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Post by dreamer on Mar 1, 2012 5:02:45 GMT -5
March 1st American Revolution Articles of Confederation are ratified, 1781 Automotive Honda unveils new Civic, 2005 Civil War Lincoln nominates Grant for lieutenant general, 1864 Cold War Kennedy establishes Peace Corps, 1961 Crime The Lindbergh baby is kidnapped, 1932 Disaster Trains buried by avalanche, 1910 General Interest Salem Witch Hunt begins, 1692 Lindbergh baby kidnapped, 1932 Puerto Rican nationalists wound five representatives, 1954 Peace Corps established, 1961 Soviet probe crashes into Venus, 1966 Hollywood Richard Zanuck and David Brown join Warner Brothers, 1971 Literary E.M. Forster takes a passage to India, 1921 Music James Taylor makes the cover of Time magazine, 1971 Old West Yellowstone Park established, 1872 Sports Mickey Mantle retires, 1969 Vietnam War U.S. informs South Vietnam of intent to send Marines, 1965 Clifford replaces McNamara, 1968 Bomb explodes in Capitol building, 1971 World War I Zimmermann Telegram published in United States, 1917 World War II Bulgaria joins the Axis, 1941 ******************** 1932: Lindbergh baby kidnappedOn this day in 1932, in a crime that captured the attention of the entire nation, Charles Lindbergh III, the 20-month-old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family's new mansion in Hopewell, New Jersey. Lindbergh, who became an international celebrity when he flew the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, and his wife Anne discovered a ransom note demanding $50,000 in their son's empty room. The kidnapper used a ladder to climb up to the open second-floor window and left muddy footprints in the room. The Lindberghs were inundated by offers of assistance and false clues. Even Al Capone offered his help from prison. For three days, investigators found nothing and there was no further word from the kidnappers. Then, a new letter showed up, this time demanding $70,000. The kidnappers eventually gave instructions for dropping off the money and when it was delivered, the Lindberghs were told their baby was on a boat called Nelly off the coast of Massachusetts. After an exhaustive search, however, there was no sign of either the boat or the child. Soon after, the baby's body was discovered near the Lindbergh mansion. He had been killed the night of the kidnapping and was found less than a mile from home. The heartbroken Lindberghs ended up donating the mansion to charity and moved away. The kidnapping looked like it would go unsolved until September 1934, when a marked bill from the ransom turned up. The gas station attendant who had accepted the bill wrote down the license plate number because he was suspicious of the driver. It was tracked back to a German immigrant and carpenter, Bruno Hauptmann. When his home was searched, detectives found a chunk of Lindbergh ransom money. Hauptmann claimed that a friend had given him the money to hold and that he had no connection to the crime. The resulting trial was a national sensation. The prosecution's case was not particularly strong; the main evidence, besides the money, was testimony from handwriting experts that the ransom note had been written by Hauptmann. The prosecution also tried to establish a connection between Hauptmann and the type of wood that was used to make the ladder. Still, the evidence and intense public pressure were enough to convict Hauptmann and he was electrocuted in 1935. In the aftermath of the crime—the most notorious of the 1930s—kidnapping was made a federal offense. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 2, 2012 6:49:49 GMT -5
March 2nd American Revolution The Siege of Boston, 1776 Automotive Ford celebrates 1 millionth Mustang, 1966 Civil War Yankees rout Rebels at the Battle of Waynesboro, 1865 Cold War Soviet Union and Chinese armed forces clash, 1969 Crime Congress passes the Jones Act, 1929 Disaster Train passengers suffocate, 1944 General Interest Congress abolishes the African slave trade, 1807 Texas declares independence, 1836 Dr. Seuss born, 1904 Pioneer 10 launched to Jupiter, 1972 Hollywood Grave robbers steal Charlie Chaplin’s body, 1978 Literary John Irving is born, 1942 Music Sheena Easton sets a Billboard chart record when "Sugar Walls" becomes a Top 10 R&B hit, 1985 Old West Sam Houston born, 1793 Presidential Bush honors the Boston Red Sox, 2005 Sports Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points, 1962 Vietnam War First Rolling Thunder raid conducted, 1965 Kennedy proposes plan to end the war, 1967 World War I Puerto Ricans become U.S. citizens, are recruited for war effort, 1917 World War II The Battle of the Bismarck Sea, 1943 ******************** 1904: Dr. Seuss bornOn this day in 1904, Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, the author and illustrator of such beloved children's books as "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham," is born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Geisel, who used his middle name (which was also his mother's maiden name) as his pen name, wrote 48 books--including some for adults--that have sold well over 200 million copies and been translated into multiple languages. Dr. Seuss books are known for their whimsical rhymes and quirky characters, which have names like the Lorax and the Sneetches and live in places like Hooterville. Geisel, who was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts, graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was editor of the school's humor magazine, and studied at Oxford University. There he met Helen Palmer, his first wife and the person who encouraged him to become a professional illustrator. Back in America, Geisel worked as a cartoonist for a variety of magazines and in advertising. The first children's book that Geisel wrote and illustrated, "And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street," was rejected by over two dozen publishers before making it into print in 1937. Geisel's first bestseller, "The Cat in the Hat," was published in 1957. The story of a mischievous cat in a tall striped hat came about after his publisher asked him to produce a book using 220 new-reader vocabulary words that could serve as an entertaining alternative to the school reading primers children found boring. Other Dr. Seuss classics include "Yertle the Turtle," "If I Ran the Circus," "Fox in Socks" and "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." Some Dr. Seuss books tackled serious themes. "The Butter Battle Book" (1984) was about the arms buildup and nuclear war threat during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. "Lorax" (1971) dealt with the environment. Many Dr. Seuss books have been adapted for television and film, including "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" and "Horton Hears a Who!" In 1990, Geisel published a book for adults titled "Oh, the Places You'll Go" that became a hugely popular graduation gift for high school and college students. Geisel, who lived and worked in an old observatory in La Jolla, California, known as "The Tower," died September 24, 1991, at age 87. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 3, 2012 6:14:04 GMT -5
March 3rdAmerican Revolution Silas Deane embarks on secret mission to France, 1776 Automotive Super-luxurious Maybach Zeppelin goes on sale, 2009 Civil War Freedmen's Bureau created, 1865 Cold War Supreme Court rules on communist teachers, 1952 Crime Congress bans sending obscene materials through the mail, 1873 Disaster Faulty door dooms plane, 1974 General Interest Congress passes the Missouri Compromise, 1820 Congress passes Civil War conscription act, 1863 Helen Keller meets her miracle worker, 1887 Russia makes a separate peace, 1918 "The Star-Spangled Banner" becomes official, 1931 Police brutality caught on video, 1991 Hollywood Birth of a Nation opens in New York, 1915 Literary James Merrill is born, 1926 Music George Bizet's Carmen premieres in Paris, 1875 Old West United States Geological Survey created, 1879 Presidential Congress overrides presidential veto for first time, 1845 Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated in a private ceremony, 1877 Sports First indoor game of ice hockey, 1875 Vietnam War U.S. jets bomb Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1965 U.S. 5th Special Forces Group withdraws, 1971 World War I Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concluded, 1918 World War II Finland declares war on Germany, 1945 ******************** 1887: Helen Keller meets her miracle workerOn this day in 1887, Anne Sullivan begins teaching six-year-old Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing after a severe illness at the age of 19 months. Under Sullivan's tutelage, including her pioneering "touch teaching" techniques, the previously uncontrollable Keller flourished, eventually graduating from college and becoming an international lecturer and activist. Sullivan, later dubbed "the miracle worker," remained Keller's interpreter and constant companion until the older woman's death in 1936. Sullivan, born in Massachusetts in 1866, had firsthand experience with being handicapped: As a child, an infection impaired her vision. She then attended the Perkins Institution for the Blind where she learned the manual alphabet in order to communicate with a classmate who was deaf and blind. Eventually, Sullivan had several operations that improved her weakened eyesight. Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, to Arthur Keller, a former Confederate army officer and newspaper publisher, and his wife Kate, of Tuscumbia, Alabama. As a baby, a brief illness, possibly scarlet fever, left Helen unable to see, hear or speak. She was considered a bright but spoiled and strong-willed child. Her parents eventually sought the advice of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and an authority on the deaf. He suggested the Kellers contact the Perkins Institution, which in turn recommended Anne Sullivan as a teacher. Sullivan, age 20, arrived at Ivy Green, the Keller family estate, in 1887 and began working to socialize her wild, stubborn student and teach her by spelling out words in Keller's hand. Initially, the finger spelling meant nothing to Keller. However, a breakthrough occurred one day when Sullivan held one of Keller's hands under water from a pump and spelled out "w-a-t-e-r" in Keller's palm. Keller went on to learn how to read, write and speak. With Sullivan's assistance, Keller attended Radcliffe College and graduated with honors in 1904. Helen Keller became a public speaker and author; her first book, "The Story of My Life" was published in 1902. She was also a fundraiser for the American Foundation for the Blind and an advocate for racial and sexual equality, as well as socialism. From 1920 to 1924, Sullivan and Keller even formed a vaudeville act to educate the public and earn money. Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, at her home in Westport, Connecticut, at age 87, leaving her mark on the world by helping to alter perceptions about the disabled. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 4, 2012 6:17:39 GMT -5
