On this day in history...

[Skuzbukit]

May 7th

1992: The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its maiden voyage.

1971: The Concorde, the worlds first faster than sound passenger plane, took off for a 75 minute publicity flight to Toulouse carrying the french president on board.

1962: JFK has warned unions to show responsible wage restraint or inflation could damage the US Economy.

1952: The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer.

1945: Germany surrendered to the Allies, ending World War II.

1921: Over 5000 people have already starved to death in Ireland in 1921 and it is feared many more will follow.

1912: Columbia University approves plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories, after established by Joseph Pulitzer.

1896: American criminal H.H. Holmes, who was considered the first known serial killer in the United States, was hanged; he confessed to 130 murders, though some believe the real number exceeded 200.

1867: Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patents dynamite in England, the first of three patents he would receive for the explosive material.

1824: Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th (Choral) Symphony, often regarded as his greatest work, premieres in Vienna

[Columbo]

Good idea for a new thread.

[Skuzbukit]

May 22nd

2015 - The Republic of Ireland, long known as a conservative, predominantly Catholic country, becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.

2013 - The Venezuelan government has approved creating a seventy-nine million dollar credit for the importation of toilet paper, toothpaste and soap. 

2008 - Eight women and three men, aged between 80 and 96, were burned to death when they were accused of being witches in the western Kisii district of Kenya 19 have now been arrested connection with the murders.

1981 - The Yorkshire ripper Peter Sutcliffe is found guilty of killing 13 women and the attempted murder of 7 others. and is sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in jail.

1980 The arcade game Pac-Man is released, waka-waka! waka-waka! waka-waka! Pacman is now 43 Years old, and so are Blinky, Pinky, Inky & Clyde.

1972 - Richard Nixon arrived in Moscow, the first visit by a U.S. president to the Soviet Union.

1960 - One of the largest Earthquakes on record occurred in Chile it kills an estimated 5,700 people there and the shockwave would go on to kill hundreds more in coastal Pacific areas of Hawaii & Japan.

1946 - The first US rocket (WAC Corporal) to reach the edge of space was fired from White Sands Missile Range New Mexico.

1939 - Hitler & Mussolini sign the Pact of Steel, a full military & political alliance.

1927 : A huge earthquake strikes Xining in the eastern part of the Qinghai province of China It was one of the deadliest earthquakes on record killing around 200,000.

1908 - The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.

337 AD Roman Emperor Constantine I baptized.

334 BC Alexander the Great's Macedonian Army defeats Darius III of Persia at the Battle of the Granicus.

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June 27th

2012 - Nora Ephron, famous for penning movies like When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle died at the age of seventy-one. Ephron died of complications related to acute myeloid leukemia in Manhattan. The writer had been nominated for three Academy Awards but never won.

2011 - Former governor of the US state of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was found guilty on seventeen of twenty corruption charges after being accused of trying to sell the senate seat that was held by President Obama. Blagojevich was arrested in late 2008 and was kicked out of office in January 2009. The fifty-four year old former governor could face up to three hundred years in prison. Blagojevich became the second Illinois governor in a row to be convicted of federal charges.

2007 - Gordon Brown, former prime minister Tony Blair's chancellor, became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Brown was sworn in as prime minister after Tony Blair resigned after being in the position for ten years. Brown was expected to reshuffle the cabinet soon after and promised to address new priorities for the country. Opposition leader David Cameron demanded that Brown call for an immediate general election because he had not earned the prime minister's position through voters.

1998 - Three men who are linked to the KKK have been arrested and charged with the murder of James Byrd and members of the activist Black Panthers group are marching in protest to members of the Ku Klux Klan staging a demonstration in the Texan town of Jasper. Racial tensions in the town are continuing following the racially motivated murder of James Byrd three weeks ago.

1994 - Aerosmith become first major band to let fans download a full new track free from the internet

1986 - The United Nations International Court of Justice has found the United States guilty of violating international law by training, arming and financing armed paramilitary Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1976 - The world’s first Ebola virus epidemic began in Sudan.

1957 - A report by the British Medical Research Council has found there is a direct link between smoking and lung cancer, and the British government will launch an educational campaign to raise awareness on the dangers of smoking. Tobacco firms who sell cigarettes have rejected the findings saying they are merely a 'matter of opinion'.

