Strange Days

[jseal]

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

1521 ~ Pope Leo X (http://www.nndb.com/people/180/000092901/) excommunicated Martin Luther.

1777 ~ General George Washington defeats 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 (http://www.hrm.uh.edu/home.asp?PageID=183), American hotelier.

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

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

[jseal]

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 Grimm Brothers (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html).

1809 ~ Birthday of Louis Braille (http://www.duxburysystems.com/braille.asp), Inventor of a writing system for the blind.

1948 ~ Burma gained its independence from the UK.

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

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

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

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

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

[Booger]

1463 - Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.
1477 - Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
1527 - Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, was executed by drowning.
1554 - A great fire occurs in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
1675 - Battle of Colmar: the French army beats Brandenburg.
1757 - Louis XV of France survives the assassination attempt by Robert–François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France with the traditional and gruesome form of death penalty used for regicides.
1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1854 - The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.
1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
1909 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
1912 - Prague Party Conference.
1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
1919 - Free Committee for a German Workers Peace founded, which would become the Nazi party.
1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
1945 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
1948 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
1957 - Major league baseball player Jackie Robinson retires.
1964 - Pope Paul VI meets the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem: the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity leaders since 1439.
1968 - Alexander Dubček comes to power: "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
1970 - Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
1972 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
1974 - An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses.
1975 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
1976 - Cambodia is renamed Democratic Kampuchea by the Khmer Rouge.
1984 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
1997 - Russian forces withdraw from Chechnya.
2000 - The first day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit.
2005 - Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, was discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
2006 - Independence Air ceases operations.

[jseal]

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

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

1929 ~ Birthday of Walter Mondale, American Politician

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

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

1968 ~ The "Prague Spring" began in Czechoslovakia when Alexander Dubček (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDdubcek.htm) came to power.

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

1997 ~ Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.

2000 ~ The Al Qaeda Summit (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a010500malaysiameeting) began.

2003 ~ Death of Roy Jenkins, British Politician.

[Booger]

1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.
1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.
1494 - First Mass celebrated in the New World at La Isabela, Hispaniola.
1540 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.
1579 - The Union of Atrecht was signed.
1661 - The fifth monarchy men unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London.
1690 - Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.
1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings.
1838 - Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph.
1853 - American President-Elect Franklin Pierce, wife Jane, and son Ben are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts. Franklin and Jane survive but eleven-year-old Ben is killed.
1870 - The inauguration of the Musikverein (Vienna).
1887 - `Abd-allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II early in the morning; prepared for the assault, the Negus orders a counter-attack which routs the enemy, resulting with the capture of Harar a few days later.
1893 - Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
1900 - Boers attack Ladysmith, South Africa - over 1,000 people killed
1907 - Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
1912 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
1929 - King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the so-called January 6th Dictatorship, Šestojanuarska diktatura.)
1929 - Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin a legacy of work amongst India's poorest and diseased people
1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed (Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City).
1931 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
1936 - Supreme Court of the United States rules the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional in the case United States v. Butler et al..
1936 - Porky Pig premieres.
1940 - Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the city of Poznań, Warthegau.
1941 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
1941 - Keel of USS Missouri (BB-63) is laid at New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn
1942 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
1950 - The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
1961 - A fire at the Thomas Hotel in San Francisco kills 20 people.
1967 - United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
1974 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
1977 - The music publisher EMI ends its contract with the notorious punk rock group Sex Pistols after reports of abusive behaviour at Heathrow Airport, London.
1978 - The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after the Second World War.
1994 - Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
1995 - A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.
2004 - Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate is declared the official anthem of Karnataka
2005 - Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect for the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights workers.
2005 - First World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace begins in Brussels, Belgium.
2006 - Tropical Storm Zeta (2005) dissipates, ending the notorious 2005 hurricane season.

[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 publicly demonstrated his telegraph (http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/morse99.html), in Morristown, NJ.

1838 ~ Birthday of Max Bruch, German composer.

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

1918 ~ Death of Georg Cantor, German mathematician.

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

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

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

2000 ~ With Vice President Al Gore presiding, Congress certified George W. Bush the winner of the 2000 presidential election.

[jseal]

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

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

1899 ~ Birthday of Francis Poulenc, French composer.

1916 ~ Birthday of Paul Keres (http://www.vm.ee/est/kat_29/3921.html), Estonian chess player.

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

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

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

1972 ~ Lewis F. Powell Jr. (http://law.wlu.edu/alumni/bios/powell.htm) and William H. Rehnquist (http://www.supremecourthistory.org/myweb/justice/rehnquist.htm) were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the Supreme Court.

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

1999 ~ President Clinton's impeachment trial began (http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/e-gov/e-politicalarchive-Clintonimpeach.htm) in the Senate. (He was later acquitted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.)

[jseal]

1324 ~ Death of Marco Polo Italian explorer.

1642 ~ Astronomer Galileo Galilei (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Galileo.html) died in Arcetri, Italy.

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

1815 ~ U.S. forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the closing engagement of the War of 1812, the Battle of New Orleans.

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

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

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Hawking (http://www.hawking.org.uk/about/aindex.html), English theoretical physicist.

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

1994 ~ Valeri Polyakov (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574541/Astronaut.html) began his record setting 437 days in space.

1999 ~ Cosmologists announced that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing (http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000108/bob10.asp).

[jseal]

1431 ~ Start of the heresy trial of Joan of Arc (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1431joantrial.html).

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

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

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

1903 ~ Hallam Tennyson (http://www.aph.gov.au/library/handbook/historical/governors-general.htm), son of the poet Alfred Tennyson, became the second Governor-General of Australia.

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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.

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

1951 ~ Death of Sinclair Lewis, Author.

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

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

[Booger]

314 - Pope Miltiades ends his reign as the Catholic Pope.
532 - Nika riots in Constantinople.
1158 - Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia.
1569 - First recorded lottery in England.
1571 - Austrian nobility is granted freedom of religion.
1693 - Mt. Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy.
1759 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
1779 - Ching-Thang Khomba crowned King of Manipur
1787 - William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1794 - Robert Forsythe, a US Marshal was killed in Augusta, Georgia when trying to serve court papers, the first US Marshal to die in action.
1805 - Michigan Territory is created.
1861 - Alabama secedes from the United States.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post - General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
1867 - Benito Juárez becomes Mexican president again.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War begins.
1880 - Total solar eclipse blackens the sky of San Francisco one day after the funeral of Emperor Norton.
1902 - Popular Mechanics magazine was published for the first time.
1908 - Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
1912 - Lawrence textile strike begins in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
1919 - Romania annexes Transylvania.
1922 - First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
1923 - Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to pay its reparation payments.
1935 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
1938 - Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a U.S. national bank.[citation needed]
1942 - Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
1942 - The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
1943 - The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
1946 - Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania with himself as dictator.
1946 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob's ashes go back to Colombia.
1949 - First recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.
1957 - The African Convention is founded in Dakar.
1960 - Chad declares its independence.
1962 - Eruption of the Huascaran volcano in Peru; 4,000 deaths.
1963 - The Whisky a Go Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened.
1964 - United States Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry reports smoking may be hazardous to health. First such statement from U.S. government.
1972 - East Pakistan becomes Bangladesh.
1973 - Beginning of the Watergate burglars trial.
1974 - The world's first surviving set of sextuplets are born to Susan Rosenkowitz in Cape Town, South Africa.
1980 - Nigel Short, 14, is the youngest chess player to be awarded the degree of International Master.
1982 - A cold snap sends temperatures to record lows in dozens of cities throughout the Midwestern United States.
1986 - The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia is officially opened.
1990 - 300,000 march in favor of Lithuanian independence.
1992 - Paul Simon is the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott.
1994 - Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin
1995 - The WB Television Network begins operations.
1996 - Haiti becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1998 - Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria; over 100 people killed.
2001 - The Federal Trade Commission approved the merger of AOL and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
2003 - Illinois governor George H. Ryan announces decision to grant clemency to all inmates of death row.
2005 - Black Tuesday bushfires swept across the southern Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

[jseal]

1693 ~ Eruption of Mt. Etna (http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/etna/).

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

1801 ~ Death of Domenico Cimarosa, Italian Composer.

1843 ~ Death of Francis Scott Key, Lawyer.

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

1938 ~ Birthday of Arthur Scargill, Union Leader.

1964 ~ U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/history/bioterry.htm) issued the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to one's health.

1973 ~ American League baseball teams voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/boxscore/04061973.shtml) on a trial basis.

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

1992 ~ Paul Simon became toured South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott of apartheid.

[Booger]

475 - Basiliscus becomes Byzantine Emperor, with a coronation ceremony in the Hebdomon palace in Constantinople.
1528 - Gustav I of Sweden crowned king of Sweden.
1592 - Titus Andronicus first staged at the Rose Theatre.
1773 - The first public Colonial American museum opens in Charleston, South Carolina.
1777 - Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded in what is now Santa Clara, California.
1838 - In order to avoid prosecution under laws banning polygamy, Joseph Smith, Jr. and his followers leave Ohio for Missouri.
1848 - The Palermo rising in Sicily rises against the Bourbon kingdom of the Two Sicilies
1866 - Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.
1872 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first imperial coronation in that city in over 200 years.
1875 - Kwang-su becomes emperor of China.
1898 - Ito Hirobumi begins his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.
1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
1915 - The Rocky Mountain National Park is formed by an act of U.S. Congress.
1915 - United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote.
1926 - Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program Sam 'n' Henry, a precursor to Amos 'n' Andy; possibly the first situation comedy.
1932 - Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
1940 - World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland.
1942 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
1945 - World War II: The Soviets begin a large offensive in Eastern Europe against the Nazis.
1964 - Rebels in Zanzibar begin a revolt known as the Zanzibar Revolution and proclaimed a republic.
1966 - Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
1966 - Batman the TV series debuts on ABC.
1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
1969 - Led Zeppelin's debut album released.
1969 - Joe Namath and the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III, becoming the first team from the American Football League to win American Football's top championship.
1970 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
1971 - All in the Family debuts on CBS.
1971 - Harrisburg Six: The Reverend Philip Berrigan and five others are indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, DC.
1976 - UN Security Council votes 11-1 to allow the Palestinian Liberation Organization to participate in a Security Council debate (without voting rights).
1981 - American soap opera Dynasty debuts on ABC.
1986 - Space Shuttle program: STS-61-C mission - Space Shuttle Columbia takes-off with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz. It was the last successful mission before STS-51-L.
1991 - Persian Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
1992 - A new constitution, providing for freedom to form political parties, is approved by referendum in Mali.
1995 - Malcolm X's daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, is arrested for conspiring to kill Louis Farrakhan.
1998 - Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
2005 - Deep Impact (space mission) launches from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 2 rocket.
2006 - The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany declare that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have reached a dead end and recommend that Iran be referred to the United Nations Security Council. (ABC)
2006 - A stampede during the Stoning the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims. (BBC)
2006 - Turkey releases Mehmet Ali Ağca from jail after serving 25 years for shooting Pope John Paul II. (BBC)
2006 - The French warship Clemenceau reaches Egypt and is barred access to the Suez Canal. Greenpeace activists board the ship. (BBC)

[jseal]

1665 ~ Death of Pierre de Fermat, Mathematician.

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

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

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

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

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

2003 ~ Death of Maurice Gibb (http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/12/bee.gee/index.html), Bee Gee.

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

2005 ~ Deep Impact, the first space mission to look inside a comet (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/launch/index.html), was launched from Cape Canaveral.

2006 ~ A stampede broke out during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, killing 363 people.

[Booger]

532 - Nika riots in Constantinople.
888 - Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
1328 - Edward III of England marries Philippa of Hainault, daughter of the Count of Hainault.
1547 - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey sentenced to death.
1559 - Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey.
1602 - William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is published.
1605 - The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison.
1607 - Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th moon of Jupiter.
1622 - Work on the printing of the First Folio of William Shakespeare is suspended.
1625 - John Milton is admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge at the age of 16.
1733 - James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina.
1785 - John Walter publishes first issue of the Daily Universal Register (later renamed The Times).
1830 - Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins.
1832 - President Andrew Jackson writes Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
1840 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
1842 - On this day Dr.William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, became famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reached the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
1847 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
1869 - National convention of black leaders meets in Washington D.C..
1893 - The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting.
1893 - US Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
1898 - Emile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
1910 - Opera was broadcast on the radio for the first time — Enrico Caruso singing from the stage of New York's Metropolitan Opera House.
1915 - An Earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
1930 - Mickey Mouse comic strip makes its first appearance.
1934 - the Candidate of Science degree is established in the USSR.
1935 - A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
1938 - Church of England accepts theory of evolution.
1942 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1942 - The United States begins Japanese American internment.
1953 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen as President of Yugoslavia.
1957 - Wham-O Company produces the first Frisbee.
1958 - Moroccan Liberation Army ambushes Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
1966 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
1968 - Johnny Cash records his landmark album At Folsom Prison live at Folsom State Prison
1972 - Prime Minister Kofi Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong.
1982 - Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 737 jet crashes into Washington, DC's 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists. In a freaky coincidence, a Washington DC Metro Rail train derailed, killing 3 people.
1986 - A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
1990 - L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
1991 - Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius.
1992 - Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
2001 - An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.

[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)).

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).

1966 ~ Robert Weaver (http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/Ampres/essays/lbjohnson/cabinet/601?PHPSESSID=93e9f646ffab76297a45ed2d721f9893) became the first black Cabinet member as he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Johnson.

1977 ~ Birthday of Orlando Bloom (http://www.full-bloom.net/), Actor.

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

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

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

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

[Booger]

1301 - Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Arpad dynasty in Hungary.
1501 - Martin Luther, 17, enters the University of Erfurt.
1514 - Pope Leo X issues a papal bull against slavery.
1539 - Spain annexes Cuba.
1639 - The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, was adopted in Connecticut.
1690 - The clarinet is invented in Nuremberg, Germany.
1724 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne.
1784 - American Revolutionary War: The United States ratifies a peace treaty with England.
1814 - Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden in return for Pomerania.
1858 - Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt.
1900 - Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca premieres in Rome.
1907 - An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000.
1939 - Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.
1943 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II).
1951 - The National Football League has its first Pro Bowl Game (Los Angeles, California).
1952 - The Today Show premieres on NBC.
1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.
1955 - Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio.
1963 - George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama.
1969 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 people.
1970 - Sato Eisaku is elected to his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.
1972 - Queen Margrethe II of Denmark accends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
1972 - The TV comedy Sanford & Son (an American import of the British comedy Steptoe and Son) premieres on NBC.
1973 - Super Bowl VII: The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins. The Dolphins become the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.
1975 - Teenage heiress Lesley Whittle is kidnapped by Donald Neilson, aka "the Black Panther".
1978 - Johnny Rotten quits the Sex Pistols after the final show of their American tour, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
1984 - Ray Mancini defeats Bobby Chacon by a knockout in three to retain his WBA boxing world Lightweight title in Reno.
1985 - Martina Navratilova wins her 100th tennis tournament.
1993 - David Letterman announces he is moving his television talk show from NBC to CBS.
1994 - U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords.
1996 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
1998 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
1998 - An Afghan cargo plane crashes into a mountain in southwest Pakistan killing more than 50 people.
2000 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
2000 - Sport Club Corinthians Paulista defeat Vasco da Gama in the final match of the FIFA Club World Championship.
2000 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of 11,722.98.
2000 - David Letterman undergoes quintuple heart bypass surgery.
2004 - Goatse.cx is suspended by the Christmas Island Internet Administration following a massive grassroots movement to close the site forever.
2004 - Amartya Sen steps down as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
2004 - The national flag of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", was restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
2005 - Landing of the Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan.
2006 - Season 6 of 24 premiers

[jseal]

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

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

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

1957 ~ Death of Humphrey Bogart (http://www.humphreybogart.com/), Actor.

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

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

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.

[IowaMan]

Don't know why it took me so long to read this one today, it's usually one of the first I check in the morning. Bogey passed away on Jan. 14, 1957 huh? Fifty years ago and 11 years before I was even born but it still sort of makes me sad. My favorite actor of all time.

[jseal]

1870 ~ U.S. Democratic Party first portrayed as a donkey (http://www.toddtarantino.com/harpers/livejackass.html) ("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, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1964.

1951 ~ The "Bitch of Buchenwald (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ikoch.html)", Ilse Koch, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

1953 ~ East German authorities began a purge of senior Jewish officials (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/15/newsid_4094000/4094899.stm).

1967 ~ The first Super Bowl (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0115.html#article) was played.

1973 ~ President Nixon announced the suspension (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/15/newsid_2530000/2530549.stm) of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam, citing progress in peace negotiations.

1983 ~ Death of Meyer Lansky (http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/lansky/index_1.html), mobster.

[Booger]

27 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian receives the title Augustus by the Roman Senate.
550 - Gothic War (535–552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
929 - Emir Abd-ar-rahman III of Cordoba declares himself caliph, thereby establishing the Caliphate of Cordoba.
1362 - A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt.
1412 - The Medici family are made official bankers of the Papacy.
1456 - Painter Filippo Lippi elopes with Lucrezia Buti, a young nun from the convent of Saint Margherita.
1492 - The first grammar of a modern language, in Spanish, is presented to Queen Isabella.
1547 - Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.
1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.
1572 - The Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
1581 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.
1605 - The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes was published in Madrid.
1707 - The Scottish Parliament, ratified the Act of Union, paving way for the creation of the Great Britain.
1761 - British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.
1777 - Vermont declares its independence from New York.
1780 - American Revolution: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1795 - French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands.
1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
1847 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
1878 - Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from the Ottoman rule.
1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed.
1896 - Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire.
1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
1919 - Temperance movement: The United States of America ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.
1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
1956 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.
1968 - Youth International Party (Yippies) is founded.
1969 - Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
1969 - Metroliner train starts running.
1970 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.
1986 - First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City that ends a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
1995 - UPN begins broadcasting.
2001 - Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which will be its final one. Columbia disintegrates 16 days later on re-entry.
2005 - Adriana Iliescu gives birth at age 66 and becomes the oldest woman in the world to do so.
2006 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.
2006 - Liu Xinjuan is committed by the Chinese government to a psychiatric hospital, allegedly for political activism.

Births
1245 - Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III of England (d. 1296)
1409 - René I of Naples (d. 1480)
1477 - Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (d. 1547)
1501 - Anthony Denny, confidant of King Henry VIII of England (d. 1559)
1616 - François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort, French soldier (d. 1669)
1626 - Lucas Achtschellinck, Flemish painter (d. 1699)
1634 - Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter, Norwegian poet (d. 1716)
1675 - Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French writer (d. 1755)
1728 - Niccola Piccinni, Italian composer (d. 1800)
1821 - John C. Breckenridge, Confederate general (d. 1875)
1834 - Robert R. Hitt, American politician (d. 1906)
1838 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (d. 1917)
1853 - Andre Michelin, French industrialist (d. 1931)
1874 - Robert W. Service, Canadian poet (d. 1958)
1885 - Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (d. 1967)
1886 - John Hamilton, American actor (d. 1958)
1888 - Osip Brik, Russian writer (d. 1945)
1897 - Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet (d. 1977)
1898 - Margaret Booth, American film editor (d. 2002)
1901 - Fulgencio Batista, Cuban leader (d. 1973)
1901 - Frank Zamboni, American inventor (d. 1988)
1902 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (d. 1945)
1906 - Diana Wynyard, British actress (d. 1964.
1907 - Paul Nitze, American government official (d. 2004)
1908 - Ethel Merman, American actress/singer (d. 1984)
1910 - Dizzy Dean, baseball player (d. 1974)
1911 - Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (d. 1996)
1911 - Eduardo Frei Montalva, president of Chile (d.1982)
1918 - Nel Benschop, Dutch poetess (d. 2005)
1918 - Stirling Silliphant, American writer (d. 1996)
1921 - Francesco Scavullo, American fashion photographer (d. 2004)
1922 - Ernesto Bonino, Italian singer
1923 - Anthony Hecht, American poet (d. 2004)
1924 - Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
1928 - William Kennedy, American author
1930 - Clarence Ray Allen, American murderer (d. 2006)
1931 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
1932 - Dian Fossey, American zoologist (d. 1985)
1933 - Susan Sontag, American writer (d. 2004)
1934 - Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano
1935 - A.J. Foyt, American race car driver
1942 - René Angélil, Canadian singer (Baronets), husband and manager of Céline Dion
1942 - Barbara Lynn, American singer and guitarist
1943 - Brian Ferneyhough, British composer
1943 - Ronnie Milsap, American singer/songwriter
1944 - Jim Stafford, Singer, songwriter and guitarist
1946 - Kabir Bedi, Indian actor
1946 - Katia Ricciarelli, Italian soprano
1947 - Laura Schlessinger, American radio talk show host
1948 - John Carpenter, American film director
1948 - Dalvanius, New Zealand entertainer (d. 2002)
1948 - Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player
1948 - Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet
1950 - Debbie Allen, American dancer/choreographer
1951 - Glenn Ordway, American radio talk show host
1952 - King Fuad II of Egypt
1953 - Robert Jay Mathews, White Nationalist (d. 1984)
1956 - Martin Jol, Tottenham football manager
1958 - Anatoli Boukreev, Russian climber (d. 1997)
1959 - Sade, Nigerian-born singer
1962 - Paul Webb, British musician (Talk Talk)
1963 - James May, Top Gear presenter
1966 - Maxine Jones, American singer (En Vogue)
1969 - Roy Jones Jr., American boxer
1970 - Ron Villone, Major League Baseball Player
1970 - Garth Ennis, Irish comic book author
1973 - Josie Davis, American actress
1974 - Kate Moss, English model
1974 - Marlon Anderson, Baseball player
1975 - Greg Strause, American director in special effects
1976 - Viktor Maslov, Russian racing driver
1977 - Jeff Foster, American basketball player
1979 - Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)
1979 - Brenden Morrow, Canadian hockey player
1979 - Jason Ward, National Hockey League player
1980 - Albert Pujols, baseball player
1980 - Michelle Wild, Hungarian model
1981 - Nick Valensi, American guitarist (The Strokes)
1982 - Samuel Preston, British singer (The Ordinary Boys)
1983 - Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer
1988 - Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer
1991 - Julie Dubela, American singer




Deaths
1400 - John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, English politician (executed)
1545 - George Spalatin, German reformer (b. 1484)
1547 - Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (b. 1477)
1554 - Christiern Pedersen, Danish humanist
1585 - Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, English admiral (b. 1512)
1659 - Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (b. 1580)
1710 - Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (b. 1675)
1711 - Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Ceylon (b. 1651)
1747 - Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (b. 1680)
1748 - Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1684)
1750 - Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshall (b. 1667)
1752 - Francis Blomefield, English topographer (b. 1705)
1794 - Edward Gibbon, English historian (b. 1737)
1809 - John Moore, British general (b. 1761)
1815 - Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Horatio Nelson (b. 1765)
1817 - Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman (b. 1759)
1834 - Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician (b. 1769)
1856 - Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (b. 1795)
1865 - Edmond François Valentin About, French writer (b. 1828)
1879 - Octave Crémazie, French Canadian poet (b. 1827)
1891 - Léo Delibes, French composer (b. 1836)
1898 - Charles Pelham Villiers (b. 1802), longest-serving MP in the British House of Commons
1917 - George Dewey, U.S. admiral (b. 1837)
1919 - Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, President of Brazil (b. 1848)
1924 - Winifred Cochrane, Countess of Dundonald, philanthropist (b. 1859)
1936 - Albert Fish, American serial killer (b. 1870)
1942 - Carole Lombard, American actress (b. 1908)
1957 - Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor (b. 1867)
1962 - Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor (b. 1883)
1967 - Robert J. Van de Graaff, American nuclear physicist (b. 1901)
1969 - Jan Palach, Czech Freedom Fighter (b. 1948)
1969 - Vernon Duke, American composer and songwriter (b . 1903)
1971 - Philippe Thys, Belgian cyclist (b. 1890)
1972 - Ross Bagdasarian, American actor and creator of The Chipmunks (b. 1919)
1979 - Ted Cassidy, American actor (b. 1932)
1979 - August Heissmeyer, German SS officer (b. 1897)
1981 - Bernard Lee, English actor (b. 1908)
1982 - Red Smith, American sports columnist (b. 1905)
1986 - Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist, author, and publisher (b. 1892)
1988 - Ballard Berkeley, English actor (b. 1904)
1988 - Andrija Artuković, Croatian war criminal (b. 1899)
1993 - Jón Páll Sigmarsson, Icelandic strength athlete (b. 1960)
1995 - Eric Mottram, English poet, teacher, critic, and editor (b. 1924)
1997 - Ennis Cosby, son of entertainer Bill Cosby (murdered)
2000 - John Rankin, musical entertainer (b. 1959)
2001 - Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1939)
2002 - Michael Bilandic, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1923)
2002 - Eddie Meduza, Swedish composer (b. 1948)
2002 - Bobo Olson, American boxer (b. 1928)
2002 - Ron Taylor, American actor (b. 1952)
2004 - Kalevi Sorsa, Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1930)
2005 - Marjorie Williams, American journalist (b. 1958)

[jseal]

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

1794 ~ Death of Edward Gibbon (http://members.aol.com/Feuillade/TomMoran28.index.html), Historian.