March 4thAmerican Revolution American forces occupy Dorchester Heights, 1776 Automotive Scottish racing legend Jim Clark born, 1936 Civil War Lincoln sworn in for first presidential term, 1861 Cold War Dulles asks for action against communism, 1954 Crime The head of Murder, Inc. is executed, 1944 Martha Stewart is released from prison, 2005 Disaster DC-7 crashes in Cameroon swamp, 1962 General Interest Government under the U.S. Constitution begins, 1789 FDR inaugurated, 1933 Hollywood John Candy dies, 1995 Literary Ernest Hemingway finishes The Old Man and the Sea, 1952 Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini is born, 1965 Music John Lennon sparks his first major controversy, 1966 Old West Founder of Chisholm Trail dies, 1868 Presidential Jackson holds "open house" at the White House, 1829 Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis marry, 1952 Sports Knute Rockne born, 1888 Vietnam War Task Force sends memo to the president, 1968 World War I Woodrow Wilson's first inaugural address, 1913 World War II Britain launches Operation Claymore, 1941 Eighth Air Force bombs Berlin, 1944 ******************** 1933: FDR inauguratedOn March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States. In his famous inaugural address, delivered outside the east wing of the U.S. Capitol, Roosevelt outlined his "New Deal"--an expansion of the federal government as an instrument of employment opportunity and welfare--and told Americans that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Although it was a rainy day in Washington, and gusts of rain blew over Roosevelt as he spoke, he delivered a speech that radiated optimism and competence, and a broad majority of Americans united behind their new president and his radical economic proposals to lead the nation out of the Great Depression. Born into an upper-class family in Hyde Park, New York, in 1882, Roosevelt was the fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, who served as the 26th U.S. president from 1901 to 1909. In 1905, Franklin Roosevelt, who was at the time a student at Columbia University Law School, married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the niece of Theodore Roosevelt. After three years as a lawyer, he decided to follow his cousin Theodore's lead and sought public office, winning election to the New York State Senate in 1910 as a Democrat. He soon won a reputation as a charismatic politician dedicated to social and economic reform. Roosevelt supported the progressive New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, and after Wilson's election in 1912 Roosevelt was appointed assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, a post that Theodore Roosevelt once held. In 1920, Roosevelt, who had proved himself a gifted administrator, won the Democratic nomination for vice president on a ticket with James Cox. The Democrats lost in a landslide to Republicans Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, and Roosevelt returned to his law practice and undertook several business ventures. In 1921, he was stricken with poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. He spent several years recovering from what was at first nearly total paralysis, and his wife, Eleanor, kept his name alive in Democratic circles. He never fully covered and was forced to use braces or a wheelchair to move around for the rest of his life. In 1924, Roosevelt returned to politics when he nominated New York Governor Alfred E. Smith for the presidency with a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention. In 1928, he again nominated Smith, and the outgoing New York governor urged Roosevelt to run for his gubernatorial seat. Roosevelt campaigned across the state by automobile and was elected even as the state voted for Republican Herbert Hoover in the presidential election. As governor, Roosevelt worked for tax relief for farmers and in 1930 won a resounding electoral victory just as the economic recession brought on by the October 1929 stock market crash was turning into a major depression. During his second term, Governor Roosevelt mobilized the state government to play an active role in providing relief and spurring economic recovery. His aggressive approach to the economic crisis, coupled with his obvious political abilities, gave him the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932. Roosevelt had no trouble defeating President Herbert Hoover, who many blamed for the Depression, and the governor carried all but six states. During the next four months, the economy continued to decline, and when Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, most banks were closed, farms were suffering, 13 million workers were unemployed, and industrial production stood at just over half its 1929 level. Aided by a Democratic Congress, Roosevelt took prompt, decisive action, and most of his New Deal proposals, such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act, National Industrial Recovery Act, and creation of the Public Works Administration and Tennessee Valley Authority, were approved within his first 100 days in office. Although criticized by many in the business community, Roosevelt's progressive legislation improved America's economic climate, and in 1936 he easily won reelection. During his second term, he became increasingly concerned with German and Japanese aggression and so began a long campaign to awaken America from its isolationist slumber. In 1940, with World War II raging in Europe and the Pacific, Roosevelt agreed to run for an unprecedented third term. Reelected by Americans who valued his strong leadership, he proved a highly effective commander in chief after the December 1941 U.S. entrance into the war. Under Roosevelt's guidance, America became, in his own words, the "great arsenal of democracy" and succeeded in shifting the balance of power in World War II firmly in the Allies' favor. In 1944, with the war not yet won, he was reelected to a fourth term. Three months after his inauguration, while resting at his retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia, Roosevelt died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63. Following a solemn parade of his coffin through the streets of the nation's capital, his body was buried in a family plot in Hyde Park. Millions of Americans mourned the death of the man who led the United States through two of the greatest crises of the 20th century: the Great Depression and World War II. Roosevelt's unparalleled 13 years as president led to the passing of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which limited future presidents to a maximum of two consecutive elected terms in office. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 5, 2012 6:42:06 GMT -5
March 5thAmerican Revolution Civilians and soldiers clash in the Boston Massacre, 1770 Automotive David Buick dies, 1929 Civil War The Confederacy's Breckinridge assumes command in Virginia, 1864 Cold War Churchill delivers Iron Curtain speech, 1946 Crime Jim Morrison is charged with lewd behavior at a Miami concert, 1969 Disaster Jet breaks up near Mt. Fuji, 1966 General Interest The Boston Massacre, 1770 Innovator of hypnotism dies, 1815 Hula-Hoop patented, 1963 Hollywood Jon Stewart hosts 78th annual Academy Awards ceremony, 2006 Literary Charlotte Bronte declines marriage, 1839 Music Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler hits #1 with "Ballad Of The Green Berets", 1966 Old West Antonio de Ulloa tries to govern Louisiana, 1766 Presidential Dial-a-President radio program airs, 1977 Sports Miller elected executive director of MLB Players Association, 1966 Vietnam War U.S.A.F. advisory team sent to Laos, 1964 "Blackhorse" departs South Vietnam, 1971 World War I Socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg born, 1871 World War II Joseph Stalin dies, 1953 ******************** 1963: Hula-Hoop patentedOn this day in 1963, the Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, is patented by the company's co-founder, Arthur "Spud" Melin. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. In 1948, friends Arthur Melin and Richard Knerr founded a company in California to sell a slingshot they created to shoot meat up to falcons they used for hunting. The company’s name, Wham-O, came from the sound the slingshots supposedly made. Wham-O eventually branched out from slingshots, selling boomerangs and other sporting goods. Its first hit toy, a flying plastic disc known as the Frisbee, debuted in 1957. The Frisbee was originally marketed under a different name, the Pluto Platter, in an effort to capitalize on America's fascination with UFOs. Melina and Knerr were inspired to develop the Hula-Hoop after they saw a wooden hoop that Australian children twirled around their waists during gym class. Wham-O began producing a plastic version of the hoop, dubbed "Hula" after the hip-gyrating Hawaiian dance of the same name, and demonstrating it on Southern California playgrounds. Hula-Hoop mania took off from there. The enormous popularity of the Hula-Hoop was short-lived and within a matter of months, the masses were on to the next big thing. However, the Hula-Hoop never faded away completely and still has its fans today. According to Ripley's Believe It or Not, in April 2004, a performer at the Big Apple Circus in Boston simultaneously spun 100 hoops around her body. Earlier that same year, in January, according to the Guinness World Records, two people in Tokyo, Japan, managed to spin the world's largest hoop--at 13 feet, 4 inches--around their waists at least three times each. Following the Hula-Hoop, Wham-O continued to produce a steady stream of wacky and beloved novelty items, including the Superball, Water Wiggle, Silly String, Slip 'n' Slide and the Hacky Sack. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 7, 2012 6:24:28 GMT -5
March 7th Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone, 1876 American Revolution Five letters pass between Abigail and John Adams, 1777 Automotive Janet Guthrie, first female Indy 500 driver, born, 1938 Civil War Yankees clash with Rebels at the Battle of Pea Ridge, 1862 Cold War Soviet Union denies Klaus Fuchs served as its spy, 1950 Crime Defense rests in Andrea Yates trial, 2002 Disaster Cyclone Bola hits New Zealand, 1988 General Interest Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland, 1936 Bangladesh's first democratic leader, 1973 Stanley Kubrick dies, 1999 Hollywood Writers Guild of America strike begins, 1988 Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar, 2010 Literary "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" is published, 1923 Music Pearl Bailey and Richard Nixon serenade a White House audience, 1974 Old West Kansas quarantines Texas cattle, 1885 Presidential Carter meets with Yitzhak Rabin, 1977 Sports Mike Tyson unifies titles, 1987 Vietnam War U.S. jets launch heaviest air raids of the war, 1966 Republic of Korea forces operation launch, 1967 Jets engage in aerial combat, 1972 World War I Finland signs treaty with Germany, 1918 World War II British forces arrive in Greece, 1941 ******************** 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephoneOn this day in 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention--the telephone. The Scottish-born Bell worked in London with his father, Melville Bell, who developed Visible Speech, a written system used to teach speaking to the deaf. In the 1870s, the Bells moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where the younger Bell found work as a teacher at the Pemberton Avenue School for the Deaf. He later married one of his students, Mabel Hubbard. While in Boston, Bell became very interested in the possibility of transmitting speech over wires. Samuel F.B. Morse's invention of the telegraph in 1843 had made nearly instantaneous communication possible between two distant points. The drawback of the telegraph, however, was that it still required hand-delivery of messages between telegraph stations and recipients, and only one message could be transmitted at a time. Bell wanted to improve on this by creating a "harmonic telegraph," a device that combined aspects of the telegraph and record player to allow individuals to speak to each other from a distance. With the help of Thomas A. Watson, a Boston machine shop employee, Bell developed a prototype. In this first telephone, sound waves caused an electric current to vary in intensity and frequency, causing a thin, soft iron plate--called the diaphragm--to vibrate. These vibrations were transferred magnetically to another wire connected to a diaphragm in another, distant instrument. When that diaphragm vibrated, the original sound would be replicated in the ear of the receiving instrument. Three days after filing the patent, the telephone carried its first intelligible message--the famous "Mr. Watson, come here, I need you"--from Bell to his assistant. Bell's patent filing beat a similar claim by Elisha Gray by only two hours. Not wanting to be shut out of the communications market, Western Union Telegraph Company employed Gray and fellow inventor Thomas A. Edison to develop their own telephone technology. Bell sued, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld Bell's patent rights. In the years to come, the Bell Company withstood repeated legal challenges to emerge as the massive American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) and form the foundation of the modern telecommunications industry. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 8, 2012 4:23:41 GMT -5
