C. ~ The Athenians defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/marathon.htm).

1683 ~ The Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Battle of Vienna.

1814 ~ War of 1812: An American detachment halted the British land advance to Baltimore in the Battle of North Point (http://battlenorthpoint.org/).

1880 ~ Birthday of H.L. Mencken (http://www.americanwriters.org/writers/mencken.asp), Journalist, Author.

1913 ~ Birthday of Jesse Owens (http://www.jesseowens.com/), American track and field athlete.

1940 ~ Cave paintings discovered in Lascaux, France.

1959 ~ First episode of Bonanza (http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=Bonanza+). First regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color.

1977 ~ Death of Steve Biko (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0912.html#article), South African anti-apartheid activist.

1992 ~ Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, was captured.

2003 ~ Death of Johnny Cash (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/12/newsid_3595000/3595300.stm), Country Music Great.

[jseal]

1819 ~ Birthday of Clara Schumann (http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~eversr/clara.html), Pianist, Composer.

1857 ~ Birthday of Milton S. Hershey (http://www.hersheys.com/discover/milton/milton.asp), chocolate entrepreneur and founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company.

1899 ~ Death of Henry Bliss, the first man in the U.S. to be killed in an automobile accident.

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

1971 ~ Frank Robinson (http://baseballhall.org/media/photo-gallery/frank-robinson) became the 11th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland.

1977 ~ Death of Leopold Stokowski, Conductor.

1982 ~ Lindy Chamberlain's "dingo baby trial (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/13/newsid_3638000/3638248.stm)" opened in Australia.

1979 ~ Birthday of Catalina Cruz (http://www.sweetspicy.com/catalina-cruz.html), Porn Actress (http://www.catalinacruz.com/t1/revscf=marcym25/home.html).

1993 ~ Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shake hands on a peace deal (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0913.html#article).

2006 ~ Kimveer Gill kills one student and wounds 19 others (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/dawson-college/) at Dawson College in Montreal.

[jseal]

1752 ~ The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar (http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa041301c.htm), skipping eleven days (September 2 was followed directly by September 14 that year).

1760 ~ Birthday of Luigi Cherubini, Composer.

1814 ~ Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner (http://americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/).

1927 ~ Death of Isadora Duncan (http://www.isadoraduncan.org/about_isadora.html), Dancer.

1959 ~ The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto the Moon (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0914.html#article), becoming the first man-made object to reach it.

1967 ~ Birthday of Ashlyn Gere (http://www.ashlyngere.com/bio.html), Porn actress.

1982 ~ Death of Princess Grace of Monaco (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/14/newsid_2516000/2516601.stm).

1994 ~ The Major League Baseball season was canceled (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Major_League_Baseball_strike) because of a players’ strike.

1996 ~ Death of Juliet Prowse, British actress & dancer.

2005 ~ A federal judge in San Francisco ruled the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional.

[jseal]

1789 ~ Birthday of James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist.

1928 ~ Alexander Fleming (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio.html) noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

1929 ~ Birthday of Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1969 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1969/gell-mann-bio.html).

1950 ~ The U.N. staged its fist offensive operation in the Korean War; an amphibious assault at Inchon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/15/newsid_3633000/3633301.stm).

1963 ~ The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0915.html#article) kills four children in Birmingham, Alabama.

1975 ~ Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia.

1977 ~ Death of Maria Callas (http://www.serendipity.li/callas.html), Opera Diva.

1978 ~ Death of Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer.

1981 ~ The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Sandra Day O'Connor (http://www.oyez.org/justices/sandra_day_oconnor/) to the U.S. Supreme Court.

2008 ~ Lehman Brothers (http://www.lehman.com/) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

[jseal]

1736 ~ Death of Gabriel Fahrenheit (http://www.notablebiographies.com/Du-Fi/Fahrenheit-Gabriel.html), German Physicist.

1810 ~ Fr. Miguel Hidalgo proclaimed Mexico's independence from Spain.

1940 ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act (http://www.sss.gov/backgr.htm).

1959 ~ French President De Gaulle recognized Algerian right of self determination.

1968 ~ Candidate Richard Nixon appeared on Laugh-in (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/R/htmlR/rowanandmar/rowanandmar.htm).

1974 ~ U.S. President Ford announced a conditional amnesty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0916.html#article) program for Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders.

1987 ~ The Montreal Protocol (http://www.afeas.org/montreal_protocol.html) was signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

1991 ~ The trial of Manuel Noriega began.

1992 ~ The Pound Sterling was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/16/newsid_2519000/2519013.stm) by currency speculators and devalued against the Deutschmark.

1996 ~ The Howard Stern Radio Show (http://www.howardstern.com/) premiered.

[jseal]

1862 ~ Union forces repelled a Confederate invasion of Maryland in the Civil War Battle of Antietam (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0917.html#article).

1908 ~ Death of Lt. Thomas Selfridge, first to die in an airplane crash.

1929 ~ Birthday of Sir Stirling Moss (http://www.stirlingmoss.com/), Formula One racer.

1939 ~ The Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.

1970 ~ Civil war (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/17/newsid_4575000/4575159.stm) broke out in Jordan.

1972 ~ "M.A.S.H. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/)" premiered on CBS.

1976 ~ Birthday of Daniella Rush, former Czech Porn Actress.

1978 ~ The Camp David Accords (http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/campdavid/accords.phtml) were signed by Israeli and Egyptian representatives.

1980 ~ The first independent Polish trade union, Solidarity (http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1980solidarity&Year=1980), was established after weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk.

1994 ~ Death of Karl Popper (http://elm.eeng.dcu.ie/~tkpw/), Austrian philosopher.

[jseal]

1709 ~ Birthday of Samuel Johnson (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8255720.stm), Essayist & Critic.

1733 ~ Birthday of George Read, signer of the American Declaration of Independence.

1759 ~ The British capture Quebec City.

1927 ~ Columbia Broadcasting System (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/columbiabroa/columbiabroa.htm) went on the air.

1947 ~ The U.S. Air Force became an independent service (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0918.html#article).

1961 ~ Death of Dag Hammarskjöld (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1961/hammarskjold-bio.html), Secretary General of the UN.

1970 ~ Death of Jimi Hendrix (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/18/newsid_3528000/3528692.stm), Rock Musician.

1971 ~ Birthday of Lance Armstrong (http://www.lancearmstrong.com/), Cyclist Extraordinaire.

1976 ~ Birthday of Kikki Daire, Porn Actress.

1998 ~ ICANN (http://www.icann.org/) was formed.

[jseal]

1737 ~ Birthday of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/carroll.htm), Declaration of Independence Signer, Senator.

1796 ~ George Washington made his farewell address (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp).

1900 ~ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (http://www.bolivia.freehosting.net/Butch.htm) robbed the First National Bank of $32,640.

1935 ~ Death of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (http://www.informatics.org/museum/tsiol.html), rocket scientist, physicist.

1941 ~ Birthday of Mama Cass Elliott, musician.

1945 ~ Lord Haw Haw (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/radio/lord-haw-haw/) (William Joyce) sentenced to death in London.

1949 ~ Birthday of Twiggy (http://www.twiggylawson.co.uk/), English model.

1984 ~ Birthday of Amber Rayne, Porn Actress.

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

1991 ~ Ötzi the Iceman (http://www.iceman.it/) ws discovered by German tourists.

[jseal]

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain on a voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia.

1934 ~ Birthday of Sophia Loren (http://www.biography.com/articles/Sophia-Loren-9386318), Italian actress.

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

1970 ~ The Soviet probe Luna 16 collected moon soil samples (http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Luna/Luna16.php) for return to earth.

1973 ~ Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0920.html#article) in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a $100,000 winner-take-all “Battle of the Sexes“ tennis match.

1984 ~ A suicide car bomber attacked the U.S. Embassy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/20/newsid_2525000/2525197.stm) annex in north Beirut, killing 20 people.

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

2000 ~ Death of Gherman Titov (http://www.astronautix.com/astros/titov.htm), cosmonaut.

2004 ~ CBS News apologized for a "mistake in judgment (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/20/politics/main644546.shtml)" in its story questioning President George W. Bush's National Guard service, saying it could not vouch for the authenticity of documents featured in the report.

2005 ~ Death of Simon Wiesenthal (http://www.kintera.org/site/pp.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=242921), Nazi hunter.

[jseal]

19 BC ~ Death of Virgil, Roman poet. (Aeneid, etc.)

1756 ~ Birthday of John MacAdam (http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/macadam_john.htm), road builder.

1780 ~ Benedict Arnold (http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/arnold.html) gave the British the plans to West Point.

1866 ~ Birthday of H. G. Wells (http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/), science fiction author.

1874 ~ Birthday of Gustav Holst (http://www.gustavholst.info/), Composer.

1897 ~ The Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (http://beebo.org/smackerels/yes-virginia.html) letter was published in the New York Sun.

1937 ~ The Hobbit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit), by J.R.R. Tolkien first published.

1947 ~ Birthday of Stephen King, Author.

2003 ~ The Galileo mission was terminated (http://www.nasa.gov/news/mission/galileo_dies.html) by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere.

2008 ~ And then there were none: The last two independent Wall Street investment banks, Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley, became bank holding companies as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis.

[dicksbro]

Kind of a neat variety of things that happened on Tuesday (yesterday).

[jseal]

1791 ~ Birthday of Michael Faraday, Scientist.

1828 ~ Death of Shaka Zulu (http://www.carpenoctem.tv/military/shaka.html), Zulu leader.

1862 ~ President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0922.html#article).

1869 ~ Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold (http://www.rwagner.net/opere/e-t-rheingold.html) opened in Munich.

