This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

March 28

37 – Roman emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate.

1566 – The foundation stone of Valletta, Malta's capital city, is laid by Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

1776 – Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.

1802 – Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be discovered.

1910 – Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.

1933 – The Imperial Airways biplane City of Liverpool is believed to be the first airliner lost to sabotage when a passenger sets a fire on board.

1946 – Cold War: The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.

1964 - Madame Tussauds, London unveiled the wax works images of The Beatles, the first pop stars to be honoured.

1979 – A coolant leak at the Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania leads to the core overheating and a partial meltdown.

1982 - David Crosby was arrested after crashing his car on the San Diego Highway. Police also found cocaine and a pistol in the Crosby Stills & Nash stars car. When the police asked Crosby why he carried the gun, his reply was, "John Lennon".

1990 – United States President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal. "And now, for my next impression, Jesse Owens!"

1992, Over a $100,000 (£58,800) worth of damage was caused at The Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, California, when Ozzy Osbourne invited the first two rows of the audience on stage. Several other rows took up the offer and the band was forced to exit the stage.

2000 - Jimmy Page accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages from a magazine which claimed he had caused or contributed to the death of his Led Zeppelin bandmate John Bonham. Page's solicitor, Norman Chapman, told High Court Judge Mr Justice Morland that the feature in Ministry magazine printed in 1999 claimed Page was more concerned with keeping vomit off his bed than saving his friend's life, and that he stood over him wearing Satanic robes and performing a useless spell.

2003 – In a friendly fire incident, two American A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing one soldier.

Births

1836 – Frederick Pabst (yeah, that Pabst), 1868 – Maxim Gorky, 1905 – Marlin Perkins, 1910 – Jimmie Dodd, 1914 – Edmund Muskie, 1921 – Dirk Bogarde, 1928 – Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1944 – Ken Howard, 1948 – Dianne Wiest, 1948 – Milan Williams(The Commodores), 1955 – Reba McEntire♪ ♫, 1959 – Chris Myers, 1966 – Cheryl James♪ ♫('Salt' of Salt-n-Pepa), 1969 – Rodney Atkins♪ ♫, 1970 – Vince Vaughn, 1981 – Julia Stiles, 1986 – Lady Gaga♪ ♫

Deaths

1584 – Ivan the Terrible, 1687 – Constantijn Huygens♪ ♫, 1941 – Virginia Woolf, 1943 – Sergei Rachmaninoff♪ ♫, 1953 – Jim Thorpe, 1958 – W. C. Handy♪ ♫, 1969 – Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th POTUS), 1974 - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup♪ ♫, 1974 – Dorothy Fields♪ ♫(songwriter, wrote "Sunny Side Of The Street", "I'm In The Mood For Love"), 1980 – Dick Haymes, 1985 – Marc Chagall, 1987 – Maria von Trapp♪ ♫(Just how many damn von Trapps were there anyway?!), 2004 – Peter Ustinov, 2006 – Caspar Weinberger, 2009 – Maurice Jarre♪ ♫, 2010 – June Havoc, 2013 – Robert Zildjian (founded Sabian cymbals), 2016 – James Noble

[xoxoxoBruce]

2003 – In a friendly fire incident, two American A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing one soldier.

But those A-10s are useless, we should get rid of them.

[Gravdigr]

March 29

845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.

1461 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton: Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England.

1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.

1847 – Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.

1865 – American Civil War: Federal forces under Major General Philip Sheridan move to flank Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee as the Appomattox Campaign begins.

1867 – Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes the Dominion of Canada on July 1.

1882 – The Knights of Columbus are established.

1886 – John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.

1911 – The M1911 .45 ACP pistol becomes the official U.S. Army side arm.

1945 – World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England.

1951 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.

1957 – The New York, Ontario and Western Railway makes its final run, the first major U.S. railroad to be abandoned in its entirety.

1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.

1971 – My Lai Massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

1973 – Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.

1973 - Dr Hook And The Medicine Show got their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine after their hit, 'The Cover of Rolling Stone' reached No. 6 on the US singles chart. According to members of the group, they really did buy five copies for their mothers, just like the song said.

1984 – The Baltimore Colts load its possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer its operations to Indianapolis.

1999 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble.

2013 – At least 36 people are killed when a 16-floor building collapses in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed.

