This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

October18

1009 – The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock.

1356 – Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys the town of Basel, Switzerland.

1386 – Opening of Heidelberg University.

1540 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's forces destroy the fortified town of Mabila in present-day Alabama, killing Tuskaloosa.

1648 – Boston Shoemakers form first American labor organization.

1775 – African-American poet Phillis Wheatley is freed from slavery.

1851 – Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

1898 – The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.

1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

1929 – The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overrules the Supreme Court of Canada in Edwards v. Canada when it declares that women are considered "Persons" under Canadian law.

1945 – The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1945 – Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva "Evita" Duarte.

1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first transistor radio.

1963 – Félicette, a black and white female Parisian stray cat becomes the first cat launched into space.

Births

1785 – Thomas Love Peacock; 1919 – Anita O'Day; 1919 – Pierre Trudeau; 1921 – Jesse Helms; 1923 – Jessie Mae Hemphill; 1926 – Chuck Berry; 1926 – Klaus Kinski; 1927 – George C. Scott; 1928 – Keith Jackson; 1934 – Inger Stevens; 1935 – Peter Boyle; 1938 – Dawn Wells; 1939 – Mike Ditka; 1939 – Lee Harvey Oswald; 1945 – Huell Howser; 1946 – Howard Shore; 1947 – Joe Morton; 1950 – Wendy Wasserstein; 1951 – Pam Dawber; 1951 – Terry McMillan; 1952 – Chuck Lorre; 1954 – Arliss Howard; 1955 – David Twohy; 1956 – Martina Navratilova; 1958 – Thomas Hearns; 1960 – Jean-Claude Van Damme; 1960 – Erin Moran; 1961 – Wynton Marsalis; 1962 – Vincent Spano; 1984 – Lindsey Vonn; 1987 – Zac Efron

Deaths

1931 – Thomas Edison; 1966 – Elizabeth Arden; 1966 – S. S. Kresge; 1973 – Walt Kelly; 1982 – Bess Truman; 2008 – Dee Dee Warwick; 2013 – Tom Foley; 2013 – Bum Phillips

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

October18
1356 – Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys the town of Basel, Switzerland.

That explains why it looked like such a new city when I was there.


Thanks for posting these, even if you are dropping the hyperlinks. you slacker.

[Gravdigr]

October 19

1469 – Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile, a marriage that paves the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain.

1781 – At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis handed over Cornwallis' sword and formally surrendered to George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau.

1789 – Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.

1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte retreats from Moscow.

1813 – The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.

1900 – Max Planck discovers the law of black-body radiation (Planck's law).

1917 – Love Field in Dallas is opened.

1943 – The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked by Allied aircraft at Souda Bay, Crete, and sunk. 2,098 Italian prisoners of war drown.

1943 – Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.

1950 – Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program.

1960 – Cold War: The United States government imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba.

1968 - 18 year old Peter Frampton meets Steve Marriott at a Small Faces show in London. After striking up a friendship, the two started planning a new group which emerged as Humble Pie the following April.

1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.

1988 – The British government imposes a broadcasting ban on television and radio interviews with members of Sinn Féin and eleven Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups.

1989 – The convictions of the Guildford Four are quashed by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, after they had spent 15 years in prison.

2003 – Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.

2005 – Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

2005 – Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.

Births

1605 – Thomas Browne; 1810 – Cassius Marcellus Clay; 1862 – Auguste Lumière; 1901 – Arleigh Burke; 1920 – LaWanda Page aka The Bronze Goddess Of Fire ('Aunt Esther' on Sanford & Son); 1931 – John le Carré; 1932 – Robert Reed; 1936 – Tony Lo Bianco; 1937 – Peter Max; 1940 – Michael Gambon; 1944 – Peter Tosh♪ ♫(The Wailers); 1945 – Gloria Jones♪ ♫; 1945 – John Lithgow; 1945 – Jeannie C. Riley♪ ♫; 1946 – Keith Reid♪ ♫; 1948 – James Howard Kunstler; 1948 – Patrick Simmons(Doobie Bros); 1962 – Evander Holyfield; 1965 – Ty Pennington; 1966 – Jon Favreau; 1967 – Amy Carter (daughter of POTUS Jimmy Carter); 1968 – Rodney Carrington; 1969 – Trey Parker (co-creator South Park); 1970 – Chris Kattan (SNL)

