Topic: Today in World History

[speedy]

March 22

1622         Indians attack a group of colonists in the James River area of Virginia, killing 350 residents.

1630         The first legislation prohibiting gambling is enacted in Boston.

1664         Charles II gives large tracks of land from west of the Connecticut River to the east of Delaware Bay in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York.

1719         Frederick William abolishes serfdom on crown property in Prussia.

1765         The Stamp Act is passed, the first direct British tax on the American colonists.

1775         British statesman Edmund Burke makes a speech in the House of Commons, urging the government to adopt a policy of reconciliation with America.

1790         Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State.

1794         Congress passes laws prohibiting slave trade with foreign countries although slavery remains legal in the United States.

1834         Horace Greeley publishes New Yorker, a weekly literary and news magazine and forerunner of Harold Ross' more successful The New Yorker.

1901         Japan proclaims that it is determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.

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

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

1915         A German Zepplin makes a night raid on Paris railway stations.

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

1933         President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine.

1935         Persia is renamed Iran.

1946         First U.S. built rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere reaches a 50-mile height.

1948         The United States announces a land reform plan for Korea.

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

1968         President Lyndon Johnson names General William Westmoreland as Army Chief of Staff.

1972         The U.S. Senate passes the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment fails to achieve ratification.

1974         The Viet Cong propose a new truce with the United States and South Vietnam, which includes general elections.

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

Born on March 22

1599         Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish artist, the namesake of the beard style.

1797         Wilhelm I, German emperor (1871-88)

1846         Randolph Caldecott, illustrator.

1907         James Gavin, U.S. Army general of the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII.

1908         Louis L'Amour, American Western novelist.

1923         Marcel Marceau, French mime.

1930         Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist (A Little Night Music, Passion).

1948         Andrew Lloyd Webber, British composer (The Phantom of the Opera, Cats)

[ancients]

That 1933 action sure made Saturday nights out more fun.

[speedy]

March 26

1517         The famous Flemish composer Heinrich Issac dies.

1799         Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa, Palestine.

1804         Congress orders the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi River to Louisiana.

1804         The territory of New Orleans is organized in the Louisiana Purchase.

1827         German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven dies in Vienna. He had been deaf for the later part of his life, but said on his death bed "I shall hear in heaven."

1832         Famed western artist George Catlin begins his voyage up the Missouri River aboard the American Fur Company steamship Yellowstone.

1885         Eastman Film Co. manufactures the first commercial motion picture film.

1913         The Balkan allies take Adrianople.

1918         On the Western Front, the Germans take the French towns Noyon, Roye and Lihons.

1938         Herman Goering warns all Jews to leave Austria.

1942         The Germans begin sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.

1950         Senator Joe McCarthy names Owen Lattimore, an ex-State Department adviser, as a Soviet spy.

1951         The United States Air Force flag design is approved.

1953         Eisenhower offers increased aid to the French fighting in Indochina.

1953         Dr. Jonas Salk announces a new vaccine against polio.

1954         The United States sets off an H-bomb blast in the Marshall Islands, the second in four weeks.

1961         John F. Kennedy meets with British Premier Macmillan in Washington to discuss increased Communist involvement in Laos.

1969         The Soviet weather Satellite Meteor 1 is launched.

1969         Writer John Kennedy Toole commits suicide at the age of 32. His mother helps get his first and only novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, published. It goes on to win the 1981 Pulitzer Prize.

1979         The Camp David treaty is signed between Israel and Egypt.

1982         Ground is broken in Washington D.C. for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1989         The first free elections take place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin is elected.

1992         An Indianapolis court finds heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson guilty of rape.


Born on March 26

1819         Louise Otto, German author.

1850         Edward Bellamy, writer (Looking Backward).

1859         A.E. Houseman, poet (A Shropshire Lad).

1874         Robert Frost, poet, multiple Pulitzer Prize-winner.

1880         Duncan Hines, U.S. restaurant guide author

1904         Joseph Campbell, folklorist and writer.

1911         Tennessee Williams, American dramatist (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Name Desire).

1914         William Westmoreland, U.S. army general during the Vietnam War.

1923         Bob Elliot, radio comedian, one half of Bob and Ray.

1930         Gregory Corso, beat poet, discovered literature in prison.

1930         Sandra Day O'Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

1933         Vine Deloria, Jr., writer, activist.

1942         Erica Jong, poet, novelist (Fear of Flying, How to Save Your Own Life).

[ancients]

On March 27, 1958, Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party. (NYT)

[speedy]

March 27

1350         While besieging Gibraltar, Alfonso XI of Castile dies of the black death.

1512         Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sights Florida.

1802         The Treaty of Amiens is signed, ending the French Revolutionary War.

1814         U.S. troops under Gen. Andrew Jackson inflict a crushing defeat on the Creek Indians at Horshoe Bend in Northern Alabama.

1835         The Mexican army massacres Texan rebels at Gohad.

1866         President Andrew Johnson vetoes the civil rights bill, which later becomes the 14th amendment.

1884         The first long-distance telephone call is made from Boston to New York.

1893         The American Bell Telephone Company makes the first long distance telephone call to its branch office in New York.

1899         The Italian inventor G. Marconi achieves the first international radio transmission between England and France.

1900         The London Parliament passes the War Loan Act, which gives 35 million pounds to the Boer War cause.

1912         The first cherry blossom trees, a gift from Japan, are planted in Washington, D.C.

1933         Some 55,000 people stage a protest against Hitler in New York.

1941         Tokeo Yoshikawa arrives in Oahu, Hawaii, to begin spying for Japan on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.

1942         The British raid the Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.

1944         One thousand Jews leave Drancy, France for the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1944         Thousands of Jews are murdered in Kaunas, Lithuania. The Gestapo shoots forty Jewish policemen in the Riga, Latvia ghetto.

1945         General Dwight Eisenhower declares that the German defenses on the Western Front have been broken.

1952         Elements of the U.S. Eighth Army reach the 38th parallel in Korea, the original dividing line between the two Koreas.

1958         The United States announces a plan to explore space near the moon.

1976         Washington, D.C. opens its subway system.

1977         In aviation's worst disaster yet, 582 die when a KLM Pan Am 747 crashes.


Born on March 27


1785         Louis XVII, pretender to the throne during the French Revolution.

1809         Georges-Eugene Haussmann, French town planner, designed modern-day Paris.

1813         Nathaniel Currier, lithographer for Currier and Ives.

1845         Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, German physicist, accidentally discovered X-rays.

1863         Sir Henry Royce, cofounder the Rolls-Royce automotive company.

1879         Edward Steichen, pioneer of American photography.

1906         Pee Wee Russell, jazz clarinetist.

1910         John Robinson Pierce, the father of comunications satellites.

1914         Budd Schulberg, journalist, novelist and screenwriter (What Makes Sammy Run).

1923         Louis Simpson, Pultizer Prize-winning poet.

1924         Sarah Vaughan, jazz singer.

[ancients]

April 1

   * 1578: Englishman William Harvey discovers blood circulation
    * 1939: USA recognizes Franco government in Spain at end of Spanish civil war
    * 1954: US Air Force Academy established
    * 1960: First weather satellite, TIROS 1, launched by the United States
    * 1988: Iran accuses Iraq of using mustard gas on civilians
    * 1991: Warsaw Pact officially disolves

http://www.tnl.net/when/4/1

[speedy]

April 3

628         In Persia, Kavadh sues for peace with the Byzantines.

1367         John of Gaunt and Edward the Black Prince win the Battle of Najara, in Spain.

1559         Philip II of Spain and Henry II of France sign the peace of Cateau-Cambresis, ending a long series of wars between the Hapsburg and Valois dynasties.

1860         The Pony Express connects St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California.

1862         Slavery is abolished in Washington, D.C.

1865         Union forces occupy the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

1882         The American outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed by his cousin, Bob Ford.

1910         Alaska's Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America is climbed.

1920         F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre are married at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

1936         Bruno Hauptmann, killer of the Lindbergh baby, is executed.

1942         The Japanese begin their all-out assault on the U.S. and Filipino troops at Bataan.

1944         The U.S. Supreme Court rules that black citizens are eligible to vote in all elections, including primaries.

1948         President Harry Truman signs Marshall Plan, it will revive war-torn Europe.

1966         Three-thousand South Vietnamese Army troops lead a protest against the Ky regime in Saigon.

1972         Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States after a twenty-year absence.

1984         Coach John Thompson of Georgetown University becomes the first African-American coach to win an NCAA basketball tournament.

Born on April 3
1783         Washington Irving, American writer (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle).

1822         Edward Everett Hale, American clergyman and author (Man without a Country).

1823         William Macy "Boss" Tweed, New York City political boss.

1837         John Burroughs, nature writer.

1842         Hermann Karl Vogel, German astonomer.

1888         Gertrude Bridget "Ma" Rainey, American singer, "the mother of the blues."

1898         Henry R. Luce, magazine publisher, founder of Time, Fortune and Life.

1924         Marlon Brando, actor (On the Waterfront, The Godfather).

1924         Doris Von Kappelhoff [Doris Day], American singer and actress.

1930         Helmut Kohl, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

[ancients]

April 5th

1614 - American Indian Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.

1869 - Daniel Bakeman, the last surviving soldier of the U.S. Revolutionary War, died at the age of 109.

1933 - The first operation to remove a lung was performed at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO.

1984 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Los Angeles Lakers) became the all-time NBA regular season scoring leader when he broke Wilt Chamberlain's record of 31,419 career points.

[gary6560]

 I love facts and trivia , I believe I started a forum on useless information a while back.
 Keeps the mind thinking

[speedy]

April 6

1199         English King Richard I is killed by an arrow at the siege of the castle of Chaluz in France.

1789         The First U.S. Congress begins regular sessions at Federal Hall in New York City.

1814         Granted sovereignty in the island of Elba and a pension from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates at Fountainebleau. He is allowed to keep the title of emperor.

1830         Joseph Smith and five others organize the Church of Latter-Day Saints in Seneca, New York.

1862         Confederate forces attack General Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh, Tennessee.

1865         At the Battle of Sailer's Creek, a third of Lee's army is cut off by Union troops pursuing him to Appomattox.

1896         The Modern Olympics begin in Athens with eight nations participating.

1903         French Army Nationalists are revealed to have forged documents to guarantee a conviction for Alfred Dryfus.

1909         Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first men to reach the North Pole.

1917         The United States declares war on Germany and enters World War I on Allied side.

1924         Four planes leave Seattle on the first successful flight around the world.

1938         The United States recognizes Nazi Germany's conquest of Austria.

1941         German forces invade Greece and Yugoslavia.

1965         President Lyndon B. Johnson authorizes the use of ground troops in combat operations.


Born on April 6

1483         Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), Dutch painter (Sistine Madonna).

1786         Sacagawea (also Sacajawea), American explorer.

1866         Joseph Lincoln Steffens, journalist.

1905         W. Warrick Cardozo, physician, researcher of Sickle Cell Anemia.

1927         Gerry Mulligan, jazz saxaphonist.

1928         James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.

1929         Andre Previn, pianist and conductor.

1937         Merle Haggard, American country musician.

[speedy]

April 7

1652         The Dutch establish a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.

1712         A slave revolt breaks out in New York City.

1798         The territory of Mississippi is organized.

1862         General Ulysses S. Grant defeats Confederates at Battle of Shiloh, Tenn.

1914         The British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill.

1922         U.S. Secretary of Interior leases the Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.

1933         President Franklin Roosevelt signs legislation ending Prohibition in the United States.

1943         British and American armies link up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa, forming a solid line against the German army.

1945         The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world's largest battleship, is sunk during the battle for Okinawa.

1963         Yugoslavia proclaims itself a Socialist republic.

1971         President Nixon pledges a withdrawal of 100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.

1980         The United States breaks relations with Iran.

1983         Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson make first Space Shuttle spacewalk.

1990         John Poindexter is found guilty in the Iran-Contra scandal.



Born on April 7
1770         William Wordsworth, English poet laureate ("The Prelude," "Lyrical Ballards").

1837         John Pierpoint Morgan, U.S. industrialist.

1859         Walter Camp, father of American football.

1860         W.K. Kellogg, cereal magnate and health guru.

1897         Walter Winchell, American newscaster and columnist.

1915         Billie Holliday (Eleanora Fagan), jazz and blues singer.

1931         Donald Barthelme, writer.

1931         Daniel Ellsberg, anti-war activist, released the Pentagon Papers.

President Franklin Roosevelt signs legislation ending Prohibition in the United States.

  Thank goodness for FDR.  or tonight would have been minus a couple margaritas.   

[Steve.Deserved.Better]

   Ole'!   

[ancients]

April 12

     President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, 1945 

     Galileo is convicted of heresy, 1633 

     First launching of the space shuttle, 1981 
     The space shuttle Columbia is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida

[speedy]

April 12

1204         The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople.

1606         England adopts the Union Jack as its flag.

1770         Parliament repeals the Townsend Acts.

1782         The British navy wins its only naval engagement against the colonists in the American Revolution at the Battle of Saints, off Dominica.

1811         The first colonists arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington.

1861         Fort Sumter is shelled by Confederacy, starting America's Civil War.

1864         Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow, in Tennessee.

1877         The first catcher's mask is used in a baseball game.

1911         Pierre Prier completes the first non-stop London-Paris flight in three hours and 56 minutes.

1916         American cavalrymen and Mexican bandit troops clash at Parrel, Mexico.

1927         The British Cabinet comes out in favor of voting rights for women.

1944         The U.S. Twentieth Air Force is activated to begin the strategic bombing of Japan.

1945         President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at Warm Spring, Georgia. Harry S. Truman becomes president.

1954         Bill Haley records "Rock Around the Clock."

1955         Dr. Jonas Salk's discovery of a polio vaccine is announced.

1961         Soviet Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin becomes first man to orbit the Earth.

1963         Police use dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama.

1966         Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American major league umpire.

1983         Harold Washington is elected the first black mayor of Chicago.

Born on April 12

1777         Henry Clay, the "Great Compromiser", American politician and statesman who ran unsuccessfully for president three times.

1791         Francis Preston Blair, Washington Globe newspaper editor.

1838         John Shaw Billings, American librarian, army physician.

1949         Scott Turow, writer and attorney.

[speedy]

April 13

1598         The Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots.

1775         Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.

1861         After 34 hours of bombardment, Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.

1865         Union forces under Gen. Sherman begin their devastating march through Georgia.

1902         J.C. Penny opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

1919         British forces kill hundreds of Indian nationalists in the Amritsar Massacre.

1933         The first flight over Mount Everest is completed by Lord Clydesdale.

1941         German troops capture Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

1943         Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial.

1945         Vienna falls to Soviet troops.

1960         The first navigational satellite is launched into Earth's orbit.

1961         The U.N. General Assembly condemns South Africa because of apartheid.

1964         Sidney Poitier becomes the first black to win an Oscar for best actor.

1970         An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing and jeopardizing the lives of the three-man crew.

1976         The U.S. Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes.

1979         The world's longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours.

Born on April 13


1721         John Hanson, first U.S. President under the Articles of Confederation.

1732         Frederick Lord North, British prime minister (1770-82).

1743         Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States (1801-09)

1852         Frank W. Woolworth, American retailer.

1866         Butch Cassidy [Robert LeRoy Parker], American outlaw and leader of the Wild Bunch.

1899         Alfred Butts, inventor of the board game Scrabble.

1906         Samuel Beckett, playwright, Nobel Prize winner (Waiting for Godot).

1909         Eudora Welty, Southern writer (Delta Wedding, The Optimist's Daughter).

1922         John Gerard Braine, British novelist (Room at the Top).

1939         Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, Nobel laureate.