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

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

1957 ~ Death of Arturo Toscanini, Conductor.

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

1977 ~ The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.

1979 ~ The Shah of Iran went into exile (http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/hostages.phtml) in Egypt.

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

2003 ~ The Space Shuttle Columbia took off on its final mission, STS-107 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzD5hOm2laQ).

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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

1991 ~ Operation Desert Storm began (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/17/newsid_2530000/2530375.stm).

1994 ~ A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck Southern California (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/17/newsid_4079000/4079741.stm); at least 61 people were killed with $20 billion worth of damage.

1995 ~ A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the city of Kobe, Japan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/17/newsid_3375000/3375733.stm); more than 6,000 people were killed.

1997 ~ Death of Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto.

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

[Booger]

336 - Saint Mark elected Catholic Pope.
350 - General Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans, proclaims himself Emperor.
474 - Leo II briefly becomes Byzantine emperor
532 - Nika riots in Constantinople fail.
1126 - Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne to his son Emperor Qinzong
1486 - King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV.
1520 - King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Åsunden.
1535 - Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro.
1562 - Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.
1670 - Henry Morgan captures Panama.
1701 - Frederick I becomes King of Prussia.
1777 - representatives of the New Hampshire Grants declare the independence of the Vermont Republic from Britain.
1778 - James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands."
1788 - The first 736 convicts banished from England to Australia landed in Botany Bay creating the first Australian Penal Colony
1827 - Joseph Smith, Jr. marries Emma Hale.
1861 - American Civil War - Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in secession from the United States.
1871 - Wilhelm I of Germany becomes the first German Emperor.
1884 - Dr William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the UK.
1886 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
1896 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
1903 - Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States, sends a message of greetings from a Marconi station built near Wellfleet, Massachusetts to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, marking the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.
1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
1912 - British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrives at the South Pole only to find that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had preceded them by just over a month.
1913 - A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos during the First Balkan War, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.
1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
1916 - A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite struck a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.
1918 - World War I : Woodrow Wilson delivers his Fourteen Points speech in front of Congress.
1919 - World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France. Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.
1919 - Bentley Motors Limited is founded.
1939 - Louis Armstrong records Jeepers Creepers.
1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
1944 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City for the first time hosts a jazz concert; the performers are Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
1944 - Soviet forces liberate Leningrad, effectively ending a three year Nazi siege, known as the Siege of Leningrad.
1945 - Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army
1955 - Battle of Yijiangshan occurred.
1958 - Willie O'Ree, the first African American National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.
1964 - Plans are revealed for the World Trade Center in New York City.
1964 - The Beatles appear on the Billboard magazine charts for the first time.
1967 - Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler," is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life in prison.
1969 - A United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay resulting in the loss of all 32 passengers and six crewmembers.
1974 - A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.
1974 - The Six Million Dollar Man debuts on ABC.
1975 - The Jeffersons debuts on CBS.
1977 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
1977 - Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney killing 83.
1978 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
1983 - The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe Olympic medals to his family.
1990 - Former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother Peggy McMartin Buckey are acquitted in a Los Angeles, California court of 52 child molestation charges.
1990 - Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
1991 - Eastern Air Lines shuts down after 62 years citing financial problems.
1993 - For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 United States states.
1994 - The Cando event, a possible bolide impact in Cando, Spain. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute.
1995 - In southern France near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc a network of caves are discovered that contain paintings and engravings that are 17,000 to 20,000 years old.
1997 - In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
1997 - Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
1998 - Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky affair story on his website The Drudge Report.
2000 - The strange Tagish Lake meteorite impacted the Earth.
2001 - The British digital television channel e4 (TV) was launched.
2002 - A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails outside of Minot, North Dakota, killing one man and calling into question the maintenance of CP track and the policy of voice-tracking used by Clear Channel Communications.
2003 - A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
2005 - A U.N. World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan begins.

Births
885 - Daigo, Emperor of Japan (d. 930)
1543 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (d. 1588)
1641 - François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (d. 1691)
1672 - Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (d. 1731)
1688 - Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1765)
1689 - Montesquieu, French writer (d. 1755)
1779 - Peter Roget, British lexicographer (d. 1869)
1782 - Daniel Webster, American statesman (d. 1852)
1813 - Joseph Glidden, American farmer who patented barbed wire (d. 1906)
1815 - Constantin von Tischendorf, German biblical scholar (d. 1874)
1840 - Henry Austin Dobson, English poet (d. 1921)
1841 - Emmanuel Chabrier, French composer (d. 1894)
1842 - Albert Alonzo Ames, Mayor of Minneapolis (d. 1911)
1848 - Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer (d. 1925)
1849 - Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920)
1850 - Seth Low, American politician (d. 1916)
1854 - Thomas Watson, American telephone pioneer (d. 1934)
1877 - Samuel Zemurray, U.S. businessman (d.1961)
1879 - Henri Giraud, French general (d. 1949)
1881 - Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (d. 1975)
1882 - A. A. Milne, English author (d. 1956)
1886 - Clara Nordström, German writer and translator (d. 1962)
1888 - Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer (d. 1989)
1892 - Oliver Hardy, American comedian and actor (d. 1957)
1892 - Paul Rostock, German surgeon (d. 1956)
1901 - Ivan Petrovsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1973)
1904 - Cary Grant, English actor (d. 1986)
1905 - Joseph Bonanno, Italian-born gangster (d. 2002)
1908 - Jacob Bronowski, Polish-born mathematician, poet, and physicist (d. 1974)
1913 - Danny Kaye, American actor (d. 1987)
1914 - Arno Schmidt, German author (d. 1979)
1914 - William Stafford, American poet (d. 1993)
1917 - Wang Yung-ching , Taiwanese businessman
1918 - Gustave Gingras, French Canadian physician (d. 1996)
1922 - Bob Bell, American clown (d. 1997)
1925 - Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (d. 1995)
1931 - Chun Doo-hwan, President of South Korea
1932 - Robert Anton Wilson, American author
1933 - John Boorman, Irish film director
1933 - Ray Dolby, American inventor (Dolby noise reduction system)
1934 - Raymond Briggs, English writer and illustrator
1935 - Albert Millaire, Quebec actor and theatre director
1937 - John Hume, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998
1938 - Curt Flood, baseball player (d. 1997)
1940 - Pedro Rodriguez, Mexican racing driver (d. 1971)
1941 - David Ruffin, American singer (d. 1991)
1941 - Bobby Goldsboro, American country/pop singer
1943 - Kay Granger, American politician
1944 - Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
1944 - Carl Morton, Major League baseball pitcher (d. 1983)
1946 - Joseph Deiss, Swiss Federal Councilor
1947 - Takeshi Kitano, Japanese actor and director
1949 - Philippe Starck, French designer
1949 - Bill Keller, American newspaper editor
1950 - Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (d. 1982)
1951 - Bob Latchford, English footballer
1951 - Bram Behr, Surinamese journalist (d. 1982)
1952 - R. Stevie Moore, American singer, songwriter, and home recording pioneer
1953 - Brett Hudson, American actor
1955 - Kevin Costner, American actor
1955 - Fergus Martin, Irish artist
1956 - Sharon Mitchell, American porn actress
1956 - Tom Bailey, British singer (Thompson Twins)
1961 - Mark Messier, Canadian hockey player
1961 - Jeff Yagher, American actor
1963 - Martin O'Malley, Governor of Maryland
1964 - Jane Horrocks, British actress
1965 - Dave Attell, American writer and comedian
1967 - Kim Perrot, American basketball player (d. 1999)
1967 - Iván Zamorano, Chilean footballer
1968 - Frank Quitely, Scottish comic book artist
1969 - Jesse L. Martin, American actor and singer
1969 - David Bautista, American professional wrestler
1969 - Jim O'Rourke, American musician and producer (Loose Fur and Wilco)
1970 - DJ Quik, American rapper
1970 - Peter van Petegem, Belgian cyclist
1971 - Jonathan Davis, American musician (KoЯn)
1971 - Christian Fittipaldi, Brazilian race car driver
1972 - Mike Lieberthal, baseball player
1973 - Crispian Mills, British musician (The Jeevas and Kula Shaker)
1974 - Michael Tunn, Australian television and radio
1974 - Maulik Pancholy, American actor
1974 - Christian Burns, English musician (BBMak)
1976 - Damien Leith, Australian Idol 2006
1977 - Curtis Cregan, American actor
1977 - Alina Jidkova, Russian tennis player
1978 - Brian Falkenborg, American baseball player
1979 - Jay Chou, Taiwanese singer and producer
1979 - Paulo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer
1979 - Brian Gionta, professional hockey player
1980 - Robert Green, English footballer
1980 - Julius Peppers, American football player
1981 - Kang Dong-won, South Korean model and actor
1981 - Khari Stephenson, Jamaican soccer player
1982 - Quinn Allman, American musician (The Used)
1983 - Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
1984 - Benji Schwimmer, American dancer
1987 - Johan Djourou, Swiss footballer

Deaths
52 BC - Publius Clodius Pulcher (murdered)
350 - Constans, Roman Emperor, (b. 320)
474 - Leo I, Byzantine Emperor (b. 401)
1367 - King Peter I of Portugal (b. 1320)
1425 - Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, English politician (b. 1391)
1471 - Emperor Go-Hanazono of Japan (b. 1419)
1547 - Pietro Bembo, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1470)
1583 - Margaret of Austria, regent of The Netherlands (b. 1522)
1664 - Moses Amyraut, French theologian (b. 1596)
1677 - Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch merchant (b. 1619)
1803 - Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (b. 1743)
1862 - John Tyler, 10th President of the United States (b. 1790)
1873 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English author (b. 1803)
1878 - Antoine César Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1788)
1892 - Anton Anderledy, Swiss Superior General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1819)
1896 - Charles Floquet, French statesman (b. 1828)
1927 - Empress Carlotta of Mexico (b. 1840)
1936 - Rudyard Kipling, British writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
1940 - Kazimierz Tetmajer, Polish writer (b. 1865)
1952 - Curly Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1903)
1954 - Sydney Greenstreet, English actor (b. 1879)
1963 - Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the British Labour Party (b. 1906)
1966 - Kathleen Norris, American writer (b. 1880)
1967 - Goose Tatum, American basketball player (b. 1921)
1969 - Hans Freyer, German sociologist (b. 1887)
1970 - David O. McKay, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1873)
1978 - Hasan Askari, Pakistani philosopher, critic and writer (b. 1919)
1978 - Carl Betz, English musician (b. 1921)
1980 - Sir Cecil Beaton, English fashion designer (b. 1904)
1984 - Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer and songwriter (b. 1915)
1985 - Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor (b. 1912)
1995 - Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
1995 - Ron Luciano, baseball umpire (b. 1937)
1997 - Paul Tsongas, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (b. 1941)
2000 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (b. 1897)
2001 - Al Waxman, Canadian actor (b. 1935)
2003 - Edward Farhat, American professional wrestler (b. 1924)
2005 - Lamont Bentley, American actor (b. 1973)
2006 - Jan Twardowski, Polish poet (b. 1915)

[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

1943 ~ The siege of Leningrad was broken (http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/siege.asp) by the Red Army.

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

1967 ~ The “Boston Strangler” was convicted (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/18/newsid_4111000/4111107.stm) in Cambridge, Mass., of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses.

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

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

[jseal]

1807 ~ Birthday of Robert E. Lee (http://www.robertelee.org/), General, Army of Northern Virginia, CSA.

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

1839 ~ Birthday of Paul Cézanne (http://www.expo-cezanne.com/index.cfm), Painter.

1853 ~ Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premiered.

1931 ~ Birthday of Robert MacNeil, newscaster, journalist (PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Report (http://www.macneil-lehrer.com/about/history.html)).

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

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

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

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

2004 ~ Death of David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach.

[Booger]

Events
250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian is martyred. Afterwards the Donatist controversy over readmitting lapsed Christians disaffects many in North Africa.
1156 - According to legend, freeholder Lalli slays English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of the lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland.
1265 - In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now also known as the "Houses of Parliament".
1320 - Dante - Quaestio de Aqua et Terra.
1320 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
1356 - Edward Balliol resigns as King of Scotland.
1523 - Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
1576 - The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almansa.
1649 - Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes"
1667 - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to Imperial Russia in the treaty of Andrusovo.
1783 - The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the Revolutionary War.
1801 - John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States.
1839 - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
1840 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
1840 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
1841 - Hong Kong Island occupied by the British Empire.
1885 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
1887 - The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
1892 - At the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first official basketball game is played.
1920 - American Civil Liberties Union founded.
1921 - The first Constitution of Turkey was adopted, which made fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.
1929 - In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking film filmed outdoors, is released.
1936 - Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.
1937 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first inauguration scheduled on January 20, following adoption of the 20th Amendment. Previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4.
1942 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide the "final solution to the Jewish problem".
1944 - World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
1945 - Hungary drops out of the Second World War, agreeing an armistice with the Allies.
1952 - Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France.
1954 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
1960 - Hendrik Verwoerd announced a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
1964 - Meet the Beatles, the first Beatles album in the United States, is released.
1968 - Game of the Century, which allowed the NCAA to gradually have influence over college sports broadcasting and introduce NCAA higher education opportunities; also a game that influenced the enactment of Title IX.
1969 - The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.
1981 - Iran releases 52 American hostages twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as U.S. President.
1986 - Martin Luther King, Jr., day was celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
1986 - The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
1987 - Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped.
1990 - Black January - bloody crackdown of Azerbaijani peaceful pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku.
1991 - Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
1996 - Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
1999 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet bars.
2001 - Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in the EDSA II Revolution, succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
2001 - George W Bush is sworn in as President of the United States.
2005 - Ireland completes metrication.

Births
225 - Gordian III, Roman Emperor (d. 244)
1358 - Eleanor of Aragon, wife of John I of Castile (d. 1382)
1435 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shogun (d. 1490)
1554 - King Sebastian of Portugal (d. 1578)
1586 - Johann Schein, German composer (d. 1630)
1664 - Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (d. 1718)
1716 - King Charles III of Spain (d. 1788)
1716 - Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French writer and numismatist (d. 1795)
1775 - Andre Marie Ampere, French physicist (d. 1836)
1783 - Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist and composer (d. 1860)
1798 - Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (d. 1858)
1804 - Eugène Sue, French novelist (d. 1857)
1812 - Thomas Meik, Scottish engineer (d. 1896)
1837 - David Josiah Brewer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1910)
1855 - Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899)
1867 - Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (d. 1944)
1873 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate (d. 1950)
1876 - Józef Hofmann, Polish pianist (d. 1967)
1878 - Ruth St. Denis, dancer (d. 1968)
1878 - Finlay Currie, British actor (d. 1968)
1880 - Walter W. Bacon, Governor of Delaware (d. 1962)
1891 - Mischa Elman, Ukrainian born violinist (d. 1967)
1894 - Walter Piston, American composer (d. 1976)
1896 - George Burns, American actor, comedian (d. 1996)
1898 - U Razak, Burmese politician (d. 1947)
1900 - Colin Clive, British actor (d. 1937)
1902 - Leon Ames, American actor (d. 1993)
1906 - Aristotle Onassis, Greek industrialist (d. 1975)
1910 - Joy Adamson, Austrian naturalist and writer (d. 1980)
1915 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
1918 - Juan Garcia Esquivel, Mexican musician (d. 2002)
1920 - Federico Fellini, Italian film director (d. 1993)
1920 - DeForest Kelley, American actor (d. 1999)
1920 - Thorleif Schjelderup, Norwegian author and ski jumper (d. 2006)
1922 - Ray Anthony, American trumpeter, bandleader, songwriter and actor
1923 - Nora Brockstedt, Norwegian singer
1924 - Slim Whitman, American singer
1925 - Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan theologian and author and politician
1926 - Jamiluddin Aali, Pakistani poet, essayist and columnist
1926 - Patricia Neal, American actress
1926 - David Tudor, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
1929 - Jimmy Cobb, American jazz drummer
1929 - Bob Denard, French mercenary
1929 - Arte Johnson, American actor
1929 - Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, American race car driver (d. 1964)
1930 - Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., astronaut
1931 - David Lee, American physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate
1932 - Lou Fontinato, National Hockey League defenceman
1934 - Tom Baker, British actor
1937 - Dorothy Provine, American singer, dancer and actress
1938 - William Berger, Austrian actor (d. 1993)
1938 - Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer
1939 - Paul Coverdell, American politician (d. 2000)
1940 - Carol Heiss, American figure skater
1941 - Pierre Lalonde, Quebec singer and television host
1941 - Ron Townson, American singer (The Fifth Dimension) (d. 2001)
1945 - Christopher Martin-Jenkins, cricket commentator and chief cricket correspondent of The Times
1945 - Eric Stewart, English musician and songwriter (10cc)
1946 - David Lynch, American film director
1947 - Cyrille Guimard, French cyclist and directeur sportif
1948 - Natan Sharansky, Russian-born physicist and politician
1949 - Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
1950 - Mahamane Ousmane, President of Niger
1950 - Liza Goddard, actress
1950 - Chuck Lefley, National Hockey League player
1951 - Ian Hill, British musician (Judas Priest)
1951 - Ivan Fischer, Hungarian conductor
1952 - Paul Stanley, American musician (KISS)
1955 - Wyatt Knight, American actor
1956 - Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst
1958 - Lorenzo Lamas, American actor
1960 - Will Wright, American computer game designer
1960 - Scott Thunes, American musician (Frank Zappa)
1963 - James Denton, American actor
1965 - Greg Kriesel, American bassist (The Offspring)
1965 - Sophie, The Countess of Wessex, the wife of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
1965 - John Michael Montgomery, American singer
1968 - Melissa Rivers, American reporter and actress
1968 - Rainn Wilson, American actor
1969 - Patrick K. Kroupa, American writer, hacker
1970 - Mitch Benn, UK comedian, songwriter, actor
1970 - Skeet Ulrich, American actor
1971 - Derrick Green, American singer (Sepultura)
1971 - Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, American drummer (The Roots)
1975 - David Eckstein, baseball player
1976 - Gretha Smit, Dutch speed skater
1979 - Rob Bourdon, American musician (Linkin Park)
1979 - Will Young, British singer
1981 - Owen Hargreaves, English international footballer
1981 - Crystal Lowe, Canadian actress
1989 - Nadia Di Cello, Argentine actress

Deaths
1156 - Bishop Henry, patron saint of Finland
1479 - King John II of Aragon (b. 1397)
1568 - Myles Coverdale, English Bible translator
1612 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1552)
1666 - Anna of Austria, wife of Louis XIII of France and regent (b. 1601)
1707 - Humphrey Hody, English theologian (b. 1659)
1709 - François de la Chaise, French confessor of Louis XIV of France (b. 1624)
1739 - Francesco Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect/designer (b. 1659)
1745 - Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1697)
1751 - John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (b. 1665)
1770 - Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1722)
1779 - David Garrick, English actor (b. 1717)
1810 - Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of colonial Pennsylvania (b. 1722)
1819 - King Charles IV of Spain (b. 1748)
1848 - Christian VIII of Denmark (b. 1786)
1850 - Adam Oehlenschläger, Danish poet (b. 1779)
1873 - The Venerable Father Basil Anthony Marie Moreau, Founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (b. 1799)
1891 - David Kalakaua, King of Hawaii (b. 1836)
1900 - John Ruskin, art critic (b. 1819)
1901 - Zénobe Gramme, Belgian engineer (b. 1826)
1907 - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)
1920 - Georg Lurich, Estonian wrestler (b. 1876)
1936 - King George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1865)
1944 - James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (b. 1860)
1947 - Josh Gibson, African-American baseball player (b. 1911)
1954 - Fred Root, English cricketer (b. 1890)
1962 - Robinson Jeffers, American poet (b. 1887)
1965 - Alan Freed, American disk jockey (b. 1922)
1979 - Gustav Winckler, Danish singer (b. 1925)
1971 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, American actor, director, writer, and producer (b. 1880)
1973 - Lorenz Böhler, Austrian physician (b. 1885)
1983 - Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (b. 1933)
1984 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (b. 1904)
1988 - Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pashtun Nationalist & non-violent freedom fighter (b. 1890)
1990 - Hayedeh, Persian singer (b. 1942)
1990 - Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1907)
1993 - Audrey Hepburn, Anglo-Dutch actress (b. 1929)
1994 - Matt Busby, Scottish football manager (b. 1909)
1996 - Gerry Mulligan, American musician (b. 1927)
1997 - Curt Flood, baseball player (b. 1938)
1998 - Bobo Brazil, American professional wrestler (b. 1924)
2003 - Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (b. 1903)
2003 - Nedra Volz, American actress (b. 1908)
2003 - Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (b. 1947)
2004 - Guinn Smith, American athlete (b. 1920)
2005 - Per Borten, Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1913)
2005 - Roland Frye, American literary critic and theologian
2005 - Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Polish journalist, writer, and politician (b. 1913)
2005 - Miriam Louisa Rothschild, British zoologist, entomologist, and author (b. 1908)

[jseal]

1801 ~ John Marshall (http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_timeline/images_chiefs/004.html) was appointed chief justice of the United States.