1954 - 1st atomic power station opens - Obninsk, near Moscow in Russia

1950 - North Korean troops reach Seoul, UN asks members to aid South Korea, Harry Truman orders US Air Force & Navy into Korean conflict

1940 - Germany started using their most sophisticated coding machine, Enigma, to transmit information and a team in England headed by some of the best mathematical brains set about breaking the code, and by the time of the German invasion of Poland the code was broken and all messages that the Germans still believed were secure were decoded by the allies.

1929 - (USA) New Immigration laws come into place next week with an increased number of immigrants from England and Ireland but decreases from many other countries in Latin America and Mexico where many of the quotas are already used up for the year.

1890 - Canadian boxer George Dixon becomes first black world champion when he stops English bantamweight champion Edwin "Nunc" Wallace in 18 rounds in London, England

1871 - Yen made official monetary unit of Japan. First minted in 1869, the yen was adopted as Japan's official monetary unit this day in 1871, when the government suspended the exchange of clan notes, money issued by feudal lords that had circulated since the 16th century.

1743 - War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Dettingen: in Bavaria, King George II of Britain personally leads troops into battle. The last time a British monarch commanded troops in the field.

1542 - Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sets sail from the Mexican port of Navidad to explore the west coast of North America on behalf of the Spanish Empire

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June 30th

2019 - President Donald Trump walked into North Korea to greet its leader, Kim Jong-Un, thus becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit that country.

1971 - The crew of Soviet spacecraft “Soyuz 11” dies after the loss of air supply. The cause of the tragedy was a faulty valve. The three cosmonauts had previously achieved the first docking of a spacecraft to a space station in history.

1960 - Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Psycho, opens.

1948 - John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley demonstrate their invention, the transistor, for the first time.

1937 - The world's first emergency services telephone number (999) was launched in London.

1936 - The novel “Gone with the Wind” is published. Margaret Mitchell's story set in the American South during the American Civil War became one of the United States' biggest best-sellers. The 1939 movie version starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable was similarly successful.

1934 - The “Night of the Long Knives” took place, during which German dictator Adolf Hitler had his elite SS guards summarily execute many leading officials of the SA, a Nazi paramilitary group.

1908 - An enormous aerial explosion, presumably caused by a comet fragment colliding with Earth, flattened approximately 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia.

1905 - Albert Einstein submits a paper outlining his theory of special relativity. The text “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper” comprises the currently accepted theory about the relationship between space and time. The theory of special relativity is the basis for his theory of general relativity, which he published in 1916.

[Skuzbukit]

July 3rd

2018 - Cardi B becomes first female rapper to get two number one US Billboard hits, with "I Like It" with Bad Bunny and J Balvin

1996 - UK House of Commons announces that the Stone of Scone, aka the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish (and subsequently English and British monarchs), will be returned to Scotland after 700 years in Westminster Abbey

1985 - The comedy Back to the Future, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, was released in American theatres.

1976 - Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Sweden's Björn Borg beats Ilie Năstase of Romania 6-4, 6-2, 9-7 for the first of 5 straight Wimbledon titles

1976 - An Israeli commando squad, led by Dan Shomron, launched a rescue of hostages held by airplane hijackers in Entebbe, Uganda.

1971 - American singer and songwriter Jim Morrison, who was a member of the psychedelic rock group the Doors, died at age 27 in Paris; the official cause of death was heart failure.

1970 - 112 people died when a British Dan-Air charter, flying a Comet 4 turbojet from Manchester crashed into the sea near Barcelona. There were no survivors and the remains of the wreckage provided no clues as to the cause of the crash.

1969 - Just weeks after being fired from the rock band the Rolling Stones, British musician Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool.

1928 - John Logie Baird demonstrates the first colour television transmission in London

1884 - Dow Jones publishes its 1st stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Average

1863 - Battle of Gettysburg ended.
Following three days of intense fighting and more than 50,000 casualties, the Battle of Gettysburg ended with a victory for the Union forces. It was seen as a turning point in the American Civil War.

1856 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to admit Kansas to statehood under the antislavery resolution known as the Topeka Constitution, despite the opposition of the Senate and President Franklin Pierce.

1767 - Pitcairn Island was discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret. The islands are best known as home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers, an event retold in numerous books and films. Pitcairn measures about 2 miles across and is the least populated jurisdiction in the world with only 48 inhabitants, from four main families of Bounty descendents.

1608 - Samuel de Champlain founded the city of Quebec, the first permanent European base in Canada.

324 - Battle of Adrianople: Roman Emperor Constantine I defeats his co-emperor Licinius, who flees to Byzantium

 

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July 4th

2012 - Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced that they had detected an interesting signal that was likely from a Higgs boson.