Births

1790 – John Tyler (10th POTUS), 1816 – 10th Dalai Lama, 1867 – Cy Young, 1874 – Lou Henry Hoover (33rd FLOTUS), 1914 – Phil Foster (Laverne's father on Laverne & Shirley), 1918 – Pearl Bailey♪ ♫, 1918 – Sam Walton (founded Walmart and Sam's Club), 1919 – Eileen Heckart, 1927 – John McLaughlin, 1928 – Vincent 'Chin' Gigante (boss of the Genovese crime family), 1939 – Terence Hill, 1940 – Ray Davis(Parliament-Funkadelic), 1943 – Vangelis, 1943 – Eric Idle, 1943 – John Major, 1944 – Terry Jacks♪ ♫(wrote/sang "Seasons In The Sun"), 1946 – Billy Thorpe♪ ♫, 1947 – Bobby Kimball♪ ♫(Toto), 1948 – Bud Cort, 1952 – John Hendricks (founded Discovery Channel), 1955 – Earl Campbell, 1955 – Brendan Gleeson, 1955 – Marina Sirtis ('Counselor Troi' on Star Trek:TNG), 1956 – Kurt Thomas, 1957 – Christopher Lambert (Highlander movies), 1959 – Perry Farrell♪ ♫(Jane's Addiction), 1961 – Amy Sedaris, 1964 – Elle Macpherson, 1967 – John Popper♪ ♫(Blues Traveler), 1968 – Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess), 1971 – Lara Logan, 1976 – Jennifer Capriati

Deaths:reaper

1848 – John Jacob Astor, 1912 – Robert Falcon Scott, 1980 – Mantovani♪ ♫, 1992 – Paul Henreid, 2012 – Bill 'Grumpy' Jenkins, 2016 – Patty Duke

[xoxoxoBruce]

845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.

I read it was a very successful. After that the Vikings would come back on the special boats the only used for European rivers, every year or three and collect the ransom with no muss or fuss.

I tried to get people to pay me to leave but they just threw me out.

[DanaC]

1971 – My Lai Massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

J's dad wrote an amazing play about that.

Body Count is the story of My Lai, the Vietnamese village massacred by a unit of the American army in 1968. This appalling episode shocked the American public and gave impetus to the anti-war movement.


This powerful one-woman play takes the form of an objective but horrifying account of one of the worst military atrocities in recent times. It is also a deeply moving and poetic lament for the folly and pity of war.

https://painesplough.com/play/body-count

[tw]

For what it is worth, most Americans over 30 (then) ignored reality. And continued to advocate the massacre of more ten thousands Americans. Those lives were wasted uselessly because an American president did not want a war to be lost on his watch. (And then we made the same mistake 35 years later - Mission Accomplished.)

My Lai was ignored by so many Americans who demonstrated hate of the American serviceman. Stated accurately back then: do not trust anyone over 30. Today we say do not trust anyone over 79.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

March 29

845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.

Playing again this week on PBS NOVA:

"Secrets of the Viking Sword"
With modern science and traditional detective work, experts reconstruct and uncover the secrets of the Vikings' Ulfberht sword, which was a revolutionary weapon that remained a mystery to the Vikings' enemies for centuries.

[Gravdigr]

March 30

Today is marked as Nat'l Doctors' Day in the U.S., recognizing the contributions of physicians to individual lives and communities.


Events

1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.

1822 – The Florida Territory is created in the United States.

1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.

1855 – Origins of the American Civil War: "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.

1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2-cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.

1870 – Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

1939 – The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph (745 km/h).

1944 – Out of 795 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitos sent to attack Nuremberg, 95 bombers do not return, making it the largest RAF Bomber Command loss of the war.

1945 – World War II: Soviet forces invade Austria and capture Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Danzig.

1957 - Buddy Knox became the first artist in the Rock 'n' Roll era to write his own number one hit when 'Party Doll' topped the US singles chart.

1972 – Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.

1982 – Space Shuttle program: STS-3 Mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

2017 – Peggy Whitson surpasses Suni Williams' record for most spacewalks by a woman with 8.

Births

1746 – Francisco Goya, 1811 – Robert Bunsen (Bunsen burner), 1820 – Anna Sewell, 1844 – Paul Verlaine, 1853 – Vincent van Gogh, 1880 – Seán O'Casey, 1894 – Sergey Ilyushin (founded Ilyushin Aircraft Company), 1902 – Brooke A$tor, 1905 – Albert Pierrepoint (British hangman), 1913 – Frankie Laine♪ ♫, 1914 – Sonny Boy Williamson I, 1919 – McGeorge Bundy, 1929 – Richard Dysart, 1930 – John Astin, 1930 – Rolf Harris♪ ♫, 1937 – Warren Beatty, 1943 – Jay Traynor♪ ♫, 1945 – Eric Clapton, 1948 – Jim "Dandy" Mangrum♪ ♫(Black Oak Arkansas), 1950 – Robbie Coltrane, 1955 – Randy VanWarmer♪ ♫, 1957 – Paul Reiser, 1958 – Maurice LaMarche (voice of 'The Brain' on Animaniacs), 1962 – MC Hammer♪ ♫, 1964 – Tracy Chapman♪ ♫, 1968 – Celine Dion♪ ♫, 1971 – Mark Consuelos, 1979 – Norah Jones♪ ♫

Deaths

1840 – Beau Brummell, 1981 – DeWitt Wallace (co-founded Reader's Digest), 1986 – James Cagney, 2002 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, 2003 – Michael Jeter, 2005 – Fred Korematsu, 2008 – Richard Lloyd, 2012 – Granville Semmes (founded 1-800-Flowers), 2013 – Phil Ramone♪ ♫(The Ramones), 2014 – Kate O'Mara (Dynasty, 'the Rani' on Doctor Who)

[DanaC]

1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and Middle Earth.