1907 ~ Death of Dmitri Mendeleev (http://www.chem.msu.su/eng/misc/mendeleev/welcome.html), Russian Chemist and inventor of the Periodic table.

1930 ~ Birthday of Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1643 ~ Abel Tasman (http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/EuropeanDiscoveryOfNewZealand/2/en) discovered Tonga.

1793 ~ France's King Louis XVI (http://www.napoleonguide.com/leaders_louis16.htm), condemned for treason, was executed on the guillotine.

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

1941 ~ Birthday of Plácido Domingo, Opera Singer.

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

1950 ~ A federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury (http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Alger_Hiss).

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

1840 ~ British colonists reached New Zealand.

1879 ~ Zulu troops defeated British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana (http://battlefields.kzn.org.za/battlefields/about/193.xml).

1901 ~ Death of Queen Victoria I (http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/windsorhistory/royalfunerals/qvicfuneral01.html) of the United Kingdom.

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

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

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

1984 ~ The Apple Macintosh was introduced with the famous television commercial "1984 (http://www.uriahcarpenter.info/1984.html)" (requires QuickTime and patience [but is generally considered among the better commercials in history]).

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

1997 ~ The U.S. Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright (http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/biography/albright.html) as the nation's first female secretary of state.

[Booger]

Events
393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine years old son Honorius co-emperor.
1510 - Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.
1533 - Anne Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
1546 - Having published nothing for eleven years, Francois Rabelais brings out his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel: the Tiers Livre.
1556 - The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
1570 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.
1571 - The Royal Exchange opens in London.
1579 - The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
1719 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
1789 - Georgetown College becomes the first Roman Catholic college in the United States (Washington, DC).
1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
1855 - The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
1870 - In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Indians, most women and children, in the Marias Massacre.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
1897 - Elva Zona Heaster found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband was perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
1899 - Emilio Aguinaldo was sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
1904 - Ålesund Fire: Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil architecture.
1907 - Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American US Senator.
1912 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
1937 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
1943 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli in Libya from the Nazis.
1943 - Jewish-led Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1943 - World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
1943 - Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
1945 - World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.
1950 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
1960 - The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean. The depth was measured to be 35,813 feet (10,916 m) but later measurements show it to be 35,798 feet (10,911 m).
1964 - The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
1967 - Milton Keynes (England) founded by Order in Council. (See History of Milton Keynes)
1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their territorial waters while spying.
1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
1973 - A volcanic eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.
1977 - The first segment of the Roots mini-series airs on ABC.
1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's protective ozone layer.
1983 - The Television Show The A-Team Starts its first season on the NBC network.
1984 - "Hulkamania" is born when Hulk Hogan defeats The Iron Sheik to win the WWF Championship
1985 - O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
1986 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
1996 - The first version of the Java programming language is released.
1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
1999 - Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.
2002 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States under FBI custody.
2002 - Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped -- and subsequently murdered -- in Karachi, Pakistan.
2005 - Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as the third President of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine.
2006 - Stephen Harper's Conservative Party wins the most seats in the Canadian federal election. Harper becomes the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada with a minority government.


Births
1350 - Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (d. 1419)
1719 - John Landen, English mathematician (d. 1790)
1737 - John Hancock, American Revolutionist (d. 1793)
1745 - William Jessop, English canal engineer (d. 1814)
1783 - Stendhal, French writer (d. 1842)
1786 - Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (d. 1858)
1813 - Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer and feminist (d. 1895)
1827 - Takamori Saigo, Samurai, leader of Satsuma rebellion (d. 1877)
1832 - Edouard Manet, French artist (d. 1883)
1840 - Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d. 1905)
1857 - Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (d. 1936)
1862 - David Hilbert, German mathematician (d. 1943)
1872 - Gotse Delchev, Macedonian revolutionary (d. 1903)
1872 - Paul Langevin, French physicist (d. 1946)
1872 - Joze Plečnik, Slovenian architect (d. 1957)
1876 - Otto Diels, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
1884 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (d. 1956)
1888 - Leadbelly, American blues and folk musician (d. 1949)
1896 - Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1985)
1897 - Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian independence fighter (d. 1897)
1897 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (d. 2000)
1898 - Sergei Eisenstein, Russian film director (d. 1948)
1898 - Randolph Scott, American actor (d. 1987)
1900 - William Ifor Jones, Welsh Conductor & Organist (d. 1988)
1903 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d. 1948)
1907 - Dan Duryea, American actor (d. 1968)
1907 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
1910 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist (d. 1953)
1915 - Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
1915 - Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1985)
1918 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
1919 - Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist and underwater scientist
1919 - Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962)
1923 - Walter M. Miller, Jr., American writer (d. 1996)
1928 - Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
1928 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress
1929 - John Charles Polanyi, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 - Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko) of Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate
1930 - Derek Walcott, West Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
1933 - Chita Rivera, Puerto Rican actress and dancer
1934 - Pierre Bourgault, Quebec politician and essayist (d. 2003)
1936 - Jerry Kramer, American football player
1938 - Shohei Baba, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 1999)
1938 - Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor
1939 - Sonny Chiba, Japanese actor and martial artist
1940 - Johnny Russell, American country singer and songwriter (d. 2001)
1943 - Gil Gerard, American actor
1943 - Millie Jackson, American singer
1943 - Gary Burton, American jazz vibraphonist
1944 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
1945 - Mike Harris, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario
1947 - Thomas R. Carper, U.S. Senator from Delaware.
1947 - Megawati Sukarnoputri, 5th President of Indonesia
1948 - Anita Pointer, American singer
1950 - Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
1950 - Danny Federici, American musician (Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band)
1952 - Robin Zander, American singer (Cheap Trick)
1953 - Antonio Villaragoisa, American 52nd Mayor of Los Angeles
1954 - Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer and songwriter
1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
1959 - Clive Bull, radio talk show host
1963 - Gail O'Grady, American actress
1964 - Mariska Hargitay, American actress
1964 - Mario Roberge, National Hockey League player
1967 - Naim Suleymanoglu, Bulgarian-born, Turkish weightlifter
1968 - Petr Korda, Czech tennis player
1969 - Andrei Kanchelskis, Ukrainian-Russian footballer
1969 - Brendan Shanahan, Canadian ice hockey player
1972 - Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
1972 - Mark Curry, African American rapper
1973 - Lanei Chapman, American actress
1974 - Tiffani Thiessen, American actress
1974 - Richard T. Slone, British artist
1975 - Tito Ortiz, American UFC fighter
1979 - Larry Hughes, American basketball player
1979 - Sampsa Astala, Finnish musician (Lordi)
1981 - Sarah Rehman, An artist, sculpturer and visionary for 'Sarah's Children'
1983 - David Firth, British animator/musician
1983 - George Foreman III, American reality series star; son of George Foreman
1984 - Arjen Robben, Dutch footballer
1985 - Doutzen Kroes, Dutch supermodel
1986 - Felicia Brandström, Swedish singer


Deaths
1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 980)
1199 - Yaqub, Almohad Caliph (b. 1160)
1548 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (b. 1490)
1549 - Johannes Honter, Transylvanian Saxon humanist and theologian {b. 1498)
1567 - Jiajing, Emperor of China (b. 1507)
1570 - James Stewart, Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland (assassinated)
1622 - William Baffin, English explorer (b. 1584)
1744 - Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher and historian (b. 1668)
1785 - Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician (b. 1717)
1789 - Frances Brooke, English writer (b. 1724)
1789 - John Cleland, English novelist (b. 1709)
1800 - Edward Rutledge, American statesman (b. 1749)
1803 - Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (b. 1725)
1805 - Claude Chappe, French telecommunications pioneer (b. 1763)
1806 - William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
1812 - Robert Craufurd, British general (mortally wounded in battle) (b. 1764)
1833 - Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (b. 1757)
1837 - John Field, Irish composer (b. 1782)
1866 - Thomas Love Peacock, English satirist (b. 1785)
1875 - Charles Kingsley English writer (b. 1819)
1883 - Gustave Doré, French artist, engraver, and illustrator (b. 1832)
1893 - Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1825)
1922 - Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (b. 1855)
1923 - Max Nordau, Austrian author, philosopher, and Zionist leader (b. 1849)
1931 - Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
1937 - Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)
1937 - Orso Mario Corbino, Italian physicist (b. 1876)
1943 - Alexander Woollcott, American actor, author, and bon vivant (b. 1887)
1944 - Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)
1956 - Alexander Korda, Hungarian/British film director (b. 1893)
1971 - Fritz Feigl, Austria-born chemist (b. 1871)
1973 - Kid Ory, American jazz trombonist (b. 1886)
1976 - Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, and social activist (b. 1898)
1976 - Paul Dupuis, French Canadian film and television actor (b. 1913)
1977 - Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (b. 1903)
1978 - Terry Kath, American musician (Chicago) (b. 1946)
1978 - Jack Oakie, American actor (b. 1903)
1978 - Vic Ames, American signer (Ames Brothers) (b. 1925)
1981 - Samuel Barber, American composer (b. 1910)
1983 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (b. 1908)
1989 - Salvador Dalí, Catalan artist (b. 1904)
1992 - Freddie Bartholomew, Irish actor (b. 1924)
1993 - Thomas A. Dorsey, American singer (b. 1899)
1994 - Nikolai Vasilievich Ogarkov, Soviet field marshal (b. 1917)
1994 - Brian Redhead, English journalist and broadcaster (b. 1929)
1997 - Richard Berry, American composer and musician (b. 1935)
1999 - Prince Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican musician (b. 1949)
2002 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (b. 1930)
2002 - Paul Aars, American racecar driver (b. 1934)
2002 - Robert Nozick, American philosopher (b. 1938)
2003 - Nell Carter, American singer and actress (b. 1948)
2004 - Bob Keeshan, American actor (b. 1927)
2004 - Helmut Newton, German-born photographer (b. 1920)
2005 - Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare, British politician (b. 1921)
2005 - Johnny Carson, American television legend (b. 1925)
2005 - Douglas Knight, American university president (b. 1921)
2006 - Ernie Baron, Philippine newscaster (b. 1940)
2006 - Chris McKinstry, Canadian scientist (b. 1967)

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

1862 ~ Birthday of David Hilbert, Mathematician.

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

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

1989 ~ Death of Salvador Dalí, Artist.

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

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

[1nutworld]

Just a footnote to Jseal's above post.

The USS Pueblo is still held in Korean captivity, to this day. After the crew was released the Korean's, the ship was examined and remained in Korean hands. The Pueblo is still listed by the United States Navy as an active serving ship.

[Booger]

Events
41 - Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar (Caligula), known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.
1438 - The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV.
1458 - Matthias I Corvinus becomes king of Hungary.
1624 - Alfonso Mendez, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
1679 - King Charles II of England disbands Parliament.
1742 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
1776 – Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga.
1826 - Mississippi College is founded in Clinton, becoming the first college in the state of Mississippi.
1848 - California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
1857 - The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia.
1878 - The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
1908 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement.
1916 - In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
1918 - A decree of the Council of People's Commissars, introducing the Gregorian calendar in Russia since February 1, issued.
1924 - St. Petersburg, Russia is renamed Leningrad.
1927 - Director Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England.
1936 - Albert Sarraut becomes Prime Minister of France
1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
1952 - Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada.
1966 - An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117.
1972 - Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been in hiding since 1944, when U.S. forces liberated the island during World War II.
1977 - Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
1984 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
1986 - Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus.
1986 - Wapping dispute. Newspaper workers in London launch ultimately unsuccessful strike against Rupert Murdoch's News International.
1993 - Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara
1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charges he spied for Moscow.
2003 - The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
2006 - Disney agrees to purchase Pixar in an all-cash deal, making Steve Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney.


Births
76 - Hadrian, Roman Emperor (d. 138)
1287 - Richard Aungerville, English bishop (d. 1345)
1444 - Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1476)
1540 - Edmund Campion, English Jesuit (d. 1581)
1638 - Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet (d. 1706)
1670 - William Congreve, English playwright (d. 1729)
1674 - Thomas Tanner, English bishop (d. 1735)
1679 - Christian Wolff, German philosopher (d. 1754)
1705 - Farinelli, Italian castrato (d. 1782)
1712 - King Frederick II of Prussia (d. 1786)
1724 - Frances Brooke, English writer (d. 1789)
1732 - Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, French playwright (d. 1799)
1752 - Muzio Clementi, Italian composer (d. 1832)
1754 - Andrew Ellicott, American surveyor (d. 1820)
1763 - Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, Russian general (d. 1831)
1776 - E.T.A. Hoffmann, German writer (d. 1822)
1848 - Vasily Surikov, Russian painter (d. 1916)
1862 - Edith Wharton, American writer (d. 1937)
1864 - Marguerite Durand, French feminist leader (d. 1936)
1872 - Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (d. 1943)
1888 - Vicki Baum, Austrian writer (d. 1960)
1888 - Ernst Heinkel, German aircraft designer (d. 1958)
1891 - Walter Model, German field marshal (d. 1945)
1895 - Eugen Roth, German writer (d. 1976)
1898 - Cliff Heathcote, baseball player (d. 1939)
1902 - E. A. Speiser, American Bible scholar (d. 1965)
1905 - J. Howard Marshall, American billionaire (d. 1995)
1907 - Maurice Couve de Murville, French politician (d. 1999)
1909 - Martin Lings, English Islamic scholar (d. 2005)
1909 - Ann Todd, English actress (d. 1993)
1913 - Norman Dello Joio, American composer
1915 - Robert Motherwell, American painter (d. 1991)
1916 - Jack Brickhouse, American sports broadcaster (d. 1998)
1917 - Ernest Borgnine, American actor
1918 - Oral Roberts, American evangelist
1919 - Coleman Francis, American film director
1922 - Charles Socarides, American psychiatrist (d. 2005)
1925 - Maria Tallchief, American ballerina
1928 - Desmond Morris, British anthropologist
1928 - Michel Serrault, French actor
1934 - Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet (d. 1976)
1936 - Doug Kershaw, American musician
1939 - Ray Stevens, American musician
1941 - Neil Diamond, American singer
1941 - Aaron Neville, American singer
1943 - Sharon Tate, American actress and Manson murder victim (d. 1969)
1944 - Klaus Nomi, German singer (d. 1983)
1946 - Michael Ontkean, Canadian actor
1947 - Warren Zevon, American musician (d. 2003)
1949 - John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
1950 - Gerald Brisco, American wrestler
1950 - Benjamin Urrutia, American scholar
1950 - Daniel Auteuil, French actor
1951 - Yakov Smirnoff, Russian comedian
1956 - Hanne Krogh, Norwegian singer (Bobbysocks)
1957 - Adrian Edmondson, British comedian
1958 - Neil Allen, American baseball player
1958 - Jools Holland, British musician
1959 - Nastassja Kinski, German-born actress
1959 - Vic Reeves, English comedian
1961 - Vince Russo, American writer
1963 - Martyn Grimley, British hockey player
1963 - Arnold Vanderlyde, Dutch boxer
1965 - Mike Awesome, American wrestler
1966 - Jimeoin, Northern Irish comedian
1967 - John Myung, American musician (Dream Theater)
1967 - Phil LaMarr, American voice actor
1968 - Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
1970 - Matthew Lillard, American actor
1971 - Cory Bailey, American baseball player
1974 - Shii Ann Huang, American game show contestant
1975 - Rónald Gómez, Costa Rican footballer
1976 - Shae-Lynn Bourne, Canadian ice dancer with Victor Kraatz
1979 - Tatyana Ali, American actress
1980 - Nicole Marie Lenz, American actress
1981 - Travis Hanson, American baseball player
1982 - Jan Fila, Czech composer
1983 - Scott Speed, American racecar driver
1984 - Scott Kazmir, American baseball player
1986 - Mischa Barton, English-born American actress
1986 - Ricky Ullman, American actor
1989 - Calvin Goldspink, English singer (S Club 8)


[edit] Deaths
41 - Caligula, Emperor of Rome (b. 12)
772 - Pope Stephen III (b. 720)
1125 - David IV of Georgia (b. 1073)
1366 - Alfonso IV of Aragon (b. 1299)
1376 - Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English military leader
1473 - Conrad Paumann, German composer
1595 - Ferdinand II of Austria (b. 1529)
1626 - Samuel Argall, English adventurer and naval officer (b. 1580)
1639 - Georg Jenatsch, Swiss politician (b. 1596)
1666 - Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer (b. 1588)
1709 - George Rooke, English admiral (b. 1650)
1769 - François de Chevert, French general (b. 1695)
1856 - Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir, Polish Hasidic leader (b. 1775)
1877 - Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist (b. 1796)
1882 - Levi Boone, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1808)
1883 - Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (b. 1812)
1895 - Lord Randolph Churchill, British politician (b. 1849)
1911 - David Graham Phillips, American journalist and novelist (b. 1867)
1920 - Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1884)
1924 - Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1894)
1932 - Alfred Yarrow, English shipbuilder (b. 1842)
1939 - Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (b. 1867)
1943 - John Burns, English politician (b. 1858)
1955 - Ira Hayes, American World War II hero (b. 1923)
1960 - Edwin Fischer, Swiss pianist and conductor (b. 1886)
1961 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American swimmer and inventor (b. 1884)
1962 - Stanley Lord, captain of the SS Californian the night of the Titanic disaster (b. 1877)
1965 - Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (b. 1874)
1966 - Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist (b. 1909)
1970 - Caresse Crosby, American poet (b. 1891)
1971 - Bill W., American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
1973 - J. Carrol Naish, American actor (b. 1897)
1975 - Larry Fine, American actor and comedian (b. 1902)
1978 - Herta Oberheuser, Nazi doctor (b. 1911)
1983 - George Cukor, American film director (b. 1899)
1986 - L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and founder of Scientology (b. 1911)
1986 - Flo Hyman, American volleyball player (b. 1954)
1986 - Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
1989 - Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)
1989 - George Knudson, Canadian golfer (b. 1937)
1990 - Madge Bellamy, American actress (b. 1899)
1991 - John M. Kelly, Irish politician and academic (b. 1931)
1992 - Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer (b. 1950)
1993 - Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1908)
1998 - Walter D. Edmonds, American author (b. 1903)
2000 - Bobby Duncum, Jr., wrestler (b. 1965)
2002 - Peter Gzowski, Canadian broadcaster, writer and reporter (b. 1934)
2003 - Gianni Agnelli, Italian auto executive (b. 1921)
2004 - Leônidas da Silva, Brazilian footballer (b. 1913)
2005 - June Bronhill, Australian singer (b. 1929)
2005 - Vladimir Savchenko, Ukrainian writer (b. 1933)
2005 - Chalkie White, English rugby coach (b. 1929)
2006 - Chris Penn, American actor (b. 1965)

[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 ~ The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell (http://users.aol.com/randywoo/bsahis/b-p.htm).

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

1945 ~ Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz (http://www.auschwitz.dk/Auschwitz.htm).

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

1962 ~ Brian Epstein signed to manage The Beatles.

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

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 (http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm) officially began operation.

[jseal]

1533 ~ England's King Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDboleyn.htm), his second wife.

1627 ~ Birthday of Robert Boyle, Chemist.

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

1882 ~ Birthday of Virginia Woolf, Writer.

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

1919 ~ The League of Nations was founded.

1947 ~ Death of Al Capone (http://www.crimelibrary.com/capone/caponemain.htm), Gangster.

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

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

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

[jseal]

1785 ~ Benjamin Franklin (http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/turkey.html) wrote a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States; 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.

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

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

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

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

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

2005 ~ Following her confirmation by the Senate, Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, 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 (http://www.mozarteum.at/04_Biografie/04_Biografie.asp?SID=16938743814179), Composer.

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

1901 ~ Death of Giuseppe Verdi, Composer.

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

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

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

1992 ~ Mike Tyson (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/sports/mike-tyson/) went on trial charged with raping a Miss Black America contestant.

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

1998 ~ U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton called the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/01/27/hillary.today/)" on the “Today Show”.

[jseal]

1521 ~ The Diet of Worms (http://www.answers.com/topic/diet-of-worms) began.

