Today In History

[minidog]

44 BC - Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by high ranking Roman Senators. The day is known as the "Ides of March."

1341 - During the Hundred Years War, an alliance was signed between Roman Emperor Louis IV and France's Philip VI.

1493 - Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first New World voyage.

1778 - In command of two frigates, the Frenchman la Perouse sailed east from Botany Bay for the last lap of his voyage around the world.

1781 - During the American Revolution, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse took place in North Carolina. British General Cornwallis' 1,900 soldiers defeated an American force of 4,400.

1820 - Maine was admitted as the 23rd state of the Union.

1862 - General John Hunt Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, TN.

1864 - Red River Campaign began as the Union forces reach Alexandria, LA.

1875 - The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American cardinal.

1877 - The first cricket test between Australia and England was played in Melbourne. Australia won by 45 runs.

1892 - New York State unveiled the new automatic ballot voting machine.

1892 - Jesse W. Reno patented the Reno Inclined Elevator. It was the first escalator.

1900 - In Paris, Sarah Bernhardt starred in the premiere of Edmond Rostand's "L'Aiglon."

1901 - German Chancellor von Bulow declared that an agreement between Russia and China over Manchuria would violate the Anglo-German accord of October 1900.

1902 - In Boston, MA, 10,000 freight handlers went back to work after a weeklong strike.

1903 - The British conquest of Nigeria was completed. 500,000 square miles were now controlled by the U.K.

1904 - Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.

1907 - In Finland, woman won their first seats in the Finnish Parliament. They took their seats on May 23.

1909 - Italy proposed a European conference on the Balkans.

1910 - Otto Kahn offered $500,000 for a family portrait by Dutch artist Frans Hals. Kahn had outbid J.P. Morgan for the work.

1913 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson held the first open presidential news conference.

1916 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 troops, under General Pershing, over the border of Mexico to pursue bandit Pancho Villa. The mission failed.

1917 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated himself and his son. His brother Grand Duke succeeded as czar.

1919 - The American Legion was founded in Paris.

1922 - Fuad I assumed the title of king of Egypt after the country gained nominal independence from Britain.

1934 - Henry Ford restored the $5 a day wage.

1935 - Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda banned four Berlin newspapers.

1937 - In Chicago, IL, the first blood bank to preserve blood for transfusion by refrigeration was established at the Cook County Hospital.

1938 - Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia.

1939 - German forces occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and part of Czechoslovakia.

1944 - Cassino, Italy, was destroyed by Allied bombing.

1946 - British Premier Attlee offered India full independence after agreement on a constitution.

1948 - Sir Laurence Olivier was on the cover of "LIFE" magazine for his starring role in Shakespeare’s "Hamlet."

1949 - Clothes rationing in Great Britain ended nearly four years after the end of World War II.

1951 - General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.

1951 - The Persian parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry.

1954 - CBS television debuted its "Morning Show."

1955 - The U.S. Air Force unveiled a self-guided missile.

1956 - The musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway.

1960 - Ten nations met in Geneva to discuss disarmament.

1960 - The first underwater park was established as Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve.

1964 - In Montreal, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were married.

1968 - The U.S. mint halted the practice of buying and selling gold.

1970 - The musical "Purlie" opened on Broadway in New York City.

1971 - CBS television announced it was going to drop "The Ed Sullivan Show."

1977 - The first episode of "Eight is Enough" was aired on ABC-TV.

1977 - The U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.

1979 - Pope John Paul II published his first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis." In the work he warned of the growing gap between the rich and poor.

1989 - The U.S. Food and Drug administration decided to impound all fruit imported from Chili after two cyanide-tainted grapes were found in Philadelphia, PA.

1989 - The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs became the 14th Department in the President's Cabinet.

1990 - In Iraq, British journalist Farzad Bazoft was hanged for spying.

1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the first executive president of the Soviet Union.

1990 - The Ford Explorer was introduced to the public.

1990 - The Soviet parliament ruled that Lithuania's declaration of independence was invalid and that Soviet law was still in force in the Baltic republic.

1991 - Four Los Angeles police officers were indicted in the beating of Rodney King on March 3, 1991.

1991 - Yugoslav President Borisav Jovic resigned after about a week of anit-communist protests.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton extended the moratorium on nuclear testing until September of 1995.

1996 - The aviation firm Fokker NV collapsed.

1998 - More than 15,000 ethnic Albanians marched in Yugoslavia to demand independence for Kosovo.

1998 - CBS' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with former White House employee Kathleen Willey. Wiley said U.S. President Clinton made unwelcome sexual advances toward her in the Oval Office in 1993.

2002 - Libyan Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi began his life sentence in a Scottish jail for his role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.

2002 - In the U.S., Burger King began selling a veggie burger. The event was billed as the first veggie burger to be sold nationally by a fast food chain.

2002 - In Texas, Andrea Yates received a life sentence for drowning her five children on June 20, 2001.

2002 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Associated Press that the U.S. would stand by a 24-year pledge not to use nuclear arms against states that don't have them.

2004 - Clive Woodall's novel "One for Sorrow: Two for Joy" was published. Two days later Woodall sold the film rights to Walt Disney Co. for $1 million.

 

[minidog]

1190 - The Crusaders began the massacre of Jews in York, England.

1521 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines. He was killed the next month by natives.

1527 - The Emperor Babur defeated the Rajputs at the Battle of Kanvaha in India.

1621 - Samoset walked into the settlement of Plymouth Colony, later Plymouth, MA. Samoset was a native from the Monhegan tribe in Maine who spoke English. He greeted the Pilgrims by saying, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."

1802 - The U.S. Congress established the West Point Military Academy in New York.

1836 - The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.

1850 - The novel "The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published for the first time.

1871 - The State of Delaware enacted the first fertilizer law.

1882 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty allowing the United States to join the Red Cross.

1883 - Susan Hayhurst graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. She was the first woman pharmacy graduate.

1907 - The world's largest cruiser, the British Invincible was completed at Glasgow.

1908 - China released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.

1909 - Cuba suffered its first revolt only six weeks after the inauguration of Gomez.

1913 - The 15,000-ton battleship Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News, VA.

1915 - The Federal Trade Commission began operation.

1917 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne.

1918 - Tallulah Bankhead made her New York acting debut with a role in "The Squab Farm."

1926 - Physicist Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket.

1928 - The U.S. planned to send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua.

1935 - Adolf Hitler ordered a German rearmament and violated the Versailles Treaty.

1939 - Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.

1945 - Iwo Jima was declared secure by the Allies. However, small pockets of Japanese resistance still existed.

1946 - Algerian nationalist leader Ferhat Abbas was freed after spending a year in jail.

1946 - India called British Premier Attlee's independence off contradictory and a propaganda move.

1947 - Martial law was withdrawn in Tel Aviv.

1949 - The first museum to be devoted solely to atomic energy opened in Oak Ridge, TN.

1950 - Congress voted to remove federal taxes on oleomargarine.

1964 - Paul Hornung and Alex Karras were reinstated to the NFL after an 11-month suspension for betting on football games.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson submitted a $1 billion war on poverty program to Congress.

1968 - U.S. troops in Vietnam destroyed a village consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known as the My-Lai massacre.

1978 - Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas. Moro was later murdered by the group.

1984 - Mozambique and South Africa signed a pact banning the support for one another's internal enemies.

1984 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen. He died while in captivity.

1985 - "A Chorus Line" played its 4,000 performance.

1985 - Terry Anderson, an Associated Press newsman, was taken hostage in Beirut. He was released in December 4, 1991.

1987 - "Bostonia" magazine printed an English translation of Albert Einstein’s last high school report card.

1988 - Indictments were issued for Lt. Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter of the National Security Council for their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.

1988 - Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway. Thompson, known as the "Speed King," set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.

1989 - In the U.S.S.R., the Central Committee approved Gorbachev's agrarian reform plan.

1989 - The Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee approved large-scale agricultural reforms and elected the party's 100 members to the Congress of People's Deputies.

1993 - In France, ostrich meat was officially declared fit for human consumption.

1994 - Tonya Harding plead guilty in Portland, OR, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She was fined $100,000. She was also banned from amateur figure skating.

1994 - Russia agreed to phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.

1995 - NASA astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.

1998 - Rwanda began mass trials for 1994 genocide with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders.

1999 - The 20 members of the European Union's European Commission announced their resignations amid allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.

