Strange Days

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1653 ~ Birthday of Johann Pachelbel, Composer. Remember the theme music of “Ordinary People”? That’s “Pachelbel’s Canon (http://www.ringtones.lt/true-tones-details-canondepac-id-769-Pachelbel-s-Canon.php)” (which is not really a Canon).

1715 ~ King Louis XIV of France ("L'État, c'est moi") died after a reign of 72 years — the longest of any major European monarch.

1875 ~ Birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Writer, creator of Tarzan (http://www.tarzan.org/) .

1905 ~ Alberta and Saskatchewan join the Canadian confederation.

1914 ~ The last Passenger Pigeon (http://www.eco-action.org/dt/pigeon.html) died in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

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

1972 ~ In Reykjavik, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beat Russian Boris Spassky and became the world chess champion (http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc-indx.htm).

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

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

1991 ~ Uzbekistan declared independence from the Soviet Union.

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

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

1752 ~ The U.K. adopted the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.

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

1924 ~ Birthday of Daniel arap Moi, President of Kenya.

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

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

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

1969 ~ Death of Ho Chi Minh (http://www.vietquoc.com/0006vq.htm), Vietmamese Revolutionary, President & Prime Minister.

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

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301 ~ San Marino (http://www.visitsanmarino.com/defaulte.asp), the world's oldest republic still in existence, was founded by Saint Marinus.

1658 ~ Death of Oliver Cromwell (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leaders/cromwell_01.shtml), Lord Protector of England.

1783 ~ American Revolutionary War: The Treaty of Paris between the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain was signed in Paris, ending the war.

1875 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand Porsche, German automotive engineer.

1893 ~ Death of James Harrison (http://www.whitehat.com.au/Victoria/People/Harrison.asp), Australian pioneer of mechanical refrigeration.

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

1939 ~ World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia declare war on Germany.

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.

2004 ~ More than 200 people die at the end of a three-day siege at a school in Beslan, Russia came to a bloody end.

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476 ~ Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire (http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/romans.html), was deposed.

1761 ~ Los Angeles founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula (http://www.la-archdiocese.org/english/history.html) (the City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula).

1824 ~ Birthday of Anton Bruckner, Composer.

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

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

1907 ~ Death of Edvard Grieg, Norwegian Composer.

1945 ~ World War II: Japanese forces surrender on Wake Island after hearing word of their nation's surrender.

1965 ~ Death of Albert Schweitzer, Physician, 1952 Nobel Peace Prize laureate & JS Bach interpreter.

1972 ~ Mark Spitz won his seventh swimming gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

1995 ~ Death of William Kunstler, Attorney.

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1735 ~ Birthday of Johann Christian Bach (http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/bachjc.html), Composer, son of Johann Sebastian Bach.

1774 ~ First Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1793 ~ The French National Convention voted to implement terror measures to enforce the principles of the French Revolution. This Reign of Terror (http://www.bartleby.com/65/re/ReignTer.html) lasted until the spring of 1794 and killed 35,000-40,000 people.

1847 ~ Birthday of Jesse James, outlaw.

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

1914 ~ World War I: First Battle of the Marne began northeast of Paris where the French defeated German advancing on the capital.

1948 ~ Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France. He is considered to be one of the founders of the European Union.

1950 ~ Birthday of Cathy Guisewite, Cartoonist.

1972 ~ Munich Massacre (http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/munich.htm): A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacked Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.

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

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

1766 ~ Birthday of John Dalton, British chemist and physicist. He is well known for his advocacy of the atomic theory (http://dl.clackamas.cc.or.us/ch104-04/dalton's.htm).

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

1915 ~ The first prototype tank is tested by the British Army.

1928 ~ Birthday of Robert Pirsig, Author (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance).

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.

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

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

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

1996 ~ Eddie Murray became the 15th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Oriole Park in Baltimore, Maryland.

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1776 ~ World's first submarine attack. American submersible craft Turtle (http://www.oldsaybrook.k12.ct.us/HSWebsite/Turtle_Webpage/Turtle.html) attempted to attach a bomb to the hull of the British flagship Eagle in New York Harbor.

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

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

1912 ~ Birthday of David Packard (http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/timeline/), Electrical Engineer.

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

1977 ~ The U.S. agreed to transfer control of the Panama Canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

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

1994 ~ Death of James Clavell, Author (Shogun; To Sir, with Love; The Great Escape).

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

1998 ~ Google Inc. (http://www.google.com/) is founded.

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828 ~ Birthday of Ali al-Hadi (http://home.swipnet.se/islam/imams/10th_imam/al-hadi.htm), Shia Imam

1636 ~ Harvard College founded as the first college in the Americas.

1841 ~ Birthday of Antonin Dvorak, Composer.

1886 ~ Birthday of Siegfried Sassoon (http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/8103/) , Poet

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

1925 ~ Birthday of Peter Sellers, Actor (A Shot in the Dark, Dr. Strangelove, The Pink Panther, etc.).

1930 ~ 3M began marketing Scotch transparent tape.

1944 ~ World War II: 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/) aired.

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1585 ~ Birthday of Cardinal Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/riley/787/30/France/riche.html), French statesman.

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

1754 ~ Birthday of William Bligh (http://www.lareau.org/bounty.html), British naval officer.

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

1824 ~ Birthday of Anton Bruckner, Austrian Composer.

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

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

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

1956 ~ Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show (http://www.fiftiesweb.com/elvis.htm) for the first time.

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

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September 10th

1939 ~ The submarine HMS Oxley was sunk by mistake by the submarine HMS Trition off the coast of Norway and became the first loss of the Royal Navy in the Second World War.

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist.

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

1945 ~ Vidkun Quisling (http://www.bartleby.com/65/qu/Quisling.html) sentenced to death for collaboration with Nazi Germany.

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

1967 ~ Birthday of Colin Firth, Actor (Shakespeare in Love, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually)

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

1977 ~ France's last execution was performed by guillotine (http://www.metaphor.dk/guillotine/Pages/Guillot.html).

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.

2002 ~ Switzerland joined the United Nations.

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

1711 ~ Birthday of William Boyce, Composer.

1914 ~ World War I: In one of the first military engagements, Australian forces defeat Germans (http://www.answers.com/topic/new-britain-1) in New Britain.

1922 ~ British Mandate of Palestine began.

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

1962 ~ The Beatles recorded their debut single, Love Me Do.

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

1987 ~ CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, angry over being preempted for a tennis match, marched off the set, leaving affiliates with six minutes of an empty news desk.

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

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

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490 BC ~ Athenians defeated Persians at the Battle of Marathon.

1814 ~ War of 1812: An American detachment halted the British land advance to Baltimore in the Battle of North Point.

1880 ~ Birthday of H.L. Mencken (http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/H._L._Mencken), Journalist, Author.

1888 ~ Birthday of Maurice Chevalier, Singer, Actor (Gigi, Thank Heaven For Little Girls (http://www.weddingvendors.com/music/lyrics/song-876.html)).

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

1940 ~ Cave paintings discovered in Lascaux, France (http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/).

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

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

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

2003 ~ Death of Johnny Cash, Country Music Great

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1321 ~ Death of Dante Alighieri (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dante/), writer (The Divine Comedy)

1819 ~ Birthday of Clara Schumann (http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/1945/WSB/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.

1874 ~ Birthday of Arnold Schoenberg, Composer.

1939 ~ Canada entered World War II.

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://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/robinson_frank.htm) 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.

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

2001 ~ Civilian airplane traffic in the U.S., which had been grounded following the September 11th attacks, was allowed to resume.

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786 ~ Harun al-Rashid became the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother al-Hadi.

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).

1737 ~ Birthday of Michael Haydn, Austrian composer.

1760 ~ Birthday of Luigi Cherubini, Composer.

1814 ~ Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner (http://americanhistory.si.edu/ssb/2_home/fs2.html)

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

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

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

1982 ~ Death of Princess Grace of Monaco.

1999 ~ Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga joined the United Nations.

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1914 ~ Birthday of Allen Funt (http://www.candidcamera.com/cc2/cc2e.html), radio & television personality.

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

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

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

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

1975 ~ Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia.

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

1981 ~ The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Sandra Day O'Connor to the U. S. Supreme Court.

1982 ~ The first issue of USA Today is published.

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

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

1736 ~ Death of Gabriel Fahrenheit, German Physicist.

1795 ~ British captured Capetown South Africa

1940 ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Selective Training and Service Act

1956 ~ Play-Doh (http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0756/) was introduced to the world.

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)

1986 ~ 177 people die during a fire in the Kinross, South African gold mine.

1987 ~ The Montreal Protocol was signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

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

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

1630 ~ Boston, Massachusetts is incorporated.

1787 ~ The text of the U.S. Constitution was completed in Philadelphia, PA.

1859 ~ Joshua A. Norton (http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/norton.htm) declares himself Emperor Norton I of the United States.

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

1908 ~ Death of Lt. Thomas Selfridge, first to die in an airplane crash (http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa031000b.htm).

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

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

1978 ~ The Camp David Accords (http://www.cartercenter.org/doc1473.htm) were signed by Israeli and Egyptian representatives.

1991 ~ North Korea, South Korea, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia joined the United Nations.

Today is the Feast Day of Hildegard of Bingen (http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainth05.htm), recording artist (http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/composers/hildegard.html).

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1709 ~ Birthday of Samuel Johnson, Essayist & Critic.

1759 ~ The British capture Quebec (http://www.philaprintshop.com/frchintx.html) City.

1819 ~ Birthday of Leon Foucault, Physicist.

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

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

1970 ~ Death of Jimi Hendrix, Rock Musician.

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

1975 ~ Patty Hearst was arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.

1990 ~ Liechtenstein became a member of the UN

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

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

1796 ~ George Washington made his farewell address (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm).

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

1934 ~ Bruno Hauptmann was arrested for the murder of Charles Lindbergh Junior.

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.

1955 ~ Juan Peron was deposed in Argentina.

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

1991 ~ Ötzi the Iceman (http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/iceman/iceman.html) is discovered by German tourists.

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1187 ~ Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan began his voyage around the world.

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

1908 ~ Death of Pablo de Sarasate, Violinist.

1934 ~ Birthday of Sophia Loren (http://www.sophialoren.com/home.htm) , Italian actress.

1946 ~ First Cannes Film Festival.

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

1979 ~ A coup d'état in the Central African Empire (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4007.htm#history) overthrew Emperor Bokasa I.

1981 ~ A coup d'état in the Central African Republic (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4007.htm#history) overthrew President David Dacko.

2000 ~ After playing 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken, Jr took a day off (http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/ripken/bal-cal1998sep23,1,4549814.htmlstory).

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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, science fiction author.

1874 ~ Birthday of Gustav Holst, Composer.

1896 ~ British force under Horatio Kitchener (http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/kitchener_h/kitchener_h.html) took Dongola in the Sudan.

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

1937 ~ J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit (http://www.mi.uib.no/~respl/tolkien/).

1947 ~ Birthday of Stephen King, Author.

1964 ~ Malta (http://www.visitmalta.com/)became independent from the U.K.

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

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1784 ~ Russia established a colony at Kodiak, Alaska (http://www.city.kodiak.ak.us/).

1791 ~ Birthday of Michael Faraday, Scientist.

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

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

1949 ~ Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon.

1960 ~ Mali gained independence from France.

1975 ~ Sara Jane Moore (http://www.geocities.com/proprioter/y_moore.html)’s assassination attempt on U.S. President Gerald Ford was foiled by Oliver Sipple (http://www.lambda.net/~maximum/sipple.html).

1980 ~ Iraq invaded Iran.

1999 ~ Death of George C. Scott, Actor.

2001 ~ Death of Isaac Stern (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stern_i.html), Violinist.

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1642 ~ First commencement at Harvard College.

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

1806 ~ Discovery of Neptune (http://www.nineplanets.org/neptune.html) by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier.

1884 ~ Herman Hollerith (http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/hollerith/) patented his mechanical adding machine.

1920 ~ Birthday of Mickey Rooney, actor.

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

1932 ~ The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd renamed Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (http://www.saudinf.com/).

1949 ~ Birthday of Bruce Springsteen (http://www.brucespringsteen.net/news/), Singer & Songwriter.

1962 ~ The Jetsons premiered.

1983 ~ Saint Kitts and Nevis (http://www.geographia.com/stkitts-nevis/) joined the United Nations.

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622 ~ Muhammad (http://www.muhammad.net/) completed his hegira from Mecca to Medina.

1664 ~ Netherlands surrendered New Amsterdam (http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/kingston/colonization.htm) to England.

1755 ~ Birthday of John Marshall, the longest-serving Chief Justice of the American Supreme Court. The principle of judicial review: "A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law."

1890 ~ As a pre-condition to Utah being admitted to the United States, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) officially renounced polygamy.

1896 ~ Birthday of F Scott Fitzgerald, Novelist.

1936 ~ Birthday of Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets (http://muppets.go.com/main.html).

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

1988 ~ Summer Olympics: Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis in the 100 Meters sprint. Mr. Johnson was later disqualified using performance enhancing dugs.

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

1993 ~ Broderbund released the computer game Myst (http://www.mysterium.ch/myst/myst_info_e.html).

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1066 ~ Battle of Stamford Bridge (http://www.worldofthevikings.com/stamford.html), which marked the end of the Viking era.

1683 ~ Birthday of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer.

1890 ~ Yosemite National Park (http://www.yosemitepark.com/) established.

1906 ~ Birthday of Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer.

1932 ~ Birthday of Glenn Gould, Pianist.

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

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 ~ Soviet Officer Stanislav Petrov (http://www.brightstarsound.com/world_hero/article.html) averts World War III by refusing to accept that the U.S. had launched missiles against the USSR, despite the indications given by his early warning systems.

1996 ~ The last of the Magdalen Asylums (http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Magdalen_Asylum) was closed.

2002 ~ The Vitim event (http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/v/vi/vitim_event.htm).

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1687 ~ The Parthenon in Athens (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1987.09.0276) is partially destroyed after an explosion caused by the bombing from the Venetian forces besieging the Ottoman Turks.

1820 ~ Death of Daniel Boone, American icon.

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

1898 ~ Birthday of George Gershwin, Composer.

1907 ~ New Zealand and Newfoundland became dominions.

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

1945 ~ Death of Béla Bartók, Composer.

1948 ~ Birthday of Olivia Newton-John, Singer.

1957 ~ West Side Story (http://www.filmsite.org/wests.html) opened on Broadway.

1983 ~ Australia II (http://www.nachohat.org/gallery/ships_australia2/P5190085) won the “Americas Cup”.

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1389 ~ Birthday of Cosimo de Medici, Florentine ruler.

1540 ~ Jesuit Order (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14081a.htm) received its charter from Pope Paul III.

1722 ~ Birthday of Samuel Adams, Patriot & Brewer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Thomas Nast (http://www.historybuff.com/library/refnast.html), political cartoonist.

1917 ~ Death of Edgar Degas, Impressionist painter (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/degas/ballet/degas.danseuse-assise.jpg).

1921 ~ Death of Engelbert Humperdinck, Composer.

1964 ~ The Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone (http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_308.html) in assassinating President Kennedy.

1968 ~ The Hippy Musical "Hair" opened in London.

1996 ~ In Afghanistan, the Taliban captured Kabul (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/27/newsid_2539000/2539973.stm). They then dragged former leader Mohammad Najibullah out of the U.N. compound and hanged him from a traffic light pole.

2002 ~ East Timor joins the United Nations.

[jseal]

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

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

1925 ~ Birthday of Seymour Cray, Computer Scientist.

1939 ~ Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.

1953 ~ Death of Edwin Hubble (http://www.edwinhubble.com/hubble_bio_001.htm), Astronomer.

1958 ~ France ratified a new constitution; the Fifth (and current) Republic of France was formed.

1961 ~ A military coup in Damascus, Syria brought an end to the United Arab Republic (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0850056.html).

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

1988 ~ Death of Charles Addams, Cartoonist, creator of The Adams Family.

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

[jseal]

1547 ~ Birthday of Miguel de Cervantes, Author (Don Quixote).

1714 ~ George, Elector of Hanover, arrived in Greenwich to assume the British throne as King George I (http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon53.html). (Thanks dm383!)

1758 ~ Birthday of Horatio Nelson, British admiral.

1901 ~ Birthday of Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist.

1954 ~ CERN opened for business.

1960 ~ Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/29/newsid_3087000/3087171.stm) disrupted a meeting of the United Nations 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.

2004 ~ Baseball: The Montreal Expos played their last game at Olympic Stadium.

[jseal]

1882 ~ Birthday of Hans Geiger (http://www.phy.bg.ac.yu/web_projects/giants/geiger.html), German physicist & the inventor of the Geiger counter.

1896 ~ Madagascar became a French protectorate.

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

1924 ~ Birthday of Truman Capote, Author (In Cold Blood).

1938 ~ The League of Nations unanimously outlawed "intentional bombings of civilian populations".

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

1960 ~ The last episode of The Howdy Doody Show aired.

1982 ~ Cheers (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083399/) premiered.

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

1999 ~ Japan's worst nuclear accident occurred at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tokai-mura, northeast of Tokyo.

[jseal]

1571 ~ Ottoman Empire defeated at the battle of Lepanto, the last major naval battle to take place between exclusively oared galleys.

1582 ~ Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

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

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

1886 ~ Spain abolished slavery in Cuba.

1913 ~ Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line.

1919 ~ KLM (http://www.klm.com/corporate_en//lecture/history/index.jsp?ComponentID=27189&SourcePageID=27281#1) founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.

1900 ~ Birthday of Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official and leader of the SS.

1931 ~ Birthday of Desmond Tutu (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-bio.html), South African archbishop, The Nobel Peace Prize 1984.