1574 ~ Death of Henry VIII (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page19.asp), King of England.

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

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

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

1887 ~ Birthday of Artur Rubinstein, Polish Pianist.

1935 ~ Iceland became the first country to legalize abortion.

1939 ~ Death of William Butler Yeats, Writer.

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

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

Feastdays & Holidays

Catholicism ~ Feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas (http://www.op.org/domcentral/study/TA.htm).

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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

1944 ~ The USS Missouri (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb63.htm), a 45,000 ton Iowa class battleship was launched.

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

1962 ~ Death of Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

1969 ~ Last public performance by The Beatles.

1972 ~ Thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday (http://www.inac.org/irishhistory/bloodysunday)”.

1991 ~ The first major ground battle of the Gulf War (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/30/newsid_2506000/2506001.stm) was fought at the frontier port of Al Khafji in Saudi Arabia.

2003 ~ Richard Reid (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/30/newsid_4081000/4081741.stm), the "Shoe bomber" jailed for life.

[jseal]

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

1797 ~ Birthday of Franz Schubert, Composer.

1917 ~ Germany announced that its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.

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

1950 ~ President Harry S. Truman announced a program to develop the hydrogen bomb (http://www.nvr.org/pres_content.php?pro=pres&sec=timeline&subsec=3).

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).

1990 ~ A Canadian, George Cohon (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jan&day=31), opened McDonald's Corp. first Moscow restaurant in Pushkin Square.

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

2001 ~ A Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

[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 (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=01) was established.

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.

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

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran.

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

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

2004 ~ 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) - supposedly the petrified remains of a human discovered in Cardiff, N.Y. - was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum.

1875 ~ Birthday of Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist.

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

1897 ~ Birthday of Howard Johnson (http://www.answers.com/topic/howard-deering-johnson), American Hotelier.

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

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

1970 ~ Death of Bertrand Russell, Mathematician & Philosopher.

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

Feastdays & Holidays

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

[jseal]

1468 ~ Death of Johannes Gutenberg (http://www.mainz.de/gutenberg/english/zeitgum.htm), German Publisher.

1809 ~ Birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, Composer.

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

1874 ~ Birthday of Gertrude Stein, Writer.

1894 ~ Birthday of Norman Rockwell, Illustrator.

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

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

1947 ~ Birthday of Melanie Safka (http://www.melaniesmusic.com/index.html), Singer.

1959 ~ A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_2802000/2802541.stm), claimed the lives of rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. ''The Big Bopper'' Richardson.

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

[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 (http://www.worldstatesmen.org/US_govt_CSA.html) was formed by delegates from six break-away United States.

1894 ~ Death of Adolphe Sax (http://www.saxgourmet.com/adolph-sax.html), 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.

1928 ~ Death of Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate.

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

1987 ~ Death of Liberace, "Mr. Showmanship (http://www.liberace.com/bio.cfm)".

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

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

[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.

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

1919 ~ Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith created United Artists (http://www.answers.com/topic/united-artists).

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

1934 ~ Birthday of Hank Aaron, Athlete.

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

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

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

1988 ~ Two indictments were unsealed in Florida, accusing Panama's military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_re_us/noriega_s_release), of bribery and drug trafficking.

[jseal]

1564 ~ Birthday of Christopher Marlowe (http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/marlowe.htm), 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 ~ The UK’s King George VI died (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0206.html#article); he was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1812 ~ Birthday of Charles Dickens (http://humwww.ucsc.edu/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 arrived in New York (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7/newsid_4185000/4185201.stm) for their first American tour, touching off rock 'n' roll's “British invasion”.

1971 ~ Women became entitled to vote in Switzerland.

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

1990 ~ The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9024991/Communist-Party) agreed to let other political parties compete for control of the country, thereby giving up its monopoly on power.

1992 ~ The European Union (http://europa.eu.int/abc/treaties/index_en.htm) was formed.

[jseal]

1587 ~ Mary, Queen of Scots (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page134.asp) was executed.

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.scouting.org/media/anniversary/history.html) was incorporated by William D. Boyce.

1925 ~ Birthday of Jack Lemmon, Actor.

1932 ~ Birthday of John Williams, Composer & Conductor.

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

1957 ~ Death of John von Neumann, Mathematician.

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

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

[jseal]

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

1878 ~ Proposed U.S. Federal Income Tax lampooned (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/0209.html).

1881 ~ Death of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Author.

1900 ~ Davis Cup competition established.

1906 ~ Death of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Poet.

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

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

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

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

1984 ~ Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/andropov/) died at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev.

[jseal]

1763 ~ France ceded Canada to England under the Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War (http://www.reference.com/search?q=French%20and%20Indian%20War).

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

1840 ~ Queen Victoria (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp) of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

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 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Price-Leontyn.htm), Soprano.

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

1949 ~ Arthur Miller's play “Death of a Salesman (http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/death.html)” opened on Broadway.

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

1996 ~ Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov (http://www.uschess.org/results/tnmt/96kdb/) for the first time. :(

[jseal]

1650 ~ Death of René Descartes (http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm), 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 first science fiction television program, an adaptation of the Karel Capek play R.U.R. (http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/RUR-Capek-1920.htm) (This play coined the term 'robot.')

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

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

1978 ~ China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, Shakespeare and Dickens.

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

1986 ~ Death of Frank Herbert (http://www.dunenovels.com/bios/frank.html), Science Fiction author.

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

[jseal]

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 (http://www.aboutdarwin.com/), Naturalist.

1893 ~ Birthday of Omar Bradley, General.

1924 ~ George Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue'' premiered in New York City.

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

1994 ~ Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is stolen (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/12/newsid_3591000/3591994.stm) from a museum in Norway.

1999 ~ The U.S. Senate voted to acquit President Clinton (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/02/12/impeachment/) on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

2000 ~ Death of Charles M. Schulz (http://www.animationusa.com/resources/aboutschulz.html), creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip.

2002 ~ The war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic (http://www.c-span.org/milosevic/) began in The Hague.

[jseal]

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 found Bruno Hauptmann guilty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0213.html#article) of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.

1945 ~ The RAF & USAAF created a firestorm in Dresden (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWdresden.htm), Germany which killed tens of thousands of civilians.

1960 ~ France tested its first nuclear weapon. (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/France/FranceOrigin.html)

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 (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=13), Alberta.

1991 ~ Hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed when a pair of laser-guided bombs destroyed an underground facility in Baghdad (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/13/newsid_2541000/2541107.stm) identified by U.S. officials as a military installation, but which Iraqi officials said was a bomb shelter.

1997 ~ Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope (http://www.cosmiclight.com/imagegalleries/hst.htm) performed by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

[jseal]

1766 ~ Birthday of Thomas Malthus, Economist.

1779 ~ James Cook was killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands.

1895 ~ First performance of Oscar Wilde's last play "The Importance of Being Earnest (http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Wilde/earnest/)”.

1929 ~ The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0214.html#article) took place in a Chicago garage.

1945 ~ U.S. President Roosevelt met with King Ibn Saud (http://www.islc.net/~billychaplin/test/pic11.jpg) of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the US-Saudi diplomatic relationship (http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/articles/2005/ioi/050213-roosevelt-uss-quincy.html).

1966 ~ Australian currency was decimalized.

1989 ~ Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/14/newsid_2541000/2541149.stm), author of ''The Satanic Verses,'' a novel Khomeini condemned as blasphemous.

2003 ~ Death of Dolly the sheep (http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/dolly/index.asp), the world's first cloned mammal.

2005 ~ Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/14/newsid_4930000/4930108.stm).

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 and sank (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0215.html#article) in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260.

1942 ~ The British colony of Singapore surrendered to the Japanese (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/15/newsid_3529000/3529447.stm) during World War II. 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 (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=15) replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

1988 ~ Death of Richard Feynman (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-bio.html), Physicist.

1995 ~ Kevin Mitnick was arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the more "secure" U.S. computer systems.

1989 ~ The Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/15/newsid_4160000/4160827.stm) after more than nine years of military intervention.

[jseal]

1923 ~ Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0216.html#article).

1935 ~ Birthday of Sonny Bono, Singer & Congressman.

1937 ~ Wallace Carothers (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980325.htm) received a patent for nylon.

1942 ~ Birthday of Kim Jong Il (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/dictators/kim-jong-il/), North Korean leader.

1959 ~ Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_2544000/2544431.stm) after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

1978 ~ The first computer bulletin board system, CBBS, was created in Chicago, Illinois.

1986 ~ The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov ran aground (http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/lermontov.htm) in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.

1989 ~ Investigators announced that the cause of the crash of Pan Am flight 103 (http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001534.htm) 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 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_4930000/4930554.stm) came into effect.

[jseal]

1653 ~ Birthday of Arcangelo Corelli, Composer.

1801 ~ An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande07.html) was resolved when Jefferson was elected President and Burr Vice President by the House of Representatives.

1817 ~ The corner of Market and Lemon Streets in Baltimore became the first to be lighted with gas (http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/castaneda.gas.industry.us) from America's first gas company.

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.

1962 ~ Death of Bruno Walter, Conductor.

1972 ~ President Nixon departed on his historic trip to China (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0217.html#article).

1979 ~ China invaded Vietnam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/17/newsid_2547000/2547811.stm).

1992 ~ Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=498) was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison.

[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 was inaugurated as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0218.html#article).

1885 ~ Mark Twain's “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/huchompg.html)” was first published.

1930 ~ While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto (http://www.solarviews.com/eng/pluto.htm).

1933 ~ Birthday of Yoko Ono, Singer, Artist, wife of John Lennon.

1969 ~ Lulu and Maurice Gibb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/18/newsid_2550000/2550641.stm) of the Bee Gees marry.

1967 ~ Death of J. Robert Oppenheimer (http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Oppenheimer.shtml), American physicist.

2005 ~ The UK law banning fox hunting (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4275753.stm), hare coursing and other sports which kill wild mammals is enforced from this date.

[jseal]

1473 ~ Birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus (http://www.phy.bg.ac.yu/web_projects/giants/copernicus.html), 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 U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0219.html#article).

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

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

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

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

[Oldfart]

They had a 65th Anniversary ceremony this morning, which I missed because of an inservice course.
The bunch who hit Pearl Harbour ducked over to near Singapore, sank the "Prince of Wales" and the Repulse" blunting the bite of the Brits in the region, than hit us to stop us becoming an American support base (for a while) in the response which was sure to come.

We take it seriously here, as we suffered several hundred incursions before the Empire was driven back.

[jseal]

1626 ~ Death of John Dowland, Composer.

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

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 (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/poitier_s.html), Actor.

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

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

1966 ~ Death of Chester Nimitz (http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq36-4.htm), American admiral.

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

[jseal]

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

1893 ~ Birthday of Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist.

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

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

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

1947 ~ Edwin Land demonstrated the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

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

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 (http://www.brainyhistory.com/events/1975/february_21_1975_147018.html).

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

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

[jseal]

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 (http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/britishcavalry/13thhussarsbadenpowell.htm), Chief Scout of the World.

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

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

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

1967 ~ General Suharto assumes control of Indonesia

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

1856 ~ Death of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician.

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

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

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

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

1955 ~ Birthday of Steve Jobs, Computer Pioneer.

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

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

[jseal]

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

1841 ~ Birthday of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Painter & Sculptor.

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

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

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/), Beatle.

1983 ~ Death of Tennessee Williams, playwright.

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

1994 ~ Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs (http://www.answers.com/topic/baruch-goldstein) in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death by worshippers

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

[jseal]

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

1802 ~ Birthday of Victor Hugo, Poet.

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

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

1918 ~ Birthday of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

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

1944 ~ Filming of the Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuhrer Gives a Village to the Jews (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xl_pSYxuLGk)" began in Theresienstadt.

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

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

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

[jseal]

1807 ~ Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet (The Song of Hiawatha (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/hiawatha.html), The Village Blacksmith (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/longf02.html), Paul Revere's Ride (http://eserver.org/poetry/paul-revere.html)).

1827 ~ The first Mardi Gras (http://www.mardigras.com/) was celebrated in New Orleans.

1873 ~ Birthday of Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor.

1887 ~ Death of Alexander Borodin, composer.

1900 ~ The British Labour Party (http://www.labour.org.uk/home) was formed.

1902 ~ Birthday of John Steinbeck (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-bio.html), Writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1962.

1912 ~ Birthday of Lawrence Durrell, Writer.

1933 ~ Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, caught fire (http://worldatwar.net/event/reichstagsbrand/). The Nazis, blaming the Communists, used the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.

1951 ~ In a victory for freedom lovers, the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html#22), limiting Presidents to two terms, was ratified.

1991 ~ President Bush declared "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0227.html#article)", and announced a Gulf War ceasefire.

[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 (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWschlieffen.htm), German field marshal.

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

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

1935 ~ Wallace Carothers discovered Nylon.

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

1872 ~ U.S. Congress authorized creation of Yellowstone National Park.

1896 ~ Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity.

1904 ~ Birthday of Glenn Miller (http://www.glennmillerstore.com/), 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 Agathe.

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1824 ~ Birthday of Bedrich Smetana, Composer.

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

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

1904 ~ Birthday of Dr. Seuss (http://www.seussville.com/main.php?section=home&isbn=&catalogID=&eventID=), Author.

1930 ~ Death of D. H. Lawrence, Writer.

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

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

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

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

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 ~ Florida became the 27th state.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1678 ~ Birthday of Antonio Vivaldi (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/vivaldi.html), 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 (http://www.hawkesburyhistory.org.au/articles/Battle_of_Vinegar.html), New South Wales.

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

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

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

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

1994 ~ Four terrorists were convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing (http://www.adl.org/learn/jttf/wtcb_jttf.asp) which killed six and injured more than a thousand.

1997 ~ U.S. President Clinton prohibited federal funding for any research on human cloning (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jones/tmp352/projects98/group1/gov.html).

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 (http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/mercator.html), Flemish Geographer & Cartographer.

1658 ~ Birthday of Antoine Cadillac (http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=05), founder of Detroit.

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

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

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

1953 ~ Death of Josef Stalin (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stalin_joseph.shtml), Soviet dictator.

1982 ~ Comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in Hollywood at age 33.

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

1806 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet.

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, a slave, could not sue for his freedom (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0306.html#headlines) in a federal court.

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

1888 ~ Death of Louisa May Alcott, Novelist.

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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) was 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 (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/capablanca/capablanca.htm), 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 (http://www.americannaziparty.com/about/index.php) in Arlington, Virginia.

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

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

[jseal]

1454 ~ Birthday of Amerigo Vespucci, Explorer & Cartographer.

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.

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

1943 ~ Birthday of Bobby Fischer, chess player.

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

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

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

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

1996 ~ Death of George Burns, Actor.

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

[jseal]

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

1893 ~ Côte d'Ivoire became a French colony.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1993 ~ Dr. David Gunn (http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/abortion-access/david-gunn-11495.htm) was shot to death outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic.

[jseal]

1847 ~ Death of Johnny Appleseed (http://www.answers.com/topic/johnny-appleseed) (John Chapman), Pioneer & Agronomist.

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

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

1955 ~ Death of Alexander Fleming (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/11/newsid_2538000/2538043.stm), Biologist.

1968 ~ Death of John Wyndham, Author.

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

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

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

1997 ~ Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

2004 ~ Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain, killed 191 people and wounded at least 1,800 in an attack linked to al-Qaida (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/11/newsid_4273000/4273817.stm).

[jseal]

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

1913 ~ Canberra officially named.

1922 ~ Birthday of Jack Kerouac, Writer.

1925 ~ Birthday of Harry Harrison, Science Fiction author.

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

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

1950 ~ "Dennis the Menace (http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/dennis/about.htm)" made its syndicated debut.

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

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

[jseal]

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

1855 ~ Birthday of Percival Lowell, Astronomer.

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

1906 ~ Death of Susan B. Anthony (http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blanthony.htm), civil rights and women's suffrage activist.

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

1938 ~ Death of Clarence Darrow, Attorney.

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

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

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

1996 ~ A gunman opened fire on a class of kindergarteners (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/13/newsid_2543000/2543277.stm) at an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.

[jseal]

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

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

1835 ~ Birthday of Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian Astronomer.

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

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

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

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

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

1994 ~ Linux (http://kniggit.net/wwol26.html) kernel version 1.0.0 was released.

1995 ~ Astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to enter space aboard a Russian rocket as he and two cosmonauts blasted off aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for the Mir space station..

[jseal]

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

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

1898 ~ Death of Henry Bessemer, English metallurgist.

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

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

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

1956 ~ ”My Fair Lady (http://www.pygmalion.ws/stories/bdwy-myfairlady.htm)” 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 was executed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/15/newsid_2543000/2543475.stm) for spying.

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

[Oldfart]

Ides heard that one about Caesar, jseal.

[dm383]

Popped in for the first time in a while. Thanks, jseal, for keeping this thread alive; I'd never have thought it would last anywhere near as long as it has!!

You are an inspiration sir, and I salute you.

DM

[jseal]

:)

[jseal]

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

1736 ~ Death of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer.

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

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

1898 ~ Death of Aubrey Beardsley, British Artist.

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

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

1978 ~ Aldo Moro was kidnapped (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4232000/4232691.stm) by left-wing urban guerrillas in Italy and was later killed by his captors.

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

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

[jseal]

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

461 ~ Death of Saint Patrick (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 (http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9253026), Singer. Oh! what a singer!

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

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

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 (http://members.aol.com/jeff560/chrono1.html).

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

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

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 (http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/topten/isabella.htm), Massachusetts. This was the largest art theft in U.S. history.

1992 ~ Microsoft shipped Windows 3.1.

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

[jseal]

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

1813 ~ Birthday of David Livingstone (http://home.vicnet.net.au/~neils/africa/livingstone.htm), Missionary & Explorer.

1848 ~ Birthday of Wyatt Earp, Policeman & Gunfighter.

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

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

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

1950 ~ Death of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Author.

1953 ~ The Academy Awards were first televised.

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

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

Feastdays & Holidays

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

[jseal]

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

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

1828 ~ Birthday of Henrik Ibsen, Playwright.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

1867 ~ Birthday of Florenz Ziegfeld (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar21.html), Broadway Impresario.

1945 ~ UK troops liberated Mandalay, Burma.

1960 ~ Police fired on demonstrators in Sharpeville (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/21/newsid_2653000/2653405.stm), South Africa, killing 69 and wounding 180.

1963 ~ The federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz, was closed.

1965 ~ Rev. King led 3,200 people on the start of a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0321.html#article), Alabama.

1980 ~ President Carter announced a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow (http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1980) to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

1999 ~ Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first men to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon (http://records.fai.org/documents.asp?from=balloons&id=5960).

2000 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the government lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug..

[jseal]

1683 ~ Anne Hutchinson (http://www.17thc.us/index.php?id=16) was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.

1687 ~ Death of Jean Baptiste Lully, French Composer.

1832 ~ Death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Writer & Poet.

1882 ~ U.S. Congress outlawed polygamy.

1923 ~ Birthday of Marcel Marceau (http://www.culturevulture.net/Theater/MarcelMarceau.html), Mime.

1963 ~ The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denied improper involvement with the model Christine Keeler (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/22/newsid_4271000/4271221.stm).

1963 ~ The Beatles' first album, "Please Please Me (http://www.beatles.com/hub/tracklisting.php?img=Please&menuItem=the%20music&order=chrono)", was released in the UK.

1972 ~ The Equal Rights Amendment (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0322.html#article) to the U.S. Constitution was sent to the states for ratification.

1993 ~ The Intel Corporation shipped the first Pentium chips (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/cpu/fam/g5P54-c.html).

2004 ~ Death (by Israeli Hellfire missile) of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/middleeast/yassin.html), co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas.

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1989 ~ Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced cold fusion (http://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 space station Mir was de-orbited (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast10mar_1.htm), breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

1905 ~ Death of Jules Verne, Author.

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

1867 ~ Birthday of Arturo Toscanini, Conductor.

1881 ~ Birthday of Béla Bartók, Composer.

1918 ~ Death of Claude Debussy, Composer.

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

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

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

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

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

[gekkogecko]

I note that the capsule history of Maryland's founding completely skips the nastiness between the Kent Islanders and the colonials led by the Calverts. Some brief mention of that here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Maryland#Colonial_Maryland

[jseal]

History can be thought of as His Story

[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 (http://www.jcf.org/index2.php), Author & Mythologist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Tennessee Williams, Playwright.

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1854 ~ Crimean War (http://www.crimeanwar.org/cwrsentry.html): The UK 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 (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/rachmaninov.html), composer and pianist.

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

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

1987 ~ Death of Maria von Trapp, Singer.

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

[jseal]

1799 ~ New York passed a law aimed at 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.

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

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

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

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

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

2004 ~ Death of Alistair Cook (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3581573.stm), Journalist.

[jseal]

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

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

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

1870 ~ Texas was readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

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

1951 ~ Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC I (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/randy.carpenter/folklore/v5n1.html) 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.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/vang0898.htm) was bought for almost $40 million.

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

[jseal]

1596 ~ Birthday of René Descartes (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96mar/descartes.html), Mathematician.

1621 ~ Birthday of Andrew Marvell, English poet.

1732 ~ Birthday of Joseph Haydn, Composer.

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

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

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

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

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

1970 ~ After 12 years in orbit, Explorer 1 (http://www.nasm.si.edu/spacecraft/SS-explorer1.htm) burns up when it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Feastdays & Holidays

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

[jseal]

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

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

1875 ~ Birthday of Walter Chrysler, automobile pioneer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1783 ~ Birthday of Washington Irving, Author.

1882 ~ Jesse James was shot in the back and killed for a $5,000 reward.

1885 ~ Gottlieb Daimler was granted a German patent for his engine design.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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.

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

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

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

1994 ~ Netscape Communications Corporation (http://www.cacs.louisiana.edu/~mgr/404/burks/foldoc/28/79.htm) 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 cast the first presidential veto (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/first_veto.htm), rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

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

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

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

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

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 became the first men to reach the North Pole (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0406.html#article).