1910 ~ The Duke of York's Cinema (http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema_history.aspx?venueId=doyb), the oldest continually operating cinema in the UK, opened in Brighton.

1964 ~ ”Fiddler on the Roof (http://www.fiddlerontour.com/)”, the first musical to surpass 3,000 performances, opened at the Imperial Theatre.

1975 ~ Sara Jane Moore’s assassination attempt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da668XwQLuY) on U.S. President Gerald Ford was foiled by Oliver Sipple (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/americancentury/imperialpres.html).

1980 ~ Iraq invaded Iran (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/22/newsid_4242000/4242336.stm).

1972 ~ Birthday of Dana Vespoli, porn actress.

2001 ~ Death of Isaac Stern, Violinist.

[jseal]

63 B.C. ~ Birthday of Caesar Augustus (http://www.roman-emperors.org/auggie.htm), 1st Roman Emperor.

1642 ~ First commencement at Harvard College.

1806 ~ Discovery of Neptune (http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Neptune_and_Pluto.html) by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier.

1884 ~ Herman Hollerith applied for a patent on his mechanical adding machine.

1920 ~ Birthday of Mickey Rooney (http://www.mickeyrooney.com/), actor.

1930 ~ Birthday of Ray Charles (http://www.history-of-rock.com/ray_charles.htm), U.S. R&B and jazz musician, singer.

1952 ~ Richard Nixon made his “Checkers speech (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0923.html#article)".

1972 ~ Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/philippines/philippines.html) introduced a dictatorial government.

1982 ~ Birthday of Shyla Stylez, Porn Actress.

2002 ~ The first public version of the Firefox web browser (http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/) was released.

[jseal]

622 ~ Muhammad (http://www.muhammad.net/biographies-mainmenu-38/23-short-biographies-and-commentaries.html) completed his hegira from Mecca to Medina.

1755 ~ Birthday of John Marshall (http://www.oyez.org/justices/john_marshall), the fourth and longest-serving Chief Justice of the American Supreme Court.

1890 ~ As a pre-condition to Utah being admitted to the U.S., the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons (https://lds.org/?lang=eng)) officially renounced polygamy.

1957 ~ President Eisenhower sent Army troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation.

1976 ~ The Rhodesian Government agreed to introduce black majority rule to the country within two years.

1979 ~ Birthday of Sabrine Maui, Filipina Porn Actress.

1979 ~ Birthday of Katja Kassin (http://tour.katjakassin.com/home.html?nats=MC4wLjM5LjM5LjAuMC4wLjAuMA), German Porn Actress.

1988 ~ Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis in the 100 Meters sprint (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/24/newsid_2529000/2529005.stm) at the Seoul Olympics. Mr. Johnson was later disqualified for using performance enhancing drugs.

1991 ~ Death of Dr. Seuss (http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm), Writer.

1996 ~ President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0924.html#article) at the United Nations.

[jseal]

1683 ~ Birthday of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer.

1890 ~ Yosemite National Park established.

1897 ~ Birthday of William Faulkner, American writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-speech.html).

1932 ~ Birthday of Glenn Gould (http://www.glenngould.com/#), Pianist.

1950 ~ UN forces recaptured Seoul (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/25/newsid_4606000/4606807.stm), the South Korean capital.

1957 ~ U.S. Army paratroopers ended the Little Rock school crisis (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0925.html#article).

1981 ~ Sandra Day O'Connor (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96mar/oconnor.html) was sworn in as the 102nd Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the first woman to hold the office.

1983 ~ Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov averted World War III (http://www.brightstarsound.com/world_hero/article.html) by refusing to accept - despite the (erroneous) alert given by the Soviet early warning system - that the U.S. had launched missiles against the USSR.

2002 ~ The Vitim event (http://www.meteorites.com.au/odds&ends/russia.html), a possible NEO impact in Siberia, Russia.

2008 ~ China launched its third human spaceflight, Shenzhou 7.

[jseal]

1687 ~ The Parthenon in Athens (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?img=Perseus:image:1987.09.0276&redirect=true) was partially destroyed after an explosion caused by the bombing from the Venetian forces besieging the Ottoman Turks.

1888 ~ Birthday of T. S. Eliot, Poet.

1898 ~ Birthday of George Gershwin (http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/gershwin.html), Composer.

1944 ~ Allied troops began a retreat from Arnhem (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/26/newsid_3523000/3523972.stm).

1948 ~ Birthday of Olivia Newton-John, Singer.

1957 ~ ”West Side Story (http://www.westsidestory.com/news.php)” opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre.

1960 ~ Kennedy and Nixon met in the first nationally televised debate between presidential candidates (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0926.html#article).

1977 ~ Birthday of Kaylynn (http://www.kaylynn.com/), Porn Actress.

1980 ~ Birthday of Jane Darling (http://www.janedarling.com/), Porn Actress

1983 ~ Australia II won the “America’s Cup”.

[jseal]

1389 ~ Birthday of Cosimo de Medici, Florentine ruler.

1540 ~ The Jesuit Order (http://www.jesuit.org/index.php/main/about-us/our-history/) received its charter from Pope Paul III.

1722 ~ Birthday of Samuel Adams, Patriot & Brewer.

1917 ~ Death of Edgar Degas (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dgsp/hd_dgsp.htm), Impressionist painter.

1918 ~ Birthday of Sir Martin Ryle (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1974/ryle-autobio.html), English physicist and astronomer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1974 .

1921 ~ Death of Engelbert Humperdinck, Composer.

1964 ~ The Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0927.html#article) in assassinating President Kennedy.

1996 ~ The Taliban drove the government of Afghani President Burhanuddin Rabbani out of the capital Kabul. They then dragged former leader Mohammad Najibullah out of the U.N. compound and hanged him from a traffic light pole (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/27/newsid_2539000/2539973.stm).

1998 ~ The Google (http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/) web search engine was launched.

2001 ~ An armed man went on a shooting rampage in Zug, Switzerland (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/09/27/switzerland.shooting/index.html), killing 14 people before taking his own life.

[jseal]

1066 ~ William the Conqueror invaded England, landing at Pevensey, Sussex (http://www.essentialnormanconquest.com/timeline/timeline_28_sep.htm).

1915 ~ Birthday of Ethel Rosenberg, Spy (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040806.html).

1924 ~ The first round-the-world flight (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0928.html#article) completed. It took 175 days.

1925 ~ Birthday of Seymour Cray, Computer Scientist.

1928 ~ Alexander Fleming discovered what later became known as penicillin, for which he shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio.html).

1970 ~ Death of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian statesman.

1976 ~ Stevie Wonder released Songs in the Key of Life (http://steviewonder.free.fr/html/album22.html).

1995 ~ Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an accord to transfer much of the West Bank to the control of its Arab residents (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/28/newsid_4187000/4187582.stm).

1988 ~ Death of Charles Addams, Cartoonist, creator of The Adams Family (http://www.addamsfamily.com/).

2000 ~ Death of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada.

[jseal]

1547 ~ Birthday of Miguel de Cervantes (http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/biography/new_english_cerv_bio.html), Author (Don Quixote (http://quixote.mse.jhu.edu/)).

1714 ~ George, Elector of Hanover (http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon53.html), arrived in Greenwich to assume the British throne as King George I.

1758 ~ Birthday of Horatio Nelson, English icon.

1901 ~ Birthday of Enrico Fermi (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1938/fermi-bio.html), Italian physicist. Awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1916 ~ John D. Rockefeller became the first billionaire.

1957 ~ The New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds.

1960 ~ Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a meeting of the UN (http://halldor2.wordpress.com/2006/09/21/429/) General Assembly.

1962 ~ Alouette 1 (http://www.spaceref.ca/news/viewpr.html?pid=9361), the first Canadian satellite was launched.

1978 ~ Death of Pope John Paul (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/29/newsid_2542000/2542375.stm), who reigned just 33 days.

2004 ~ The asteroid 4179 Toutatis (http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/4179_Toutatis/toutatis.html) passed within 964,000 miles of Earth.

[jseal]

1791 ~ Mozart's opera “The Magic Flute” premiered in Vienna, Austria.

1913 ~ Death of Rudolf Diesel (http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1435.htm), German inventor.

1924 ~ Birthday of Truman Capote (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/capote_t.html), Author (In Cold Blood (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061809/)).

1927 ~ Babe Ruth became the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.

1938 ~ British, French, German and Italian leaders agreed that Nazi Germany would be allowed to annex Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0930.html#article).

1954 ~ The submarine USS Nautilus (http://www.subguru.com/nautilus571.htm) was commissioned as the first nuclear reactor powered vessel.

1955 ~ Death of James Dean (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/30/newsid_3722000/3722463.stm), American actor.

1982 ~ Birthday of Tory Lane (http://www.torylanexxx.net/), Porn Actress.

1991 ~ President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti was forced from office.

2005 ~ The controversial drawings of Muhammad (http://web.archive.org/web/20080209153538/http://blog.newspaperindex.com/2005/12/10/un-to-investigate-jyllands-posten-racism/) were printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

[jseal]

1905 ~ The Julliard School of Music (http://www.juilliard.edu/about/history.html) was founded in New York City.

1930 ~ Birthday of Richard Harris, Irish actor, singer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHS8hj4TdT8)-songwriter. Dumbledore could rock when he wanted to!

1939 ~ Winston Churchill during a radio broadcast described the Soviet Union as ''a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma''.

1943 ~ The International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremburg sentenced 12 Nazi leaders to death.

1949 ~ The People's Republic of China was formed with Mao Zedong (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/) as its head.