1955 ~ Birthday of Yo-Yo Ma (http://www.sonyclassical.com/music/89667/index.html), Cellist.

[jseal]

1871 ~ The Great Chicago Fire (http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/greatfire.html) destroyed about 17,450 buildings, killed about 250 people and left another 90,000 homeless.

1895 ~ Birthday of Juan Perón, former president of Argentina.

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

1949 ~ Birthday of Sigourney Weaver, Actress.

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

1967 ~ Guerrilla leader Che Guevara was captured in Bolivia.

1982 ~ All labor organizations in Poland, including Solidarity (http://goeasteurope.about.com/od/polandtravelguide/a/solidarnosc.htm), were banned.

1992 ~ Death of Willy Brandt, German politician.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California.

2004 ~ Martha Stewart went to jail.

[jseal]

1776 ~ Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.

1835 ~ Birthday of Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer.

1859 ~ Birthday of Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer.

1897 ~ Henry Sturmey became the 1st man to drive from Land's End, Cornwall to John O'Groats, Scotland.

1940 ~ Birthday of John Lennon, Musician & Songwriter.

1942 ~ Statute of Westminster Adoption Act (http://www.statusquo.org/WestminsterAct.html) formalizes Australian autonomy.

1948 ~ Birthday of Jackson Browne (http://www.jrp-graphics.com/jackson_browne.html) (Doctor My Eyes, The Pretender, Running On Empty)

1961 ~ Ray Charles' Hit the Road Jack (http://www.discoverynet.com/~ajsnead/5060jb/5009.html) reached No. 1.

1970 ~ The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.

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/VirtualTour/150years/)) opened with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.

1875 ~ Death of Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Novelist & Poet.

1961 ~ Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 published.

1966 ~ Simon and Garfunkel released the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

1970 ~ A crisis hit Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier Pierre Laporte became the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group (http://www.uni.ca/sep_origins.html).

1975 ~ Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor remarried (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/10/newsid_4089000/4089030.stm).

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

1985 ~ U.S. Navy F-14 fightess intercepted the Egyptian plane carrying the “Achille Lauro” cruise ship hijackers and forced it to land at a NATO base in Sicily where they were arrested.

1985 ~ Death of Yul Brynner, Actor and Orson Welles, Director & Actor.

[jseal]

1779 ~ Death of Casimir Pulaski, Polish fighter for American independence.

1809 ~ Death of Meriwether Lewis, explorer.

1844 ~ Birthday of Henry Heinz, food manufacturer.

1896 ~ Death of Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer.

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

1961 ~ Death of Chico Marx, comedian.

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

1968 ~ Launch of Apollo 7 (http://www.thespaceplace.com/history/apollo/apollo07.html), the first manned Apollo mission.

1975 ~ Saturday Night Live (http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75a.phtml) premiered with George Carlin as the guest host.

1987 ~ Operation Deepscan (http://www.nessie.co.uk/deepscan.html): An exploration of Loch Ness using sonar ended without finding Nessie.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus's first expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean. But where? (http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/cclandfl.htm)

1609 ~ Three Blind Mice published by Thomas Ravenscroft.

1870 ~ Death of Gen. Robert E. Lee (http://www.civilwarhome.com/leebio.htm), Leader.

1935 ~ Birthday of Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor.

1968 ~ Summer Olympics open in Mexico City.

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

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

1997 ~ Death of John Denver, American singer.

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

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

[jseal]

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

1307 ~ All Knights Templar (http://www.templarhistory.com/who.html) in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of the French king, to be later tortured into admitting heresy.

1792 ~ The cornerstone of the White House (http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04/subs/04_a02_c.html) was laid

1812 ~ Death of Sir Isaac Brock, British general (killed in the Battle of Queenston Heights)

1925 ~ Birthday of Margaret Thatcher (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/essential/default.asp), Prime Minister of the UK.

1941 ~ Birthday of Paul Simon, Singer & Songwriter.

1945 ~ Death of Milton S. Hershey (http://www.hersheys.com/discover/milton/milton.asp), founder of Hershey Chocolate Company.

1954 ~ Birthday of Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear technician.

1959 ~ Birthday of Marie Osmond, Singer & Actress.

1974 ~ Death of Ed Sullivan, Television Personality.

[jseal]

1066 ~ Battle of Hastings (http://www.battle1066.com/) - William the Conqueror’s Normans defeated the Saxon army and kill King Harold II of England.

1882 ~ Birthday of Eamon de Valera, Irish politician and patriot.

1894 ~ Birthday of E. E. Cummings, American poet.

1926 ~ Winnie-the-Pooh (http://www.penguinputnam.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/pooh75/home.html), by A.A. Milne, was published.

1940 ~ Birthday of Cliff Richard, British rock singer.

1944 ~ World War II: Given the choice between a public treason trial and a certain death by firing squad or suicide with honor, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel chose the latter.

1947 ~ Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.

1962 ~ Cuban Missile Crisis (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/) began: A U-2 flight over Cuba took photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.

1964 ~ Civil Rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html) became the youngest recipient 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://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1994/).

[jseal]

70 BC ~ Birthday of Virgil, Roman poet.

1844 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher.

1881 ~ Birthday of P. G. Wodehouse (http://www.wodehouse.org/), British comic novelist.

1908 ~ Birthday of John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist.

1917 ~ Mata Hari (http://www.ww1-propaganda-cards.com/mata_hari.html) was executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.

1951 ~ I Love Lucy (http://www.lucyfan.com/) premiered starring comedian Lucille Ball and her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz.

1964 ~ Death of Cole Porter, Composer.

1964 ~ Nikita Khrushchev retires as head of USSR.

1970 ~ 35 construction workers died when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapsed.

2003 ~ China launched its first manned spacecraft into orbit, becoming the third country to do so.

[jseal]

1793 ~ Marie Antoinette was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.

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

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

1886 ~ Birthday of David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel.

1925 ~ Birthday of Angela Lansbury, actress

1964 ~ China detonated its first atomic bomb (http://www.atomicarchive.com/index.shtml).

1970 ~ Anwar Sadat elected President of Egypt.

1978 ~ Karol Józef Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II (http://catholicism.about.com/od/popes/p/popejohnpa05.htm). He was the first non Italian to be elevated to the position since 1522.

1981 ~ Death of Moshe Dayan, Israeli general.

1983 ~ The Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 3 in the 80th World Series (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws_recaps.jsp?feature=1983).

[jseal]

1469 ~ Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. This marriage lead to the unification of Aragon and Castile in a single country, Spain.

1888 ~ Thomas Edison filed a patent for the Optical Phonograph.

1915 ~ Birthday of Arthur Miller (http://www.ibiblio.org/miller/), Playwright.

1931 ~ Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.

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

1967 ~ The musical Hair (
http://www.geocities.com/hairpages/hairhistory.html) opened.

1970 ~ Anwar Sadat (http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/sadat/) became president of Egypt.

1972 ~ Birthday of Eminem, rap music performer.

1980 ~ Queen Elizabeth became the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican.

1989 ~ Loma Prieta earthquake (http://www.vibrationdata.com/earthquakes/lomaprieta.htm) hit the San Francisco Bay Area.

[jseal]

1545 ~ Death of John Taverner, Composer.

1851 ~ Moby-Dick (http://www.melville.org/hmmoby.htm), a novel by Herman Melville, was first published as The Whale.

1871 ~ Death of Charles Babbage (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Babbage.html), mathematician and inventor of computing machines.

1908 ~ Death of Charles Gounod, composer.

1919 ~ Birthday of Pierre Trudeau (http://collections.ic.gc.ca/discourspm/anglais/pet/bio.html), fifteenth PM of Canada.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Company, Ltd. was incorporated. It was reincorporated as the BBC.

1926 ~ Birthday of Chuck Berry (http://www.chuckberry.com/index.php), Musician.

1931 ~ Death of Thomas Edison, inventor.

1939 ~ Birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald, Assassin.

1989 ~ [I]Erich Honecker is forced to step down (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/18/newsid_2450000/2450783.stm) as leader of East Germany./I]

[jseal]

1216 ~ Death of King John, younger brother of King Richard the Lionheart.

1745 ~ Death of Jonathan Swift (http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/), Author.

1781 ~ Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, effectively ending the American War of Independence.

1912 ~ Italy took possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.

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

1933 ~ Germany withdrew from the League of Nations.

1943 ~ Streptomycin (http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0846951.html) was isolated; the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis.

1950 ~ Death of Edna St. Vincent Millay (http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Edna_St_Vincent_Millay/edna_st_vincent_millay_contents.htm), Poet.

2003 ~ Mother Teresa beatified by Pope John Paul II.

2005 ~ Trial of Saddam Hussein began.

[jseal]

1632 ~ Birthday of Sir Christopher Wren, Architect (http://www.stpauls.co.uk/page.aspx?theLang=001lngdef&pointerid=169345dwprEOVViTRLd8xXbHBDHGbzge).

1740 ~ Maria Theresa took the throne of Austria.

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

1882 ~ Birthday of Bela Lugosi, Actor.

1893 ~ Birthday of Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya.

1931 ~ Birthday of Mickey Mantle, athlete.

1947 ~ The House Un-American Activities Committee began its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood.

1968 ~ Jackie Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

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

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

[jseal]

1772 ~ Birthday of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet.

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

1833 ~ Birthday of Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and benefactor of the Nobel Prize.

1854 ~ Florence Nightingale (http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/florrie.html) and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War.

1912 ~ Birthday of Sir Georg Solti, Conductor.

1917 ~ Birthday of Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz Musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Ursula K. Le Guin, Science Fiction Author.

1944 ~ The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/austral/aussh-ag/austr2.htm) was hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg bomb.

1945 ~ Women's suffrage (http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/t/ti/timeline_of_womens_suffrage1.htm): Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.

1966 ~ A coal tip fell on the village of Aberfan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/21/newsid_2705000/2705335.stm), killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.

[jseal]

1797 ~ Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump over Paris.

1811 ~ Birthday of Franz Liszt, Composer.

1836 ~ Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1844 ~ Birthday of Sarah Bernhardt, Actress.

1906 ~ Death of Paul Cezanne, Painter (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/sl/cezanne.cherries.jpg).

1920 ~ Birthday of Timothy Leary (http://deoxy.org/hedonix.htm), writer, drug guru.

1943 ~ Birthday of Catherine Deneuve, Actress.

1943 ~ The RAF air raid on Kassel (http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=9mmpmke4ht9ms?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Bombing+of+Kassel+in+World+War+II&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc05a&linktext=Bombing%20of%20Kassel%20in%20World%20War%20II), a city of 236,000 people, killed 10,000, and left 150,000 homeless.

1962 ~ Cuban Missile Crisis (http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/): US President Kennedy announced that American spy planes had discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation.

1968 ~ Led Zeppelin released the classic album Led Zeppelin II, featuring the hit single "Whole Lotta Love".

[jseal]

4004 BC ~ The start of the universe, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar (http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Ussher-Lightfoot_Calendar).

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

1915 ~ Approximately 33,000 women marched up Fifth Avenue in New York City to demand the right to vote.

1935 ~ Birthday of Chi Chi Rodriguez, golf champion.

1940 ~ Birthday of Pelé, soccer player Extraordinaire.

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

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).

1958 ~ Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced a new set of comic strip characters The Smurfs (http://www.smurf.com/homepage.html).

1983 ~ A suicide truck-bombing in Lebanon killed 241 U.S. soldiers.

1998 ~ Death of Dr. Barnett Slepian, physician.

[jseal]

1632 ~ Birthday of Anton van Leeuwenhoek, microbiologist.

1799 ~ Death of Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1929 ~ "Black Thursday" crash of the New York Stock Exchange.

1945 ~ Founding of the United Nations (http://www.un.org/aboutun/unhistory/).

1947 ~ The expression Cold War (http://www.coldwar.org/museum/summary_coldwar.html) was first used by Bernard Baruch to the U.S. Senate War Investigation Committee.

1948 ~ Death of Franz Lehár, Composer.

1980 ~ The government of Poland legalized Solidarity trade union.

1991 ~ Death of Gene Roddenberry (http://www.pathcom.com/~boby/gene.htm), creator of the Star Trek series.

1992 ~ In the first real "World" Series, the Toronto Blue Jays (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws_recaps.jsp?feature=1992) 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), bringing the first era of civil supersonic transport to a close.

[jseal]

1400 ~ Death of Geoffrey Chaucer (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0857256.html), Poet.

1825 ~ Birthday of Johann Strauss II, Composer.

1838 ~ Birthday of Georges Bizet, Composer.

1854 ~ Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3944699.stm)). 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”.

1881 ~ Birthday of Pablo Picasso (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/P/picasso.html), Painter & Sculptor.

1924 ~ First appearance of "Little Orphan Annie”.

1936 ~ Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini created the Rome-Berlin Axis.

1971 ~ The UN seated the People's Republic of China and expelled the Republic of China.

1993 ~ Jean Chrétien became prime minister of Canada.

1993 ~ Death of Vincent Price, Actor.

[jseal]

1685 ~ Birthday of Domenico Scarlatti, Composer.

1881 ~ The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (http://clantongang.com/oldwest/gunfight.html) took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1905 ~ Norway became independent from Sweden.

1918 ~ Erich von Ludendorff is 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 (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20051026/j&k.htm) agreed to allow his kingdom to join India.

1965 ~ The Beatles (http://www.beatles.com/) are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).

1972 ~ Death of Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer.

1994 ~ Announcement of Andrew Wiles’ correct proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

1999 ~ Britain's House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.

2001 ~ The USA Patriot Act passed into law.

[jseal]

1466 ~ Birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch writer and philosopher.

1662 ~ Charles II of England sold Dunkirk (http://www.bartleby.com/65/du/DunkirkFr.html) to Louis XIV.

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

1811 ~ Birthday of Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dylan Thomas, British poet and writer. If you’ve never heard Richard Burton read Under Milk Wood (http://www.undermilkwood.net/prose_umw1.html), or “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, you have a treat in store for you!

1959 ~ The Mouse That Roared (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/) premiered.

1971 ~ The Congo changed its name to Zaire.

1990 ~ Death of Xavier Cugat, Musician.

1991 ~ Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

2002 ~ Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected as President of Brazil.

[jseal]

1485 ~ Le Morte D'Arthur (http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/l/le/le_morte_darthur2.htm) published.

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba (http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/btt/columbus/timelinecuba.shtml).

1726 ~ Gulliver's Travels published

1886 ~ The Statue of Liberty (http://www.endex.com/gf/buildings/liberty/liberty.html) was dedicated.

1903 ~ Birthday of Evelyn Waugh, Novelist.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

1918 ~ Czechoslovakia gained its independence from Austria-Hungary.

1940 ~ World War II: Italy invaded Greece.

1955 ~ Birthday of Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/default.mspx).

1965 ~ The 630-foot-tall steel Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri was completed.

[jseal]

1675 ~ Leibniz made the first use of the long s, ∫, for integral.

1785 ~ Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (http://opera.stanford.edu/Mozart/DonGiovanni/main.html) received its first performance in Prague.

1863 ~ Formation of the International Red Cross.

1879 ~ Birthday of Leon Trotsky - Russian revolutionary.

1897 ~ Birthday of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda.

1911 ~ Death of Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher and journalist.

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

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

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

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

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1831 ~ Nat Turner was arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in U.S. history.

1839 ~ Birthday of Alfred Sisley (http://www.abcgallery.com/S/sisley/sisley.html), one of the creators of French Impressionism.

1885 ~ Birthday of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1918 ~ World War I (http://www.firstworldwar.com/): The Ottoman Empire signed an armistice with the Allies, ending the war in the Middle East.

1938 ~ Orson Welles’ broadcast of The War of the Worlds caused a panic.

1939 ~ Birthday of Grace Slick, singer with Jefferson Airplane.

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).

1968 ~ The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, released.

1974 ~ Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.

1995 ~ Quebec separatists lost a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote was 50.6% to 49.4%).

[jseal]

1517 ~ Protestant Reformation got under way: Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. For a unique (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3944549.stm) insight to this happening, click here.

1795 ~ Birthday of John Keats (http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/songoftheindianmaid.html), Poet.

1892 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

1926 ~ Death of Harry Houdini, Magician.

1940 ~ World War II: Battle of Britain ended.

1950 ~ Birthday of John Candy, Comedian & Actor.

1954 ~ Algerian War of Independence (http://home.mtholyoke.edu/~easokolo/algeria/1962.htm): The Algerian National Liberation Front began a revolt against French rule.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/suez.htm): The U.K. and France began bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1984 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/31/newsid_2464000/2464423.stm) by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).

1987 ~ Death of Joseph Campbell, Author and expert on mythology.

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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 (http://www.allshakespeare.com/shakespeare-masters/47858) was presented for the first time.

1755 ~ Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.

1892 ~ Birthday of Alexander Alekhine (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/alekhine/alekhine.htm), World Chess Champion.

1923 ~ Birthday of Gordon R. Dickson, Science Fiction author.

1935 ~ Birthday of Gary Player, South African golfer.

1952 ~ The U.S. successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed Mike (http://operationivy.com/name.php), at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll.

1963 ~ The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.

1972 ~ Death of Ezra Pound (http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/~hishika/pound.htm), Poet.

1993 ~ The Maastricht Treaty took effect, formally establishing the European Union.

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1739 ~ Birthday of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1755 ~ Birthday of Marie Antoinette (http://www.batguano.com/VigeeMAgallery.html), Queen of France.

1815 ~ Birthday of George Boole, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1930 ~ Haile Selassie (http://www.royalty.nu/Africa/Ethiopia/Selassie.html) was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 ~ The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/history/1901-1939.shtml) was established.

1950 ~ Death of George Bernard Shaw, Playwright.