March 8th American Revolution Pennsylvania militiamen senselessly murder Patriot allies, 1782 Automotive VW bus, icon of counterculture movement, goes into production, 1950 Civil War C.S.S. Virginia terrorizes Union Navy, 1862 Cold War United States accuses Soviets of using poison gas, 1982 Crime The Lonely Hearts Killers are executed, 1951 Disaster Mount Etna erupts, 1669 General Interest Anglo-Ottoman force takes Abukir Bay, 1801 February Revolution begins, 1917 Egypt opens the Suez Canal, 1957 Hollywood MTV’s highest rated series premieres, 1993 Literary Thomas Wolfe's second novel, Of Time and the River, is published, 1935 Music Bill Graham's rock empire goes bi-coastal as the Fillmore East opens, 1968 Old West Emmet Dalton goes to prison, 1893 Presidential Reagan refers to U.S.S.R. as "evil empire" again, 1983 Sports Ali battles Frazier for heavyweight championship, 1971 Vietnam War U.S. Marines land at Da Nang, 1965 Thieu orders force withdrawal, 1975 World War I February Revolution begins in Russia, 1917 World War II Dutch surrender on Java, 1942 ******************** 1917: February Revolution beginsIn Russia, the February Revolution (known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar) begins when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupt in Petrograd. One week later, centuries of czarist rule in Russia ended with the abdication of Nicholas II, and Russia took a dramatic step closer toward communist revolution. By 1917, most Russians had lost faith in the leadership ability of the czarist regime. Government corruption was rampant, the Russian economy remained backward, and Nicholas repeatedly dissolved the Duma, the Russian parliament established after the Revolution of 1905, when it opposed his will. However, the immediate cause of the February Revolution--the first phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917--was Russia's disastrous involvement in World War I. Militarily, imperial Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war. Meanwhile, the economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort, and moderates joined Russian radical elements in calling for the overthrow of the czar. On March 8, 1917, demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now known as St. Petersburg). Supported by 90,000 men and women on strike, the protesters clashed with police but refused to leave the streets. On March 10, the strike spread among all of Petrograd's workers, and irate mobs of workers destroyed police stations. Several factories elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet, or "council," of workers' committees, following the model devised during the Revolution of 1905. On March 11, the troops of the Petrograd army garrison were called out to quell the uprising. In some encounters, regiments opened fire, killing demonstrators, but the protesters kept to the streets, and the troops began to waver. That day, Nicholas again dissolved the Duma. On March 12, the revolution triumphed when regiment after regiment of the Petrograd garrison defected to the cause of the demonstrators. The soldiers, some 150,000 men, subsequently formed committees that elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet. The imperial government was forced to resign, and the Duma formed a provisional government that peacefully vied with the Petrograd Soviet for control of the revolution. On March 14, the Petrograd Soviet issued "Order No. 1," which instructed Russian soldiers and sailors to obey only those orders that did not conflict with the directives of the Soviet. The next day, March 15, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael, whose refusal of the crown brought an end to the czarist autocracy. The new provincial government, tolerated by the Petrograd Soviet, hoped to salvage the Russian war effort while ending the food shortage and many other domestic crises. It would prove a daunting task. Meanwhile, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik revolutionary party, left his exile in Switzerland and crossed German enemy lines to return home and take control of the Russian Revolution. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 9, 2012 6:24:24 GMT -5
March 9thAmerican Revolution Spanish siege of Pensacola begins, 1781 Automotive First Adopt-a-Highway sign goes up, 1985 Civil War U.S.S. Monitor battles C.S.S. Virginia, 1862 Cold War Republican senators criticize Joseph McCarthy, 1954 Crime Rapper Notorious B.I.G. is killed in Los Angeles, 1997 Disaster Japanese power plant leaks radioactive waste, 1981 General Interest Supreme Court rules on Amistad mutiny, 1841 U.S. forces land at Vera Cruz, 1847 Battle of the Ironclads, 1862 Pancho Villa raids U.S., 1916 China's last emperor is Japanese puppet, 1932 Barbie makes her debut, 1959 Hollywood Comedian George Burns dies at age 100, 1996 Literary Virginia Woolf delivers her first novel, The Voyage Out, 1913 Music Christopher Wallace—a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G.—is killed in Los Angeles, 1997 Old West Pancho Villa attacks Columbus, New Mexico, 1916 Presidential Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy, 1954 Sports Bobby Fischer born, 1943 Vietnam War Marines continue to land at Da Nang, 1965 Marines hand over control of I Corps region, 1970 World War I Germany declares war on Portugal, 1916 World War II Firebombing of Tokyo, 1945 ******************** 1959: Barbie makes her debutOn this day in 1959, the first Barbie doll goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features. The woman behind Barbie was Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945. After seeing her young daughter ignore her baby dolls to play make-believe with paper dolls of adult women, Handler realized there was an important niche in the market for a toy that allowed little girls to imagine the future. Barbie's appearance was modeled on a doll named Lilli, based on a German comic strip character. Originally marketed as a racy gag gift to adult men in tobacco shops, the Lilli doll later became extremely popular with children. Mattel bought the rights to Lilli and made its own version, which Handler named after her daughter, Barbara. With its sponsorship of the "Mickey Mouse Club" TV program in 1955, Mattel became the first toy company to broadcast commercials to children. They used this medium to promote their new toy, and by 1961, the enormous consumer demand for the doll led Mattel to release a boyfriend for Barbie. Handler named him Ken, after her son. Barbie's best friend, Midge, came out in 1963; her little sister, Skipper, debuted the following year. Over the years, Barbie generated huge sales--and a lot of controversy. On the positive side, many women saw Barbie as providing an alternative to traditional 1950s gender roles. She has had a series of different jobs, from airline stewardess, doctor, pilot and astronaut to Olympic athlete and even U.S. presidential candidate. Others thought Barbie's never-ending supply of designer outfits, cars and "Dream Houses" encouraged kids to be materialistic. It was Barbie's appearance that caused the most controversy, however. Her tiny waist and enormous breasts--it was estimated that if she were a real woman, her measurements would be 36-18-38--led many to claim that Barbie provided little girls with an unrealistic and harmful example and fostered negative body image. Despite the criticism, sales of Barbie-related merchandise continued to soar, topping 1 billion dollars annually by 1993. Since 1959, more than 800 million dolls in the Barbie family have been sold around the world and Barbie is now a bona fide global icon. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 10, 2012 5:39:13 GMT -5
March 10thAmerican Revolution The Right Honourable John Stuart, 3rd earl of Bute, dies, 1792 Automotive Inventor who won suits against auto giants is born, 1927 Civil War Confederate General William H. C. Whiting dies, 1865 Cold War Strange death of Jan Masaryk, 1948 Crime Dr. David Gunn is murdered by anti-abortion activist, 1993 Disaster Mine explosion kills 1,060 in France, 1906 General Interest Speech transmitted by telephone, 1876 The Firebombing of Tokyo continues, 1945 Rebellion in Tibet, 1959 Ray pleads guilty to King assassination, 1969 Hollywood The WB premieres its first hit show, 1997 Literary First Book-of-the-Month Club selection is published, 1926 Music Disco sensation Andy Gibb dies at the age of 30, 1988 Old West Montana vigilantes hang Jack Slade, 1864 Presidential Lincoln signs Ulysses S. Grant's commission to command the U.S. Army, 1864 Sports Cuba plays in World Baseball Classic, 2006 Vietnam War Army captain charged with My Lai war crimes, 1970 Communists surround Ban Me Thuot, 1975 World War I Turkish troops begin evacuation of Baghdad, 1917 World War II Sumner Welles makes a "peace proposal", 1940 ******************** 1959: Rebellion in TibetOn this day in 1959, Tibetans band together in revolt, surrounding the summer palace of the Dalai Lama in defiance of Chinese occupation forces. China's occupation of Tibet began nearly a decade before, in October 1950, when troops from its People's Liberation Army (PLA) invaded the country, barely one year after the Communists gained full control of mainland China. The Tibetan government gave into Chinese pressure the following year, signing a treaty that ensured the power of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the country's spiritual leader, over Tibet's domestic affairs. Resistance to the Chinese occupation built steadily over the next several years, including a revolt in several areas of eastern Tibet in 1956. By December 1958, rebellion was simmering in Lhasa, the capital, and the PLA command threatened to bomb the city if order was not maintained. The March 1959 uprising in Lhasa was triggered by fears of a plot to kidnap the Dalai Lama and take him to Beijing. When Chinese military officers invited His Holiness to visit the PLA headquarters for a theatrical performance and official tea, he was told he must come alone, and that no Tibetan military bodyguards or personnel would be allowed past the edges of the military camp. On March 10, 300,000 loyal Tibetans surrounded Norbulinka Palace, preventing the Dalai Lama from accepting the PLA's invitation. By March 17, Chinese artillery was aimed at the palace, and the Dalai Lama was evacuated to neighboring India. Fighting broke out in Lhasa two days later, with Tibetan rebels hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. Early on March 21, the Chinese began shelling Norbulinka, slaughtering tens of thousands of men, women and children still camped outside. In the aftermath, the PLA cracked down on Tibetan resistance, executing the Dalai Lama’s guards and destroying Lhasa's major monasteries along with thousands of their inhabitants. China's stranglehold on Tibet and its brutal suppression of separatist activity has continued in the decades following the unsuccessful uprising. Tens of thousands of Tibetans followed their leader to India, where the Dalai Lama has long maintained a government-in-exile in the foothills of the Himalayas. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 11, 2012 7:50:11 GMT -5