 

[Fresno]

Today In History for Sunday, March 16, 2008 all in one place

http://www.historyorb.com/today/index.php

 

[octavian17360]

1939 -- Himmler gives first dose of experimental Nazi "crank" to several squirrels who actually learn how to masterbate and poop all over their cage

 

[minidog]

0461 - Bishop Patrick, St. Patrick, died in Saul. Ireland celebrates this day in his honor.

1756 - St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time. The event took place at the Crown and Thistle Tavern.

1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act that had caused resentment in the North American colonies.

1776 - British forces evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War.

1868 - Postage stamp canceling machine patent was issued.

1870 - Wellesley College was incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature under its first name, Wellesley Female Seminary.

1884 - John Joseph Montgomery made the first glider flight in Otay, California.

1886 - 20 Blacks were killed in the Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi.

1891 - The British steamer Utopia sank off the coast of Gibraltar.

1901 - In Paris, Vincent Van Gogh's paintings were shown at the Bernheim Gallery.

1909 - In France, the communications industry was paralyzed by strikes.

1910 - The Camp Fire Girls organization was founded by Luther and Charlotte Gulick. It was formally presented to the public exactly 2 years later.

1914 - Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000.

1917 - America’s first bowling tournament for ladies began in St. Louis, MO. Almost 100 women participated in the event.

1930 - Al Capone was released from jail.

1941 - The National Gallery of Art was officially opened by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC.

1942 - Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the United Nations forces in the Southwestern Pacific.

1944 - During World War II, the U.S. bombed Vienna.

1950 - Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced that they had created a new radioactive element. They named it "californium". It is also known as element 98.

1958 - The Vanguard 1 satellite was launched by the U.S.

1959 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) fled Tibet and went to India.

1961 - The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.

1962 - Moscow asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam.

1966 - A U.S. submarine found a missing H-bomb in the Mediterranean off of Spain.

1967 - Snoopy and Charlie Brown of "Peanuts" were on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.

1969 - Golda Meir was sworn in as the fourth premier of Israel.

1970 - The U.S. Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.

1972 - U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.

1973 - Twenty were killed in Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol.

1973 - The first American prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.

1982 - Four Dutch television crewmembers were killed in El Salvador.

1985 - U.S. President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.

1989 - A series of solar flares caused a violent magnetic storm that brought power outages over large regions of Canada.

1992 - In Buenos Aires, 10 people were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack against the Israeli embassy.

1992 - White South Africans approved constitutional reforms to give legal equality to blacks.

1995 - Gerry Adams became the first leader of Sinn Fein to be received at the White House.

1998 - Washington Mutual announced it had agreed to buy H.F. Ahmanson and Co. for $9.9 billion dollars. The deal created the nation's seventh-largest banking company.

1999 - A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana had medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.

1999 - The International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members in the wake of a bribery scandal.

2000 - In Norway, Jens Stotenberg and the Labour Party took office as Prime Minister. The coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned on March 9 as a result of an environmental dispute.

2000 - In Kanungu, Uganda, a fire at a church linked to the cult known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments killed more than 530. On March 31, officials set the number of deaths linked to the cult at more than 900 after authorities subsequently found mass graves at various sites linked to the cult.

2007 - Mike Modano (Dallas Stars) scored his 502nd and 503rd career goals making him the all-time U.S. leader in goal-scoring.

 

[Magnet]

thanks!

 

[minidog]

0037 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor.

1123 - The first Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opened in Rome.

1190 - Crusaders killed 57 Jews in Bury St. Edmonds England.

1532 - The English parliament banned payments by English church to Rome.

1541 - Hernan de Soto observed the first recorded flood of the Mississippi River.

1583 - Dutch States General & Anjou signed a treaty.

1673 - Lord Berkley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.

1692 - William Penn was deprived of his governing powers.

1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act.

1813 - David Melville patented the gas streetlight.

1818 - The U.S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service.

1834 - The first railroad tunnel in the U.S. was completed. The work was in Pennsylvania.

1835 - Charles Darwin left Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass.

1850 - Henry Wells & William Fargo founded American Express.

1865 - The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.

1874 - Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the U.S.

1881 - Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens.

1891 - Britain became linked to the continent of Europe by telephone.

1899 - Phoebe, a moon of the planet Saturn, was discovered.

1900 - Ajax (Amsterdam Football Club) was formed.

1902 - In Turkey, the Sultan granted a German syndicate the first concession to access Baghdad by rail.

1903 - France dissolved the Catholic religious orders.

1905 - Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were married.

1906 - In Morocco, it was reported that France and Germany were in a deadlock at the Algeciras Conference.

1909 - Einar Dessau of Denmark used a short wave transmitter to become the first person to broadcast as a "ham" operator.

1910 - The first opera by a U.S. composer performed at the Met in New York City.

1911 - Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, AZ. It was the largest dam in the U.S. at the time.

1911 - North Dakota enacted a hail insurance law.

1913 - Greek King George I was killed by an assassin. Constantine I succeeded him.

1916 - Russia countered the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake Naroch. The Russians lost 100,000 men and the Germans lost 20,000.

1917 - The Germans sank the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante and the Illinois, without any warning.

1919 - The Order of DeMolay was established in Kansas City.

1920 - Greece adopted the Gregorian calendar.

1921 - Poland was enlarged with the second Peace of Riga.

1921 - The steamer "Hong Koh" ran aground off of Swatow China. Over 1,000 people were killed.

1922 - Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India. He served only 2 years of the sentence.

1922 - Princeton and Yale played the first intercollegiate indoor polo championship.

1931 - Schick Inc. displayed the first electric shaver.

1937 - More than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, TX.

1938 - Mexico took control of all foreign-owned oil properties on its soil.

1938 - New York first required serological blood tests of pregnant women.

1939 - Georgia ratified the Bill of Rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1940 - The soap opera "Light of the World" was first heard on NBC radio.

1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass. The Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain during the meeting.

1942 - The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.

1943 - The Reich called off its offensive in Caucasus.

1943 - American forces took Gafsa in Tunisia.

1944 - The Russians reached the Rumanian border in the Balkans during World War II.

1945 - 1,250 U.S. bombers attacks Berlin.

1945 - Maurice "Rocket" Richard became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 50 goals.

1948 - France, Great Britain, and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.

1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was ratified.

1950 - Nationalist troops landed on the mainland of China and capture Communist held Sungmen.

1952 - In Philadelphia, PA, the first plastic lenses were fitted for a cataract patient.

1953 - An earthquake hit West Turkey killing 250 people.

1954 - RKO Pictures was sold for $23,489,478. It became the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual. The person was Howard Hughes.

1959 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.

1961 - The Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.

1962 - French and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce.

1963 - "Tovarich" opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City for 264 performances.

1963 - France performed an underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria.

1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Miranda decision concerning legal council for defendants.

1965 - Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to spacewalk when he left the Voskhod II space capsule while in orbit around the Earth. He was outside the spacecraft for about 20 minutes.

1966 - The government of Indonesia was formed by General Suharto.

1966 - Scott Paper began selling paper dresses for $1.

1968 - The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve.

1969 - U.S. President Nixon authorizes Operation Menue. It was the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia.

1970 - The U.S. Postal Service experienced the first postal strike.

1970 - The NFL selected Wilson to be the official football and scoreboard as official time.

1971 - U.S. helicopters airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos.

1971 - A landslide in Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru, killed 200.

1974 - Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their five-month embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.

1975 - Saigon abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.

1975 - The Kurds ended their fight against Iraq.

1977 - Vietnam turned over an MIA to a U.S. delegation.

1979 - Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett. The next day she was deported.

1980 - The Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad killing 50.

1981 - The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.

1981 - The Buffalo Sabres set an NHL record when they scored 9 goals in one period against Toronto.

1986 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.

1986 - The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.

1987 - The U.S. performed nuclear tests at a Nevada test site.

1989 - 12 paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history.

1989 - A 4,400-year-old mummy was discovered at the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.

1990 - The first free elections took place in East Germany.

1990 - The 32-day lockout of baseball players ended.

1990 - In Tampa, FL, a little league player was killed after being hit with a pitch.

1992 - Leona Hemsly was sentenced to 4 years in prison for tax evasion.

1992 - White South Africans voted for constitutional reforms that would give legal equality to blacks.

1994 - Zsa Zsa Gabor filed for bankruptcy.

1997 - A Russian AN-24 crashed killing 50 people.

