This Day In History

[Mr. Scruffy]

January 15

1559 - Elizabeth Tudor, the 25-year-old daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, is crowned Queen Elizabeth I at Westminster Abbey in London.

1919 - Fiery hot molasses floods the streets of Boston killing 21 people and injuring scores of others. The molasses burst from a huge tank at the United States Industrial Alcohol Company building in the heart of the city.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

January 21

1793 - Louis XVI of France is executed by the guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for high treason. Louis' death emboldened revolutionaries within France, who would continue to alter the country's political and social structure radically over the next several years. Nine months after Louis' death, his wife Marie Antoinette, herself the former queen of France met her own death at the guillotine.

1924 - Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union, dies of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 54.

1968 - The Battle of Khe Sanh begins when forces from the People’s Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) carried out a massive artillery bombardment on the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, located in South Vietnam near the border with Laos. For the next 77 days, U.S. Marines and their South Vietnamese allies fought off an intense siege of the garrison, one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

January 26

1500 - Spanish explorer Vicente Yanez Pinzon, who had commanded the Nina during Christopher Columbus’ first expedition to the New World, reaches the northeastern coast of Brazil during a voyage under his command. Pinzon’s journey produced the first recorded account of a European explorer sighting the Brazilian coast; though whether or not Brazil was previously known to Portuguese navigators is still in dispute.

1788 - Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia.

1950 - The Indian constitution takes effect, making the Republic of India the most populous democracy in the world.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

January 28

814 - Charlemagne, called the "Father of Europe", founder of the Carolingian Empire dies at the age of 71.

1671 - Welsh pirate Henry Morgan captures Panama City from its Spanish defenders.

1986 - The Space Shuttle Challenger blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 11:38 am EST and breaks apart 73 seconds after liftoff killing all seven crew members aboard.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

January 28

661 - Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who ruled as the fourth caliph from 656 dies from wounds suffered in an attack two days earlier. He is one of the central figures in Shia Islam and is regarded as the rightful immediate successor to Muhammad as an Imam by Shia Muslims.

1891 - Nine days after her brother's death, in the presence of the cabinet ministers and the supreme court justices, Liliʻuokalani took the oath of office to uphold the constitution, and became the first and only queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

1979 - Deng Xiaoping, deputy premier of China, meets President Jimmy Carter, and together they sign historic new accords that reverse decades of U.S. opposition to the People’s Republic of China. Deng sought to open China to foreign investment and create closer ties with the West, and later that year the United States granted full diplomatic recognition to the People’s Republic of China.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 5

146 BC - The Roman Republic finally triumphed over its nemesis, Carthage, after over a century of fighting. The victory and subsequent destruction of the city of Carthage marked the end of the Punic Wars and represented Rome's replacement of Carthage as the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean, a position it would hold for the next several centuries.

1597 - 26 Catholics – four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Portuguese from India (all of whom were Franciscan missionaries), three Japanese Jesuits, and 17 Japanese members of the Third Order of St. Francis, including three young boys – were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki on the orders of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. These individuals were raised on crosses and then pierced through with spears. The Martyrs of Japan were canonized by the Catholic Church on June 8, 1862, by Pope Pius IX.

1917 - After seven years of revolution and civil upheaval, Mexican President Venustiano Carranza proclaims the modern Mexican constitution, which promises the restoration of lands to native peoples, the separation of church and state, and dramatic economic and educational reforms. The progressive political document, approved by an elected constitutional convention, combined revolutionary demands for land reform with advanced social theory.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 8

1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle aged 44 after being convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I in the Babington Plot.

1725 - Peter the Great, emperor of Russia, dies and is succeeded by his wife, Catherine I.

1862 - Union General Ambrose Burnside scores a major victory when his troops capture Roanoke Island in North Carolina.It was one of the first major Union victories of the Civil War and gave the Yankees control of the mouth of Albemarle Sound, allowing them to threaten the Rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia, from the south.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 11

660 BC - The foundation of Japan by the mythical Emperor Jimmu is celebrated based on the Nihon Shoki, which states that Emperor Jimmu ascended to the throne on the first day of the first month. There is, however, no historical evidence that Jimmu actually existed.

1809 - Robert Fulton is granted a patent for his invention of the steamboat.

1945 - The Declaration of Liberated Europe, created by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin during the Yalta Conference is issued. It was a promise that allowed the people of Europe "to create democratic institutions of their own choice". The declaration pledged, "the earliest possible establishment through free elections governments responsive to the will of the people."

1990 - Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, is released from prison after 27 years.

 

[Vulcan Bubbles]

Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. Was born on this day in 1936!

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 23

303 - Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered that the newly built Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures burned, and its treasures seized. The next day, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published.

1836 - A Mexican force comprising somewhere between 1,800 and 6,000 men (according to various estimates) and commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the Alamo Mission. The Texans held out for 13 days, but on the morning of March 6 Mexican forces broke through a breach in the outer wall of the courtyard and overpowered them. Santa Anna ordered his men to take no prisoners, and only a small handful of the Texans were spared.

1945 - During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th Division take the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and raise the U.S. flag. Marine photographer Louis Lowery was with them and recorded the event.

1954 - A group of children from Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, receive the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

March 1

1260 - Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis, conquers Damascus.