March 11th American Revolution Congress establishes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1779 Automotive Toyota sells 1 millionth hybrid in U.S., 2009 Civil War President Lincoln shuffles the Union command, 1862 Cold War Mikhail Gorbachev picked to succeed Chernenko, 1985 Crime COPS makes TV debut, 1989 Disaster Great Blizzard of '88 hits East Coast, 1888 General Interest Confederate constitution adopted, 1861 FDR signs Lend-Lease, 1941 MacArthur leaves Corregidor, 1942 Lithuania proclaims its independence, 1990 Paul McCartney knighted, 1997 Terrorists bomb trains in Madrid, 2004 Hollywood COPS debuts on Fox, 1989 Literary Frankenstein published, 1818 Music Lawrence Welk is born, 1903 Old West Gunslinger Ben Thompson dies, 1884 Presidential Truman thanks Herbert Hoover for aiding post-WWII reconstruction, 1947 Sports Newspaper reports signing of so-called Chief Tokohama, 1901 Vietnam War Heavy battle rages during Operation Junction City, 1967 World War I First cases reported in deadly influenza epidemic, 1918 World War II MacArthur leaves the Philippines, 1942 ******************** 1779: Congress establishes the U.S. Army Corps of EngineersOn this day in 1779, Congress establishes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help plan, design and prepare environmental and structural facilities for the U.S. Army. Made up of civilian workers, members of the Continental Army and French officers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played an essential role in the critical Revolutionary War battles at Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown. The members of the Corps who had joined at the time of its founding in 1779 left the army with their fellow veterans at the end of the War for Independence. In 1794, Congress created a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers to serve the same purpose under the new federal government. The Corps of Engineers itself was reestablished as an enduring division of the federal government in 1802. Upon its reestablishment, the Corps began its chief task of creating and maintaining military fortifications. These responsibilities increased in urgency as the new United States prepared for a second war with Britain in the years before 1812. The Corps' greatest contribution during this era was to the defense of New York Harbor—the fortifications it built not only persuaded British naval commanders to stay away from the city during the War of 1812, but later served as the foundations for the Statue of Liberty. In subsequent years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers evolved from providing services for the military to helping map out the uncharted territories that would become the western United States. Beginning in 1824, the Corps also took responsibility for navigation and flood control of the nation's river systems. Today, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is made up of more than 35,000 civilian and enlisted men and women. In recent years, the Corps has worked on rebuilding projects in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the reconstruction of the city of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-establishes-the-us-army-corps-of-engineers
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Post by dreamer on Mar 12, 2012 5:43:12 GMT -5
March 12th American Revolution Public Notice urges recognition of "humane ladies", 1776 Automotive Italian auto titan Gianni Agnelli born, 1921 Civil War Union's Red River Campaign begins in Louisiana, 1864 Cold War Truman Doctrine is announced, 1947 Crime London police conduct drug raid at home of George Harrison, 1969 Police recover Elizabeth Smart and arrest her abductors, 2003 Disaster Hail causes stampede at soccer match in Nepal, 1988 General Interest The Blizzard of 1888, 1888 Gandhi leads civil disobedience, 1930 FDR gives first fireside chat, 1933 Germany annexes Austria, 1938 Reno sworn in as attorney general, 1993 Hollywood Richard Pryor releases Live on the Sunset Strip, 1982 Literary Jack Kerouac is born, 1922 Music The Dixie Chicks backlash begins, 2003 Old West Chinese laborers excluded from U.S., 1888 Presidential FDR broadcasts first fireside chat, 1933 Sports New York Highlanders join American League, 1903 Vietnam War McCarthy does well in the Democratic primary, 1968 Australians withdraw from South Vietnam, 1972 World War I Russian army lends support to rebels in February Revolution, 1917 World War II Hitler announces an Anschluss with Austria, 1938 ******************** 1933: FDR gives first fireside chatOn this day in 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address or "fireside chat," broadcast directly from the White House. Roosevelt began that first address simply: "I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking." He went on to explain his recent decision to close the nation's banks in order to stop a surge in mass withdrawals by panicked investors worried about possible bank failures. The banks would be reopening the next day, Roosevelt said, and he thanked the public for their "fortitude and good temper" during the "banking holiday." At the time, the U.S. was at the lowest point of the Great Depression, with between 25 and 33 percent of the work force unemployed. The nation was worried, and Roosevelt's address was designed to ease fears and to inspire confidence in his leadership. Roosevelt went on to deliver 30 more of these broadcasts between March 1933 and June 1944. They reached an astonishing number of American households, 90 percent of which owned a radio at the time. Journalist Robert Trout coined the phrase "fireside chat" to describe Roosevelt's radio addresses, invoking an image of the president sitting by a fire in a living room, speaking earnestly to the American people about his hopes and dreams for the nation. In fact, Roosevelt took great care to make sure each address was accessible and understandable to ordinary Americans, regardless of their level of education. He used simple vocabulary and relied on folksy anecdotes or analogies to explain the often complex issues facing the country. Over the course of his historic 12-year presidency, Roosevelt used the chats to build popular support for his groundbreaking New Deal policies, in the face of stiff opposition from big business and other groups. After World War II began, he used them to explain his administration's wartime policies to the American people. The success of Roosevelt's chats was evident not only in his three re-elections, but also in the millions of letters that flooded the White House. Farmers, business owners, men, women, rich, poor--most of them expressed the feeling that the president had entered their home and spoken directly to them. In an era when presidents had previously communicated with their citizens almost exclusively through spokespeople and journalists, it was an unprecedented step. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 13, 2012 5:54:53 GMT -5
March 13thAmerican Revolution Unitarian Joseph Priestley is born in Yorkshire, 1733 Automotive "The Love Bug" opens in theaters, 1969 Civil War Confederacy approves black soldiers, 1865 Cold War Kennedy proposes Alliance for Progress, 1961 Crime Black magic, voodoo, and murder occurs at Rancho Santa Elena, 1989 Disaster Quake rocks Turkey, 1992 General Interest William Hershel discovers Uranus, 1781 Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson begins, 1868 Czar Alexander II assassinated, 1881 U.S. Army launches K-9 Corps, 1942 Tragedy at Dunblane, 1996 Hollywood Disney names Robert Iger as new chief executive, 2005 Literary Henrik Ibsen's play Ghosts opens in London, 1891 Music Eric Clapton leaves the Yardbirds, 1965 Old West Houston retreats from Santa Anna's army, 1836 Presidential Senate hears impeachment charges against Andrew Johnson, 1868 Sports Johan Santana born, 1979 Vietnam War Viet Minh attack French garrison, 1954 Ban Me Thuot falls, 1975 World War I Battle of Neuve Chapelle ends, 1915 World War II London suspends travel between Ireland and Britain, 1944 ******************** 1942: U.S. Army launches K-9 CorpsOn this day in 1942, the Quartermaster Corps (QMC) of the United States Army begins training dogs for the newly established War Dog Program, or "K-9 Corps." Well over a million dogs served on both sides during World War I, carrying messages along the complex network of trenches and providing some measure of psychological comfort to the soldiers. The most famous dog to emerge from the war was Rin Tin Tin, an abandoned puppy of German war dogs found in France in 1918 and taken to the United States, where he made his film debut in the 1922 silent film The Man from Hell's River. As the first bona fide animal movie star, Rin Tin Tin made the little-known German Shepherd breed famous across the country. In the United States, the practice of training dogs for military purposes was largely abandoned after World War I. When the country entered World War II in December 1941, the American Kennel Association and a group called Dogs for Defense began a movement to mobilize dog owners to donate healthy and capable animals to the Quartermaster Corps of the U.S. Army. Training began in March 1942, and that fall the QMC was given the task of training dogs for the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard as well. The K-9 Corps initially accepted over 30 breeds of dogs, but the list was soon narrowed to seven: German Shepherds, Belgian sheep dogs, Doberman Pinschers, collies, Siberian Huskies, Malumutes and Eskimo dogs. Members of the K-9 Corps were trained for a total of 8 to 12 weeks. After basic obedience training, they were sent through one of four specialized programs to prepare them for work as sentry dogs, scout or patrol dogs, messenger dogs or mine-detection dogs. In active combat duty, scout dogs proved especially essential by alerting patrols to the approach of the enemy and preventing surprise attacks. The top canine hero of World War II was Chips, a German Shepherd who served with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. Trained as a sentry dog, Chips broke away from his handlers and attacked an enemy machine gun nest in Italy, forcing the entire crew to surrender. The wounded Chips was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and the Purple Heart--all of which were later revoked due to an Army policy preventing official commendation of animals. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 14, 2012 4:48:33 GMT -5
March 14th American Revolution Alexander Hamilton is named captain of artillery company, 1776 Automotive Mack Truck founder killed in car crash, 1922 Civil War Yankees capture New Bern, North Carolina, 1862 Cold War Gorbachev elected president of the Soviet Union, 1990 Crime The FBI debuts 10 Most Wanted, 1950 Disaster Boxing team among casualties in Polish Air crash, 1980 General Interest Albert Einstein born, 1879 Jack Ruby sentenced to death, 1964 Birmingham Six released, 1991 Hollywood Billy Crystal is born, 1948 Literary Sylvia Beach, bookstore owner and publisher of Ulysses, is born, 1887 Music The Recording Industry Association of America awards first Gold Record to Perry Como for "Catch A Falling Star", 1958 Old West Max Brand publishes his first novel, 1919 Presidential JFK's body moved to permanent gravesite, 1967 Sports President Clinton expresses desire to return to golf course, 1997 Vietnam War Allies launch second wave of Rolling Thunder, 1965 Nixon discusses the possibility of U.S. troop withdrawals, 1969 World War I German cruiser Dresden sinks, 1915 World War II Germans recapture Kharkov, 1943 ******************** 1879: Albert Einstein bornOn March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein is born, the son of a Jewish electrical engineer in Ulm, Germany. Einstein's theories of special and general relativity drastically altered man's view of the universe, and his work in particle and energy theory helped make possible quantum mechanics and, ultimately, the atomic bomb. After a childhood in Germany and Italy, Einstein studied physics and mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic Academy in Zurich, Switzerland. He became a Swiss citizen and in 1905 was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich while working at the Swiss patent office in Bern. That year, which historians of Einstein's career call the annus mirabilis--the "miracle year"--he published five theoretical papers that were to have a profound effect on the development of modern physics. In the first of these, titled "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light," Einstein theorized that light is made up of individual quanta (photons) that demonstrate particle-like properties while collectively behaving like a wave. The hypothesis, an important step in the development of quantum theory, was arrived at through Einstein's examination of the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon in which some solids emit electrically charged particles when struck by light. This work would later earn him the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. In the second paper, he devised a new method of counting and determining the size of the atoms and molecules in a given space, and in the third he offered a mathematical explanation for the constant erratic movement of particles suspended in a fluid, known as Brownian motion. These two papers provided indisputable evidence of the