1960 ~ Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

1964 ~ In a family coup, King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal.

1983 ~ Martin Luther King Day established in the U.S.

1988 ~ The Morris worm (http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/articles/morris-worm.html), the first internet distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.

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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 (http://www.visitpanama.com/engl/index.asp) proclaimed itself independent from Colombia (http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/LASO/Colombia/colombia.html).

1918 ~ Poland declared its independence from Russia.

1954 ~ Death of Henri Matisse (http://images.google.com/images?q=Henri+Matisse&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape:en-US&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest), French artist.

1957 ~ Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika (http://www.space.com/news/laika_anniversary_991103.html).

1964 ~ U.S. presidential election: Incumbent US President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr with over 60 percent of the popular vote.

1986 ~ Iran-Contra Affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1992 ~ U.S. presidential election: Challenger Bill Clinton defeats incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot.

1993 ~ Death of Leon Theremin, Russian inventor.

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1847 ~ Death of Felix Mendelssohn (http://www.felixmendelssohn.com/Default.htm), German composer.

1869 ~ The first issue of scientific journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html) was published.

1900 ~ Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Dreams/) was published.

1922 ~ British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamen (http://www.crystalinks.com/tut.html)'s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 ~ Death of Gabriel Fauré, French composer.

1946 ~ Birthday of Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States.

1948 ~ T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1956 ~ Soviet troops invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more were wounded, and nearly a quarter million left the country.

1993 ~ Jean Chrétien took office as PM of Canada.

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.

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1605 ~ Gunpowder Plot (http://www.gunpowder-plot.org/): A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

1872 ~ Suffragist Susan B. Anthony (http://www.susanbanthonyhouse.org/biography.html) 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 (http://www.royrogers.com/), American actor.

1913 ~ Birthday of Vivien Leigh, American actress.

1914 ~ The UK annexed Cyprus (http://www.cyprus.gov.cy/cyphome/govhome.nsf/Main?OpenFrameSet).

1930 ~ Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1977 ~ Death of Guy Lombardo, Conductor.

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, Pianist.

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1528 ~ Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to see Texas.

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed John Carroll (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03381b.htm) as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa (http://www.dws.org/sousa/about.htm), composer of the official march of the U.S., The Stars and Stripes Forever (http://www.dws.org/sousa/ra/dws-ssf1.ram)

1861 ~ Birthday of James Naismith, inventor of basketball.

1869 ~ Rutgers University defeats Princeton University, 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game. Rumor is that Princeton is set to have a similar season this year.

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi (http://www.mahatma.org.in/flash.html) was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution (http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/17/ares17.htm) condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British Queen (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/6/newsid_2514000/2514833.stm) as their head of state.

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp, Science Fiction writer.

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1665 ~ The London Gazette (http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/index.asp?webType=0), the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, recipient, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 (http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html), The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911 (http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1911/).

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch (http://home19.inet.tele.dk/kastanie/), chess grandmaster.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus, writer, recipient The Nobel Prize in Literature 1957 (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1957/camus-bio.html).

1922 ~ Birthday of Al Hirt, Musician.

1926 ~ Birthday of Dame Joan Sutherland, Opera singer.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at Baltimore, Maryland.

1940 ~ The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (http://www.ketchum.org/tacomacollapse.html) collapsed in a windstorm.

1980 ~ Death of Steve McQueen, Actor.

1996 ~ NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor.

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1519 ~ Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlán as a returning god.

1674 ~ Death of John Milton (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jmilton.htm), English poet.

1847 ~ Birthday of Bram Stoker, Irish novelist.

1884 ~ Birthday of Hermann Rorschach, psychiatrist.

1895 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays. (http://www.xray.hmc.psu.edu/rci/ss1/ss1_2.html)

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 ~ Korean War: The first dog fight between jet aircraft.

1986 ~ Death of Vyacheslav Molotov (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSmolotov.htm), Soviet politician.

1994 ~ The U.S. Republican Party took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

2002 ~ [I] Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 (http://www.un.org/Docs/scres/2002/sc2002.htm) – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, requiring Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences". (requires Adobe Acrobat)

[jseal]

1731 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Banneker, American scientist.

1888 ~ Jack the Ripper (http://www.casebook.org/victims/) killed Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.

1918 ~ As a result of the German Revolution, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated and went into exile in the Netherlands.

1934 ~ Birthday of Carl Sagan (http://www.planetary.org/html/society/tributes/), American Astronomer & Writer.

1936 ~ Mikhail Tal, Latvian chess player.

1938 ~ The Nazis' 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.

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 ~ East Germany allowed its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time since 1961.

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1483 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther, a leader of the Protestant Reformation.

1668 ~ Birthday of François Couperin, French composer.

1775 ~ 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 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 (http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/), Soviet inventor, AK-47.

1925 ~ Birthday of Richard Burton, Actor.

1938 ~ Death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey.

1951 ~ Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1975 ~ The SS Edmund Fitzgerald (http://www.ssefo.com/) sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song about the tragedy.

2084 ~ A transit of Earth from Mars will be visible to hypothetical future Mars colonists.

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1821 ~ Birthday of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist.

1855 ~ Death of Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher.

1880 ~ Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly (http://www.abc.net.au/btn/australians/nedkelly.htm) was hung in Melbourne.

1885 ~ Birthday of George Patton, American general.

1895 ~ Birthday of Lucky Luciano, American gangster.

1904 ~ Birthday of Alger Hiss (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html), American spy.

1918 ~ World War I ends (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ends2.htm): Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.

1922 ~ Birthday of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Novelist.

1992 ~ The Church of England (http://www.cofe.anglican.org/) voted to allow women to become priests.

2004 ~ Death of Yasser Arafat (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/11/newsid_4292000/4292998.stm), President of the Palestinian Authority.

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1035 ~ Death of King Canute (http://www.viking.no/e/people/e-knud.htm).

1833 ~ Birthday of Alexander Borodin, Russian composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Auguste Rodin, French sculptor.

1944 ~ World War II: The German battleship Tirpitz (http://www.kbismarck.com/tirpitz.html) sunk off the coast of Norway.

1954 ~ Ellis Island (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/12/newsid_3963000/3963251.stm) closes.

1955 ~ Hovercraft (http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blhovercraft.htm) design patented by British engineer Christopher Cockerell.

1970 ~ The famous exploding whale incident (http://www.perp.com/whale/video.html).

1982 ~ Yuri Andropov became the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal (http://www.w3.org/Proposal.html) for the World Wide Web.

2001 ~ Taliban forces abandoned Kabul ahead of advancing Northern Alliance troops.

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354 ~ Birthday of Saint Augustine of Hippo (http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/stanford/entries/augustine/), Theologian.

1460 ~ Death of Henry the Navigator, Patron of African exploration.

1850 ~ Birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson, Novelist.

1868 ~ Death of Gioacchino Rossini, Composer.

1940 ~ The animated film Fantasia (http://www.filmsite.org/fant.html) was released.

1955 ~ Birthday of Whoopi Goldberg, Entertainer.

1956 ~ U.S. Supreme Court declared Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal.

1982 ~ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. was dedicated.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first known World Wide Web page (http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#Examples).

2002 ~ Iraq disarmament crisis (http://history.searchbeat.com/iraq-disarmament.htm): Iraq agreed to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441

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1716 ~ Death of Gottfried Leibniz (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Leibniz.html), Philosopher & Mathematician.

1719 ~ Birthday of Leopold Mozart (http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/lmozart.html), Austrian musician, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (http://www.mozartproject.org/).

1832 ~ Death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (http://www.acton.org/publicat/randl/liberal.php?id=368), Declaration of Independence signer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Claude Monet, French impressionist painter.

1851 ~ Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick (http://www.melville.org/hmmoby.htm) was first published in the U.S.

1900 ~ Birthday of Aaron Copland, Composer.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began radio service in the United Kingdom.

1991 ~ Indictments handed down against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.

1993 ~ Michael Jackson entered a drug rehabilitation program to treat an addiction to painkillers.

2001 ~ Northern Alliance fighters entered Kabul.

[jseal]

1630 ~ Death of Johannes Kepler, astrologer, astronomer and mathematician.

1787 ~ Death of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Georgia O'Keeffe (http://webpages.marshall.edu/~smith82/okeef.html), Painter.

1891 ~ Birthday of Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal.

1920 ~ First assembly of the League of Nations (http://www.indiana.edu/~league/index.htm) was held in Geneva.

1942 ~ Birthday of Daniel Barenboim, Pianist & Conductor.

1960 ~ The Polaris missile (http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-27.html) became operational on the USS George Washington (SSBN-598).

1969 ~ The Soviet submarine K-19 collided with the American submarine USS Gato.

1971 ~ Intel released the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004 (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa092998.htm).

2001 ~ The Xbox video game console launched in North America.

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1532 ~ Francisco Pizarro and his men captured Incan Emperor Atahualpa.

1849 ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fdosto.htm) sentenced to death; his execution was canceled at the last minute.

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

1895 ~ Birthday of Paul Hindemith, Composer.

1922 ~ Birthday of Gene Amdahl, computer scientist.

1945 ~ Cold War: The U.S. imported 88 German scientists to help in the development of rocket technology.

1960 ~ Death of Clark Gable, Actor.

1965 ~ The Soviet Union launched the Venera 3 (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1965-092A) space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.

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).

2004 ~ Vivendi Universal and Valve Software released Half-Life 2, the sequel to the groundbreaking hit PC game Half-Life.

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1777 ~ Articles of Confederation (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/artconf.htm) submitted to the states for ratification.

1790 ~ Birthday of August Ferdinand Möbius, Mathematician.

1869 ~ The Suez Canal (http://i-cias.com/e.o/suez_can.htm) was opened.

1887 ~ Birthday of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

1917 ~ Death of Auguste Rodin (http://www.rodinmuseum.org/), Sculptor.

1929 ~ Death of Herman Hollerith, Statistician.

1959 ~ Death of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian Composer.

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

1997 ~ Egyptian militants killed 60 tourists at Luxor. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/17/newsid_2519000/2519581.stm)

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was inaugurated Governor of California.

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1421 ~ A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike broke, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.

1626 ~ St. Peter's Basilica was consecrated.

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1836 ~ Birthday of Sir William S. Gilbert, Dramatist.

1883 ~ American and Canadian railroads instituted four standard continental time zones (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov18.html).

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.

1928 ~ Release of Steamboat Willie (http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon_information/3820-Steamboat_Willie.html), the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, featuring the Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

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.

1991 ~ Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland.

2002 ~ UN weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

[jseal]

1493 ~ Christopher Columbus became the first European to go ashore on what would become Puerto Rico.

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

1828 ~ Death of Franz Schubert, Austrian Composer.

1863 ~ U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony 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 (http://www.hmassydney.com.au/) and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sank each other off the coast of Western Australia.

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 ~ Milli Vanilli was stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals.

1998 ~ Lewinsky scandal: The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton.

[jseal]

1820 ~ An 80-ton sperm whale attacked a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America. Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick (http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/moby/moby-1.html) was in part inspired by this story.

1889 ~ Birthday of Edwin Hubble, Astronomer.

1908 ~ Birthday of Alistair Cooke, Journalist.

1910 ~ Death of Leo Tolstoy, Novelist.

1924 ~ Birthday of Benoît Mandelbrot, Mathematician.

1945 ~ Nuremberg Trials (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_4356000/4356166.stm) 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.

1998 ~ The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, 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.

2003 ~ Michael Jackson was arrested charges of child molestation.

[jseal]

November 21st

1695 ~ Death of Henry Purcell, Composer.

1783 ~ In Paris, Jean Rozier and François Laurent made the first untethered hot air balloon flight (flight time: 25 minutes, Maximum height: 100m, distance: 9 km).

1787 ~ Birthday of Samuel Cunard, Shipping Magnate.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound.

1898 ~ Birthday of René Magritte, Belgian painter.

1953 ~ Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced that the skull of the Piltdown Man (http://home.tiac.net/~cri_a/piltdown/piltdown.html) was a hoax.

1969 ~ The first ARPANET link was established.

1980 ~ Lake Peigneur drained (http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/texaco/texaco.html) into an underlying salt deposit.

1985 ~ U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested 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 completely using computer-generated imagery.

[jseal]

1718 ~ English pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard (http://www.piratesinfo.com/biography/biography.php?article_id=39) was killed in battle off the coast of Virginia.

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

1900 ~ Death of Arthur S. Sullivan, Composer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Britten, Composer.

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

1963 ~ Death of Aldous Huxley, Author.(Brave New World)

1963 ~ U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2451000/2451143.stm) in Dallas, Texas.

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

1977 ~ British Airways began regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.

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

[jseal]

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

1869 ~ The clipper ship Cutty Sark (http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/history.html) was launched. It is the only surviving example.

1867 ~ Birthday of Manuel de Falla, Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Boris Karloff, Actor.

1888 ~ Birthday of Harpo Marx, Comedian.

1902 ~ Death of Walter Reed, Bacteriologist.

1936 ~ The first edition of Life (http://www.life.com/Life/lifephotos.html) was published.

1955 ~ Death of Shemp Howard, actor, comedian (The Three Stooges (http://www.threestooges.com/))

1963 ~ The first episode of the sci-fi TV series "Doctor Who" aired on the BBC.

1971 ~ The People's Republic of China was given the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council.

[jseal]

1642 ~ Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the island of Tasmania.

I wonder how Grumble is doing these days?

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

1859 ~ British naturalist Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species (http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-origin-of-species/index.html), a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection.

1868 ~ Birthday of Scott Joplin, Musician.

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

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

1963 ~ Death of Lee Harvey Oswald (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/24/newsid_3198000/3198106.stm), assassination suspect.

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

1993 ~ In the UK, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the murder of 2-year-old James Bulger.

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

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1778 ~ Captain James Cook discovered Maui (http://www.visitmaui.com/), in the Hawaiian Islands.

1862 ~ Lewis Carroll sent the handwritten manuscript of “Alice's Adventures Underground” to 10-year-old Alice Liddell.

1894 ~ Birthday of Norbert Wiener (http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_wiener.htm), mathematician, founder of cybernetics.

1922 ~ Birthday of Charles M. Schulz, Cartoonist.

1922 ~ Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon viewed the tomb (http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/gri/4sea1not.html) of Egyptian King Tutankhamun.

1942 ~ The film Casablanca (http://www.filmsite.org/casa.html) premiered in New York City.

1956 ~ Death of Tommy Dorsey, Big Band leader.

1968 ~ Cream played their farewell concert.

1976 ~ The Band played their farewell concert.

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

[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.ku.edu/kansas/medieval/108/lectures/first_crusade.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.

1907 ~ Birthday of L. Sprague de Camp, Science Fiction writer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Alexander Dubček, Czech politician.

1942 ~ Birthday of Jimi Hendrix, musician.

1946 ~ Indian Prime Minister 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 (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/india/nuke/)".

1953 ~ Death of Eugene O'Neill, playwright.

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.

2001 ~ A hydrogen atmosphere was detected on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the HST, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.

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1520 ~ Ferdinand Magellan became the first to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1632 ~ Birthday of Jean-Baptiste Lully, Composer.

1820 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Engels, social philosopher.

1859 ~ Death of Washington Irving, writer.

1905 ~ Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith (http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/people.htm#Griffith) founded Sinn Féin with a goal of independence for all of Ireland.

1939 ~ Death of James A Naismith, creator of basketball (http://www.hoophall.com/history/original_13rules.htm).

1954 ~ Death of Enrico Fermi, Physicist.

1969 ~ The Rolling Stones (http://www.rollingstones.com/home.php) released the classic album Let It Bleed (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rolling-stones,-the/118243.html).

1989 ~ Velvet Revolution - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gave up its monopoly on political power.

2000 ~ The eighth tar drop falls in the University of Queensland pitch drop experiment (http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume7/v7i3/long-run-7-3.html).

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1643 ~ Death of Claudio Monteverdi, Composer.

1797 ~ Birthday of Gaetano Donizetti, Opera Composer.

1832 ~ Birthday of Louisa May Alcott, Writer.

1890 ~ In West Point, New York, the Middies defeated West Point 24 to 0 in the first Army-Navy football game. Go Navy!

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

1975 ~ The name "Micro-soft" (for "microcomputer software") is first used in a letter from Bill Gates (http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/default.asp) to Paul Allen (http://paul-allen.search.ipupdater.com/).

1981 ~ Natalie Wood (http://www.nataliewoodonline.com/) drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, California.

1982 ~ The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 37/37, stating that the Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.

1990 ~ The UN Security Council passed Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

2001 ~ Death of George Harrison, musician.

[jseal]

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

1835 ~ Birthday of Mark Twain, Writer. (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (http://www.geocities.com/swaisman/huckfinn.htm), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (http://www.geocities.com/swaisman/sawyer.htm), The Prince and the Pauper (http://www.geocities.com/swaisman/princepauper.html), and A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court (http://www.geocities.com/swaisman/yankee.htm).)

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

1874 ~ Birthday of Sir Winston Churchill (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1), British political leader & Writer.

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

1900 ~ Death of Oscar Wilde, Writer.

1954 ~ In Sylacauga, Alabama, an 8.5 pound meteorite crashed through her roof and hit Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio. This is the only documented case of anyone being hit by a meteorite.

1989 ~ Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen was killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb.

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

2004 ~ Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings lost, having won more than $2,500,000.

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

1640 ~ Portugal regained its independence from Spain.

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

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

1918 ~ Founding of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia).

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

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.

1964 ~ Death of J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist.

1990 ~ English and French Channel Tunnel workers meet (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/1/newsid_2516000/2516473.stm) beneath the English Channel.

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

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1547 ~ Death of Hernán Cortés, Spanish explorer and conqueror.

