This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

Today is April 23.

Yom HaShoah begins at sundown.

Today is also World Book Day, as well as St George's Day.

Also commemorated today is United Nations English Language Day, so, speak English, damn yer eyes!

In addition to all that, today is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day.


Events

1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston.

1914 – First baseball game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park, in Chicago.

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

April 23, 1985

Coca Cola has the biggest brainfart ever, and reformulates its product and releases it as "New" Coke. Yeah, that lasted three months.

2005

The first YouTube video is uploaded, entitled "Me, At The Zoo".

Births

James Buchanan-1791; Stephen Douglas-1813; Shirley Temple-1928; Halston, Jim Fixx-1932; Roy Orbison-1936; Lee Majors-1939; Sandra Dee-1942; Hervé Villechaize ("De plane! De plane!")-1943; Narada Michael Walden-1952; James Russo-1953; Tony Atlas-1954; Timothy McVeigh-1968; and just for Sheldon, and Big V, John Cena-1977

Deaths

Bill Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes-1616; William Wordsworth-1850; Alferd (no, not Alfred) Packer-1907; Charles Dawes-1950; William Hartnell (Dr. Who)-1975; Buster Crabbe-1983; Otto Preminger-1986; Johnny Thunders-1991; Cesar Chavez-1993; Howard Cosell, John C. Stennis-1995; James Earl Ray-1998; David Halberstam, Boris Yeltsin-2007

Ya see what I did there? Handy.

[Clodfobble]

Funny story about the F-117... The US military had numbered their planes sequentially since the beginning, except they skipped F-13 for superstitious reasons. But then after the F-18, they jumped to F-20, and fueled wild speculation about a top-secret spy plane that was already numbered 19 that no one knew existed. Everyone began taking this supposed F-19 stealth fighter as a given, putting it in action novels, making model airplane kits for it, etc... until finally the military did admit that they had a super secret spy plane--but it wasn't called the F-19, no, it was the F-117. A number which made no sense, and no other planes above 100 were ever made afterwards. A lot of people figured they just changed the number after the fact because they wanted to have the upper hand and tell everyone, "No, you were wrong, see?"

[tw]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Funny story about the F-117...

Seal Team Six. Why six? So that Soviet spies would spend lots of time looking for Teams one through five.

[Gravdigr]

Today is April 25. There are 250 days remaining in 2017.

Today is ANZAC Day.

Also, today is DNA Day, as well as Parental Alienation Awareness Day, Red Hat Society Day, and World Malaria Day.


Events

1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.

1829 – Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom.

1846 – Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War.

1847 – The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.

1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.

1901 – New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.

1916 – Anzac Day is commemorated for the first time on the first anniversary of the landing at ANZAC Cove.

1944 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.

1953 – Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA.

1954 – The first practical solar cell is publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories.

1960 – The United States Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

1977 - Elvis Presley made the last recordings of his life during a concert at the Saginaw, Michigan Civic Center. Three songs from the show appeared on the posthumously released Presley album, 'Moody Blue'.

1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.

1983 – Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.

2015 – Riots break out in Baltimore, Maryland following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.



1599 – Oliver Cromwell, 1874 – Guglielmo Marconi, 1908 – Edward R. Murrow, 1917 – Ella Fitzgerald, 1923 – Albert King, 1932 – Meadowlark Lemon (Harlem Globetrotter), 1933 – Jerry Leiber♪ ♫, 1940 – Al Pacino, 1945 – Stu Cook(CCR), 1946 – Talia Shire ('Aaaaadrriiiiiaaaaann!!!'), 1964 – Hank Azaria (voices of Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Carl, and others on The Simpsons), 1969 – Joe Buck, 1969 – Renée Zellweger, 1970 – Jason Lee




1792 - Nicolas J. Pelletier, 1919 – Augustus D. Juilliard (yeah, that Juilliard), 1995 – Art Fleming (Jeopardy!, "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should."),

1996 – Saul Bass (graphic designer, Oscar-winner, corporate logo designer), all these logos were designed by Saul Bass:



2002 – Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes♪ ♫(TLC), 2007 – Bobby 'Boris' Pickett♪ ♫, 2009 – Bea Arthur (Maude, The Golden Girls)

[BigV]

doesn't that ICE agent work for United Airlines now?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think he's Trump's ambassador to Cuba.

[Gravdigr]

Sylvia Browne is fuller of shit than a Christmas goose.

~Somebody (most people, prolly)

Thought provoking, though.

[Gravdigr]

Today is April 24.

Today is Fashion Revolution Day, as well as International Sculpture Day.

Today is also a World Day for Laboratory Animals, so maybe take 5 minutes and 15 seconds out of your day, and have a thought for the lowly lab rat.


Events

1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy. I guess Troy shoulda watched where he was going.

1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a 22.5 foot open lifeboat, the James Caird, from uninhabited Elephant Island, in the Southern Ocean, to South Georgia Island, a distance of 800 miles, to organize a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.

1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.

1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope



is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.