1961 ~ The New York Yankees' Roger Maris hit his 61st home run (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1001.html#article) of the season.

1968 ~ The cult horror movie "Night of the Living Dead (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063350/)" had its world premiere in Pittsburgh.

1971 ~ Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/parks/parkLanding?id=MKLandingPage). Eventually it would become the largest, man-made, tourist attraction in the world.

1976 ~ Birthday of Dora Venter (http://www.doraventer.hu/home.html), Hungarian Porn Actress.

1979 ~ The United States returned sovereignty of the Panama canal to Panama.

[Oldfart]

Richard Harris nearly had an IRA fatwa put on him for his song "Too many Saviours on my Cross", which bitterly denounced sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

[jseal]

1187 ~ Saladin captured Jerusalem (http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/saladin.htm) after 88 years of Crusader rule.

1800 ~ Birthday of Nat Turner, leader of an American slave uprising.

1836 ~ Charles Darwin returned to England (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/darwin.htm) after a 5-year journey aboard the HMS Beagle collecting data he will later use to develop his theory of evolution.

1869 ~ Birthday of Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (http://www.mkgandhi.org/), Indian political leader.

1890 ~ Birthday of Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor.

1904 ~ Birthday of Graham Greene (http://greeneland.tripod.com/bio.htm), British novelist.

1935 ~ Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1967 ~ Thurgood Marshall sworn in (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1002.html#article) as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.

1985 ~ Death of Rock Hudson (http://www.cmgww.com/stars/hudson/), Actor.

1993 ~ Hardline Communists riot in Moscow (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/2/newsid_2486000/2486383.stm).

[jseal]

1873 ~ Birthday of Emily Post, etiquette advisor.

1900 ~ Birthday of Thomas Wolfe, American novelist.

1916 ~ Birthday of James Herriot (http://www.jamesherriot.org/life.php), veterinarian, author.

1922 ~ Rebecca L. Felton (http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Speeches_Felton.htm), D-Ga., became the first woman to be seated in the U.S. Senate. She was appointed to serve out the remaining term of Sen. Thomas E. Watson.

1925 ~ Birthday of Gore Vidal (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/vidal_g.html), author.

1952 ~ The Uk became the world's third nuclear power after successfully testing a nuclear weapon.

1967 ~ Death of Woody Guthrie (http://www.woodyguthrie.org/), folk musician.

1973 ~ Frank Robinson (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=robinfr02) was named major league baseball's first black manager as he was put in charge of the Cleveland Indians.

1990 ~ The re-unification of Germany. East Germany ceased to exist (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1003.html#article).

1995 ~ A jury found O.J. Simpson not guilty of murder (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/newsid_2486000/2486673.stm) in the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman.

[jseal]

1903 ~ Birthday of John Vincent Atanasoff (http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/do_Atanasoff.html), inventor of the digital electronic computer.

1924 ~ Birthday of Charlton Heston, Actor.

1941 ~ Birthday of Anne Rice (http://www.annerice.com/), Author.

1943 ~ Birthday of H. Rap Brown (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/13/national/main503687.shtml), civil rights activist & murderer.

1957 ~ Launch of Sputnik I (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1004.html#article), the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1983 ~ The first Hooters restaurant opened in Clearwater, Florida.

1985 ~ Free Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.org/) founded.

1993 ~ Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered the army to begin storming the Russian parliament building.

2002 ~ John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/terrorists/john-walker-lindh/)”, received a 20-year sentence.

2004 ~ The SpaceShipOne rocket plane (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6167761/) broke through Earth's atmosphere for the second time in five days to capture a $10 million prize.

[jseal]

1813 ~ Death of Tecumseh, American Indian leader.

1882 ~ Birthday of Robert Goddard (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/history/dr_goddard.html), rocket scientist.

1902 ~ Birthday of Ray Kroc (http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/kroc.html), founder of McDonald's Corporation.

1947 ~ President Harry Truman gave the first televised White House address (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1005.html#article).

1968 ~ The beginning of The Troubles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles) of Northern Ireland.

1969 ~ “Monty Python's Flying Circus" made its debut on BBC Television.

1970 ~ Montreal, Quebec: British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped (http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/chronos/october.htm) by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1994 ~ Forty eight members of a Swiss cult die in a mass suicide.

2000 ~ Mass demonstrations in Belgrade (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/5/newsid_2493000/2493021.stm) led to the resignation of Slobodan Milosevic.

2004 ~ Death of Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand physicist, Nobel laureate (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/index.html).

[jseal]

1600 ~ Jacopo Peri's “Euridice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euridice_(opera))”, the earliest surviving opera, premiered in Florence.

1846 ~ Birthday of George Westinghouse, Engineer & Inventor.

1892 ~ Death of Alfred Tennyson (http://incompetech.com/authors/tennyson/), British poet laureate.

1914 ~ Birthday of Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer, leader of the “Kon-Tiki (http://www.kon-tiki.no/E-Exp_KonTiki.php)” expedition.

1927 ~ Opening of “The Jazz Singer (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018037/)”, the first talking movie.

1948 ~ Birthday of Gerry Adams, Irish politician.

1973 ~ Egyptian troops cross the Suez Canal, starting the Yom Kippur War (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/6/newsid_2514000/2514317.stm).

1981 ~ Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1006.html#article).

1887 ~ Death of Bette Davis, Actress.

1995 ~ The first extrasolar planet (http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/extrasolar/) was discovered orbiting 51 Pegasi, in the constellation of Pegasus.

[jseal]

1571 ~ The Ottoman Empire was defeated at the battle of Lepanto.

1796 ~ Death of Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher.

1849 ~ Death of Edgar Allan Poe (http://www.eapoe.org/), American writer.

1885 ~ Birthday of Niels Bohr (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1922/bohr-bio.html), Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1922.

1931 ~ Birthday of Desmond Tutu (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-bio.html), South African archbishop and anti-apartheid activist, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

1982 ~ "Cats" opened on Broadway.

1985 ~ The “Achille Lauro (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1007.html#article)” was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.

1986 ~ Birthday of Bree Olson (http://breeolson.com/MCE/bree/0/home), Porn Actress.

2001 ~ The U.S. began its air offensive against al-Qaeda (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/7/newsid_2519000/2519353.stm) and the Taleban in Afghanistan.

2003 ~ California governor Gray Davis was recalled (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/18/MN253560.DTL) from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[jseal]

1871 ~ The Great Chicago Fire (http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/intro/gcf-index.html) destroyed about 17,450 buildings, killed about 250 people and left another 90,000 homeless.

1920 ~ Birthday of Frank Herbert, Science Fiction writer (http://www.dunenovels.com/).

1949 ~ Birthday of Sigourney Weaver, Actress.

1952 ~ The UK suffered its worst peacetime rail accident (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/8/newsid_3075000/3075197.stm).

1961 ~ In London, the Post Office Tower opened (http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/ate/main/postofficetower/).

1969 ~ Birthday of Julia Ann (http://www.julia-ann.com/home.html), Porn Actress.

1982 ~ Solidarity, and all other labor organizations in Poland, were banned (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1008.html#article).

1992 ~ Death of Willy Brandt, German politician.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/8/newsid_3659000/3659108.stm) of California.

2004 ~ Martha Stewart went to jail.

[jseal]

1804 ~ Hobart, Tasmania (http://www.discovertasmania.com.au/), was founded.

1835 ~ Birthday of Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer.

1859 ~ Birthday of Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer.

1940 ~ Birthday of John Lennon, Musician & Songwriter.

1942 ~ The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act (http://www.statusquo.org/aru_constitution/index.html) formalized Australian autonomy.

1948 ~ Birthday of Jackson Browne (Doctor My Eyes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCTYxIsLThA), The Pretender (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii8lB82L8wc), Running On Empty (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJYRtOPUonA)).

1961 ~ Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Tiz6INF7I)" reached #1.

1967 ~ Guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1009.html#article) in Bolivia.

1970 ~ Birthday of Savannah (http://adultoutlook.com/nsmith/savannah/index.html), Porn Actress.

1974 ~ Death of Oskar Schindler (http://www.oskarschindler.com/), businessman.

[jseal]

1813 ~ Birthday of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer.

1845 ~ In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy (http://www.usna.edu///homepage.php)) opened with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.

1875 ~ Death of Aleksey Tolstoy, Novelist & Poet.

1938 ~ The Sudetenland was ceded to Nazi Germany by the terms of the Munich Agreement (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/munich1.asp).

1966 ~ Simon and Garfunkel released the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (http://www.rhapsody.com/#/artist/simon-and-garfunkel/album/parsley-sage-rosemary-and-thyme-columbia).

1970 ~ A crisis hit Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier Pierre Laporte became the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1973 ~ Vice President Spiro T. Agnew pleaded no contest (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1010.html#article) to one count of federal income tax evasion and resigned.

1975 ~ Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor remarried (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1213880/Id-marry-Richard-Burton-time-alive-says-Hollywood-legend-Elizabeth-Taylor.html).

1980 ~ UK PM Margaret Thatcher gave a defiant speech at the Tory party conference "… I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/10/newsid_2541000/2541071.stm)"

1985 ~ U.S. Navy F-14s intercepted the plane carrying the “Achille Lauro” cruise ship hijackers (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-14-combat.htm) and forced it to land at a NATO base in Sicily where they were arrested.

[jseal]

1844 ~ Birthday of Henry Heinz, food manufacturer.

1899 ~ In South Africa, a war between the UK and the Boers (http://www.anglo-boer.co.za/) of the Transvaal and Orange Free State began.

1958 ~ Pioneer 1 was launched; it failed to go as far as planned, fell back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.