existence of atoms, which at the time was still disputed by a few scientists. Einstein's fourth groundbreaking scientific work of 1905 addressed what he termed his special theory of relativity. In special relativity, time and space are not absolute, but relative to the motion of the observer. Thus, two observers traveling at great speeds in regard to each other would not necessarily observe simultaneous events in time at the same moment, nor necessarily agree in their measurements of space. In Einstein's theory, the speed of light, which is the limiting speed of any body having mass, is constant in all frames of reference. In the fifth paper that year, an exploration of the mathematics of special relativity, Einstein announced that mass and energy were equivalent and could be calculated with an equation, E=mc2. Although the public was not quick to embrace his revolutionary science, Einstein was welcomed into the circle of Europe's most eminent physicists and given professorships in Zýrich, Prague, and Berlin. In 1916, he published "The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity," which proposed that gravity, as well as motion, can affect the intervals of time and of space. According to Einstein, gravitation is not a force, as Isaac Newton had argued, but a curved field in the space-time continuum, created by the presence of mass. An object of very large gravitational mass, such as the sun, would therefore appear to warp space and time around it, which could be demonstrated by observing starlight as it skirted the sun on its way to earth. In 1919, astronomers studying a solar eclipse verified predictions Einstein made in the general theory of relativity, and he became an overnight celebrity. Later, other predictions of general relativity, such as a shift in the orbit of the planet Mercury and the probable existence of black holes, were confirmed by scientists. During the next decade, Einstein made continued contributions to quantum theory and began work on a unified field theory, which he hoped would encompass quantum mechanics and his own relativity theory as a grand explanation of the workings of the universe. As a world-renowned public figure, he became increasingly political, taking up the cause of Zionism and speaking out against militarism and rearmament. In his native Germany, this made him an unpopular figure, and after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933 Einstein renounced his German citizenship and left the country. He later settled in the United States, where he accepted a post at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He would remain there for the rest of his life, working on his unified field theory and relaxing by sailing on a local lake or playing his violin. He became an American citizen in 1940. In 1939, despite his lifelong pacifist beliefs, he agreed to write to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of a group of scientists who were concerned with American inaction in the field of atomic-weapons research. Like the other scientists, he feared sole German possession of such a weapon. He played no role, however, in the subsequent Manhattan Project and later deplored the use of atomic bombs against Japan. After the war, he called for the establishment of a world government that would control nuclear technology and prevent future armed conflict. In 1950, he published his unified field theory, which was quietly criticized as a failure. A unified explanation of gravitation, subatomic phenomena, and electromagnetism remains elusive today. Albert Einstein, one of the most creative minds in human history, died in Princeton in 1955. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 15, 2012 5:34:53 GMT -5
March 14thAmerican Revolution Washington puts an end to the Newburgh Conspiracy, 1783 Automotive Construction begins on America's highest vehicle tunnel, 1968 Civil War Confederate General Edward A. Perry is born, 1831 Cold War Gorbachev calls for radical agricultural reform, 1989 Crime The ides of March: Julius Caesar is murdered, 44 B.C. Disaster Blizzard unexpectedly hits North Dakota and Minnesota, 1941 General Interest The Ides of March, 44 B.C. Maine enters the Union, 1820 Czar Nicholas II abdicates, 1917 Johnson calls for equal voting rights, 1965 Hollywood Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather opens, 1972 Literary Julius Caesar is stabbed, 44 B.C. Music Frankie Avalon's "Venus" hits #1, 1959 Old West Andrew Jackson born, 1767 Presidential Andrew Jackson is born, 1767 Sports Bobby Orr scores 100 points in one season, 1970 Vietnam War Army Chief of Staff reports on South Vietnam, 1965 President Nixon hints at reintervention, 1973 World War I Russian czar abdicates, 1917 World War II Nazis take Czechoslovakia, 1939 ******************** 1965: Johnson calls for equal voting rightsOn this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all. Using the phrase "we shall overcome," borrowed from African-American leaders struggling for equal rights, Johnson declared that "every American citizen must have an equal right to vote." Johnson reminded the nation that the Fifteenth Amendment, which was passed after the Civil War, gave all citizens the right to vote regardless of race or color. But states had defied the Constitution and erected barriers. Discrimination had taken the form of literacy, knowledge or character tests administered solely to African-Americans to keep them from registering to vote. "Their cause must be our cause too," Johnson said. "Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome." The speech was delivered eight days after racial violence erupted in Selma, Alabama. Civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King and over 500 supporters were attacked while planning a march to Montgomery to register African-Americans to vote. The police violence that erupted resulted in the death of a King supporter, a white Unitarian Minister from Boston named James J. Reeb. Television news coverage of the event galvanized voting rights supporters in Congress. A second attempt to march to Montgomery was also blocked by police. It took Federal intervention with the "federalizing" of the Alabama national guard and the addition of over 2,000 other guards to allow the march to begin. The march to Montgomery finally began March 21 with over 3,000 participants under the glare of worldwide news publicity. The violence, however, continued. Just after the march was successfully completed on March 25, four Klansman shot and killed Detroit homemaker Viola Liuzzo as she drove marchers back to Selma. On August 6, 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to blacks. While state and local enforcement of the act was initially weak, mainly in the South, the Voting Rights Act gave African-American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among blacks increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969. In 1970, President Richard Nixon extended the provisions of the Voting Rights Act and lowered the eligible voting age for all voters to 18. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 16, 2012 6:17:33 GMT -5
March 16thAmerican Revolution "Father of the Constitution" is born, 1751 Automotive Craven edges out Busch in closest NASCAR finish, 2003 Civil War Confederates swept aside at the Battle of Averasboro, 1865 Cold War Reagan orders troops into Honduras, 1988 Crime A virtuous woman turns murderous, 1881 Disaster Supertanker wrecks off French coast, 1978 General Interest U.S. Military Academy established, 1802 First liquid-fueled rocket, 1926 My Lai massacre takes place in Vietnam, 1968 Terry Anderson kidnapped, 1985 Hollywood Robert Blake acquitted of wife’s murder, 2005 Literary The Scarlet Letter is published, 1850 Music Motown soul singer Tammi Terrell dies, 1970 Old West Judge Roy Bean dies, 1903 Presidential James Madison is born, 1751 Sports Baseball owners give Veeck cold shoulder, 1953 Vietnam War U.S. troops massacre South Vietnamese, 1968 South Vietnamese flee Pleiku and Kontum, 1975 World War I German Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz resigns, 1916 World War II Fighting on Iwo Jima ends, 1945 ******************** 1968: My Lai massacre takes place in VietnamOn this day in 1968, a platoon of American soldiers brutally kill between 200 and 500 unarmed civilians at My Lai, one of a cluster of small villages located near the northern coast of South Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, U.S. troops frequently bombed and shelled the province of Quang Ngai, believing it to be a stronghold for forces of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, or Viet Cong (VC). In March 1968, a platoon of soldiers called Charlie Company received word that Viet Cong guerrillas had taken cover in the Quang Ngai village of Son My. Led by Lieutenant William L. Calley, the platoon entered one of the village's four hamlets, My Lai 4, on a search-and-destroy mission on the morning of March 16. Instead of guerrilla fighters, they found unarmed villagers, most of them women, children and old men. The soldiers had been advised before the attack by army command that all who were found in My Lai could be considered VC or active VC sympathizers, and told to destroy the village. Still, they acted with extraordinary brutality, raping and torturing villagers before killing them and dragging dozens of people, including young children and babies, into a ditch and executing them with automatic weapons. The massacre reportedly ended when an Army helicopter pilot, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, landed his aircraft between the soldiers and the retreating villagers and threatened to open fire if they continued their attacks. The events at My Lai were covered up by high-ranking army officers until the following March, when one soldier, Ron Ridenhour, heard of the incident secondhand and wrote about it in a letter to President Richard Nixon, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and various congressmen. The letter was largely ignored until later that year, when investigative journalist Seymour Hersh interviewed Calley and broke the story. Soon, My Lai was front-page news and an international scandal. In March 1970, an official U.S. Army inquiry board charged 14 officers, including Calley and his company commander, Captain Ernest Medina, of crimes relating to My Lai. Of that number, only Calley was convicted. Found guilty of personally killing 22 people, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Upon appeal, his sentence was reduced to 20 years, and eventually to 10. Seen by many as a scapegoat, Calley was paroled in 1974 after serving just one-third of his sentence. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/my-lai-massacre-takes-place-in-vietnam1802: U.S. Military Academy establishedThe United States Military Academy--the first military school in the United States--is founded by Congress for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. Located at West Point, New York, the U.S. Military Academy is often simply known as West Point. Located on the high west bank of New York's Hudson River, West Point was the site of a Revolutionary-era fort built to protect the Hudson River Valley from British attack. In 1780, Patriot General Benedict Arnold, the commander of the fort, agreed to surrender West Point to the British in exchange for 6,000 pounds. However, the plot was uncovered before it fell into British hands, and Arnold fled to the British for protection. Ten years after the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy in 1802, the growing threat of another war with Great Britain resulted in congressional action to expand the academy's facilities and increase the West Point corps. Beginning in 1817, the U.S. Military Academy was reorganized by superintendent Sylvanus Thayer--later known as the "father of West Point"--and the school became one of the nation's finest sources of civil engineers. During the Mexican-American War, West Point graduates filled the leading ranks of the victorious U.S. forces, and with the outbreak of the Civil War former West Point classmates regretfully lined up against one another in the defense of their native states. In 1870, the first African-American cadet was admitted into the U.S. Military Academy, and in 1976, the first female cadets. The academy is now under the general direction and supervision of the department of the U.S. Army and has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 17, 2012 5:13:28 GMT -5