Deaths

1682 – Thomas Browne; 1745 – Jonathan Swift; 1897 – George Pullman; 1943 – Camille Claudel; 1945 – N. C. Wyeth; 1950 – Edna St. Vincent Millay; 1978 – Gig Young; 1988 – Son House; 1994 – Martha Raye; 2008 – Richard 'Mr.' Blackwell; 2008 – Rudy Ray Moore, "Dolemite"; 2009 – Joseph Wiseman ('Dr. No' in Dr. No); 2010 – Tom Bosley; 2014 - Raphael Ravenscroft (sax on Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street")

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by glatt

...even if you are dropping the hyperlinks. you slacker.

Post 331 is a make-up post, and I'm feeling a little lazy today, so I kinda coasted on the Oct 18 entry.

[glatt]

Nothing lazy about what you are doing.

[Gravdigr]

Meh. Makes the time go by.

[Gravdigr]

October 20

Today is World Osteoporosis Day, as well as World Statistics Day. So, know that 2-8% of men, and 9-38% of women are affected by osteoporosis.

Today is Vietnamese Women's Day (Ngày phụ nữ Việt Nam) in Vietnam.

Events

1720 – Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured by the Royal Navy.

1781 – The Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in Habsburg Monarchy.

1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.

1818 – The Convention of 1818 is signed between the United States and the United Kingdom, which settles the Canada–United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.

1827 – In the Battle of Navarino, a combined Turkish and Egyptian fleet is defeated by British, French, and Russian naval forces in the last significant battle fought with wooden sailing ships.

1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1935 – The Long March, a mammoth retreat undertaken by the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party a year prior, ends.

1941 – World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are murdered in the Kragujevac massacre.

1944 – Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland and then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130 people.

1944 – American General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.

1946 – Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam decides that October 20 is Vietnam Women's Day.

1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.

1951 – The "Johnny Bright incident" (a violent on-field assault against African American player Johnny Bright by white player Wilbanks Smith during an American college football game) occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

1962 - Bobby 'Boris' Pickett and the Crypt Kickers started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Monster Mash', it became a No.3 in the UK eleven years later in 1973.

1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

1973 – "Saturday Night Massacre": United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.

1973 – The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work.

1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die, and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.

1977 – Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashes after running out of fuel near Gillsburg, Mississippi.

1983 - American country/western singer/songwriter Merle Travis died of a heart attack, aged 65. Travis is acknowledged as one of the most influential American guitarists of the twentieth century.

1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 people, and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.

2011 – Libyan Civil War: National Transitional Council rebel forces capture ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte and kill him within the hour.

Births

1632 – Christopher Wren (designed St Paul's Cathedral); 1854 – Arthur Rimbaud; 1882 – Bela Lugosi; 1885 – Jelly Roll Morton; 1895 – Rex Ingram (the genie in The Thief of Bagdad); 1907 – Arlene Francis; 1913 – Grandpa Jones; 1922 – John Anderson; 1925 – Art Buchwald; 1925 – Tom Dowd♪ ♫; 1927 – Dr. Joyce Brothers; 1931 – Mickey Mantle; 1935 – Jerry Orbach; 1936 – Bobby Seale; 1937 – Wanda Jackson♪ ♫; 1940 – Kathy Kirby♪ ♫; 1942 – Earl Hindman (neighbor 'Wilson W. Wilson, Jr.' on Home Improvement); 1946 – Lewis Grizzard (Designing Women); 1950 – Tom Petty; 1951 – Al Greenwood(Foreigner); 1953 – Keith Hernandez; 1955 – Aaron Pryor; 1956 – Danny Boyle; 1958 – Viggo Mortensen; 1961 – Les Stroud♪ ♫ (Survivorman); 1964 – Jim Sonefeld (Hootie & The Blowfish); 1967 – Fred Coury(Cinderella); 1971 – Snoop Dogg♪ ♫; 1979 – John Krasinski (The Office)

Deaths

1936 – Anne Sullivan (companion to Helen Keller); 1964 – Herbert Hoover (31st POTUS); 1977 – Cassie Gaines♪ ♫, Steve Gaines, Ronnie Van Zant♪ ♫ (all three were members of Lynyrd Skynyrd); 1983 – Merle Travis; 1989 – Anthony Quayle; 1990 – Joel McCrea; 1994 – Burt Lancaster; 1995 – Christopher Stone; 2003 – Jack Elam; 2005 – Shirley Horn; 2006 – Jane Wyatt (Spock's mother on Star Trek TOS); 2010 – Bob Guccione(founded Penthouse magazine); 2011 – Muammar Gaddafi (int'l asshole); 2011 – Mutassim Gaddafi (the asshole's son); 2014 – Oscar de la Renta

[sexobon]

"Jack Elam "

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Meh. Makes the time go by.

So does sex, but what ever you chose is your business.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by sexobon

"Jack Elam "

I wondered if anyone would get that.

[Gravdigr]

October 21

Today is International Day of the Nacho. So, nacho up.

The Britishers are celebrating Apple Day, as well as Trafalgar Day, today.

Events

1097 – First Crusade: Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, begin the Siege of Antioch.

1512 – Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.

1520 – Ferdinand Magellan discovers the strait that now bears his name.

1774 – First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.

1797 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar: A British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve.

1824 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.

1867 – The Medicine Lodge Treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.

1879 – Thomas Edison invents the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb.

1940 – The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published. Spoiler: It tolls for thee.

1944 – World War II: The first kamikaze attack. A Japanese fighter plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

1944 – World War II: Battle of Aachen: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, making it the first German city to fall to the Allies.

1959 – In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.

1959 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.

1966 – Aberfan disaster: A colliery spoil tip collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.

1972 - Chuck Berry started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'My Ding-A-Ling', his first and only US and UK No.1, 17 years after his first chart hit.

1973 – Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.

1978 – Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.

1983 – The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

Births

1772 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge (wrote poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Kubla Khan); 1833 – Alfred Nobel (invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize); 1912 – Georg Solti♪ ♫; 1917 – Dizzy Gillespie♪ ♫; 1928 – Whitey Ford; 1935 – Derek Bell♪ ♫(The Chieftans); 1940 – Manfred Mann♪ ♫; 1941 – Steve Cropper(Booker T. & the M.G.'s); 1942 – Elvin Bishop(he ain't good-lookin', but he sure can play); 1942 – Judith Sheindlin (American bitch); 1952 – Patti Davis; 1953 – Charlotte Caffey(The Go-Gos); 1956 – Carrie Fisher; 1957 – Steve Lukather(Toto); 1976 – Josh Ritter♪ ♫; 1980 – Kim Kardashian

Deaths

1805 – Horatio Nelson; 1965 – Bill Black; 1969 – Jack Kerouac; 1984 – François Truffaut; 1985 – Dan White (Harvey Milk's & George Mosconi's assassin); 1995 – Nancy Graves; 1995 – Shannon Hoon(Blind Melon); 2006 – Sandy West(The Runaways); 2012 – George McGovern; 2013 – Bud Adams (owner Tennessee Titans); 2014 – Ben Bradlee (WaPo editor); 2014 – Nelson Bunker Hunt (one of the Hunt Bros, they tried to corner the silver market in the late 70s)

[Carruthers]

Thanks Mr G! I always enjoy your posts in this topic.
Unfortunately, it's also a reminder of my own mortality as the events I can actually remember seem to increase in number as each day passes.

To Trafalgar Day. No, I don't remember the battle, but Dad being an old sea dog, always pauses for thought on October 21st.

[Gravdigr]

You are more than welcome Good Carruthers!

I try to throw Dwellars in other countries a bone every now and then, but, I'm afraid I'm not up what's an important date/event in other countries' history.

I veer away from Kings and Queens because Britain has had so many, and they all have the same names!! How many Charless, Henrys, Georges and Marys can ya have for God's sake?! There's almost literally one or the other has died, been born, or was crowned or killed every day. I can't keep up with who was popular, hated, or laughed at.

I do, however, know a few people who live in England, and Australia who know these things. And they are more than welcome to add or correct anything I've missed (or left out on purpose) to this thread. In fact, they are encouraged to do so.

[Undertoad]

From this USians perspective I can't believe I had never heard of the Aberfan disaster. I guess that's the nature of disasters like that, overseas you don't hear much of the history of them. What a horrible, horrible event.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Well it was foreigners who are all rapists and drug dealers.