1804 ~ At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of France.

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.

1923 ~ Birthday of Maria Callas, Opera Singer.

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

1961 ~ Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.

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

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

2001 ~ Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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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, Painter.

1967 ~ At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, Lewis Washkansky became the first human to receive a heart transplant. The transplant team was headed by Christiaan Barnard (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1470356.stm).

1984 ~ Bhopal Disaster (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/3/newsid_2698000/2698709.stm): A leak from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed nearly 3,000 people in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

1989 ~ U.S. President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end.

1997 ~ Representatives from 121 countries signed a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The U.S., PRC, and Russia are notable exceptions.

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 (http://www.cedarland.org/crusleb.html).

1642 ~ Death of Cardinal Richelieu, French statesman.

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

1679 ~ Death of Thomas Hobbes, political philosopher.

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

1872 ~ The Mary Celeste was found by the British brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged.

1952 ~ Great Smog of 1952 (http://www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/smog.html): A "killer fog" descended on London. "Smog" for "smoke" and "fog" becomes a word.

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

1991 ~ Pan American World Airways (http://pan-am.biography.ms/) ceased operations.

1991 ~ Terry Anderson was released after seven years' captivity as a hostage in Beirut.

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1766 ~ James Christie held his first sale in London. He later founded Christie's (http://www.christies.com/home_page/home_page.asp), the world's oldest auction house.

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

1839 ~ Birthday of George Armstrong Custer, American general.

1890 ~ Birthday of Fritz Lang (http://members.aol.com/MG4273/lang.htm), film director.

1901 ~ Birthday of Werner Karl Heisenberg, physicist.

1901 ~ Birthday of Walt Disney, film producer.

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

1933 ~ Prohibition ends: The Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified. This overturned the 18th Amendment, which had outlawed the inter-state sale of alcohol.

1945 ~ A U.S. Navy training flight, Flight 19, was lost in the Bermuda Triangle (http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq8-1.htm).

1978 ~ The Soviet Union signs a "friendship treaty" with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

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1768 ~ First edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (http://corporate.britannica.com/company_info.html) was published.

1884 ~ The Halifax Munitions Explosion killed more than 1900 people, and destroyed part of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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

1896 ~ Birthday of Ira Gershwin, Lyricist.

1920 ~ Birthday of Dave Brubeck, jazz musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Conductor.

1933 ~ James Joyce’s novel Ulysses (http://www.readbookonline.net/title/149/) was judged not obscene.

1989 ~ Marc Lépine kills 14 young women in Montreal, Quebec.

1992 ~ In Ayodhya, India, right-wing Hindus demolished the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque.

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

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43 BC ~ Death of Cicero (http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ROME/CICERO.HTM), Roman politician and author.

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

1817 ~ Death of William Bligh, British naval officer.

1905 ~ Birthday of Gerard Kuiper, Astronomer.

1928 ~ Birthday of Noam Chomsky, Linguist.

1941 ~ The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pearl.htm) brought the U.S. into World War II.

1965 ~ Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/speeches/1965/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19651207_common-declaration_en.html) simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.

1970 ~ Death of Rube Goldberg, cartoonist.

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.

[jseal]

1542 ~ Birthday of Mary Queen of Scots.

1864 ~ Death of George Boole, Mathematician.

1925 ~ Birthday of Sammy Davis Jr., Actor & Singer.

1939 ~ Birthday of James Galway, Irish flutist.

1978 ~ Death of Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel.

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

1984 ~ The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/8/newsid_3283000/3283817.stm) Treaty was signed.

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

1993 ~ U.S. participation in The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA (http://www.nafta-sec-alena.org/DefaultSite/index_e.aspx)) was signed into law by President Clinton.

1994 ~ .S. participation in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was signed into law by President Clinton.

[jseal]

1608 ~ Birthday of John Milton (http://www.urich.edu/~creamer/milton/), Poet & Writer.

1793 ~ New York City's first daily newspaper, the “American Minerva”, is established by Noah Webster (http://noahwebsterhouse.org/index.html).

1851 ~ First YMCA in North America established in Montreal.

1868 ~ Birthday of Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel prize winner in 1918.

1937 ~ Battle of Nanjing began. The Rape of Nanjing (http://www.historywiz.com/nanjing.htm) followed.

1950 ~ Harry Gold (http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/SPY/ROSENBERG/gold_h.htm) sentenced to thirty years in jail for stealing United States nuclear weapon secrets for the Soviet Union.

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

1987 ~ First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

1990 ~ Lech Wałęsa becomes the first directly elected president of Poland.

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

[jseal]

1815 ~ Birthday of Ada Lovelace, first computer programmer.

1822 ~ Birthday of César Franck, Composer & Organist.

1830 ~ Birthday of Emily Dickinson, Poet.

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

1901 ~ Theodore Roosevelt won 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/).

1953 ~ Dr. Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1965 ~ The Grateful Dead (http://www.dead.net/index2.php) played their first concert, at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

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

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

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1725 ~ Birthday of George Mason, "Father of the Bill of Rights (http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/funddocs/billeng.htm)".

1803 ~ Birthday of Hector Berlioz, Composer.

1882 ~ Birthday of Max Born, physicist and 1954 Nobel laureate.

1918 ~ Birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, 1970 Nobel laureate.

1931 ~ Statute of Westminster (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://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_3532000/3532401.stm).

1943 ~ Birthday of John Kerry, US politician.

1981 ~ Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes UN Secretary-General.

1994 ~ A small bomb exploded on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing was a test of explosives that would have been used in Project Bojinka (http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/Bojinka.html).

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

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1531 ~ Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe (http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1227), Mexico City.

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

1913 ~ Mona Lisa recovered (http://www.arts.ufl.edu/art/rt_room/mona/mona.html) in Florence, 2 years and 3 months after it was stolen.

1915 ~ Birthday of Frank Sinatra, Singer & Actor.

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

1963 ~ Kenya gained its independence from the UK.

1979 ~ Rhodesia changed its name to Zimbabwe.

1996 ~ Uday Hussein is seriously injured in an assassination attempt.

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

2003 ~ Death of Keiko, the killer whale in the “Free Willy” movies.

[jseal]

1204 ~ Death of Maimonides (http://members.aol.com/LazerA/rambam.html), Sephardi Philosopher.

1577 ~ Sir Francis Drake began his circumnavigation from Plymouth, England.

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.

1816 ~ Birthday of Werner von Siemens, Engineer, Inventor & Industrialist.

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

1941 ~ Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.

1974 ~ Malta became a republic.

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

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

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1503 ~ Birthday of Nostradamus (http://www.crystalinks.com/nostradamus.html), Astrologer & Mathematician.

1546 ~ Birthday of Tycho Brahe, Astronomer.

1799 ~ Death of George Washington, first U.S. President.

1900 ~ Max Planck published his study of the quantum theory.

1902 ~ First telegraph cable laid across the Pacific Ocean.

1911 ~ First expedition reached the South Pole, led by Roald Amundsen.

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

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

1962 ~ Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

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.

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37 ~ Birthday of Nero (http://www.roman-empire.net/emperors/nero-index.html), Roman emperor.

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

1832 ~ Birthday of Gustave Eiffel, civil engineer.

1852 ~ Birthday of Antoine Henri Becquerel, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics.

1916 ~ France defeated Germany in Battle of Verdun (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/verdun.htm).

1923 ~ Birthday of Freeman Dyson, Physicist.

1952 ~ Death of Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Physicist.

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

1966 ~ Death of Walt Disney (http://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/), Animator & Cartoonist.

1994 ~ Netscape Navigator 1.0 (http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/netscape.htm) first released.

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1689 ~ The English Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/england.htm).

1773 ~ The Boston Tea Party.

1775 ~ Birthday of Jane Austen (http://www.goucher.edu/library/austen_home.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.

1928 ~ Birthday of Philip K. Dick, 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 in Antwerp (http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html) killing 567 people.

1998 ~ Operation Desert Fox: American and British aircraft began to bomb Iraqi targets after Iraq obstructed UN weapons inspectors.

[jseal]

1830 ~ Death of Simón Bolívar (http://victorian.fortunecity.com/dadd/453/), Latin American politician & Activist.

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

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

1969 ~ The USAF, in closing Project Blue Book, announced that its UFO investigations found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.

1961 ~ India seized Goa from Portugal.

1973 ~ The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

1982 ~ ”Tootsie” opened in theaters.

1989 ~ Brazil held its first free election in 25 years.

1981 ~ Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigades (http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/br.htm) in Verona, Italy.

2003 ~ “The Return of the King” opened in theaters worldwide.

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1642 ~ Abel Tasman landed at Mohua Golden Bay becoming the first European in New Zealand.

1737 ~ Death of Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker.

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

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

1865 ~ With the proclamation by Secretary of State William Seward, of the passing of the 13th Amendment, slavery was abolished in the United States.

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

1936 ~ Death of Andrija Mohorovičić (http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/seismology/people/mohorovicic.html), Croatian seismologist.

1946 ~ Birthday of Steven Spielberg, movie director.

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 subsequently declared "black English" a form of slang that did not belong in the classroom. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/govt/admin/stories/riley122596.htm)

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

[jseal]

1733 ~ Benjamin Franklin (http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/rotten.html) first published Poor Richard's Almanack (http://www.sacklunch.net/poorrichard/).

1848 ~ Death of Emily Brontë, Author.

1888 ~ Birthday of Fritz Reiner, Conductor.

1906 ~ Birthday of Leonid Brezhnev (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/brezhnev/), Soviet politician.

1962 ~ Nyasaland seceded from Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

1974 ~ The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, went on sale.

1979 ~ ”Kramer vs. Kramer”, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, opened in theaters.

1984 ~ The UK and People's Republic of China signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

1988 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President 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, Physicist & Inventor.

1915 ~ Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.

1968 ~ Death of John Steinbeck, Writer.

1982 ~ Death of Artur Rubinstein, Musician.

1995 ~ NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.

1996 ~ Death of Carl Sagan (http://www.news.cornell.edu/general/Dec96/saganobit.ltb.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 (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/7066.htm) was returned to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.

[jseal]

1118 ~ Birthday of Thomas Becket (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14676a.htm), Lord Chancellor & Archbishop of Canterbury.

1804 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Disraeli, Politician & Writer.

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

1914 ~ First feature-length silent film comedy, “Tillie's Punctured Romance”, was released, starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin.

1933 ~ Newfoundland becomes a crown colony.

1940 ~ Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Writer.

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

1958 ~ Charles de Gaulle became the first leader of the Fifth Republic.

1979 ~ The U.S. Federal government bailed out the Chrysler Corporation.

1988 ~ A terrorist bomb exploded in Pan Am flight 103 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/21/newsid_2539000/2539447.stm) over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270, including 11 on the ground.

[jseal]

1858 ~ Birthday of Giacomo Puccini, Composer.

1880 ~ Death of George Eliot (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gelliot.htm), Writer.

1939 ~ Death of Ma Rainey, Blues Singer.

1944 ~ German forces demanded the surrender of Allied troops at Bastogne, Belgium.

1989 ~ Ion Iliescu (http://romania-on-line.net/whoswho/IliescuIon.htm) assumed executive power of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.

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.

1990 ~ Lech Wałęsa sworn in as President of Poland.

2001 ~ The Afghan Northern Alliance, handed over power in Afghanistan to the government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

2001 ~ Richard Reid 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]

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://www.nyise.org/moore/), by Clement Clarke Moore, was first published.

1834 ~ Death of Thomas Malthus, Demographer and Economist.

1888 ~ Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear.

1939 ~ Death of Anthony Fokker, aircraft manufacturer.

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.

1979 ~ Soviet military occupies Kabul, Afghanistan.

Feastdays & Holidays

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

[jseal]

1491 ~ Birthday of Ignatius of Loyola (http://www.stignatiussf.org/himself.htm), founder of the Jesuits.

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

1818 ~ Birthday of James Prescott Joule, Physicist.

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.

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

1962 ~ The last of the Bay of Pigs (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/24/newsid_3295000/3295045.stm) prisoners freed.

1968 ~ The Apollo 8 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/24/newsid_4083000/4083587.stm) crew becomes the first manned space mission to orbit the Moon.

1974 ~ Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, Australia.

[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 assembles the first Nativity scene.

1642 ~ Birthday of Sir Isaac Newton, Physicist & Mathematician.

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

1918 ~ Birthday of Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president.

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

1973 ~ A programming bug routed all ARPANET traffic through the server at Harvard, causing the server to freeze - crashing the network.

1989 ~ Death of Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (executed).

1991 ~ Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).


Feastdays & Holidays


The Nativity of Jesus.

[jseal]

1610 ~ Elizabeth Bathory (http://hjem.get2net.dk/the_cellar/bathory.htm)'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.encyclopedia.com/html/M/MaoZ1edon.asp), Chinese Politician.

1941 ~ Winston Churchill (http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Churchill_Addresses_Congress.htm) became the first British prime minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

1948 ~ Cardinal Mindszenty arrested in Hungary.

1966 ~ The first Kwanzaa (http://www.thehistorymakers.com/timeline/index.asp?string=1966) was celebrated.

1991 ~ Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR.

2004 ~ An Indian Ocean tsunami (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/26/newsid_4631000/4631713.stm) killed more than 200,000 people in 13 countries.

[jseal]

1571 ~ Birthday of Johannes Kepler, astronomer.

1822 ~ Birthday of Louis Pasteur, 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 (http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/quickstep/1103/barrie_james.htm) play Peter Pan premiers in London.

1932 ~ Radio City Music Hall (http://www.radiocity.com/themusichall_history.html) opened in New York City.

1945 ~ The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.

1945 ~ Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted Indonesia sovereignty.

1985 ~ Naturalist Dian Fossey was found murdered in Rwanda.

2001 ~ The U.S. announced plans to hold Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil/).

[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.terrace.qld.edu.au/academic/lote/french/yr5lumi.htm) gave birth to Cinema at the Grand Cafe in Paris.

1937 ~ Death of Maurice Ravel, French composer.

1951 ~ The Peak District became the UK’s first National Park.

1969 ~ Birthday of Linus Torvalds, Benevolent Dictator for Life of Linux.

1973 ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn published Gulag Archipelago.

1983 ~ Death of Dennis Wilson (http://denniswilsonforever.wg-net.com/), the only Beach Boy who could surf.

2000 ~ Montgomery Ward announced it was going out of business after 128 years.

[jseal]

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

1845 ~ Texas became the 28th state of the United States.

1851 ~ The first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) opened in Boston.

1890 ~ Defeat at the Battle of Wounded Knee effectively ended American Indian resistance to European settlement of the U.S.

1916 ~ Death of Grigori Rasputin (http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/r/Rasputin.html), Russian monk.

1937 ~ The Constitution of Ireland, changing the Irish Free State into Eire, went into effect.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe began dropping incendiary bombs (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitz.htm) on London.

1986 ~ Death of Harold Macmillan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/29/newsid_2547000/2547307.stm), former Prime Minister of the UK.

1989 ~ Vaclav Havel (http://www.medaloffreedom.com/VaclavHavel.htm) was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1989 ~ San Francisco rocked by a 6.9 earthquake (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/17/newsid_2491000/2491211.stm).

[jseal]

1691 ~ Death of Robert Boyle, the first modern Chemist.

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.

1896 ~ Jose Rizal, hero of the Philippine Revolution, was executed by firing-squad by the Spanish.

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

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

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

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

1981 ~ Wayne Gretzky scored his 50th goal in 39 games.

1993 ~ Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.

[jseal]

404 ~ The last gladiatorial contest took place in Rome.

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

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

1938 ~ The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer (http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/breathalyzers.htm)," was introduced.

1960 ~ The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender.

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

1980 ~ Death of Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer.

1987 ~ Robert Mugabe sworn in as Zimbabwe's president.

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

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

[jseal]

45 BC ~ Julian calendar (http://www.geocities.com/calendopaedia/julian.htm) went into effect.

630 ~ The Prophet Muhammad set out with an army of about 1,600 from Medina to capture Mecca.

1752 ~ Birthday of Betsy Ross, American seamstress.

1801 ~ Discovery of 1 Ceres, first known asteroid.

1879 ~ Birthday of E. M. Forster, English novelist.

1892 ~ Ellis Island (http://www.nps.gov/elis/) began accepting immigrants to the U.S.

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

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

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

2002 ~ Euro banknotes and coins became legal tender.

[jseal]

1492 ~ Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain (http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/middle2/aftersect5.html), surrendered.

1727 ~ Birthday of James Wolfe, British general in French and Indian War.

1757 ~ The UK captured Calcutta, India

1872 ~ Brigham Young was arrested for bigamy (25 wives).

1882 ~ John D. Rockefeller united his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.

1904 ~ Death of James Longstreet, Confederate general.

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.

1942 ~ World War II: Manila was captured (http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Pool/1644/japaneseera.html) by Japanese forces.

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

[jseal]

106 BC ~ Birthday of Cicero, Roman Statesman & Philosopher.

1521 ~ Pope Leo X excommunicated (http://212.77.1.199/en/doc/1521.htm) Martin Luther.

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

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.

1945 ~ Birthday of Stephen Stills, American Singer, Songwriter, & Guitarist.

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

1979 ~ Death of Conrad Hilton, American hotelier.

1987 ~ Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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

[jseal]

1643 ~ Birthday of Isaac Newton (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Newton.html), Scientist & Philosopher.

1710 ~ Birthday of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Composer.

1785 ~ Birthday of Jakob Grimm, German philologist, elder half of the Brothers Grimm.

1809 ~ Birthday of Louis Braille, Inventor of a writing system for the blind.

1948 ~ Burma gained its independence from the UK.

1951 ~ Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces recapture Seoul.

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

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

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

2004 ~ Spirit (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20040104a.html), the first of two NASA Mars Rovers, landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 GMT.