1961 ~ Death of Chico Marx (http://www.clown-ministry.com/index_1.php?/site/articles/chico_marx_biography_marx_brothers_i_give_up_why_a_duck/), comedian.

1962 ~ Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council (http://vatican2.org/).

1968 ~ Launch of Apollo 7 (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1011.html#article), the first manned Apollo mission.

1975 ~ The debut of Saturday Night Live (http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/).

1976 ~ China's "Gang of Four (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/11/newsid_4712000/4712306.stm)" was arrested.

1991 ~ Death of Redd Foxx (http://www.reddfoxx.com/), Comedian & actor.

2002 ~ The U.S. Senate joined the House in approving the use of America's military against Iraq.

[jseal]

1870 ~ Death of Gen. Robert E. Lee (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1012.html#article), Leader.

1872 ~ Birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams (http://www.rvwsociety.com/aboutsociety.html), English composer.

1968 ~ Summer Olympics open in Mexico City.

1970 ~ Birthday of Julian, Porn Actor.

1977 ~ Four Palestinians hijacked a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demanded release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction.

1984 ~ UK PM Margaret Thatcher narrowly escaped (http://republican-news.org/archive/2000/August31/31brig.html) an IRA bomb attack.

1986 ~ Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev failed to agree on Star Wars (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_3732000/3732902.stm) at a disarmament summit in Reykjavik.

1999 ~ Death of Wilt Chamberlain (http://www.nba.com/historical/playerfile/index.html?player=wilt_chamberlain), American basketball player.

2000 ~ Terrorists attacked the USS Cole (http://www.pianoladynancy.com/recovery_usscole.htm) in the Yemeni port of Aden.

2002 ~ A terrorist bomb at a Bali nightclub killed 202 people (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/13/1034222664046.html), mainly Australians.

[jseal]

54 ~ Death of Claudius (http://www.roman-emperors.org/claudius.htm), Roman Emperor.

1307 ~ All Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of the French king, to be later tortured into admitting heresy.

1773 ~ Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy.

1812 ~ Death of Sir Isaac Brock (http://www.warof1812.ca/brock.htm), British general (killed in the Battle of Queenston Heights).

1925 ~ Birthday of Margaret Thatcher (http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/margaret-thatcher), UK PM.

1943 ~ Italy changes alliances from the Axis to the Allies (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1013.html#article).

1982 ~ Birthday of Ian Thorpe (http://ianthorpe.com/), Australian swimmer.

1988 ~ The UK government lost the Spycatcher (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/13/newsid_2532000/2532583.stm) battle

1990 ~ Death of Lê Ðức Thọ, Vietnamese general & politician, awarded one half of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize.

1992 ~ The UK government announced plans to close one third of the coal mines (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199293/cmhansrd/1992-10-19/Debate-1.html).

[jseal]

1066 ~ Battle of Hastings (http://www.regia.org/hastings.htm): The Norman army of William the Conqueror defeated the Saxon army and kill King Harold II of England.

1944 ~ Given the choice between a public treason trial followed by death by firing squad or suicide with honor, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/rommel.htm) chose the latter.

1947 ~ Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound (http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/bellX1.html), the first man to do so in level flight.

1964 ~ Civil Rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1014.html#article) became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1966 ~ Birthday of Savanna Samson (http://www.clubsavannasamson.com/main.php?), Porn Actress.

1977 ~ Death of Bing Crosby, Actor & Singer.

1983 ~ Birthday of Vanessa Lane (http://www.vanessalanevip.com/tour1/?nats=NDozOjg3,0,0,0,0), Porn Actress.

1990 ~ Death of Leonard Bernstein, Composer & Conductor.

1991 ~ Aung San Suu Kyi was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1994 ~ PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shared the Nobel Peace Prize (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/14/newsid_3694000/3694744.stm).

[jseal]

70 BC ~ Birthday of Virgil, Roman poet.

1844 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Nietzsche (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/), Philosopher.

1964 ~ Birthday of P. G. Wodehouse (http://www.pgwodehousesociety.org.uk/), British novelist.

1908 ~ Birthday of John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist.

1917 ~ Mata Hari was executed (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/matahari.htm) by firing squad for spying for Germany.

1964 ~ Nikita Khrushchev “retired” (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1015.html#article) as head of USSR.

1990 ~ Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1990/press.html) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1991 ~ The Senate confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

1993 ~ Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1993/) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2003 ~ China launched its first manned spacecraft (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/15/newsid_3699000/3699842.stm) into orbit, becoming the third country to do so.

[jseal]

1793 ~ Death of Marie Antoinette – guillotined.

1854 ~ Birthday of Oscar Wilde (http://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/), Irish writer.

1859 ~ In one of the developments towards the American Civil War, John Brown (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1550.html) led a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

1916 ~ Planned Parenthood ( http://www.plannedparenthood.org/) founded by Margaret Sanger.

1925 ~ Birthday of Angela Lansbury, actress.

1964 ~ China detonated its first nuclear weapon. (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1016.html#article)

1978 ~ Karol Józef Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/16/newsid_3170000/3170452.stm). He was the first non Italian to be elevated to the position since 1522.

1981 ~ Death of Moshe Dayan, Israeli general.

1984 ~ Desmond Tutu (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-bio.html) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1984 ~ Birthday of Melissa Lauren (http://www.melissalauren.fr/), French Porn Actress. Bon appétit!

[jseal]

1915 ~ Birthday of Arthur Miller, Playwright.

1931 ~ Al Capone was convicted (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1017.html#article) of income tax evasion.

1935 ~ Death of Santiago Ramón y Cajal (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1906/cajal.html), Spanish neuroscientist.

1956 ~ Queen Elizabeth opened the first commercial nuclear power station (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/17/newsid_3147000/3147145.stm), at Calder Hall.

1968 ~ Olympic protest (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/17/newsid_3535000/3535348.stm) against racial discrimination.

1972 ~ Birthday of Eminem, rap music performer.

1973 ~ Arab oil-producing nations announced they would cut back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974 (http://www.buyandhold.com/bh/en/education/history/2002/arab.html).

1977 ~ West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,945802,00.html) on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers.

1979 ~ Mother Teresa of India (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-bio.html) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta.

1989 ~ The Loma Prieta earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area.

[jseal]

1851 ~ Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, was first published as The Whale.

1871 ~ Death of Charles Babbage (http://www.charlesbabbage.net/), mathematician and inventor of computing machines.

1919 ~ Birthday of Pierre Trudeau (http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/prime_ministers/topics/2192/), fifteenth PM of Canada.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Company (http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/purpose/what.shtml) was founded.

1939 ~ Birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald, Assassin.

1954 ~ The Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates announced the first Transistor radio (http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/tradio.html).

1962 ~ Dr. Watson of the United States, and Drs. Crick and Wilkins of the UK (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/), were named winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.

1976 ~ Birthday of Azlea Antistia (http://www.azleaantistiaxxx.com/azlea_antistia_main.asp), Porn Actress.

1989 ~ Erich Honecker was forced to step down (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/18/newsid_2450000/2450783.stm) as leader of East Germany after 18 years in power.

2006 ~ Death of Anna Russell, English music satirist.

[Oldfart]

1 ~ Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, was first published as The Whale.

There was a truly terrible version done in 2010 set on a nuke sub converted to hunt a single prehistoric whale. It was sad.

On the transistor reference, our puters are just hyper-sophisticated transistor devices.

[jseal]

...On the transistor reference, our puters are just hyper-sophisticated transistor devices.
Yup.

[jseal]

1745 ~ Death of Jonathan Swift, Author.

1781 ~ Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown (http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle_yorktown1781.html), effectively ending the American War of Independence.

1812 ~ French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte (http://www.napoleonguide.com/leaders_napoleon.htm) began a retreat from Moscow.

1931 ~ Birthday of John Le Carré (http://www.johnlecarre.com/biography.html), Author.

1937 ~ Death of Ernest Rutherford (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1908/rutherford-bio.html), New Zealand physicist, father of nuclear physics.

1950 ~ Death of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Poet.

1954 ~ Metal fatigue was identified as the cause of Comet crashes (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/october/19/newsid_3112000/3112466.stm).

1969 ~ U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew referred to anti-Vietnam War protesters “an effete corps of impudent snobs. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839090,00.html)”

1987 ~ The DJI fell by 22% (Black Monday (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1019.html#article)).

2005 ~ The trial of Saddam Hussein began.

[jseal]

1740 ~ Maria Theresa took the throne of Austria.

1803 ~ The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase (http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/louisiana/).

1882 ~ Birthday of Bela Lugosi (http://www.lugosi.com/biography.html), Actor.

1893 ~ Birthday of Jomo Kenyatta (http://www.africawithin.com/kenyatta/kenyatta_bio.htm), President of Kenya.

1973 ~ In the “Saturday Night Massacre (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1020.html#article)”, President Nixon abolished the office of special Watergate prosecutor, accepted the resignation of the Attorney General, and fired Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus.

1973 ~ The Sydney Opera House (http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Sydney_Opera.html) opened.

1983 ~ Grenada's Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/20/newsid_3720000/3720608.stm), was assassinated.

1984 ~ Death of Paul Dirac (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/dirac-bio.html), awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1989 ~ Death of Anthony Quayle, English actor (The Guns of Navarone, Lawrence of Arabia, Anne of the Thousand Days).

1992 ~ The Toronto Blue Jays win the first World Series game outside the U.S.

[jseal]

1772 ~ Birthday of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (http://incompetech.com/authors/coleridge/), Poet (http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/).

1805 ~ A British fleet led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar (http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk/battle-of-trafalgar.html) off the coast of Spain.