2003 - China's new president, Hu Jintao, announced that his country must deepen reforms and raise living standards of workers and farmers.

 

[minidog]

1571 - Spanish troops occupied Manila.

1628 - The Massachusetts colony was founded by Englishmen.

1644 - 200 members of the Peking imperial family/court committed suicide.

1687 - French explorer La Salle was murdered by his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, in the Gulf of Mexico.

1702 - Upon the death of William III of Orange, Anne Stuart, the sister of Mary, succeeds to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1748 - The English Naturalization Act passed granting Jews right to colonize in the U.S.

1775 - Poland & Prussia signed a trade agreement.

1822 - The city of Boston, MA, was incorporated.

1831 - The first bank robbery in America was reported. The City Bank of New York City lost $245,000 in the robbery.

1865 - The Battle of Bentonville took place. The Confederates retreated from Greenville, NC.

1866 - The immigrant ship Monarch of the Seas sank in Liverpool killing 738.

1879 - Jim Currie opened fire on the actors Maurice Barrymore and Ben Porter near Marshall, TX. The shots wounded Barrymore and killed Porter.

1895 - The Los Angeles Railway was established to provide streetcar service.

1900 - U.S. President McKinley asserted that there was a need for free trade with Puerto Rico.

1900 - Archeologist Arthur John Evans began the excavation of Knossos Palace in Greece.

1903 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Cuban treaty, gaining naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda.

1905 - French explorer S. de Segonzac was taken prisoner by Moroccans.

1906 - Reports from Berlin estimated the cost of the German war in S.W. Africa at $150 million.

1908 - The state of Maryland barred Christian Scientists from practicing without medical diplomas.

1915 - Pluto was photographed for the first time. However, it was not known at the time.

1917 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Adamson Act that made the eight-hour workday for railroads constitutional.

1918 - The U.S. Congress approved Daylight-Saving Time.

1918 - A German seaplane was shot down for the first time by an American pilot.

1920 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty for the second time maintaining an isolation policy.

1924 - U.S. troops were rushed to Tegucigalpa as rebel forces took the Honduran capital.

1931 - The state of Nevada legalized gambling.

1940 - The French government of Daladier fell.

1942 - The Thoroughbred Racing Association was formed in Chicago.

1944 - Tippett's oratorium "Child of Our Time," premiered in London.

1945 - About 800 people were killed as Japanese kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan.

1945 - Adolf Hitler issued his "Nero Decree" which ordered the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands as German forces were retreating.

1947 - Chiang Kai-Shek's government forces took control of Yenan, the former headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party.

1948 - Lee Savold knocked out Gino Buonvino in 54 seconds of the first round of their prize fight at Madison Square Gardens.

1949 - The American Museum of Atomic Energy opened in Oak Ridge, TN.

1949 - The Soviet People's Council signed the constitution of the German Democratic Republic, and declared that the North Atlantic Treaty was merely a war weapon.

1953 - The Academy Awards aired on television for the first time.

1953 - Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real" premiered in New York City.

1954 - Viewers saw the first televised prize fight was shown in color when Joey Giardello knocked out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1954 - The first rocket-driven sled that ran on rails was tested in Alamogordo, NM.

1963 - In Costa Rica, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged to fight Communism.

1964 - Sean Connery began shooting his role in "Goldfinger."

1965 - Indonesia nationalized all foreign oil companies.

1965 - Rembrandt's "Titus" sold for $7,770,000.

1968 - Students at Howard University students seized an administration building.

1969 - British invaded Anguilla.

1972 - India and Bangladesh signed a friendship treaty.

1976 - Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage.

1977 - Congo President Marien Ngouabi was killed by a suicide commando.

1977 - France performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island.

1977 - The last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired.

1979 - The U.S. House of Representatives began broadcasting its daily business on TV.

1981 - During a test of the space shuttle Columbia two workers were injured and one was killed.

1984 - The TV show "Kate and Allie" premiered.

1985 - IBM announced that it was planning to stop making the PCjr consumer-oriented computer.

1985 - The U.S. Senate voted to authorize production of the MX missile.

1987 - Televangelist Jim Bakker resigned from the PTL due to a scandal involving Jessica Hahn.

1988 - Two British soldiers were killed by mourners at a funeral in Belfast, North Ireland. The soldiers were shot to death after being dragged from a car and beaten.

1990 - Latvia's political opposition claimed victory in the republic's first free elections in 50 years.

1990 - The first world ice hockey tournament for women was held in Ottawa.

1991 - Brett Hull, of the St. Louis Blues, became the third National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 80 goals in a season.

1994 - The largest omelet in history was made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan.

1998 - The World Health Organization warned of tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.

1999 - 53 people were killed and dozens were injured when a bomb exploded in a market place in southern Russia.

2000 - Vector Data Systems conducted a simulation of the 1993 Branch Davidian siege in Waco, TX. The simulation showed that the government had not fired first.

2001 - California officials declared a power alert and ordered the first of two days of rolling blackouts.

2002 - Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S.-led ground offensive since the Gulf War, ended in eastern Afghanistan. During the operation, which began on March 2, it was reported that at least 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were killed. Eleven allied troops were killed during the same operation.

2002 - Actor Ben Kingsley was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush announced that U.S. forces had launched a strike against "targets of military opportunity" in Iraq. The attack, using cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs, were aimed at Iraqi leaders thought to be near Baghdad.

 

[cicciosbianchi]

Interesting thread, man! Keep it on!

 

[Magnet]

Once again, Thanks

 

[minidog]

0141 - The 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet took place.

1413 - Henry V took the throne of England upon the death of his father Henry IV.

1525 - Paris' parliament began its pursuit of Protestants.

1602 - The United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) was formed.

1616 - Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana.

1627 - France & Spain signed an accord for fighting Protestantism.

1739 - In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupied Delhi and took possession of the Peacock thrown.

1760 - The great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.

1792 - In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.

1800 - French army defeated the Turks at Helipolis, Turkey, and advanced into Cairo.

1814 - Prince Willem Frederik became the monarch of Netherlands.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris after his escape from Elba and began his "Hundred Days" rule.

1816 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions.

1833 - The U.S. and Siam signed a commercial treaty.

1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book "Uncle Tom’s Cabin," subtitled "Life Among the Lowly," was first published.

1865 - A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldier’s Home near Washington, DC.

1868 - Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russelville, KY, of $14,000.

1883 - The Unity treaty of Paris was signed to protect industrial property.

1885 - John Matzeliger of Suriname patented the shoe lacing machine.

1886 - The first AC power plant in the U.S. began commercial operation.

1888 - The Sherlock Holmes Adventure, "A Scandal in Bohemia," began.

1890 - The General Federation of Womans' Clubs was founded.

1891 - The first computing scale company was incorporated in Dayton, OH.

1896 - U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.

1897 - The first U.S. orthodox Jewish Rabbinical seminary was incorporated in New York.

1897 - The first intercollegiate basketball game that used five players per team was held. The contest was Yale versus Pennsylvania. Yale won by a score of 32-10.

1899 - At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was put to death for the murder of her stepdaughter.

1900 - It was announced that European powers had agreed to keep China's doors open to trade.

1902 - France and Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance. They also asserted their right to protect their interests in China and Korea.

1903 - In Paris, paintings by Henri Matisse were shown at the "Salon des Independants".

1906 - In Russia, army officers mutiny at Sevastopol.

1911 - The National Squash Tennis Association was formed in New York City.

1914 - The first international figure skating championship was held in New Haven, CT.

1915 - The French called off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.

1918 - The Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union asked for American aid to rebuild their army.

1922 - U.S. President Warren G. Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.

1922 - The USS Langley was commissioned. It was the first aircraft carrier for the U.S. Navy.

1932 - The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular schedule.

1933 - The first German concentration camp was completed at Dachau.

1934 - Rudolf Kuhnold gave a demonstration of radar in Kiel Germany.

1940 - The British Royal Air Force conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.

1943 - The Allies attacked Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.

1947 - A blue whale weighing 180-metric tons was caught in the South Atlantic.

1952 - The U.S. Senate ratified a peace treaty with Japan.

1956 - Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) exploded.

1956 - Tunisia gained independence from France.

1963 - The first "Pop Art" exhibit began in New York City.

1964 - The ESRO (European Space Research Organization) was established.

1965 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.

1967 - Twiggy arrived in the U.S. for a one-week stay.

1969 - U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.

1972 - 19 mountain climbers were killed on Japan's Mount Fuji during an avalanche.