1905 – Robert Penn Warren, 1906 – William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw), 1914 – Justin Wilson ("I gar-on-tee!"), 1930 – Richard Donner, 1934 – Shirley MacLaine, 1936 – Jill Ireland, 1942 – Richard M. Daley, 1942 – Barbra Streisand♪ ♫, 1943 – Richard Sterban♪ ♫("oom-pa-pa-oom-pa-pa-oom-pa-pa-mow-mow"), 1945 – Doug Clifford(CCR), 1954 – Jack Blades♪ ♫(Night Ranger, Damn Yankees), 1964 – Cedric the Entertainer, 1964 – Djimon Hounsou, 1982 – Kelly Clarkson



1731 – Daniel Defoe, 1947 – Willa Cather, 1974 – Bud Abbott (Abbot & Costello), 1975 – Pete Ham♪ ♫(Badfinger), 1997 – Pat Paulsen, 1997 – Eugene Stoner (designed the AR-15 rifle, and others), 2004 – Estée Lauder

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah, I miss Labrat.

[BigV]

Hey Gravdigr!

I'm glad you are continuing the good work you do in this thread.

Thank you.

[fargon]

What V said twice!

[BigV]

Happy Birthday Ella Fitzgerald!!

It's not really possible to pick *one* favorite track by her, not really. But this one is easy to listen to over and over again... The little combo puts some real swing into it. And Ella, oh man... I agree. Let's just fall in love. Worth listening to the whole track, they let the tape roll and you can hear them talk about the recording. A favorite, among many.

[Gravdigr]

Seeing as I have nothing better to do...Onward.

[Gravdigr]

Today is April 26.

Many of the southern states in the U.S. celebrate Confederate Memorial Day today, commemorating the ~258,000 members of the Confederate States Army, Navy, Marines, and militia who died in combat during the Civil War.

Today is also Hug A Friend Day, so, hug somebody, dammit! Here's how.

As well, today is World Intellectual Property Day.

Russia, and Belarus, commemorate the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster with Memorial Day of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes, and Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl Tragedy, respectively.

Today is the Feast Day of Aldobrandesca. But don't say that word aloud. I did, and my coffee table disappeared.


Events

1777 – Legend tells that Sybil Ludington, aged 16, rode 40 miles to alert American colonial forces to the approach of the British regular forces.

1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist. Yeah, if something's there, it pretty much exists, alright.

1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.

1956 – SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship,



leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.

1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue



from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.

1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.

1982 - Out on a day's shopping, Rod Stewart was robbed by a gunman of his $50,000 Porsche on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.

1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado.

2005 – Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.

2013 - US country singer George Jones who had a string of number one songs between the 1950s and 1990s, died aged 81. Nicknamed 'Possum', his signature song was He Stopped Loving Her Today, a track about love and death.



121 – Marcus Aurelius, 1785 – John James Audubon, 1822 – Frederick Law Olmsted, 1889 – Anita Loos, 1898 – Eddie Eagan, 1917 – I. M. Pei, 1927 - Grandmadigr The Younger, 1933 – Carol Burnett, 1938 – Duane Eddy♪ ♫, 1940 - Uncledigr The Elder, 1942 – Bobby Rydell♪ ♫, 1943 – Gary Wright, 1960 – Roger Taylor(Duran Duran), 1961 – Joan Chen, 1963 – Jet Li, 1965 – Kevin James, 1970 – Melania Trump (47th FLOTUS), 1970 – Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins♪ ♫(TLC), 1978 – Stana Katic (Castle), 1980 – Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious), 1983 – Jessica Lynch



1865 – John Wilkes Booth, 1956 – Edward Arnold, 1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, 1981 – Jim Davis (Dallas), 1984 – Count Basie, 1986 – Broderick Crawford, 1989 – Lucille Ball, 1991 – A. B. Guthrie, Jr., 2013 - George Jones, 2015 – Jayne Meadows

[Gravdigr]

Today is April 27.

1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.

1667 – John Milton, blind and impoverished, sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' Hymn).

1861 – American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.

1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

1986 – The city of Pripyat as well as the surrounding areas are evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.

2011 – The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee, killing 348 and injuring hundreds more. The outbreak spawned 362 confirmed tornadoes. 218 tornadoes touch down on this day. This event was the costliest tornado outbreak, and one of the costliest natural disasters, in United States history (even after adjustments for inflation), with total damages of approximately $11 billion (2011 USD).



1791 – Samuel Morse, 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant (18th POTUS), 1896 – Rogers Hornsby, 1899 – Walter Lantz, 1922 – Jack Klugman (Odd Couple, Quincy M.E.), 1926 – Tim LaHaye, 1927 – Coretta Scott King, 1932 – Casey Kasem, 1938 – Earl Anthony, 1944 – Cuba Gooding Sr., 1947 – Pete Ham♪ ♫(Badfinger), 1951 – Ace Frehley(KISS, Frehley's Comet), 1955 – Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman of Alphabet, Inc), 1959 – Sheena Easton♪ ♫



1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, 1813 – Zebulon Pike (namesake of Pike's Peak), 1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1932 – Hart Crane, 1965 – Edward R. Murrow, 1988 – Fred Bear(American bow hunter), 1996 – William Colby, 1999 – Al Hirt♪ ♫, 2002 – Ruth Handler (created the Barbie doll), 2015 – Verne Gagne