1966 - Freedom of Information Act in the US is signed into law
The 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law, which allows for the disclosure of government information to the public. It came into effect a year later in 1967.

1946 - The Republic of the Philippines was proclaimed an independent country from the USA, with Manuel Roxas as its first president.

1939 - On an appreciation day in his honour, American baseball player Lou Gehrig, who had been forced to retire months earlier due to ALS, gave a memorable speech in which he claimed to be “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

1884 - The Statue of Liberty was presented to the United States by the French in Paris.

1865 - Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published, though the first print run was soon recalled because of quality issues; a new first edition was released in November.

1776 - The Declaration of Independence, adopted this day in 1776 by the Second Continental Congress, called for the American colonies to secede from Great Britain, a proclamation now commemorated by a U.S. national holiday.

[Skuzbukit]

July 5th

1996 - Dolly, a female Finn Dorset sheep, was born near Edinburgh, becoming the first successfully cloned mammal; her birth was not publicly revealed until the following year.

1994 - Amazon.com founded in Bellevue, Washington by Jeff Bezos

1975 - Arthur Ashe defeated Jimmy Connors in four sets of tennis at the 89th Wimbledon Championships.

1962 - Algeria officially gained its independence from France, which had declared the African country independent two days earlier.

1954 - American singer Elvis Presley recorded That's All Right, which became his first hit and helped give rise to rock and roll music.

1950 - Israel's Law of Return Passed by the Knesset, the Law of Return granted Jews the freedom to immigrate to Israel and receive immediate citizenship, but it proved controversial when the question “Who is a Jew?” raised other issues.

1948 - Britain's National Health Service Act (NHS) takes effect, providing government funded medical and dental care and headed by the Health Minister Aneurin Bevan. The National Health Service was part of the "cradle to grave" welfare-state reforms. The NHS is funded from taxes including a proportion from National Insurance payments. The National Health Service is the world's largest health service and the world's fourth-largest employer.

1946 - The first bikini, designed by French engineer Louis Réard, made its debut in Paris; the swimsuit was named for the Bikini atoll, which, just days earlier, had been the site of the world's first peacetime atomic-weapons test.

1934 - Fights broke out between the city's police force and dock worker strikers in San Francisco after rioting started in the waterfront and the warehouse area of the city. At the end of the bloody fighting two were killed and hundreds injured.

1865 - The U.S. Secret Service began operation under the Treasury Department, to aid in the prevention of counterfeiting.

1852 - Frederick Douglass, fugitive slave, delivers his 'What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?' speech to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, condemns the celebration as hypocritical sham.

1687 - Isaac Newton's great work "Principia" published by the Royal Society in England, outlining his laws of motion and universal gravitation.

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August 19th

2010 - Operation Iraqi Freedom winds down, as the last of the United States brigade combat teams cross the border to Kuwait.

2004 - The search engine company Google Inc. raised $1.66 billion in its initial public offering; in an unusual move, the shares were sold in a public auction intended to put the average investor on an equal footing with financial industry professionals.

1994 - American theoretical physical chemist Linus Pauling—the only person to have won two unshared Nobel Prizes (Chemistry, 1954; Peace, 1962)—died at age 93.

1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985–91) and president of the Soviet Union (1990–91), was briefly ousted in a coup by communist hard-liners.

1988 - Iran and Iraq begin a cease-fire in their 8-year-old war

1960 - American pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years' confinement by the Soviet Union for espionage following the U-2 Affair, but he was later released (1962) in exchange for the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

1958 - Production of the luxury Packard automobiles is ended shortly after Packard is merged with Studebaker. The Ohio Automobile Company had begun production of the distinct cars in 1899 in Warren, Ohio. The company name was changed to the Packard Motor Car Company in 1902 following investment from outside. For the next 50 years Packard produced some of the highest quality and highest priced cars in the US, but following some poor designs which dated the models the company got in financial difficulty in the early 50's and never recovered.

1953 - A military coup supported and financed by the United States overthrows the government of Premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and reinstates the Shah of Iran.

1945 - A commando force formed by Vo Nguyen Giap, under Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh, entered the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

1936 - Soviet officials began the Great Purge of prominent Old Bolsheviks—real or potential political rivals and critics of Joseph Stalin—as the first show trial opened, resulting in the execution of Lev Kamenev and others.

1934 - The German people vote to give Adolph Hitler complete power combining the positions of chancellor and president into the position of the Fuehrer.