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

1770 ~ Birthday of William Wordsworth, English poet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

April 8th

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

1848 ~ Death of Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer.

1889 ~ Birthday of Sir Adrien Boult, English Conductor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1682 ~ Robert de LaSalle (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/l/lasalle.shtml) discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River, claimed it for France and named it Louisiana.

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

1906 ~ Birthday of Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor.

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

1942 ~ HMS Hermes (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 (http://www.iankitching.me.uk/humour/lehrer/).

1959 ~ Death of Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect.

1991 ~ Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 ~ Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/9/newsid_3502000/3502633.stm), beheading a toppled statue of the dictator in downtown Baghdad.

[IowaMan]

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

There we go. Sort of scared myself into thinking I had lost a couple of years there for a second. :p

[jseal]

:yikes: OOoooooooooooooooopppppppppppppssssssssssssssssss! :yikes:


Thank you IowaMan!

[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 (http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/ezapata1.html) was ambushed and killed 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 (http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/LUMIERE_BIO.html), Cinema Pioneer.

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

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 (http://www.ringling.com/).

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

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

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

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

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

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 (http://www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/seneca_001.html), Philosopher, Dramatist & Statesman.

1606 ~ The Union Jack (http://www.know-britain.com/general/union_jack.html) was adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.

1861 ~ The Civil War began (http://www.us-civilwar.com/sumter.htm) as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in 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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin) became the first man in space aboard Vostok 1.

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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 (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Huygens.html), 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 (http://home.gwi.net/~paul/) struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage.

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

1939 ~ ''The Grapes of Wrath (http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Steinbeck/grapes.html)'' by John Steinbeck was published.

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

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

1970 ~ The Oregon Supreme Court nullified nearly 3,000 marriage licenses issued to homosexual couples a year earlier by Portland's Multnomah County.

[Oldfart]

Lincoln's unwell????

[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.

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

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

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

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

[IowaMan]

I've got to add one more for today jseal.

1947 ~ Jack Roosevelt Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first African-American to play in a Major League Baseball game in the modern era.

Thank you Jackie, for everything. I'm a Cubs fan until my last breath but today I'm a Dodger wearing number 42. :thumb:

[jseal]

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

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

1912 ~ Harriett Quimby (http://www.sonictech.net/customers/gia/) became the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.

1918 ~ Birthday of Spike Milligan, Comedian.

1921 ~ Birthday of Peter Ustinov (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3578415.stm), Writer, Actor & Film Director.

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

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

1945 ~ The Red Army began the final assault on the Wehrmacht around Berlin.

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

1861 ~ The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.

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

1903 ~ Birthday of Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist.

1924 ~ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios was formed (http://www.oscars.org/mhl/hn/MGM_hn.html) from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company.

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

1946 ~ The League of Nations (http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/league/background.html) voted itself out of existence.

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

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

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

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

1999 ~ Wayne Gretzky played his last National Hockey League game, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

[jseal]

1587 ~ Sir Francis Drake sank the Spanish fleet in Cadiz Harbor.

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

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

1882 ~ Death of Charles Darwin, Biologist & Author.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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 (http://www.online-literature.com/stoker/), Author.

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

1816 ~ Birthday of Charlotte Brontë, Author.

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

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

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

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

1944 ~ Women in France were enfranchised.

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

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 (http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Oppenheimer.shtml), American physicist.

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

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

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

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

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

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


Feastdays & Holidays

Earth Day : Canada (http://www.earthday.ca/pub/events/earthday2007.php), U.S. (http://earthday.gov/)

[jseal]

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

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

1891 ~ Birthday of Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet Composer.

1954 ~ Hank Aaron (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/aaron_hank.htm) hit his first major league home run.

1968 ~ Birthday of Timothy McVeigh, American Terrorist.

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

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

1994 ~ Physicists discover the top quark (http://www.todayinsci.com/4/4_23.htm).

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

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

[Oldfart]

2007 - Boris Yeltsin, Soviet strongman and the architect of the dismantling of the USSR died.

[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 (http://www.robertpennwarren.com/biography.htm), Writer, Pulitzer Prize winner, first American Poet Laureate.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

April 25th

1599 ~ Birthday of Oliver Cromwell, Military Leader & Politician.

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

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

1840 ~ Birthday of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Composer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Feastdays & Holidays

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

[jseal]

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.

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

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

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

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

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

1994 ~ South Africa held its first multiracial elections.

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

[jseal]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

1788 ~ Maryland became the 7th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

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

1908 ~ Birthday of Oskar Schindler (http://www.oskarschindler.com/), Businessman.

1937 ~ Birthday of Saddam Hussein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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) were killed by members of the Italian resistance movement while trying to flee Italy (http://members.aol.com/Custermen85/ILDUCE/Mussolini.htm).

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

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

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

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

2003 ~ Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store launched.

[jseal]

B]1770[/B] ~ James Cook arrived at and named Botany Bay, Australia.

1863 ~ Birthday of William Randolph Hearst, American publisher.

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

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

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

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

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

1980 ~ Death of Alfred Hitchcock, director.

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

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

[jseal]

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

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

1883 ~ Death of Édouard Manet, Impressionist Painter.

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

1938 ~ Birthday of Larry Niven (http://www.larryniven.org/index.shtml), Science Fiction author.

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

1948 ~ The Land Rover was introduced (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/4/LandRover/S1/).

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

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

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

[jseal]

1786 ~ Opening night of Mozart’s opera, The Marriage of Figaro (http://www.reginaopera.org/figaro.htm).

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

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

1904 ~ Death of Antonín Dvořák, Czech Composer.

1939 ~ Birthday of Judy Collins, American folk singer.

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

1944 ~ Birthday of Rita Coolidge, Singer.

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

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

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

[jseal]

1519 ~ Death of Leonardo da Vinci (http://www.kausal.com/leonardo/), inventor, painter.

1660 ~ Birthday of Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian Composer.

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

1892 ~ Birthday of "The Red Baron", Manfred von Richthofen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

1616 ~ Death of William Shakespeare Playwright & Poet.

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

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

1937 ~ Gone With the Wind (http://www.gwtw.org/gonewiththewind.html), a novel by Margaret Mitchell, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

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

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

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

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

2001 ~ The U.S. lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

[jseal]

1626 ~ Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on what is now Manhattan.

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

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

1928 ~ Birthday of Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[jseal]

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

1813 ~ Birthday of Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher.

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

1821 ~ Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, Ruler of France.

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

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

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

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

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

1995 ~ Death of Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion.

[jseal]

1758 ~ Birthday of Maximilien Robespierre, Revolutionary.

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

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

1915 ~ Birthday of Orson Welles, Director.

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

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

1953 ~ Birthday of Tony Blair (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9003134/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) became the first man to run the mile in under four minutes.

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

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

[jseal]

1824 ~ Premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/beethoven_sym9.html) in Vienna.

1825 ~ Death of Antonio Salieri, Composer.

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

1840 ~ Birthday of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

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

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

1933 ~ Birthday of Johnny Unitas (http://www.cmgworldwide.com/football/unitas/junitas.html), American football star.

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

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

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

[jseal]

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.allendrake.com/elpasohistory/sheen/index.htm), bishop and television personality.

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

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

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

1985 ~ Death of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

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

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

[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 (http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/carter.htm), British archaeologist.

1901 ~ Australia opened its first parliament in Melbourne (http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/How/education/resources/fact_sheets/fact2.pdf). (PDF)

1903 ~ Death of Paul Gauguin (http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gauguin/gauguin.html), 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 (http://www.tenzing-norgay.com/pages/tenzingnorgaysherpa.html), Mountaineer.

1994 ~ Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0509.html#article).

2002 ~ Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening suspended executions in his state while a study was done on whether the death penalty was being meted out in a racially discriminatory way.

[jseal]

1818 ~ Death of Paul Revere, engraver, American Patriot.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Wilkes Booth, Actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

1857 ~ The Indian Mutiny began (http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/1857.html) when the Sepoys revolted against the British Army.

1869 ~ The first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. was completed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0510.html#article) at Promontory, Utah.

1872 ~ Victoria Woodhull (http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/) became the first woman nominated for U.S. President.

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

1924 ~ J. Edgar Hoover (http://www.fbi.gov/libref/directors/hoover.htm) became director of the FBI.

1933 ~ The Nazis staged massive public book burnings (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/fi_fset.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005852&ArticleId=3545&MediaId=158).

1940 ~ British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, and Winston Churchill formed a new government (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/10/newsid_3497000/3497115.stm).

2002 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen was given a life sentence (http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/05/10/hanssen.sentenced/index.html) without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Russia.

[jseal]

1904 ~ Birthday of Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter.

1918 ~ Birthday of Richard Feynman (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-bio.html), American Physicist.

1930 ~ Birthday of Edsger Dijkstra (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/), Dutch computer scientist.

1973 ~ Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0511.html#article).

1981 ~ Death of Bob Marley (http://www.bobmarley.com/), Reggae musician.

1987 ~ The first heart-lung transplant took place in Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 ~ Death of Kim Philby (http://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 (http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/flo2.htm), Nurse.

1845 ~ Birthday of Gabriel Fauré, Composer.

1884 ~ Death of Bedřich Smetana, Composer.

1889 ~ Death of John Cadbury (http://www.cadbury.co.uk/EN/CTB2003/about_chocolate/history_cadbury/key_events/), Chocolate Entrepreneur.

1918 ~ Birthday of Julius Rosenberg (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/rosenb/ROS_BJRO.HTM), Spy.

1943 ~ Axis forces in North Africa surrendered (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0512.html#article).

1962 ~ Douglas MacArthur delivered his famous "Duty, Honor, Country (http://www.nationalcenter.org/MacArthurFarewell.html)" valedictory speech at West Point.

1971 ~ Mick Jagger married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/12/newsid_2884000/2884833.stm) in St Tropez.

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 (http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020292b.htm).

1842 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan (http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/html/sullivan2a.html) of Gilbert & Sullivan, Composer.

1861 ~ Queen Victoria issued a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognized the breakaway Confederate states as having belligerent rights.

1888 ~ Brazil abolished slavery.

1912 ~ The Royal Flying Corps (http://85.232.36.76/rafcms/mediafiles/F21BE44E_EE18_2A21_DE9200FADAA9DB6E.pdf) (now the Royal Air Force) was established in the U.K.

1937 ~ Birthday of Roger Zelazny (http://zelazny.corrupt.net/zelazny.php), Science Fiction author.

1940 ~ Winston Churchill made his "blood, tears, toil and sweat (http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/churchill.htm)" speech to the House of Commons.

1981 ~ Mehmet Ali 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.

1995 ~ Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to climb Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/13/newsid_2843000/2843951.stm).

[jseal]

1265 ~ Birthday of Dante Alighieri (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dante/), Italian Poet.

1787 ~ Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution (http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/).

1925 ~ Death of H. Rider Haggard, Author.

1944 ~ Birthday of George Lucas, film Director & Producer.

1948 ~ The independent state of Israel was proclaimed (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0514.html#article).

1955 ~ The USSR and seven other communist bloc countries signed a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/14/newsid_3771000/3771065.stm).

1973 ~ Skylab 1 (http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/history/skylab/skylab.htm), the first American space station, was launched.

1978 ~ Death of Robert Menzies (http://www.menziesvirtualmuseum.org.au/), twelfth Prime Minister of Australia.

1998 ~ Death of Frank Sinatra (http://www.franksinatra.com/), Singer & Actor.

2004 ~ Piers Morgan was fired as editor of the Daily Mirror for publishing photographs of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers that were shown to be fake.

[jseal]

1567 ~ Birthday of Claudio Monteverdi (http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/milestones/990519.motm.monteverdi.html), Italian Composer.

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

1886 ~ Death of Emily Dickinson (http://www.emilydickinson.org/), Poet.

1911 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Standard Oil Company (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0515.html#article), requiring its break up under the Sherman Anti-Trust act.

1919 ~ The Winnipeg General Strike (http://www.histori.ca/peace/page.do?pageID=347) began.

1930 ~ Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess (http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/innovators/echurch.html), on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois.

1940 ~ Nylon stockings went on general sale for the first time in the U.S.

1957 ~ Britain tested its first hydrogen bomb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/15/newsid_2510000/2510335.stm) in Operation Grapple.

1972 ~ George C. Wallace was shot (http://www.trivia-library.com/a/assassination-attempts-george-c-wallace-alabama-governor-part-1.htm) and left paralyzed while campaigning for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination.

1988 ~ The Soviet Union began withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan.

[jseal]

1866 ~ Charles Hires (http://www.bottlebooks.com/hires.htm) 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 (http://www.henry-fonda.com/), Actor.

1919 ~ Birthday of Liberace (http://www.liberace.com/bio.cfm), 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 (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/edward_jenner.htm), inventor of vaccination.

1838 ~ Death of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French diplomat.

1935 ~ Death of Paul Dukas (http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/289.htm), French composer.

1936 ~ Birthday of Dennis Hopper, Actor & Director.

1943 ~ The RAF carried out the Dambusters raid (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/17/newsid_3623000/3623223.stm).

1954 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court issued their decision in Brown v. Board of Education (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0517.html#article).

1974 ~ Thirty-three people were killed by terrorist bombings in Ireland (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/17/newsid_4311000/4311459.stm).

1992 ~ Death of Lawrence Welk (http://www.spaceagepop.com/welk.htm), American musician.

1996 ~ President Bill Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in - Megan's Law (http://www.megans-law.net/).

2004 ~ Same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts.

[jseal]

1872 ~ Birthday of Bertrand Russell (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html), Logician & Philosopher, awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950.

1910 ~ The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet (http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/stellar_bodies/halleys_comet/32/index.html).

1911 ~ Death of Gustav Mahler, Austrian Composer.

1919 ~ Birthday of Dame Margot Fonteyn (http://www.ballet.co.uk/old/legend_js_margot_fonteyn.htm), Ballet dancer.

1937 ~ Birthday of Brooks Robinson (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/robinson_brooks.htm), Baseball Hall of Famer.

1944 ~ Monte Cassino fell to the Allies (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_3544000/3544047.stm).

1974 ~ India became the sixth nuclear nation (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/India/IndiaSmiling.html) by successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon.

1975 ~ Death of Leroy Anderson, American Composer.

1980 ~ Mount St. Helens in Washington state exploded (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0518.html#article), leaving 57 people dead or missing.

1998 ~ The U.S. government filed an antitrust case against Microsoft Corp.

[jseal]

1536 ~ Anne Boleyn (http://tudorhistory.org/boleyn/), the second wife of Henry VIII of England was beheaded for adultery.

1795 ~ Birthday of Johns Hopkins (http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/photos/philanthropy/html/hopkins.htm), Philanthropist.

1864 ~ Death of Nathaniel Hawthorne, American Author.

1890 ~ Birthday of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader.

1921 ~ The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act (http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1920s/QuotaAct1918.html), which established national quotas for immigrants.

1925 ~ Birthday of Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge leader.

1935 ~ Death of T. E. Lawrence, English soldier ("Lawrence of Arabia (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0519.html#article)").

1965 ~ Tui Malila, the longest living animal known (http://www.extremescience.com/OldestLivingcreature.htm), died in Tonga at the age of either 188 or 192.

2001 ~ Zhonghua Sun was killed by People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized (http://www.igreens.org/articledetail.php?artid=73&categoryid=22) under the "One child" policy.

2004 ~ PM Blair hit with a purple flour filled condom (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/19/newsid_4516000/4516355.stm).

[jseal]

1772 ~ Birthday of Sir William Congreve (http://www.nasm.si.edu/spacecraft/RM-Congreve32.htm), English inventor (“By the rockets’ red glare”).

1806 ~ Birthday of John Stuart Mill (http://utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm), English philosopher.

1873 ~ Levi Strauss (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Strauss.html) and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

1883 ~ The eruption of Krakatoa began (http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Krakatau.html), leading ultimately to the volcano's destruction three months later.

1896 ~ Death of Clara Schumann, German Pianist and Composer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Max Euwe, Dutch world chess champion.

1927 ~ Charles Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, (http://www.charleslindbergh.com/history/paris.asp) on the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, arriving in Paris the next day.

1961 ~ U.S. marshals were sent to restore order in race-torn Montgomery, Alabama (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0520.html#article).

1980 ~ In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejected by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.

2000 ~ Death of Jean Pierre Rampal (http://www.ffaire.com/rampal/), French flutist.

[jseal]

1471 ~ Birthday of Albrecht Dürer (http://turnbull.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/PictDisplay/Durer.html), German painter and graphic artist.

1881 ~ Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org/museum/history/brief.asp).

1895 ~ Death of Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Andrei Sakharov (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1975/sakharov-autobio.html), physicist and human rights activist, awarded the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize.

1924 ~ Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/leopold.htm) murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".

1933 ~ Birthday of Maurice André, trumpeter.

1956 ~ The U.S. detonated the first airborne hydrogen bomb (http://www.shundahai.org/US_Atmospheric_Nuclear_Tests_Database.htm#Redwing) over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1991 ~ Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21/newsid_2504000/2504739.stm) by a female suicide bomber.

2000 ~ Death of Sir John Gielgud, British actor.

2004 ~ Stanislav Petrov was awarded the World Citizen Award (http://www.mosnews.com/feature/2004/05/21/petrov.shtml) for averting a potential World War III in 1983.

[jseal]

1813 ~ Birthday of Richard Wagner (http://www.trell.org/wagner/), Composer.

1840 ~ Transporting British convicts to the New South Wales colony was abolished.

1856 ~ In one of the more impressive expressions of American democracy, Congressman Preston Brooks (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000885) of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001068) with a cane in the hall of the U.S. Senate because of a speech Sumner had made which attacked Southerners (http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm) who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas.

1859 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/), Physician & Writer.

1885 ~ Death of Victor Hugo, French author.

1907 ~ Birthday of Sir Laurence Olivier (http://www.laurenceolivier.com/), Actor & Director.

1907 ~ Birthday of Hergé (http://tintin.francetv.fr/uk/), comic book creator.

1947 ~ The Truman Doctrine (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0522.html#article) was enacted.

1969 ~ The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/22/newsid_3034000/3034569.stm).

1972 ~ Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka, adopted a new constitution, and joined the British Commonwealth.

[jseal]

1430 ~ Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English.

1701 ~ Captain William Kidd (http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/CaptainKidd.htm) was hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and murder.

1848 ~ Birthday of Otto Lilienthal, aviation pioneer.

1873 ~ Canada's North West Mounted Police (http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/history/origins2_e.htm) force was established.

1906 ~ Death of Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer.

1908 ~ Birthday of John Bardeen, the only man to have been awarded the Nobel prize in Physics twice; 1956 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/bardeen-bio.html) & 1972 (http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1972/bardeen-bio.html).

1934 ~ Death of Bonnie and Clyde (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0523.html#article), Outlaws.

1951 ~ Birthday of Anatoly Karpov (http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/karpov/karpov.htm), Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion.

1977 ~ More than 100 children and six teachers were taken hostage (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/23/newsid_2503000/2503933.stm) in a primary school in northern Holland.

1969 ~ The UK release of Tommy (http://www.thewho.net/linernotes/Tommy.htm), by rock band The Who; the first rock opera.

[jseal]

1819 ~ Birthday of Queen Victoria (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp).

1844 ~ The first telegram was sent by Samuel Morse, from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C., saying "What hath God wrought? (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mmorse&fileName=071/071009/071009page.db)".

1883 ~ The Brooklyn Bridge (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0524.html#article) was opened.

1941 ~ The German battleship Bismarck sank the battlecruiser HMS Hood (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-atl/batlt-41/bismk-c3.htm) in the North Atlantic, killing all but three crewmen.

1941 ~ Birthday of Bob Dylan, Singer and Songwriter.

1969 ~ Death of Willy Ley (http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/L/Ley.html), rocket scientist.

1976 ~ BOAC and Air France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde (http://www.concordesst.com/) service to Washington.

1995 ~ Death of Harold Wilson, British statesman and P.M.

2001 ~ 23 people were killed and hundreds injured at a wedding party in Jerusalem when the floor collapsed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/24/newsid_4530000/4530071.stm).

2001 ~ Democrats gained control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1994 when Sen. Jeffords of Vermont declared himself an independent.

[jseal]

1803 ~ Birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Quotable Individual (http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson/).

1889 ~ Birthday of Igor Sikorsky, developer of the helicopter.

1895 ~ Playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted (http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/oscar_wilde/13.html) of a morals charge in London and sentenced to prison.

1925 ~ John T. Scopes was indicted (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0525.html#article) in Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

1926 ~ Birthday of Miles Davis, Jazz Musician

1929 ~ Birthday of Beverly Sills, Soprano.

1953 ~ The U.S. conducted its only nuclear artillery test (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Upshotk.html).

1961 ~ President Kennedy set the US goal to put the first man on the moon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/25/newsid_4369000/4369187.stm) by the end of that decade.

1963 ~ The Organisation of African Unity (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/25/newsid_2502000/2502771.stm) was set up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1977 ~ Star Wars (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6679425.stm) was released.

[jseal]

1703 ~ Death of Samuel Pepys, English civil servant, famous for his diary (http://www.pepysdiary.com/).

1868 ~ The Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0526.html#article) with his acquittal.

1896 ~ The first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (http://www.mdleasing.com/djia.htm) published

1897 ~ Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (http://www.balletmet.org/Notes/Bloodline.html) went on sale in London.

1907 ~ Birthday of John Wayne (http://www.jwayne.com/biography.shtml), Actor.

1907 ~ Birthday of Rachel Carson (http://www.rachelcarson.org/), Environmental writer.

1908 ~ The first commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made at Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Iran.

1928 ~ Birthday of Jack Kevorkian, Physician.

1951 ~ Birthday of Sally Ride, Astronaut.

2002 ~ The Mars Odyssey found signs of water ice (http://www.daviddarling.info/archive/2002/archiveMay02.html) deposits on the planet Mars.

[jseal]

1837 ~ Birthday of Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter.

1877 ~ Birthday of Isadora Duncan (http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/isadora.html), Dancer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Henry Kissinger (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1973/kissinger-bio.html), American diplomat, recipient of The Nobel Peace Prize 1973.

1933 ~ The Walt Disney Co. released the cartoon The Three Little Pigs (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/badwolf.htm), with its hit song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

1934 ~ Birthday of Harlan Ellison, Science Fiction author.

1937 ~ The Golden Gate Bridge (http://www.factmonster.com/spot/goldengate.html) opened to pedestrian traffic.

1963 ~ Jomo Kenyatta led his party, Kenya African Nation Union, to victory in the Kenya’s first general election (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/27/newsid_2496000/2496069.stm).

1964 ~ Death of Jawaharlal Nehru (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0527.html#article), independent India’s first PM.

1995 ~ Actor Christopher Reeve (Superman (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001659/)) was paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event.

1999 ~ A U.N. tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity, holding the Yugoslav president personally responsible for the horrors in Kosovo.

[jseal]

1892 ~ In San Francisco, California, John Muir organized the Sierra Club (http://sierraclub.org/).

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

1925 ~ Birthday of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone.

1934 ~ Birthday of The Dionne quintuplets (http://www.cnn.com/US/9711/19/dionne.quints/), the world's first surviving quintuplets.

1936 ~ Alan Turing submitted On Computable Numbers (http://abelard.org/turpap2/tp2-ie.asp#section-1) for publication.

1964 ~ The Palestine Liberation Organization (http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_plo_backgd.php) was formed.

1971 ~ Death of Audie Murphy, American actor & war hero.

1987 ~ Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow's Red Square (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,819972,00.html) after evading Soviet air defenses.

1984 ~ President Reagan led a state funeral (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0528.html#article) at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.

1998 ~ Pakistan matched India (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/28/newsid_2495000/2495045.stm) with five nuclear test blasts.

[jseal]

1452 ~ Ottoman armies captured Constantinople (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1046.html), ending the Byzantine Empire.

1903 ~ Birthday of Bob Hope, British-born Comedian & Actor.

1906 ~ Birthday of T.H. White (http://www2.netdoor.com/~moulder/thwhite/), English author.

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

1917 ~ Birthday of John Kennedy, U.S. President (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jk35.html).

1919 ~ Arthur Eddington's observation of shifted star positions during a solar eclipse confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity (http://www.firstscience.com/site/articles/coles.asp).

1953 ~ Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0529.html#article) became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1972 ~ Three Japanese Red Army gunmen opened fire on crowds (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/29/newsid_2542000/2542263.stm) at Lod (now Ben Gurion) International Airport, Israel, killing 26 people and injuring dozens more.

1998 ~ Death of Barry Goldwater, U.S. senator & presidential candidate.

2005 ~ French voters rejected the European Union's proposed constitution (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4592243.stm).

[Oldfart]

T H White.

What child has not laughed at the adventures of Wart?

Shame on the parents who with-held him from their kids.

[jseal]

1431 ~ Death of Joan of Arc (http://www.joan-of-arc.org/joanofarc_short_biography.html), Condemned Heretic (burned at the stake in Rouen, France).

1640 ~ Death of Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rubens/earth-water.jpg).

1778 ~ Death of Voltaire, French philosopher & Author.

1926 ~ Birthday of Christine Jorgensen (http://www.transgenderzone.com/features/ChristineJorgensen.htm), transsexual activist.

1942 ~ 1,047 British bombers launched a 90-minute attack (http://www.answers.com/topic/bombing-of-cologne-in-world-war-ii) on Cologne, Germany.

1964 ~ Death of Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-American nuclear physicist.

1982 ~ Baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr played the first of 2,632 consecutive games. His streak ended on September 20, 1998.

1989 ~ The 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy (http://www.flyingfists.org/archives/002942.html)" statue was unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.

1997 ~ Child molester Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka - a case that inspired ''Megan's Law (http://www.megans-law.net/)',' which requires that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.

2001 ~ Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/30/newsid_2542000/2542475.stm) was convicted of corruption.

[jseal]

1669 ~ Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys (http://www.pepys.info/) made the last entry in his diary.

1809 ~ Death of Joseph Haydn, Composer.

1819 ~ Birthday of Walt Whitman (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/poet/whitman.html), American Poet.

1889 ~ A dam broke near Johnstown, Pa (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0531.html#article), drowning more than 2,000.

1916 ~ British and German fleets fought the Battle of Jutland (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/jutland.htm) off Denmark.

1923 ~ Birthday of Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

1927 ~ The Ford Model T (http://www.modelt.ca/background-fs.html) assembly line shut down after a production run of 15,007,003.

1938 ~ Birthday of Peter Yarrow, American folk singer ("Peter, Paul and Mary").

1957 ~ Playwright Arthur Miller was convicted of contempt of Congress (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/31/newsid_4417000/4417523.stm).

1996 ~ Death of Timothy Leary (http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/sixties/leary.html), LSD advocate.

[jseal]

1494 ~ :angel: Friar John Cor (http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s2.cfm?id=87282004) :angel: recorded the first known batch of scotch whisky.

1801 ~ Birthday of Brigham Young, Mormon Church leader.

1804 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer.

1918 ~ the Battle for Belleau Wood began, during which came forth the famous phrase "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever? (http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Historical/Whos_Who/Daly_DJ.htm)" Heroes indeed!

1926 ~ Birthday of Marilyn Monroe (http://www.marilynmonroe.com/about/bio.html), Actress.

1938 ~ Action Comics issued the first Superman comic (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/yeung/actioncomics/cover.html).

1958 ~ Charles de Gaulle (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/1/newsid_2995000/2995283.stm) became premier of France.

1965 ~ Birthday of Nigel Short, English chess player.

1968 ~ Death of Helen Keller (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0601.html#article), American humanitarian.

1967 ~ The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (http://www.beatletracks.com/btsgtppr.html) was released.

[jseal]

1740 ~ Birthday of Marquis de Sade (http://www.crimelibrary.com/classics/marquis/), French Nobleman & Author.

1835 ~ Start of P.T. Barnum (http://www.ptbarnum.org/)’s circus’ first tour of the U.S.

1840 ~ Birthday of Thomas Hardy, Poet & Novelist.

1857 ~ Birthday of Edward Elgar, English Composer.

1897 ~ Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he was dead, was quoted (http://www.twainquotes.com/quotesatoz.html) as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

1946 ~ Italians voted to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic.

1953 ~ Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0602.html#article) of the United Kingdom.

1966 ~ First U.S. Lunar soft landing (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/2/newsid_4081000/4081677.stm), by Surveyor 1.

1990 ~ Death of Rex Harrison (http://www.thegoldenyears.org/harrison.html), English actor.

2003 ~ ESA’s Mars Express (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html) was launched.

[jseal]

1875 ~ Death of Georges Bizet, French composer.

1888 ~ The poem Casey at the Bat (http://www.bu.edu/favoritepoem/poems/thayer/index.html), by Ernest Thayer, was published in the SF Examiner.

1899 ~ Death of Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer.

1924 ~ Death of Franz Kafka, Austrian novelist.

1925 ~ Birthday of Tony Curtis (http://www.thepersuaders.com/), Actor.

1926 ~ Birthday of Allen Ginsberg (http://www.allenginsberg.org/), American poet.

1937 ~ The Duke of Windsor (http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9542031) married American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson (http://www.time.com/time/poy2001/photo/wallis.html), for whom he had abdicated the British throne.

1965 ~ Edward White became the first American astronaut to walk in space (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0603.html#article).

1969 ~ The science fiction television series Star Trek aired its final new episode (http://www.tv.com/star-trek/turnabout-intruder/episode/24962/summary.html?tag=episodes;title;0) after being canceled by NBC.

1982 ~ The Israeli ambassador to Britain was shot (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/3/newsid_2496000/2496109.stm) on a London street.

[jseal]

1798 ~ Death of Giacomo Casanova (http://users.dickinson.edu/~emery/Casanova.htm), Italian Lover.

1919 ~ Birthday of Robert Merrill, American Baritone.

1928 ~ Birthday of Dr. Ruth Westheimer (http://love.ivillage.com/author/bio/0,,prtr,00.html), German-American Sex Therapist.

1940 ~ The Allies completed the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/4/newsid_3500000/3500865.stm), France.

1944 ~ Birthday of Michelle Phillips, American Singer (The Mamas & the Papas (http://www.classicbands.com/mamas.html)).

1975 ~ Birthday of Angelina Jolie, American Actress.

1984 ~ The album ''Born in the U.S.A. (http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/BornInTheUSA.html)'' by Bruce Springsteen was released.

1986 ~ Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to espionage (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_pollard.html) for selling top secret U.S. military intelligence to Israel.

1989 ~ The Tiananmen Square Massacre (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0604.html#article).

1998 ~ Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

[jseal]

1723 ~ Birthday of Adam Smith (http://www.econlib.org/Library/Enc/bios/Smith.html), Scottish Economist.

1883 ~ Birthday of John Keynes (http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/keynes.htm), English Economist.

1910 ~ Death of O. Henry, American author.

1944 ~ WWII: Rome was liberated (http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/060544.html).

1947 ~ At a speech at Harvard University, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall called for economic aid to Europe.

1963 ~ UK Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigned over a sex scandal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/5/newsid_2660000/2660375.stm).

1967 ~ Israel began the “Six Day War (http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_sixday_backgd.php)” with a pre-emptive attack on Egypt.

1968 ~ Sen. Robert Kennedy was shot (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0605.html#article) in Los Angeles, CA.

1975 ~ Death of Paul Keres, Estonian chess player.

2004 ~ Death of Ronald Reagan (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rr40.html).

[IowaMan]

1723 ~ Birthday of Adam Smith (http://www.econlib.org/Library/Enc/bios/Smith.html), Scottish Economist.

1883 ~ Birthday of John Keynes (http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/keynes.htm), English Economist.

Now that is a strange coincidence that these two had the same birthday.

[jseal]

1683 ~ Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum (http://www.ashmolean.org/) opened to the public as the world's first university museum.

1844 ~ The Young Men's Christian Association (http://www.ymca.net/about_the_ymca/history_of_the_ymca.html) (YMCA) was founded in London.

1868 ~ Birthday of Robert Falcon Scott, English Explorer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Sukarno, first President of Indonesia.

1903 ~ Birthday of Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer.

1944 ~ D-Day began (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0606.html#article) with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France.

1961 ~ Death of Carl Jung (http://www.cgjungpage.org/), Swiss psychologist.

1984 ~ Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/6/newsid_2499000/2499341.stm) in Amritsar.

1985 ~ Authorities in Brazil exhumed a body later identified as that of Dr. Josef Mengele (http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blmengele.htm), the Nazi doctor who conducted medical experiments on inmates at Auschwitz.

2002 ~ The Wye Oak (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/eastern/wyeoak.html), Maryland's honorary state tree, was destroyed in a thunderstorm.

[jseal]

1099 ~ Beginning of Siege of Jerusalem (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulk2.html).

1848 ~ Birthday of Paul Gauguin (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jun/gauguin.html), French Impressionist Painter.

1897 ~ Birthday of George Szell, Hungarian Conductor.

1917 ~ Birthday of Dean Martin (http://www.deanmartin.com/), Singer & Actor.

1929 ~ Vatican City (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0607.html#article) became a sovereign state.

1942 ~ The U.S. beat the Japanese in the Battle of Midway (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3499000/3499378.stm).

1952 ~ Birthday of Liam Neeson, Northern Irish Actor.

1954 ~ Death of Alan Turing (http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/), Mathematician, Computer Scientist.

1981 ~ The Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/osiraq.htm).

2000 ~ U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the breakup of Microsoft.

[jseal]

632 ~ Death of Muhammad (http://www.pbs.org/muhammad/timeline_flash.shtml), founder of Islam.

1810 ~ Birthday of Robert Schumann, Composer.

1876 ~ Death of George Sand, Author.

1887 ~ Herman Hollerith (http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/hollerith.html) received a patent for his punch card calculator.

1910 ~ Birthday of John W. Campbell Jr. (http://www.sfhomeworld.org/exhibits/homeworld/scifi_hof.asp?articleID=65), Science Fiction Writer, Publisher, & Editor.

1916 ~ Birthday of Professor Francis Harry Compton Crick (http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1962/crick-bio.html), OM FRS, most noted for being one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. Awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1962.

1949 ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four (http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/summaries/1984.html) by George Orwell was published.

1968 ~ James Earl Ray was arrested in London (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0608.html#article) in connection with the murder of Martin Luther King.

1982 ~ An Argentine air attack sank the Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram supply ships (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/8/newsid_2500000/2500607.stm) in the Falklands.

1998 ~ Charlton Heston assumed the presidency of the National Rifle Association.

[jseal]

1810 ~ Birthday of Otto Nicolai, Composer.

1870 ~ Death of Charles Dickens, English author.

1891 ~ Birthday of Cole Porter (http://www.coleporter.org/), Composer.

1916 ~ Birthday of Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense, former president of the World Bank.

1934 ~ Donald Duck debuted (http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/characterstandard/donald/debut/debut.html) in The Wise Little Hen.

1954 ~ Beginning of the end of the McCarthy Era (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0609.html#article).

1959 ~ The USS George Washington (http://www.answers.com/topic/uss-george-washington-ssbn-598) launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles ("Boomers").

1970 ~ Assassination attempt on King Hussein (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/9/newsid_4461000/4461735.stm) of Jordan.

1973 ~ Secretariat won the Triple Crown (http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/triple-crown/winners.aspx).

2004 ~ The FCC (http://www.fcc.gov/) agreed to a $1.75 million settlement with Clear Channel (http://www.clearchannel.com/) to resolve indecency complaints against Howard Stern (http://www.howardstern.com/) and other radio personalities.

[jseal]

1829 ~ First Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge (http://www.theboatrace.org/article/introduction/history).

1836 ~ Death of André-Marie Ampère, French physicist.

1846 ~ The California Republic declared independence from Mexico.

1915 ~ Birthday of Saul Bellow, Canadian-born American author, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1921 ~ Birthday of Prince Philip (http://www.royal.gov.uk/OutPut/Page5551.asp), Duke of Edinburgh.

1922 ~ Birthday of Judy Garland (http://www.jgdb.com/), Singer & Actress.

1967 ~ End of the Six-Day War (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0610.html#article).

1977 ~ The Apple II personal computer (http://oldcomputers.net/byteappleII.html) started shipping.

1999 ~ Yugoslav troops departed Kosovo (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/10/newsid_4482000/4482403.stm), prompting NATO to suspend its air war.

2004 ~ Death of Ray Charles (http://www.raycharles.com/the_man_biography.html), Singer & Musician.

[jseal]

1776 ~ The Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.

1776 ~ Birthday of John Constable, English painter (http://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Cornfield-1826-Posters_i2143098_.htm).

1892 ~ The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, opened in Melbourne.

1937 ~ Death of R. J. Mitchell, British aircraft designer, developer of the Spitfire (http://www.deltaweb.co.uk/spitfire/).

1939 ~ Birthday of Jackie Stewart (http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/stew_bio.htm), Race car driver.

1942 ~ The U.S. and the USSR signed a lend lease agreement (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0611.html#article) to aid the Soviet war effort in WWII.

1979 ~ Death of John Wayne (http://www.johnwayne.com/), Actor.

1987 ~ Margaret Thatcher became the first British PM in 160 years to win a third consecutive term in office (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/11/newsid_2511000/2511095.stm).

2001 ~ Death of Timothy McVeigh, terrorist (executed).

2004 ~ Cassini-Huygens (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm) made its closest flyby of Phoebe.

[jseal]

1897 ~ Birthday of Anthony Eden, British P.M.

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

1963 ~ Death of Medgar Evers (http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/evers_medgar/), American civil rights activist.

1967 ~ In Loving v. Virginia (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=388&invol=1), the U.S. Supreme Court declared all state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

1975 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was convicted (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/12/newsid_2511000/2511691.stm) on electoral corruption charges.

1979 ~ Bryan Allen flew the man powered Gossamer Albatross (http://www.donaldmonroe.com/gossamer_albatross_photography) across the English Channel.

1987 ~ Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0612.html#article).

1994 ~ Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered (http://www.karisable.com/oj.htm) outside her home in Los Angeles.

1997 ~ Major league baseball began interleague play.

2003 ~ Death of Gregory Peck (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/peck_g.html), Actor.

[jseal]

1865 ~ Birthday of William Butler Yeats (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bio.html), Poet, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1923.

1892 ~ Birthday of Basil Rathbone, Actor.

1944 ~ Germany launched the first V1 “Buzz Bomb (http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/v1.html)” attack on England.

1966 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0613.html#article) them (Miranda v. Arizona).

1967 ~ Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall (http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm) was nominated as the first black Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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

1982 ~ Fahd became King of Saudi Arabia (http://www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com/main/b.htm) upon the death of his brother, Khalid.

1986 ~ Death of Benny Goodman (http://www.bennygoodman.com/), the ''King of Swing,'.

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

2005 ~ A jury acquitted Michael Jackson (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/13/newsid_4939000/4939536.stm) of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch.

[jseal]

1671 ~ Birthday of Tomaso Albinoni (http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxalb.html), Italian Composer.

1736 ~ Birthday of Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French mathematician. The unit of electrical charge, the coulomb, and Coulomb's law are named after him.

1775 ~ The U.S. Army (http://www.army.mil/) was founded.

1903 ~ Birthday of Alonzo Church, Mathematician & Logician.

1909 ~ Birthday of Burl Ives (http://www.burlives.com/burlmain.htm), American Folk Singer, Author & Actor.

1919 ~ John Alcock and Arthur Brown (http://www.aviation-history.com/airmen/alcock.htm) depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

1940 ~ WWII: German troops enter Paris (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/14/newsid_4485000/4485727.stm).

1952 ~ The keel was laid for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus (http://www.ussnautilus.org/history.html).

1982 ~ Argentine forces in the capital Port Stanley unconditionally surrender to British forces, bringing the Falklands War to an end (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0614.html#article).

1995 ~ Death of Roger Zelazny, science fiction author.

[jseal]

1215 ~ King John put his seal to the Magna Carta at Runnymede (http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/magna.html), England.

1752 ~ Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning is electricity (http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/exp_shocking.html).

1836 ~ Arkansas became the 25th state.

1844 ~ Charles Goodyear received a patent for a process to strengthen rubber.

1843 ~ Birthday of Edvard Grieg, Norwegian Composer.

1904 ~ More than 1,000 people died in a fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0615.html#article).

1978 ~ King Hussein of Jordan married Lisa Halaby (http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/MidEast/02/ander/ander.htm), who became Queen Noor.

1995 ~ Death of John Vincent Atanasoff (http://www.angelfire.com/ma/kilenm/2k03ppl.html), computer pioneer.

1996 ~ In Manchester, U.K., a terrorist bomb injured over 200 people (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/15/newsid_2527000/2527009.stm).

1996 ~ Death of Ella Fitzgerald (http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=28), Jazz singer.

[jseal]

1829 ~ Birthday of Geronimo, Apache Warrior & Leader.

1858 ~ Abraham Lincoln gave his “House Divided (http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/house.htm)” speach in Springfield, Illinois. A brilliant piece of argument!

1890 ~ Birthday of Stan Laurel (http://www.laurel-and-hardy.com/), Comedian.

1912 ~ Birthday of Enoch Powell, British politician.

1933 ~ Start of President Roosevelt’s New Deal (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0616.html#article).

1938 ~ Birthday of Joyce Carol Oates, novelist.

1948 ~ The Miss Macao passenger seaplane became the first skyjacking of a commercial plane (http://www.answers.com/topic/miss-macao).

1963 ~ Valentina Tereshkova (http://www.gale.com/free_resources/whm/bio/tereshkova_v.htm) became the first woman in space.

1976 ~ Riots broke out in the black South African township of Soweto (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/16/newsid_2514000/2514467.stm).

1977 ~ Death of Wernher von Braun (http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/bio.html), rocket scientist.

[jseal]

1631 ~ Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Shah Jahan I, build her a tomb, the Taj Mahal (http://judypat.com/india/tajmahal.htm).

1818 ~ Birthday of Charles Gounod, French Composer.

1882 ~ Birthday of Igor Stravinsky, Russian Composer.

1885 ~ The Statue of Liberty (http://www.nps.gov/stli/historyculture/index.htm) arrived in New York.

1898 ~ Birthday of M.C. Escher (http://www.mcescher.com/), Dutch Artist.

1928 ~ Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0617.html#article).

1929 ~ Birthday of Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player.

1945 ~ Birthday of Eddy Merckx (http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/8230.0.html), Belgian Cycling Champion.

1961 ~ Rudolf Nureyev (http://www.nureyev.org/index.php) defected at Le Bourget airport in Paris.

1974 ~ The Irish Republican Army bombed the UK’s House of Parliament (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/17/newsid_2514000/2514827.stm).

[jseal]

1178 ~ Five Canterbury monks (http://www.weblore.com/richard/june_18_1178_impact_crater.htm) saw what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed on the Moon.

1815 ~ British and Prussian troops defeated the French under Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/waterloo.htm) in Belgium.

1915 ~ Birthday of Red Adair, Firefighter.

1928 ~ Death of Roald Amundsen, Explorer, first to the South Pole.

1942 ~ Birthday of Paul McCartney (http://www.askmen.com/men/entertainment/49_paul_mccartney.html), Singer & Songwriter.

1945 ~ William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) was charged with treason.

1948 ~ The UN Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0618.html#article).

1967 ~ Jimi Hendrix burned his guitar (http://members.tripod.com/Yelnats_Yarkled/Monterey/page7.html) on stage at the Monterey Pop Festival.

1979 ~ Presidents Carter and Brezhnev signed the SALT II (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/18/newsid_4508000/4508409.stm) strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.

1983 ~ Sally Ride became the first American woman in space (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ride-sk.html).

[jseal]

1623 ~ Birthday of Blaise Pascal, Mathematician.

1865 ~ More two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas were finally informed of their freedom (http://www.juneteenth.com/).

1896 ~ Birthday of Wallis Warfield, the future Duchess of Windsor.

1934 ~ The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/federalcommu/federalcommu.htm) (FCC) was established.

1937 ~ Death of J.M. Barrie, Author, creator of the character Peter Pan.

1945 ~ Birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html), Politician, recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

1953 ~ Death of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, convicted spies (http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/dl/Rosenbergs/Rosenbergsfiles.html).

1964 ~ The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0619.html#article) after surviving a filibuster in the Senate.

1978 ~ First appearance of the comic strip Garfield (http://www.qkiz.com/cartoon-solitaire/hot-garfield.html).

1982 ~ An Italian banker, Roberto Calvi, was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/19/newsid_3092000/3092625.stm) in London.

[jseal]

1819 ~ Birthday of Jacques Offenbach, Composer.

1837 ~ Queen Victoria (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp) ascended to the British throne.

1877 ~ Alexander Graham Bell installed the first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario.

1899 ~ Birthday of Jean Moulin (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWmoulin.htm), leader of the French Resistance in WW II.

1909 ~ Birthday of Errol Flynn, Actor.

1942 ~ Birthday of Brian Wilson, one of The Beach Boys (http://www.thebeachboys.com/home.aspx).

1948 ~ The Ed Sullivan Show (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/E/htmlE/edsullivans/edsullivans.htm), (née Toast of the Town) debuted.

1967 ~ Muhammad Ali was convicted (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0620.html#article) of violating Selective Service laws.

1995 ~ Shell Oil abandoned plans to dump (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/20/newsid_4509000/4509527.stm) its Brent Spar oil rig at sea.

2002 ~ Death of Erwin Chargaff (http://post.queensu.ca/~forsdyke/bioinfo1.htm), biochemist.

[jseal]

1527 ~ Death of Niccolò Machiavelli (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/machiavelli/), Italian Historian & Political Author.

1788 ~ The U.S. Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

1905 ~ Birthday of Jean-Paul Sartre (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1964/sartre-bio.html), Philosopher & Playwright, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1964.

1908 ~ Death of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian Composer.

1919 ~ Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German fleet (http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/scuttle.html) in Scapa Flow, Orkney.

1945 ~ The battle for Okinawa ended (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/21/newsid_3564000/3564489.stm); 12,520 Americans and 110,000 Japanese were killed in the 83-day campaign.

1964 ~ Three civil rights workers disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0621.html#article) Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later.

1989 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that flag burning is protected speech (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=491&page=397) under the Constitution.

2001 ~ Death of Carroll O'Connor, American Actor.

2004 ~ SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded space plane to achieve spaceflight (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/SS1_touchdown_040621.html).

[jseal]

1856 ~ Birthday of H. Rider Haggard (http://kirjasto.sci.fi/haggard.htm), Author.

1940 ~ WWII: France forced to sign armistice with Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0622.html#article).

1941 ~ WWII: Germany invaded the USSR (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/22/newsid_3526000/3526691.stm).

1953 ~ Birthday of Cyndi Lauper (http://www.cyndilauper.com/uniquecirx/home.php), singer.

1969 ~ Death of Judy Garland, Singer & Actress.

1976 ~ Canadian House of Commons voted to abolish capital punishment.

1986 ~ Diego Maradona scored both the Hand of God goal (http://2002.fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/02/en/011221/4/44c.html) and the Goal of the Century (http://www.rediff.com/sports/football/2002/may/30mara.htm) against England during the FIFA World Cup in Mexico City.

1987 ~ Death of Fred Astaire (http://themave.com/Astaire/), Dancer & Actor.

1996 ~ The Quake computer game was released.

2002 ~ Death of Ann Landers (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Landers.html), Columnist.

[jseal]

1894 ~ Birthday of Alfred Kinsey, Sexologist.

1912 ~ Birthday of Alan Turing, Mathematician.

1927 ~ Birthday of Bob Fosse (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/fosse/fosse.html), Choreographer.

1940 ~ Adolf Hitler toured Paris in now occupied France.

1943 ~ Birthday of Vint Cerf (http://www.icann.org/biog/cerf.htm), co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and one of the “Fathers of the Internet".

1947 ~ President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act overridden (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0623.html#article).

1956 ~ Gamal Abdel Nasser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser) elected president of Egypt.

1985 ~ An Air India Boeing 747 was blown apart off the coast of Ireland (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/23/newsid_2518000/2518857.stm) by Sikh extremists.

1993 ~ Lorena Bobbitt sexually mutilated her husband (http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/severed_penis/index.html) after he allegedly raped her.

1995 ~ Death of Jonas Salk (http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/salk.html), developer of the Salk polio vaccine.

[jseal]

1314 ~ Scotland regained its independence in the Battle of Bannockburn (http://www.braveheart.co.uk/macbrave/history/bruce/banseq.htm), when Scotland's King Robert I defeated the English.

1519 ~ Death of Lucrezia Borgia (http://www.dragonrest.net/histories/lucrezia.html), duchess of Ferrara.

1692 ~ Kingston, Jamaica founded.

1896 ~ Birthday of Jack Dempsey (http://www.cmgww.com/sports/dempsey/biography.htm), Heavyweight boxer.

1901 ~ First exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work.

1910 ~ Japan invaded Korea (http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/webcourse/key_points/kp_11.htm).

1915 ~ Birthday of Fred Hoyle (http://www.hoyle.org.uk/home.html), cosmologist and science fiction author.

1948 ~ Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the U.S. to organize the Berlin Airlift (http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/berlin_airlift/large/docs.php).

1997 ~ The Roswell Incident debunked (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0624.html#article) by the USAF.

2004 ~ Federal investigators questioned President Bush in connection with the news leak of a CIA operative's name.

[jseal]

1822 ~ Death of E.T.A. Hoffmann, German Writer, Composer & Painter.

1876 ~ Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry were wiped out in the Battle of Little Big Horn (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0625.html#article).

1894 ~ Birthday of Hermann Oberth (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/SPACEFLIGHT/oberth/SP2.htm), Physicist & one of the founding fathers of Rocketry and Astronautics.

1903 ~ Birthday of George Orwell (http://www.levity.com/corduroy/orwell.htm), Writer.

1950 ~ The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/25/newsid_2699000/2699641.stm).

1991 ~ Croatia (http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/croatia.htm) and Slovenia (http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/slovenia.htm) declared their independence from Yugoslavia.

1993 ~ Kim Campbell (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/primeministers/h4-3481-e.html) became the first female Prime Minister of Canada.

1997 ~ An unmanned cargo ship crashed into Russia's Mir space station, knocking out half of the station's power and rupturing a pressurized laboratory.

1997 ~ Death of Jacques-Yves Cousteau (http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/25/cousteau.obit/index.html), French Explorer, Scientist & Inventor.

1998 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 unconstitutional.

[Oldfart]

Conspiracy theory says that Jacques Cousteau, kidnapped by the Russians and stashed on Mir, was killed when a CIA controlled resupply craft crashed into the station in a vain attempt to free the living (temporarily) cultural icon. Almost worked too, despite the slight lack of a plan to return him safely to the Calypso. Spooky.

[jseal]

Oldfart,

So the CIA was behind THAT as well! You know, I never saw it in that light until now! Thank you! :)

[jseal]

1541 ~ Death of Francisco Pizarro, Spanish Conqueror of Peru.

1824 ~ Birthday of Lord Kelvin (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Thomson.html), Physicist.

1898 ~ Birthday of Willy Messerschmitt (http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/bf109/Bf109WMBio.html), Aircraft Designer.

1933 ~ Birthday of Claudio Abbado, Conductor.

1934 ~ Initial flight of the first practical helicopter (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/reitsch.html), the Focke-Wulf 61. You must scroll down a bit through the Hanna Reitsch page to get to the FW-61 entry, but her write up of her experience it is an interesting read.

1959 ~ Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/newsid_2988000/2988148.stm) inaugurated the St Lawrence Seaway.

1963 ~ President Kennedy visited West Berlin (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0626.html#article), where he offered American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany: "Ich bin ein Berliner (http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6570000/newsid_6576900/6576981.stm?bw=nb&mp=rm)".

1964 ~ The Beatles released the album A Hard Day's Night (http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=39).

1996 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Virginia Military Institute (http://www.vmi.edu/) to admit women or forgo state support.

1997 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment, and thus unconstitutional.

[jseal]

1838 ~ Birthday of Paul von Mauser, Weapon Designer.

1880 ~ Birthday of Helen Keller (http://www.helenkeller.org/graphicversion/bio.html), spokeswoman for the Deaf and Blind.

1893 ~ Crash of the New York Stock Exchange.

1905 ~ Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin (http://flot.sevastopol.info/eng/ship/predreadnoughts/potemkin.htm).

1931 ~ Birthday of Charles Bronfman, Industrialist & Philanthropist.

1950 ~ The U.S. decided to send armed forces to fight in the Korean War (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0627.html#article).

1954 ~ The world's first nuclear power station went on line (http://eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/nuc_reactors/superla.html) in Obninsk, near Moscow.

1957 ~ First British Smoking Causes Lung Cancer (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/27/newsid_2956000/2956618.stm) report released.

1967 ~ The world's first ATM installed in Enfield (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6230194.stm), London.

2001 ~ Death of Jack Lemmon (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/28/lemmon.obit/), Actor & Film Director.

[jseal]

1577 ~ Birthday of Peter Paul Rubens (http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Rubens.html), Flemish Baroque Painter.

1712 ~ Birthday of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Franco-Swiss Philosopher.

1880 ~ The Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was captured (http://www.glenrowan1880.com/) at Glenrowan.

1906 ~ Birthday of Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics.

1914 ~ Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophia were killed by a Serbian nationalist, the casus belli of World War I (http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914/ferddead.html).

1919 ~ The Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending World War I (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0628.html#article).

1926 ~ Birthday of Mel Brooks, Filmmaker.

1992 ~ Death of Mikhail Tal (http://www.geocities.com/lifemasteraj/m_tal.html), eighth World Chess Champion.

1996 ~ The Citadel voted to admit women (http://www.cnn.com/US/9606/28/citadel.update/index.html), ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.

2004 ~ The U.S.-led coalition transferred sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/28/newsid_4517000/4517865.stm).

[jseal]

1861 ~ Death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poet. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… (http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/elizabethbarrettbrowning/poems/sonnetsfromtheportuguese/howdoilovetheeletmecounttheways.html)”

1868 ~ Birthday of George Ellery Hale, Astronomer.

1880 ~ France annexed Tahiti (http://www.tahiti-tourisme.com/).

1888 ~ First known recording of classical music made, on a wax cylinder.

1895 ~ Death of Thomas Henry Huxley, Scientist. "Darwin's Bulldog (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/2/l_022_09.html)"

1922 ~ France granted 1 km² at Vimy Ridge (http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/vimy/vmemory&CFID=16246983&CFTOKEN=55502061) "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".

1963 ~ Birthday of Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violinist.

1974 ~ Isabel Peron is sworn in as first female president for Argentina (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/29/newsid_2857000/2857121.stm).

1995 ~ U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with Russian space station Mir (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0629.html#article).

2003 ~ Death of Katharine Hepburn (http://www-scf.usc.edu/~kristena/), Actress.

[jseal]

1817 ~ Birthday of Joseph Dalton Hooker, Botanist & Champion of Charles Darwin.

1905 ~ During his annus mirabilis, Albert Einstein published the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies (http://lorentz.phl.jhu.edu/AnnusMirabilis/AeReserveArticles/specrel.pdf) (PDF) in which he introduced special relativity.

That must have been an exciting period to be a physicist!

1908 ~ Tunguska impact (http://www-th.bo.infn.it/tunguska/) event occurred in Siberia.

1934 ~ Night of the Long Knives (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/roehm.htm), Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany took place.

1936 ~ ''Gone with the Wind (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200161.txt)'' by Margaret Mitchell published.

1943 ~ Birthday of Florence Ballard, American Singer (The Supremes (http://www.history-of-rock.com/supremes.htm)).

1960 ~ Congo gained independence from Belgium.

1971 ~ The crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft died (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_2523000/2523365.stm) when the landing capsule depressurized after separating from the main craft.

1985 ~ Birthday of Mike Tyson, American boxer.

1997 ~ The UK returns sovereignty over Hong Kong (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0630.html#article) to the PRC.

[Oldfart]

Tunguska, I'd forgotten about that. Still a mega-mystery what blew up above the tundra.

[jseal]

1646 ~ Birthday of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (http://www.friesian.com/leibniz.htm), German Mathematician & Philosopher.

1863 ~ The American Civil War battle of Gettysburg began (http://www.civilwarhome.com/gettyscampaign.htm).

1906 ~ Birthday of Estée Lauder, Cosmetics Pioneer.

1916 ~ On the first day of the Battle of the Somme (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/somme.htm) 18,000 British soldiers were killed, and 40,000 wounded.

1925 ~ Death of Erik Satie, French Composer.

1963 ~ The British Government admitted that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_philby.html).

1980 ~ "O Canada (http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10175)" became the national anthem of Canada.

2000 ~ Death of Walter Matthau (http://www.hollywoodlegends.com/walter-matthau.html), Actor.

2004 ~ Cassini-Huygens was successfully inserted into orbit (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/1/newsid_4640000/4640793.stm) around Saturn.

2004 ~ Death of Marlon Brando, Actor.

[jseal]

1714 ~ Birthday of Christoph Willibald Gluck, German Composer.

1906 ~ Birthday of Hans Bethe (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1967/bethe-bio.html), German-born Physicist., awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1967.

1908 ~ Birthday of Thurgood Marshall, U. S. Supreme Court justice.

1937 ~ Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0702.html#article) over the Pacific Ocean.

1947 ~ Something the Army Air Force later said was a weather balloon crashed near Roswell, N.M. (http://www.coverups.com/roswell/index.htm) Eyewitness accounts gave rise to speculation it might have been an alien spacecraft.

1961 ~ Death of Ernest Hemingway (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html), Author, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1954.

1964 ~ President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/2/newsid_3787000/3787809.stm) a sweeping civil rights bill.

1966 ~ France began nuclear weapons testing at Moruroa (http://atomicforum.org/france/france.html) in the South Pacific.

1977 ~ Death of Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born writer.

1982 ~ Larry Walters attached 45 helium balloons to a lawn chair (http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp) and ascended into history and to a height of 11,000 feet.

[Oldfart]

Amelia and Roswell, with a touch of Danny Deckchair. What a wonderful day.

[jseal]

1608 ~ The city of Quebec (http://www.quebecregion.com/e/) was founded by Samuel de Champlain.

1854 ~ Birthday of Leoš Janáček, Czech Composer.

1863 ~ The final day of the battle of Gettysburg (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0703.html#article).

1883 ~ Birthday of Franz Kafka, Czech-born German author.

1935 ~ Death of André Citroën (http://www.citroen.com/CWW/en-US/HISTORY/ANDRECITROEN/TheMan/), Automobile Pioneer.

1938 ~ World speed record, 126 mph, set for a steam railway locomotive, by the Mallard (http://www.wandleys.demon.co.uk/mallard.htm).

1962 ~ Algeria became independent (http://www.algeria.com/) after 132 years of French rule.

1971 ~ Death of Jim Morrison (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/newsid_3776000/3776701.stm), lead singer of The Doors.

1986 ~ Death of Rudy Vallee, Singer, Actor, Bandleader, & Entertainer.

1988 ~ USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/flight801/stories/july88crash.htm) over the Persian Gulf.

[Oldfart]

Jim Morrison's dead?

[jseal]

1054 ~ A supernova was recorded by the Chinese near the star ζ Tauri. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula (http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/m/m001.html).

1776 ~ The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence (http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration.html).

1807 ~ Birthday of Giuseppe Garibaldi (http://www.nndb.com/people/150/000089880/), Italian Patriot.

1845 ~ American writer Henry David Thoreau (http://thoreau.eserver.org/) began a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond (http://www.concord.org/~kathy/Walden/WaldenPond.html) near Concord, Mass.

1855 ~ The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems Leaves of Grass (http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/logr/log_029.html) was published.

1883 ~ Birthday of Rube Goldberg, Cartoonist.

1885 ~ Birthday of Louis B. Mayer, Movie Executive (one of the M’s in MGM).

1934 ~ Death of Maria Curie (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html), Polish-born scientist, recipient of he Nobel Prize in Physics 1903.

1976 ~ The U.S. celebrated its Bicentennial (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0704.html#article).

1976 ~ Israeli commandos rescued 100 hostages at Entebbe (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm) Airport, Uganda.

[jseal]

1810 ~ Birthday of Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum (http://www.ptbarnum.org/), Circus Owner.

1853 ~ Birthday of Cecil Rhodes, South African Politician.

1911 ~ Birthday of Georges Pompidou, President of France.

1948 ~ British National Health Service (http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/316/7124/6) (NHS) Act enacted.

1951 ~ William Shockley (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/shockley-bio.html) invented the junction transistor.

1969 ~ Death of Walter Gropius (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAgropius.htm), German architect.

1971 ~ The voting age in the U.S. was reduced to 18 from 21.

1975 ~ Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles' championship (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0705.html#article).

1989 ~ Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a suspended prison term (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/5/newsid_2772000/2772471.stm) for his part in the Iran-Contra affair.

1996 ~ Birthday of Dolly the sheep (http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/dolly/index.asp), first cloned mammal.

[jseal]

1946 ~ Birthday of George W. Bush (http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/), 43rd President of the U.S.

1957 ~ Althea Gibson (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0706.html#article) became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title.

1962 ~ Death of William Faulkner, American Novelist.

1964 ~ A Hard Day's Night (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058182/), the first Beatles film, premiered.

1971 ~ Death of Louis Armstrong (http://www.satchmo.net/bio/), Jazz Musician.

1973 ~ Death of Otto Klemperer, German Conductor.

1974 ~ The radio program A Prairie Home Companion (http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/) was first broadcast.

1989 ~ The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea was destroyed (http://www.ukooa.co.uk/issues/health/faq.cfm) by explosions and fires killing 167 oil workers.

1997 ~ The rover Sojourner rolled onto the Martian landscape (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/6/newsid_4105000/4105727.stm) to begin inspecting soil and rocks.

1998 ~ Death of Roy Rogers, Cowboy Actor & Singer.

[Oldfart]

Piper Alpha's one of the reasons I declined a job on a rig earlier today. Good money, 4 weeks on, 1 off, long swim hope.

[jseal]

1860 ~ Birthday of Gustav Mahler (http://www.gustav-mahler.org/english/), Austrian Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Marc Chagall, Russian-born Painter (http://images.google.com/images?q=Marc+Chagall&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADBF&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title).

1898 ~ The U.S. annexed Hawaii as a territory.

1907 ~ Birthday of Robert Heinlein (http://www.heinleinsociety.org/), Science Fiction Writer.

1930 ~ Death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/acdsocy.html), Scottish Writer.

1940 ~ Birthday of Ringo Starr (http://www.ringostarr.com/), Beatle.

1958 ~ President Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act.

1978 ~ The Solomon Islands gained independence from the U.K.

1981 ~ President Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0707.html#article) to become the first female justice on the Supreme Court.

2005 ~ Terrorist bombings in London (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/7/newsid_4942000/4942238.stm) killed 52 victims and four suicide bombers.

[jseal]

1695 ~ Death of Christiaan Huygens, Dutch Scientist.

1776 ~ The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

1822 ~ Death of Percy Shelley (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRshelley.htm), English poet (http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/).

1838 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, German Inventor.

1882 ~ Birthday of Percy Grainger (http://www.percygrainger.net/), Australian Composer.

1889 ~ In the last championship bare-knuckle boxing match, John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain (http://www.ibhof.com/sullivan.htm).

1889 ~ The first issue of the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/public/us) published.

1950 ~ General Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of UN forces (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0708.html#article) in Korea.

1986 ~ Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria (http://www.bookrags.com/biography/kurt-waldheim/) despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.

1997 ~ Mayo Clinic researchers warned that the dieting-drug "fen-phen" could cause severe heart and lung damage (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/hazard/fenphen.html).

[jseal]

1896 ~ William Jennings Bryan delivered his “Cross of Gold (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0709.html#article)” speech.

1900 ~ Queen Victoria gave royal assent to an act creating the Commonwealth of Australia (http://www.australia.gov.au/), uniting separate colonies under one federal government.

1916 ~ Birthday of Edward Heath (http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page128.asp), P.M. of the UK

1947 ~ The engagement of Britain's Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.

1974 ~ Death of Earl Warren (http://www.landmarkcases.org/brown/warren.html), Governor of California, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1984 ~ York Minster was struck by lightning; the resulting fire destroyed the roof of the South Transept.

1989 ~ Two bombs exploded in Mecca, killing one pilgrim and wounding 16 others.

1995 ~ The Grateful Dead (http://www.dead.net/) played their last concert, at Soldier Field in Chicago.

1997 ~ Mike Tyson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvZ2roRDPYU&mode=related&search=)'s boxing license was suspended and he was fined $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield's ear in a televised match.

2001 ~ The Big Bang Theory (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/9/newsid_2498000/2498637.stm) of the origin of the universe received substantial support.

[jseal]

1839 ~ Birthday of Adolphus Busch (http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/kingofbeer1.shtml), German-born Brewer.

1856 ~ Birthday of Nikola Tesla (http://www.pbs.org/tesla/), Croatian physicist.

1895 ~ Birthday of Carl Orff, German Composer.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe began the Battle of Britain (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0710.html#article).

1962 ~ The world's first active communications satellite (http://roland.lerc.nasa.gov/~dglover/sat/telstar.html), Telstar (http://roland.lerc.nasa.gov/~dglover/sat/telstar.gif), and first privately sponsored space launch.

1979 ~ Death of Arthur Fiedler, American Conductor.

1985 ~ The Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior was sunk (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/10/newsid_2499000/2499283.stm) in Auckland Harbor by French agents.

1997 ~ Scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neandertal skeleton which support the Out of Africa hypothesis of human evolution.

2002 ~ At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents was sold for $76.2 million (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,753262,00.html).

2003 ~ Death of Lord Shawcross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartley_Shawcross), U.K. chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.

[jseal]

1798 ~ The U.S. Marine Corps (http://www.marines.com/page/usmc.jsp?flashRedirect=true) was re-created by an act of Congress.

1857 ~ Birthday of Alfred Binet, French Psychologist.

1859 ~ Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities (http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/twocities/)" was published.

1899 ~ Birthday of E. B. White (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebwhite.htm), American Writer. (Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan.)

1914 ~ Babe Ruth (http://www.baberuth.com/) made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.

1937 ~ Death of George Gershwin, American Composer.

1971 ~ Death of John W. Campbell, Writer & Editor.

1979 ~ Skylab deorbited (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0711.html#article).

1989 ~ Death of Sir Laurence Olivier (http://www.laurenceolivier.com/), Actor.

1995 ~ Bosnian Serbs capture the city of Srebrenica (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_4080000/4080690.stm).

[jseal]

1536 ~ Death of Erasmus (http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/erasmus.html), Dutch Writer & Philosopher.

1690 ~ William of Orange's army won the Battle of the Boyne (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,342562,00.html).

1730 ~ Birthday of Josiah Wedgwood (http://www.wedgwoodusa.com/about/history.asp), English Potter.

1773 ~ Death of Johann Joachim Quantz, German Flutist & Composer.

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

1862 ~ Medal of Honor (http://www.cmohs.org/) authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1933 ~ U.S. Congress passes the first federal minimum wage law in the U.S.

1943 ~ Turning point of CITADEL (http://www.uni.edu/~licari/citadel.htm) (Battle of Kursk).

1984 ~ Walter Mondale named Geraldine Ferraro (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0712.html#article) his Vice Presidential running mate.

1990~ Russian republic president Boris Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/12/newsid_4493000/4493177.stm).

[jseal]

100 BC ~ Birthday of Julius Caesar (http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/caesar-index.html), Soldier & Politician.

1793 ~ French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday (http://www.things.org/music/al_stewart/history/charlotte_corday.html), who was executed four days later.

1837 ~ Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace (http://www.britainexpress.com/London/buckingham-palace.htm) – the first monarch to live there.

1908 ~ Women first included in modern Olympic competition.

1951 ~ Death of Arnold Schoenberg (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/schonberg.html), Austrian Composer.

1955 ~ Ruth Ellis became the last woman in England to be executed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/13/newsid_2745000/2745023.stm).

1960 ~ John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Los Angeles.

1977 ~ A 25-hour blackout hit New York City (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0713.html#article).

1982 ~ Montreal was host to the first baseball All-Star Game outside the U.S.

1985 ~ Live Aid (http://www.herald.co.uk/local_info/live_aid.html), an international rock concert in London, Philadelphia, Moscow and Sydney, Australia, was held to raise money for Africa's starving people.

[jseal]

1789 ~ Citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille ( http://www.pixies-place.com:81/forums/showthread.php?t=31155). Generally recognized as the beginning of the French Revolution.

1798 ~ The Sedition Act (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/sedact.htm) made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.

1862 ~ Birthday of Gustav Klimt (http://www.expo-klimt.com/), Austrian Painter & Graphic Artist.

1881 ~ Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett (http://frontpage.nmia.com/~btkog/garrett.htm).

1887 ~ Death of Alfred Krupp, German munitions manufacturer.

1912 ~ Birthday of Woody Guthrie (http://www.woodyguthrie.org/), American folk singer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Gerald Ford, U.S. President.

1933 ~ Gleichschaltung (http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww2_gleichschaltung.shtml): All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.

1965 ~ Mariner 4 flyby of Mars took the first close-up photos of another planet (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0714.html#article).

2000 ~ A Florida jury ordered five major tobacco companies to pay smokers $145 billion in punitive damages. (The verdict was later overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.).

[jseal]

1099 ~ The Crusaders of the First Crusade took Jerusalem (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-jlem.html).

1606 ~ Birthday of Rembrandt Van Rijn (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/), Dutch artist (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/1650/aristotle-homer.jpg).

1796 ~ Birthday of Thomas Bulfinch (http://www.fivecolleges.edu/mcleary/tbulfinch.html), American Mythologist.

1799 ~ French Captain Pierre Bouchard found the Rosetta Stone (http://www.kingtutshop.com/freeinfo/rosetta-stone.htm).

1870 ~ Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

1918 ~ WWI: Second Battle of the Marne (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0715.html#article) began.

1926 ~ Birthday of Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine Dictator.

1954 ~ First flight of the Boeing 707, the first American jet passenger airliner.

1995 ~ Bosnian Serbs force Muslims out of Srebrenica (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/15/newsid_3736000/3736438.stm).

2002 ~ John Walker Lindh (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/lindh_07-15-02.html), the "American Taliban", pleaded guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.

[jseal]

622 ~ Start of the Islamic calendar (http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-islamic.html).

1790 ~ The District of Columbia was established as the seat of the U.S. Federal Government.

1872 ~ Birthday of Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer who led the expedition which was the first to reach the South Pole.

1918 ~ IAt Ekaterinburg, Russia, Bolsheviks executed Czar Nicholas II and his family (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0716.html#article).

1945 ~ Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Harry Truman Josef Stalin meet at Potsdam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/16/newsid_4685000/4685683.stm).

1945 ~ The U.S. detonated the first nuclear weapon (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/atomictest.htm) at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1948 ~ Birthday of Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli Violinist.

1969 ~ Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html) to become the first manned mission to land on the moon.

1981 ~ Death of Harry Chapin (http://www.harrychapin.com/), American Singer & Songwriter.

1989 ~ Death of Herbert von Karajan (http://www.winternet.com/~davion/karajan.html), Austrian Conductor.

[Oldfart]

It's funny that the day of the start of the Islamic calendar was the day we nearly burned the atmosphere beyond breathing with the Trinity shot.

[jseal]

1790 ~ Death of Adam Smith (http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/), Scottish Economist.

1899 ~ Birthday of James Cagney (http://themave.com/Cagney/), Actor.

1935 ~ Birthday of Donald Sutherland, Actor.

1947 ~ Birthday of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/royals/camilla.html) (formerly Parker Bowles), former British royal mistress and now wife of Prince Charles.

1955 ~ Disneyland (http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/parks/landing?name=DisneylandParkLandingPage&bhcp=1) opened in Anaheim, Calif.

1961 ~ Death of Baseball hall-of-famer Ty Cobb.

1962 ~ Tha nuclear test shot Little Feller I (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Storax.html) became the last American atmospheric detonation at the Nevada Test Site.

1975 ~ An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0717.html#article) in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.

1979 ~ Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled into exile (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/17/newsid_3870000/3870281.stm) in Miami.

2003 ~ Death of Dr. David Kelly, U.N. Weapons Inspector.

[jseal]

1817 ~ Death of Jane Austen (http://www.jasna.org/info/about_austen.html), English Novelist.

1887 ~ Birthday of Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian Politician & Traitor.

1909 ~ Birthday of Andrei Gromyko, Soviet Diplomat & President.

1918 ~ Birthday of Nelson Mandela (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-bio.html), former President of SA, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1993.

1922 ~ Birthday of Thomas Kuhn (http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Kuhnsnap.html), Philosopher of Science.

1925 ~ Adolf Hitler’s "Mein Kampf (http://www.crusader.net/texts/mk/)" was published.

1927 ~ Birthday of Kurt Masur, Conductor.

1942 ~ The Messerschmitt Me-262 (http://www.vectorsite.net/avme262.html#m2) was test flown using only its jets for the first time.

1969 ~ After a party, Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a wooden bridge (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/tedkennedychappaquiddick.htm) into, into a pond, and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, died.

2001 ~ In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derailment occurred in a tunnel (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-trainfire,0,6380020.special), sparking a fire that lasted days and virtually shut down downtown.

2005 ~ Eric Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer.

[Oldfart]

Quisling, a word no longer uttered.

[jseal]

1374 ~ Death of Petrarch, Italian Poet & early Humanist.

1692 ~ Five women were hanged following the Salem Witch Trials (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM) for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.

1834 ~ Birthday of Edgar Degas (http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Degas/html/index.html), Impressionist Painter (http://images.google.com/images?q=Edgar+Degas&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADBF&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title).

1848 ~ America’s first women's rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, N.Y. and "Bloomers (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr040.html)" were introduced.

1870 ~ The Franco-Prussian war began.

1898 ~ Birthday of Herbert Marcuse (http://www.marcuse.org/), Communist Philosopher.

1941 ~ Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0719.html#article)" campaign in Europe.

1947 ~ Death of Aung San, Burmese nationalist. Aung San's daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi (http://nobelprize.virtual.museum/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html), is now the leader of the Burmese opposition to the current military regime.

1996 ~ Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic was forced out of office (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/19/newsid_4521000/4521063.stm).

2003 ~ Death of Bill Bright, evangelist, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.

[jseal]

1933 ~ In London, 500,000 marched against anti-Semitism.

1938 ~ Birthday of Dame Diana Rigg (http://www.mindspring.com/~jglane/riggbio.htm), Actress (The Avengers (http://theavengers.tv/forever/), In This House of Brede (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073160/)).

1938 ~ Birthday of Natalie Wood (http://www.nataliewoodonline.com/), Actress (Rebel Without a Cause (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048545/), West Side Story (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055614/)).

1944 ~ Adolf Hitler slightly wounded (http://www.gdw-berlin.de/b12/b12-3-e.php) when a bomb exploded at his Rastenburg headquarters.

1946 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives voted 265-79 to put control of atomic energy in the hands of a civilian body, the Atomic Energy Commission, rather than leave the military in control.

1960 ~ Ceylon elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first female head of government (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556320/Bandaranaike_Sirimavo_Ratwatte_Dias.html).

1969 ~ Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0720.html#article).

1974 ~ Turkey invaded Cyprus (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3866000/3866521.stm).

1999 ~ After 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic, astronaut Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule was lifted to the surface (http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9907/20/grissom.capsule.01/).

2004 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding that Israel tear down the barrier it was building to seal off the West Bank.

[jseal]

1796 ~ Death of Robert Burns (http://www.robertburns.org/), Scottish Poet.

1899 ~ Birthday of Ernest Hemingway, American Author.

1861 ~ First Battle of Bull Run (http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/va005.htm) - the first major battle of the American Civil War began.

1911 ~ Birthday of Marshall McLuhan (http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/main.html), Canadian Communications Theorist.

1920 ~ Birthday of Isaac Stern, Ukrainian born Violinist.

1925 ~ In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John Scopes was found guilty (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0721.html#article) of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.

1948 ~ Birthday of Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), English Singer.

1954 ~ France surrendered North Vietnam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_3894000/3894175.stm) to the Viet Minh.

1970 ~ The Aswan High Dam (http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/nile.htm) in Egypt was completed at the end of eleven years of construction

1994 ~ Tony Blair was declared the winner (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2515000/2515825.stm) of the leadership election of the British Labour Party.

[jseal]

1822 ~ Birthday of Br. Gregor Mendel (http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Gregor_Mendel.html), Austrian Geneticist.

1887 ~ Birthday of Gustav Hertz (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1925/hertz-bio.html), German Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1925.

1898 ~ Birthday of Alexander Calder, American Artist.

1934 ~ John Dillinger was shot to death (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0722.html#article) by FBI agents in Chicago.

1946 ~ Ninety people died when the Irgun bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British administration.

1967 ~ Death of Carl Sandburg, Poet.

1977 ~ Deng Xiaoping (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/22/newsid_2516000/2516339.stm), returned to Chinese Government.

1992 ~ Pablo Escobar (http://www.cocaine.org/colombia/pablo-escobar.html), fearing extradition to the U.S., escaped from his luxury prison.

1998 ~ Death of Alan Shepard (http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/22/obit.shepard.02/), Astronaut.

2003 ~ Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were killed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/22/newsid_3808000/3808659.stm) when U.S. forces stormed a villa in Mosul, Iraq.

[jseal]

1757 ~ Death of Domenico Scarlatti, Italian Composer.

1892 ~ Birthday of Haile Selassie (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/selassie.htm), Emperor of Ethiopia.

1914 ~ Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0723.html#article) following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.

1942 ~ The Treblinka (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shtetl/treblinka/) extermination camp opened.

1952 ~ Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I.

1962 ~ Telstar relayed the first live trans-Atlantic television signal (http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/2006/07/23-july-1962-telstar-relays-first-live.html).

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

1982 ~ The International Whaling Commission voted a moratorium on commercial whaling (http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/international_policy/treaties/international_whaling_commission/whaling_and_the_international_whaling_commission.html) by 1985-86.

1984 ~ Vanessa Williams (http://www.vanessawilliams.de/indexengl.htm) became the first Miss America to resign her title, because of nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine.

1986 ~ Prince Andrew, Duke of York married Sarah Ferguson (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/23/newsid_2516000/2516203.stm) at Westminster Abbey.

[jseal]

1783 ~ Birthday of Simón Bolívar, South American liberator.

1802 ~ Birthday of Alexandre Dumas (http://www.online-literature.com/dumas/), French writer. (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers)

1898 ~ Birthday of Amelia Earhart, American Aviatrix.

1943 ~ The RAF Bomber Command bombed Hamburg by night, USAAF 8th Air Force Bomber Command by day (http://experts.about.com/e/b/bo/Bombing_of_Hamburg_in_World_War_II.htm). By the end of the operation, 9,000 tons of explosive & incendiary bombs created a firestorm which killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.

1959 ~ Khrushchev and Nixon have war of words in the “Kitchen Debate (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0724.html#article)”.

1967 ~ During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declared in Montreal "Vive le Québec libre! (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-236-1132-11/on_this_day/politics_economy/vive_quebec_libre)" (Long live free Quebec!). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.

1969 ~ The Apollo 11 astronauts, two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the moon, splashed down safely in the Pacific.

1974 ~ Death of James Chadwick (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1935/chadwick-bio.html), English physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1935.

1980 ~ Death of Peter Sellers (http://www.petersellers.com/), Actor.

2005 ~ Lance Armstrong (http://www.lancearmstrong.com/) closed out his cycling career with a seventh consecutive Tour de France victory.

[Oldfart]

Didn't Dumas write that movie, you know the one . . . . .

[jseal]

1797 ~ Horatio Nelson lost more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife Island.

1834 ~ Death of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet. (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html) & Kubla Khan )

1907 ~ Korea became a protectorate of Japan.

1909 ~ Louis Bleriot (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/bleriot.html) made the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine. Calais to Dover in 37 minutes.

1917 ~ Sir Thomas Whyte introduced the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).

1848 ~ Birthday of Arthur Balfour (http://pm.gov.uk/output/Page142.asp), UK PM, remembered for issuing the British declaration of support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

1956 ~ 51 people died when the Italian liner Andrea Doria (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0725.html#article) collided with the Swedish ship Stockholm.

1978 ~ Louise Brown, the first baby conceived by in-vitro fertilization (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-610-3415/science_technology/infertility/clip2), was born in Oldham, England.

1984 ~ Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya (http://great.russian-women.net/Svetlana_Savitskaya.shtml) became the first woman to walk in space.

2000 ~ An Air France Concorde crashed just after takeoff (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/25/newsid_2797000/2797965.stm) from Paris, killing 113.

[Oldfart]

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree,

Where Alf the sacred river ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

God I love that poem.

[jseal]

^^^ Yessir! That is a fine piece of verse. :)

[jseal]

1822 ~ Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín met in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

1856 ~ Birthday of George Bernard Shaw (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1925/shaw-bio.html), Author, Playwright, awarded t he Nobel Prize in Literature 1925.

1875 ~ Birthday of Carl Jung (http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/carljung.html), Swiss Psychiatrist.

1898 ~ Birthday of Willy Messerschmitt (http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/bf109/Bf109WMBio.html), German aircraft engineer and designer.

1928 ~ Birthday of Stanley Kubrick (http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/), Movie Director.

1941 ~ In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the seizure of all Japanese assets in the U.S.

1943 ~ Birthday of Mick Jagger (http://www.filmreference.com/film/7/Mick-Jagger.html), English Musician. (Rolling Stones)

1947 ~ U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0726.html#article) into law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.

1956 ~ Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/26/newsid_2701000/2701603.stm) sparking international condemnation.

1991 ~ Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman, was arrested for allegedly masturbating at a Sarasota, Florida adult theatre.

[Oldfart]

Willi Messerschmitt was one of the leading lights of his time in aviation.

[jseal]

1844 ~ Death of John Dalton (http://www.nndb.com/people/278/000049131/), English Chemist.

1904 ~ Birthday of Isaac Bashevis Singer (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1978/singer-bio.html), Writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1921 ~ Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1923/index.html) announced the discovery of the hormone insulin. He shared the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this.

1946 ~ Death of Gertrude Stein (http://www.ags.uci.edu/~mjpowers/stein_resources.html), American Writer & Cult Figure.

1949 ~ Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet (http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/de-havilland-comet-1a.htm), the first jet-powered airliner.

1953 ~ The Korean War stopped (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0727.html#article). The U.S., People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea signed an armistice agreement.

1974 ~ The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to recommend the first article of impeachment against President Nixon: Obstruction of Justice.

1980 ~ Death of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran.

1990 ~ Belarus declared independence from the Soviet Union.

2003 ~ Death of Bob Hope (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/27/newsid_3818000/3818693.stm), English-born Entertainer.

[jseal]

1741 ~ Death of Antonio Vivaldi (http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxvivaldi.html), Italian Composer.

1750 ~ Death of Johann Sebastian Bach (http://www.jsbach.org/), German Composer.

1794 ~ Maximilien Robespierre (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-terror.html), a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine.

1866 ~ Birthday of Beatrix Potter, English Author. (The Tale of Peter Rabbit)

1904 ~ Birthday of Pavel Cherenkov (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1958/cerenkov-bio.html), Soviet Physicist, awarded one third the Nobel Prize in Physics 1958.

1914 ~ World War I began (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0728.html#article) as Austria declared war on Serbia.

1973 ~ Watkins Glen, NY concert attended by 600,000 to see The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead.

1996 ~ The remains of a prehistoric man, Kennewick Man (http://www.kennewick-man.com/), was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

1998 ~ Monica Lewinsky was given blanket immunity from prosecution in exchange for grand jury testimony in the investigation of her relationship with President Bill Clinton.

2004 ~ Death of Professor Francis Harry Compton Crick (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/crick-bio.html), OM FRS, awarded one third the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962.

[jseal]

1856 ~ Death of Robert Schumann, Composer.

1890 ~ Death of Vincent van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/), Dutch painter.

1905 ~ Birthday of Dag Hammarskjöld (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1961/hammarskjold-bio.html), UN Secretary-General. Awarded the The Nobel Peace Prize 1961.

1907 ~ Sir Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts movement with the first scout camp at Brownsea Island (http://www.thescoutingpages.org.uk/first_camp.html). Prince William has just opened the 21st World Scout Jamboree (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6920239.stm) on Scouting’s 100th anniversary. :thumb:

1958 ~ The U.S. Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html) (NASA).

1974 ~ Death of Mama Cass Elliot (http://www.casselliot.com/), Musician.

1975 ~ Death of James Blish, Science Fiction Writer.

1981 ~ Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0729.html#article).

1993 ~ The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/29/newsid_4561000/4561917.stm) of all charges.

1996 ~ The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act was struck down as too broad in U.S. federal court.

[jseal]

1718 ~ Birthday of William Penn, English founder of the Province of Pennsylvania.

1729 ~ The city of Baltimore was founded (http://www.baltimore.org/visitors/v_bhistory.html).

1792 ~ The French national anthem ''La Marseillaise (http://hymne-national.ifrance.com/)'' by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris.

1818 ~ Birthday of Emily Brontë (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/ebronte/bio.html), English Novelist.

1898 ~ Birthday of Henry Moore (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/moore.html), Sculptor.

1941 ~ Birthday of Paul Anka, Singer and Composer.

1945 ~ World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sank the USS Indianapolis (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0730.html#article).

1966 ~ England won the first televised Football World Cup (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/30/newsid_2644000/2644065.stm), beating Germany 4 to 2.

1975 ~ Former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/CFP03/707010420) in suburban Detroit.

2003 ~ The last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle manufactured in Mexico.

[Oldfart]

There is an excellent movie with Stacey Keach about this, how sharks took many of those in the water and no-one could mention the ship being overdue because of it's sensitive mission.

The Captain was unfairly "hung out to dry", even sadder for a navy person (LOL).

[jseal]

1498 ~ Discovery of Trinidad by Christopher Columbus.

1556 ~ Death of Ignatius Loyola (http://www.luc.edu/jesuit/ignatius.bio.html), Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits.

1886 ~ Death of Franz Liszt (http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/liszt.html), Hungarian Composer.

1912 ~ Birthday of Milton Friedman (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1976/friedman-autobio.html), awarded the Nobel Prize in economics, 1976.

1917 ~ The Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele (http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres3.htm)) started in Flanders. With casualties from both sides exceeding 550,000, the name Passcheddaele has come to be used as a synonym for pointless slaughter.

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

Siegfried Sassoon

1941 ~ Hermann Göring ordered SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question (http://www.thenausea.com/elements/germany/germany-document1.html)."

1964 ~ Ranger program: Ranger 7 sent back the first close-up photographs of the moon (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0731.html#article).

1965 ~ Birthday of J. K. Rowling (http://www.jkrowling.com/en/), Author.

1991 ~ Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/31/newsid_4582000/4582773.stm) (START) signed in Moscow.

1999 ~ NASA intentionally crashed the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.

[jseal]

10 B.C. ~ Birthday of Claudius, Roman Emperor.

1774 ~ The element oxygen was discovered by Joseph Priestley.

1779 ~ Birthday of Birthday of Francis Scott Key (http://www.bcpl.net/~etowner/anthem.html), Composer of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

1819 ~ Birthday of Herman Melville (http://www.online-literature.com/melville/), Writer.

1834 ~ Slavery was abolished in the British Empire.

1932 ~ Birthday of Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (http://www.jdl.org/).

1936 ~ The Summer Olympic Games opened in Berlin (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0801.html#article).

1944 ~ Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/annefran.htm).

1957 ~ The United States and Canada formed the North American Air Defense Command (http://www.norad.mil/) (NORAD).

1977 ~ Death of Gary Powers, Spy Plane Pilot (http://www.foia.cia.gov/powers.asp).