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This Day In History

September 17

1394 - King Charles VI of France orders the expulsion of all Jews from his kingdom. The culmination of a series of anti-Semitic orders from the monarchs of France, the order outlived the monarchy and remains one of the major contributing factors to the tiny percentage of the French population that identifies as Jewish.

1787 - The Constitution of the United States of America is signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Supporters of the document waged a hard-won battle to win ratification by the necessary nine out of 13 U.S. states.

1862 - Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland’s Antietam Creek in the bloodiest single day in American military history. By the time the sun went down, both armies still held their ground, despite staggering combined casualties–nearly 23,000 of the 100,000 soldiers engaged, including more than 3,600 dead.
 
1916 - Germany's "Red Baron," Manfred von Richthofen, wins his first aerial combat.
1959 - The X-15 rocket plane makes its first flight.
1976 - The Space Shuttle is unveiled to the public.
 
September 23

1779 - The U.S. ship Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, wins a hard-fought engagement against the British ships of war Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, off the eastern coast of England. After inflicting considerable damage to the Bonhomme Richard, Richard Pearson, the captain of the Serapis, asked Jones if he had struck his colors, the naval signal indicating surrender. From his disabled ship, Jones replied, “I have not yet begun to fight,” and after three more hours of furious fighting it was the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough that surrendered.

1806 - American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark return to St. Louis, Missouri, from the first recorded overland journey from the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast and back. The Lewis and Clark Expedition had set off more than two years before to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.

1846 - German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovers the planet Neptune at the Berlin Observatory.
 
September 25

1789 - The first Congress of the United States approves 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and sends them to the states for ratification. The amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government were reserved for the states and the people.

1957 - Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine Black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order.
 
September 28

48 BC - Pompey the Great is assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt.

1066 - William the Conqueror invades England landing at Pevensey Bay, Sussex

1542 - Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo discovers California, at San Diego Bay, naming it San Miguel and claims it for Spain
 
September 29

480 BC - The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I at the Battle of Salamis. The battle was fought in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens, and marked the high point of the second Persian invasion of Greece.

1918 - After a 56-hour-long bombardment, Allied forces breach the so-called Hindenburg Line (known to the Germans as the Siegfried Line), the last line of German defenses on the Western Front during World War I. Australian, British, French and American forces participated in the attack on the line, which began with the marathon bombardment, using 1,637 guns along a 10,000-yard-long front. In the last 24 hours the British artillery fired a record 945,052 shells.

1941 - The Babi Yar massacre of nearly 34,000 Jewish men, women and children begins on the outskirts of Kiev in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Beginning on September 29, more than 30,000 Jews were marched in small groups to the Babi Yar ravine to the north of the city, ordered to strip naked, and then machine-gunned into the ravine. The massacre ended on September 30.
 
October 1

331 BC -Alexander the Great's army of the Hellenic League met the Persian army of Darius III near Gaugamela, close to the modern city of Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan. Though heavily outnumbered, Alexander emerged victorious due to his army's superior tactics and his deft employment of light infantry. It was a decisive victory for the Hellenic League and led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire.

1890 - An act of Congress creates Yosemite National Park, home of such natural wonders as Half Dome and the giant sequoia trees. Environmental trailblazer John Muir (1838-1914) and his colleagues campaigned for the congressional action, which was signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison and paved the way for generations of hikers, campers and nature lovers, along with countless “Don’t Feed the Bears” signs.

1918 - A combined Arab and British force captures Damascus from the Turks during World War I, completing the liberation of Arabia. An instrumental commander in the Allied campaign was T.E. Lawrence, a legendary British soldier known as Lawrence of Arabia.

1961 - New York Yankee Roger Maris becomes the first-ever major-league baseball player to hit more than 60 home runs in a single season.
 
October 2

1187 - Balian of Ibelin surrenders the city of Jerusalem to Saladin after a seige that had begun 2 weeks earlier.

1835 - The growing tensions between Mexico and Texas erupt into violence when Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, sparking the Texan war for independence. The determined Texans would continue to battle Santa Ana and his army for another year and a half before winning their independence and establishing the Republic of Texas.

1944 - The Warsaw Uprising ends with the surrender of the surviving Polish rebels to German forces. The rebels, who supported the democratic Polish government-in-exile in London, hoped to gain control of the city before the Soviets “liberated” it. The Poles feared that if they failed to take the city the Soviet conquerors would forcibly set up a pro-Soviet communist regime in Poland.