1805 ~ Death of Horatio Nelson (http://www.geographia.com/stkitts-nevis/nelson1.htm), 1st Viscount Nelson.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alfred Nobel (http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/index.html), Swedish inventor and benefactor of the Nobel Prize.

1854 ~ Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War.

1879 ~ Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1021.html#article).

1917 ~ Birthday of Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz Musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Ursula K. Le Guin (http://www.ursulakleguin.com/), Science Fiction Author.

1944 ~ The first kamikaze attack (http://www.gunplot.net/aussie/hmasaussie.html): HMAS Australia was hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg bomb.

1994 ~ North Korea and the United States signed an agreement requiring North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.

[jseal]

1746 ~ Princeton University (http://www.princeton.edu/main/) in New Jersey received its charter.

1836 ~ Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas (http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasures/republic/index.html).

1844 ~ Birthday of Sarah Bernhardt (http://www.sarah-bernhardt.com/), Actress.

1906 ~ Death of Paul Cezanne, Painter.

1920 ~ Birthday of Timothy Leary (http://deoxy.org/leary.htm), writer, psychedelic drug advocate.

1943 ~ Birthday of Catherine Deneuve, Actress.

1943 ~ The RAF air raid on Kassel, a city of 236,000 people, killed 10,000, and left 150,000 homeless.

1962 ~ US President Kennedy announced that American spy planes had discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1022.html#article), and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation.

1973 ~ Death of Pablo Casals (http://www.cello.org/casals/casals.htm), Cellist & Conductor.

1990 ~ The region around the Aral Sea assessed as the world’s worst ecological disaster (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/22/newsid_3756000/3756134.stm).

[dicksbro]

The destruction of the Aral Sea is truly a sad thing. I read aabout that in National Geographic a few years ago and it's a disgrace that the former Soviet Union allowed it to happen.

:(

[Oldfart]

It was a resource drawn on until it was no longer there.

The lake may return, but not most of the unique wildlife.

[jseal]

4004 BC ~ The start of the universe, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar.

1892 ~ Birthday of Gummo Marx, actor, comedian (Marx Brothers (http://www.marx-brothers.org/)).

1940 ~ Birthday of Pelé (http://www.latinosportslegends.com/Pele_bio.htm), soccer player Extraordinaire.

1942 ~ In Egypt, British forces begin a major offensive against Axis forces by initiating the Second Battle of El Alamein (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWelalamein.htm).

1956 ~ Hungarians took to the streets in to demand an end to Soviet rule. Thousands died (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/23/newsid_3140000/3140400.stm).

1974 ~ Birthday of Jasmin St. Claire, Porn Actress.

1983 ~ U.S. & French barracks in Beirut hit by truck bombs (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1023.html#article), killing 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 French.

1998 ~ Death of Dr. Barnett Slepian, physician.

2001 ~ Apple introduced the iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/).

2002 ~ Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/24/60minutes/main579840.shtml) in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.

[jseal]

1632 ~ Birthday of Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the “Father of Microbiology".

1799 ~ Death of Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1929 ~ Death of George Cadbury (http://www.birminghamuk.com/georgecadbury.htm), Chocolate Manufacturer & Philanthropist.

1929 ~ "Black Thursday (http://bss.sfsu.edu/tygiel/Hist427/texts/crashheadlines.htm)" crash of the New York Stock Exchange.

1945 ~ Founding of the United Nations (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1024.html#article) Organisation.

1947 ~ The expression “Cold War” was first used by Bernard Baruch to the U.S. Senate War Investigation Committee.

1992 ~ In the first real "World" Series (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws_recaps.jsp?feature=1992), the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-US team to win the World Series.

2003 ~ The Concorde completed its last commercial flight (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/24/newsid_3701000/3701490.stm).

2006 ~ Death of William Watt, Islamic studies scholar (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/watt.html) & historian.

2008 ~ "Bloody Friday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market_crash#Crash_of_2008-2009)" stock market crash on the world's stock exchanges.

[Oldfart]

1992 ~ In the first real "World" Series, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-US team to win the World Series.

**snicker**

[jseal]

1415 ~ England defeated France at the Battle of Agincourt.

1825 ~ Birthday of Johann Strauss II (http://bobjanuary.com/johann2.htm), Composer.

1838 ~ Birthday of Georges Bizet, Composer.

1854 ~ Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War. You can listen and follow along (http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/poetry/outloud/tennyson.shtml) to Lord Tennyson as he reads his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3944699.stm)”.

1924 ~ First appearance of "Little Orphan Annie (http://www.stuartliss.com/loahp/)”.

1943 ~ Battle of Leyte Gulf (http://www.battle-of-leyte-gulf.com/), the largest naval battle in history, and the last battleship to battleship firefight.

1971 ~ The UN General Assembly (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1025.html#article) seated the People's Republic of China and expelled the Republic of China.

1983 ~ Birthday of Taylor Vixen (http://www.taylorvixen.com/blog/), Porn Actress.

1983 ~ U.S. troops invade Grenada (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/25/newsid_3207000/3207509.stm).

1993 ~ Death of Vincent Price, Actor.

[jseal]

899 ~ Death of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex.

1685 ~ Birthday of Domenico Scarlatti (http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxdscarl.html), Composer.

1881 ~ The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1918 ~ Erich von Ludendorff was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wilhelm_kaiser_ii.shtml) of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1947 ~ The Maharaja of Kashmir agreed to allow his kingdom to join India (http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/documents/harisingh47.html).

1947 ~ Birthday of Hillary Rodham Clinton, 67th United States Secretary of State.

1972 ~ Death of Igor Sikorsky (http://www.sikorskyarchives.com/), helicopter pioneer.

1994 ~ Announcement of Andrew Wiles’ correct proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/proof/wiles.html).

1994 ~ Israel and Jordan made peace (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/26/newsid_3764000/3764162.stm).

2001 ~ The USA Patriot Act (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:HR03162:%5D) passed into law.

[Oldfart]

Alfred the Great, renowned Middle Ages king and oatcake burner.

[jseal]

1466 ~ Birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam (http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/erasmus.html), Dutch writer and philosopher.

1728 ~ Birthday of James Cook, British Captain and explorer.

1787 ~ The first of the Federalist Papers (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html), a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published.

1811 ~ Birthday of Isaac Singer (http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyrensse/bio206.htm), inventor of the sewing machine.

1904 ~ New York’s first rapid transit subway (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1027.html#article) opened.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dylan Thomas (http://www.dylanthomas.com/), British poet and writer.

1968 ~ Death of Lise Meitner, German physicist.

1968 ~ Major anti-war riot in London (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/27/newsid_2478000/2478197.stm).

1991 ~ Turkmenistan (http://www.turkmenistanembassy.org/turkmen/history/hist_cult.html) achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

2005 ~ Riots begin in Paris after the deaths of two Muslim teenagers.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba (http://www.athenapub.com/coluvoy1.htm).

1886 ~ The Statue of Liberty was dedicated (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1028.html#article).

1903 ~ Birthday of Evelyn Waugh, Novelist.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95oct/jesalk.html), developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

1955 ~ Birthday of Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft.

1962 ~ Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/28/newsid_2621000/2621915.stm).

1971 ~ The UK launched its first and only satellite, Prospero, atop a Black Arrow rocket (http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~woomera/bkarrow.htm).

1980 ~ Death of Marshall McLuhan, Canadian educator, philosopher, & scholar.

1980 ~ Ronald Reagan asked voters during a debate with Jimmy Carter in Cleveland ''are you better off than you were four years ago?' (http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/politics/2008/01/17/the-actor-and-the-detail-man.html)'.

1980 ~ Birthday of Kanzi, most literate non-human Earthling (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bonobos/kanzi.html).

[jseal]

1911 ~ Death of Joseph Pulitzer (http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/P/pultzer/pulitzerbio.htm), newspaper publisher and journalist.

1923 ~ The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (http://www.theottomans.org/english/history/index.asp).

1929 ~ New York Stock Exchange stock prices collapsed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1029.html#article) amid panic selling.

1947 ~ Birthday of Richard Dreyfuss (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000377/), American actor.

1948 ~ Birthday of Kate Jackson, American actress.

1957 ~ Death of Louis B. Mayer, film producer. The second “M” in “MGM”.

1966 ~ The National Organization For Women (http://www.now.org/) was founded.

1969 ~ The first computer-to-computer link (http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/) was established on ARPANET.

1975 ~ General Franco’s dictatorship of Spain came to an end.

2004 ~ In a videotaped statement, Osama bin Laden directly admitted (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137095,00.html) for the first time that he'd ordered the Sept. 11 attacks.

[jseal]

1831 ~ Nat Turner was arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in U.S. history (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1518.html).

1839 ~ Birthday of Alfred Sisley, one of the creators of French Impressionism.

1885 ~ Birthday of Ezra Pound (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/161), Poet.

1961 ~ The Soviet Union detonated the 58 megaton hydrogen bomb "Tsar Bomba (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/30/newsid_3666000/3666785.stm)". Interestingly, the last B53 bomb, an American thermonuclear weapon of that era, was dismantled just this week (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15453872).

1945 ~ Jackie Robinson signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.

1974 ~ Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1030.html#article) to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.

1987 ~ Death of Joseph Campbell, Comparative Mythologist.

2003 ~ Wicked (http://www.wickedthemusical.com/#) opened on Broadway.

2005 ~ The reconsecration of the Dresden Frauenkirche (http://www.frauenkirche-dresden.de/startseite+M5d637b1e38d.html), which was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II.

2007 ~ Death of Washoe (http://www.friendsofwashoe.org/), chimpanzee trained in American Sign Language.

[jseal]

1517 ~ Protestant Reformation got under way: Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. For a unique insight to this happening, click here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3944549.stm).

1795 ~ Birthday of John Keats (http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/songoftheindianmaid.html), Poet.

1892 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle published "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Arthur_Conan_Doyle/The_Adventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes/)".

1930 ~ Birthday of Michael Collins, the 3rd astronaut of Apollo 11.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis: The UK and France began bombing Egypt (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/suez.htm) to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1973 ~ Birthday of Beverly Lynne (http://www.beverlylynne.com/join.html), Porn Actress

1984 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1031.html#article) by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).

1988 ~ Death of John Houseman, Romanian-born actor and director.

1993 ~ Death of Federico Fellini (http://simplycharly.com/fellini/peter_bondanella_interview.htm), Italian director.

[jseal]

1512 ~ The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/0-Tour.html), painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time.

1604 ~ At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello was presented for the first time.

1755 ~ Lisbon, Portugal was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.

1923 ~ Birthday of Gordon R. Dickson, Science Fiction author.

1935 ~ Birthday of Gary Player (http://garyplayer.com/legend/the_man/biography), South African golfer.

1952 ~ The U.S. successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1101.html#article), codenamed Mike, at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll.

1963 ~ The Arecibo Observatory (http://www.naic.edu/) in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.

1993 ~ The Maastricht Treaty (http://www.eurotreaties.com/maastrichtext.html) took effect, formally establishing the European Union.

1999 ~ Death of Theodore Alvin Hall, Soviet Spy (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/inte_19441112.html).

2007 ~ Death of Paul Tibbets (http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_tibbets.html), US Air Force, ret.

[jseal]

1739 ~ Birthday of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1815 ~ Birthday of George Boole (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Printonly/Boole.html), Mathematician & Philosopher.

1930 ~ Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 ~ The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/history/1920-1939_details.shtml) was established.

1950 ~ Death of George Bernard Shaw (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1925/shaw-bio.html), Playwright.

1976 ~ Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1102.html#article).

1964 ~ In a family coup, King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal.

1981 ~ Birthday of Avy Scott (http://www.avyscottvip.com/tour1/?nats=NDozOjc4,0,0,0,0), Porn Star.

1983 ~ President Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ronald_Reagan_Martin_Luther_King_Day_signing.gif)

1988 ~ The Morris worm (http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/articles/morris-worm.html) was launched from MIT.

[jseal]

1801 ~ Birthday of Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer.

1838 ~ The Times of India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/), the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded.

1903 ~ Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia.

1936 ~ Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1103.html#article) in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. ''Alf'' Landon.

1954 ~ Death of Henri Matisse (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/matisse/), French artist (http://www.fairiesworld.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/henri-matisse_the_dance1910.jpg).

1957 ~ Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika (http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/115234/first_in_orbit_laika_the_dog_made_history).

1964 ~ Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson defeated challenger Barry Goldwater (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/3/newsid_3641000/3641464.stm) with over 60 percent of the popular vote.

1978 ~ Birthday of Julia Taylor, European Porn Actress.

1986 ~ Iran-Contra Affair (http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/) : The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1992 ~ U.S. presidential election: Challenger Bill Clinton defeated incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush & independent candidate Ross Perot.

1993 ~ Death of Leon Theremin, Russian inventor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qf9O6c20o).

[jseal]

1847 ~ Death of Felix Mendelssohn, German composer.

1869 ~ The first issue of scientific journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html) was published.

1922 ~ British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 ~ Death of Gabriel Fauré, French composer.

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

1956 ~ Soviet troops invaded Hungary (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/4/newsid_2739000/2739039.stm) to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more were wounded, and nearly a quarter million left the country.

1979 ~ Students storm the US embassy in Tehran (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/4/newsid_3910000/3910627.stm) and took 90 hostages.

1979 ~ Birthday of Audrey Hollander (http://audreyhollander.com/static.php?page=biography), Porn Actress

1995 ~ The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated (http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9511/rabin/funeral/wrap/index.html) at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

2008 ~ Death of Michael Crichton, Author (http://michaelcrichton.sweb.cz/).

[jseal]

1605 ~ A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament (http://www.gunpowder-plot.org/) was foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

1872 ~ Suffragist Susan B. Anthony (http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/sba/first.htm) voted for the first time. She was fined $100 for the privilege.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. B. S. Haldane, Geneticist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Roy Rogers, American actor.

1930 ~ Sinclair Lewis (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1930/lewis-autobio.html) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1942 ~ The Second Battle of El Alamein (http://www.btinternet.com/~ian.a.paterson/battles1942.htm#Alamein) was won by the British in El Alamein, Egypt.

1977 ~ Birthday of Brittney Skye (http://www.brittneyskyexxx.com/tours/?nats=MTUuMy4xLjEuMS4wLjAuMC4w), Porn actress.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/ayatollah-khomeni/) declares the USA to be "the great Satan".

1989 ~ Death of Vladimir Horowitz (http://vlhorowitz.net/), Pianist.

1999 ~ Federal Judge Thomas Jackson declared Microsoft Corp. a monopoly, saying the software giant's aggressive actions were ''stifling innovation'' and hurting consumers.

[Oldfart]

1605 ~ A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament was foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

Remember, remember the 5th of November.

[jseal]

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa (http://www.dws.org/sousa/), composer of the official march of the U.S., The Stars and Stripes Forever (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx9v-E0WBNg&feature=related)

1861 ~ Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1869 ~ Rutgers University (http://ruweb.rutgers.edu/about-the-university.shtml) defeats Princeton University (http://www.princeton.edu/main/), 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game (http://www.answers.com/topic/football).

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (http://www.sfcv.org/learn/composer-gallery/tchaikovsky-peter-ilyich), Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi (http://www.mkgandhi.org/) was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies[/URL] and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1975 ~ Birthday of Anastasia Blue (http://www.anastasiablue.com/), former Porn Actress.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British queen as their head of state (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/6/newsid_2514000/2514833.stm).

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp (http://www.lspraguedecamp.com/bio.html), Science Fiction writer.

[jseal]

1665 ~ The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 (http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html), and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911 (http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1911/).

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch (http://nimzowitsch.com/), chess grandmaster.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1957/camus-bio.html), writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.

1917 ~ Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky lead revolutionaries (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1107.html#article) in overthrowing the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" at Baltimore, Maryland.

1940 ~ The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed (http://www.ketchum.org/tacomacollapse.html) in a windstorm.

1980 ~ Death of Steve McQueen (http://stevemcqueen.com/), Actor.

1981 ~ Birthday of Lily Thai, Porn Actress.

1989 ~ Protests force the resignation (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/7/newsid_2539000/2539301.stm) of East Germany’s Communist government.

[Oldfart]

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" at Baltimore, Maryland.

One of my "Top 10". I never get tired of hearing this.

[jseal]

1847 ~ Birthday of Bram Stoker (http://www.geocities.com/psmcalduff/), Irish novelist.

1884 ~ Birthday of Hermann Rorschach (http://www.crystalinks.com/rorschach.html), psychiatrist.

1895 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays.

1942 ~ World War II: Operation Torch (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWtorch.htm) – U.S. and UK forces landed in French North Africa.

1950 ~ The first dog fight between jet aircraft (http://cnnews.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/fighter-planes-mig-15/).

1957 ~ The UK conducted its first successful hydrogen bomb test.

1959 ~ Birthday of Chi Chi LaRue, Porn Producer.

1986 ~ Death of Vyacheslav Molotov (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSmolotov.htm), Soviet politician.

1987 ~ An IRA bomb killed 11 people (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/8/newsid_2515000/2515113.stm) during a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

2002 ~ Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 (http://www.undemocracy.com/securitycouncil/meeting_4644) – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, requiring Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences". (requires Adobe Acrobat)

[jseal]

1888 ~ Jack the Ripper killed Mary Jane Kelly (http://www.casebook.org/victims/), his last known victim.

1921 ~ Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

1934 ~ Birthday of Carl Sagan (http://www.planetary.org/about/founders/carl_sagan.html), American Astronomer & Writer.

1936 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Tal (http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=134), World Chess Champion.

1938 ~ Nazi Germany's first large-scale act of physical anti-Jewish violence, Kristallnacht (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/knacht.htm), began.

1953 ~ Death of Dylan Thomas (http://www.dylanthomas.com/), Welsh poet.

1965 ~ Several U.S. states and parts of Canada were hit by blackouts (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1109.html#article).

1970 ~ Death of Charles de Gaulle (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/9/newsid_4275000/4275206.stm), French general and politician.

1989 ~ Fall of the Berlin Wall. East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany.

2006 ~ Death of Markus Wolf, East German (Stasi) intelligence director.

[jseal]

1775 ~ The Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Marines, later renamed the United States Marine Corps (http://www.marines.com/page/usmc.jsp).

1871 ~ Henry Morton Stanley (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stanley_sir_henry_morton.shtml) located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/livingstone_david.shtml) in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1919 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet inventor, AK-47.

1925 ~ Birthday of Richard Burton (http://www.richardburton.com/life.htm), Actor.

1951 ~ Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1975 ~ The SS Edmund Fitzgerald (http://www.ssefo.com/) sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A)" is a song about the tragedy.

1982 ~ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1110.html#article) in Washington D.C. opened to public.

1983 ~ Birthday of Sammie Rhodes, Porn Actress (http://www.clubsammierhodes.com/).

1995 ~ Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa (http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/s/ken_sarowiwa/index.html), Nigerian writer and human rights activist.

2007 ~ Death of Norman Mailer (http://www.normanmailersociety.com/), American author.

[jseal]

1880 ~ Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly was hung in Melbourne (http://www.ripefruit.com/melbourne/sights/old_melbourne_gaol.htm).

1918 ~ Death of Henry Gunther (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=16204809), the last American to die in World War I.

1918 ~ The end of World War I (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1111.html#article): Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.

1922 ~ Birthday of Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist.

1938 ~ Death of Mary Mallon, aka "Typhoid Mary", carrier of the typhoid disease.

1965 ~ Rhodesia proclaimed its independence (http://www.rhodesia.nl/mztosm.html) from Britain.

1976 ~ Death of Alexander Calder, Artist.

1992 ~ The Church of England (http://www.cofe.anglican.org/) voted to allow women to become priests (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/11/newsid_2518000/2518183.stm).

2000 ~ A cable car full of skiers and snowboarders (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/11/newsid_4418000/4418498.stm), many of them children, caught fire in Austria, killing 155 people.

2004 ~ Death of Yasser Arafat (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1994/arafat-bio.html), President of the Palestinian Authority.

[jseal]

1833 ~ Birthday of Alexander Borodin, Russian composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Auguste Rodin (http://www.rodinmuseum.org/), French sculptor.

1942 ~ The Battle of Guadalcanal began (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1112.html#article).

1944 ~ The German battleship Tirpitz was sunk (http://www.kbismarck.com/tirpitz.html) off the coast of Norway.

1954 ~ Ellis Island closed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/12/newsid_3963000/3963251.stm).

1970 ~ The famous exploding whale incident (http://www.perp.com/whale/video.html).

1982 ~ Birthday of Anne Hathaway, Actress.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for the World Wide Web (http://www.w3.org/Proposal.html).

2001 ~ Taliban forces abandoned Kabul ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance (http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/northern_alliance.htm) troops.

2011 ~ jseal, your intrepid blogger, posted today's "Strange Days" from deep in the wilds of Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation (http://www.broadcreekbsa.org/openrosters/view_homepage.asp?orgkey=2527)! Ah, the wonders of modern technology! This is what I used to have to prepare ahead of time and email to dicksbro (I have the scurvy knaves outside building a tripod). :)

[Oldfart]

It sounds like you're having fun anyway, jseal.

[jseal]

1850 ~ Birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson, Novelist.

1868 ~ Death of Gioacchino Rossini, Composer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJMH4ZnGIWs&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXebIz9vAGtdcM8e_ZVXf7N0).

1940 ~ The animated film Fantasia (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4qq30_fantasia_fun) was released.

1955 ~ Birthday of Whoopi Goldberg (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Whoopi_Goldberg), American actress.

1956 ~ U.S. Supreme Court declared Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1113.html#article).

1982 ~ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated.

1985 ~ A mudslide triggered by the Nevado del Ruiz volcano buried the city of Armero, Colombia (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/13/newsid_2539000/2539731.stm), killing some 23,000 people.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first known World Wide Web page (http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#Examples).

1998 ~ President Bill Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/pjones/pjones.htm), ending the four-year legal battle over her sexual harassment lawsuit that spurred impeachment proceedings against him. Clinton did not admit guilt or apologize.

2002 ~ Saddam Hussein's government agreed to the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq.

[jseal]

1719 ~ Birthday of Leopold Mozart (http://telasiado.suite101.com/leopold-mozart-biography-a33955), Austrian musician, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (http://www.studio-mozart.com/mozart/index.htm).

1832 ~ Death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Declaration of Independence signer.

1851 ~ Herman Melville's novel “Moby-Dick” was first published in the U.S.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/)) began radio service in the UK.

1948 ~ Birthday of Charles, Prince of Wales (http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/).

1954 ~ Birthday of Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State.

1968 ~ Birthday of Janine Lindemulder (http://www.realjanine.com/tour1.php), Porn Actress.

1972 ~ The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 1,000 mark (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1114.html#article) yesterday for the first time.

1991 ~ Indictments handed down against two Libyan intelligence officials (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/14/newsid_2518000/2518895.stm) in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.

2001 ~ Northern Alliance fighters (http://www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,,592758,00.html) entered Kabul.

[jseal]

One of the opportunities Scouting provides the boys is to reconnect with Nature. Ours is an inner city Troop, and they seem to enjoy the forest colors of autumn. Two commented how quite the forest can be, another how loud the Canadian Geese were at dusk. We took an afternoon hike down to Lake Strauss to watch them take off and land.

Then, on Saturday evening, we celebrated the Solemn Rite Of The Campfire, replete with roasting marshmallows on sticks. We were fortunate this time that there was no wind.

[jseal]

1887 ~ Birthday of Georgia O'Keeffe (http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe.html), Painter.

1920 ~ First assembly of the League of Nations (http://www.indiana.edu/~league/index.htm) was held in Geneva.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe destroyed most of the English city of Coventry (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_3522000/3522785.stm) during World War II.

1960 ~ The Polaris missile became operational (http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-27.html) on the USS George Washington (SSBN-598).

1963 ~ Death of Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor.

1969 ~ The Soviet submarine K-19 collided with the American submarine USS Gato.

1971 ~ Intel released the first commercial single-chip microprocessor (http://www.intel.com/about/companyinfo/museum/exhibits/4004/facts.htm), the 4004.

1978 ~ Death of Margaret Mead (http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure_fossil/Treasures/Margaret_Mead/mead.html), American anthropologist.

1996 ~ Death of Alger Hiss, American government official & convicted spy.

1998 ~ Death of Stokely Carmichael (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcarmichael.htm), American Black Power activist.

[jseal]

1885 ~ Louis Riel (http://www.danielnpaul.com/LouisRiel.html), 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 (http://home.nra.org/#/home) was granted a charter by the state of New York.

1887 ~ Birthday of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=7).

1929 ~ Death of Herman Hollerith, Statistician.

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

1968 ~ Birthday of Amber Michaels, 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).

1979 ~ Death of John Glascock, British bassist (Jethro Tull).

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://www.csupomona.edu/~njpierce/arnold-schwarzenegger.html).

[jseal]

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1836 ~ Birthday of Sir William S. Gilbert (http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/gilbert/gilbert_home.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.magrittemuseum.be/).

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.

[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).

2005 ~ Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany.

[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/dictbiog/0-dict-biogT-V.html#tasman1) 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.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin.html)", 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.mcpld.org/trumbo/WebPages/hollywoodten.htm) 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 Communist Party in Czechoslovakia resigned.

1991 ~ Death of Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen (http://queenonline.com/)).

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]

1939 ~ Birthday of Tina Turner, the Queen of Rock & Roll (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL1l0Fz5RlE&feature=related).

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 played their farewell concert.

1981 ~ Birthday of Aurora Snow (http://aurorasnow.com/about/), Porn Star.

1981 ~ Death of Max Euwe, 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.

1985 ~ Death of Vivien Thomas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivien_Thomas), an interesting Surgeon.

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.

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.

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

1979 ~ Birthday of Danielle Foxxx (http://www.daniellefoxxx.com/), Porn actress.

1979 ~ Birthday of Hilary Hahn, American violinist.

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://atlasobscura.com/place/pitch-drop-experiment).

[Oldfart]

1994 ~ Norway voted to reject membership in the European Union for the second time.

Smartest move that Norway ever made.

[jseal]

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://armynavygame.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.

1981 ~ Death of Natalie Wood, Actress.

1986 ~ Death of Cary Grant, British-born American actor.

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.

[Oldfart]

Gawd.

So anyone under 21 is younger than the trigger for the first Iraq War.

[jseal]

We're getting old, Oldfart.

[Oldfart]

Sadly, yep.

[jseal]

1667 ~ Birthday of Jonathan Swift (http://www.biography.com/people/jonathan-swift-9500342), 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.

1900 ~ Death of Oscar Wilde (http://cmgww.com/historic/wilde/bio1.htm), 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/).

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_biography.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.

[Oldfart]

On this Day, the most amazing thing is that nothing happened for 741 years.

[jseal]

Anna was a hard act to follow.

[jseal]

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

1859 ~ Militant abolitionist leader John Brown was hanged 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.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dp42fe.html).

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 (http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2021097,00.html) 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.

[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/chronology/ch_86_91.html), 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.

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.

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 (http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3525), Ukrainian-born chess grandmaster.

2010 ~ Death of John Leslie, Porn Actor and filmmaker.

[Oldfart]

1933 ~ Prohibition ended: 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.

With the number of dry counties still around, did Prohibition ever really end?

[jseal]

Not for those counties. :wine:

[Lord Snow]

Somewhat. Funny thing about the dry counties, nothing says you can't go one county over, get drunk, and then have your designated driver bring you back.

[Oldfart]

We have dry Indiginous Communities (where grog is a real problem) where the same happens.

[Oldfart]

Nutbush City Limits. "No whiskey for sale".

[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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o), jazz musician (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc34Uj8wlmE&feature=related).

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, civil rights activist.

[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.

[Oldfart]

1830 years of inaction. A new record?

70th anniversary of Pearl Harbour, which brought the US into the War only a couple of years late. Would you believe that there were powerful groups in the USA which tried to get the US to enter the War on the German side? Scary stuff.

[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 ~ President Clinton signed U.S. participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

[jseal]

1608 ~ Birthday of John Milton (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/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, 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://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/biographical/timeline/), 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.

[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.

[jseal]

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

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

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.

2006 ~ Death of Al Shugart (http://www.computerhistory.org/events/lectures/shugart_09052002/shugart/index.shtml), Computer engineer and co-founder of Seagate Technology.

[jseal]

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.

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.

2002 ~ Death of Zal Yanovsky, Canadian musician (The Lovin' Spoonful (http://www.lovinspoonful.com/history.html)).

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 ~ The 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.

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, Animator & Cartoonist.

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

1991 ~ Death of Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev (http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/military/vasily-zaitsev/), Soviet sniper.

1994 ~ Netscape Navigator 1.0 first released.

[Oldfart]

1991 ~ Death of Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, Soviet sniper.

He was not a man to cross.

[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. It's time for a Beethoven Birthday Bash! (http://austinchambermusic.org/calendar/121610-beethovens-birthday-bash)

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-leaders/simon-bolivar/), South American Liberator.

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/The_Simpsons) aired.

[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.

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.

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.

2010 ~ Governmental protests begin in Tunisia, which brought about the Arab Spring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010-2011_Middle_East_and_North_Africa_protests)!

[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/quotes/index.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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NB76Sp0s4&feature=related).

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!"

1949 ~ Birthday of Maurice & Robin Gibb, English musicianS (The Bee Gees) .

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.

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.

[jseal]

1783 ~ George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.

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.

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.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.pic-vn3110758), 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).

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.

2008 ~ Death of Eartha Kitt, Actress and singer.

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 (http://www.johanneskepler.com/), 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 sovereignty.

1985 ~ Naturalist Dian Fossey (http://www.dian-fossey.com/) was found murdered in Rwanda.

2001 ~ The U.S. announced plans to hold Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/guantanamo-bay), 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.linfo.org/linus.html), Benevolent Dictator for Life of Linux.

1970 ~ Birthday of Francesca Le (http://www.francescalive.com/tour.html), Porn Actress.

1973 ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn published Gulag Archipelago.

1989 ~ Death of Hermann Oberth (http://www.nso.lt/history/hermann.htm), 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://www.lastoftheindependents.com/wounded.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 (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ussr-established) 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://www.nachovidalhardcore.com/en?s=1&utm_source=211350&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=nacho), Spanish Porn Actor.

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

1993 ~ Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.

2006 ~ Saddam Hussein hanged (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7532034279766935521#) for crimes committed during his brutal reign.

[jseal]

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.

1937 ~ Birthday of Sir Anthony Hopkins, Actor.

1943 ~ Birthday of Sir Ben Kingsley, Actor.

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.[/QUOTE]

[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.livinginternet.com/i/iw_dns_history.htm) 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]

1492 ~ Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders. The Reconquista is over.

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.

1994 ~ Death of Dixy Lee Ray. She had been the governor of Washington State & she 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).

[Oldfart]

A good mix today.

[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/).

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.

1977 ~ Apple Computer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.) was incorporated.

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://bobbiedenlive.com/), 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 ~ Winston 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.myrine.at/Schliema/schlieme.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.ibnsaud.info/) became the King of Saudi Arabia.

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Hawking (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=stephen-hawking-biography), 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.

[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 (http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/jan/02/in-1861-star-of-the-west-gets-first-taste-of/) 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.

1890 ~ Birthday of Karel Čapek, Czech writer. Inventor of "robot"

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.

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.

[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=A0D4fHieW8o&feature=related) 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=fD_6KqP7K0g&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.

[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.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1386730/Arthur-Scargill-faces-eviction-1-5m-luxury-apartment-NUM-launch-legal-action.html), 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/).

[Oldfart]

2008 ~ Death of Sir Edmund Hillary, the 1st man to climb Mount Everest.

Accompanied by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, Hillary was the first European to climb Everest and return alive. Good trick for a modest Kiwi.

[jseal]

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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eMy_HzueMU), and became the first team from the American Football League to win American Football's championship.

1976 ~ Death of Agatha Christie, 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.

1990 ~ Birthday of Sergey Karjakin, Ukrainian chess Grandmaster.

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.

[Oldfart]

1893 ~ Birthday of Hermann Göring, Nazi official.

For all you foodies out there, he was named after Malaysian fried rice, Nazi Goring.

[jseal]

LOL! I think there's a slight difference in pronunciation.

[Oldfart]

Ja wohl?

[jseal]

1898 ~ Émile Zola's J'accuse (http://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/his9_jaccuse.html) exposes the Dreyfus affair.

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, Irish novelist (Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake).

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

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).

[Oldfart]

1939 ~ The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres in Australia, killing 71 people.

That's over 7,000 square miles for the metrically challenged.

[jseal]

1784 ~ The U.S. 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]

1892 ~ James Naismith published the rules for basketball.

1908 ~ Birthday of Edward Teller (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tel0bio-1), Physicist.

1918 ~ Birth of Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt.

1929 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html), Civil Rights leader, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1964.

1953 ~ East German authorities began a purge of senior Jewish officials (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/15/newsid_4094000/4094899.stm).

1967 ~ The first Super Bowl (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0115.html#article) was played.

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

1973 ~ President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam, citing progress in peace negotiations.

1996 ~ Death of Minnesota Fats (http://billiards.about.com/od/halloffamegreats/p/09_04_13fats.htm), American Billiards player.

2001 ~ Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia), a free encyclopedia, formally put online.

[jseal]

1605 ~ The first edition of “Don Quixote (http://www.quixote-quest.org/op_ed_parentpg.html)” 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. (http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/) 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.

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

1979 ~ The Shah of Iran went into exile in Egypt.

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://www.bobby-fischer.net/), chess player extraordinaire.

[jseal]

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

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

1892 ~ Birthday of Oliver Hardy (http://www.laurel-and-hardy.com/), Comedian & Actor.

1936 ~ Death of Rudyard Kipling (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1907/kipling-bio.html), 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, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia.

1956 ~ Birthday of Sharon Mitchell, former Porn Actress.

1967 ~ The “Boston Strangler (http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/boston/index_1.html)” 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.

[jseal]

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

1839 ~ Birthday of Paul Cézanne, 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 (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1705/how-did-wwii-propaganda-broadcaster-tokyo-rose-get-info-on-allied-ship-movements).

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, Italian film director.

1930 ~ Birthday of Buzz Aldrin (http://buzzaldrin.com/the-man/biography/), 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/home.php?lg=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.nautilus571.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).

1997 ~ Newt Gingrich became the first leader of the House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.

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

[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).

[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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIB73doaZVc). Only 27 years ago!

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.

[Oldfart]

jseal, 9/10 for History, 2/10 for math. ;)

[jseal]

1627 ~ Birthday of Robert Boyle, Chemist.

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

1984 ~ The Apple Macintosh went on sale (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIB73doaZVc). Only 28 years and a day ago!

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.

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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwtkorQKGFE&feature=related)" on the “Today Show”.

2006 ~ Western Union discontinued its Telegram and Commercial Messaging services.

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 (http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/sir-francis-drake.htm), Explorer & Soldier.

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.

1965 ~ The current design of the Flag of Canada was chosen by an act of Parliament.

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).

[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 ~ Fourteen 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://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?29251-Battle-of-Khafji-1991-Press-and-military-media&) was fought at the frontier port of Al Khafji in Saudi Arabia.

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

[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 (http://www.jackierobinson.com/), 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 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.biography.com/people/harold-shipman-17169712?page=1) 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 (http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/hist/index-eng.htm) 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, 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.

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.

1974 ~ Death of Imre Lakatos, Philosopher of Science.

1982 ~ 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)

[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 (http://www.art.com/asp/landing/saturdayeveningpost?Aff=CONF&RFID=054402&TKID=15001032&domain=com&KWID=810022062&gclid=CPGgir7cgK4CFUHc4AodimJp3g&CTID=1471378810).

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.

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).

1967 ~ Ronald Ryan, the last man to be executed in Australia, was hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.

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

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/main.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/biography/), 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.

1935 ~ The board game Monopoly is invented.

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”.

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 ~ With the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union (http://europa.eu/index_en.htm) was formed.

[jseal]

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.

1998 ~ Death of Enoch Powell, British politician.

[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.

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.

1965 ~ The first U.S. combat troops were sent to South Vietnam.

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 struck and sank the Ehime-Maru.

[jseal]

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 .

2005 ~ North Korea announced that it possessed nuclear weapons..

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 (http://sergiomendesmusic.com/about), 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.

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).

2011 ~ Arab Spring: Hosni Mubarak resigned as President of Egypt.

[jseal]

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

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.

1976 ~ Birthday of Silvia Saint (http://www.silviasaint.com/en?s=1), Czech Porn Actress.

1984 ~ Birthday of Lolly Badcock, former 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 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/williamjclinton) on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

2000 ~ Death of Charles M. Schulz (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1126.html), creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip.

2002 ~ The war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan 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]

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.

1943 ~ Death of David Hilbert, Mathematician & Physicist. Interestingly, one of his doctoral students was Emanuel Lasker, who was World Chess Champion for 27 years.

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.

1950 ~ Karl Jansky, Discoverer of cosmic radio waves.

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).

[Oldfart]

And remember it's only 4 weeks to Steak and BJ day.

[jseal]

Yeah! :brows:

[jseal]

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.

1970 ~ Death of Sir Hugh Dowding, commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain.

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/), former 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.

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.

2006 ~ The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH (http://olive-drab.com/od_medical_treatment_mash.php)) was decommissioned by the U.S. Army.

[jseal]

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).

1904 ~ Madama Butterfly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFQXdJxhmaY&feature=related) premièred at La Scala in Milan

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).

1979 ~ Birthday of Dee, Puerto Rican Porn Actress.

1992 ~ Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=498) was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison.

[jseal]

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.

1954 ~ Birthday of John Travolta, Actor.

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.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17073472). 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.

[jseal]

1792 ~ President Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office.

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.

1976 ~ Death of René Cassin (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1968/cassin.html), French judge, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1993 ~ Death of Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer.

2001 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/robert-hanssen) 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 (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15551), 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, 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.