March 17thAmerican Revolution British evacuate Boston, 1776 Automotive Auto pioneer Gottlieb Daimler born, 1834 Civil War North and South clash at the Battle of Kelly's Ford, 1863 Cold War Lithuania rejects Soviet demand to renounce its independence, 1990 Crime Clark pleads guilty in Yale grad student slaying, 2011 Disaster Earthquakes kill more than 1,200 in Taiwan, 1906 General Interest Saint Patrick dies, 461 First St. Patrick's Day parade, 1762 The British evacuate Boston, 1776 Van Gogh paintings shown, 1901 Hollywood Julia Roberts collects $20 million for Erin Brockovich, 2000 Literary Novelist and playwright Paul Green is born, 1894 Music The Champs' "Tequila" is the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts, 1958 Old West Jim Bridger born, 1804 Presidential Franklin Roosevelt marries Eleanor Roosevelt, 1905 Sports Bobby Jones is born, 1902 Vietnam War National Security Council reviews situation, 1964 Results of Peers investigation announced, 1970 World War I Shakeup in French government, 1917 World War II Todt named Reich Minister for Weapons and Munitions, 1940 ******************** 461: Saint Patrick diesOn this day in 461 A.D., Saint Patrick, Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, dies at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland. Much of what is known about Patrick's legendary life comes from the Confessio, a book he wrote during his last years. Born in Great Britain, probably in Scotland, to a well-to-do Christian family of Roman citizenship, Patrick was captured and enslaved at age 16 by Irish marauders. For the next six years, he worked as a herder in Ireland, turning to a deepening religious faith for comfort. Following the counsel of a voice he heard in a dream one night, he escaped and found passage on a ship to Britain, where he was eventually reunited with his family. According to the Confessio, in Britain Patrick had another dream, in which an individual named Victoricus gave him a letter, entitled "The Voice of the Irish." As he read it, Patrick seemed to hear the voices of Irishmen pleading him to return to their country and walk among them once more. After studying for the priesthood, Patrick was ordained a bishop. He arrived in Ireland in 433 and began preaching the Gospel, converting many thousands of Irish and building churches around the country. After 40 years of living in poverty, teaching, traveling and working tirelessly, Patrick died on March 17, 461 in Saul, where he had built his first church. Since that time, countless legends have grown up around Patrick. Made the patron saint of Ireland, he is said to have baptized hundreds of people on a single day, and to have used a three-leaf clover--the famous shamrock--to describe the Holy Trinity. In art, he is often portrayed trampling on snakes, in accordance with the belief that he drove those reptiles out of Ireland. For thousands of years, the Irish have observed the day of Saint Patrick's death as a religious holiday, attending church in the morning and celebrating with food and drink in the afternoon. The first St. Patrick's Day parade, though, took place not in Ireland, but the United States, when Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City in 1762. As the years went on, the parades became a show of unity and strength for persecuted Irish-American immigrants, and then a popular celebration of Irish-American heritage. The party went global in 1995, when the Irish government began a large-scale campaign to market St. Patrick's Day as a way of driving tourism and showcasing Ireland's many charms to the rest of the world. Today, March 17 is a day of international celebration, as millions of people around the globe put on their best green clothing to drink beer, watch parades and toast the luck of the Irish. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 18, 2012 18:12:23 GMT -5
March 18th American Revolution Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, 1766 Automotive Studebaker goes bankrupt, 1933 Civil War Sanitary Commission Fair in Washington, 1864 Cold War Nationalist Chinese forces invade mainland China, 1950 Crime Three women are murdered at Yosemite, 1999 Disaster Natural gas explosion kills schoolchildren in Texas, 1937 General Interest Tolpuddle Martyrs banished to Australia, 1834 Wells and Fargo start shipping and banking company, 1852 The Tri-State Tornado, 1925 French-Algerian truce, 1962 Hollywood Anthony Minghella dies, 2008 Literary John Updike is born, 1932 Music Irving Berlin copyrights the biggest pop song of the early 20th century, 1911 Old West Wells Fargo and Company established, 1852 Presidential Grover Cleveland is born in Caldwell, New Jersey, 1837 Sports Spectator death forces new rules for NHL games, 2002 Vietnam War U.S. bombs Cambodia for the first time, 1969 Lon Nol ousts Prince Sihanouk, 1970 World War I Allies open attack on Dardanelles, 1915 World War II War Relocation Authority is established in United States, 1942 ******************** 1852: Wells and Fargo start shipping and banking companyOn this day in 1852, in New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake business. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 prompted a huge spike in the demand for cross-country shipping. Wells and Fargo decided to take advantage of these great opportunities. In July 1852, their company shipped its first loads of freight from the East Coast to mining camps scattered around northern California. The company contracted with independent stagecoach companies to provide the fastest possible transportation and delivery of gold dust, important documents and other valuable freight. It also served as a bank--buying gold dust, selling paper bank drafts and providing loans to help fuel California's growing economy. In 1857, Wells, Fargo and Co. formed the Overland Mail Company, known as the "Butterfield Line," which provided regular mail and passenger service along an ever-growing number of routes. In the boom-and-bust economy of the 1850s, the company earned a reputation as a trustworthy and reliable business, and its logo--the classic stagecoach--became famous. For a premium price, Wells, Fargo and Co. would send an employee on horseback to deliver or pick up a message or package. Wells, Fargo and Co. merged with several other "Pony Express" and stagecoach lines in 1866 to become the unrivaled leader in transportation in the West. When the transcontinental railroad was completed three years later, the company began using railroad to transport its freight. By 1910, its shipping network connected 6,000 locations, from the urban centers of the East and the farming towns of the Midwest to the ranching and mining centers of Texas and California and the lumber mills of the Pacific Northwest. After splitting from the freight business in 1905, the banking branch of the company merged with the Nevada National Bank and established new headquarters in San Francisco. During World War I, the U.S. government nationalized the company's shipping routes and combined them with the railroads into the American Railway Express, effectively putting an end to Wells, Fargo and Co. as a transportation and delivery business. The following April, the banking headquarters was destroyed in a major earthquake, but the vaults remained intact and the bank's business continued to grow. After two later mergers, the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company--shortened to the Wells Fargo Bank in 1962--became, and has remained, one of the biggest banking institutions in the United States. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 19, 2012 19:07:32 GMT -5
March 19th American Revolution Thomas McKean is born, 1734 Automotive Maverick auto exec John DeLorean dies, 2005 Civil War Rebels fail to stop Yankees at the Battle of Bentonville, 1865 Cold War East Germany approves new constitution, 1949 Crime Bodies found in Yosemite serial killer case, 1999 Disaster Peruvian town wiped out, 1971 General Interest First U.S. air combat mission begins, 1916 Nevada legalizes gambling, 1931 DeMille wins Oscar, 1953 War in Iraq begins, 2003 Hollywood First Academy Awards telecast on NBC, 1953 Literary Balzac botches a publicity stunt, 1842 Music Elvis Presley puts a down payment on Graceland, 1957 Old West Artist Charlie Russell born, 1864 Presidential Bush announces the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003 Sports Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA finals, 1966 Vietnam War Seoul agrees to send additional troops, 1966 National emergency declared in Cambodia, 1970 World War I First U.S. air-combat mission begins, 1916 World War II General Fromm executed for plot against Hitler, 1945 ********************* 2003: War in Iraq beginsOn this day in 2003, the United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiates war on Iraq. Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq's capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a televised address, "At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger." President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction. Hostilities began about 90 minutes after the U.S.-imposed deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face war passed. The first targets, which Bush said were "of military importance," were hit with Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. fighter-bombers and warships stationed in the Persian Gulf. In response to the attacks, Republic of Iraq radio in Baghdad announced, "the evil ones, the enemies of God, the homeland and humanity, have committed the stupidity of aggression against our homeland and people." Though Saddam Hussein had declared in early March 2003 that, "it is without doubt that the faithful will be victorious against aggression," he went into hiding soon after the American invasion, speaking to his people only through an occasional audiotape. Coalition forces were able to topple his regime and capture Iraq's major cities in just three weeks, sustaining few casualties. President Bush declared the end of major combat operations on May 1, 2003. Despite the defeat of conventional military forces in Iraq, an insurgency has continued an intense guerrilla war in the nation in the years since military victory was announced, resulting in thousands of coalition military, insurgent and civilian deaths. After an intense manhunt, U.S. soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep hole, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit. He did not resist and was uninjured during the arrest. A soldier at the scene described him as "a man resigned to his fate." Hussein was arrested and began trial for crimes against his people, including mass killings, in October 2005. In June 2004, the provisional government in place since soon after Saddam's ouster transferred power to the Iraqi Interim Government. In January 2005, the Iraqi people elected a 275-member Iraqi National Assembly. A new constitution for the country was ratified that October. On November 6, 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. After an unsuccessful appeal, he was executed on December 30, 2006. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 20, 2012 5:10:15 GMT -5