[Gravdigr]

[xoxoxoBruce]

Those Scots ain't afeared a nuthin.

2017 – Peggy Whitson surpasses Suni Williams' record for most spacewalks by a woman with 8.

It's a shame if you mention either of those names most would say, who?

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

It's a shame if you mention either of those names most would say, who?

And why?

[Gravdigr]

March 31

Today is the last day of March.

There are 275 days remaining in the year, and 268 days until Christmas.

Also observed today is International Transgender Day of Visibility, as well as New Jersey's Thomas Mundy Peterson Day, and the U.S. Virgin Islands' Transfer Day.


Events

1492 – Queen Isabella of Castile issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.

1774 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.

1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.

1906 – The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later the National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for college sports in the United States.

1917 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.

1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.

1921 – The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.

1930 – The Motion Picture Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty-eight years.

1931 – TWA Flight 599 crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing eight, including University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne.

1945 – World War II: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.

1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.

1985 – The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (then the WWF), takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1990 – Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.

1991 – Georgian independence referendum, 1991: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 – The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.

1997 – The first episode of Teletubbies is aired on BBC.

1998 – Netscape releases Mozilla source code under an open source license.

2004 – Iraq War in Anbar Province: In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed. Their beaten, burned bodies were dragged through the streets of Fallujah before being hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River.

Births

1596 – René Descartes, 1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach, 1732 – Joseph Haydn, 1809 – Nikolai Gogol, 1878 – Jack Johnson, 1922 – Richard Kiley, 1924 – Leo Buscaglia, 1927 – Cesar Chavez, 1927 – William Daniels, 1927 – Vladimir Ilyushin, 1928 – Lefty Frizzell, 1928 – Gordie Howe, 1929 – Liz Claiborne, 1934 – Shirley Jones, 1934 – John D. Loudermilk, 1935 – Herb Alpert, 1940 – Barney Frank, 1940 – Patrick Leahy, 1942 – Michael Savage, 1943 – Christopher Walken, 1944 – Mick Ralphs, 1945 – Gabe Kaplan, 1948 – Al Gore, 1948 – Rhea Perlman, 1950 – Ed Marinaro, 1955 – Angus Young, 1965 – William McNamara, 1971 – Ewan McGregor, 1972 – Evan Williams, 1980 – Kate Micucci, 1981 – Ryan Bingham

Deaths

32 BC – Titus Pomponius Atticus, 1850 – John C. Calhoun, 1855 – Charlotte Brontë, 1913 – J. P. Morgan, 1931 – Knute Rockne, 1976 – Paul Strand, 1980 – Jesse Owens, 1981 – Enid Bagnold, 1993 – Brandon Lee, 1995 – Selena, 1998 – Bella Abzug, 1998 – Tim Flock, 2005 – Frank Perdue, 2014 – Charles Keating, 2016 – Ronnie Corbett

[DanaC]

1990 – Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.

I was at that demo. It became very violent and the police used the kettling technique - At one point there was a charge of mounted police and the crowd surged away, I lost my footing, and end up on the ground, Judah grabbed my hand and dragged me up and out of the way of the oncoming horses. My jeans were ripped at the knee and my skin all grazed.

Prior to that, when we were at the barricades outside Downing Street,weweredoing that protestor thing of shouting at the police behind the barricades - and the police were doing their thing of landing a punch if anyone got too close to the barrier - we had this young lass with us- about a year younger than us in years, but much younger looking and a little naive. She'd sort of attached herself to me and J through our local circle of friends and other students and had decided to come with us on the demo. She got a little enthusiastic and was pushing up against the barrier A police officer behind the barricade threw a single full force punch and she dropped - as she started to drop two cops leaned over the barrier and were trying to drag her over to their side - we pulled her back towards us and she fell back into our crowd but she lost her shoe.*

Don't know what sparked the other flashpoints on that demo - because there were many different ones - but in our little stretch of the demo, it was a burly cop in body armour punching a young-looking and very small teenage girl in the face.




* after dragging her back, with her conscious but woozy, we got her to the nearest first aidstation which was very close fortunately.

I have a very clear recollection of approaching that first aid station - there were people sat about with bleeding heads - making our way along the main route, towards the front line of police, every so often you'd see someone coming back the other way, holding a broken wrist or being led along by a friend whilst pressing a t-shirt to their head, and blood all down their front.

It was quite an unnerving experience. Exciting and exhilarating when you're in it - but also unnerving and the second you let yourself think about the situation you're walking right into really scary.

[Flint]

27 years later, and how are we doing? Society hasn't punched enough small, teenage girls in the face, so we still have pointless civil unrest and freeloading troublemakers gumming up the works. Thank God for technology-driven, mass-scale intelligence gathering of private citizens, so we know who to hit with the warrant-less drone strikes.