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Post by dreamer on Feb 1, 2012 6:18:07 GMT -5
Feb. 1st American Revolution Davidson College namesake killed at Cowan's Ford, 1781 Automotive Ford GT makes TV debut in Super Bowl ad, 2004 Civil War Texas secedes from the Union, 1861 Cold War U.N. condemns PRC for aggression, 1951 Crime Serial killer Ted Bundy strikes again, 1974 Disaster Columbia mission ends in disaster, 2003 General Interest First session of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1790 Oxford Dictionary debuts, 1884 Portuguese king and heir assassinated, 1908 Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran, 1979 Hollywood Official registration of Hollywood, 1887 Literary "The Corsair" by Lord Byron is published, 1814 Music Puccini's La bohème premieres in Turin, Italy, 1896 Old West Mormon president goes underground, 1885 Presidential Bush addresses the nation after space shuttle Columbia explodes, 2003 Sports NHL goalie Terry Sawchuk posts 103rd shutout, 1970 Vietnam War Operation Plan 34A commences, 1964 Nixon announces his candidacy for president, 1968 World War I Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare, 1917 World War II Japanese begin evacuation of Guadalcanal, 1943 ******************** 1884: Oxford Dictionary debutsOn this day in 1884, the first portion, or fascicle, of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published. Today, the OED is the definitive authority on the meaning, pronunciation and history of over half a million words, past and present Plans for the dictionary began in 1857 when members of London's Philological Society, who believed there were no up-to-date, error-free English dictionaries available, decided to produce one that would cover all vocabulary from the Anglo-Saxon period (1150 A.D.) to the present. Conceived of as a four-volume, 6,400-page work, it was estimated the project would take 10 years to finish. In fact, it took over 40 years until the 125th and final fascicle was published in April 1928 and the full dictionary was complete--at over 400,000 words and phrases in 10 volumes--and published under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Unlike most English dictionaries, which only list present-day common meanings, the OED provides a detailed chronological history for every word and phrase, citing quotations from a wide range of sources, including classic literature and cookbooks. The OED is famous for its lengthy cross-references and etymologies. The verb "set" merits the OED's longest entry, at approximately 60,000 words and detailing over 430 uses. No sooner was the OED finished than editors began updating it. A supplement, containing new entries and revisions, was published in 1933 and the original dictionary was reprinted in 12 volumes and officially renamed the Oxford English Dictionary. Between 1972 and 1986, an updated 4-volume supplement was published, with new terms from the continually evolving English language plus more words and phrases from North America, Australia, the Caribbean, New Zealand, South Africa and South Asia. In 1984, Oxford University Press embarked on a five-year, multi-million-dollar project to create an electronic version of the dictionary. The effort required 120 people just to type the pages from the print edition and 50 proofreaders to check their work. In 1992, a CD-ROM version of the dictionary was released, making it much easier to search and retrieve information. Today, the dictionary's second edition is available online to subscribers and is updated quarterly with over 1,000 new entries and revisions. At a whopping 20 volumes weighing over 137 pounds, it would reportedly take one person 120 years to type all 59 million words in the OED. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 2, 2012 5:21:59 GMT -5
Feb. 2ndAmerican Revolution Nathanael Greene finds fortification at Steele's Tavern, 1781 Automotive Hurley Haywood in quest to win fifth 24 Hours of Daytona, 1991 Civil War Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston born, 1803 Cold War United States rejects proposal for conference with Stalin, 1949 Crime Murder in Hollywood: A tale of vice and vixens, 1922 Disaster First Donner Party member dies, 1847 General Interest First Groundhog Day, 1887 Battle of Stalingrad ends, 1943 Idi Amin takes power in Uganda, 1971 ABSCAM operation revealed, 1980 Hollywood Gene Kelly dies, 1996 Literary James Joyce is born, 1882 Music Sid Vicious dies of a drug overdose in New York City, 1979 Old West Russians establish Fort Ross, 1812 Presidential Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, 1848 Sports National League of baseball is founded, 1876 Vietnam War First U.S. Air Force plane crashes in South Vietnam., 1962 Antiwar protestors sue Dow Chemical, 1970 World War I Zeppelin crashes into North Sea, 1916 World War II Quisling becomes prime minister of puppet regime in Norway, 1942 Germans surrender at Stalingrad, 1943 ******************** 1887: First Groundhog DayOn this day in 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring. Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas Day, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal--the hedgehog--as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State. Groundhogs, also called woodchucks and whose scientific name is Marmota monax, typically weigh 12 to 15 pounds and live six to eight years. They eat vegetables and fruits, whistle when they're frightened or looking for a mate and can climb trees and swim. They go into hibernation in the late fall; during this time, their body temperatures drop significantly, their heartbeats slow from 80 to five beats per minute and they can lose 30 percent of their body fat. In February, male groundhogs emerge from their burrows to look for a mate (not to predict the weather) before going underground again. They come out of hibernation for good in March. In 1887, a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was America's only true weather-forecasting groundhog. The line of groundhogs that have since been known as Phil might be America's most famous groundhogs, but other towns across North America now have their own weather-predicting rodents, from Birmingham Bill to Staten Island Chuck to Shubenacadie Sam in Canada. In 1993, the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray popularized the usage of "groundhog day" to mean something that is repeated over and over. Today, tens of thousands of people converge on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney each February 2 to witness Phil's prediction. The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club hosts a three-day celebration featuring entertainment and activities. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 3, 2012 7:04:44 GMT -5
Feb. 3rd Gonzales becomes first Hispanic U.S. attorney general, 2005 American Revolution Greene crosses the Yadkin with Kosciusko's boats, 1781 Automotive "World's Fastest Indian" makes U.S. debut, 2006 Civil War Possible peace is discussed at Hampton Roads conference, 1865 Cold War Klaus Fuchs arrested for passing atomic bomb information to Soviets, 1950 Crime Early American mass murder changes common perceptions of crime, 1780 Disaster Marine jet severs ski-lift cable in Italy, 1998 General Interest Woodrow Wilson dies, 1924 Cousteau publishes The Silent World, 1953 The day the music died, 1959 Lunik 9 soft-lands on lunar surface, 1966 Clinton ends Vietnam trade embargo, 1994 Hollywood John Cassavetes dies, 1989 Literary Keats falls deathly ill, 1820 Music The Music dies in an Iowa cornfield, 1959 Old West Belle Starr murdered in Oklahoma, 1889 Presidential Clinton ends trade embargo of Vietnam, 1994 Sports New England Patriots win first Super Bowl, 2002 Vietnam War Diem institutes limited agrarian reforms, 1955 Senate Foreign Relations Committee opens hearings, 1970 World War I U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Germany, 1917 World War II U.S. troops capture the Marshall Islands, 1944 ******************** 2005: Gonzales becomes first Hispanic U.S. attorney generalOn February 3, 2005, Alberto Gonzales won Senate confirmation as the nation's first Hispanic attorney general despite protests over his record on torture. The Senate approved his nomination on a largely party-line vote of 60-36, reflecting a split between Republicans and Democrats over whether the administration's counterterrorism policies had led to the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere. Shortly after the Senate vote, Vice President Dick Cheney swore in Gonzales as attorney general in a small ceremony in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. President Bush, who was traveling, called to congratulate him. Gonzales was born in 1955 in San Antonio, Texas, the son of migrant workers and grew up in a small, crowded home in Houston without hot water or a telephone. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1973 after graduating high school. Following a few years of service, Gonzales attended the U.S. Air Force Academy. After leaving the military, Gonzales attended Rice University and Harvard Law School before Bush, then governor of Texas, picked him in 1995 to serve as his general counsel in Austin and in 2001 brought him to Washington as his White House counsel. In this new role, Gonzales championed an extension of the USA Patriot Act. After Gonzales became attorney general, he faced scrutiny regarding some of his actions, most notably the firing of several U.S. attorneys and his defense of Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program. The firings became the subject of a Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007. Concerns about the veracity of some of his statements as well as his general competency also began to surface. Democrats began calling for his resignation and for more investigations, but President Bush defended his appointee, saying that Gonzales was "an honest, honorable man in whom I have confidence," according to an Associated Press report from April. A few months later, however, Gonzales decided to step down. On August 27, he gave a brief statement announcing his resignation (effective September 17), stating that "It has been one of my greatest privileges to lead the Department of Justice." He gave no explanation for his departure. In his resignation letter, Gonzales simply said that ". . . this is the right time for my family and I to begin a new chapter in our lives." Gonzales and his wife Rebecca have three sons. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 4, 2012 5:22:16 GMT -5
Feb. 4th American Revolution Washington unanimously elected by Electoral College to first and second terms, 1789 Automotive Ford buys Lincoln, 1922 Civil War Provisional Confederate Congress convenes, 1861 Cold War Yalta Conference foreshadows the Cold War, 1945 Crime The Symbionese Liberation Army abducts Patty Hearst, 1974 Disaster Earthquake rocks Guatemala City, 1976 General Interest First U.S. president elected, 1789 States meet to form Confederacy, 1861 PLO is founded, 1969 Patty Hearst kidnapped, 1974 Hollywood Disney releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1938 Literary The Last of the Mohicans is published, 1826 Music Karen Carpenter dies of anorexia, 1983 Old West The Misfits released by United Artists, 1961 Presidential George Washington is elected president, 1789 Sports Football great Lawrence Taylor born, 1959 Vietnam War First U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam., 1962 Rumors fly about U.S.-Soviet pressure on allies in Vietnam, 1965 Last Thai contingent departs South Vietnam, 1972 World War I Germany declares war zone around British Isles, 1915 World War II The Yalta Conference commences, 1945 ******************** 1974: Patty Hearst kidnappedOn February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old daughter of newspaper publisher Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley, California, by two black men and a white woman, all three of whom are armed. Her fiance, Stephen Weed, was beaten and tied up along with a neighbor who tried to help. Witnesses reported seeing a struggling Hearst being carried away blindfolded, and she was put in the trunk of a car. Neighbors who came out into the street were forced to take cover after the kidnappers fired their guns to cover their escape. Three days later, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small U.S. leftist group, announced in a letter to a Berkeley radio station that it was holding Hearst as a "prisoner of war." Four days later, the SLA demanded that the Hearst family give $70 in foodstuffs to every needy person from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles. This done, said the SLA, negotiation would begin for the return of Patricia Hearst. Randolph Hearst hesitantly gave away some $2 million worth of food. The SLA then called this inadequate and asked for $6 million more. The Hearst Corporation said it would donate the additional sum if the girl was released unharmed. In April, however, the situation changed dramatically when a surveillance camera took a photo of Hearst participating in an armed robbery of a San Francisco bank, and she was also spotted during a robbery of a Los Angeles store. She later declared, in a tape sent to the authorities, that she had joined the SLA of her own free will. On May 17, Los Angeles police raided the SLA's secret headquarters, killing six of the group's nine known members. Among the dead was the SLA's leader, Donald DeFreeze, an African American ex-convict who called himself General Field Marshal Cinque. Patty Hearst and two other SLA members wanted for the April bank robbery were not on the premises. Finally, on September 18, 1975, after crisscrossing the country with her captors--or conspirators--for more than a year, Hearst, or "Tania" as she called herself, was captured in a San Francisco apartment and arrested for armed robbery. Despite her claim that she had been brainwashed by the SLA, she was convicted on March 20, 1976, and sentenced to seven years in prison. She served 21 months before her sentence was commuted by President Carter. After leaving prison, she returned to a more routine existence and later married her bodyguard. She was pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 5, 2012 8:46:33 GMT -5
Feb. 5thAmerican Revolution Georgia constitution abolishes primogeniture and entail, 1777 Automotive The "French Henry Ford" born, 1878 Civil War Battle of Dabney's Mill begins, 1865 Cold War The last Soviet troops leave Kabul, 1989 Crime Medger Evers' killer is convicted, 1994 Disaster Earthquake devastates southern Italy, 1783 General Interest Roger Williams arrives in America, 1631 Mexican constitution proclaimed, 1917 Immigration act passed over Wilson's veto, 1917 Roosevelt announces "court-packing" plan, 1937 Noriega indicted on U.S. drug charges, 1988 Beckwith convicted of killing Medgar Evers, 1994 Hollywood United Artists created, 1919 Literary Andrew Greeley is born, 1928 Music The American Invasion begins, as Bill Haley and the Comets storm Britain, 1957 Old West Southern Pacific Railroad completes "Sunset Route", 1883 Presidential Millard Fillmore marries Abigail Powers, 1826 Sports Hank Aaron is born, 1934 Vietnam War South Vietnam requests more support, 1960 North Vietnamese begin preparations for offensive, 1975 World War I U.S. steamship Tuscania is torpedoed and sinks, 1918 World War II Hitler to Mussolini: Fight harder!, 1941 ******************** 1994: Beckwith convicted of killing Medgar EversOn this day in 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is convicted in the murder of African-American civil rights leader Medgar Evers, over 30 years after the crime occurred. Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi, home on June 12, 1963, while his wife, Myrlie, and the couple's three small children were inside. Medgar Wiley Evers was born July 2, 1925, near Decatur, Mississippi, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After fighting for his country, he returned home to experience discrimination in the racially divided South, with its separate public facilities and services for blacks and whites. Evers graduated from Alcorn College in 1952 and began organizing local chapters of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). In 1954, after being rejected for admission to then-segregated University of Mississippi Law School, he became part of an NAACP campaign to desegregate the school. Later that year, Evers was named the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi. He moved with his family to Jackson and worked to dismantle segregation, leading peaceful rallies, economic boycotts and voter registration drives around the state. In 1962, he helped James Meredith become the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, a watershed event in the civil rights movement. As a result of his work, Evers received numerous threats and several attempts were made on his life before he was murdered in 1963 at the age of 37. Beckwith, a fertilizer salesman and Ku Klux Klan member widely believed to be the killer, was prosecuted for murder in 1964. However, two all-white (and all-male) juries deadlocked and refused to convict him. A second trial held in the same year resulted in a hung jury. The matter was dropped when it appeared that a conviction would be impossible. Myrlie Evers, who later became the first woman to chair the NAACP, refused to give up, pressing authorities to re-open the case. In 1989, documents came to light showing that jurors in the case were illegally screened. Prosecutor Bobby DeLaughter worked with Myrlie Evers to force another prosecution of Beckwith. After four years of legal maneuvering, they were finally successful. At the third trial they produced a riflescope from the murder weapon with Beckwith's fingerprints, as well as new witnesses who testified that Beckwith had bragged about committing the crime. Justice was finally achieved when Beckwith was convicted and given a life sentence by a racially diverse jury in 1994. He died in prison in 2001 at the age of 80. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 6, 2012 6:24:11 GMT -5
Feb. 6thAmerican Revolution Franco-American alliances signed, 1778 Automotive Honda Insight debuts as Prius competitor, 2009 Civil War Confederate General John Pegram killed, 1865 Cold War The "Reagan Doctrine" is announced, 1985 Crime Infamous school teacher goes back to prison, 1998 Disaster Man United players among victims of plane crash, 1958 General Interest Freed U.S. slaves depart on journey to Africa, 1820 Anastasia arrives in the United States, 1928 Elizabeth becomes queen, 1952 Hollywood Ronald Reagan born, 1911 Literary Of Mice and Men is published, 1937 Music Austrian superstar Falco dies, 1998 Old West Dalton Gang commits its first train robbery, 1891 Presidential Ronald Reagan is born, 1911 Sports Tennis great Arthur Ashe dies of AIDS, 1993 Vietnam War Johnson meets with South Vietnamese Premier, 1966 ICCS take up positions, 1973 World War I German sub sinks U.S. passenger ship California, 1917 World War II Mussolini fires his son-in-law, 1943 ******************** 1952: Elizabeth becomes queenOn this day in 1952, after a long illness, King George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dies in his sleep at the royal estate at Sandringham. Princess Elizabeth, the oldest of the king's two daughters and next in line to succeed him, was in Kenya at the time of her father's death; she was crowned Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953, at age 27. King George VI, the second son of King George V, ascended to the throne in 1936 after his older brother, King Edward VIII, voluntarily abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. During World War II, George worked to rally the spirits of the British people by touring war zones, making a series of morale-boosting radio broadcasts (for which he overcame a speech impediment) and shunning the safety of the countryside to remain with his wife in bomb-damaged Buckingham Palace. The king's health deteriorated in 1949, but he continued to perform state duties until his death in 1952. Queen Elizabeth, born on April 21, 1926, and known to her family as Lilibet, was groomed as a girl to succeed her father. She married a distant cousin, Philip Mountbatten, on November 20, 1947, at London's Westminster Abbey. The first of Elizabeth's four children, Prince Charles, was born in 1948. From the start of her reign, Elizabeth understood the value of public relations and allowed her 1953 coronation to be televised, despite objections from Prime Minister Winston Churchill and others who felt it would cheapen the ceremony. Elizabeth, the 40th British monarch since William the Conqueror, has worked hard at her royal duties and become a popular figure around the world. In 2003, she celebrated 50 years on the throne, only the fifth British monarch to do so. The queen's reign, however, has not been without controversy. She was seen as cold and out-of-touch following the 1996 divorce of her son, Prince Charles, and Princess Diana, and again after Diana's 1997 death in a car crash. Additionally, the role in modern times of the monarchy, which is largely ceremonial, has come into question as British taxpayers have complained about covering the royal family's travel expenses and palace upkeep. Still, the royals are effective world ambassadors for Britain and a huge tourism draw. Today, the queen, an avid horsewoman and Corgi dog lover, is one of the world's wealthiest women, with extensive real-estate holdings and art and jewelry collections. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 7, 2012 5:53:27 GMT -5
Feb. 7thAmerican Revolution Benjamin Franklin publishes "An Imaginary Speech", 1775 Automotive Tire king Firestone dies, 1938 Civil War Rebel reinforcements ordered to Tennessee's Fort Donelson, 1862 Cold War Soviet Communist Party gives up monopoly on political power, 1990 Crime Plea bargaining gains favor in American courts, 1881 Forensic evidence solves a crime, 1968 Disaster Earthquake causes fluvial tsunami in Mississippi, 1812 General Interest The Great Baltimore Fire begins, 1904 Beatles arrive in New York, 1964 First human satellite, 1984 European Union treaty signed, 1992 King Hussein of Jordan dies, 1999 Hollywood First appearance of “Little Tramp”, 1914 Literary Zola is brought to trial, 1898 Music The Beatles arrive on American shores, 1964 Old West Cowboy celebrity Charles Siringo is born, 1855 Presidential President George W. Bush announces plan for "faith-based initiatives", 2002 Sports LSU star Maravich scores 69 points in single game, 1970 Vietnam War U.S. jets conduct retaliatory raids, 1965 Operation Dewey Canyon II ends, 1971 World War I Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes begins, 1915 World War II The "Angel of Death" dies, 1979 ******************** 1964: Beatles arrive in New YorkOn February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York's Kennedy Airport--and "Beatlemania" arrives. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with "I Want to Hold Your Hand." At Kennedy, the "Fab Four"--dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts--were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil. Two days later, Paul McCartney, age 21, Ringo Starr, 23, John Lennon, 23, and George Harrison, 20, made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a popular television variety show. Although it was difficult to hear the performance over the screams of teenage girls in the studio audience, an estimated 73 million U.S. television viewers, or about 40 percent of the U.S. population, tuned in to watch. Sullivan immediately booked the Beatles for two more appearances that month. The group made their first public concert appearance in the United States on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and 20,000 fans attended. The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the venerable music hall because of fan hysteria. On February 22, the Beatles returned to England. The Beatles' first American tour left a major imprint in the nation's cultural memory. With American youth poised to break away from the culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the Beatles, with their exuberant music and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift. Their singles and albums sold millions of records, and at one point in April 1964 all five best-selling U.S. singles were Beatles songs. By the time the Beatles first feature-film, A Hard Day's Night, was released in August, Beatlemania was epidemic the world over. Later that month, the four boys from Liverpool returned to the United States for their second tour and played to sold-out arenas across the country. Later, the Beatles gave up touring to concentrate on their innovative studio recordings, such as 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, a psychedelic concept album that is regarded as a masterpiece of popular music. The Beatles' music remained relevant to youth throughout the great cultural shifts of the 1960s, and critics of all ages acknowledged the songwriting genius of the Lennon-McCartney team. In 1970, the Beatles disbanded, leaving a legacy of 18 albums and 30 Top 10 U.S. singles. During the next decade, all four Beatles pursued solo careers, with varying success. Lennon, the most outspoken and controversial Beatle, was shot to death by a deranged fan outside his New York apartment building in 1980. McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his contribution to British culture. In November 2001, George Harrison succumbed to cancer. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 8, 2012 5:02:56 GMT -5
Feb. 8th Americans secure Guadalcanal, 1943 American Revolution Former POW Timothy Bigelow is named colonel, 1777 Automotive Jaguar founder dies, 1985 Civil War Yankees capture Roanoke Island, 1862 Cold War Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary sentenced, 1949 Crime Irish race horse stolen, 1983 Disaster New England digs out after blizzard, 1978 General Interest Mary Queen of Scots beheaded, 1587 Peter the Great dies, 1725 The Russo-Japanese War begins, 1904 Birth of a Nation opens, 1915 First execution by lethal gas, 1924 Hollywood Jack Nicholson smashes windshield in episode of road rage, 1994 Literary John Grisham, author of legal thrillers, is born, 1955 Music Del Shannon dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, 1990 Old West Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act, 1887 Presidential Cleveland signs devastating Dawes Act into law, 1887 Sports Spud Webb wins dunk contest, 1986 Vietnam War MACV established, 1962 Operation Lam Son 719 begins, 1971 World War I U.S. Army resumes publication of Stars and Stripes, 1918 World War II Britain's Indian Brigade begins guerrilla operations in Burma, 1943 ******************** 1943: Americans secure GuadalcanalOn this day in 1943, Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal, leaving the island in Allied possession after a prolonged campaign. The American victory paved the way for other Allied wins in the Solomon Islands. Guadalcanal is the largest of the Solomons, a group of 992 islands and atolls, 347 of which are inhabited, in the South Pacific Ocean. The Solomons, which are located northeast of Australia and have 87 indigenous languages, were discovered in 1568 by the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neyra (1541-95). In 1893, the British annexed Guadalcanal, along with the other central and southern Solomons. The Germans took control of the northern Solomons in 1885, but transferred these islands, except for Bougainville and Buka (which eventually went to the Australians) to the British in 1900. The Japanese invaded the Solomons in 1942 during World War II and began building a strategic airfield on Guadalcanal. On August 7 of that year, U.S. Marines landed on the island, signaling the Allies' first major offensive against Japanese-held positions in the Pacific. The Japanese responded quickly with sea and air attacks. A series of bloody battles ensued in the debilitating tropical heat as Marines sparred with Japanese troops on land, while in the waters surrounding Guadalcanal, the U.S. Navy fought six major engagements with the Japanese between August 24 and November 30. In mid-November 1942, the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, died together when the Japanese sunk their ship, the USS Juneau. Both sides suffered heavy losses of men, warships and planes in the battle for Guadalcanal. An estimated 1,600 U.S. troops were killed, over 4,000 were wounded and several thousand more died from disease. The Japanese lost 24,000 soldiers. On December 31, 1942, Emperor Hirohito told Japanese troops they could withdraw from the area; the Americans secured Guadalcanal about five weeks later. The Solomons gained their independence from Britain in 1978. In the late 1990s, fighting broke out between rival ethnic groups on Guadalcanal and continued until an Australian-led international peacekeeping mission restored order in 2003. Today, with a population of over half a million people, the Solomons are known as a scuba diver and fisherman's paradise. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 9, 2012 5:35:28 GMT -5
Feb. 9th Satchel Paige nominated to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1971 American Revolution Future New Jersey governor is promoted, 1776 Automotive Auto pioneer Wilhelm Maybach born, 1846 Civil War Yankee General George Custer marries, 1864 Cold War McCarthy says communists are in State Department, 1950 Crime Coors brewery heir is kidnapped, 1960 Disaster U.S. sub collides with Japanese fishing boat in Pearl Harbor, 2001 General Interest Presidential election decided in the House, 1825 Davis Cup competition established, 1900 Normandie burns in New York, 1942 McCarthy accuses State Department of communist infiltration, 1950 Hollywood Joanne Woodward earns first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1960 Literary Alice Walker is born, 1944 Music America meets the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, 1964 Old West Elizabeth Bacon marries George Custer, 1864 Presidential William Henry Harrison is born, 1773 Sports Magic Johnson returns for All-Star Game, 1992 Vietnam War U.S. sends first combat troops to South Vietnam, 1965 USS Constellation arrives off coast of Vietnam., 1972 World War I Ukraine signs peace treaty with Central Powers, 1918 World War II Daylight saving time instituted, 1942 The Normandie catches fire, 1942 ******************** 1971: Satchel Paige nominated to Baseball Hall of FameOn this day in 1971, pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In August of that year, Paige, a pitching legend known for his fastball, showmanship and the longevity of his playing career, which spanned five decades, was inducted. Joe DiMaggio once called Paige "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced." Paige was born in Mobile, Alabama, most likely on July 7, 1906, although the exact date remains a mystery. He earned his nickname, Satchel, as a boy when he earned money carrying passengers' bags at train stations. Baseball was segregated when Paige started playing baseball professionally in the 1920s, so he spent most of his career pitching for Negro League teams around the United States. During the winter season, he pitched for teams in the Caribbean and Central and South America. As a barnstorming player who traveled thousands of miles each season and played for whichever team met his asking price, he pitched an estimated 2,500 games, had 300 shut-outs and 55 no-hitters. In one month in 1935, he reportedly pitched 29 consecutive games. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier and became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. The following year, Paige also entered the majors, signing with the Cleveland Indians and becoming, at age 42, baseball's oldest rookie. He helped the Indians win the pennant that year and later played for the St. Louis Browns and Kansas City A's. Paige retired from the majors in 1953, but returned in 1965 to pitch three innings for the Kansas City A's. He was 59 at the time, making him the oldest person ever to play in the Major Leagues. In addition to being famous for his talent and longevity, Paige was also well-known for his sense of humor and colorful observations on life, including: "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you" and "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." He died June 8, 1982, in Kansas City, Missouri. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 10, 2012 6:39:25 GMT -5
Feb. 10thAmerican Revolution The Battle of Carr's Fort, 1779 Automotive Auto safety crusader Ralph Nader testifies before Congress, 1966 Civil War Davis learns he is Confederate president, 1861 Cold War Soviets exchange American for captured Russian spy, 1962 Crime Boxing legend convicted of raping beauty queen, 1992 Disaster Avalanche buries skiers in France, 1970 General Interest The French and Indian War ends, 1763 Spies swapped, 1962 Brown elected chairman of the Democratic Party, 1989 Kasparov loses chess game to computer, 1996 Hollywood Final episode of Arrested Development airs on Fox, 2006 Literary Laura Ingalls Wilder, chronicler of American frontier life, dies, 1957 Music Ziggy Stardust makes his earthly debut, 1972 Old West Mormons begin exodus to Utah, 1846 Presidential Herbert Hoover marries Lou Henry, 1899 Sports Deep Blue beats Kasparov at chess, 1996 Vietnam War Viet Cong blow up U.S. barracks, 1965 Journalists killed in helicopter crash, 1971 World War I U.S. secretary of war resigns, 1916 World War II Japanese sub bombards Midway, 1942 ******************** 1996: Kasparov loses chess game to computerOn this day in 1996, after three hours, world chess champion Gary Kasparov loses the first game of a six-game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer capable of evaluating 200 million moves per second. Man was ultimately victorious over machine, however, as Kasparov bested Deep Blue in the match with three wins and two ties and took home the $400,000 prize. An estimated 6 million people worldwide followed the action on the Internet. Kasparov had previously defeated Deep Thought, the prototype for Deep Blue developed by IBM researchers in 1989, but he and other chess grandmasters had, on occasion, lost to computers in games that lasted an hour or less. The February 1996 contest was significant in that it represented the first time a human and a computer had duked it out in a regulation, six-game match, in which each player had two hours to make 40 moves, two hours to finish the next 20 moves and then another 60 minutes to wrap up the game. Kasparov, who was born in 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan, became the Soviet Union's junior chess champion at age 13 and in 1985, at age 22, the youngest world champ ever when he beat legendary Soviet player Anatoly Karpov. Considered by many to be the greatest chess player in the history of the game, Kasparov was known for his swashbuckling style of play and his ability to switch tactics mid-game. In 1997, a rematch took place between Kasparov and an enhanced Deep Blue. Kasparov won the first game, the computer the second, with the next three games a draw. On May 11, 1997, Deep Blue came out on top with a surprising sixth game win--and the $700,000 match prize. In 2003, Kasparov battled another computer program, "Deep Junior." The match ended in a tie. Kasparov retired from professional chess in 2005. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 11, 2012 6:56:02 GMT -5
Feb. 11thAmerican Revolution Georgia's governor escapes imprisonment, 1776 Automotive GM signs first autoworkers contract, 1937 Civil War President-elect Lincoln leaves Springfield, 1861 Cold War Burgess and Maclean resurface, 1956 Crime Birth control pioneer arrested, 1916 Disaster Avalanches plague central Europe, 1952 General Interest Virgin Mary appears to St. Bernadette, 1858 Yalta Conference ends, 1945 The world's fourth space power, 1970 Nelson Mandela released from prison, 1990 Hollywood Tolkien heirs file Lord of the Rings lawsuit, 2008 Literary Voltaire is welcomed home, 1778 Music The Payola scandal heats up, 1960 Old West Sacagawea gives birth to Pompey, 1805 Presidential FDR and daughter Anna leave Yalta Conference, 1945 Sports Underdog Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson, 1990 Vietnam War Farm Gate aircraft crashes, 1962 World War I Russia's General Kaledin commits suicide, 1918 World War II The "Channel Dash", 1942 ******************** 1990: Nelson Mandela released from prisonNelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, is released from prison after 27 years on February 11, 1990. In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg's youth wing of the ANC. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid--South Africa's institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government. In 1961, he was arrested for treason, and although acquitted he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison. Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing, he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. He could write and receive a letter once every six months, and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes. However, Mandela's resolve remained unbroken, and while remaining the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island. He was later moved to another location, where he lived under house arrest. In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela. Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won an electoral majority in the country's first free elections, and Mandela was elected South Africa's president. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 12, 2012 5:24:59 GMT -5
Feb. 12th American Revolution Ethan Allen dies, 1789 Automotive GM reports record loss, offers buyouts to 74,000 workers, 2008 Civil War Rebel General Robert Ransom is born, 1828 Cold War Russian ships bump U.S. destroyer and cruiser, 1988 Crime Actor Sal Mineo is killed in Hollywood, 1976 Disaster Iranian jet slams into mountain, 2002 General Interest Congress enacts first fugitive slave law, 1793 Garnet preaches to House on slavery and Civil War, 1865 Last emperor of China abdicates, 1912 Scharansky released, 1986 President Clinton acquitted, 1999 Milosevic goes on trial for war crimes, 2002 Hollywood Writers’ strike ends after 100 days, 2008 Literary Judy Blume, popular young-adult author, is born, 1938 Music Rhapsody In Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time, 1924 Old West Lorne Greene is born, 1915 Presidential Abraham Lincoln is born, 1809 Sports Basketball great Bill Russell born, 1934 Vietnam War Cambodians launch attack to retake Angkor Wat, 1972 Release of U.S. POWs begins, 1973 World War I British planes raid Belgian coast, 1915 American schooner Lyman M. Law is sunk, 1917 World War II Rommel in Africa, 1941 ******************** 2002: Milosevic goes on trial for war crimesOn this day in 2002, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial at The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Milosevic served as his own attorney for much of the prolonged trial, which ended without a verdict when the so-called "Butcher of the Balkans" was found dead at age 64 from an apparent heart attack in his prison cell on March 11, 2006. Yugoslavia, consisting of Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, became a federal republic, headed by Communist leader Marshal Tito, on January 31, 1946. Tito died in May 1980 and Yugoslavia, along with communism, crumbled over the next decade. Milosevic, born August 20, 1941, joined the Communist Party at age 18; he became president of Serbia in 1989. On June 25, 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia and Milosevic sent tanks to the Slovenian border, sparking a brief war that ended in Slovenia's secession. In Croatia, fighting broke out between Croats and ethnic Serbs and Serbia sent weapons and medical supplies to the Serbian rebels in Croatia. Croatian forces clashed with the Serb-led Yugoslav army troops and their Serb supporters. An estimated 10,000 people were killed and hundreds of Croatian towns were destroyed before a U.N. cease-fire was established in January 1992. In March, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence, and Milosevic funded the subsequent Bosnian Serb rebellion, starting a war that killed an estimated 200,000 people, before a U.S.-brokered peace agreement was reached at Dayton, Ohio, in 1995. In Kosovo, a formerly autonomous province of Serbia, liberation forces clashed with Serbs and the Yugoslav army was sent in. Amidst reports that Milosevic had launched an ethnic cleansing campaign against Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, NATO forces launched air strikes against Yugoslavia in 1999. Ineligible to run for a third term as Serbian president, Milosevic had made himself president of Yugoslavia in 1997. After losing the presidential election in September 2000, he refused to accept defeat until mass protests forced him to resign the following month. He was charged with corruption and abuse of power and finally surrendered to Serbian authorities on April 1, 2001, after a 26-hour standoff. That June, he was extradited to the Netherlands and indicted by a United Nations war crimes tribunal. Milosevic died in his cell of a heart attack before his trial could be completed. In February 2003, Serbia and Montenegro became a commonwealth and officially dropped the name Yugoslavia. In June 2006, the two countries declared their independence from each other. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 13, 2012 7:12:16 GMT -5
Feb. 13th American Revolution Patrick Henry named colonel of First Virginia battalion, 1776 Automotive Actor Mel Gibson completes DUI probation, 2008 Civil War Unoin General John Rawlins born, 1831 Cold War Chernenko becomes general secretary, 1984 Crime Serial killer strikes in Colorado, 1982 Disaster Cinema burns in Turin, 1983 General Interest Galileo in Rome for Inquisition, 1633 William and Mary proclaimed joint sovereigns of Britain, 1689 First Medal of Honor action, 1861 Dresden devastated, 1945 Hollywood Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon gets 10 Oscar nominations, 2001 Literary Long-lost Twain manuscript authenticated, 1991 Music ASCAP is founded, 1915 Old West Ashley advertises for western fur trappers, 1822 Presidential Teddy Roosevelt discusses America's race problem, 1905 Sports Downhill skier Hermann Maier crashes in Olympics, 1998 Vietnam War Johnson approves Operation Rolling Thunder, 1965 Additional troops ordered to South Vietnam, 1968 World War I League of Nations recognizes perpetual Swiss neutrality, 1920 World War II Firebombing of Dresden, 1945 ******************** 1633: Galileo in Rome for InquisitionOn this day in 1633, Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Galileo officially faced the Roman Inquisition in April of that same year and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII, Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying on January 8, 1642. Galileo, the son of a musician, was born February 15, 1564, in Pisa, Italy. He entered the University of Pisa planning to study medicine, but shifted his focus to philosophy and mathematics. In 1589, he became a professor at Pisa for several years, during which time he demonstrated that the speed of a falling object is not proportional to its weight, as Aristotle had believed. According to some reports, Galileo conducted his research by dropping objects of different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. From 1592 to 1630, Galileo was a math professor at the University of Padua, where he developed a telescope that enabled him to observe lunar mountains and craters, the four largest satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Jupiter. He also discovered that the Milky Way was made up of stars. Following the publication of his research in 1610, Galileo gained acclaim and was appointed court mathematician at Florence. Galileo's research led him to become an advocate of the work of the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1573). However, the Copernican theory of a sun-centered solar system conflicted with the teachings of the powerful Roman Catholic Church, which essentially ruled Italy at the time. Church teachings contended that Earth, not the sun, was at the center of the universe. In 1633, Galileo was brought before the Roman Inquisition, a judicial system established by the papacy in 1542 to regulate church doctrine. This included the banning of books that conflicted with church teachings. The Roman Inquisition had its roots in the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, the purpose of which was to seek out and prosecute heretics, considered enemies of the state. Today, Galileo is recognized for making important contributions to the study of motion and astronomy. His work influenced later scientists such as the English mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, who developed the law of universal gravitation. In 1992, the Vatican formally acknowledged its mistake in condemning Galileo. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 14, 2012 6:12:01 GMT -5
Feb. 14thAmerican Revolution Patriots defeat Loyalists at Kettle Creek, 1779 Automotive Toyota patriarch born, 1867 Civil War Union General Sherman enters Meridian, Mississippi, 1864 Cold War Sandinistas agree to free elections, 1989 Crime The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, 1929 Disaster Tornadoes sweep through southern Georgia, 2000 General Interest St. Valentine beheaded, 278 Captain Cook killed in Hawaii, 1779 Valentine's Day Massacre takes place, 1929 Penicillin discovered, 1929 Hollywood Hedda Hopper’s first column appears in the L.A. Times, 1938 Literary The Boz Ball celebrates Dickens, 1842 Music The B-52's play their first gig, 1977 Old West First trainload of oranges leaves Los Angeles, 1886 Presidential Theodore Roosevelt's wife and mother die, 1884 Sports Olympic speed skater Jansen falls after sister dies, 1988 Vietnam War Kennedy authorizes U.S. advisors to fire in self-defense, 1962 Gallup Poll released, 1970 World War I Wilson presents draft covenant for League of Nations, 1919 World War II Battle of the Kasserine Pass, 1943 ******************** 278: St. Valentine beheadedOn February 14 around the year 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed. Under the rule of Claudius the Cruel, Rome was involved in many unpopular and bloody campaigns. The emperor had to maintain a strong army, but was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families. To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270. Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine." For his great service, Valentine was named a saint after his death. In truth, the exact origins and identity of St. Valentine are unclear. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under the date of 14 February." One was a priest in Rome, the second one was a bishop of Interamna (now Terni, Italy) and the third St. Valentine was a martyr in the Roman province of Africa. Legends vary on how the martyr's name became connected with romance. The date of his death may have become mingled with the Feast of Lupercalia, a pagan festival of love. On these occasions, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius decided to put an end to the Feast of Lupercalia, and he declared that February 14 be celebrated as St Valentine's Day. Gradually, February 14 became a date for exchanging love messages, poems and simple gifts such as flowers. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 15, 2012 6:42:03 GMT -5
Feb. 15thAmerican Revolution Nova Scotia governor sends word of potential American invasion, 1776 Automotive Victory at last for Earnhardt at Daytona, 1998 Civil War Union General Alexander Stewart Webb born, 1835 Cold War USSR and PRC sign mutual defense treaty, 1950 Crime The death penalty--then and now, 1933 Disaster Oil tanker runs aground near Wales, 1996 General Interest The Maine explodes, 1898 Japan celebrates major victory in the Pacific, 1942 Canada adopts maple leaf flag, 1965 Hollywood Disney’s Cinderella opens, 1950 Literary Lillian Hellman sues Mary McCarthy, 1980 Music Broadway legend Ethel Merman dies, 1984 Old West Wilson Hunt arrives at Astoria, Oregon, 1812 Presidential First Teddy bear goes on sale, 1903 FDR escapes assassination in Miami, 1933 Sports U.S. figure skating team killed in plane crash, 1961 Dale Earnhardt wins first Daytona 500, 1998 Vietnam War DeGaulle offers to help end Vietnam War, 1966 Chicago Eight defense attorneys sentenced, 1970 World War I Mutiny breaks out among Indian soldiers in Singapore, 1915 World War II Singapore falls to Japan, 1942 ******************** 1898: The Maine explodesA massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine in Cuba's Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard. One of the first American battleships, the Maine weighed more than 6,000 tons and was built at a cost of more than $2 million. Ostensibly on a friendly visit, the Maine had been sent to Cuba to protect the interests of Americans there after a rebellion against Spanish rule broke out in Havana in January. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March that the ship was blown up by a mine, without directly placing the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible and called for a declaration of war. Subsequent diplomatic failures to resolve the Maine matter, coupled with United States indignation over Spain's brutal suppression of the Cuban rebellion and continued losses to American investment, led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898. Within three months, the United States had decisively defeated Spanish forces on land and sea, and in August an armistice halted the fighting. On December 12, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed between the United States and Spain, officially ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire with the ceding of such former Spanish possessions as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. In 1976, a team of American naval investigators concluded that the Maine explosion was likely caused by a fire that ignited its ammunition stocks, not by a Spanish mine or act of sabotage. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 16, 2012 5:59:14 GMT -5
Feb. 16th American Revolution John Adams prepares to sail for France, 1778 Automotive Jeff Gordon becomes youngest Daytona winner, 1997 Civil War Yankees capture Tennessee's Fort Donelson, 1862 Cold War Joseph Stalin attacks the United Nations, 1951 Crime John Wesley Hardin is pardoned, 1894 Disaster Brush fires ravage South Australia, 1983 General Interest The most daring act of the age, 1804 Archaeologist opens tomb of King Tut, 1923 Castro sworn in, 1959 Hollywood David O. Selznick returns to MGM, 1933 Literary Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford is born, 1944 Music Chopin plays his final Paris concert, 1848 Old West Silver dollars made legal, 1878 Presidential James Monroe marries Elizabeth Kortright, 1786 Sports Bill Johnson becomes first American to win Olympic gold in downhill skiing, 1984 Vietnam War Tet Offensive results in many new refugees, 1968 World War I Russians capture Erzerum, 1916 World War II Bataan recaptured, 1945 ****************** 1923: Archaeologist opens tomb of King TutOn this day in 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen. Because the ancient Egyptians saw their pharaohs as gods, they carefully preserved their bodies after death, burying them in elaborate tombs containing rich treasures to accompany the rulers into the afterlife. In the 19th century, archeologists from all over the world flocked to Egypt, where they uncovered a number of these tombs. Many had long ago been broken into by robbers and stripped of their riches. When Carter arrived in Egypt in 1891, he became convinced there was at least one undiscovered tomb--that of the little known Tutankhamen, or King Tut, who lived around 1400 B.C. and died when he was still a teenager. Backed by a rich Brit, Lord Carnarvon, Carter searched for five years without success. In early 1922, Lord Carnarvon wanted to call off the search, but Carter convinced him to hold on one more year. In November 1922, the wait paid off, when Carter's team found steps hidden in the debris near the entrance of another tomb. The steps led to an ancient sealed doorway bearing the name Tutankhamen. When Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb's interior chambers on November 26, they were thrilled to find it virtually intact, with its treasures untouched after more than 3,000 years. The men began exploring the four rooms of the tomb, and on February 16, 1923, under the watchful eyes of a number of important officials, Carter opened the door to the last chamber. Inside lay a sarcophagus with three coffins nested inside one another. The last coffin, made of solid gold, contained the mummified body of King Tut. Among the riches found in the tomb--golden shrines, jewelry, statues, a chariot, weapons, clothing--the perfectly preserved mummy was the most valuable, as it was the first one ever to be discovered. Despite rumors that a curse would befall anyone who disturbed the tomb, its treasures were carefully catalogued, removed and included in a famous traveling exhibition called the "Treasures of Tutankhamen." The exhibition's permanent home is the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 17, 2012 6:10:57 GMT -5
Feb. 17thAmerican Revolution French and British battle in the Indian Ocean, 1782 Automotive Beetle overtakes Model T as world's best-selling car, 1972 Civil War Union troops sack Columbia, South Carolina, 1865 Cold War Voice of America begins broadcasts to Russia, 1947 Crime The first "Trial of the Century", 1906 Disaster Ferry sinks near Haiti, 1993 General Interest Deadlock over presidential election ends, 1801 Madame Butterfly premieres, 1904 Gromyko becomes foreign minister, 1957 China invades Vietnam, 1979 Hollywood Lee Strasberg dies, 1982 Literary Dave Eggers’ Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius debuts, 2000 Music Brian Wilson rolls tape on "Good Vibrations," take one, 1966 Old West Senate passes Missouri Compromise, 1820 Presidential Thomas Jefferson is elected, 1801 Sports Kasparov defeats chess-playing computer, 1996 Vietnam War Taylor testifies on Operation Rolling Thunder, 1966 U.S. casualty rate reaches record high, 1968 World War I Zeppelin L-4 crashes into North Sea, 1915 World War II U.S. troops land on Eniwetok atoll, 1944 ******************** 1820: Senate passes Missouri CompromiseThe Senate passes the Missouri Compromise, an attempt to deal with the dangerously divisive issue of extending slavery into the western territories. From colonial days to the Civil War, slavery and western expansion both played fundamental but inherently incompatible roles in the American republic. As the nation expanded westward, the Congress adopted relatively liberal procedures by which western territories could organize and join the union as full-fledged states. Southern slaveholders, eager to replicate their plantation system in the West, wanted to keep the new territories open to slavery. Abolitionists, concentrated primarily in the industrial North, wanted the West to be exclusively a free labor region and hoped that slavery would gradually die out if confined to the South. Both factions realized their future congressional influence would depend on the number of new "slave" and "free" states admitted into the union. Consequently, the West became the first political battleground over the slavery issue. In 1818, the Territory of Missouri applied to Congress for admission as a slave state. Early in 1819, a New York congressman introduced an amendment to the proposed Missouri constitution that would ban importation of new slaves and require gradual emancipation of existing slaves. Southern congressmen reacted with outrage, inspiring a nationwide debate on the future of slavery in the nation. Over the next year, the congressional debate grew increasingly bitter, and southerners began to threaten secession and civil war. To avoid this disastrous possibility, key congressmen hammered together an agreement that became known as the Missouri Compromise. In exchange for admitting Missouri without restrictions on slavery, the Compromise called for bringing in Maine as a free state. The Compromise also dictated that slavery would be prohibited in all future western states carved out of the Louisiana Territory that were higher in latitude than the northern border of Arkansas Territory. Although the Missouri Compromise temporarily eased the inherent tensions between western expansion and slavery, the divisive issue was far from resolved. Whether or not to allow slavery in the states of Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska caused the same difficulties several decades later, leading the nation toward civil war. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 18, 2012 6:34:36 GMT -5
Feb. 18thAmerican Revolution Lord Dunmore dispatches note of "inexpressible mortification", 1776 Automotive Dale Earnhardt killed in crash, 2001 Civil War Confederate General Lewis Armistead born, 1817 Cold War United States punishes nations for trading with Cuba, 1964 Crime Arsonist sets fire in South Korean subway, 2003 Green River serial killer pleads guilty to 49th murder, 2011 Disaster Avalanche kills 26 in British Columbia, 1965 General Interest Know-Nothings convene in Philadelphia, 1856 Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1885 Pluto discovered, 1930 De Valera resigns, 1948 J. Robert Oppenheimer dies, 1967 Hollywood First Academy Awards announced, 1929 Literary Toni Morrison's birthday, 1931 Music Ray Charles records "What'd I Say" at Atlantic Records, 1959 Old West Murder ignites Lincoln County War, 1878 Presidential Davis becomes provisional president of the Confederacy, 1861 Sports Richard Petty wins Daytona 500 after last-lap crash, 1979 Vietnam War United States warns of forthcoming bombing operations, 1965 World War I Raymond Poincare becomes president of France, 1913 World War II Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders, 1943 ******************** 1885: Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnOn this day in 1885, Mark Twain publishes his famous--and famously controversial--novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain (the pen name of Samuel Clemens) first introduced Huck Finn as the best friend of Tom Sawyer, hero of his tremendously successful novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Though Twain saw Huck's story as a kind of sequel to his earlier book, the new novel was far more serious, focusing on the institution of slavery and other aspects of life in the antebellum South. At the book's heart is the journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on a raft. Jim runs away because he is about to be sold and separated from his wife and children, and Huck goes with him to help him get to Ohio and freedom. Huck narrates the story in his distinctive voice, offering colorful descriptions of the people and places they encounter along the way. The most striking part of the book is its satirical look at racism, religion and other social attitudes of the time. While Jim is strong, brave, generous and wise, many of the white characters are portrayed as violent, stupid or simply selfish, and the naive Huck ends up questioning the hypocritical, unjust nature of society in general. Even in 1885, two decades after the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn landed with a splash. A month after its publication, a Concord, Massachusetts, library banned the book, calling its subject matter "tawdry" and its narrative voice "coarse" and "ignorant." Other libraries followed suit, beginning a controversy that continued long after Twain's death in 1910. In the 1950s, the book came under fire from African-American groups for being racist in its portrayal of black characters, despite the fact that it was seen by many as a strong criticism of racism and slavery. As recently as 1998, an Arizona parent sued her school district, claiming that making Twain's novel required high school reading made already existing racial tensions even worse. Aside from its controversial nature and its continuing popularity with young readers, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been hailed by many serious literary critics as a masterpiece. No less a judge than Ernest Hemingway famously declared that the book marked the beginning of American literature: "There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 19, 2012 9:55:12 GMT -5
Feb. 19th American Revolution Congress overlooks Benedict Arnold for promotion, 1777 Automotive Yarborough wins fourth Daytona 500, 1984 Civil War Yankee General Francis Preston Blair Jr. born, 1821 Cold War United States calls situation in El Salvador a communist plot, 1981 Crime Angry San Francisco vigilantes take the law into their own hands, 1851 Disaster Tornadoes strike the Southeast, 1884 General Interest Copernicus born, 1473 Aaron Burr arrested for treason, 1807 Donner Party rescued, 1847 Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, 1942 Solzhenitsyn reunited with family, 1974 Hollywood Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade, 1934 Literary Amy Tan's birthday, 1952 Music Thomas Alva Edison patents the phonograph, 1878 Old West Rescuers reach Donner Party, 1847 Presidential FDR signs Executive Order 9066, 1942 Sports Patrick Roy gets 300th win as NHL goalie, 1996 Tiger Woods apologizes for extramarital affairs, 2010 Vietnam War South Vietnamese coup unsuccessful, 1965 Chicago Seven sentenced, 1970 World War I British navy bombards Dardanelles, 1915 World War II Marines invade Iwo Jima, 1945 ******************** 1847: Donner Party rescuedOn this day in 1847, the first rescuers reach surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the summer of 1846, in the midst of a Western-bound fever sweeping the United States, 89 people--including 31 members of the Donner and Reed families--set out in a wagon train from Springfield, Illinois. After arriving at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, the emigrants decided to avoid the usual route and try a new trail recently blazed by California promoter Lansford Hastings, the so-called "Hastings Cutoff." After electing George Donner as their captain, the party departed Fort Bridger in mid-July. The shortcut was nothing of the sort: It set the Donner Party back nearly three weeks and cost them much-needed supplies. After suffering great hardships in the Wasatch Mountains, the Great Salt Lake Desert and along the Humboldt River, they finally reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains in early October. Despite the lateness of the season, the emigrants continued to press on, and on October 28 they camped at Truckee Lake, located in the high mountains 21 kilometers northwest of Lake Tahoe. Overnight, an early winter storm blanketed the ground with snow, blocking the mountain pass and trapping the Donner Party. Most of the group stayed near the lake--now known as Donner Lake--while the Donner family and others made camp six miles away at Alder Creek. Building makeshift tents out of their wagons and killing their oxen for food, they hoped for a thaw that never came. Fifteen of the stronger emigrants, later known as the Forlorn Hope, set out west on snowshoes for Sutter's Fort near San Francisco on December 16. Three weeks later, after harsh weather and lack of supplies killed several of the expedition and forced the others to resort to cannibalism, seven survivors reached a Native American village. News of the stranded Donner Party traveled fast to Sutter's Fort, and a rescue party set out on January 31. Arriving at Donner Lake 20 days later, they found the camp completely snowbound and the surviving emigrants delirious with relief at their arrival. Rescuers fed the starving group as well as they could and then began evacuating them. Three more rescue parties arrived to help, but the return to Sutter's Fort proved equally harrowing, and the last survivors didn't reach safety until late April. Of the 89 original members of the Donner Party, only 45 reached California. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 20, 2012 6:04:14 GMT -5
Feb. 20thAmerican Revolution Postal Service Act regulates United States Post Office Department, 1792 Automotive Kramer on "Seinfeld" adopts a highway, 1997 Civil War Rebels defeat Yankees at the Battle of Olustee, 1864 Cold War SEATO disbands, 1976 Crime Atlanta Constitution editor is kidnapped, 1974 Disaster Rhode Island nightclub burns, 2003 General Interest American colonists practice scalping, 1725 An American orbits earth, 1962 Ireland allows sale of contraceptives, 1985 Chunnel plans announced, 1986 Hollywood John Singleton nominated for Best Director Oscar, 1992 Literary Dylan Thomas arrives in New York, 1950 Music Fire engulfs nightclub during Great White show, 2003 Old West Ansel Adams is born, 1902 Presidential George Washington signs the Postal Service Act, 1792 Sports Tara Lipinski becomes youngest Olympic figure skating gold medalist, 1998 Vietnam War Hearings begin on American policy in Vietnam, 1968 World War I Amir of Afghanistan is assassinated, 1919 World War II Pilot O'Hare becomes first American WWII flying ace, 1942 ******************** 1985: Ireland allows sale of contraceptivesIn a highly controversial vote on February 20, 1985, the Irish government defies the powerful Catholic Church and approves the sale of contraceptives. Up until 1979, Irish law prohibited the importation and sale of contraceptives. In a 1973 case, McGee v. The Attorney General, the Irish Supreme Court found that a constitutional right to marital privacy covered the use of contraceptives. Pressured by strong conservative forces in Irish society, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, the government was slow to change the law to reflect the court's decision, and a number of proposed bills failed before reaching the books. In 1979, the Irish health minister, Charles Haughey, introduced a bill limiting the legal provision of contraceptives to "bona fide family planning purposes." Signed into law in November 1980, the Health (Family Planning) Act ensured that contraceptives could be sold by a registered pharmacist to customers with a valid medical prescription. Still, many people saw the law as too strict. Over the next several years, a movement began to make contraceptives more easily available, causing bitter divisions inside and outside of the Dail, Ireland's main house of Parliament. As the government debated the changes, Catholic Church leaders railed against them, warning that increased access to contraceptives would encourage the moral decay of Ireland, leading to more illegitimate children and increased rates of abortion and venereal disease. On the eve of the vote in early 1985, the Dublin archbishop claimed the legislation would send Ireland down a "slippery slope of moral degradation." Some politicians were even threatened with violence if they voted for the legislation. On February 20, 1985, a coalition of the Fine Gael and Labour parties led by Dr. Garret FitzGerald defeated the opposition of the conservative Fianna Fail party by an 83-80 vote. The new legislation made non-medical contraceptives (condoms and spermicides) available without prescriptions to people over 18 at pharmacies; it also allowed for the distribution of these contraceptives at doctors' offices, hospitals and family planning clinics. Though it was still illegal to advertise contraceptives and use of the birth control pill remained restricted, the vote marked a major turning point in Irish history--the first-ever defeat of the Catholic Church in a head-to-head battle with the government on social legislation. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 21, 2012 5:32:56 GMT -5
Feb. 21stAmerican Revolution George Weedon is promoted to brigadier general, 1777 Automotive NASCAR founded, 1948 Civil War North and South clash at the Battle of Valverde, 1862 Cold War Nixon arrives in China for talks, 1972 Crime Rockefeller imposter and convicted felon born, 1961 Double agent Aldrich Ames is arrested, 1994 Disaster Tornadoes move across Mississippi River Delta, 1971 General Interest Marx publishes Manifesto, 1848 Washington Monument dedicated, 1885 Malcolm X assassinated, 1965 Nixon in China, 1972 Hollywood Garbo’s first U.S. film opens, 1926 Literary Erma Bombeck is born, 1927 Music Dolly Parton cements her crossover success as "9 to 5" hits #1, 1981 Old West Cherokee receive their first printing press, 1828 Presidential John Quincy Adams suffers a stroke, 1848 Sports Dick Button wins second Olympic figure skating gold, 1952 Vietnam War Bernard Fall killed by mine in South Vietnam, 1967 Kissinger begins secret negotiations with North Vietnamese, 1970 Nixon visits China, 1972 World War I Battle of Verdun begins, 1916 Allied troops capture Jericho, 1918 World War II Tojo makes himself "military czar", 1944 ******************** 1965: Malcolm X assassinatedIn New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, Malcolm was the son of James Earl Little, a Baptist preacher who advocated the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey. Threats from the Ku Klux Klan forced the family to move to Lansing, Michigan, where his father continued to preach his controversial sermons despite continuing threats. In 1931, Malcolm's father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion, and Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible. In 1937, Malcolm was taken from his family by welfare caseworkers. By the time he reached high school age, he had dropped out of school and moved to Boston, where he became increasingly involved in criminal activities. In 1946, at the age of 21, Malcolm was sent to prison on a burglary conviction. It was there he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam advocated black nationalism and racial separatism and condemned Americans of European descent as immoral "devils." Muhammad's teachings had a strong effect on Malcolm, who entered into an intense program of self-education and took the last name "X" to symbolize his stolen African identity. After six years, Malcolm was released from prison and became a loyal and effective minister of the Nation of Islam in Harlem, New York. In contrast with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the liberation of African Americans "by any means necessary." A fiery orator, Malcolm was admired by the African American community in New York and around the country. In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not sufficiently support the civil rights movement. In late 1963, Malcolm's suggestion that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was a matter of the "chickens coming home to roost" provided Elijah Muhammad, who believed that Malcolm had become too powerful, with a convenient opportunity to suspend him from the Nation of Islam. A few months later, Malcolm formally left the organization and made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was profoundly affected by the lack of racial discord among orthodox Muslims. He returned to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and in June 1964 founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated black identity and held that racism, not the white race, was the greatest foe of the African American. Malcolm's new movement steadily gained followers, and his more moderate philosophy became increasingly influential in the civil rights movement, especially among the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 22, 2012 6:58:26 GMT -5
Feb. 22nd American Revolution Archibald Bulloch dies under mysterious circumstances, 1777 Automotive Lee Petty wins first Daytona 500, 1959 Civil War Rebels rout Yankees at the Battle of West Point, 1864 Cold War George Kennan sends "long telegram" to State Department, 1946 Crime Gang commits largest robbery in British history, 2006 Disaster Deadly tornadoes rip through central Florida, 1998 General Interest The U.S. acquires Spanish Florida, 1819 Battle of Buena Vista begins, 1847 Suharto takes full power in Indonesia, 1967 Tet Offensive ends, 1968 U.S. hockey team makes miracle on ice, 1980 Hollywood Actress Drew Barrymore born, 1975 Literary Edna St. Vincent Millay is born, 1892 Music Milli Vanilli win the Best New Artist Grammy, 1990 Old West Montana passes law against sedition, 1918 Presidential George Washington is born, 1732 Sports U.S. hockey pulls off Miracle on Ice, 1980 Vietnam War Westmoreland asks for Marines, 1965 Operation Junction City begins, 1967 World War I Mussolini wounded by mortar bomb, 1917 World War II President Roosevelt to MacArthur: Get out of the Philippines, 1942 ******************** 1980: U.S. hockey team makes miracle on iceIn one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending gold-medal winning Soviet team at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. The Soviet squad, previously regarded as the finest in the world, fell to the youthful American team 4-3 before a frenzied crowd of 10,000 spectators. Two days later, the Americans defeated Finland 4-2 to clinch the hockey gold. The Soviet team had captured the previous four Olympic hockey golds, going back to 1964, and had not lost an Olympic hockey game since 1968. Three days before the Lake Placid Games began, the Soviets routed the U.S. team 10-3 in an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Americans looked scrappy, but few blamed them for it--their average age, after all, was only 22, and their team captain, Mike Eruzione, was recruited from the obscurity of the Toledo Blades of the International League. Few had high hopes for the seventh-seeded U.S. team entering the Olympic tournament, but the team soon silenced its detractors, making it through the opening round of play undefeated, with four victories and one tie, thus advancing to the four-team medal round. The Soviets, however, were seeded No. 1 and as expected went undefeated, with five victories in the first round. On Friday afternoon, February 22, the American amateurs and the Soviet dream team met before a sold-out crowd at Lake Placid. The Soviets broke through first, with their new young star, Valery Krotov, deflecting a slap shot beyond American goalie Jim Craig's reach in the first period. Midway through the period, Buzz Schneider, the only American who had previously been an Olympian, answered the Soviet goal with a high shot over the shoulder of Vladislav Tretiak, the Soviet goalie. The relentless Soviet attack continued as the period progressed, with Sergei Makarov giving his team a 2-1 lead. With just a few seconds left in the first period, American Ken Morrow shot the puck down the ice in desperation. Mark Johnson picked it up and sent it into the Soviet goal with one second remaining. After a brief Soviet protest, the goal was deemed good, and the game was tied. In the second period, the irritated Soviets came out with a new goalie, Vladimir Myshkin, and turned up the attack. The Soviets dominated play in the second period, outshooting the United States 12-2, and taking a 3-2 lead with a goal by Alesandr Maltsev just over two minutes into the period. If not for several remarkable saves by Jim Craig, the Soviet lead would surely have been higher than 3-2 as the third and final 20-minute period began. Nearly nine minutes into the period, Johnson took advantage of a Soviet penalty and knocked home a wild shot by David Silk to tie the contest again at 3-3. About a minute and a half later, Mike Eruzione, whose last name means "eruption" in Italian, picked up a loose puck in the Soviet zone and slammed it past Myshkin with a 25-foot wrist shot. For the first time in the game, the Americans had the lead, and the crowd erupted in celebration. There were still 10 minutes of play to go, but the Americans held on, with Craig making a few more fabulous saves. With five seconds remaining, the Americans finally managed to get the puck out of their zone, and the crowd began counting down the final seconds. When the final horn sounded, the players, coaches, and team officials poured onto the ice in raucous celebration. The Soviet players, as awestruck as everyone else, waited patiently to shake their opponents' hands. The so-called Miracle on Ice was more than just an Olympic upset; to many Americans, it was an ideological victory in the Cold War as meaningful as the Berlin Airlift or the Apollo moon landing. The upset came at an auspicious time: President Jimmy Carter had just announced that the United States was going to boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Americans, faced with a major recession and the Iran hostage crisis, were in dire need of something to celebrate. After the game, President Carter called the players to congratulate them, and millions of Americans spent that Friday night in revelry over the triumph of "our boys" over the Russian pros. As the U.S. team demonstrated in their victory over Finland two days later, it was disparaging to call the U.S. team amateurs. Three-quarters of the squad were top college players who were on their way to the National Hockey League (NHL), and coach Herb Brooks had trained the team long and hard in a manner that would have made the most authoritative Soviet coach proud. The 1980 U.S. hockey team was probably the best-conditioned American Olympic hockey team of all time--the result of countless hours running skating exercises in preparation for Lake Placid. In their play, the U.S. players adopted passing techniques developed by the Soviets for the larger international hockey rinks, while preserving the rough checking style that was known to throw the Soviets off-guard. It was these factors, combined with an exceptional afternoon of play by Craig, Johnson, Eruzione, and others, that resulted in the miracle at Lake Placid. This improbable victory was later memorialized in a 2004 film, Miracle, starring Kurt Russell. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 23, 2012 5:03:58 GMT -5
Feb. 23rdAmerican Revolution Friedrich von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, 1778 Automotive Formula One champ kidnapped, 1958 Civil War President-elect Lincoln arrives in Washington, 1861 Cold War First council meeting of SEATO, 1955 Crime A remarkable reprieve for a man sent to the gallows, 1885 Disaster Earthquake strikes Mediterranean, 1887 General Interest U.S. flag raised on Iwo Jima, 1945 Children receive first polio vaccine, 1954 Spanish rebels storm Parliament, 1981 Hollywood Schindler’s List shown uncut on network television, 1997 Literary W.E.B. DuBois is born, 1868 Music It's a tie for Song of the Year at the 20th annual Grammy Awards, 1978 Old West Guthrie writes "This Land is Your Land", 1940 Presidential Lincoln avoids assassination attempt, 1861 Sports Eric Heiden speed skates into Olympic history, 1980 Vietnam War Desertion up in South Vietnamese army, 1966 South Vietnamese advance stalls, 1971 World War I Germans begin withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, 1917 World War II Marines raise the flag on Mt. Suribachi, 1945 ******************** 1945: U.S. flag raised on Iwo JimaDuring the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th Division take the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island's highest peak and most strategic position, and raise the U.S. flag. Marine photographer Louis Lowery was with them and recorded the event. American soldiers fighting for control of Suribachi's slopes cheered the raising of the flag, and several hours later more Marines headed up to the crest with a larger flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated Press, met them along the way and recorded the raising of the second flag along with a Marine still photographer and a motion-picture cameraman. Rosenthal took three photographs atop Suribachi. The first, which showed five Marines and one Navy corpsman struggling to hoist the heavy flag pole, became the most reproduced photograph in history and won him a Pulitzer Prize. The accompanying motion-picture footage attests to the fact that the picture was not posed. Of the other two photos, the second was similar to the first but less affecting, and the third was a group picture of 18 soldiers smiling and waving for the camera. Many of these men, including three of the six soldiers seen raising the flag in the famous Rosenthal photo, were killed before the conclusion of the Battle for Iwo Jima in late March. In early 1945, U.S. military command sought to gain control of the island of Iwo Jima in advance of the projected aerial campaign against the Japanese home islands. Iwo Jima, a tiny volcanic island located in the Pacific about 700 miles southeast of Japan, was to be a base for fighter aircraft and an emergency-landing site for bombers. On February 19, 1945, after three days of heavy naval and aerial bombardment, the first wave of U.S. Marines stormed onto Iwo Jima's inhospitable shores. The Japanese garrison on the island numbered 22,000 heavily entrenched men. Their commander, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, had been expecting an Allied invasion for months and used the time wisely to construct an intricate and deadly system of underground tunnels, fortifications, and artillery that withstood the initial Allied bombardment. By the evening of the first day, despite incessant mortar fire, 30,000 U.S. Marines commanded by General Holland Smith managed to establish a solid beachhead. During the next few days, the Marines advanced inch by inch under heavy fire from Japanese artillery and suffered suicidal charges from the Japanese infantry. Many of the Japanese defenders were never seen and remained underground manning artillery until they were blown apart by a grenade or rocket, or incinerated by a flame thrower. While Japanese kamikaze flyers slammed into the Allied naval fleet around Iwo Jima, the Marines on the island continued their bloody advance across the island, responding to Kuribayashi's lethal defenses with remarkable endurance. On February 23, the crest of 550-foot Mount Suribachi was taken, and the next day the slopes of the extinct volcano were secured. By March 3, U.S. forces controlled all three airfields on the island, and on March 26 the last Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were wiped out. Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders were captured alive. More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iwo Jima, and some 17,000 were wounded. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 24, 2012 6:50:40 GMT -5
Feb. 24thAmerican Revolution Marbury v. Madison establishes judicial review, 1803 Automotive French Formula One champ born, 1955 Civil War Yankees attack Rebels near Dalton, Georgia, 1864 Cold War Reagan announces Caribbean Basin Initiative, 1982 Crime Harris is convicted of murdering Scarsdale Diet doctor, 1981 Disaster Avalanche buries homes in Austria, 1999 General Interest President Andrew Johnson impeached, 1868 Zimmermann Note presented to U.S. ambassador, 1917 Alamo defenders call for help, 1836 Peron elected in Argentina, 1946 Tet offensive halted, 1968 Supreme Court defends right to satirize public figures, 1988 Gulf War ground offensive begins, 1991 Hollywood Variety announces big news about The Wizard of Oz, 1938 Literary Wilhelm Grimm is born, 1786 Music "Grey Tuesday" brings mashups to the mainstream, 2004 Old West Travis sends for help at the Alamo, 1836 Presidential Adams begins arguments in the Amistad case, 1840 Sports The Great One scores 77th goal, 1982 Vietnam War Hue recaptured, 1968 Airman wins Medal of Honor for action on this day, 1969 World War I British troops recapture Kut in Mesopotamia, 1917 World War II "Merrill's Marauders" hit Burma, 1944 ******************** 1836: Alamo defenders call for helpOn this day in 1836, in San Antonio, Texas, Colonel William Travis issues a call for help on behalf of the Texan troops defending the Alamo, an old Spanish mission and fortress under attack by the Mexican army. A native of Alabama, Travis moved to the Mexican state of Texas in 1831. He soon became a leader of the growing movement to overthrow the Mexican government and establish an independent Texan republic. When the Texas revolution began in 1835, Travis became a lieutenant-colonel in the revolutionary army and was given command of troops in the recently captured city of San Antonio de Bexar (now San Antonio). On February 23, 1836, a large Mexican force commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana arrived suddenly in San Antonio. Travis and his troops took shelter in the Alamo, where they were soon joined by a volunteer force led by Colonel James Bowie. Though Santa Ana's 5,000 troops heavily outnumbered the several hundred Texans, Travis and his men determined not to give up. On February 24, they answered Santa Ana's call for surrender with a bold shot from the Alamo's cannon. Furious, the Mexican general ordered his forces to launch a siege. Travis immediately recognized his disadvantage and sent out several messages via couriers asking for reinforcements. Addressing one of the pleas to "The People of Texas and All Americans in the World," Travis signed off with the now-famous phrase "Victory or Death." Only 32 men from the nearby town of Gonzales responded to Travis' call for help, and beginning at 5:30 a.m. on March 6, Mexican forces stormed the Alamo through a gap in the fort's outer wall, killing Travis, Bowie and 190 of their men. Despite the loss of the fort, the Texan troops managed to inflict huge losses on their enemy, killing at least 600 of Santa Ana's men. The brave defense of the Alamo became a powerful symbol for the Texas revolution, helping the rebels turn the tide in their favor. At the crucial Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 910 Texan soldiers commanded by Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana's army of 1,250 men, spurred on by cries of "Remember the Alamo!" The next day, after Texan forces captured Santa Ana himself, the general issued orders for all Mexican troops to pull back behind the Rio Grande River. On May 14, 1836, Texas officially became an independent republic. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Feb 25, 2012 5:36:12 GMT -5
Feb. 25th American Revolution British surrender Fort Sackville, 1779 Automotive Miami drive-in debuts, 1938 Civil War U.S. Congress passes Legal Tender Act, 1862 Cold War Communists take power in Czechoslovakia, 1948 Crime Actor Robert Mitchum is released after serving time for marijuana possession, 1949 Disaster Explosion kills hundreds in Brazil, 1984 General Interest African American congressman sworn in, 1870 Clay knocks out Liston, 1964 Marcos flees the Philippines, 1986 Hollywood The Passion of the Christ opens in the United States, 2004 Literary Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes meet, 1956 Music Enrico Caruso, the greatest tenor who ever lived, is born, 1873 Old West Railroad baron Edward Harriman is born, 1848 Presidential John Quincy Adams' son marries relative at the White House, 1828 Sports Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston, 1964 Vietnam War Congress moves to block widening of the war, 1971 U.S. troops fight biggest battle in nearly a year, 1972 World War I German troops capture Fort Douaumont (Verdun), 1916 World War II Molotov is born, 1890 ******************** 1964:Clay knocks out Liston On February 25, 1964, 22-year-old Cassius Clay shocks the odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout. The dreaded Liston, who had twice demolished former champ Floyd Patterson in one round, was an 8-to-1 favorite. However, Clay predicted victory, boasting that he would "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" and knock out Liston in the eighth round. The fleet-footed and loquacious youngster needed less time to make good on his claim--Liston, complaining of an injured shoulder, failed to answer the seventh-round bell. A few moments later, a new heavyweight champion was proclaimed. Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1942. He started boxing when he was 12 and by age 18 had amassed a record of over 100 wins in amateur competition. In 1959, he won the International Golden Gloves heavyweight title and in 1960 a gold medal in the light heavyweight category at the Summer Olympic Games in Rome. Clay turned professional after the Olympics and went undefeated in his first 19 bouts, earning him the right to challenge Sonny Liston, who had defeated Floyd Patterson in 1962 to win the heavyweight title. On February 25, 1964, a crowd of 8,300 spectators gathered at the Convention Hall arena in Miami Beach to see if Cassius Clay, who was nicknamed the "Louisville Lip," could put his money where his mouth was. The underdog proved no bragging fraud, and he danced and backpedaled away from Liston's powerful swings while delivering quick and punishing jabs to Liston's head. Liston hurt his shoulder in the first round, injuring some muscles as he swung for and missed his elusive target. By the time he decided to discontinue the bout between the sixth and seventh rounds, he and Clay were about equal in points. A few conjectured that Liston faked the injury and threw the fight, but there was no real evidence, such as a significant change in bidding odds just before the bout, to support this claim. To celebrate winning the world heavyweight title, Clay went to a private party at a Miami hotel that was attended by his friend Malcolm X, an outspoken leader of the African American Muslim group known as the Nation of Islam. Two days later, a markedly more restrained Clay announced he was joining the Nation of Islam and defended the organization's concept of racial segregation while speaking of the importance of the Muslim religion in his life. Later that year, Clay, who was the descendant of a runaway Kentucky slave, rejected the name originally given to his family by a slave owner and took the Muslim name of Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali would go on to become one of the 20th century's greatest sporting figures, as much for his social and political influence as his prowess in his chosen sport. After successfully defending his title nine times, it was stripped from him in 1967 after he refused induction into the U.S. Army on the grounds that he was a Muslim minister and therefore a conscientious objector. That year, he was sentenced to five years in prison for violating the Selective Service Act but was allowed to remain free as he appealed the decision. His popularity plummeted, but many across the world applauded his bold stand against the Vietnam War. In 1970, he was allowed to return to the boxing ring, and the next year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Ali's draft evasion conviction. In 1974, he regained the heavyweight title in a match against George Foreman in Zaire and successfully defended it in a brutal 15-round contest against Joe Frazier in the Philippines in the following year. In 1978, he lost the title to Leon Spinks but later that year defeated Spinks in a rematch, making him the first boxer to win the heavyweight title three times. He retired in 1979 but returned to the ring twice in the early 1980s. In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome and has suffered a slow decline of his motor functions ever since. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1996, he lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremonies of the Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Ali's daughter, Laila, made her boxing debut in 1999. At a White House ceremony in November 2005, Ali was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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