This day in history.....

[Mare]

6-04-08


1832: The British Parliament, led by John Russell, passes the first Reform Bill, which broadly expands voting rights and reforms the borough system, decreasing the power of aristocratic landowners.

1864: Three years into the American Civil War, the Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for a second term as president.


1892: Homer Plessy, a Louisiana man of mixed black and white ancestry, takes a seat in a white-only train car, leading to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision upholding segregation.

1905: The Norwegian Störting (parliament) decides on the separation of Norway from Sweden.


1945: One of composer Benjamin Britten's most popular operas, Peter Grimes, makes its debut in London.


1965: In Griswold v. Connecticut, written by Justice William O. Douglas, the Supreme Court rules that laws banning birth control are an unconstitutional violation of privacy.

 

[Mare]

6-10-08


1194: Chartres Cathedral, France, burns down save for the west front. The reconstruction of the cathedral, which begins the same year, heralds the birth of the High Gothic style of architecture.


1776: The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to write a statement of independence from Britain.


1935: Two recovering alcoholics, Bill W. and Dr. Bob S., found Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, Ohio, to help each other stay sober.


1957: For the first time in 22 years, the Progressive Conservative Party wins control of the Canadian Parliament. They choose John Diefenbaker as prime minister.


1964: After a 75-day filibuster led by Southern senators, the U.S. Senate votes 71-29 to close debate on the Civil Rights Bill, which passes the Senate nine days later.


1978: Affirmed becomes the last horse to take the thoroughbred Triple Crown in the 20th century when he wins the Belmont Stakes. For the third straight race, Affirmed's rival Alydar finishes a close second.

 

[Mare]

6-12-08


1630: John Winthrop, the newly selected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, lands at Salem. He will lead the colony for the next two decades.


1937: In the USSR, as part of Joseph Stalin's purges of Communist Party leadership, eight generals in the Soviet army are executed for conspiracy against the government.


1963: Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and considered the most expensive movie ever made to that point, premieres in New York City.


1963: NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is shot and killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Not until 1994 is white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith convicted of the crime.


1964: Nelson Mandela, along with other members of the African National Congress, is sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage, treason, and conspiracy in South Africa.


1979: Pedalled by cyclist Bryan Allen, the Gossamer Albatross becomes the first human-powered vehicle to fly over the English Channel.

 

[Mare]

June 14th, 2008

1777: The Continental Congress votes to adopt a flag with 13 stars and 13 stripes as the national emblem of the new United States of America.


1846: In the Bear Flag Revolt during the Mexican War, American settlers capture Sonoma from Mexican forces and declare an independent Republic of California. Mexico cedes the territory to the United States in 1848.


1940: After sweeping through Belgium and the Netherlands to the north, the German army captures Paris, leading to the surrender of France three days later.


1951: UNIVAC, the first commercial, general-use computer, designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, is demonstrated by the Remington Rand company.

 

[Mare]

6-15-08


Happy father's day all!


1215: King John of England signs the Magna Carta, a historic agreement with his barons that protects individual liberties and establishes that not even the king is above the law.


1752: Benjamin Franklin and his son conduct the famous experiment involving a kite and key during a thunderstorm, confirming Franklin's theory that lightning is electrical.


1844: Charles Goodyear receives a U.S. patent for the vulcanization of rubber.


1938: Pitcher Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds throws his second straight no-hit game, a feat unequaled in baseball history.

1977: Less than two years after the death of longtime ruler Francisco Franco, Spain holds its first democratic elections in 41 years.


1992: Vice President Dan Quayle, visiting a Trenton, N.J., school, corrects the spelling of a student, telling him that "potato" should be spelled "potatoe."

 

[Mare]

6-16-08


1654: Queen Christina of Sweden, a convert to Roman Catholicism, abdicates her throne.


1904: The action of James Joyce's novel Ulysses takes place on this day, known as Bloomsday after Leopold and Molly Bloom, two of the novel's main characters.


1937: When the government shuts down the debut of The Cradle Will Rock, a proletarian opera written by Marc Blitzstein and directed by Orson Welles, the production moves to an empty theater nearby.


1958: Former Hungarian prime minister Imre Nagy is executed for his role in the anti-Soviet uprising of 1956.


1963: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, is launched into a three-day orbital flight aboard Vostok 6 to study the problem of weightlessness.


1970: Kenneth A. Gibson is elected mayor of Newark, New Jersey, becoming the first black mayor elected in a major northeastern city in the United States.

 

[Mare]

6-17-08



1775: In the early days of the Revolutionary War, British troops attack Massachusetts militiamen in the Battle of Bunker Hill. The British suffer high casualties but capture the American position.


1789: As the French Revolution approaches, the French Third Estate, the assembly of commoners, declares itself the National Assembly, in an attempt to wrest political power from King Louis XVI.


1876: In the Battle of Rosebud Creek, Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne forces led by Crazy Horse repel U.S. troops, eight days before joining Sitting Bull to defeat General George Custer at Little Big Horn.