1967 - Chief Justice Earl Warren swears in Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. As chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1940s and ’50s, Marshall was the architect and executor of the legal strategy that ended the era of official racial segregation.
 
October 5

1789 - The Women's March on Versailles began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. Their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries, who were seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. The market women and their various allies grew into a mob of thousands. Encouraged by revolutionary agitators, they ransacked the city armory for weapons and marched to the Palace of Versailles. The crowd besieged the palace, and in a dramatic and violent confrontation, they successfully pressed their demands upon King Louis XVI.

1877 - Chief Joseph formally surrendered to U.S. troops after he and his tribe, the Nez Perce, fought and outmaneuvered their enemies during a three-month-long, 1,400-mile retreat along the West in hopes of reaching Canada.

1908 - The independence of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire was proclaimed in the old capital of Tarnovo by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, who afterwards took the title "Tsar".

1969 - Monty Python’s Flying Circus premiered on BBC1, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV.
 

oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
October 5

1789 - The Women's March on Versailles began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. Their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries, who were seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. The market women and their various allies grew into a mob of thousands. Encouraged by revolutionary agitators, they ransacked the city armory for weapons and marched to the Palace of Versailles. The crowd besieged the palace, and in a dramatic and violent confrontation, they successfully pressed their demands upon King Louis XVI.

1877 - Chief Joseph formally surrendered to U.S. troops after he and his tribe, the Nez Perce, fought and outmaneuvered their enemies during a three-month-long, 1,400-mile retreat along the West in hopes of reaching Canada.

1908 - The independence of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire was proclaimed in the old capital of Tarnovo by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, who afterwards took the title "Tsar".

1969 - Monty Python’s Flying Circus premiered on BBC1, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV.
Just goes to prove- do not get between a French person and good bread.
 
October 6

105 BC - The armies of consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus and proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio are routed by the Cimbri under Boiorix and the Teutoni under Teutobod at the Battle of Arausio. Roman losses are described as being up to 80,000 troops as well as another 40,000 auxiliary troops (allies) and servants and camp follower, virtually all of their participants in the battle. In terms of losses, the battle is regarded as one of the worst defeats in the history of ancient Rome.

1849 - Thirteen Hungarian rebel generals were executed by the Austrian Empire in the ciity of Arad, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary (now in Romania), after the Hungarian Revolution (1848–1849). The execution was ordered by the Austrian general Julius Jacob von Haynau.

1981 - Islamic extremists assassinate Anwar Sadat, the president of Egypt, as he reviews troops on the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Led by Khaled el Islambouli, a lieutenant in the Egyptian army with connections to the terrorist group Takfir Wal-Hajira, the terrorists, all wearing army uniforms, stopped in front of the reviewing stand and fired shots and threw grenades into a crowd of Egyptian government officials. Sadat, who was shot four times, died two hours later. Ten other people also died in the attack.
 
October 8

1480 - On this day the Great Stand on the Ugra River begins between the forces of Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Prince Ivan III of Muscovy. Fighting began at one o'clock on the eighth and continued for almost four days. It is seen in Russian historiography as the end of Tatar/Mongol rule over Moscow beginning the gradual expansion of Russia and the gradual decline of the Mongol empire.

1769 - The English navigator Captain James Cook landed at Poverty Bay two days after having first sighted New Zealand. He drew detailed and accurate maps of the country, and wrote about the Māori people.

1918 - American soldier Alvin York single-handedly attacks German machine gun nest, killing at least 25 and capturing 132 Germans. With exceptional marksmanship he killed at least 25 enemy soldierse, including shooting dead six Germans with a pistol who rushed at him with bayonets after his rifle ran out of ammo. The German officer in charge of the position tried to kill him but ran out of ammunition himself, offering then to surrender his unit.
 
October 13

54 - Nero succeeds his great uncle Claudius, who was murdered by his wife, as the new emperor of Rome.

1812 - During the War of 1812, British and Indian forces under Sir Isaac Brock defeat Americans under General Stephen Van Rensselaer at the Battle of Queenstown Heights, on the Niagara frontier in Ontario, Canada. The British victory, in which more than 1,000 U.S. troops were killed, wounded, or captured, effectively ended any further U.S. invasion of Canada. Sir Isaac Brock, Britain’s most talented general in the war, was killed during the battle.