[Oldfart]

Schrodinger, hmmmm, did we ever find that blasted cat of his?

[jseal]

I believe that when last seen, it was half dead. :D

[jseal]

1781 ~ Richmond, Virginia was burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold (http://www.benedictarnold.org/).

1914 ~ Ford Motor Company announced an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.

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

1938 ~ Birth of King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

1964 ~ Pope Paul VI met the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem, the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox leaders since 1439.

1968 ~ Alexander Dubček comes to power, "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.

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

1997 ~ Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.

2000 ~ The 1st day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a010500malaysiameeting).

2003 ~ Death of Roy Jenkins, British Politician.

[jseal]

1412 ~ Birthday of Joan of Arc (http://joan-of-arc.org/joanofarc_short_biography.html), Saint & French Patriot.

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

1838 ~ Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph.

1838 ~ Birthday of Max Bruch, German composer.

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

1907 ~ Maria Montessori opened her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.

1918 ~ Death of Georg Cantor, German mathematician.

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

1995 ~ A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines lead to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka.

1994 ~ Nancy Kerrigan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/6/newsid_4095000/4095661.stm) was clubbed by an assailant under orders from Tonya Harding.

[jseal]

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

1785 ~ Jean-Pierre Blanchard (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/blanchard/DI10.htm) and John Jeffries became the first men to cross the English Channel by air.

1899 ~ Birthday of Francis Poulenc, French composer.

1916 ~ Birthday of Paul Keres, Estonian chess player.

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

1924 ~ George Gershwin completed Rhapsody in Blue (http://www.loudounsymphony.org/notes/gershwin-blue).

1927 ~ First international telephone call - New York City to London.

1943 ~ Death of Nikola Tesla, Inventor & Electrical Engineer.

1980 ~ President Carter authorized legislation guaranteeing $1.5 billion in loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation.

1999 ~ The impeachment trial of President Clinton (http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/e-gov/e-politicalarchive-Clintonimpeach.htm) began.

[jseal]

1324 ~ Death of Marco Polo Italian explorer.

1642 ~ Death of Galileo Galilei (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Galileo.html), father of the scientific method.

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

11889 ~ Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electric tabulating machine.

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

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

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist.

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

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

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

[jseal]

1431 ~ Start of the Heresy trial (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1431joantrial.html) of Joan of Arc.

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

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

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

1882 ~ Oscar Wilde gave his first lecture on "The English Renaissance of Art" in New York.

1903 ~ Hallam Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred Tennyson, became the second Governor-General of Australia.

1913 ~ Birthday of Richard Nixon, U.S. President.

1941 ~ Birthday of Joan Baez, Singer & Activist.

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

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

[jseal]

49 BC ~ Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon.

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

1778 ~ Death of Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish Botanist.

1862 ~ Death of Samuel Colt, Inventor.

1927 ~ The film Metropolis (http://www.persocom.com.br/brasilia/metropo.htm) by Fritz Lang premiered.

1929 ~ Tintin (http://www.tintinologist.org/), a comic book character created by Hergé, made his debut.

1943 ~ Birthday of Jim Croce, American Singer.

1945 ~ Birthday of Rod Stewart, English Rocker.

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.

[jseal]

1693 ~ Eruption of Mt. Etna (http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/etna/).

1787 ~ William Herschel discovered Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.

1801 ~ Death of Domenico Cimarosa, Italian Composer.

1843 ~ Death of Francis Scott Key, Lawyer.

1935 ~ Amelia Earhart (http://www.ameliaearhart.com/home.php) became the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1938 ~ Birthday of Arthur Scargill, Union Leader.

1964 ~ U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/history/bioterry.htm) reported smoking may be hazardous to health. First such statement from US government.

1972 ~ East Pakistan became Bangladesh.

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.

1992 ~ Paul Simon became the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott.

[jseal]

1665 ~ Death of Pierre de Fermat, Mathematician.

1856 ~ Birthday of John Singer Sargent, Artist.

1893 ~ Birthday of Hermann Göring, Nazi official.

1970 ~ Biafra capitulated, ending the Nigerian civil war.

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

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

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

1998 ~ EU nations agree to forbid human cloning.

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

2005 ~ Deep Impact (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/launch/index.html) launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 2 rocket.

[jseal]

1599 ~ Death of Edmund Spenser (http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenser/main.htm), Poet (The Faerie Queene (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/fqintro.html)).

1832 ~ Birthday of Horatio Alger, Jr., Author.

1929 ~ Death of Wyatt Earp.

1941 ~ Death of James Joyce, Writer.

1957 ~ Wham-O Company began to sell the Frisbee (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980218.htm).

1977 ~ Birthday of Orlando Bloom (http://www.full-bloom.net/), Actor.

1978 ~ Death of Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. Vice President & Minnesota Senator.

1990 ~ Douglas Wilder took office as the first elected African American governor.

1992 ~ Japan apologized for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery (http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~soh/cw-links.htm) 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.

[jseal]

1690 ~ The clarinet was invented in Nuremberg, Germany.

1784 ~ The Continental Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/wharton/parisrat.htm), 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 Lewis Carroll, Writer & Mathematician.

1900 ~ Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca premiered in Rome.

1957 ~ Death of Humphrey Bogart, Actor.

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

1994 ~ U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Kremlin accords which ended the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provided for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.

2000 ~ A UN tribunal sentenced five Bosnian Croats to prison for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.

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

[jseal]

1870 ~ U.S. Democratic Party first portrayed as a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

1892 ~ James Naismith published the rules for basketball.

1908 ~ Birthday of Edward Teller (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0910-03.htm), 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 & winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1964.

1951 ~ Ilse Koch (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ikoch.html), The "Bitch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany.

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) .

1970 ~ Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

1983 ~ Death of Meyer Lansky, mobster.

1991 ~ The UN deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expired, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

[jseal]

1581 ~ English Parliament outlawed Roman Catholicism.

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

1794 ~ Death of Edward Gibbon (http://members.aol.com/Feuillade/TomMoran28.index.html), Historian.

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

1957 ~ Death of Arturo Toscanini, Conductor.

1966 ~ The Metropolitan Opera House opened at Lincoln Center in New York City.

1977 ~ The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.

1979 ~ The Shah of Iran (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/16/newsid_2530000/2530475.stm) fled Iran with his family and relocated to Egypt.

1991 ~ Serial killer Aileen Wuornos confessed to the murders of six men.

2003 ~ Space Shuttle Columbia took off on its final mission, STS-107.

[jseal]

1751 ~ Death of Tomaso Albinoni, Italian Composer.

1773 ~ Captain James Cook became the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.

1899 ~ Birthday of Nevil Shute, Author.

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

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

1975 ~ Bob Dylan released Blood on the Tracks.

1977 ~ Gary Gilmore executed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/17/newsid_2530000/2530413.stm).

1985 ~ BT announced the retirement of Britain's famous red telephone boxes (http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Red_telephone_box).

1991 ~ Operation Desert Storm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/17/newsid_2530000/2530375.stm) began.

1998 ~ Paula Jones accused President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.

[jseal]

1535 ~ Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro.

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

1882 ~ Birthday of A. A. Milne, Author.

1892 ~ Birthday of Oliver Hardy (http://members.aol.com/GoodTurn1/olhardy.htm), Comedian & Actor.

1936 ~ Death of Rudyard Kipling, Writer & Poet

1939 ~ Louis Armstrong recorded “Jeepers Creepers”.

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

1964 ~ Plans were revealed for the World Trade Center in New York City.

1990 ~ Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.

1998 ~ Matt Drudge published the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky affair story on his website The Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com/).

[jseal]

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

1813 ~ Birthday of Sir Henry Bessemer, Inventor.

1829 ~ Goethe's Faust premiered.

1839 ~ Birthday of Paul Cézanne (http://www.expo-cezanne.com/index.cfm), Painter.

1853 ~ Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premiered.

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

1949 ~ Birthday of Robert Palmer, Singer & Guitarist.

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

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

2004 ~ Death of David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach.

[jseal]

1892 ~ The first official basketball game was played, at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1907 ~ Death of Dmitri Mendeleev (http://www.chemistry.co.nz/mendeleev.htm), Russian Chemist and inventor of the Periodic table.

1930 ~ Birthday of Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut.

1937 ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in for a second term as U.S. President. This was the first inauguration scheduled on January 20, following adoption of the 20th Amendment. Previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4.

1942 ~ Nazis at the Wannsee conference (http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/wannsee.htm) in Berlin decided the "final solution to the Jewish problem".

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

1967 ~ The first pulsar is discovered, followed shortly by the one in the Crab Nebula (http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/pulsars/pulsars.html).

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

1991 ~ Sudan's government imposed Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.

1993 ~ Death of Audrey Hepburn, actress.

[jseal]

1643 ~ Abel Tasman (http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/EuropeanDiscoveryOfNewZealand/2/en) discovered Tonga.

1793 ~ Louis XVI (http://www.napoleonguide.com/leaders_louis16.htm) of France was guillotined.

1908 ~ The New York City Council passed a law making it illegal for women to smoke in public. It was vetoed by the mayor.

1924 ~ Death of Vladimir Lenin (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/lenin_vladimir.shtml), first leader of the U.S.S.R.

1941 ~ Birthday of Plácido Domingo, Opera Singer.

1950 ~ Death of George Orwell, Writer.

1950 ~ Alger Hiss (http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Alger_Hiss) was convicted of perjury.

1954 ~ The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus (http://www.ssn571.com/), was launched in Groton, Connecticut.

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

1977 ~ President Jimmy Carter pardoned nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.

[jseal]

1788 ~ Birthday of Lord Byron, Poet.

1840 ~ British colonists reached New Zealand.

1879 ~ Zulu troops defeated British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana (http://battlefields.kzn.org.za/battlefields/about/193.xml).

1899 ~ Leaders of six Australian colonies met in Melbourne to discuss confederation.

1901 ~ Death of Queen Victoria I of the United Kingdom.

1931 ~ Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.

1953 ~ The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opened on Broadway.

1973 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its decision in Roe vs. Wade (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=410&invol=113) striking down state laws restricting abortion during the first six months of pregnancy.

1984 ~ The Apple Macintosh was introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with the famous television commercial 1984 (http://www.uriah.com/apple-qt/1984.html) (requires QuickTime and patience [but is generally considered among the best commercials in history]).

1997 ~ Madeleine Albright (http://www.nwhp.org/tlp/biographies/albright/albright_bio.html) became the first female secretary of state after confirmation by the United States Senate.

[jseal]

1789 ~ Georgetown College (http://www.georgetown.edu/), now University, 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 was awarded her MD, and became the first woman doctor in the U.S.

1857 ~ Birthday of Andrija Mohorovičić (http://www.sciencetrek.net/mohorovicic.htm), Croatian seismologist.

1862 ~ Birthday of David Hilbert, Mathematician.

1943 ~ Australian and American forces defeated the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marked the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.

1973 ~ U.S. President Richard Nixon announced that a peace accord (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/23/newsid_2506000/2506549.stm) had been reached in Vietnam.

1989 ~ Death of Salvador Dalí, Artist.

2002 ~ Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and subsequently murdered in Pakistan.

2006 ~ Canadian federal election.

[jseal]

1776 ~ Birthday of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Poet & Composer.

1888 ~ Birthday of Ernst Heinkel (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Heinkel/Aero57.htm), aircraft designer.

1908 ~ Robert Baden-Powell began the Boy Scout movement.

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

1945 ~ Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz.

1962 ~ Brian Epstein signed to manage The Beatles.

1965 ~ Death of Winston Churchill (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1), Englishman.

1984 ~ The Apple Macintosh (http://library.stanford.edu/mac/) went on sale.

1993 ~ Death of Thurgood Marshall (http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/96/), U.S. Supreme Court justice.

2003 ~ The U.S. Department of Homeland Security officially began operation.

[jseal]

1627 ~ Birthday of Robert Boyle, Chemist.

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

1882 ~ Birthday of Virginia Woolf, Writer.

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

1919 ~ The League of Nations was founded.

1924 ~ The first Winter Olympics opened in Chamonix, France.

1947 ~ Death of Al Capone (http://www.crimelibrary.com/capone/caponemain.htm), Gangster.

1971 ~ Idi Amin lead a coup deposing Milton Obote and became Uganda's president.

1999 ~ Death of Robert Shaw, American conductor.

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

[jseal]

1785 ~ Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States (http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/turkey.html); he wanted the turkey.

1885 ~ Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquered Khartoum.

1905 ~ Birthday of Maria von Trapp (http://www.myfavouritethings.homestead.com/mariastory.html), Singer.

1925 ~ Birthday of Paul Newman, Actor.

1945 ~ Birthday of Jacqueline du Pré, Cellist

1970 ~ Simon and Garfunkel released “Bridge Over Troubled Water”.

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.

1996 ~ Whitewater scandal: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury.

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

2005 ~ Condoleezza Rice sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, the first African American woman to hold the post.


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 Lewis Carroll, Author (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).

1901 ~ Death of Giuseppe Verdi, Composer.

1944 ~ The Siege of Leningrad (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/27/newsid_3498000/3498330.stm) was lifted.

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

1967 ~ Astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee were killed in a fire (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/27/newsid_3392000/3392419.stm) during a test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft.

1992 ~ Mike Tyson went on trial charged with raping a Miss Black America contestant.

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

1998 ~ U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton called the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" on the “Today Show”.

[jseal]

1521 ~ The Diet of Worms (http://www.answers.com/topic/diet-of-worms) began.

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

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

1833 ~ Birthday of Charles George 'Chinese' Gordon, British soldier.

1841 ~ Birthday of Henry Morton Stanley, Explorer & Journalist.

1887 ~ Birthday of Artur Rubinstein, Polish Pianist.

1935 ~ Iceland became the first country to legalize abortion.

1939 ~ Death of William Butler Yeats, Writer.

1986 ~ Space Shuttle Challenger (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/28/newsid_2506000/2506161.stm) exploded just after takeoff killing all seven astronauts onboard.

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


Feastdays & Holidays


Catholicism ~ Feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas (http://www.op.org/domcentral/study/TA.htm).

[jseal]

1845 ~ The Raven (http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html) by Edgar Allan Poe was published for the first time.

1856 ~ Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross (http://www.victoriacross.net/facts.asp).

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

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

1944 ~ The battleship USS Missouri (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb63.htm) was launched.

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

1962 ~ Death of Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist.

1963 ~ Death of Robert Frost, Poet.

1996 ~ President Jacques Chirac announced a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.

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

1937 ~ Birthday of Boris Spassky, World Chess Champion.

1948 ~ Mahatma Gandhi (http://www.historytoday.com/dt_main_allatonce.asp?gid=10451&aid=&tgid=&amid=10451&g10451=x&g10438=x&g30026=x&g20991=x&g21010=x&g19965=x&g19963=x) was assassinated.

1968 ~ Viet Cong guerillas and North Vietnamese soldiers launched the Tet offensive.

1969 ~ Last performance by The Beatles at the Top of the Apple Building.

1979 ~ The Iranian government announced that the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini would be allowed to return.

1991 ~ Iraqi troops seized control of Al Khafji (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/30/newsid_2506000/2506001.stm).

2003 ~ Richard Reid (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/30/newsid_4081000/4081741.stm), the 'Shoe bomber' jailed.

2005 ~ Iraq holds an election for its National Assembly, the country's first free election since 1953.

[jseal]

1606 ~ Guy Fawkes was executed for his part in the Gunpowder Plot.

1797 ~ Birthday of Franz Schubert, Composer.

1917 ~ Germany announced that its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.

1929 ~ The Soviet Union exiled Leon Trotsky.

1950 ~ President Harry S. Truman (http://www.nvr.org/pres_content.php?pro=pres&sec=timeline&subsec=3) announced a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

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).

1968 ~ Viet Cong attacked (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/31/newsid_2648000/2648951.stm) the United States embassy in Saigon.

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

2001 ~ A Scottish court convicted a Libyan and acquitted another for their parts in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

[jseal]

1851 ~ Death of Mary Shelley, English Author (Frankenstein (http://www.literature.org/authors/shelley-mary/frankenstein/index.html)).

1896 ~ Puccini’s opera La Bohème premiered in Turin.

1920 ~ The Royal Canadian Mounted Police began operations.

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

1931 ~ Birthday of Boris Yeltsin (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/yeltsintimeline1.html), Russian President.

1978 ~ Roman Polanski skipped bail and fled to France after pleading guilty to charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran.

1979 ~ Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst was released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.

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

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.staticusers.net/janet-jackson-superbowl-breast/janet-jackson-superbowl-photo-stills.shtml).

[jseal]

1709 ~ Alexander Selkirk (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571098/Selkirk_Alexander.html) was rescued from a desert island, inspiring the book “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe.

1870 ~ The Cardiff Giant (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NYCOOgiant.html) was revealed as just carved gypsum and not the petrified remains of a human.

1875 ~ Birthday of Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist.

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

1897 ~ Birthday of Howard Johnson, American Hotelier.

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

1943 ~ The German 6th Army surrendered at Stalingrad (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/2/newsid_3573000/3573003.stm).

1970 ~ Death of Bertrand Russell, Mathematician.

1989 ~ The last Soviet Union armored column left Kabul, bringing to an end nine years of military occupation.


Feastdays & Holidays


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

[jseal]

1468 ~ Death of Johannes Gutenberg, German Publisher.

1809 ~ Birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, Composer.

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

1874 ~ Birthday of Gertrude Stein, Writer.

1894 ~ Birthday of Norman Rockwell, Illustrator.

1916 ~ Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burned down.

1947 ~ Birthday of Melanie Safka (http://www.melaniemusic.net/), Singer.

1959 ~ Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_2802000/2802541.stm) were killed in a plane crash.