1976 - Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her role in the hold up of a San Francisco Bank.

1980 - The U.S. made an appeal to the International Court concerning the American Hostages in Iran.

1982 - U.S. scientists' return from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.

1984 - The U.S. Senate rejected an amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools.

1985 - For the first time in its 99-year history, Avon representatives received a salary. Up to that time they had been paid solely on commissions.

1985 - CBS-TV presented "The Romance of Betty Boop."

1985 - Libby Riddles won the 1,135-mile Anchorage-to-Nome dog race becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod.

1986 - Fallon Carrington and Jeff Colby were wed on the TV drama "The Colby’s". "The Colby’s" was an offshoot of "Dynasty".

1987 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AZT. The drug was proven to slow the progress of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

1989 - A Washington, DC, district court judge blocked a curfew imposed by Mayor Barry and the City Council.

1989 - In Belfast, two policemen were killed. The IRA claimed responsibility.

1989 - It was announced that Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose was under investigation.

1990 - The Los Angeles Lakers retired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's #33.

1990 - Namibia became an independent nation ending 75 years of South African rule.

1990 - Imelda Marcos, widow of ex-Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, went on trial for racketeering, embezzlement and bribery.

1990 - In Rumania, tanks were sent to the town of Tirgu Mures to quell ethnic riots.

1991 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that employers could not exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage a fetus.

1991 - The U.S. forgave $2 billion in loans to Poland.

1992 - Janice Pennington was awarded $1.3 million for accident on the set of the "Price is Right" TV show.

1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule. He set a referendum on whether the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.

1993 - An Irish Republican Army bomb was detonated in Warrington, England. A 3-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy were killed.

1995 - About 35,000 Turkish troops crossed the northern border of Iraq in pursuit of the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

1995 - In Tokyo, 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 others were sickened when packages containing the nerve gas Sarin was released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to a doomsday cult in Japan.

1996 - In Los Angeles, Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of their parents.

1996 - The U.K. announced that humans could catch CJD (Mad Cow Disease).

1997 - Brian Grazer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1997 - Liggett Group, the maker of Chesterfield cigarettes, settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry marketed cigarettes to teenagers and agreed to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.

1998 - India's new Hindu nationalist-led government pledges to "exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons."

1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first men to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. The non-stop trip began on March 3 and covered 26,500 miles.

2000 - Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured following a shootout that left a sherriff's deputy dead.

2002 - Actress Pamela Anderson disclosed that she had hepatitis C.

2002 - Arthur Andersen plead innocent to charges that it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to the energy company Enron.

2003 - Cisco Systems Inc. announced it was buying The Linksys Group INc. for $500 million in stock.

2003 - U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq from Kuwait.

 

[minidog]

1349 - 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany.

1556 - Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.

1788 - Almost the entire city of New Orleans, LA, was destroyed by fire. 856 buildings were destroyed.

1790 - Thomas Jefferson reported to U.S. President George Washington as the new secretary of state.

1804 - The French civil code, the Code Napoleon, was adopted.

1824 - A fire at a Cairo ammunitions dump killed 4,000 horses.

1826 - The Rensselaer School in Troy, NY, was incorporated. The school became known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was the first engineering college in the U.S.

1835 - Charles Darwin & Mariano Gonzales met at Portillo Pass.

1851 - Emperor Tu Duc ordered that Christian priests be put to death.

1851 - Yosemite Valley was discovered in California.

1857 - An earthquake hit Tokyo killing about 107,000.

1858 - British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.

1859 - In Philadelphia, the first Zoological Society was incorporated.

1868 - The Sorosos club for professional women was formed in New York City by Jennie June. It was the first of its kind.

1871 - Journalist Henry M Stanley began his famous expedition to Africa.

1902 - Romain Roland's play "The 4th of July" premiered in Paris.

1902 - In New York, three Park Avenue mansions were destroyed when a subway tunnel roof caved in.

1904 - The British Parliament vetoed a proposal to send Chinese workers to Transvaal.

1905 - Sterilization legislation was passed in the State of Pennsylvania. The governor vetoed the measure.

1906 - Ohio passed a law that prohibited hazing by fraternities after two fatalities.

1907 - The U.S. Marines landed in Honduras to protect American interests in the war with Nicaragua.

1907 - The first Parliament of Transvaal met in Pretoria.

1908 - A passenger was carried in a bi-plane for the first time by Henri Farman of France.

1909 - Russia withdrew its support for Serbia and recognized the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Serbia accepted Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina on March 31, 1909.

1910 - The U.S. Senate granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.

1918 - During World War I, the Germans launched the Somme Offensive.

1928 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh for his first trans-Atlantic flight.

1934 - A fire destroyed Hakodate, Japan, killing about 1,500.

1935 - Incubator ambulance service began in Chicago, IL.

1941 - The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, fell to the British.

1945 - During World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.

1946 - The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington. Washington was the first black player to join a National Football League team since 1933.

1946 - The United Nations set up a temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York City.

1953 - The Boston Celtics beat Syracuse Nationals (111-105) in four overtimes to eliminate them from the Eastern Division Semifinals. A total of seven players (both teams combined) fouled out of the game.

1955 - NBC-TV presented the first "Colgate Comedy Hour".

1957 - Shirley Booth made her TV acting debut in "The Hostess with the Mostest" on CBS.

1960 - About 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired upon demonstrators.

1963 - Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, CA, closed.

1965 - The U.S. launched Ranger 9. It was the last in a series of unmanned lunar explorations.

1965 - More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL.

1971 - Two U.S. platoons in Vietnam refused their orders to advance.

1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not require one year of residency for voting eligibility.

1974 - An attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne in London's Pall Mall.

1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced to the U.S. Olympic Team that they would not participate in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

1980 - On the TV show Dallas, J.R. Ewing was shot.

1982 - The movie "Annie" premiered.

1984 - A Soviet submarine crashed into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.

1985 - In Langa, South Africa, at least 21 demonstrators were killed at a march to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings.

1985 - Larry Flynt offered to sell his pornography empire for $26 million or "Hustler" magazine alone for $18 million.

1985 - Police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings. At least 21 demonstrators were killed.

1989 - Randall Dale Adams was released from a Texas prison after his conviction was overturned. The documentary "The Thin Blue Line" had challenged evidence of Adams' conviction for killing a police officer.

1990 - "Normal Life" with Moon Unit & Dweezil Zappa premiered on CBS-TV.

1990 - Australian businessman Alan Bond sold Van Gogh's "Irises" to the Gerry Museum. Bond had purchased the painting for $53.9 million in 1987.

1990 - "Sydney" starring Valerie Bertinelli premiered on CBS-TV.

1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.

1991 - 27 people were lost at sea when two U.S. Navy anti-submarine planes collided.

1991 - The U.N. Security Council lifted the food embargo against Iraq.

1994 - Dudley Moore was arrested for hitting his girlfriend.

1994 - Steven Spielberg won his first Oscars. They were for best picture and best director for "Schindler's List."

1994 - Wayne Gretzky tied Gordie Howe's NHL record of 801 goals.

1994 - Bill Gates of Microsoft and Craig McCaw of McCaw Cellular Communications announced a $9 billion plan that would send 840 satellites into orbit to relay information around the globe.

1995 - New Jersey officially dedicated the Howard Stern Rest Area along Route 295.

1995 - Tokyo police raided the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo in search of evidence to link the cult to the Sarin gas released on five Tokyo subway trains.

1999 - Israel's Supreme Court rejected the final effort to have American Samuel Sheinbein returned to the U.S. to face murder charges for killing Alfred Tello, Jr. Under a plea bargain Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had overstepped its regulatory authority when it attempted to restrict the marketing of cigarettes to youngsters.

2001 - Nintendo released Game Boy Advance.

2002 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was charged with murder for his role in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pear. Three other Islamic militants that were in custody were also charged along with seven more accomplices that were still at large.

2002 - In Paris, an 1825 print by French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce was sold for $443,220. The print, of a man leading a horse, was the earliest recorded image taken by photographic means.

2003 - It was reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 235.27 (2.8%) at 8,521.97. It was the strongest weekly gain in more than 20 years.

 

[minidog]

1457 - Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.

1622 - Indians attacked a group of colonist in the James River area of Virginia. 347 residents were killed.

1630 - The first legislation to prohibited gambling was enacted. It was in Boston, MA.

1638 - Anne Hutchinsoon, a religious dissident, was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1719 - Frederick William abolished serfdom on crown property in Prussia.

1733 - Joseph Priestly invented carbonated water (seltzer).

1765 - The Stamp Act was passed. It was the first direct British tax on the American colonists. It was repealed on March 17, 1766.

1775 - Edmund Burke presented his 13 articles to the English parliament.

1790 - Thomas Jefferson became the first U.S. Secretary of State.

1794 - The U.S. Congress banned U.S. vessels from supplying slaves to other countries.

1822 - New York Horticultural Society was founded.

1841 - Englishman Orlando Jones patented cornstarch.

1871 - William Holden of North Carolina became the first governor to be removed by impeachment.

1872 - Illinois became the first state to require sexual equality in employment.

1873 - Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico.

1874 - The Young Men's Hebrew Association was organized in New York City.

1882 - The U.S. Congress outlawed polygamy.

1888 - The English Football League was established.

1894 - The first playoff competition for the Stanley Cup began. Montreal played Ottawa.

1895 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.

1901 - Japan proclaimed that it was determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.

1902 - Great Britain and Persia agreed to link Europe and India by telegraph.

1903 - Niagara Falls ran out of water due to a drought.

1903 - In Columbia, the region near Galera De Zamba was devastated by a volcanic eruption.

1904 - The first color photograph was published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.

1905 - Child miners in Britain received a maximum 8-hour workday.

1906 - France lost the first ever rugby game ever played against Britain.

1907 - Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.

1907 - In Paris, it was reported that male cab drivers dressed as women to attract riders.

1910 - In Liberia, a telegraph cable linked Tenerife and Monrovia.

1911 - Herman Jadlowker became the first opera singer to perform two major roles in the same day at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

1915 - A German zeppelin made a night raid on Paris railway stations.

1919 - The first international airline service was inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine containing up to 3.2% alcohol.

1934 - The first Masters golf championship began in Augusta, GA.

1935 - In New York, blood tests were authorized as evidence in court cases.

1935 - Persia was renamed Iran.

1941 - The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington began operations.

1943 - The Dutch workweek was extended to 54 hours.

1943 - Obligatory work for woman ends in Belgium.

1945 - The Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.

1946 - The British granted Transjordan independence.

1946 - The first U.S. built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reached a height of 50-miles.

1947 - The Greek government imposed martial law in Laconia and southern Greece.

1948 - The United States announced a land reform plan for Korea.

1948 - "The Voice of Firestone" became the first commercial radio program to be carried simultaneously on both AM and FM radio stations.

1954 - The first shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan.

1954 - The London gold market reopened for the first time since 1939.

1956 - Perry Como became the first major TV variety-show host to book a rock and roll act on his program. The act was Carl Perkins.

1960 - A.L. Schawlow & C.H. Townes obtained a patent for the laser. It was the first patent for any laser.

1965 - U.S. confirmed that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.

1972 - The U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment. It was not ratified by the states.

1974 - The Viet Cong proposed a new truce with the U.S. and South Vietnam. The truce included general elections.

1975 - Walt Disney World Shopping Village opened.

1977 - The Dutch Den Uyl government fell.

1977 - Comedienne Lily Tomlin made her debut on Broadway in "Lily Tomlin on Stage" in New York.

1977 - Indira Ghandi resigned as the prime minister of India.

1978 - Karl Wallenda, of the Flying Wallendas, fell to his death while walking a cable strung between to hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1979 - The National Hockey League (NHL) voted to accept 4 WHA teams, the Oilers, Jets, Nordiques & Whalers.

1980 - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was founded by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco.

1981 - U.S. Postage rates went from 15-cents to 18-cents an ounce.

1981 - RCA put its Selectra Vision laser disc players on the market.

1981 - The first Mongolian entered space aboard the Russian Soyuz 39.

1987 - A barge loaded with 32,000 tons of refuse left Islip, NY, to find a place to unload. After being refused by several states and three countries space was found back in Islip.

1988 - The Congress overrode U.S. President Reagan's veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.

1989 - Oliver North began two days of testimony at his Iran-Contra trial in Washington, DC.

1989 - The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee reported the class gap was widening.

1990 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.

1991 - Pamela Smart, a high school teacher, was found guilty in New Hampshire of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband.

1992 - A Fokker F-28 veered off a runway at New York's LaGuardia airport and into Flushing Bay, killing 27 people.

1993 - Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed in a boating accident in Florida. Bob Ojeda was seriously injured in the accident.

1993 - Intel introduced the Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS.

1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned to Earth after setting a record for 438 days in space.

1997 - Tara Lipinski, at 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest women's world figure skating champion.

2002 - The U.S. Postal Rate Commission approved a request for a postal rate increase of first-class stamps from 34 cents to 37 cents by June 30. It was the first time a postal rate case was resolved through a settlement between various groups. The groups included the U.S. Postal Service, postal employees, mailer groups and competitors.

2002 - A collection of letters and cards sent by Princess Diana of Wales sold for $33,000. The letters and cards were written to a former housekeeper at Diana's teenage home.

 

[minidog]

1026 - Koenraad II crowned himself king of Italy.

1066 - The 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet took place.

1490 - The first dated edition of Maimonides "Mishna Torah" was published.

1513 - Don Juan Ponce de Leon, a former governor of Puerto Rico, discovered Florida. He claimed the land for Spain.

1657 - France and England formed an alliance against Spain.

1775 - American revolutionary Patrick Henry declared, "give me liberty, or give me death!"

1794 - Josiah G. Pierson patented a rivet machine.

1806 - Explorers Lewis and Clark, reached the Pacific coast, and began their return journey to the east.

1808 - Napoleon's brother Joseph took the throne of Spain.

1835 - Charles Darwin reached Los Arenales, in the Andes.

1836 - The coin press was invented by Franklin Beale.

1839 - The first recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] was used in Boston's Morning Post.

1840 - The first successful photo of the Moon was taken.

1848 - Hungary proclaimed its independence of Austria.

1857 - Elisha Otis installed the first modern passenger elevator in a public building. It was at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City.

1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner patented the cable streetcar.

1861 - John D. Defrees became the first Superintendent of the United States Government Printing Office.

1861 - London's first tramcars began operations.

1868 - The University of California was founded in Oakland, CA.

1880 - John Stevens patented the grain crushing mill. The mill increased flour production by 70 percent.

1881 - The Boers and Britain signed a peace accord ending the first Boer war.

1881 - A gas lamp caused a fire in an opera house in Nice, France. 70 people were killed.

1889 - U.S. President Harrison opened Oklahoma for white colonization.

1901 - Dame Nellie Melba, revealed the secret of her now famous toast.

1901 - It was learned that Boers were starving in British concentration camps in South Africa.

1901 - Shots were fired at Privy Councilor Pobyedonostzev, who was considered to be Russia's most hated man.

1902 - In Italy, the minimum legal working age was raised from 9 to 12 for boys and from 11 to 15 for girls.

1903 - The Wright brothers obtained an airplane patent.

1903 - U.S. troops were sent to Honduras to protect the American consulate during revolutionary activity.

1909 - British Lt. Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole.

1909 - Theodore Roosevelt began an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.

1910 - In the Canary Islands, women offered candidates for legislative elections.

1912 - The Dixie Cup was invented.

1917 - Austrian Emperor Charles I made a peace proposal to French President Poincare.

1917 - In the Midwest U.S., four tornadoes kill 211 people over a four day period.

1918 - Lithuania proclaimed independence.

1919 - Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.

1920 - Britain denounced the U.S. because of their delay in joining the League of Nations.

1920 - The Perserikatan Communist of India (PKI) political party was formed.

1921 - Arthur G. Hamilton set a new parachute record when he safely jumped from 24,400 feet.

1922 - The first airplane landed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.

1925 - The state of Tennessee enacted a law that made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school to teach any theory that was in contradiction to the Bible's account of man's creation.

1932 - In the U.S., the Norris-LaGuardia Act established workers' right to strike.

1933 - The German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act. The act effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial legislative powers.

1934 - The U.S. Congress accepted the independence of the Philippines in 1945.

1936 - Italy, Austria & Hungary signed the Pact of Rome.

1937 - The L.A. Railway Co. started using PCC streetcars.

1940 - "Truth or Consequences" was heard on radio for the first time.

1942 - The Japanese occupy the Anadaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.

1942 - During World War II, the U.S. government began evacuating Japanese-Americans from West Coast homes to detention centers.

1950 - "Beat the Clock" premiered on CBS-TV.

1951 - U.S. paratroopers descended from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.

1956 - Pakistan became the first Islamic republic. It was still within the British Commonwealth.

1956 - Sudan became independent.

1957 - The U.S. Army sold the last of its homing pigeons.

1965 - America's first two-person space flight took off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard. The craft was the Gemini 3.

1965 - The Moroccan Army shot at demonstrators. About 100 people were killed.

1967 - Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. called the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the civil rights movement.

1970 - Mafia "Boss" Carlo Gambino was arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.

1972 - The U.S. called a halt to the peace talks on Vietnam being held in Paris.

1972 - Evel Knievel broke 93 bones after successfully jumping 35 cars.

1973 - The last airing of "Concentration" took place. The show had been on NBC for 15 years.

1980 - The deposed shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, left Panama for Egypt.

1981 - U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women.

1981 - CBS Television announced plans to reduce "Captain Kangaroo" to a 30-minute show each weekday morning.

1983 - U.S. President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles. The proposal became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative and "Star Wars."

1983 - Dr. Barney Clark died after 112 days with a permanent artificial heart.

1989 - A 1,000-foot diameter asteroid missed Earth by 500,000 miles.

1989 - Joel Steinberg was sentenced to 25 years for killing his adopted daughter.

1989 - Two electrochemists, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman, announced that they had created nuclear fusion in a test tube at room temperature.

1990 - Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood was ordered to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution for the 1989 oil spill.

1993 - U.N. experts announced that record ozone lows had been registered over a large area of the Western Hemisphere.

1994 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico's leading presidential candidate, was assassinated in Tijuana. Mario Aburto Martinez was arrested at the scene and confessed to the killing.

1994 - Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's National Hockey League (NHL) career record with his 802nd goal.

1994 - Howard Stern formally announced his Libertarian run for New York governor.

1996 - Taiwan held its first democratic presidential elections.

1998 - Germany's largest bank pledged $3.1 million to Jewish foundations as restitution for Nazi looting.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that term limits for state lawmakers were constitutional.

1998 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired his Cabinet.

1998 - The movie "Titanic" won 11 Oscars at the Academy Awards.

1998 - The German company Bertelsmann AG agreed to purchase the American publisher Random House for $1.4 billion. The merger created the largest English-language book-publishing company in the world.

1999 - Paraguay's Vice President Luis Maria Argana was shot to death by two gunmen.

1999 - NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana gave formal approval for air strikes against Serbian targets.

1999 - Near Mandi Bahauddin, Pakistan, a bus fell into a fast-moving canal. Nine were confirmed dead, 31 were missing and presumed dead, and 20 were injured.

 

[minidog]

1379 - The Gelderse war ended.

1545 - German Parliament opened in Worms.

1550 - France and England signed the Peace of Boulogne.

1629 - The first game law was passed in the American colonies, by Virginia.

1664 - A charter to colonize Rhode Island was granted to Roger Williams in London.

1720 - In Paris, banking houses closed due to financial crisis.

1765 - Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the American colonies to house 10,000 British troops in public and private buildings.

1792 - Benjamin West became the first American artist to be selected president of the Royal Academy of London.

1828 - The Philadelphia & Columbia Railway was authorized as the first state owned railway.

1832 - Mormon Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio.

1837 - Canada gave blacks the right to vote

1848 - A state of siege was proclaimed in Amsterdam.

1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was formed.

1878 - The British frigate Eurydice sank killing 300.

1880 - The first "hail insurance company" was incorporated in Connecticut. It was known as Tobacco Growers’ Mutual Insurance Company.

1882 - In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ (bacillus).

1883 - The first telephone call between New York and Chicago took place.

1898 - The first automobile was sold.

1900 - Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke the ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1900 - In New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Corporation was formed.

1904 - Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.

1905 - In Crete, a group led by Eleutherios Venizelos claimed independence from Turkey.

1906 - In Mexico, the Tehuantepec Istmian Railroad opened as a rival to the Panama Canal.

1906 - The "Census of the British Empire" revealed that England ruled 1/5 of the world.

1911 - In Denmark, penal code reform abolished corporal punishment.

1920 - The first U.S. coast guard air station was established at Morehead City, NC.

1924 - Greece became a republic.

1927 - Chinese Communists seized Nanking and break with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals.

1932 - Belle Baker hosted a radio variety show from a moving train. It was the first radio broadcast from a train.

1934 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

1938 - The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.

1944 - In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen. Over 300 civilians were executed.

1946 - The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran.

1947 - The U.S. Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms.

1954 - Britain opened trade talks with Hungary.

1955 - Tennessee Williams' play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" debuted on Broadway.

1955 - The first oil drill seagoing rig was put into service.

1960 - A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel, "Lady Chatterly’s Lover", was not obscene and could be sent through the mail.

1972 - Great Britain imposed direct rule over Northern Ireland.

1976 - The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military.

1980 - In San Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass.

1981 - "Nightline" with Ted Koppel premiered.

1985 - Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain.

1988 - Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pleaded innocent to Iran-Contra charges.

1989 - The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound after it ran aground.

1989 - The U.S. decided to send humanitarian aid to the Contras.

1990 - Indian troops left Sri Lanka.

1991 - The African nation of Benin held its first presidential elections in about 30 years.

1993 - In Israel, Ezer Weizman, an advocate of peace with neighboring Arab nations, was elected President.

1995 - Russian forces surrounded Achkoi-Martan. It was one of the few remaining strongholds of rebels in Chechenia.

1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal.

1997 - The Australian parliament overturned the world's first and only euthanasia law.

1998 - In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins.

1998 - A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray's car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

1999 - In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured.

1999 - NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina). The attacks marked the first time in its 50-year history that NATO attacked a sovereign country. The bombings were in response to Serbia's refusal to sign a peace treaty with ethnic Albanians who were seeking independence for the province of Kosovo.

1999 - The 7-mile tunnel under Mont Blanc in France was an inferno after a truck carrying flour and margarine caught on fire. At least 30 people were killed.

2002 - Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The paintings were worth about $2.6 million. The paintings were works by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart.

2005 - The government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed after opposition protesters took over President Askar Akayev's presidential compound and government offices.

2005 - Sandra Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2006 - In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire.

 

[minidog]

0421 - The city of Venice was founded.

0708 - Constantine began his reign as Catholic Pope.

1133 - William the Conqueror ordered the first Domesday Survey of England.

1306 - Robert the Bruce was crowned king of Scotland.

1409 - The Council of Pisa opened.

1609 - Henry Hudson left on an exploration for Dutch East India Co.

1634 - Lord Baltimore founded the Catholic colony of Maryland.

1655 - Puritans jailed Governor Stone after a military victory over Catholic forces in the colony of Maryland.

1655 - Christian Huygens discovered Titan. Titan is Saturn's largest satellite.

1668 - The first horse race in America took place.

1669 - Mount Etna in Sicily erupted destroying Nicolosi. 20,000 people were killed.

1700 - England, France and Netherlands ratify the 2nd Extermination Treaty.

1753 - Voltaire left the court of Frederik II of Prussia.

1774 - English Parliament passed the Boston Port Bill.

1776 - The Continental Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.

1802 - France, Netherlands, Spain and England signed the Peace of Amiens.

1807 - The first railway passenger service began in England.

1807 - British Parliament abolished the slave trade.

1813 - The frigate USS Essex flew the first U.S. flag in battle in the Pacific.

1814 - The Netherlands Bank was established.

1820 - Greece freedom revolt against anti Ottoman attack

1821 - Greece gained independence from Turkey.

1856 - A. E. Burnside patented Burnside carbine.

1857 - Frederick Laggenheim took the first photo of a solar eclipse.

1865 - The SS General Lyon at Cape Hatteras caught fire and sank. 400 people were killed.

1865 - During the American Civil War, Confederate forces captured Fort Stedman in Virginia.

1879 - Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands, formerly a vassal of China.

1895 - Italian troops invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1898 - The Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association was formed in New York City.

1900 - The U.S. Socialist Party was formed in Indianapolis.

1901 - 55 people died when a Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown, IA.

1901 - The Mercedes was introduced by Daimler at the five-day "Week of Nice" in Nice, France.

1901 - It was reported in Washington, DC, that Cubans were beginning to fear annexation.

1902 - Irving W. Colburn patented the sheet glass drawing machine.

1902 - In Russia, 567 students were found guilty of "political disaffection." 95 students were exiled to Siberia.

1904 - E.D. Morel and Roger Casement formed the Congo Reform Association in Liverpool.

1905 - Rebel battle flags that were captured during the American Civil War were returned to the South.

1905 - Russia received Japan's terms for peace.

1907 - Nicaraguan troops took Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

1908 - Wilhelm II paid an official visit to Italy's king in Venice.

1909 - In Russia, revolutionary Popova was arrested on 300 murder charges.

1911 - In New York City, 146 women were killed in fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. The owners of the company were indicted on manslaughter charges because some of the employees had been behind locked doors in the factory. The owners were later acquitted and in 1914 they were ordered to pay damages to each of the twenty-three families that had sued.

1913 - The Palace Theatre opened in New York City.

1915 - 21 people died when a U.S. F-4 submarine sank off the Hawaiian coast.

1919 - The Paris Peace Commission adopted a plan to protect nations from the influx of foreign labor.

1923 - The British government granted Trans-Jordan autonomy.

1931 - Fifty people were killed in riots that broke out in India. Gandhi was one of many people assaulted.

1931 - The Scottsboro Boys were arrested in Alabama.

1936 - The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Montreal Maroons in the longest hockey game to date. The game lasted for 2 hours and 56 minutes.

1940 - The U.S. agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.

1941 - Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.

1941 - The first paprika mill was incorporated in Dollon, SC.

1947 - A coalmine explosion in Centralia, IL, killed 111 people.

1947 - John D. Rockefeller III presented a check for $8.5 million to the United Nations for the purchase of land for the site of the U.N. center.

1953 - The USS Missouri fired on targets at Kojo, North Korea.

1954 - RCA manufactured its first color TV set and began mass production.

1957 - The European Economic Community was established with the signing of the Treaty of Rome.

1960 - A guided missile was launched from a nuclear powered submarine for the first time.

1965 - Martin Luther King Jr. led a group of 25,000 to the state capital in Montgomery, AL.

1966 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the "poll tax" was unconstitutional.

1970 - The Concorde made its first supersonic flight.

1971 - The Boston Patriots became the New England Patriots.

1972 - Bobby Hull joined Gordie Howe to become only the second National Hockey League player to score 600 career goals.

1975 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew. The nephew, with a history of mental illness, was beheaded the following June.

1981 - The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador was damaged when gunmen attacked using rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.

1982 - Wayne Gretzky became the first player in the NHL to score 200 points in a season.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered emergency aid for the Honduran army. U.S. helicopters took Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border.

1988 - Robert E. Chambers Jr. pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin. The case was known as New York City's "preppie murder case."

1989 - In Paris, the Louvre reopened with I.M. Pei's new courtyard pyramid.

1990 - A fire in Happy Land, an illegal New York City social club, killed 87 people.

1990 - Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union.

1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.

1992 - Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth after spending 10 months aboard the orbiting Mir space station.

1993 - President de Klerk admitted that South Africa had built six nuclear bombs, but said that they had since been dismantled.

1994 - United States troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.

1995 - Boxer Mike Tyson was released from jail after serving 3 years.

1996 - An 81-day standoff by the antigovernment Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, MT.
1996 - The U.S. issued a newly redesigned $100 bill for circulation.

1998 - A cancer patient was the first known to die under Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.

1998 - The FCC nets $578.6 million at auction for licenses for new wireless technology.

1998 - Quinn Pletcher was found guilty on charges of extortion. He had threatened to kill Bill Gates unless he was paid $5 million.

2002 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dismissed complaints against Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network broadcast of a Victoria's Secret fashion show in November 2001.

2004 - The U.S. Senate voted (61-38) on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997) to make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a violent federal crime.

 

[minidog]

1026 - Conrad II was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XIX.

1799 - Napoleon captured Jaffa Palestine.

1780 - The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor was published for the first time. It was the first Sunday newspaper in Britain.

1793 - The Holy Roman Emperor formally declared war on France.

1804 - The U.S. Congress ordered the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to Louisiana.

1804 - The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the District of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans.

1854 - Charles III, duke of Parma, was attacked by an assassin. He died the next day.

1871 - The Paris Commune was formally set up.

1878 - Hastings College of Law was founded.

1885 - Eastman Kodak (Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co.) produced the first commercial motion picture film in Rochester, NY.

1898 - In South Africa, the world's first game reserve, the Sabi Game reserve, was designated.

1909 - Russian troops invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as shah in place of the constitutional government.

1910 - The U.S. Congress passed an amendment to the 1907 Immigration Act that barred criminals, paupers, anarchists and carriers of disease from settling in the U.S.

1913 - During the Balkan War, the Bulgarians took Adrianople.

1917 - At the start of the battle of Gaza, the British cavalry withdrew when 17,000 Turks blocked their advance.

1937 - Spinach growers in Crystal City, TX, erected a statue of Popeye.

1938 - Herman Goering warned all Jews to leave Austria.

1942 - The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.

1945 - The battle of Iwo Jima ended.

1945 - In the Aleutians, the battle of Komandorski began when the Japanese attempted to reinforce a garrison at Kiska and were intercepted by a U.S. naval force.

1951 - The U.S. Air Force flag was approved. The flag included the coat of arms, 13 white stars and the Air Force seal on a blue background.

1953 - Dr. Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine that would prevent poliomyelitis.

1956 - Red Buttons made his debut as a television actor in "Studio One" on CBS television.

1958 - The U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer III.

1962 - The U.S. Supreme Court supported the 1-man-1-vote apportionment of seats in the State Legislature.

1969 - The TV movie "Marcus Welby" was seen on ABC-TV. It was later turned into a series.

1971 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared East Pakistan to be the independent republic of Bangladesh.

1971 - "Cannon" premiered on CBS-TV as a movie. It was turned into a series later in the year.

1972 - The Los Angeles Lakers broke a National Basketball Association (NBA) record by winning 69 of their 82 games.

1973 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took over the premiership and said "the stage of total confrontation (with Israel) has become inevitable."

1973 - Women were allowed on the floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time.

1979 - The Camp David treaty was signed by Israel and Egypt that ended the 31-year state of war between the countries.

1982 - Ground breaking ceremonies were held in Washington, DC, for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1989 - The first free elections took place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin was elected.

1991 - The presidents of Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay signed an agreement that established the Southern Cone Common Market, a free-trade zone, by January 1, 1995.

1992 - In Indianapolis, heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was found guilty of rape. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He only served three.

1995 - Seven of the 15 European Union states abolished border controls.

1996 - The International Monetary Fund approved a $10.2 billion loan for Russia to help the country transform its economy.

1997 - The 39 bodies of Heaven's Gate members are found in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. The group had committed suicide thinking that they would be picked up by a spaceship following behind the comet Hale-Bopp.

1998 - In the U.S., the Federal government endorses new HIV test that yields instant results.

1998 - Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. pay a $3.15 million fine for selling spare parts at inflated prices to the U.S. federal government.

1999 - The macro virus "Melissa" was reported for the first.

1999 - In Michigan, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder for giving a terminally ill man a lethal injection and putting it all on videotape on September 17, 1998 for "60 Minutes."

2000 - The Seattle Kingdome was imploded to make room for a new football arena.

2000 - In Russia, acting President Vladimir Putin was elected president outright. He won a sufficient number of votes to avoid a runoff election.

2007 - The design for the "Forever Stamp" was unveiled by the U.S. Postal Service.

 

[minidog]

1774 - Britain passed the Coercive Act against Massachusetts.

1797 - Nathaniel Briggs patented a washing machine.

1834 - The U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.

1854 - The Crimean War began with Britain and France declaring war on Russia.

1864 - A group of Copperheads attack Federal soldiers in Charleston, IL. Five were killed and twenty were wounded.

1865 - Outdoor advertising legislation was enacted in New York. The law banned "painting on stones, rocks and trees."

1885 - The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.

1898 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen. This meant that they could not be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1903 - Anatole France's "Crainquebille" premiered in Paris.

1905 - The U.S. took full control over Dominican revenues.

1908 - Automobile owners lobbied the U.S. Congress, supporting a bill that called for vehicle licensing and federal registration.

1910 - The first seaplane took off from water at Martinques, France. The pilot was Henri Fabre.

1911 - In New York, suffragists performed the political play "Pageant of Protest."

1917 - During World War I the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded.

1921 - U.S. President Warren Harding named William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1922 - Bradley A. Fiske patented a microfilm reading device.

1930 - Constantinople and Angora changed their names to Istanbul and Ankara respectively.

1933 - In Germany, the Nazis ordered a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.

1938 - In Italy, psychiatrists demonstrated the use of electric-shock therapy for treatment of certain mental illnesses.

1939 - The Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to Francisco Franco.

1941 - The Italian fleet was defeated by the British at the Battle of Matapan.

1942 - British naval forces raided the Nazi occupied French port of St. Nazaire.

1945 - Germany launched the last of the V-2 rockets against England.

1947 - The American Helicopter Society revealed a flying device that could be strapped to a person's body.

1962 - The U.S. Air Force announced research into the use of lasers to intercept missiles and satellites.

1963 - Sonny Werblin announced that the New York Titans of the American Football League was changing its name to the New York Jets. (NFL)

1967 - Raymond Burr starred in a TV movie titled "Ironside." The movie was later turned into a television series.

1968 - The U.S. lost its first F-111 aircraft in Vietnam when it vanished while on a combat mission. North Vietnam claimed that they had shot it down.

1974 - A streaker ran onto the set of "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson."

1979 - A major accident occurred at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. A nuclear power reactor overheated and suffered a partial meltdown.

1986 - The U.S. Senate passed $100 million aid package for the Nicaraguan contras.

1986 - More than 6,000 radio stations of all format varieties played "We are the World" simultaneously at 10:15 a.m. EST.

1990 - Jesse Owens received the Congressional Gold Medal from U.S. President George Bush.

1990 - In Britain, a joint Anglo-U.S. "sting" operation ended with the seizure of 40 capacitors, which can be used in the trigger mechanism of a nuclear weapon.

1991 - The U.S. embassy in Moscow was severely damaged by fire.

1994 - Violence between Zulus and African National Congress supporters took the lives of 18 in Johannesburg.

1999 - Paraguay's President Raúl Cubas Grau resigned after protests inspired by the assassination of Vice-President Luis María Argaña on March 23. The nation's Congress had accused Cubas and his political associate, Gen. Lino César Oviedo, for Cubas' murder. Senate President Luis González Macchi took office as Paraguay's new chief executive.

2002 - The exhibit "The Italians: Three Centuries of Italian Art" opened at the National Gallery of Australia.

 

[minidog]

1461 - Edward IV secured his claim to the English thrown by defeating Henry VI’s Lancastrians at the battle of Towdon.

1638 - First permanent European settlement in Delaware was established.

1847 - U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott took possession of the Mexican stronghold at Vera Cruz.

1848 - Niagara Falls stopped flowing for one day due to an ice jam.

1867 - The British Parliament passed the North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada.

1882 - The Knights of Columbus organization was granted a charter by the State of Connecticut.

1901 - The first federal elections were held in Australia.

1903 - A regular news service began between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.

1906 - In the U.S., 500,000 coal miners walked off the job seeking higher wages.

1913 - The Reichstag announced a raise in taxes in order to finance the new military budget.

1916 - The Italians call off the fifth attack on Isonzo.

1932 - Jack Benny made his radio debut.

1936 - Italy firebombed the Ethiopian city of Harar.

1941 - The British sank five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.

1943 - In the U.S. rationing of meat, butter and cheese began during World War II.

1946 - Fiorella LaGuardia became the director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Organization.

1946 - Gold Coast became the first British colony to hold an African parliamentary majority.

1951 - The Chinese reject MacArthur's offer for a truce in Korea.

1951 - In the United States, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were executed in June 19, 1953.

1961 - The 23rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment allowed residents of Washington, DC, to vote for president.

1962 - Cuba opened the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.

1962 - Jack Paar made his final appearance on the "Tonight" show.

1966 - Leonid Brezhnev became the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounced the American policy in Vietnam and called it one of aggression.

1967 - France launched its first nuclear submarine.

1971 - Lt. William Calley Jr., of the U.S. Army, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of at least 22 Vietnamese civilians. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial was the result of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968.

1971 - A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. The death sentences were later commuted to live in prison.

1973 - "Hommy," the Puerto Rican version of the rock opera "Tommy," opened in New York City.

1973 - The last U.S. troops left South Vietnam.

1974 - Mariner 10, the U.S. space probe became the first spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury. It had been launched on November 3, 1973.

1974 - Eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. All the guardsmen were later acquitted.

1975 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat declared that he would reopen the Suez Canal on June 5, 1975.

1979 - The Committee on Assassinations Report issued by U.S. House of Representatives stated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the result of a conspiracy.

1982 - The soap opera "Search for Tomorrow" changed from CBS to NBC.

1986 - A court in Rome acquitted six men in a plot to kill the Pope.

1987 - Hulk Hogan took 11 minutes, 43 seconds to pin Andre the Giant in front of 93,136 at Wrestlemania III fans at the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI.

1992 - Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton said "I didn't inhale and I didn't try it again" in reference to when he had experimented with marijuana.

1993 - The South Korean government agreed to pay financial support to women who had been forced to have sex with Japanese troops during World War II.

1993 - Clint Eastwood won his first Oscars. He won them for best film and best director for the film "Unforgiven."

1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional amendment that would have limited terms to 12 years in the U.S. House and Senate.

1998 - Tennessee won the woman's college basketball championship over Louisiana. Tennessee had set a NCAA record with regular season record or 39-0.

1999 - At least 87 people died in an earthquake in India's Himalayan foothills.

1999 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time.

2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia became members of NATO.

 

[minidog]

1492 - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed a decree expelling all Jews from Spain.

1533 - Henry VIII divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

1814 - The allied European nations against Napoleon marched into Paris.

1822 - Florida became a U.S. territory.

1842 - Dr. Crawford W. Long performed the first operation while his patient was anesthetized by ether.

1855 - About 5,000 "Border Ruffians" from western Missouri invaded the territory of Kansas and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature. It was the first election in Kansas.

1858 - Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patented the pencil.

1867 - The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.

1870 - The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, was passed by the U.S. Congress.

1870 - Texas was readmitted to the Union.

1903 - Revolutionary activity in the Dominican Republic brought U.S. troops to Santo Domingo to protect American interests.

1905 - U.S. President Roosevelt was chosen to mediate in the Russo-Japanese peace talks.

1909 - The Queensboro bridge in New York opened linking Manhattan and Queens. It was the first double decker bridge.

1909 - In Oklahoma, Seminole Indians revolted against meager pay for government jobs.

1916 - Pancho Villa killed 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.

1936 - Britain announced a naval construction program of 38 warships.

1940 - The Japanese set up a puppet government called Manchuko in Nanking, China.

1941 - The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel began its first offensive against British forces in Libya.

1944 - The U.S. fleet attacked Palau, near the Philippines.

1945 - The U.S.S.R. invaded Austria during World War II.

1946 - The Allies seized 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.

1947 - Lord Mountbatten arrived in India as the new Viceroy.

1950 - The invention of the phototransistor was announced.

1950 - U.S. President Truman denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.

1957 - Tunisia and Morocco signed a friendship treaty in Rabat.

1958 - The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater gave its initial performance.

1964 - "Jeopardy" debuted on NBC-TV.

1964 - John Glenn withdrew from the Ohio race for U.S. Senate because of injuries suffered in a fall.

1970 - "Applause" opened on Broadway.

1970 - "Another World - Somerset" debuted on NBC-TV.

1972 - The British government assumed direct rule over Northern Ireland.

1972 - The Eastertide Offensive began when North Vietnamese troops crossed into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the northern portion of South Vietnam.

1975 - As the North Vietnamese forces moved toward Saigon South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets in desperation.

1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in Washington, DC, by John W. Hinckley Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady were also wounded.

1984 - The U.S. ended its participation in the multinational peace force in Lebanon.

1987 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" was bought for $39.85 million.

1993 - In Sarajevo, two Serb militiamen were sentenced to death for war crimes committed in Bosnia.

1993 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown hit his first home run.

1994 - Serbs and Croats signed a cease-fire to end their war in Croatia while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs continued to fight each other.

1998 - Rolls-Royce was purchased by BMW in a $570 million deal.

2002 - An unmanned U.S. spy plan crashed at sea in the Southern Philippines.

2002 - Suspected Islamic militants set off several grenades at a temple in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Four civilians, four policemen and two attackers were killed and 20 people were injured.