March 20thAmerican Revolution King Louis XVI receives U.S. representatives, 1778 Automotive Auto pioneer James Packard dies, 1928 Civil War Willie and Tad Lincoln get the measles, 1861 Cold War Khrushchev begins his rise to power, 1953 Crime Tokyo subways are attacked with sarin gas, 1995 Disaster Black Death is created, allegedly, 1345 General Interest Henry V ascends upon father's death, 1413 Republican Party founded, 1854 LBJ sends federal troops to Alabama, 1965 Nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway, 1995 Hollywood 20th annual Academy Awards celebrated, 1948 Literary Uncle Tom's Cabin is published, 1852 Music Joan Jett tops the pop charts with "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", 1982 Old West Ned Buntline born, 1823 Presidential LBJ pledges federal troops to Alabama civil-rights march, 1965 Sports Babe Didrikson goes to the mound for Philly, 1934 Vietnam War Americans alarmed about impending French defeat, 1954 Retired Marine Commandant comments on conduct of war, 1968 World War I Britain and Russia divide future spoils of war, 1915 World War II British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma, 1945 ******************** 1965: LBJ sends federal troops to AlabamaOn this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson notifies Alabama's Governor George Wallace that he will use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Intimidation and discrimination had earlier prevented Selma's black population--over half the city--from registering and voting. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, a group of 600 demonstrators marched on the capital city of Montgomery to protest this disenfranchisement and the earlier killing of a black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by a state trooper. In brutal scenes that were later broadcast on television, state and local police attacked the marchers with billy clubs and tear gas. TV viewers far and wide were outraged by the images, and a protest march was organized just two days after "Bloody Sunday" by Martin Luther King, Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King turned the marchers around, however, rather than carry out the march without federal judicial approval. After an Alabama federal judge ruled on March 18 that a third march could go ahead, President Johnson and his advisers worked quickly to find a way to ensure the safety of King and his demonstrators on their way from Selma to Montgomery. The most powerful obstacle in their way was Governor Wallace, an outspoken anti-integrationist who was reluctant to spend any state funds on protecting the demonstrators. Hours after promising Johnson--in telephone calls recorded by the White House--that he would call out the Alabama National Guard to maintain order, Wallace went on television and demanded that Johnson send in federal troops instead. Furious, Johnson told Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to write a press release stating that because Wallace refused to use the 10,000 available guardsmen to preserve order in his state, Johnson himself was calling the guard up and giving them all necessary support. Several days later, 50,000 marchers followed King some 54 miles, under the watchful eyes of state and federal troops. Arriving safely in Montgomery on March 25, they watched King deliver his famous "How Long, Not Long" speech from the steps of the Capitol building. The clash between Johnson and Wallace--and Johnson's decisive action--was an important turning point in the civil rights movement. Within five months, Congress had passed the Voting Rights Act, which Johnson proudly signed into law on August 6, 1965. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 21, 2012 6:07:46 GMT -5
March 21st American Revolution Massacre at Hancock's Bridge, 1778 Automotive Formula One champ Ayrton Senna born, 1960 Civil War Yankee General Edwin V. Sumner dies, 1863 Cold War Carter tells U.S. athletes of Olympic boycott, 1980 Crime Alcatraz closes its doors, 1963 Disaster Series of tornadoes hits Southeast U.S., 1932 General Interest Napoleonic Code approved in France, 1804 Stanley begins search for Livingstone, 1871 Second Battle of the Somme begins, 1918 Massacre in Sharpeville, 1960 Selma to Montgomery march begins, 1965 Hollywood Famous Dallas cliffhanger airs, 1980 Literary Reward offered for identity of pamphlet author, 1678 Music The Moondog Coronation Ball is history's first rock concert, 1952 Old West "Broncho Billy" Anderson born, 1882 Presidential Carter announces Olympic boycott, 1980 Sports Ronaldinho is born, 1980 Vietnam War North Vietnam rejects Johnson overture, 1967 Khmer Rouge shell Phnom Penh, 1972 World War I Germany begins major offensive on the Western Front, 1918 World War II Another plot to kill Hitler foiled, 1943 ******************** 1871: Stanley begins search for LivingstoneOn this day in 1871, journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous search through Africa for the missing British explorer Dr. David Livingstone. In the late 19th century, Europeans and Americans were deeply fascinated by the "Dark Continent" of Africa and its many mysteries. Few did more to increase Africa's fame than Livingstone, one of England's most intrepid explorers. In August 1865, he set out on a planned two-year expedition to find the source of the Nile River. Livingstone also wanted to help bring about the abolition of the slave trade, which was devastating Africa's population. Almost six years after his expedition began, little had been heard from Livingstone. James Gordon Bennett, Jr., editor of the New York Herald, decided to capitalize on the public's craze for news of their hero. He sent Stanley to lead an expedition into the African wilderness to find Livingstone or bring back proof of his death. At age 28, Stanley had his own fascinating past. As a young orphan in Wales, he crossed the Atlantic on the crew of a merchant ship. He jumped ship in New Orleans and later served in the Civil War as both a Confederate and a Union soldier before beginning a career in journalism. After setting out from Zanzibar in March 1871, Stanley led his caravan of nearly 2,000 men into the interior of Africa. Nearly eight months passed--during which Stanley contracted dysentery, cerebral malaria and smallpox--before the expedition approached the village of Ujiji, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Sick and poverty-stricken, Livingstone had come to Ujiji that July after living for some time at the mercy of Arab slave traders. When Stanley's caravan entered the village on October 27, flying the American flag, villagers crowded toward the new arrivals. Spotting a white man with a gray beard in the crowd, Stanley stepped toward him and stretched out his hand: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" These words--and Livingstone's grateful response--soon became famous across Europe and the United States. Though Stanley urged Livingstone to return with him to London, the explorer vowed to continue his original mission. Livingstone died 18 months later in today's Zambia; his body was embalmed and returned to Britain, where he was buried in Westminster Abbey. As for Stanley, he returned to Africa to fulfill a promise he had made to Livingstone to find the source of the Nile. He later damaged his reputation by accepting money from King Leopold II of Belgium to help create the Belgian-ruled Congo Free State and promote the slave trade. When he left Africa, Stanley resumed his British citizenship and even served in Parliament, but when he died he was refused burial in Westminster Abbey because of his actions in the Congo Free State. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 24, 2012 6:08:49 GMT -5
March 22ndAmerican Revolution British pass Stamp Act, 1765 Automotive The origins of the Hummer, 1983 Civil War Confederate General Braxton Bragg is born, 1817 Cold War Truman orders loyalty checks of federal employees, 1947 Crime Teachers are indicted at the McMartin Preschool, 1984 Disaster Earthquake destroys landmarks in Quito, Ecuador, 1859 General Interest Stamp Act imposed on American colonies, 1765 Naval hero killed in duel, 1820 Arab League formed, 1945 Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress, 1972 Hollywood News Corporation and NBC announce new Web deal, 2007 Literary Prolific, best-selling author James Patterson is born, 1947 Music Stephen Sondheim is born, 1930 Old West Louis L'Amour born, 1908 Presidential FDR legalizes sale of beer and wine, 1933 Sports First Stanley Cup championship played, 1894 Vietnam War Officials confirm "non-lethal gas" was provided, 1965 Westmoreland to depart South Vietnam, 1968 World War I Russians take Austrian garrison at Przemysl, 1915 World War II Cripps and Gandhi meet, 1942 ******************** 1765: Stamp Act imposed on American coloniesIn an effort to raise funds to pay off debts and defend the vast new American territories won from the French in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the British government passes the Stamp Act on this day in 1765. The legislation levied a direct tax on all materials printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies, from newspapers and pamphlets to playing cards and dice. Though the Stamp Act employed a strategy that was a common fundraising vehicle in England, it stirred a storm of protest in the colonies. The colonists had recently been hit with three major taxes: the Sugar Act (1764), which levied new duties on imports of textiles, wines, coffee and sugar; the Currency Act (1764), which caused a major decline in the value of the paper money used by colonists; and the Quartering Act (1765), which required colonists to provide food and lodging to British troops. With the passing of the Stamp Act, the colonists' grumbling finally became an articulated response to what they saw as the mother country's attempt to undermine their economic strength and independence. They raised the issue of taxation without representation, and formed societies throughout the colonies to rally against the British government and nobles who sought to exploit the colonies as a source of revenue and raw materials. By October of that year, nine of the 13 colonies sent representatives to the Stamp Act Congress, at which the colonists drafted the "Declaration of Rights and Grievances," a document that railed against the autocratic policies of the mercantilist British empire. Realizing that it actually cost more to enforce the Stamp Act in the protesting colonies than it did to abolish it, the British government repealed the tax the following year. The fracas over the Stamp Act, though, helped plant seeds for a far larger movement against the British government and the eventual battle for independence. Most important of these was the formation of the Sons of Liberty--a group of tradesmen who led anti-British protests in Boston and other seaboard cities--and other groups of wealthy landowners who came together from the across the colonies. Well after the Stamp Act was repealed, these societies continued to meet in opposition to what they saw as the abusive policies of the British empire. Out of their meetings, a growing nationalism emerged that would culminate in the fighting of the American Revolution only a decade later. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/stamp-act-imposed-on-american-colonies
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Post by dreamer on Mar 24, 2012 6:13:01 GMT -5
March 23rdAmerican Revolution Patrick Henry voices American opposition to British policy, 1775 Automotive Craig Breedlove, land-speed record holder, born, 1937 Civil War Rebels suffer defeat at the First Battle of Kernstown, 1862 Cold War Reagan calls for new antimissile technology, 1983 Crime Two men sentenced in murder of former Chilean diplomat, 1979 Disaster Tornadoes devastate Nebraska, 1913 General Interest OK enters national vernacular, 1839 Mussolini founds the Fascist party, 1919 Artificial-heart patient dies, 1983 Leading Mexican presidential candidate assassinated, 1994 Hollywood James Cameron's Titanic wins 11 Academy Awards, 1998 Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79, 2011 Literary Thomas Harris delivers Hannibal manuscript, 1999 Music Jim Morrison prompts a "Rally for Decency", 1969 Old West Lewis and Clark depart Fort Clatsop, 1806 Presidential Jackie Kennedy receives horse from governor of Pakistan, 1962 Sports Wayne Gretzky scores number 802, 1994 Vietnam War U.S. plane shot down over Laos, 1961 Prince Sihanouk issues a call for arms, 1970 World War I Paris hit by shells from new German gun, 1918 World War II Germans slaughter Italian civilians, 1944 ******************** 1839: OK enters national vernacularOn this day in 1839, the initials "O.K." are first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for "oll correct," a popular slang misspelling of "all correct" at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans. During the late 1830s, it was a favorite practice among younger, educated circles to misspell words intentionally, then abbreviate them and use them as slang when talking to one another. Just as teenagers today have their own slang based on distortions of common words, such as "kewl" for "cool" or "DZ" for "these," the "in crowd" of the 1830s had a whole host of slang terms they abbreviated. Popular abbreviations included "KY" for "No use" ("know yuse"), "KG" for "No go" ("Know go"), and "OW" for all right ("oll wright"). Of all the abbreviations used during that time, OK was propelled into the limelight when it was printed in the Boston Morning Post as part of a joke. Its popularity exploded when it was picked up by contemporary politicians. When the incumbent president Martin Van Buren was up for reelection, his Democratic supporters organized a band of thugs to influence voters. This group was formally called the "O.K. Club," which referred both to Van Buren's nickname "Old Kinderhook" (based on his hometown of Kinderhook, New York), and to the term recently made popular in the papers. At the same time, the opposing Whig Party made use of "OK" to denigrate Van Buren's political mentor Andrew Jackson. According to the Whigs, Jackson invented the abbreviation "OK" to cover up his own misspelling of "all correct." The man responsible for unraveling the mystery behind "OK" was an American linguist named Allen Walker Read. An English professor at Columbia University, Read dispelled a host of erroneous theories on the origins of "OK," ranging from the name of a popular Army biscuit (Orrin Kendall) to the name of a Haitian port famed for its rum (Aux Cayes) to the signature of a Choctaw chief named Old Keokuk. Whatever its origins, "OK" has become one of the most ubiquitous terms in the world, and certainly one of America's greatest lingual exports. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ok-enters-national-vernacular