1903 - In the first modern world series American League (AL) champion Boston defeats the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh in a best-of-nine series, with Boston prevailing five games to three, winning the last four.
 
October 13

1812 - During the War of 1812, British and Indian forces under Sir Isaac Brock defeat Americans under General Stephen Van Rensselaer at the Battle of Queenstown Heights, on the Niagara frontier in Ontario, Canada. The British victory, in which more than 1,000 U.S. troops were killed, wounded, or captured, effectively ended any further U.S. invasion of Canada. Sir Isaac Brock, Britain’s most talented general in the war, was killed during the battle.
You forgot this important detail . . .


And yes, I know the video says "June", but it was all part of the same spearhead, iirc.
 
October 15

1880 - The warrior Victorio, one of the greatest Chiricuaha Apache military strategists of all time is killed by Mexican troops in the Tres Castillos Mountains south of El Paso, Texas. Victorio’s death made him a martyr to the Apache people and strengthened the resolve of other warriors to continue the fight. The last of the great Apache warriors, Geronimo, would not surrender until 1886.

1894 - Captain Alfred Dreyfus is arrested and accused of treason in France.

1917 - Mata Hari, the archetype of the seductive female spy, is executed for espionage by a French firing squad at Vincennes outside of Paris.

1946 - Hermann Göring, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo, prime minister of Prussia, chief forester of the Reich, chief liquidator of sequestered estates, supreme head of the National Weather Bureau, and Hitler’s designated successor dies by suicide by swallowing a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards.
 

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
I stood in front of a classroom and taught for the first time on this date in 1985. I remember it as vividly as I would if it had happened this morning- what I was wearing, the weather, the room, the details of what I covered... everything.
 
October 19

202 BC - At the Battle of Zama a Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio, with crucial support from Numidian leader Masinissa, defeated the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal ending the Second Punic War.

1781 - Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution. General Cornwallis surrendered 7,087 officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, a frigate, and 30 transport ships. Pleading illness, he did not attend the surrender ceremony, but his second-in-command, General Charles O’Hara, carried Cornwallis’ sword to the American and French commanders.

1812 - One month after Napoleon Bonaparte’s massive invading force entered a burning and deserted Moscow, the starving French army is forced to begin a hasty retreat out of Russia.

1914 - The First Battle of Ypres (part of the First Battle of Flanders) in which German, French, Belgian armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fought from Arras in France to Nieuport on the Belgian coast. The battles at Ypres began at the end of the Race to the Sea, reciprocal attempts by the German and Franco-British armies to advance past the northern flank of their opponents. North of Ypres, the fighting continued in the Battle of the Yser (16–31 October), between the German 4th Army, the Belgian army and French marines.
 
October 20

1600- The Eastern Army under Tokugawa Ieyasu (75,000 men) defeats the Western Army under Toyotomi Hideyomi (120,000 men) at the Battle of Sekigahara which began the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate.

1803 - The U.S. Senate approves a treaty with France providing for the purchase of the territory of Louisiana, which would double the size of the United States.

1944 - After advancing island by island across the Pacific Ocean, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte, fulfilling his promise to return to the area he was forced to flee in 1942.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
On October 20, 1968, 21-year-old Oregonian Dick Fosbury wins gold—and sets an Olympic record—when he high-jumps 7 feet 4 1/4 inches at the Mexico City Games. It was the first American victory in the event since 1956. It was also the international debut of Fosbury’s unique jumping style, known as the “Fosbury Flop.”

The Flop, according to one journalist, “looked like a guy falling off the back of a truck.” Instead of the traditional scissors- or straddle-style forward kick over the bar, it featured a midair rotation so that the jumper landed back-of-the-head-first on the mat. Fosbury described it this way: “I take off on my right, or outside, foot rather than my left foot. Then I turn my back to the bar, arch my back over the bar and then kick my legs out to clear the bar.” It looked odd, but it worked better than any other technique.

Fosbury had invented his Flop in high school, when he discovered that, though he was terrible at the scissors-kick, the straddle and the belly-roll, if he stretched out on his back and landed headfirst, he could jump higher than anyone on his high-school track team. “The advantage,” he said, “from a physics standpoint is, it allows the jumper to run at the bar with more speed and, with the arch in your back, you could actually clear the bar and keep your center of gravity at or below the bar, so it was much more efficient.” At Oregon State University, he used the Flop to win the 1968 NCAA title and the Olympic Trials.
 
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