1692 - In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, an enslaved woman from the Barbados, are charged with the illegal practice of witchcraft. Later that day, Tituba, possibly under coercion, confessed to the crime, encouraging the authorities to seek out more Salem witches. During the next few months, area residents incriminated more than 150 women and men from Salem Village and the surrounding areas of Satanic practices.

1781 - The Articles of Confederation are finally ratified. The Articles were signed by Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification on November 15, 1777, after 16 months of debate. Bickering over land claims between Virginia and Maryland delayed final ratification for almost four more years. The nation was guided by the Articles of Confederation until the implementation of the current U.S. Constitution in 1789.

1932 - In a crime that captured the attention of the entire nation, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family’s new mansion in Hopewell, New Jersey.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

March 5

1770 - British soldiers kill 5 men in a crowd throwing snowballs, stones and sticks at them. Known as The Boston Massacre, it is considered one of the most significant events that turned colonial sentiment against King George III and British Parliamentary authority.

1946 - Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War.

1953 - Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union since 1924, dies in Moscow.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

March 10

241 BC - The Roman Republic fleet, commanded by Quintus Valerius Falto, defeats the fleet of Carthage at the Battle of the Aegates Islands off the western coast of Sicily effectively ending the First Punic War.

1831 - The French Foreign Legion is created by Louis Philippe, the King of France. Recruits included soldiers from the recently disbanded Swiss and German foreign regiments of the Bourbon monarchy. The Royal Ordinance for the establishment of the new regiment specified that the foreigners recruited could only serve outside France.

1876 - The first discernible speech is transmitted over a telephone system when inventor Alexander Graham Bell summons his assistant in another room by saying, “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.” Bell had received a comprehensive telephone patent just three days before.

1959 - A revolt erupts in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China since the Seventeen Point Agreement was reached in 1951. The initial uprising occurred amid general Chinese-Tibetan tensions and in a context of confusion, as Tibetan protestors feared that the Chinese government might arrest the 14th Dalai Lama. The protests were also fuelled by anti-Chinese sentiment and separatism.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

March 25

1 BC - Dionysius who is best known as the inventor of Anno Domini, a calendar based on the incarnation of Christ, placed the Incarnation on 25 March.

1199 - Richard I, Lion Heart, King o f England, is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France, which leads to his death on April 6.

1911 - The Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns down, killing 146 workers. The tragedy led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers.

1975 - King Faisal, son of King Ibn Saud, who fought in the military campaigns in the 1920s and ’30s that helped forge modern Saudi Arabia is shot to death by his nephew, Prince Faisal.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

March 30

240 BC - The first recorded passage of Halley's Comet was observed by Chinese astronomers in the Chinese chronicle 'Records of the Grand Historian' (or 'Shiji'), which describes a comet that appeared in the east and moved north.

1282 - The War of the Sicilian Vespers,a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily, broke out against the rule of the French-born king Charles I, who had ruled the Kingdom of Sicily since 1266. Within six weeks, approximately 13,000 French men and women were slain by the rebels, and the government of Charles lost control of the island.

1867 - U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signs a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as “Seward’s Folly”.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

March 31

1146 - With King Louis VII of France present, Bernard of Clairvaux (St. Bernard) preached to an enormous crowd in a field at Vézelay to encourage support for the Second Crusade. "O ye who listen to me! Hasten to appease the anger of heaven, but no longer implore its goodness by vain complaints. Clothe yourselves in sackcloth, but also cover yourselves with your impenetrable bucklers. The din of arms, the danger, the labors, the fatigues of war, are the penances that God now imposes upon you. Hasten then to expiate your sins by victories over the Infidels, and let the deliverance of the holy places be the reward of your repentance. Cursed be he who does not stain his sword with blood."

1822 - During the Greek War of Independence orders were given to the occupying Ottoman troops on the island of Chios to burn down the town. Over the next four months, an estimated 40,000 Turkish troops arrived. In addition to setting fires, the troops were ordered to kill all infants under three years old, all males 12 years and older, and all females 40 and older, except those willing to convert to Islam. Approximately three-quarters of the population of 120,000 were killed, enslaved or died of disease.

1889 - The Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by Gustave Eiffel, the tower’s designer, and attended by French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard, a handful of other dignitaries, and 200 construction workers.

1938 - Mom's birthday

 

[Bakker1964]

March 31

1938 - Mom's birthday

A happy birthday to your Mom, assuming she is still with us.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

A happy birthday to your Mom, assuming she is still with us.

She is indeed. I'll pass on your well wishes, thank you.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 12

1861 - The bloodiest four years in American history begin when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort.

1945 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes away after four momentous terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power.

1961 - Aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

April 14

1471 - Near Barnet, then a small Hertfordshire town north of London, Edward IV led the House of York in battle against the House of Lancaster, which backed Henry VI for the throne. Leading the Lancastrian army was Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who played a crucial role in the fate of each king. Historians regard the battle as one of the most important clashes in the Wars of the Roses, since it brought about a decisive turn in the fortunes of the two houses. Edward's victory was followed by 14 years of Yorkist rule over England.

1865 - President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis! (Ever thus to tyrants!) The South is avenged,” as he jumped onto the stage and fled on horseback. Lincoln died the next morning.

1912 - RMS Titanic hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 (ship's time; 05:18 GMT) on Monday, 15 April, resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.