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Post by dreamer on Mar 24, 2012 6:16:30 GMT -5
March 24th American Revolution Parliament passes the Quartering Act, 1765 Automotive Ferrari's around-the-world relay stops in L.A., 2007 Civil War Abolitionist orator Wendell Phillips booed in Cincinnati, 1862 Cold War United States and Cuba engage in direct negotiations, 1977 Crime A school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas, kills five, 1998 Disaster Exxon Valdez runs aground in Alaska, 1989 General Interest Queen Elizabeth I dies, 1603 Exxon Valdez runs aground, 1989 Shannon Lucid enters Mir, 1996 NATO bombs Yugoslavia, 1999 Hollywood Halle Berry, Denzel Washington triumph at Oscars, 2002 Literary Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens, 1955 Music Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army, 1958 Old West John Wesley Powell born, 1834 Presidential Truman signs off on aid to Palestine, 1949 Sports Peyton Manning born, 1976 Vietnam War First teach-in conducted, 1965 North Vietnamese launch "Ho Chi Minh Campaign", 1975 World War I German forces cross the Somme River, 1918 World War II Wingate dies in Burma, 1944 ******************** 1989: Exxon Valdez runs agroundThe worst oil spill in U.S. territory begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, runs aground on a reef in Prince William Sound in southern Alaska. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the water. Attempts to contain the massive spill were unsuccessful, and wind and currents spread the oil more than 100 miles from its source, eventually polluting more than 700 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of birds and animals were adversely affected by the environmental disaster. It was later revealed that Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Valdez, was drinking at the time of the accident and allowed an uncertified officer to steer the massive vessel. In March 1990, Hazelwood was convicted of misdemeanor negligence, fined $50,000, and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. In July 1992, an Alaska court overturned Hazelwood's conviction, citing a federal statute that grants freedom from prosecution to those who report an oil spill. Exxon itself was condemned by the National Transportation Safety Board and in early 1991 agreed under pressure from environmental groups to pay a penalty of $100 million and provide $1 billion over a 10-year period for the cost of the cleanup. However, later in the year, both Alaska and Exxon rejected the agreement, and in October 1991 the oil giant settled the matter by paying $25 million, less than 4 percent of the cleanup aid promised by Exxon earlier that year. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 25, 2012 6:40:08 GMT -5
March 25thAmerican Revolution Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, 1774 Automotive Star driver Danica Patrick born, 1982 Civil War Confederates attack Fort Stedman, Virginia, 1865 Cold War Soviets announce withdrawal from Iran, 1946 Crime Verdict is announced in Scottsboro case, 1932 Disaster Fire kills 145 at Triangle Shirtwaist factory, 1911 General Interest The settlement of Maryland, 1634 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City, 1911 Common Market founded, 1957 King Faisal assassinated, 1975 Last U.S. troops depart Somalia, 1994 Hollywood Icelandic pop singer Bjork makes splash at the Oscars, 2001 Literary U.S. Customs seizes Howl, 1955 Music The Motown "family" stages a bittersweet reunion performance, 1983 Old West Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf surrenders, 1879 Presidential USS Sequoia becomes presidential yacht, 1933 Sports Sugar Ray defeats Basilio for middleweight title, 1958 Vietnam War Martin Luther King leads march against the war, 1967 Johnson meets with the "Wise Men", 1968 World War I Belarusian Peoples' Republic established, 1918 World War II Yugoslavia joins the Axis, 1941 ******************** 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York CityIn one of the darkest moments of America's industrial history, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns down, killing 145 workers, on this day in 1911. The tragedy led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers. The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was located in the top three floors of the 10-story Asch Building in downtown Manhattan. It was a sweatshop in every sense of the word: a cramped space lined with work stations and packed with poor immigrant workers, mostly teenaged women who did not speak English. At the time of the fire, there were four elevators with access to the factory floors, but only one was fully operational and it could hold only 12 people at a time. There were two stairways down to the street, but one was locked from the outside to prevent theft by the workers and the other opened inward only. The fire escape, as all would come to see, was shoddily constructed, and could not support the weight of more than a few women at a time. Blanck and Harris already had a suspicious history of factory fires. The Triangle factory was twice scorched in 1902, while their Diamond Waist Company factory burned twice, in 1907 and in 1910. It seems that Blanck and Harris deliberately torched their workplaces before business hours in order to collect on the large fire-insurance policies they purchased, a not uncommon practice in the early 20th century. While this was not the cause of the 1911 fire, it contributed to the tragedy, as Blanck and Harris refused to install sprinkler systems and take other safety measures in case they needed to burn down their shops again. Added to this delinquency were Blanck and Harris' notorious anti-worker policies. Their employees were paid a mere $15 a week, despite working 12 hours a day, every day. When the International Ladies Garment Workers Union led a strike in 1909 demanding higher pay and shorter and more predictable hours, Blanck and Harris' company was one of the few manufacturers who resisted, hiring police as thugs to imprison the striking women, and paying off politicians to look the other way. On March 25, a Saturday afternoon, there were 600 workers at the factory when a fire broke out in a rag bin on the eighth floor. The manager turned the fire hose on it, but the hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut. Panic ensued as the workers fled to every exit. The elevator broke down after only four trips, and women began jumping down the shaft to their deaths. Those who fled down the wrong set of stairs were trapped inside and burned alive. Other women trapped on the eighth floor began jumping out the windows, which created a problem for the firefighters whose hoses were crushed by falling bodies. Also, the firefighters' ladders stretched only as high as the seventh floor, and their safety nets were not strong enough to catch the women, who were jumping three at a time. Blanck and Harris were on the building's top floor with some workers when the fire broke out. They were able to escape by climbing onto the roof and hopping to an adjoining building. The fire was out within half an hour, but not before 49 workers had been killed by the fire, and another 100 or so were piled up dead in the elevator shaft or on the sidewalk. The workers' union organized a march on April 5 to protest the conditions that led to the fire; it was attended by 80,000 people. Though Blanck and Harris were put on trial for manslaughter, they managed to get off scot-free. Still, the massacre for which they were responsible did finally compel the city to enact reform. In addition to the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law passed that October, the New York Democratic set took up the cause of the worker and became known as a reform party. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Post by dreamer on Mar 26, 2012 6:09:41 GMT -5
March 26thAmerican Revolution South Carolina approves new constitution, 1776 Automotive Ford sells Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata, 2008 Civil War McPherson takes over the Union Army of the Tennessee, 1864 Cold War McCarthy charges that Owen Lattimore is a Soviet spy, 1950 Crime Torture chamber uncovered in Philadelphia, 1987 Disaster Deadly earthquake hits California, 1872 General Interest Salk announces polio vaccine, 1953 Israel-Egyptian peace agreement signed, 1979 Heaven's Gate cult members found dead, 1997 Hollywood American Beauty tops Academy Awards, 2000 Literary F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel published, 1920 Music "Black" music gets whitewashed, as Georgia Gibbs hits the pop charts with "The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry)", 1955 Old West The steamboat Yellowstone heads for Montana, 1832 Presidential Jefferson presented with a "mammoth loaf" of bread, 1804 Sports Michigan State defeats Indiana State in NCAA championship, 1979 Vietnam War Antiwar demonstration in Washington, 1969 Hue falls to the communists, 1975 World War I First Battle of Gaza, 1917 World War II Naval warfare gets new weapon, 1941 ******************** 1979: Israel-Egyptian peace agreement signedIn a ceremony at the White House, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign a historic peace agreement, ending three decades of hostilities between Egypt and Israel and establishing diplomatic and commercial ties. Less than two years earlier, in an unprecedented move for an Arab leader, Sadat traveled to Jerusalem, Israel, to seek a permanent peace settlement with Egypt's Jewish neighbor after decades of conflict. Sadat's visit, in which he met with Begin and spoke before Israel's parliament, was met with outrage in most of the Arab world. Despite criticism from Egypt's regional allies, Sadat continued to pursue peace with Begin, and in September 1978 the two leaders met again in the United States, where they negotiated an agreement with U.S. President Jimmy Carter at Camp David, Maryland. The Camp David Accords, the first peace agreement between the state of Israel and one of its Arab neighbors, laid the groundwork for diplomatic and commercial relations. Seven months later, a formal peace treaty was signed. For their achievement, Sadat and Begin were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize for Peace. Sadat's peace efforts were not so highly acclaimed in the Arab world--Egypt was suspended from the Arab League, and on October 6, 1981, Muslim extremists assassinated Sadat in Cairo. Nevertheless, the peace process continued without Sadat, and in 1982 Egypt formally established diplomatic relations with Israel. www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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