1929 - One thousand single, young men from California have immigrated to the Portuguese colony of Angola which is in West Africa. Portugal is quickly developing infrastructure there. It has already laid down 17,000 kilometers of railways and 100 kilometers of roads. Those with less than $1,000 don’t pay taxes and farmers are given an allowance for farm implements.

1897 - The London Electric Cab Company began operating the electric-powered taxi cabs in London's West End and the City. They had a range of up to 30 miles, and a top speed of 9 miles an hour. The cabs prove uneconomical and were withdrawn in 1900.

1847 - U.S. forces under Major General Winfield Scott began the Battle of Contreras, opening the final campaign of the Mexican-American War.

1839 - Louis Daguerre's daguerreotype photographic process with complete working instructions is published "free to the world" in Paris as a gift to the world from the French government.

1612 - Three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury were put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft. It was one of the most famous witch trials in English history as all three - Jane Southworth, Jennet Bierley, and Ellen Bierley were acquitted. The charges against the women included child murder and cannibalism.

1458 - Enea Silvio Piccolomini was elected pope as Pius II, following the death of Calixtus III.

1274 - Edward I was crowned king of England at Westminster, known as 'Longshanks', as he was 6 feet 2 inches tall.

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September 8th

2022 - After more than seven decades on the British throne, Elizabeth II died at the age of 96; her eldest son became King Charles III.

2015 - American comedian Stephen Colbert debuted as host of the Late Show, replacing David Letterman.

2003 - German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl—who was perhaps the finest and most-influential female director of the 20th century, whose association with Adolf Hitler made her reviled almost as much she was admired—died at age 101.

1998 - Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals broke Roger Maris's 1961 record for most home runs in a regular professional baseball season by hitting his 62nd of the season (he finished the season with 70 home runs).

1974 - Richard Nixon, who had resigned the U.S. presidency on August 8, 1974, was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.

1966 - The first episode of the sci-fi series Star Trek aired on American television.

1960 - The psychological thriller Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein, was released in American theatres; it became a classic, especially known for the scene in which Janet Leigh's character is murdered in the shower.

1504 - Michelangelo's 'David' was unveiled in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence; considered a masterpiece, the sculpture is one of the defining works of the Renaissance.

1429 - French heroine Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who believed she was acting under divine guidance, attempted to oust the duke of Burgundy and take Paris for newly crowned King Charles VII.

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September 16th

2011 - After elections in Denmark ended, the center-left bloc led by the Social Democrats won a narrow majority, making their leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt the country's first female prime minister. Thorning-Schmidt ran on a platform of increased taxes, increased government spending, and a strange proposal to have workers add twelve minutes to their workdays in order to increase productivity.

2009 - US rapper, Jay-Z, breaks Elvis Presley's record as the solo artist with the most number one records. The Blueprint 3 became Jay-Z's eleventh number one album.

2007 - Blackwater guards working as private contractors have been accused of the murder of 17 innocent Iraqis.

1998 - The Basque separatist organization ETA announced an indefinite cease-fire after 30 years of terrorist guerrilla attacks in Spain that were blamed for 800 deaths; the peace lasted 14 months.

1997 - Apple Computer Inc. names co-founder Steve Jobs interim CEO

1993 - The sitcom Frasier—a spin-off of Cheers, starring Kelsey Grammer—debuted on NBC and became one of the most popular American television shows of the late 20th century.

1978 - Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq was proclaimed president of Pakistan.

1978 - 25,000 die in 7.7 earthquake in Tabar, Iran

1975 - Papua New Guinea achieved full independence from Australia.

1974 - President Ford has announced an amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders, just in Canada during the Vietnam war there were between 30,000 & 90,000 Americans seeking asylum from fighting in the war.

1970 - King Ḥussein of Jordan declared martial law following the hijacking of four international airliners by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

1963 - Federation of Malaysia formed by Malaya, Singapore, British North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak

1963 The Beatles release "She Loves You" in the United States. The song went to claim the Number 1 position on the charts on March 21st 1964 and remained there for 2 weeks. "She Loves You" helped set a record in the United States by being one of the five Beatles songs which held the top five positions in the American charts simultaneously. "She Loves You" had already been released in the UK on August 23rd.

1957 - LA City Council approves 300-acre site in Chavez Ravine for Dodgers

1932 - Mahatma Gandhi begins his hunger strike in opposition to Britain's new Caste Separation Laws.

1931 - As the world recession continues the British economy is heading for an all time low with thousands of ships rusting in harbors because there are no goods to export, the budget deficit continues to grow and currently stands at $600 million budget deficit this year.