1972: Five men are arrested in a burglary of Democratic Party offices in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. The cover-up of White House involvement will lead to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.


1976: Four teams from the folded American Basketball Assocation (New York Nets, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, and Denver Nuggets) join the National Basketball Association.


1994: Driving a white Ford Bronco, O. J. Simpson leads police on a slow freeway chase before being arrested for the murder of his wife and another man, a crime he was acquitted of the following year.

 

[Mare]

6-18-08


1155: Frederick I, after consolidating his power in Germany and Italy, is crowned Holy Roman emperor by Pope Adrian IV in Rome.


1812: Aroused by the impressment of American sailors into the British navy and eager to expand the country's western possessions, the U.S. Congress declares war against Britain to begin the War of 1812.

1815: British, Prussian, and Dutch troops led by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher give French emperor and general Napoleon his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.


1940: British prime minister Winston Churchill, speaking to the House of Commons before the Battle of Britain, says British resistance in the battle will be remembered as "their finest hour."


1983: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

 

[Mare]

6-21-08


1788: The United States Constitution takes effect after New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify it.


1877: Ten members of the Molly Maguires, a secret society of Irish immigrant coal miners, are executed for their roles in a violent coal strike in Pennsylvania.

1964: Future baseball Hall-of-Famer and U.S. senator Jim Bunning pitches a perfect game for the Philadelphia Phillies, the first perfect game in the National League in 84 years.


1964: The Haitian National Assembly adopts a new constitution that proclaims François "Papa Doc" Duvalier president for life. He remains dictator of the country until his death in 1971.


1978: Evita, a musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice based on the life of Argentine political figure Eva Perón, opens in London.


1997: The New York Liberty defeats the Los Angeles Sparks 67-57 in the inaugural game of the Women's National Basketball Association.

 

[Mare]

6-24-08


1314: In the Battle of Bannockburn, the decisive victory for Scottish independence, forces led by Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, defeat the troops of English King Edward II.

1497: An English expedition led by John Cabot makes the first recorded sighting of North America by a European, landing at what may have been Cape Breton Island.


1901: Painter Pablo Picasso has his first exhibit in Paris, at the age of 19.


1922: German nationalists assassinate foreign minister Walther Rathenau, a German Jew, in response to his policy of paying reparations for Germany's role in World War I.

1947: An American pilot reports seeing objects he describes as "saucers" flying near Mount Rainier in Washington, leading to the popular term "flying saucers."


1964: The Federal Trade Commission requires that a message be placed on all cigarette packages that warns consumers that cigarette smoking is dangerous to their health.

 

[Mare]

July 5th


1811: Venezuela declares its independence from Spain under the leadership of Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda.


1865: Methodist minister William Booth founds the Christian Mission in London, an evangelical and social-welfare ministry that becomes the Salvation Army in 1878.


1932: António de Oliveira Salazar becomes prime minister of Portugal, a country he rules as a dictator for the next 36 years.


1947: Outfielder Larry Doby debuts for the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first black player in baseball's American League. Three months earlier, Jackie Robinson joined the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers.

1948: The British government adopts the National Health Service Act, which establishes a national system of publicly funded medical services.


1954: Nineteen-year-old Elvis Presley has his first recording session at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. The session produces Presley's rendition of Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right."

 

[Mare]

July 6th


1415: Religious reformer Jan Hus is burned at the stake as a heretic by the Catholic Church.


1699: Pirate captain William Kidd is arrested in Boston. Sent to trial in England, he is convicted and hanged two years later.


1854: The Republican Party is founded as an antislavery party by former members of the Whig, Democratic, Free Soil, and Know Nothing parties.


1885: French biologist Louis Pasteur uses his newly developed vaccine against rabies to save the life of a young boy, Joseph Meister, who was bitten by a rabid dog.


1917: Arab forces rebelling against the Ottoman Empire capture the port of Al 'Aqabah with the help of British adventurer T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia.


1957: Tennis player Althea Gibson becomes the first African American to win the Wimbledon championship. She wins the U.S. Open later that year and repeats the performance in 1958.

 

[Mare]

July 7th


1704: Stanislaw Leszczynski is elected king of Poland as Stanislaw I, at King Charles XII of Sweden's instigation, after the deposition of Augustus II the Strong in January.


1754: King's College opens in New York City under a grant from King George II. After the American Revolution it will be renamed Columbia University.


1946: Italian-born Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini is canonized, becoming the first U.S. citizen to become a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.


1969: The Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, designates English and French as the official languages of the country.


1981: President Ronald Reagan nominates Arizona judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.


1987: Former National Security Council aide Oliver North begins his televised testimony in the Iran-Contra hearings, testifying that he took no action that was not approved by his superiors.

 

[Mare]

July 8th


1822: English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns at age 29 while sailing in a storm off the coast of Italy.


1835: The Liberty Bell cracks in Philadelphia while tolling the death of Chief Justice John Marshall, who died July 6.