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

1972 ~ The first Winter Olympics to be held in Asia opened in Sapporo, Japan.

[jseal]

1789 ~ George Washington was unanimously elected by the Electoral College to be the first President of the United States.

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

1894 ~ Death of Adolphe Sax, instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone.

1902 ~ Birthday of Charles Lindbergh, U.S. aviator.

1913 ~ Birthday of Rosa Parks (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4973548&sourceCode=gaw), U.S. civil rights activist.

1927 ~ The first motion picture with synchronized sound was released – ‘The Jazz Singer’ starring Al Jolson.

1928 ~ Death of Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate.

1974 ~ The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped Patty Hearst (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/5/newsid_2867000/2867727.stm) in Berkeley, California.

1987 ~ Death of Liberace (http://www.liberace.com/bio.cfm), "Mr. Showmanship".

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.

[jseal]

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

1885 ~ The king of Belgium established the Congo as a personal possession.

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

1924 ~ The Royal Greenwich Observatory began to broadcast hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".

1934 ~ Birthday of Hank Aaron, Athlete.

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

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

1968 ~ The Battle of Khe Sanh (http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/khe/) began.

1982 ~ Pioneering budget airliner 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.

1988 ~ Comic Relief held the first "Red Nose Day", which raised a £15 million in the U.K. for charity.

[jseal]

1564 ~ Birthday of Christopher Marlowe, Playwright.

1819 ~ Sir Thomas Raffles founded Singapore.

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

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

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

1952 ~ Princess Elizabeth became Queen upon the death of her father George VI.

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

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

2004 ~ Chechen suicide-attack in a Moscow subway killed 40 commuters, and injures a hundred and twenty-nine.

2006 ~ The Conservative Party of Canada took control of the Canadian government.

[jseal]

1812 ~ Birthday of Charles Dickens, Novelist.

1834 ~ Birthday of Dmitri Mendeleev (http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/MendeleevBio.htm), chemist and inventor of the Periodic table of the chemical elements.

1883 ~ Birthday of Eubie Blake, Musician, Composer.

1885 ~ Birthday of Sinclair Lewis, Author.

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

1964 ~ The Beatles (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7/newsid_4185000/4185201.stm) arrived on their first visit to the U.S.

1971 ~ Women became entitled to vote in Switzerland.

1979 ~ Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit, and became for the next 20 years, the eighth planet from the sun.

1990 ~ Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agreed to give up its monopoly of power.

1992 ~ The European Union (http://europa.eu.int/abc/treaties/index_en.htm) was formed.

[jseal]

1587 ~ Mary, Queen of Scots (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page134.asp) was executed.

1820 ~ Birthday of William Tecumseh Sherman, Soldier.

1828 ~ Birthday of Jules Verne (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/verne.htm), 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.boyscouts.com/history.htm) was incorporated by William D. Boyce.

1925 ~ Birthday of Jack Lemmon, Actor.

1932 ~ Birthday of John Williams, Composer & Conductor.

1957 ~ Death of John von Neumann, Mathematician.

1993 ~ General Motors sued NBC after Dateline NBC rigged two crashes showing that some GM pickups could easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settled the lawsuit the next day.

1996 ~ The U.S. Congress passed the Communications Decency Act.

[jseal]

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

1878 ~ Proposed U.S. Federal Income Tax (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/0209.html) lampooned.

1881 ~ Death of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Author.

1900 ~ Davis Cup competition established.

1906 ~ Death of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Poet.

1910 ~ Birthday of Jacques Monod, biochemist, winner of 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

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

1950 ~ Senator Joseph McCarthy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/9/newsid_3703000/3703305.stm) accused more than 200 staff in the State Department of being Communists.

1971 ~ Satchel Paige became the first Negro League player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1997 ~ The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones as the longest-running prime-time animated series.

[jseal]

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

1840 ~ Queen Victoria (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp) of the UK married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

1870 ~ The YWCA was founded in New York City.

1890 ~ Birthday of Boris Pasternak, Poet, winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize in literature.

1898 ~ Birthday of Bertolt Brecht, Author.

1927 ~ Birthday of Leontyne Price, 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).

1949 ~ ”Death of a Salesman” opened at the Morocco Theatre in New York City.

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

1996 ~ Deep Blue (http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/home/html/b.html) defeated Garry Kasparov for the first time. :(

[jseal]

1650 ~ Death of René Descartes, Philosopher.

1847 ~ Birthday of Thomas Alva Edison (http://www.thomasedison.com/biog.htm), Inventor.

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

1938 ~ BBC Television produced the world's first ever 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.')

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

1978 ~ China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, Shakespeare and Dickens.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran.

1986 ~ Death of Frank Herbert, Science Fiction author.

1990 ~ Nelson Mandela (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/11/newsid_2539000/2539947.stm), a political prisoner for 27 years, was freed from prison outside Cape Town, South Africa.

1999 ~ Pluto changed from the eighth to ninth planet furthest from the sun. It had been inside Neptune’s orbit since 1979.

[jseal]

1733 ~ James Oglethorpe founded Georgia, the 13th and last American colony.

1804 ~ Death of Immanuel Kant (http://www.friesian.com/kant.htm), German Philosopher.

1809 ~ Birthday of Charles Darwin, Naturalist.

1893 ~ Birthday of Omar Bradley, General.

1909 ~ The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

1938 ~ Anschluss: German troops entered Austria.

1999 ~ President Bill Clinton was acquitted (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/02/12/impeachment/) by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

2000 ~ Death of Charles M. Schulz (http://www.animationusa.com/resources/aboutschulz.html), creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip.

2002 ~ The trial of former Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic began at the UN War Crimes tribunal in The Hague (http://www.c-span.org/milosevic/).

2004 ~ Mattel Inc. announces the break up of Barbie and Ken - after dating for 43 years.

[jseal]

1866 ~ Jesse James robbed his first bank.

1883 ~ Death of Richard Wagner, Composer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Chuck Yeager, pilot of first supersonic flight.

1935 ~ A jury in Flemington, New Jersey 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, Germany (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWdresden.htm) which killed tens of thousands of civilians.

1960 ~ France tested its first nuclear weapon.

1974 ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/556_5.html), winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in literature, was exiled from the Soviet Union.

1988 ~ Winter Olympic Games opened in Calgary, Alberta.

1990 ~ An agreement was reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.

1997 ~ Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope performed by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Discovery (http://hubblesite.org/sci.d.tech/team_hubble/servicing_missions/second_mission.shtml).

[jseal]

1766 ~ Birthday of Thomas Malthus, Economist.

1779 ~ James Cook was killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands.

1803 ~ U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall declared that any act of Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is void (http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/landmark/marbury.html).

1895 ~ First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play “The Importance of Being Earnest”.

1943 ~ The Battle of the Kasserine Pass – The Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia.

1945 ~ President Franklin Roosevelt met with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy (http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/04071.htm), officially starting the US-Saudi diplomatic relationship (http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/articles/2005/ioi/050213-roosevelt-uss-quincy.html).

1946 ~ The Bank of England was nationalized.

1966 ~ Australian currency was decimalized.

1989 ~ Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/14/newsid_2541000/2541149.stm).

2003 ~ Death of Dolly the sheep (http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/dolly/index.asp), the world's first cloned mammal.


Feastdays & Holidays


Catholicism ~ Feast day of Saint Valentine (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/valentinesdayhistory.html).

[jseal]

1564 ~ Birthday of Galileo Galilei (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96feb/galileo.html), Astronomer & Physicist.

1820 ~ Birthday of Susan B. Anthony (http://susanbanthonyhouse.org/biography.shtml), Activist & Suffragist.

1874 ~ Birthday of Sir Ernest Shackleton, British polar explorer.

1898 ~ The USS Maine exploded (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0215.html#article) and sank in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260.

1942 ~ Singapore surrendered to Japanese forces (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/15/newsid_3529000/3529447.stm). About 130,000 Indian, Australian and British troops became prisoners of war. The fall of Singapore was the largest surrender of British military personnel in history.

1965 ~ Death of Nat “King” Cole, Singer.

1965 ~ A new red and white maple leaf design was adopted as the flag of Canada replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

1971 ~ Decimalization of British coinage completed on Decimal Day.

1988 ~ Death of Richard Feynman, Physicist.

1995 ~ Kevin Mitnick was arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the more "secure" U.S. computer systems.


Feastdays & Holidays


Canada ~ Flag Day (http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/flag-drapeau/index_e.cfm)

[jseal]

1923 ~ Howard Carter (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0216.html#article) unsealed the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

1935 ~ Birthday of Sonny Bono, Singer & Congressman.

1937 ~ Wallace Carothers received a patent for nylon.

1942 ~ Birthday of Kim Jong Il (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/dictators/kim-jong-il/), North Korean leader.

1959 ~ Fidel Castro (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_2544000/2544431.stm) became premier of Cuba 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 (http://www.freewebs.com/cossackdivetours/index.htm) ran aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.

1989 ~ Investigators announced that the cause of the crash of Pan Am flight 103 was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player.

1999 ~ Kurdish rebels took over embassies and held hostages after Turkey arrested one of their leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.

2005 ~ The Kyoto Protocol came into effect.

[jseal]

1653 ~ Birthday of Arcangelo Corelli, Composer.

1801 ~ An electoral tie (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande07.html) between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was resolved when Jefferson was elected President and Burr Vice President by the House of Representatives.

1867 ~ The first ship passed through the Suez Canal.

1895 ~ Swan Lake, one of the most famous ballets, with music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, was first completely performed in Saint Petersburg (http://www.petersburg-russia.com/), Russia.

1909 ~ Death of Geronimo (http://id.essortment.com/whoisgeronimo_rjev.htm), Apache leader.

1933 ~ The magazine Newsweek began publication.

1947 ~ The Voice of America began to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union.

1962 ~ Death of Bruno Walter, Conductor.

1992 ~ A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentenced serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=498) to life in prison.

1996 ~ Garry Kasparov beat the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match. :)

[jseal]

1546 ~ Death of Martin Luther (http://www.educ.msu.edu/homepages/laurence/reformation/Luther/Luther.htm), religious reformer.

1745 ~ Birthday of Alessandro Volta, Physicist, eponym for the unit of the electric potential.

1838 ~ Birthday of Ernst Mach, Austrian Physicist & Philosopher.

1861 ~ In Montgomery, Alabama Jefferson Davis (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0218.html#article) was inaugurated as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America.

1885 ~ Mark Twain's “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was first published.

1930 ~ While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto.

1933 ~ Birthday of Yoko Ono, Singer, Artist, wife of John Lennon.

1969 ~ Lulu and Maurice Gibb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/18/newsid_2550000/2550641.stm) of the Bee Gees marry.

1967 ~ Death of J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist.

2005 ~ The UK law banning (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4275753.stm) fox hunting, hare coursing and other sports which kill wild mammals is enforced from this date.

[jseal]

1473 ~ Birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus, Astronomer.

1743 ~ Birthday of Luigi Boccherini, Italian Composer.

1861 ~ Serfdom was abolished in Russia.

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

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

1945 ~ About 30,000 United States 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.

1997 ~ Death of Deng Xiaoping, the last of China's major Communist revolutionaries.

[jseal]

1626 ~ Death of John Dowland, Composer.

1742 ~ The premiere of “Giulio Cesare”, an opera by George Frideric Handel, took place in London.

1835 ~ Concepción, Chile was destroyed by an earthquake.

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, Actor.

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

1962 ~ John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth aboard Friendship 7 (http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/history/mercury/ma-6/ma-6.htm).

1966 ~ Death of Chester Nimitz, American admiral.

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

[jseal]

1875 ~ Birthday of Jeanne Calment. 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, Writer.

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

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

1947 ~ Edwin Land demonstrated the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

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

1972 ~ President Nixon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/21/newsid_2728000/2728761.stm) began his visit to China.

1975 ~ Watergate scandal: Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman were sentenced to prison.

1988 ~ TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart (http://www.answers.com/topic/jimmy-swaggart) tearfully confessed to his congregation that he was guilty of an unspecified sin, and said he was leaving the pulpit temporarily.

[jseal]

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

1819 ~ Spain ceded Florida to the U.S.

1857 ~ Birthday of Robert Baden-Powell, Chief Scout of the World.

1879 ~ Frank Woolworth opened his first "Five Cent Store" in Utica, NY.

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

1946 ~ George Kennan, the American charge d'affaires in Moscow, sent an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union, and U.S. policy toward the communist state. Kennan's analysis provided one of the more influential underpinnings for America's Cold War policy of containment.

1967 ~ General Suharto assumed control of Indonesia

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

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

1997 ~ Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute announced that a sheep named Dolly (http://www.synapses.co.uk/science/clone.html) had been successfully cloned.

[jseal]

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

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

1836 ~ The siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.

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

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

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

1927 ~ President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.

1945 ~ U.S. flag raised over Iwo Jima: The 28th Regiment of the 5th Marines take Mount Suribachi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/23/newsid_3564000/3564547.stm).

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

1965 ~ Death of Stan Laurel, Actor & Comedian.

[jseal]

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

1786 ~ Birthday of Wilhelm Grimm, Philologist & Folklorist.

1856 ~ Death of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician.

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

1885 ~ Birthday of Chester Nimitz, U.S. admiral.

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

1946 ~ Juan Perón was elected president of Argentina.

1955 ~ Birthday of Steve Jobs (http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/steve-jobs/), Computer Pioneer.

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

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

[jseal]

1723 ~ Death of Sir Christopher Wren, Architect.

1841 ~ Birthday of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Painter & Sculptor.

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

1901 ~ J.P. Morgan incorporated the United States Steel Corporation.

1913 ~ The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, authorizing a graduated income tax, was ratified.

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

1983 ~ Death of Tennessee Williams, playwright.

1986 ~ President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule. Corazon Aquino (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/25/newsid_4694000/4694530.stm) assumed the presidency.

1994 ~ Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein (http://www.answers.com/topic/baruch-goldstein) opened fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death by worshippers

2004 ~ Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was released in the U.S., grossing approximately $370 million, and became the highest-grossing R-rated film ever made.

[jseal]

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

1802 ~ Birthday of Victor Hugo, Poet.

1848 ~ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto in London.

1852 ~ Birthday of John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of dry cereal.

1918 ~ Birthday of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

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

1944 ~ Filming of the Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuhrer Gives a Village to the Jews" began in Theresienstadt.

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

1991 ~ Kuwait City (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/26/newsid_4716000/4716868.stm) was liberated.

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

[jseal]

1807 ~ Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet (The Song of Hiawatha (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/hiawatha.html), The Village Blacksmith (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/longf02.html), Paul Revere's Ride (http://eserver.org/poetry/paul-revere.html)).

1827 ~ The first Mardi Gras (http://www.mardigras.com/) was celebrated in New Orleans.

1873 ~ Birthday of Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor.

1887 ~ Death of Alexander Borodin, composer.

1900 ~ The British Labour Party (http://www.labour.org.uk/home) was formed.

1902 ~ Birthday of John Steinbeck, Writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1962.

1912 ~ Birthday of Lawrence Durrell, Writer.

1933 ~ Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, caught fire. The Nazis, blaming the Communists, used the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.

1951 ~ In a victory for freedom lovers, the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, was ratified.

1991 ~ President George Bush declared "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated" (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0227.html#article), and announced a Gulf War ceasefire.

[jseal]

1827 ~ The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was incorporated, becoming the first railroad offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal.

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

1901 ~ Birthday of Linus Pauling, double Nobel Prize winner: Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962.

1935 ~ Wallace Carothers discovered Nylon.

1953 ~ James Watson and Francis Crick announced that they had determined the chemical structure of DNA (http://www.npr.org/news/specials/dnaanniversary/index.html). The formal announcement followed on April 25 following publication in Nature.

For those who would like to learn more about this interesting development:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth..._50/default.stm
http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/archive.html

In Crick’s words: http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/Crick3.pdf

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

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

1986 ~ Olof Palme (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/28/newsid_2802000/2802181.stm), Prime Minister of Sweden, was assassinated in Stockholm.

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

[jseal]

1810 ~ Birthday of Frédéric Chopin, Composer & Pianist.

1872 ~ Yellowstone National Park was established as the world's first national park.

1896 ~ Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity.

1904 ~ Birthday of Glenn Miller, Bandleader.

1912 ~ Georg Ritter von Trapp (http://experts.about.com/e/g/ge/Georg_Ritter_von_Trapp.htm), head of the singing family memorialized in the musical The Sound of Music (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059742/), married his first wife, Agathe.

1927 ~ Birthday of Harry Belafonte, Musician & Actor.

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

1950 ~ Klaus Fuchs (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/1/newsid_4222000/4222261.stm) was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.

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

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

[jseal]

1824 ~ Birthday of Bedrich Smetana, Composer.

1836 ~ The Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico.

1904 ~ Birthday of Dr. Seuss (http://www.seussville.com/main.php?section=home&isbn=&catalogID=&eventID=), Author.

1919 ~ The first Communist International met in Moscow.

1930 ~ Death of D. H. Lawrence, Writer.

1931 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union.

1939 ~ Death of Howard Carter (http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/gri/4hcart.html), British archaeologist.

1956 ~ Morocco (http://www.morocco.com/) declared its independence from France (http://www.france.com/).

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

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

[jseal]

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

1831 ~ Birthday of George Pullman, Inventor & Industrialist.

1845 ~ Birthday of Georg Cantor, German mathematician.

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

1923 ~ TIME magazine first published.

1931 ~ The U.S. officially adopted The Star-Spangled Banner (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0194015.html) as its national anthem.

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

1974 ~ Roman Catholic and Lutheran officials reached an agreement for eventual reconciliation into one communion, marking the first agreement between the two churches since the Reformation.