1928 - The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes Lake Okeechobee, Florida with winds of around 140 mph a major levee broke with the resulting flood covering an area of hundreds of square miles with water that in some places was over 20 ft (6 m) deep and some 2,500 people drowned.

1920 - A bomb rocked Wall Street killing 38 people and wounded over 400. It was never solved but was widely attributed to radical anarchists.

1919 - The U.S. Congress granted a national charter to the American Legion, an organization of U.S. war veterans.

1869 - Golf's 1st recorded hole-in-one by Tom Morris at Prestwick's 8th hole, Scotland

1848 - Slavery abolished in all French territories

1810 - A local revolt in Mexico was sparked by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a parish priest in Dolores, who uttered the Grito de Dolores (“Cry of Dolores”), calling for the end of rule by Spanish peninsulars, for equality of races, and for redistribution of land. (Mexican Independence Day)

1795 - British capture Capetown, South Africa, from the Dutch

1620 - English colonists board the Mayflower and set sail for America, where they founded Plymouth, Massachusetts, after 41 men, including William Bradford and Myles Standish, signed the Mayflower Compact.

1380 - Charles V, who was king of France from 1364 and led the country in a miraculous recovery from the devastation of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), died at age 42.

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September 30th

2014 - In the first official study of money spent on 'illegal' activities it was found that Britons spend more on drugs and prostitutes than on beer and wine. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said that spending on illegal drugs and prostitution was worth an estimated £12.3bn to the UK economy in 2013.

2005 - The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed satiric cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, provoking violent protests by Muslims worldwide.

2000 - There is a shocked and angry reaction to images of the death of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy caught in Israeli-Palestinian crossfire.

1993 - Quakes in the south & west of India, destory multiple villages killing an estimated 22,000 people

1988 - A court in Gibraltar declared that the killing of three unarmed IRA suspects by British soldiers was lawful.

1980 - Ethernet specifications published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation.

1967 - BBC Radio 1 launches as UK's first legal pop music station

1965 - In Indonesia a group of army conspirators known as the September 30th Movement began an abortive coup, and by the following morning they had kidnapped and murdered six army generals; the movement claimed that it had seized power to forestall a coup against President Sukarno by a council of generals.

1955 - American actor James Dean, who became a symbol of the confused, restless, and idealistic youth of the 1950s, died in an automobile crash as he drove to a car rally in Salinas, California.

1954 - The USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered vessel, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy.

1949 - The Berlin airlift officially ended after the Western Allied powers delivered 2,323,738 tons of food, fuel, machinery, and other supplies to West Berlin, which had been cut off from the West during the Soviet blockade of Berlin.

1946 - Twenty-two Nazi leaders, including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Hermann Goering, are found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death or prison at the Nuremberg war trials

1936 - Pinewood Film Studios opened near Iver, in Buckinghamshire, to provide Britain with a film studio to compete with America's Hollywood Studios in California.

1927 - American baseball player Babe Ruth became the first player to hit 60 home runs in a single season; his record stood until Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961.

1888 - Jack the Ripper murdered two more women - Liz Stride, found behind 40 Berner Street, and Kate Eddowes in Mitre Square, both in London's East End. Unlike murderers of lesser fame, there is no waxwork figure of Jack the Ripper at Madame Tussauds' Chamber of Horrors, in accordance with their policy of not modelling persons whose likeness is unknown. He is instead depicted as a shadow.

1862 - Minister-President of Prussia Otto von Bismarck delivers his famous "Blood and Iron" speech on the unification of German territories

1846 - Anesthetic ether is used for the 1st time, by American dentist Dr William Morton who extracts a tooth

1840 - The foundation stone for Nelson's Column was laid in Trafalgar Square.

1791 - The opera The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiered in Vienna.

1630 - John Billington, one of the original pilgrims who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower, became the first man executed in the English colonies. He was hanged for having shot another man during a quarrel.

1520 - Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father Selam I as Ottoman Sultan (rules till 1566)

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November 26th

2011 - NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani checkpost in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.

2008 - Ten gunmen, who were believed to be connected to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based terrorist organization—launched a series of coordinated attacks in Mumbai (Bombay); the siege ended three days later, with at least 174 people killed.

2000 - Republican candidate George W. Bush is certified the winner of Florida’s electoral votes, giving him enough electoral votes to defeat Democrat Al Gore Jr. for the US presidency, despite losing the popular vote.