1853: Four U.S. ships led by Commodore Matthew Perry enter Tokyo Bay to establish relations with Japan, which had been closed to outsiders since the 17th century.


1871: The first in a series of articles in the New York Times appears exposing the systematic graft practiced in New York City by the Tweed Ring, led by politician William Marcy “Boss” Tweed.


1889: The first issue of the Wall Street Journal appears.


1951: The city of Paris, France, celebrates the 2,000th anniversary of its founding.

 

[Mare]

July 10th


1890: Wyoming is admitted to the Union as the 44th state.


1892: The violent strike of steelworkers at Carnegie Steel's Homestead works ends when the state militia disperses the strikers. Four days earlier, company guards had shot into the picketers, starting a riot.

1913: The National Weather Service records a temperature of 57°C (134° F) in California's Death Valley, the highest temperature ever measured in the United States.


1925: The so-called Monkey Trial of teacher John Scopes for teaching evolution begins in Dayton, Tennessee. The trial matches nationally famous lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan.


1953: Four months after the death of Joseph Stalin, Soviet leaders arrest Lavrenty Beria, his longtime head of security. Beria is executed later that year for treason.


1999: After playing to a scoreless tie through regulation and overtime, the U.S. women's soccer team defeats China in a shootout, 5 goals to 4, to win their second World Cup.

 

[Mare]

July 11


1766: Olaudah Equiano, author of one of the first autobiographical slave narratives, buys his freedom from slavery in the West Indies.


1804: Former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr shoots his political rival Alexander Hamilton, the former treasury secretary, in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton dies the next day.


1905: W. E. B. Du Bois, Monroe Trotter, and other prominent African Americans meet in Niagara Falls to found the Niagara Movement to demand full citizenship rights for African Americans.


1979: Skylab, the first American space station, reenters the Earth's atmosphere after over six years in space, disintegrating over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

1987: The world population reaches 5 billion, double the number of people on the planet in 1950.


1996: The UN War Crimes Tribunal issues international arrest warrants for Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. The tribunal indicted the two on charges of war crimes and genocide in 1995.

 

[Mare]

July 12th


1906: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, found guilty of treason in a case that divided French society at the turn of the century, is cleared of the charges. Soon after, he is awarded the Legion of Honor.


1974: Former Nixon White House adviser John D. Ehrlichman is convicted of a charge connected with his supervision of the "plumbers," a covert group aimed at stopping press leaks.


1984: Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman on a major-party presidential ticket in the U.S. when Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale chooses the New York congresswoman to be his running mate.


1990: Boris Yeltsin, chairman of the Russian congress of deputies, announces to a meeting of the Soviet Communist Party that he is resigning from the party.


1998: Led by two goals by midfielder Zinedine Zidane, host country France wins the soccer World Cup 3-0 over Brazil, the defending champion.

 

[Mare]

July 13th


1863: Four days of rioting against the Civil War military draft begin in New York City. More than 1,000 people are killed, including many African Americans, who are attacked by rioters as the cause of the war.

1865: Edward Whymper, an English artist and pioneering mountaineer, becomes the first person to climb the Matterhorn, in the Alps. On the descent, four of his companions fall to their deaths.


1973: White House aide Alexander Butterfield reveals to members of the Senate Watergate committee the presence of a secret taping system installed in the White House by President Richard Nixon.


1977: At 9:34 PM, about 9 million people lose power in a blackout of the New York City metropolitan area. Over 3,000 people are arrested, most for looting, during the 25-hour electrical outage.

 

[Mare]

July 14th


1099: In the First Crusade, a force of European Christians conquers the walled city of Jerusalem, massacring thousands of its inhabitants.


1789: In the pivotal event of the French Revolution, a Paris mob storms and captures the Bastille, a royal prison fortress that is a symbol of the ancien régime.


1881: In Fort Sumner, New Mexico, Sheriff Pat Garrett shoots and kills the outlaw William H. Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid, who escaped from his jail three months before.


1933: The German government, having given Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers, outlaws all political parties except the National Socialist, or Nazi, party.


1958: A coup in Iraq led by General 'Abd al-Karim Kassem overthrows the country's monarchy, kills King Faisal II, and declares Iraq a republic.


1965: U.S. space probe Mariner 4 flies by Mars. On its mission the probe relays the first photographs from Mars back to Earth, which reveal the planet's cratered surface.

 

[Mare]

July 23rd


1871: The province of British Columbia joins the Dominion of Canada.


1881: Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrenders to the U.S. Army under a promise of amnesty.


1944: A bomb meant to assassinate German dictator Adolf Hitler explodes at his headquarters, killing four. Hitler survives, and the senior military staff who conspired against him are executed.


1954: An agreement between France and the Vietminh forces led by Ho Chi Minh ends the First Indochina War. The agreement calls for a temporary partition of the country into North and South Vietnam.

1969: U.S. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin land on the Moon, where Armstrong becomes the first person to step on the Moon's surface.


1989: The military regime of Myanmar puts Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition movement to restore democracy in the country, under house arrest.