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

1991 ~ An amateur video captured the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.

[jseal]

1678 ~ Birthday of Antonio Vivaldi, Italian Composer.

1681 ~ Charles II of England granted a land charter to William Penn for what will later become Pennsylvania.

1804 ~ The Battle of Vinegar Hill, colony of New South Wales.

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

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

1917 ~ Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first female member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

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

1994 ~ Four terrorists were convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing (http://www.adl.org/learn/jttf/wtcb_jttf.asp) which killed six and injured more than a thousand.

1997 ~ U.S. President Bill Clinton prohibited federal funding (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jones/tmp352/projects98/group1/gov.html) for any research on human cloning.

1998 ~ The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.

[jseal]

1512 ~ Birthday of Gerardus Mercator, Flemish Geographer & Cartographer.

1658 ~ Birthday of Antoine Cadillac, founder of Detroit.

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

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

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

1953 ~ Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stalin_joseph.shtml) died at age 73, after 29 years in power.

1982 ~ Comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in Hollywood at age 33.

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

1997 ~ North and South Korean representatives met for the first time in 25 years for peace talks.

2004 ~ Martha Stewart was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she dumped her Imclone Systems Inc. stock just before the price dropped.

[jseal]

1475 ~ Birthday of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter.

1806 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet.

1853 ~ Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata (http://opera.stanford.edu/Verdi/Traviata/main.html) premiered in Venice, Italy.

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

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

1888 ~ Death of Louisa May Alcott, Novelist.

1926 ~ Birthday of Alan Greenspan, American economist.

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

1982 ~ Death of Ayn Rand, Author.

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

[jseal]

1274 ~ Death of Thomas Aquinas, Philosopher.

1850 ~ U.S. Senator Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.

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

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

1945 ~ U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany, during World War II.

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

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

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

1999 ~ Death of Stanley Kubrick, Film Director.

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

[jseal]

1714 ~ Birthday of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (http://www.carolinaclassical.com/cpebach/), Composer. Not to be confused with his father Johann Sebastian Bach.

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

1869 ~ Birthday of Hector Berlioz, Composer.

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

1942 ~ Death of José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player.

1948 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools violated the Constitution.

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

1959 ~ George Lincoln Rockwell founded the American Nazi Party in Arlington, Virginia.

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

1999 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.

[jseal]

1454 ~ Birthday of Amerigo Vespucci, Explorer & Cartographer.

1862 ~ In a five-hour battle near Hampton Roads, Virginia the USS Monitor fought the CSS Virginia to a draw (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0309.html#article) during the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1917 ~ [] Pancho Villa lead 1,500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17.[/I]

1934 ~ Birthday of Yuri Gagarin, Cosmonaut, first human in space.

1943 ~ Birthday of Bobby Fischer, chess player.

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

1900 ~ Stalin's daughter defected (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/9/newsid_2801000/2801709.stm) to the West.

1990 ~ Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells confirmed he will rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord, effectively killing the Accord.

1996 ~ Death of George Burns, Actor.

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

[jseal]

1831 ~ The French Foreign Legion was established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.

1844 ~ Birthday of Pablo de Sarasate, Violinist.

1893 ~ Côte d'Ivoire became a French colony.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1847 ~ Death of Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman), Pioneer & Agronomist.

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

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

1955 ~ Death of Alexander Fleming (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/11/newsid_2538000/2538043.stm), Biologist.

1968 ~ Death of John Wyndham, Author.

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

1993 ~ Janet Reno is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, becoming the first female U.S. Attorney General.

1996 ~ John Howard became the twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia.

1997 ~ Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

2004 ~ Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/11/newsid_4273000/4273817.stm), Spain, killed 191 people and wounded at least 1,800 in an attack linked to al-Qaida.

[jseal]

1685 ~ Birthday of George (Bishop) Berkeley, Philosopher.

1895 ~ Coca-Cola sold in bottles for the first time.

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

1913 ~ Canberra (http://www.canberrahouse.com.au/shorthistory.html) officially named.

1922 ~ Birthday of Jack Kerouac, Writer.

1925 ~ Birthday of Harry Harrison, Science Fiction author.

1938 ~ Anschluss: German troops occupied Austria; annexation declared the following day.

1950 ~ Dennis the Menace (http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/dennis/about.htm) made its syndicated debut.

1987 ~ Les Misérables opened on Broadway.

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

[jseal]

1764 ~ Birthday of Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the U.K., obtainer of a popular bergamot tea recipe.

1781 ~ William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.

1855 ~ Birthday of Percival Lowell, Astronomer.

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

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

1925 ~ A law in Tennessee, the Butler Act, was passed, prohibiting the teaching of evolution.

1938 ~ Death of Clarence Darrow, Attorney.

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

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

1996 ~ In Dunblane, Scotland (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/13/newsid_2543000/2543277.stm), 16 children and 1 adult teacher were shot dead by a man who then committed suicide.

[jseal]

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

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

1835 ~ Birthday of Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian Astronomer.

1879 ~ Birthday of Albert Einstein, physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in physics 1921.

1883 ~ Death of Karl Marx, political theorist.

1900 ~ The Gold Standard Act was ratified, placing U.S. currency on the gold standard.

1964 ~ A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/14/newsid_4221000/4221937.stm), the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

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

1991 ~ After 16 years in prison for allegedly bombing a pub in an Irish Republican Army attack, the "Birmingham Six" were freed when a court determined that the police fabricated evidence.

1997 ~ Surgeons at Bethesda Naval Medical Center repaired a torn knee tendon in President Bill Clinton's right leg; caused by a stumble at the Florida home of golfer Greg Norman.

[jseal]

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

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

1898 ~ Death of Henry Bessemer, English metallurgist.

1906 ~ Rolls-Royce Ltd. wass registered.

1916 ~ President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 U.S. troops over the Mexican border to pursue Pancho Villa.

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

1956 ~ ”My Fair Lady” opened in New York City. Rex Harrison played Henry Higgins, and Julie Andrews was Eliza Doolittle.

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

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

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

[jseal]

1521 ~ Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.

1736 ~ Death of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer.

1789 ~ Birthday of Georg Ohm, German physicist and developer of Ohm's law.

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

1898 ~ Death of Aubrey Beardsley, British Artist.

1926 ~ Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

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

1978 ~ Aldo Moro (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4232000/4232691.stm) was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas in Italy and was later killed by his captors.

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

1988 ~ The Kurdish town of Halabjah (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4304000/4304853.stm)attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents killing 5000.

[jseal]

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

461 ~ Death of Saint Patrick (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11554a.htm), patron saint of Ireland.

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

1782 ~ Death of Daniel Bernoulli, Mathematician.

1834 ~ Birthday of Gottlieb Daimler, Engineer & Inventor.

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

1861 ~ The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed.

1919 ~ Birthday of Nat King Cole, Singer. Oh! what a singer!

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

1992 ~ A suicide car-bomb killed 29 and injured 242 at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.


Feastdays & Holidays


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

[jseal]

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

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

1909 ~ Einar Dessau used a short-wave radio transmitter becoming the first to broadcast as a ham radio operator.

1940 ~ Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass during which the Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain.

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

1965 ~ Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, left his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, and became the first man to walk in space (http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101650326,00.html).

1968 ~ The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.

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

1990 ~ 12 paintings, collectively worth $100 million, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. This was the largest art theft in U.S. history.

1992 ~ Microsoft shipped Windows 3.1.

[jseal]

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

1813 ~ Birthday of David Livingstone, Missionary & Explorer.

1848 ~ Birthday of Wyatt Earp, Policeman & Gunfighter.

1906 ~ Birthday of Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official.

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

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

1950 ~ Death of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Author.

1953 ~ The Academy Awards were first televised.

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

1987 ~ Death of Louis-Victor de Broglie, Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1929.


Feastdays & Holidays


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

[jseal]

1727 ~ Death of Sir Isaac Newton, Physicist.

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

1828 ~ Birthday of Henrik Ibsen, Playwright.

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

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

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

1969 ~ John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.

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

2000 ~ Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured following a shootout in Atlanta.

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

[jseal]

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

1839 ~ Birthday of Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer.

1867 ~ Birthday of Florenz Ziegfeld (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar21.html), Broadway Impresario.

1945 ~ World War II: British troops liberated Mandalay, Burma.

1960 ~ Police fired on demonstrators in Sharpeville (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/21/newsid_2653000/2653405.stm), South Africa, killing 69 and wounding 180.

1963 ~ Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, was closed.

1965 ~ Rev. King led 3,200 people on the start of the third civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0321.html#article), Alabama.

1980 ~ President Carter announced a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

1999 ~ Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.

2002 ~ Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other suspects were charged with murder in the kidnapping and killing of WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl.

[jseal]

1599 ~ Birthday of Anthony van Dyck, Painter.

1683 ~ Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.

1687 ~ Death of Jean Baptiste Lully, French Composer.

1832 ~ Death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Writer & Poet.

1882 ~ U.S. Congress outlawed polygamy.

1923 ~ Birthday of Marcel Marceau (http://www.culturevulture.net/Theater/MarcelMarceau.html), Mime.

1963 ~ The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/22/newsid_4271000/4271221.stm), denied improper involvement with the model Christine Keeler.

1972 ~ The Equal Rights Amendment (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0322.html#article) to the U.S. constitution was sent to the states for ratification.

1993 ~ The Intel Corporation shipped the first Pentium chips.

2004 ~ Death (by Israeli Hellfire missile) of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/middleeast/yassin.html), co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas.

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

1912 ~ Birthday of Wernher von Braun, Engineer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Roger Bannister, athlete, first "Miracle Mile"

1983 ~ President Ronald Reagan made his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept missiles.

1989 ~ Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced cold fusion (http://www.alternativescience.com/cold_fusion.htm) at the University of Utah.

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

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

[jseal]

1874 ~ Birthday of Harry Houdini, Magician.

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

1882 ~ Death of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet.

1893 ~ Birthday of Walter Baade, Astronomer.

1905 ~ Death of Jules Verne, Author.

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

1972 ~ The UK imposed direct rule over Northern Ireland.

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

1989 ~ The Exxon Valdez (http://www.epa.gov/oilspill/exxon.htm) spilled 240,000 barrels of oil after running aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound.

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

[jseal]

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

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

1867 ~ Birthday of Arturo Toscanini, Conductor.

1881 ~ Birthday of Béla Bartók, Composer.

1918 ~ Death of Claude Debussy, Composer.

1942 ~ Birthday of Aretha Franklin, Singer.

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

1975 ~ King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/25/newsid_4233000/4233595.stm) and killed by a mentally ill nephew.

1992 ~ Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth from the Mir space station after a 10-month stay, during which his native country, the Soviet Union, ceased to exist.

1998 ~ President Clinton acknowledged during his Africa tour that ''we did not act quickly enough'' to stop the slaughter of one million Rwandans four years earlier.

[jseal]

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

1874 ~ Birthday of Robert Frost, Poet.

1881 ~ Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about industrial pollution (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/0326.html).

1892 ~ Death of Walt Whitman, Poet.

1904 ~ Birthday of Joseph Campbell, Author & Mythologist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Tennessee Williams, Playwright.

1964 ~ The musical ''Funny Girl'', starring Barbra Streisand, opened on Broadway.

1971 ~ East Pakistan proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh.

1979 ~ Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/26/newsid_2806000/2806245.stm) signed the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in Washington, DC.

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

[jseal]

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

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

1863 ~ Birthday of Sir Henry Royce, automobile pioneer.

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

1886 ~ Birthday of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architect.

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

1968 ~ Death of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.

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

1977 ~ Two jumbo jets collided on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/27/newsid_2531000/2531063.stm), killing 583.

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

[jseal]

1854 ~ Crimean War (http://www.crimeanwar.org/cwrsentry.html): United Kingdom and France declared war on Russia.

1881 ~ Death of Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer.

1903 ~ Birthday of Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist.

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

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

1943 ~ Death of Sergei Rachmaninoff, composer and pianist.

1947 ~ The last episode of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on radio.

1979 ~ A pump in the reactor cooling system fails at Three Mile Island (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0328.html#article), resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown.

1987 ~ Death of Maria von Trapp, Singer.

2004 ~ Death of Peter Ustinov, Actor.

[jseal]

1638 ~ Swedish colonists established first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden.

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

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

1899 ~ Birthday of Lavrenty Beria, Soviet Communist leader.

1912 ~ Death of Robert Falcon Scott, Explorer.

1981 ~ First running of the London Marathon.

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

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

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

2004 ~ Death of Alistair Cooke, Television Host.

[jseal]

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

1842 ~ Anesthesia (ether) was used for the first time in an operation.

1853 ~ Birthday of Vincent van Gogh, Painter.

1870 ~ Texas was readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

1912 ~ France established a protectorate over Morocco.

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

1951 ~ Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC I computer to the U.S. Census Bureau.

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

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

1987 ~ Vincent Van Gogh's painting Sunflowers (http://www.artcult.com/vinc.htm) was bought for almost $40 million.

[jseal]

1596 ~ Birthday of René Descartes, Mathematician.

1621 ~ Birthday of Andrew Marvell, English poet.

1732 ~ Birthday of Joseph Haydn, Composer.

1837 ~ Death of John Constable, Painter (http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/constabl/p-constable1.htm).

1855 ~ Death of Charlotte Brontë, Author.

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

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

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

1970 ~ After 12 years in orbit, Explorer 1 burns up when it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.

1991 ~ The end of the Warsaw Pact (http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/documents/collection_2/texts/introduction.htm).

[jseal]

1815 ~ Birthday of Otto von Bismarck, Politician.

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

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

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

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

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

1957 ~ The all time best April Fools (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm) hoax! Play the video and enjoy.

1976 ~ Apple Computer Company was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

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

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

[jseal]

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

1805 ~ Birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer.

1875 ~ Birthday of Walter Chrysler, automobile pioneer.

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

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

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

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

1982 ~ Argentina invades the British-owned Falkland Islands starting the war.

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

2004 ~ Islamist terrorists involved in the March 11, 2004 Madrid attacks attempted a bombing of the Spanish high-speed train near Madrid.

[jseal]

1783 ~ Birthday of Washington Irving, Author.

1882 ~ Jesse James is shot in the back and killed for a $5,000 reward.

1885 ~ Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.

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

1897 ~ Death of Johannes Brahms, Composer.

1901 ~ Death of Richard D'Oyly Carte, Impresario.

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

1946 ~ Masaharu Homma, the Japanese general responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed in the Philippines.

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

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

[jseal]

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

1885 ~ Birthday of Arthur Murray, dancer.

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

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

1964 ~ The Beatles occupied all of the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States.

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

1969 ~ Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artificial heart.

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

1984 ~ Winston Smith, the main character of George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four, began writing in his secret diary.

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

[jseal]

1588 ~ Birthday of Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher.

1614 ~ In Virginia, Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe (http://www.virtualjamestown.org/jrolfe.html).

1792 ~ President Washington vetoed a bill. This was the first time the presidential veto was used (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/first_veto.htm).

1827 ~ Birthday of Joseph Lister, Surgeon.

1908 ~ Birthday of Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor.

1930 ~ In an act of civil disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.

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

1955 ~ Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister of the U.K. due to failing health.

1964 ~ Death of General Douglas MacArthur, US Army.

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

[jseal]

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

1866 ~ Birthday of Butch Cassidy, Outlaw.

1895 ~ Oscar Wilde was arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.

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

1928 ~ Birthday of James D. Watson, Geneticist, co-discoverer of structure of DNA, awarded 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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

1974 ~ ABBA won the 19th Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden, singing "Waterloo".

1992 ~ Death of Isaac Asimov, Science-fiction author.

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

1998 ~ Death of Tammy Wynette, Country Singer.

[jseal]

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

1770 ~ Birthday of William Wordsworth, English poet.

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

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

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

1953 ~ Dag Hammarskjöld was elected United Nations Secretary General.

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

1968 ~ Death of Jim Clark, racing driver.

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

2003 ~ U.S. troops captured Baghdad, Saddam Hussein's regime fell two days later.

[jseal]

1820 ~ The Venus de Milo was discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.

1848 ~ Death of Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer.

1889 ~ Birthday of Sir Adrien Boult, English Conductor.

1919 ~ Birthday of Ian Smith, former Prime Minister of Rhodesia.

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

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

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

1975 ~ Frank Robinson managed his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.

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

2005 ~ The funeral of Pope John Paul II.

[jseal]

1682 ~ Robert de LaSalle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River, claimed it for France and named it Louisiana.

1865 ~ Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0409.html#article) at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.

1906 ~ Birthday of Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor.

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

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

1926 ~ Birthday of Hugh Hefner, Editor & Publisher.

1928 ~ Birthday of Tom Lehrer, Musician & Satirist.

1959 ~ Death of Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect.

1991 ~ Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 ~ John Major won the UK general election.

[jseal]

1847 ~ Birthday of Joseph Pulitzer, Journalist & Publisher.

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

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

1931 ~ Death of Khalil Gibran - Lebanese Poet.

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

1954 ~ Death of Auguste Lumière, Cinema Pioneer.

1963 ~ The American submarine USS Thresher and its crew was lost off Cape Cod, Mass.

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

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

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

[jseal]

1814 ~ Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to Elba.

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

1899 ~ Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S.

1906 ~ Death of James Bailey, co-founder with Phineas Barnum of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

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

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

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

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

1979 ~ Idi Amin deposed as president of Uganda.

2001 ~ China agreed to free the crew of an American spy plane that had collided with a Chinese fighter plane.

[jseal]

65 ~ Death of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Philosopher, Dramatist & Statesman.

1606 ~ The Union Jack was adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.

1861 ~ The American Civil War began with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter (http://www.us-civilwar.com/sumter.htm), in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

1895 ~ Birthday of Lily Pons, Opera Soprano.