1992 - Queen Elizabeth II to be taxed from next year. The Queen is to become the first British monarch since the 1930s to pay income tax.

1983 - £25m gold heist at Heathrow. An armed gang carries out Britain's largest-ever robbery from the Brinks Mat warehouse, at London's Heathrow Airport. The gang gained entry to the warehouse from an insider security guard called Anthony Black. The robbers expected to steal £3 million in cash, but when they arrived, they found the gold bullion, most of which was never recovered.

1975 - Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme is found guilty of an attempt on President Gerald Ford’s life.

1972 - Police foil IRA hospital rescue attempt. Eight armed men protesting against the imprisonment of IRA hunger striker Sean MacStiofain try to rescue him from a Dublin hospital.

1968 - UK Race discrimination law tightened. The new Race Relations Act makes it illegal to refuse housing, employment or public services to people because of their ethnic background.

1954 - Donald Campbell's new Bluebird K7 (a turbo jet engined hydroplane) was handed over to him On This Day. Campbell set seven world water speed records in Bluebird K7 and it was in her that he was killed on Coniston Water on 4th January 1967 whilst attempting another water speed record, his target being 300 mph. He is buried in Coniston graveyard.

1953 - Lords vote for commercial television. Peers back the UK Government's proposals for commercial television - despite fierce opposition from some rebels who fear the influence of advertisers.

1949 - India becomes a sovereign Democratic republic.

1941 - The Japanese fleet departs from the Kuril Islands en route to its attack on Pearl Harbor.

1939 - American singer Tina Turner—who found success in the rhythm-and-blues, soul, and rock genres—was born.

1924 - After the defeat of the White Russians and the Chinese, the Mongolian People's Republic was proclaimed.

1922 - Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon, Carter’s sponsor, became the first men to see inside the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun near Luxor since it was sealed 3,000 years previously. Having escaped detection by tomb robbers, it was complete with gold statues and a gold throne inlaid with gems.

1917 - NHL forms with Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators & Quebec Bulldogs; National Hockey Association disbands; the first American club, the Boston Bruins, was added in 1924.

1894 - Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, married Alexandra.

1867 - Mrs. Lily Maxwell of Manchester became the first ever woman to vote in a British election, due to a mistake in the electoral register. She had to be escorted to the polling station by a bodyguard to protect her from those opposed to women’s suffrage.

1864 - Oxford professor Charles Dodgson presented a little girl called Alice Liddell with a handwritten manuscript of a story she had inspired him to write. It was called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Dodgson's tale was published in 1865 as 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll'.

1836 - The death of John Loudon McAdam. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface (Tarmac being the most recognisable), using controlled materials. Modern road construction still reflects McAdam's influence.

1805 - The offficial opening of Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wales. It is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, a Grade I Listed Building and a World Heritage Site.

1789 - 1st national Thanksgiving in America

1778 - British explorer Captain James Cook is the first European to visit Maui in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii)

1703 - Henry Winstanley, the engineer who built the first Eddystone lighthouse, was among those who died when it was destroyed in the Great Storm that claimed 9000 lives and lasted from the 25th to the 27th November.

1688 - Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands.

1645 - During the English Civil War the third siege of Newark took place, this lasted from 26th November 1645 to 8th May 1646. Newark was important to both sides, as two important roads ran through the town - the Great North Way and Fosse Way. Newark castle was deliberately destroyed as a fortress in 1648.

579 - Pelagius II succeeded Benedict I as pope.

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December 10th

2009 -  The movie “Avatar” makes its world premiere in London

2007 - Argentine politician Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was sworn into office as Argentina's first female elected president; she succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner.

2006 - Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, whose dictatorial reign (1974–90) in Chile was marked by the murder and torture of political opponents, died while facing charges of human rights abuses.

2005 - American comedian and actor Richard Pryor, who revolutionized comedy with his frank and controversial style, died at age 65.

1996 - South African President Nelson Mandela signed a new constitution that completed a transition from a long period of white minority rule (apartheid) to full-fledged democracy.

1982 - A treaty codifying the Law of the Sea was signed by 117 countries.

1967 - American singer-songwriter Otis Redding, who was one of the great soul stylists of the 1960s, died in an airplane crash.

1964 - Nobel Peace Prize presented to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Oslo, Norway

1962 - The British historical film Lawrence of Arabia, which was directed by David Lean and starred Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence, had its world premiere; it became one of the most celebrated epics in the history of cinema.

1948 - The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1941 - World War II: The Royal Navy's ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.

1936 - Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson

1922 - Canton Bulldogs claim NFL’s first title

1920 - Woodrow Wilson awarded Nobel Peace Prize

1919 - The Smith brothers Capt. Ross Smith and Lt. Keith Smith (Australians), became the first aviators to fly from Britain to Australia.

1915 - Ford builds its 1 millionth car

1909 - Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, cited for “the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings.”

1907 - The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clashed with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that had been subjected to vivisection.

1901 - The first Nobel Prizes were distributed, marking the fifth anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who founded and endowed the awards through his will.

1898 - Representatives of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, concluding the Spanish-American War.

1884 - American author Mark Twain's classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published, appearing in the United Kingdom and Canada; it was released in the United States the following year.

1868 - The first traffic lights were installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they used semaphore arms and were illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.

1845 - The Scottish civil engineer, Robert Thompson, patented pneumatic tyres. He was one of Scotland’s most prolific, but now largely forgotten, inventors. The original Tyre manufacture process, done by hand, proved too expensive to be economically viable until Dunlop developed the process in 1888.

1815 - English mathematician Ada Lovelace, who was called the first computer programmer, was born.

1768 - The first part of the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest continuously published and revised work in the English language, was published and advertised for sale in Edinburgh.

1690 - First paper currency is authorized in the Colonies (America).

1541 - Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.

1508 - Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I, Louis XII of France, and Ferdinand II of Aragon formed the League of Cambrai.

1394 - The birth of King James I of Scotland. He reigned from 1406-1437 and was murdered at Perth in February 1437

1041 - Michael V Calaphates ascended the throne of the Byzantine Empire following the death of Michael IV.

 

[Skuzbukit]

January 25th

2013 - British Themepark, Thorpe Park ordered experts to redesign its £20m new rollercoaster 'The Swarm', due to open on 15th March, after dummies lost limbs during dry run tests.

2011 - Egyptian Revolution begins with a series of street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, labor strikes and violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities

2005 - A Wichita, Kansas, television station receives a postcard from the BTK killer that leads police to discover a Post Toasties cereal box that had been altered to contain the letters BTK. This communication was one in a long line sent by the serial killer who terrorized Wichita for over 30 years, brutally murdering 10 people and taunting law enforcement and the local media.

1995 - Russia activates its nuclear command systems for the first time

1989 - Actor John Cleese won damages for libel at the High Court over an article in the Daily Mirror Newspaper, which claimed he had become like Basil Fawlty in his comedy series Fawlty Towers

1981 - Chairman Mao’s widow sentenced to death

1980 - Paul McCartney is released from a Tokyo jail and deported from Japan

1972 - The world's first kidney and pancreatic tissue transplant was carried out in London

1971 - American criminal and cult leader Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted of a series of notorious murders; their crimes inspired the best-selling book Helter Skelter (1974).

1971 - Military coup in Uganda under Major General Idi Amin

1968 - Israeli submarine Dakar, carrying 69 sailors, disappears. It would remain missing for some 30 years.

1961 - First live, nationally televised presidential news conference, held by JFK

1961 - The animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released in the United States, and it became a Disney classic, especially noted for the villainous character Cruella De Vil.

1949 - The first Emmy Awards were presented; there were only six categories, and nominated shows were limited to those that aired in the Los Angeles area.

1949 - First Israeli election won by David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party

1945 - In an effort to prevent tooth decay, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first U.S. city to add fluoride to its water system.

1942 - Thailand declares war on the United States and England

1924 - 1st Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix, France

1919 - The founding of The League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.

1899 - The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company began manufacture of the first radio sets, at Chelmsford.

1840 - American naval expedition under Charles Wilkes is first to identify Antarctica as a new continent

1817 - Gioachino Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" (Cinderella) premieres in Rome

1791 - The British Parliament passed the Constitutional Act of 1791 and split the old Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.

1565 - Battle at Talikota, India: Deccan sultanate destroys Vijayanagar's army and the last Hindu kingdom of Southern India

1554 - Jesuit missionaries founded the city of São Paulo (now in Brazil) on the anniversary of the conversion of St. Paul.

1533 - Henry VIII, king of England, married his second wife, Anne Boleyn, in a secret ceremony.

844 - A Roman archdeacon named John was elected antipope against the nobility's candidate, Pope Sergius II.

41 -  Claudius I, who extended Roman rule in North Africa and made Britain a province of the Roman Empire, was affirmed as emperor, raised to the post one day after the murder of his nephew, Gaius Caesar (Caligula).

[kenlow73]

March 21

2024 Social media company Reddit makes it's debut on the New York Stock Exchange, it's shares rising 48%

2023 Ugandan government passes Anti Homosexuality Bill, including punishment of 10 years in prison for identifying as LGBTQ+

2020 Italy records record daily death toll of 793 for COVID-19 as the worldwide death tolls surpasses 12,000 with 299,000 known infections (Johns Hopkins figures)

2019 New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces a ban on military-style semiautomatic weapons, 6 days after the Christchurch terrorist attack

2018 Suicide bomber kills 31 in crowd celebrating Persian New Year in Kabul, Afghanistan

2014 Russia formally annexes Crimea amid international condemnation

2012 Sergio Agüero & Samir Nasri score to give Manchester City 2-1 win over Chelsea at City of Manchester Stadium; EPL record 20th consecutive home win; streak ends with 3-3 draw v Sunderland 31/3

2006 First ever tweet sent out by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey "just setting up my twttr"

2004 In Malaysia, the 11th Federal and State elections are held, returning the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional to power with an increased majority

2002 In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

1994 Wayne Gretzky ties Gordie Howe's NHL record of 801 goals

1993 Pope John Paul II beatifies Duns Scotus, a philosopher-theologian of the Middle Ages

1991 27 lost at sea when 2 US Navy anti-submarine planes collide

1990 Namibia becomes independent of South Africa, Sam Nujoma becomes president

1989 1st sea test of Trident 2 missile self-destructs, Cape Canaveral, Florida

1987 PSV sells soccer player Ruud Gullit to AC Milan (Ÿ17 million)

1985 Bloodbath at Langa (Uitenhage) South-Africa, 19 killed

1984 Part of Central Park in New York City is named "Strawberry Fields" honoring John Lennon

1983 Only known typo on Time Magazine cover (control=contol), all recalled

1981 9-time World Grand Prix motorcycle champion Mike Hailwood along with his 9-year-old daughter Michelle are killed when his Rover SD1 collides with a truck near their home in Tanworth-in-Arden in England

1980 On season finale cliffhanger of TV show "Dallas", villain J.R. Ewing is shot by unknown assailant

1979 Egyptian Parliament unanimously approve peace treaty with Israel

1975 Ethiopia abolishes its monarchy after 3,000 years

1973 White House Counsel John Dean tells US President Richard Nixon, "There is a cancer growing on the Presidency"

1969 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1968 Portuguese socialist Mário Soares banished to Sao Tomé, having been arrested by secret police under dictator António de Oliveira Salazar

1965 Martin Luther King Jr. begins march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama

1963 Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay is closed

1961 Art Modell purchases Cleveland Browns for then record sum ($3,925,000)

1958 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test

1955 Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus advocates for Cyprus to join Greece

1953 NBA record 106 fouls & 12 players foul out (Boston-Syracuse)

1952 20,000 attempt to attend the 1st rock & roll concert ever when Alan Freed presents "The Moondog Coronation Ball" at old 12,000 seat Cleveland Arena; performers include: Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers; Tiny Grimes and the Rocking Highlanders; The Dominoes; and Varetta Dillard

1947 US President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to have "complete and unswerving loyalty to the United States"

1945 During WW II Allied bombers begin 4-day raid over Germany

1943 Assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler fails

1935 Persia is officially renamed Iran

1933 Day of Potsdam in Nazi Germany, a ceremony to open the new Reichstag after the fire in February; Adolf Hitler and Paul von Hindenburg shake hands in public

1925 Tennessee governor Austin Peay passes the "Butler Act," making Tennessee the 1st state to outlaw teaching the theory of evolution (repealed 1967)

1918 World War I: Germany launches Somme offensive

1890 Austrian Jewish communities are defined by law

1871 Otto von Bismarck elevated to rank of Fürst (Prince)

1826 Beethoven's "String Quartet No. 13" in B flat major (Op 130) premieres in Vienna

1791 Captain Hopley Yeaton becomes 1st commissioned officer in the Revenue Marine, later the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of the modern US Coast Guard

1702 Queen Anne addresses English parliament

1610 King James I of England and VI of Scotland addresses English House of Commons

1413 Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, becomes King Henry V of England upon the death of his father

1349 Black Death Massacre: Between 100 and 3,000 Jews are killed in Black Death riots in Erfurt, Germany; part of a wave of pogroms across Western Europe

630 Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem

 

Skuzbukit, I don't know how you handled this. This thread is exhausting.