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

1940 ~ Birthday of Herbie Hancock, Musician.

1944 ~ Birthday of John Kay, of Steppenwolf.

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

1961 ~ Yuri Gagarin (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/12/newsid_2477000/2477715.stm) became the first man in space aboard Vostok 1.

1984 ~ Arthur Scargill, the man who led the destruction of the National Union of Mineworkers ruled out a national ballot of miners on whether to continue their strike.

[jseal]

1570 ~ Birthday of Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder Plot conspirator.

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

1743 ~ Birthday of Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President.

1826 ~ Death of Franz Danzi, German composer.

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

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

1986 ~ Jack Nicklaus won his sixth Masters Tournament.

1987 ~ Portugal and China signed an agreement in which the island of Macao would be returned to China in 1999.

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

1997 ~ Tiger Woods (http://www.tigerwoodsisgod.com/index.php) became the youngest golfer to win golf's Masters Tournament.

[jseal]

1629 ~ Birthday of Christiaan Huygens, Mathematician.

1759 ~ Death of Georg Friedrich Handel, Composer.

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

1904 ~ Birthday of Sir John Gielgud, Actor.

1912 ~ RMS Titanic struck an iceberg.

1935 ~ Death of Emmy Noether, Mathematician.

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

1964 ~ Death of Rachel Carson (http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/carson.html), Writer & Ecologist.

1970 ~ An explosion crippled Apollo 13 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/14/newsid_2780000/2780767.stm).

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

[jseal]

1452 ~ Birthday of Leonardo da Vinci (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Leonardo.html).

1707 ~ Birthday of Leonhard Euler, Mathematician.

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

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

1924 ~ Birthday of Sir Neville Marriner, Conductor.

1924 ~ Rand McNally published its first road atlas.

1955 ~ The first McDonald's restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois.

1980 ~ Death of Jean-Paul Sartre, Philosopher & Writer.

1994 ~ Representatives of 124 countries signed the Marrakesh Agreements revised the GATT with the WTO.

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

[jseal]

1653 ~ Oliver Cromwell disbanded Parliament.

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

1862 ~ The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur.

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

1912 ~ Death of Bram Stoker, Author.

1918 ~ Manfred von Richthofen shot down his 79th and 80th victims - his final victories.

1968 ~ Pierre Trudeau first became Prime Minister of Canada.

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

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

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

[jseal]

1649 ~ The Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.

1816 ~ Birthday of Charlotte Brontë, Author.

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

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

1918 ~ German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Baron (http://www.briggsenterprises.com/bluemax/), was shot down and killed.

1926 ~ Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

1944 ~ Women in France were enfranchised.

1946 ~ Death of John Maynard Keynes, Economist.

1986 ~ Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault (http://www.tvacres.com/props_walls_capone.htm) on live television and finds nothing.

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

[jseal]

1724 ~ Birthday of Immanuel Kant, Philosopher.

1870 ~ Birthday of Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary.

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

1904 ~ Birthday of Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist.

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

1970 ~ First Earth Day celebrated.

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

1996 ~ Death of Erma Bombeck, Humorist & Writer.

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

2000 ~ Federal agents seized six-year-old Elián González (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/22/newsid_2489000/2489485.stm) from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida, and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC.

[jseal]

1564 ~ Birthday of William Shakespeare, Playwright.

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

1891 ~ Birthday of Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet Composer.

1954 ~ Hank Aaron hit his first major league home run.

1968 ~ Birthday of Timothy McVeigh, American Terrorist.

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

1971 ~ The Rolling Stones released “Sticky Fingers”.

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

1994 ~ Physicists discover the top quark.

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

[jseal]

1731 ~ Death of Daniel Defoe, English Writer.

1856 ~ Birthday of Henri Philippe Pétain, Soldier & Statesman.

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

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

1916 ~ The Easter Uprising (http://users.bigpond.net.au/kirwilli/1916/) began. The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalist Patrick Pearse started a rebellion in Ireland.

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

1986 ~ Death of Wallis Simpson, Mistress and Wife of The Duke of Windsor.

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

1998 ~ An IRA bomb devastated the Bishopsgate area of London.

2004 ~ Death of Estée Lauder, Cosmetics pioneer.

[jseal]

1599 ~ Birthday of Oliver Cromwell, Military Leader & Politician.

1719 ~ Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe was published.

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

1840 ~ Birthday of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1900 ~ Birthday of Wolfgang Pauli, Physicist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1945.

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

1917 ~ Birthday of Ella Fitzgerald, Jazz Singer.

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

1953 ~ Francis Crick and James Watson published MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF NUCLEIC ACIDS: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/watsoncrick.pdf) describing the double helix structure of DNA.

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

Feastdays & Holidays


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

[jseal]

1607 ~ Colonists made landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia, to create the first permanent English settlement in North America.

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

1785 ~ Birthday of John Audubon, Naturalist & Illustrator.

1865 ~ Death of John Wilkes Booth, shot while trying to avoid capture for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

1935 ~ Birthday of Carol Burnett, Singer, Actress & Comedienne.

1937 ~ Spanish Civil War: Guernica (http://www.mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/picasso/guernica.htm), Spain was bombed by the Luftwaffe.

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

1986 ~ In Ukraine, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0426.html#article) exploded, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.

1989 ~ Death of Lucille Ball, Actress & Comedienne.

1994 ~ South Africa held its first multiracial elections.

[jseal]

1521 ~ Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines.

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

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

1813 ~ War of 1812: U.S. troops captured York (http://www.gov.on.ca/ont/portal/!ut/p/.cmd/cs/.ce/7_0_A/.s/7_0_252/_s.7_0_A/7_0_252/_l/en?docid=004690), the capital of Ontario (present day Toronto, Ontario).

1822 ~ Birthday of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th U.S. President.

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

1965 ~ Death of Edward R. Murrow, Journalist.

1972 ~ Death of Kwame Nkrumah, first post-independence leader of Ghana.

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

1999 ~ Death of Al Hirt, Musician.

[jseal]

1788 ~ Maryland became the 7th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1906 ~ Birthday of Kurt Gödel, mathematician.

1908 ~ Birthday of Oskar Schindler, Businessman.

1937 ~ Birthday of Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq.

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

1947 ~ Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0428.html#article) to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

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

1969 ~ Charles de Gaulle resigned as President of France.

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

2003 ~ Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store launched.

[jseal]

1770 ~ James Cook arrived at and named Botany Bay, Australia.

1863 ~ Birthday of William Randolph Hearst, American publisher.

1893 ~ Birthday of Harold Urey, American chemist, awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

1936 ~ Birthday of Zubin Mehta, Indian-born American conductor.

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

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

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

1980 ~ Death of Alfred Hitchcock, director.

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

1997 ~ A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect.

[jseal]

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

1803 ~ The U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France.

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

1883 ~ Death of Édouard Manet, Impressionist Painter.

1916 ~ Birthday of Claude Shannon, the "father of information theory”

1938 ~ Birthday of Larry Niven, Science Fiction author.

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

1948 ~ The Land Rover (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/4/LandRover/S1/) was introduced.

1975 ~ The South Vietnamese government in Saigon announced its unconditional surrender (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0430.html#article) to the Vietcong.

1993 ~ CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to everyone (http://www.answers.com/topic/world-wide-web).

[jseal]

1786 ~ Opening night of Mozart’s opera, The Marriage of Figaro (http://www.reginaopera.org/figaro.htm).

1840 ~ The Penny Black (http://coins.about.com/library/weekly/aa083102a.htm) postage stamp put on sale in the UK.

1869 ~ The Folies Bergères opened in Paris.

1904 ~ Death of Antonín Dvořák, Czech Composer.

1939 ~ Birthday of Judy Collins, American folk singer.

1941 ~ Orson Welles's Citizen Kane premiered in New York City.

1944 ~ Birthday of Rita Coolidge, Singer.

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

1978 ~ Death of Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer.

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

[jseal]

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

1660 ~ Birthday of Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian Composer.

1729 ~ Birthday of Empress Catherine II of Russia.

1892 ~ Birthday of "The Red Baron", Manfred von Richthofen.

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

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

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

1955 ~ Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

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

1997 ~ The Labour Party's Tony Blair became Prime Minister of the UK, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule.

[jseal]

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

1616 ~ Death of William Shakespeare Playwright & Poet.

1810 ~ Lord Byron swam the Hellespont.

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

1898 ~ Birthday of Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel.

1937 ~ Gone With the Wind (http://www.gwtw.org/gonewiththewind.html), a novel by Margaret Mitchell, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

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

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

1991 ~ The last episode of the soap opera “Dallas” aired.

2005 ~ The first democratically elected government in the history of Iraq was sworn in.

[jseal]

1825 ~ Birthday of Thomas Henry Huxley, English Scientist.

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

1928 ~ Birthday of Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt.

1942 ~ The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began during World War II.

1970 ~ The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0504.html#article) after the ROTC building was burnt down, opened fire on students protesting at the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

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

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

1980 ~ Death of Josip Tito, President of Yugoslavia.

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

1990 ~ Latvia proclaims independence.

[jseal]

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

1813 ~ Birthday of Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher.

1818 ~ Birthday of Karl Marx, Political Philosopher.

1821 ~ Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, Ruler of France.

1891 ~ NYC’s Carnegie Hall had its grand opening and first public performance, with Pyotr Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

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

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

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

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

1995 ~ Death of Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion.

[jseal]

1758 ~ Birthday of Maximilien Robespierre, Revolutionary.

1856 ~ Birthday of Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist, founder of Psychoanalysis.

1889 ~ The Eiffel Tower was officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

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

1915 ~ Birthday of Orson Welles, Director.

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

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

1953 ~ Birthday of Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

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

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

[jseal]

1824 ~ Premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna.

1825 ~ Death of Antonio Salieri, Composer.

1833 ~ Birthday of Johannes Brahms, Composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

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

1919 ~ Birthday of Eva Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron.

1933 ~ Birthday of Johnny Unitas (http://www.cmgworldwide.com/football/unitas/junitas.html), American football star.

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

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

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

[jseal]

1541 ~ Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River, naming it Río de Espíritu Santo.

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

1828 ~ Birthday of Jean Henri Dunant (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1901/dunant-bio.html), founder of the Red Cross, awarded the 1901 Nobel Peace Prize.

1873 ~ Death of John Stuart Mill, Empiricist Philosopher.

1895 ~ Birthday of Fulton J. Sheen (http://www.elpaso.net/~bank/elpasohistory/sheen/), bishop and television personality.

1902 ~ Mount Pelée erupted in Martinique, destroying the town of St. Pierre and killing over 30,000 people.

1984 ~ The Soviet Union announced that it would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics.

1985 ~ Death of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

1988 ~ Death of Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction writer.

1999 ~ Nancy Mace (http://www.citadel.edu/library/Knob/knob_m.htm#macen) became the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel (http://www.citadel.edu/) military college.

[jseal]

1837 ~ Birthday of Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist.

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

1874 ~ Birthday of Howard Carter, British archaeologist.

1901 ~ Australia opened its first parliament (http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/How/education/resources/fact_sheets/fact2.pdf) in Melbourne. (PDF)

1903 ~ Death of Paul Gauguin, French Post-Impressionist painter.

1972 ~ Israeli commandos liberated a hijacked Sabena airliner (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_4326000/4326707.stm) at Lod airport in Tel Aviv.

1974 ~ The U.S. Congress’s House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

1986 ~ Death of Tenzing Norgay, Mountaineer.

1994 ~ Nelson Mandela (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0509.html#article) was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

2002 ~ A bomb exploded during a holiday parade in Kaspiysk, Russia, killing 43 and injuring 130.

[jseal]

1818 ~ Death of Paul Revere, engraver, American Patriot.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Wilkes Booth, Actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

1857 ~ The Indian Mutiny (http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/1857.html) began when the Sepoys revolted against the British Army.

1869 ~ The first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0510.html#article) was completed at Promontory, Utah.

1872 ~ Victoria Woodhull (http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/) became the first woman nominated for U.S. President.

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

1924 ~ J. Edgar Hoover became director of the FBI.

1933 ~ The Nazis staged massive public book burnings (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/fi_fset.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005852&ArticleId=3545&MediaId=158).

1954 ~ Bill Haley and the Comets released Rock Around the Clock, the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts.

2002 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Russia.

[jseal]

1904 ~ Birthday of Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter.

1918 ~ Birthday of Richard Feynman, American Physicist.

1930 ~ Birthday of Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist.

1949 ~ Israel was admitted to the UN.

1981 ~ Reggae musician Bob Marley (http://www.bobmarley.com/) died of cancer.

1987 ~ The first heart-lung transplant took place in Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 ~ Death of Kim Philby (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/philby_harold.shtml), Spy.

1997 ~ IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeated Garry Kasparov (http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/games/game6/html/c.2.shtml) in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

1998 ~ India announced that it has tested a group of nuclear weapons (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/11/newsid_3664000/3664259.stm).

2001 ~ Death of Douglas Adams, Science Fiction author.

[jseal]

1820 ~ Birthday of Florence Nightingale, Nurse.

1845 ~ Birthday of Gabriel Fauré, Composer.

1884 ~ Death of Bedřich Smetana, Composer.

1889 ~ Death of John Cadbury, Chocolate Entrepreneur.

1918 ~ Birthday of Julius Rosenberg, Spy.

1943 ~ Axis forces in North Africa surrendered (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0512.html#article).

1962 ~ Douglas MacArthur delivered his famous "Duty, Honor, Country (http://www.nationalcenter.org/MacArthurFarewell.html)" valedictory speech at West Point.

1971 ~ Mick Jagger married Bianca (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/12/newsid_2884000/2884833.stm) Perez Morena de Macias in St Tropez.

1972 ~ The Rolling Stones released their ''Exile on Main St.'' album.

2000 ~ The Tate Modern (http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/) art gallery opened in London.

[jseal]

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

1842 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan (http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/html/sullivan2a.html) of Gilbert & Sullivan, Composer.

1861 ~ Queen Victoria issued a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognized the breakaway Confederate states as having belligerent rights.

1888 ~ Brazil abolished slavery.

1912 ~ The Royal Flying Corps (http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/line1780.html) (now the Royal Air Force) was established in the U.K.

1937 ~ Birthday of Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction author.

1940 ~ Winston Churchill made his "blood, tears, toil and sweat (http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/churchill.htm)" speech to the House of Commons.

1981 ~ Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0513.html#article) at St. Peter's Square in Rome.

1985 ~ The confrontation between the MOVE organization and Philadelphia's city government left 11 MOVE members and one police officer dead and 61 homes destroyed by fire.

2003 ~ The US government unveiled a new version of the $20 bill - the first to be colorized in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.

[jseal]

1265 ~ Birthday of Dante Alighieri, Italian Poet.

1796 ~ Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination.

1925 ~ Death of H. Rider Haggard, Author.

1944 ~ Birthday of George Lucas, film Director & Producer.

1948 ~ The independent state of Israel (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0514.html#article) was proclaimed.

1955 ~ The USSR and seven other communist bloc countries signed a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/14/newsid_3771000/3771065.stm).

1973 ~ Skylab 1 (http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/history/skylab/skylab.htm), the first American space station, was launched.

1978 ~ Death of Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia.

1998 ~ Death of Frank Sinatra (http://www.franksinatra.com/), Singer & Actor.

2004 ~ Piers Morgan was fired as editor of the Daily Mirror for publishing photographs of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers that were shown to be fake.

[jseal]

1567 ~ Birthday of Claudio Monteverdi, Italian Composer.

1911 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Standard Oil Company (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0515.html#article), requiring its break up under the Sherman Anti-Trust act.

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

1886 ~ Death of Emily Dickinson, Poet.

1914 ~ Birthday of Tenzing Norgay (http://www.tenzing-norgay.com/pages/tenzingnorgaysherpa.html), Nepalese sherpa & Mountaineer.

1919 ~ The Winnipeg General Strike (http://www.histori.ca/peace/page.do?pageID=347) began.

1930 ~ Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess, on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois.

1957 ~ Britain tested its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/15/newsid_2510000/2510335.stm).

1972 ~ George C. Wallace was shot and left paralyzed while campaigning for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination.

1988 ~ The Soviet Union began withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan.

[jseal]

1866 ~ Charles Hires invented root beer.

1868 ~ The U.S. Senate failed to convict President Andrew Johnson (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0516.html#article) of the articles of impeachment against him.

1905 ~ Birthday of Henry Fonda, Actor.

1919 ~ Birthday of Liberace, American pianist.

1943 ~ The Jewish Warsaw ghetto uprising (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16/newsid_3501000/3501730.stm) ended.

1955 ~ Birthday of Olga Korbut, gymnast.

1966 ~ Birthday of Janet Jackson, Super Bowl Half Time Flasher.

1969 ~ The Soviet space probe Venera 5 (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1969-001A) landed on Venus.

2002 ~ Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121765/) opened in theaters.

2005 ~ Newsweek magazine retracted its Koran abuse story that started protests in Afghanistan.

[jseal]

1749 ~ Birthday of Edward Jenner, inventor of vaccination.

1829 ~ Death of John Jay, the first U.S. Chief Justice.

1838 ~ Death of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French diplomat.

1936 ~ Birthday of Dennis Hopper, Actor & Director.

1935 ~ Death of Paul Dukas, French composer.

1943 ~ The RAF carried out the Dam Busters (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/17/newsid_3623000/3623223.stm) raid.

1954 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court issued their decision in Brown v. Board of Education (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0517.html#article).

1974 ~ Thirty-three people were killed by terrorist bombings in Ireland (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/17/newsid_4311000/4311459.stm).

1996 ~ President Bill Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in - Megan's Law (http://www.megans-law.net/).

2004 ~ Same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts.