Breaking News

Departments

This Week in History

Edited by Bonnie K. Goodman

Ms. Goodman is the Editor / Features Editor at HNN. She has a Masters in Library and Information Studies from McGill University, and has done graduate work in history at Concordia University. Her blog is History Musings

Friday, September 18, 2009

This Week in History... September 21-28, 2009

  • 20/09/1990 - Saddam Hussein demands US networks broadcast his message

  • 21/09/1621 - King James of England gives Canada to Sir Alexander Sterling

  • 21/09/1745 - Battle at Preston Pans: Bonnie Prince Charles beats English army

  • 21/09/1776 - 5 days after British take NY - Great fire in NY

  • 21/09/1784 - Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser 1st success US daily newspaper

  • 21/09/1792 - Proposal by Collot D'Herbois, to abolish the monarchy in France - 1st French Republic forms

  • 21/09/1814 - "Star Spangled Banner" published as a poem

  • 21/09/1863 - Union forces retreat to Chattanooga after defeat at Chickamauga

  • 21/09/1897 - NY Sun runs famous "Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus," editorial

  • 21/09/1922 - Pres Warren G Harding signs a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine

  • 21/09/1981 - Sandra Day O'Conner becomes 1st female Supreme Court Justice

  • 22/09/1692 - Last (8) person hanged for witchcraft in US (Salem Mass)

  • 22/09/1817 - John Quincy Adams becomes secretary of State

  • 22/09/1862 - President Lincoln, says he will free slaves in all states on Jan 1

  • 22/09/1893 - 1st auto built in US (by Duryea brothers) runs in Springfield

  • 22/09/1970 - Pres Nixon requests 1,000 new FBI agents for college campuses

  • 22/09/1973 - Henry Kissinger, sworn in as America's 1st Jewish Secretary of State

  • 22/09/1975 - Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate President Ford in SF Calif

  • 23/09/1642 - Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass, 1st commencement

  • 23/09/1780 - Brit Maj John Andr‚ reveals Benedict Arnold's plot to betray West Pt

  • 23/09/1806 - Lewis and Clark return to St Louis from Pacific Northwest

  • 23/09/1862 - Lincoln's Emancipation is published in Northern Newspapers

  • 23/09/1863 - Confederate siege of Chattanooga begins

  • 23/09/1941 - General de Gaulle forms govt in exile in London

  • 23/09/1949 - Truman announces evidence of USSR's 1st nuclear device detonation

  • 23/09/1952 - Richard Nixon makes his "Checker's" speech

  • 23/09/1957 - White mob forces 9 black students who had entered a Little Rock high school in Arkansas to withdraw

  • 23/09/1976 - Ford-Carter TV debate

  • 23/09/1979 - Jane Fonda and 200,000 attend anti-nuke rally in Battery Park, NYC

  • 23/09/1979 - Jane Fonda and 200,000 attend anti-nuke rally in Battery Park, NYC

  • 24/09/1789 - President George Washington appointed John Jay the 1st Chief Justice

  • 24/09/1789 - Federal Judiciary Act is passed and creates a six-person Supreme Court

  • 24/09/1789 - Congress creates Post Office

  • 24/09/1845 - 1st baseball team is organized

  • 24/09/1862 - Confederate Congress adopts confederacy seal

  • 24/09/1890 - Pres of Mormon Church in Salt Lake City issues a manifesto advising members that teaching and practice of polygamy should be abandoned

  • 24/09/1950 - "Operation Magic Carpet"-All Jews from Yemen move to Israel

  • 24/09/1957 - Eisenhower orders US troops to desegregate Little Rock schools

  • 24/09/1976 - Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst sentenced to 7 years for her part in a 1974 bank robbery. Released after 22 months by Pres Carter

  • 25/09/1639 - 1st printing press in America

  • 25/09/1775 - American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen captured

  • 25/09/1789 - Congress proposes Bill of Rights (10 of 12 will ratify)

  • 25/09/1804 - 12th amendment to US constitution, regulating judicial power

  • 25/09/1846 - US troops under Gen Taylor occupies Monterey Mexico

  • 25/09/1867 - Congress creates 1st all-black university, Howard U in Wash DC

  • 25/09/1919 - President Woodrow Wilson is paralyzed by a stroke

  • 25/09/1926 - Henry Ford announces 8 hour, 5-day work week

  • 25/09/1926 - Canadian govt of MacKenzie King forms

  • 25/09/1956 - 1st transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation (Scot-Canada)

  • 25/09/1957 - 300 US Army troops guard 9 black kids return to Central HS in Ark

  • 25/09/1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor sworn in as 1st female supreme court justice

  • 26/09/1789 - Jefferson appointed 1st Sec of State; John Jay 1st chief justice; Samuel Osgood 1st Postmaster and Edmund J Randolph 1st Attorney Genl

  • 26/09/1941 - Nazi's slaughter about 34,000 Jews of Kiev

  • 27/09/0070 - Walls of upper city of Jerusalem battered down by Romans

  • 27/09/1777 - Battle of Germantown; Washington defeated by British [NS=Oct 6]; English General William Howe occupies Philadelphia

  • 27/09/1779 - John Adams negotiates Revolutionary War peace terms with Britain

  • 27/09/1787 - Constitution submitted to states for ratification

  • 27/09/1916 - 1st Native American Day celebrated, honoring American Indians

  • 27/09/1919 - Democratic National Committee voted to allow female members

  • 27/09/1940 - Nazi-Germany, Italy and Japan sign 10 year formal alliance (Axis)

  • 27/09/1954 - School integration begins in Wash DC and Baltimore Md public schools

  • 27/09/1964 - Warren Commission released, finds Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in JFK Assasination

  • 27/09/1979 - Congress' final approval to create Dept of Education

  • 28/09/1678 - "Pilgrim's Progress" published

  • 28/09/1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie becomes king of Scotland

  • 28/09/1928 - US acknowledge Chinese govt of Chiang Kai-shek

Posted on Friday, September 18, 2009 at 4:55 AM | Top

This Week in History... September 7-13, 2009

  • 10/09/1349 - Jews who survived a massacre in Constance Germany are burned to death

  • 10/09/1547 - English demand Edward VI, 10, wed Mary Queen of Scots, 5

  • 10/09/1608 - John Smith elected president of Jamestown colony council, Va

  • 10/09/1776 - George Washington asks for a spy volunteer, Nathan Hale volunteers

  • 10/09/1861 - -15] Battle at Cheat Mountain, Elkwater West Virginia

  • 10/09/1861 - Battle of Carnifex Ferry VA, 170 casualities

  • 10/09/1939 - In WW II, Canada declared war on Germany

  • 10/09/1940 - Buckingham Palace hit by German bomb

  • 10/09/1942 - RAF drops 100,000 bombs on Dusseldorf

  • 10/09/1943 - German troops occupied Rome and took over the protection of Vatican City

  • 10/09/1993 - Israel and PLO sign joint recognition statements

  • 11/09/1557 - Catholic and Lutheran theology debated in Worm

  • 11/09/1649 - Massacre of Drogheda, Ireland, Oliver Cromwell kills 3,000 royalists

  • 11/09/1773 - Benjamin Franklin writes "There never was a good war or bad peace"

  • 11/09/1789 - Alexander Hamilton appointed 1st Secretary of Treasury

  • 11/09/1940 - Buckingham Palace in London destroyed by German bombs

  • 11/09/1943 - Jewish ghettos of Minsk and Lida Belorussia liquidated

  • 11/09/1944 - FDR and Churchill meet in Canada at 2nd Quebec Conference

  • 12/09/1695 - NY Jews petition governor Dongan for religious liberties

  • 12/09/1862 - Battle of Harpers Ferry VA

  • 12/09/1953 - Sen John F Kennedy, 36, marries Jacqueline Bouvier, 24

  • 12/09/1958 - US Supreme Court orders Little Rock Ark high school to integrate

  • 13/09/1556 - Charles V and Maria of Hungary march into Spain

  • 13/09/1663 - 1st serious slave conspiracy in colonial America (Virginia)

  • 13/09/1788 - NY City becomes 1st capital of US

  • 13/09/1847 - American-Mexican war: US Gen Winfield Scott captures Mexico City

  • 13/09/1861 - 1st naval battle of Civil War, Union frigate "Colorado" sinks privateer "Judah" off Pensacola, Fla

  • 13/09/1906 - 1st airplane flight in Europe

  • 13/09/1943 - Chiang Kai-shek became president of China

  • 13/09/1948 - Margaret Chase Smith (R-Me) elected senator, 1st woman to serve in both houses of Congress

  • 13/09/1953 - Nikita Khrushchev appointed 1st secretary-general of USSR

  • 13/09/1993 - Israeli min of Foreign affairs Peres and PLO-Abu Mazen sign peace accord

Posted on Friday, September 18, 2009 at 4:39 AM | Top

Friday, September 4, 2009

This Week in History... August 24-September 6, 2009

  • 24/08/0079 - Mt Vesuvius erupts, buries Pompeii and Herculaneum, 15,000 die

  • 24/08/0410 - Rome overrun by Visigoths, symbolized fall of Western Roman Empire

  • 24/08/1349 - Jews

  • 24/08/1349 - 6,000 Jews, blamed for the Plague, are killed in Mainz

  • 24/08/1891 - Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera

  • 24/08/1936 - FDR gives FBI authority to pursuit fascists and communists

  • 24/08/1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) goes into effect

  • 24/08/1954 - Eisenhower signs Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party, at height of McCarthyism

  • 24/08/1991 - Gorbachev resigns as head of USSR Communist Party

  • 25/08/1814 - British forces destroy Library of Congress, containing 3,000 books

  • 25/08/1862 - Secretary of War authorizes Gen Rufus Saxton to arm 5,000 slaves

  • 25/08/1864 - Petersburg Campaign-Battle of Ream's Station

  • 25/08/1921 - US signs peace treaty with Germany

  • 25/08/1944 - Paris liberated from Nazi occupation (Freedom Tuesday)

  • 26/08/1629 - Cambridge Agreement, Mass Bay Co stockholders agree to emigrate

  • 26/08/1920 - 19th amendment passes-women's suffrage granted

  • 26/08/1964 - LBJ nominated at Democratic convention in Atlantic City, NJ

  • 27/08/1667 - Earliest recorded hurricane in US (Jamestown Virginia)

  • 27/08/1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact, where 60 nations agree to outlaw war

  • 27/08/1667 - Earliest recorded hurricane in US (Jamestown Virginia)

  • 27/08/1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact, where 60 nations agree to outlaw war

  • 28/08/0476 - West Roman Empire formally disbands/emperor Romulus August ousted

  • 28/08/1565 - Oldest city in the US, St Augustine Fla, established

  • 28/08/1609 - Henry Hudson, discovers and explores Delaware Bay

  • 28/08/1655 - New Amsterdam and Peter Stuyvesant bars Jews from military service

  • 28/08/1862 - Battle of Groveton, VA (Manassas Plains) [->AUG 19] US7000 CS7000

  • 28/08/1862 - Belle Boyd released from Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC

  • 28/08/1884 - 1st known photograph of a tornado is made near Howard SD

  • 28/08/1916 - Italy declares war against Germany during WW I

  • 28/08/1944 - Last German troops in Marseille surrendered and Toulon cleared

  • 28/08/1963 - Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream speech" at Lincoln Memorial

  • 28/08/1968 - Police and anti-war demonstrators clash at Chicago's Dem Natl Conven

  • 28/08/2005 - Hurricane Katrina hammers the south eastern United States, especially New Orleans, Louisiana, and coastal Mississippi

  • 29/08/1640 - English King Charles I signed a peace treaty with Scotland

  • 29/08/1756 - England and France meet in war

  • 29/08/1786 - Shay's Rebellion in Springfield, Mass

  • 29/08/1862 - Battle of Bull Run, VA (Manassas, Gainesville, Bristoe Station)

  • 29/08/1916 - US Congress accept Jones Act: Philippines independence

  • 29/08/1939 - Chaim Weizmann informs England that Palestine Jews will fight in WW II

  • 29/08/1944 - 15,000 American troops liberating Paris march down Champs Elysees

  • 29/08/1945 - Gen MacArthur named Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan

  • 29/08/1957 - Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957

  • 29/08/1968 - Democratics nominate Hubert H Humphrey for president (Chicago)

  • 30/08/1563 - Jewish community of Neutitschlin Moravia expelled

  • 30/08/1682 - William Penn left England to sail to New World

  • 30/08/1776 - US army evacuates Long Island/falls back to Manhattan, NYC

  • 30/08/1781 - French fleet of 24 ships under Comte de Grasse defeat British under Admiral Graves at battle of Chesapeake Capes in Revolutionary War

  • 30/08/1843 - 1st blacks participation in natl political convention (Liberty Party)

  • 30/08/1854 - John Fremont issues proclamation freeing slaves of Missouri rebels

  • 30/08/1862 - Battle of 2nd Manassas-Pope defeated by Lee-Battle of Richmond, KY

  • 30/08/1862 - Battle of Altamont-Confederates beat Union forces in Tennessee

  • 30/08/1862 - 2nd Battle of Bull Run - Confederates beat Union

  • 30/08/1945 - Gen MacArthur lands in Japan

  • 30/08/1967 - US Senate confirm Thurgood Marshall as 1st black justice

  • 31/08/1850 - Calif pioneers organized at Montgomery and Clay Streets

  • 31/08/1864 - Atlanta Campaign-Battle of Jonesboro Georgia, 1900 casualties

  • 31/08/1907 - England, Russia and France form Triple Entente

  • 31/08/1914 - Germany defeats Russia (battle at Tannenberg/30,000 Russians die)

  • 31/08/1935 - FDR signs an act prohibiting export of US arms to belligerents

  • 31/08/1963 - "Hot line" between Moscow-Washington, DC installed

  • 01/09/0069 - Traditional date of destruction of Jerusalem

  • 01/09/1267 - Rabbi Moses Ben Nachman establishes a Jewish community in Jerusalem

  • 01/09/1535 - French navigator Jacques Cartier reaches Hochelaga (Montreal)

  • 01/09/1666 - Great London Fire begins in Pudding Lane. 80% of London is destroyed

  • 01/09/1752 - Liberty Bell arrives in Phila

  • 01/09/1807 - Aaron Burr acquitted of charges of plotting to set up an empire

  • 01/09/1836 - Reconstruction begins on Synagogue of Rabbi Judah Hasid in Jerusalem

  • 01/09/1849 - California Constitutional Convention held in Monterey

  • 01/09/1864 - 2nd day of battle at Jonesboro Georgia, about 3,000 casualties

  • 01/09/1864 - Battle of Petersburg VA

  • 01/09/1939 - WW II starts, Germany invades Poland, takes Danzig

  • 01/09/1941 - Jews living in Germany are required to wear a yellow Jewish star

  • 01/09/1941 - Jews living in Germany are required to wear a yellow Jewish star

  • 01/09/1945 - Japan surrenders ending WW II (US date, 9/2 in Japan)

  • 01/09/1962 - UN announces Earth population has hit 3 billion

  • 02/09/1743 - England/Austria/Savoye-Sardinia sign Treaty of Worms

  • 02/09/1752 - Last Julian calender day in US and England (no Sept 3-Sept 13th)

  • 02/09/1796 - Jews of the Netherlands are emancipated

  • 02/09/1870 - Napoleon III surrenders to Prussian armies

  • 02/09/1901 - VP Theodore Roosevelt advises, "Speak softly and carry a big stick"

  • 02/09/1944 - During WW II, George Bush ejects from a burning plane

  • 02/09/1944 - Holocaust diarist Anne Frank was sent to Auschwitz

  • 02/09/1945 - V-J Day; formal surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri (WW II ends)

  • 02/09/1945 - Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam independence from France (National Day)

Posted on Friday, September 4, 2009 at 5:19 AM | Top

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

This Week in History... August 17-23, 2009

  • 08-16-1969 - Woodstock rock festival begins in NY

  • 08-17-1590 - John White returns to Roanoke, VA and found no trace of colonist's he had left there 3 yrs earlier [or Aug 18, 1591]

  • 08-17-1808 - Napoleon asks King Louis for Holland brigade towards Spain

  • 08-17-1862 - Confederate troops under Kirby Smith enter Kentucky

  • 08-17-1870 - Mrs Esther Morris becomes 1st woman magistrate (South Pass, Wyoming)

  • 08-17-1903 - Joe Pulitzer donated $1 million to Columbia U and begins Pulitzer Prizes

  • 08-17-1915 - Mob lynches Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb County, Ga after death sentence for murder of 13-year-old girl commuted to life

  • 08-17-1948 - Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent

  • 08-17-1961 - Building of Berlin Wall begins

  • 08-17-1969 - -18] Hurricane Camille, kills 256 in Miss and Louisiana

  • 08-17-1988 - Republicans nominate George Bush for president

  • 08-18-1564 - Spanish King Philip II joins Council of Trente

  • 08-18-1864 - Petersburg Campaign-Battle of Weldon Railroad day 1 of 3 days

  • 08-18-1914 - Pres Wilson issues "Proclamation of Neutrality"

  • 18/08/1920 - Tennessee ratifies 19th Amendment, guarantees women voting right

  • 08-18-1958 - TV game show scandal investigation starts

  • 08-19-1561 - Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Leith Scotland to assume throne after spending 13 years in France

  • 08-19-1692 - 5 women executed for witchcraft in Salem Mass

  • 08-19-1698 - Russian czar Peter the Great begins term

  • 08-19-1849 - NY Herald reports gold discovery in California

  • 08-19-1934 - Hitler elected Fuhrer (95.7% of German voters)

  • 08-19-1942 - 1st American offensive in Pacific in WW2, Guadalcanal, Solomon Is

  • 08-19-1942 - 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers killed raiding Dieppe, France

  • 08-19-1955 - Hurricane Diane kills 200 and 1st billion $ damage storm (N.E. US)

  • 08-19-1958 - NAACP Youth Council begin sit-ins at Oklahoma City Lunch counters

  • 08-19-1960 - Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 3 mice into orbit (later recovered alive)

  • 08-19-1965 - Auschwitz trials end with 6 life sentences

  • 08-19-1984 - Republican convention in Houston nominates Ronald Reagan for pres

  • 08-19-1988 - Iran-Iraq begin a cease-fire in their 8-year-old war (11 PM EDT)

  • 08-20-1619 - 1st Black slaves brought by Dutch to colony of Jamestown Virginia

  • 08-20-1781 - George Washington begins to move his troops south to fight Cornwallis

  • 08-20-1864 - 8th/last day of battle at Deep Bottom Run Va (about 3900 casualties)

  • 08-20-1865 - Pres Johnson proclaims an end to "insurrection" in Tx

  • 08-20-1866 - Pres Andrew Johnson formally declares Civil War over

  • 08-20-1896 - Dial telephone patented

  • 08-20-1910 - US supported opposition brings down Madriz in Nicaragua

  • 08-20-1918 - Britain opens offensive on Western front during WW I

  • 08-20-1974 - Pres Gerald Ford, assumes office after Richard Nixon's resignation

  • 08-21-1321 - 160 Jews of Chincon France, burned at stake

  • 08-21-1831 - Nat Turner slave revolt kills 55 (Southampton County, Virginia)

  • 08-21-1858 - 1st Lincoln-Douglas debate (Illinois)

  • 08-21-1863 - Raid at Lawrence KS by William Quantrill

  • 08-21-1864 - Battle of Summit Point, VA

  • 08-21-1945 - Pres Truman ends Lend-Lease program

  • 08-22-0565 - St Columba reported seeing monster in Loch Ness

  • 08-22-1138 - English defeated Scots at Cowton Moor Banners of various saints were carried into battle which led to being called Battle of the Standard

  • 08-22-1454 - Jews are expelled from Brunn Moravia by order of King Ladislaus

  • 08-22-1642 - Civil War in England began between Royalists and Parliament

  • 08-22-1654 - 1st Jewish immigrant to US, Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam

  • 08-22-1762 - 1st female (Ann Franklin) US newspaper editor, Newport RI, Mercury

  • 08-22-1791 - Haitian Slave Revolution begins under voodoo priest Boukman

  • 08-22-1846 - US annexes New Mexico

  • 08-22-1902 - Pres Teddy Roosevelt became 1st US chief executive to ride in a car

  • 08-22-1945 - Vietnam conflict begins as Ho Chi Minh leads a successful coup

  • 08-22-1956 - Pres Eisenhower and VP Nixon renominated by Rep convention in SF

  • 08-22-1975 - Assassination attempt on president Gerald Ford

  • 08-23-1833 - Britain abolishes slavery in colonies; 700,000 slaves freed

  • 08-23-1850 - 1st national women's rights convention convenes in Worcester Mass

  • 08-23-1866 - Treaty of Prague ends Austro-Prussian war

  • 08-23-1903 - 6th Zionist Congress, Theodor Herzl declares Jewish state

  • 08-23-1914 - Japan declares war on Germany in World War I

  • 08-23-1939 - Molotov-Ribbentrop pact: East Europe divided between Hitler and Stalin

  • 08-23-1942 - Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffers bomb Stalingrad (40,000 die)

  • 08-23-1972 - Republican convention (Miami Beach, Fla) renominates VP Agnew but not unanimous-1 vote went to NBC newsman David Brinkley

  • 08-23-1978 - Iranian students occupies Iranian embassy at Wassenaar

  • 08-23-1990 - US begins call up of 46,000 reservists to the Persian Gulf

Posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12:48 AM | Top

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

This Week in History... August 10-16, 2009

  • 08-10-0070 - "2nd Temple" of Jews is set aflame (approx)

  • 08-10-1497 - John Cabot tells King Henry VII of his trip to "Asia"

  • 08-10-1831 - Former slave Nat Turner leads uprising against slavery

  • 08-10-1846 - Congress charters "nation's attic," Smithsonian Institution

  • 08-10-1941 - FDR and Churchill's 2nd meeting at Placentia Newfoundland

  • 08-11-1924 - US presidential candidates make 1st film for bio-scoop news

  • 08-11-1941 - FDR and PM Winston Churchill sign Atlantic Charter

  • 08-12-1676 - 1st war between American colonists and Indians ends in New England

  • 08-12-1867 - Pres A Johnson defies Congress suspending Sec of War Edwin Stanton

  • 08-12-1898 - Hawaii formally annexed to US

  • 08-12-1898 - Peace protocol ends Spanish-American War, signed

  • 08-12-1990 - Iraq President Saddam Hussein says he is ready to resolve Gulf crisis if Israel withdraws from occupied territories

  • 08-12-1994 - Stephen G Breyer, sworn in as Supreme Court Justice

  • 08-13-1608 - John Smith's story of Jamestown's 1st days submitted for publication

  • 08-13-1792 - Revolutionaries imprison French royals including Marie Antoinette

  • 08-13-1906 - Black soldiers raid Brownsville Texas

  • 08-13-1961 - Construction on Berlin Wall begins in East Germany (Dark day)

  • 08-14-1765 - Mass colonists challenge British rule by an Elm (Liberty Tree)

  • 08-14-1842 - Seminole War ends; Indians removed from Florida to Oklahoma

  • 08-14-1862 - Lincoln receives 1st group of blacks to confer with US president

  • 08-14-1900 - 2,000 marines land to capture Beijing, ending Boxer rebellion

  • 08-14-1912 - 2,500 US marines invade Nicaragua; US remains until 1925

  • 08-14-1937 - China declares war on Japan

  • 08-14-1942 - Dwight D Eisenhower named commander for invasion of North Africa

  • 08-14-1945 - V-J Day; Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II

  • 08-14-1973 - US ends secret bombing of Cambodia

  • 08-15-1534 - Ignatius of Loyola forms society of Jesus/Jesuits

  • 08-15-1620 - Mayflower sets sail from Southampton with 102 Pilgrims

  • 08-15-1824 - Freed American slaves forms country of Liberia

  • 08-15-1867 - 2nd Reform Bill extends suffrage in England

  • 08-15-1870 - Transcontinental Railway actually completed in Colorado

  • 08-15-1944 - Operation Dragoon: Allied troops land in Provence

  • 08-15-1944 - Operation Anvil: Allies land on French Mediterranean sea coast

  • 08-15-1960 - UFO is sighted by 3 California patrolmen

  • 08-15-1969 - Woodstock Music and Art Fair opens in NY State (Max Yasgur's Dairy Farm)

  • 08-16-1777 - Americans defeat British in Battle of Bennington, Vt

  • 08-16-1858 - Britain's Queen Victoria telegraphs President James Buchanan

  • 08-16-1861 - Pres Lincoln prohibits Union states from trading with Confederacy

  • 08-16-1863 - Emancipation Proclamation signed

  • 08-16-1961 - Martin L. King, Jr. protests for black voting right in Miami

  • 08-16-1969 - Woodstock rock festival begins in NY

Posted on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 4:44 AM | Top

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

This Week in History... August 3-9, 2009

  • 08-03-1676 - Nathaniel Bacon publishes "Declaration of People of Virginia"

  • 08-03-1923 - VP Calvin Coolidge becomes 30th president

  • 08-03-1948 - FDR advisor Alger Hiss accused to be a "communist"

  • 08-03-1990 - US announces commitment of Naval forces to Gulf regions

  • 08-04-1558 - 1st printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah)

  • 08-04-1789 - French National Meeting ending feudal system

  • 08-04-1914 - US declares neutrality in WW I

  • 08-04-1914 - Germany declares war on Belgium; Britain declares war on Germany

  • 08-04-1964 - Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E Chaney, bodies discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam

  • 08-04-1977 - Pres Carter establishes Dept of Energy

  • 08-05-1391 - Jews are massacred in Toledo and Barcelona Spain

  • 08-05-1846 - Oregon country divided between US and Britain at 49th parallel

  • 08-05-1921 - Treaty of Berlin: US and Germany sign separate peace treaty

  • 08-05-1945 - Atom Bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Aug 6th in Japan)

  • 08-05-1963 - Britain, US and USSR sign nuclear test ban treaty

  • 08-05-1964 - US begins bombing North Vietnam

  • 08-05-1974 - Pres Nixon admits he withheld information about Watergate break-in

  • 08-05-1981 - Pres Regan fires 11,500 air traffic controllers who had struck 2 days before

  • 08-05-1986 - US Senate votes for SDI-project (Star Wars)

  • 08-06-1787 - Constitutional Convention in Phila begans debate

  • 08-06-1806 - Holy Roman Empire ends; it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire

  • 08-06-1815 - US flotilla ends piracy by Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli

  • 08-06-1945 - Hiroshima Peace Day-atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima by "Enola Gay"

  • 08-06-1965 - LBJ signs Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing voting rights for blacks

  • 08-06-1990 - UN Security Council votes 13-0 (2 abstensions Cuba and Yemen) to place economic sanctions against Iraq

  • 08-07-1782 - George Washington creates Order of Purple Heart

  • 08-07-1934 - US Court of Appeals upheld lower court ruling striking down govt's attempt to ban controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses"

  • 08-07-1942 - 1st American offensive in Pacific in WW2, Guadalcanal, Solomon Is

  • 08-07-1964 - US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution

  • 08-07-1990 - Desert Shield begins - US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia

  • 08-08-1864 - Red Cross forms in Geneva

  • 08-08-1876 - Thomas Edison patents mimeograph

  • 08-08-1890 - Daughters of American Revolution organizes

  • 08-08-1945 - USSR establishes a communist government in North Korea

  • 08-08-1945 - US, USSR, England and France sign Treaty of London

  • 08-08-1945 - Pres Harry S Truman signs UN Charter

  • 08-08-1953 - US and South Korea initial a mutual security pact

  • 08-08-1968 - Republican convention in Miami Beach nominates Nixon for pres

  • 08-08-1973 - VP Spiro T Agnew says reports he took kickbacks are "damned lies" from govt contracts in Maryland. He vowed not to resign

  • 08-08-1974 - Pres Richard M Nixon announces he'll resign his office 12PM Aug 9

  • 08-09-1638 - Jonas Bronck of Holland becomes 1st European settler in Bronx

  • 08-09-1842 - US-Canada border defined by Webster-Ashburton Treaty

  • 08-09-1655 - Lord Protector Cromwell divides England into 11 districts

  • 08-09-1673 - Dutch recapture NY from English; regained by English in 1674

  • 08-09-1790 - Columbia returns to Boston after 3 year journey, 1st ship to carry US flag around the world

  • 08-09-1842 - US-Canada border defined by Webster-Ashburton Treaty

  • 08-09-1848 - Barnburners (anti-slavery) party merges with Free Soil Party nominateing Martin Van Buren for president

  • 08-09-1941 - Winston Churchill reaches Newfoundland for 1st talk with FDR

  • 08-09-1974 - Richard Nixon resigns presidency, VP Gerald Ford becomes 38th pres

Posted on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 11:22 PM | Top

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

This Week in History... July 27-August 2, 2009

  • 07-27-1861 - Union general George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.

  • 07-27-1953 - An armistice was signed ending the Korean War.

  • 07-27-1974 - The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Richard Nixon for obstructing justice in the Watergate case.

  • 07-27-1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

  • 07-27-1996 - A pipe bomb exploded in an Atlanta park during the Olympic Games.

  • 07-28-1864 - Battle of Atlanta GA (Ezra Church)

  • 07-28-1868 - 14th Amendment ratified, grants citizenship to ex-slaves

  • 07-28-1914 - World War I began when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

  • 07-28-1915 - 10,000 blacks march on 5th Ave (NYC) protesting lynchings

  • 07-28-1965 - LBJ sends 50,000 more soldiers to Vietnam (total of 125,000)

  • 07-29-1588 - Attacking Spanish Armada defeated and scattered by English defenders

  • 07-29-1676 - Nathaniel Bacon declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from Indians

  • 07-29-1974 - 2nd impeachment vote against Nixon by House Judiciary Committee

  • 07-29-1975 - Ford became 1st US pres to visit Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz

  • 07-30-1619 - House of Burgesses Virginia forms, 1st elective US governing body

  • 07-30-1626 - Earthquake hits Naples; 10,000 die

  • 07-30-1839 - Slave rebels, take over slaver Amistad

  • 07-30-1863 - Pres Lincoln issues "eye-for-eye" order to shoot a rebel prisoner for every black prisoner shot

  • 07-30-1909 - Wright Brothers deliver 1st military plane to the army

  • 07-30-1956 - US motto "In God We Trust" authorized

  • 07-30-1965 - LBJ signs Medicare bill, which goes into effect in 1966

  • 07-30-1974 - House Judiciary Committee votes on 3rd and last charge of "high crimes and misdemeanors" to impeach President Nixon in the Watergate cover-up

  • 31/07/1620 - Pilgrim Fathers depart (through England) to America

  • 31/07/1777 - Marquis de Lafayette, 19, made major-general of Continental Army

  • 31/07/1864 - Ulysses S Grant is named General of Volunteers

  • 31/07/1914 - German Emperor Wilhelm II threatens war, orders Russia to demobilize

  • 01/08/1619 - 1st black Americans (20) land at Jamestown, Virginia

  • 01/08/1790 - 1st US census (population of 3,939,214; 697,624 are slaves)

  • 01/08/1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins

  • 01/08/1834 - Slavery abolished through out the British Empire

  • 01/08/1855 - Castle Clinton in NYC opens as 1st US receiving station for immigrants

  • 01/08/1863 - Cavalry action near Brandy Station-End of Gettysburg Campaign

  • 01/08/1867 - Blacks vote for 1st time in a state election in South (Tenn)

  • 01/08/1914 - Emperor Wilhelm II declares war on his nephew tsar Nicolas II (WW I)

  • 01/08/1944 - Uprising in Warsaw ghetto

  • 01/08/1982 - Heavy Israeli air bombardment on Beirut

  • 02/08/1492 - Jews are expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella

  • 02/08/1776 - Formal signing of Declaration of Independence

  • 02/08/1802 - Napoleon declared "Counsel for Life"

  • 02/08/1920 - Marcus Garvey presents his "Back To Africa" program in NYC

  • 02/08/1943 - Lt John F Kennedy's PT-boat 109 sinks at Solomon islands

  • 02/08/1945 - Potsdam Conference ended, with Stalin, Truman and Churchill

  • 02/08/1965 - Morley Safer's sends 1st Vietnam report indicating we are losing

Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 1:48 AM | Top

Monday, July 20, 2009

This Week in History... July 20-26, 2009

  • 07-20-1749 - Earl of Chesterfield says "Idleness is only refuge of weak minds"

  • 07-20-1861 - Confederate state's congress began holding sessions in Richmond, Va

  • 07-20-1944 - Pres FDR nominated for an unprecedented 4th term at Democratic convention

  • 07-20-1949 - Israel's 19 month war of independence ends

  • 07-20-1969 - 1st men on Moon, Neil Armstrong & Edwin Aldrin, Apollo 11

  • 07-20-1982 - Bombs planted by Irish Republican Army explode in 2 London parks

  • 07-21-1588 - English fleet defeats Spanish armada

  • 07-21-1669 - John Lockes Constitution of English colony Carolina approved

  • 07-21-1861 - 1st major battle of Civil War ends (Bull Run), Va-South wins

  • 07-21-1925 - Monkey Trial ends-John Scopes found guilty of teaching Darwinism

  • 07-21-1949 - Senate ratifies North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82-13 (NATO)

  • 07-21-1962 - 160 civil right activists jailed after demonstration in Albany Ga

  • 07-22-1587 - 2nd English colony forms on Roanoke Island off NC

  • 07-22-1775 - George Washington takes command of US troops

  • 07-22-1893 - Katharine Lee Bates writes "America the Beautiful," in Colorado

  • 07-22-1937 - Senate rejects FDR proposal to enlarge Supreme Court

  • 07-22-1942 - Warsaw Ghetto Jews (300,000) are sent to Treblinka extermination Camp

  • 07-22-1943 - US forces led by Gen George Patton liberate Palermo Sicily

  • 07-22-1975 - House of Reps votes to restore citizenship to Gen Robert E Lee

  • 07-23-1664 - 4 British ships to drive Dutch out of NY, arrive in Boston

  • 07-23-1829 - William Burt patented a forerunner of the typewriter.

  • 07-23-1840 - Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper and Lower Canada

  • 07-23-1885 - Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died at Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63.

  • 07-23-1914 - Austria and Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, precipitating World War I.

  • 07-23-1940 - "Blitz" all-night air raid by German bombers on London begins

  • 07-23-1945 - Vichy government leader Marshal Henri Petain went on trial for treason.

  • 07-23-1952 - Revolution erupted in Egypt as the military took power in a bloodless coup. The following year the monarchy was abolished and, for the first time since the pharaohs, Egypt was again ruled by Egyptians.

  • 07-23-1959 - VP Richard Nixon begins visit on USSR

  • 07-24-1847 - Brigham Young and the first members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) arrived at the Great Salt Lake.

  • 07-24-1862 - Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook, N.Y.

  • 07-24-1866 - Tennessee became the first Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

  • 07-24-1937 - Charges against five black men accused of raping two white women in the Scottsboro case were dropped.

  • 07-24-1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over White House tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.

  • 07-25-1946 - The United States tested the first underwater atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll.

  • 07-25-1952 - Puerto Rico became a commonwealth of the United States.

  • 07-25-1978 - The world's first test-tube baby, Louise Joy Brown, was born in Lancashire, England.

  • 07-25-1984 - Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space.

  • 07-26-1788 - New York became the 11th state in the United States.

  • 07-26-1847 - Liberia became Africa's first republic.

  • 07-26-1908 - The Office of the Chief Examiner, which in 1935 became the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was created.

  • 07-26-1947 - President Harry S Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  • 07-26-1952 - Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron, died in Buenos Aires at age 33.

  • 07-26-1952 - King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated after a coup led by Gamal Abdal Nasser.

  • 07-26-1953 - Fidel Castro was among a group of rebelling anti-Batistas who unsuccessfully attacked an army barracks.

  • 07-27-1861 - Union general George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.

  • 07-27-1953 - An armistice was signed ending the Korean War.

  • 07-27-1974 - The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Richard Nixon for obstructing justice in the Watergate case.

  • 07-27-1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

  • 07-27-1996 - A pipe bomb exploded in an Atlanta park during the Olympic Games.

Posted on Monday, July 20, 2009 at 8:35 PM | Top

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

This Week in History... July 13-19, 2009

  • 07-14-1822 - Slave revolt in SC under Denmark Vesey/Peter Poyas

  • 07-14-1845 - Fire in NYC destroys 1,000 homes and kills many

  • 07-14-1945 - Battleship USS South Dakota is 1st US ship to bombard Japan

  • 07-14-1946 - Mass murder on Jews in Kielce Poland

  • 07-14-1976 - Jimmy Carter wins Democratic pres nomination in NYC

  • 07-14-1987 - Lt Col Oliver North concludes 6 days of Congressional testimony

  • 07-15-1099 - 1st Crusaders capture, plunder Jerusalem

  • 07-15-1662 - England's King Charles II charters Royal Society in London

  • 07-15-1815 - Napoleon captured and surrendered and is later exiled on St Helena

  • 07-15-1830 - 3 Indian tribes, Sioux, Sauk and Fox, signs a treaty giving the US most of Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri

  • 07-15-1870 - Hudson's Bay and Northwest Territories transferred to Canada

  • 07-15-1948 - Pres Truman nominated for another term (Phila)

  • 07-15-1958 - Pres Eisenhower sends US troops to Lebanon; they stay 3 months

  • 07-15-1971 - Pres Nixon announces he would visit People's Rep of China

  • 07-15-1987 - John Poindexter testifies at Iran-Contra hearings

  • 07-15-1991 - US troops leave northern Iraq

  • 07-16-1429 - Joan of Arc leads French army in Battle of Orleans

  • 07-16-1790 - The District of Columbia was established as the seat of the United States government.

  • 07-16-1861 - Battle of Bull Run, the 1st major battle of the Civil War, is fought

  • 07-16-1918 - Russia's Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.

  • 07-16-1945 - 1st atomic bomb detonated, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico

  • 07-16-1969 - Apollo 11 took off on the first manned flight to the moon.

  • 07-16-1980 - Ronald Reagan nominated for Pres by Republicans in Detroit

  • 07-16-1999 - John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren, died in a plane crash near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

  • 07-17-1821 - Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

  • 07-17-1898 - Spain surrendered to the United States at Santiago, Cuba, ending the Spanish-American War.

  • 07-17-1917 - The British royal family changed its name from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor amid anti-German senitment during World War I.

  • 07-17-1945 - President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at the opening of the Potsdam Conference.

  • 07-17-1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim, Calif.

  • 07-17-1975 - The American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft linked up for the first time.

  • 07-17-1998 - The last Russian Czar Nicholas II was buried 80 years after he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.

  • 07-18-0064 - A great fire began that ultimately destroyed most of Rome. The emperor Nero blamed it on Christians and began the first Roman persecution of them.

  • 07-18-1936 - The Spanish Civil War began.

  • 07-18-1947 - President Harry S. Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act.

  • 07-19-1848 - The first women's rights convention, called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia C. Mott, was held in Seneca Falls, New York.

  • 07-19-1870 - The Franco-Prussian war began.

  • 07-19-1941 - Winston Churchill was the first to use the two-finger "V is for Victory" sign.

  • 07-19-1984 - Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated for the vice-presidency by a major political party.

  • 07-19-1993 - President Clinton announced the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays in the military.

  • 07-20-1810 - Colombia declared independence from Spain.

  • 07-20-1881 - Fugitive Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull surrendered to federal troops.

  • 07-20-1951 - King Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated.

  • 07-20-1960 - Sirima Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) became the world's first woman prime minister.

  • 07-20-1969 - Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon.

  • 07-20-1985 - Treasure hunters found the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank off the coast of Key West, Fla., in 1622 during a hurricane. The ship contained over $400 million in coins and silver ingots.

  • 07-21-1861 - Confederate forces won victory at Bull Run in the first major battle of the Civil War.

  • 07-21-1873 - The first train robbery west of the Mississippi was pulled off by Jesse James and his gang.

  • 07-21-1925 - In the "Monkey Trial," John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee state law by teaching evolution.

  • 07-21-1949 - The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.

  • 07-21-1970 - The Aswan High Dam was opened in Egypt.

  • 07-21-1998 - Astronaut Alan Shepard died.

  • 07-21-2002 - WorldCom filed for bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

  • 07-22-1796 - Cleveland, Ohio, was founded by Gen. Moses Cleaveland.

  • 07-22-1933 - Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the world.

  • 07-22-1934 - John Dillinger was shot to death outside Chicago's Biograph Theater.

  • 07-22-1937 - Franklin D. Roosevelt's "court packing" scheme was rejected by the U.S. Senate.

  • 07-22-1975 - Congress restored Confederate general Robert E. Lee's U.S. citizenship.

  • 07-22-2003 - Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Ousay, were killed in a firefight.

Posted on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 4:01 AM | Top

Monday, July 6, 2009

This Week in History... July 6-12, 2009

  • 07-06-1955 - Diem says South Vietnam not bound by Geneva Agreements

  • 07-06-1967 - Civil war in Nigeria

  • 07-07-1797 - The impeachment of Senator Blount

  • 07-07-1863 - Kit Carson's campaign against the Indians

  • 07-07-1896 - Democrats take on gold standard

  • 07-07-1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor nominated to Supreme Court

  • 07-07-2005 - Terrorists attack London transit system at rush hour

  • 07-08-1776 - The Liberty Bell rings out from the tower of the Pennsylvania State House summoning citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, by Colonel John Nixon

  • 07-08-1853 - Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay

  • 07-08-1950 - MacArthur named Korean commander

  • 07-09-1816 - Argentina formally declared independence from Spain.

  • 07-09-1846 - U.S. takes San Francisco

  • 07-09-1850 - Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the U.S., dies of cholera after only 16 months in office.

  • 07-09-1872 - The doughnut cutter was patented by John F. Blondel of Thomaston, Me.

  • 07-09-1896 - William Jennings Bryan delivered his "cross of gold" speech at the Democratic National Convention.

  • 07-09-1900 - The British Parliament proclaimed that as of Jan. 1, 1901, the six Australian colonies would be united at the Commonwealth of Australia.

  • 07-09-1960 - Khrushchev and Eisenhower trade threats over Cuba

  • 07-09-1974 - Former U.S. chief justice Earl Warren died in Washington, DC.

  • 07-09-1993 - Romanov remains identified

  • 07-09-2002 - Baseball's All-Star Game ended in a tie after 11 innings. Both sides had run out of pitchers.

  • 07-10-1890 - Wyoming became the 44th state in the United States.

  • 07-10-1940 - The Battle of Britain began.

  • 07-10-1951 - Armistice talks to end the Korean War began at Kaesong.

  • 07-10-1973 - The Bahamas became independent from Great Britain.

  • 07-10-1985 - The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was bringing back the original Coke and calling it Coca-Cola Classic.

  • 07-10-1991 - President Bush lifted economic sanctions against South Africa.

  • 07-10-1991 - Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as Russia's first elected president.

  • 07-10-2003 - Spain opened its first mosque (in Granada) since the Moors were expelled in 1492.

  • 07-11-1533 - Pope Clement VII excommunicated England's King Henry VIII.

  • 07-11-1804 - Former vice president Aaron Burr fatally wounded former secretary of the treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Hamilton died the following afternoon.

  • 07-11-1864 - Confederate general Jubal A. Early and his troops attacked Washington, DC. They retreated the next day, ending the Confederate threat to occupy the capital.

  • 07-11-1914 - Babe Ruth made his major league baseball debut as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

  • 07-11-1977 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work to advance civil rights.

  • 07-11-1995 - The United States and Vietnam established full diplomatic relations.

  • 07-12-1543 - England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.

  • 07-12-1690 - Protestant William of Orange defeated Roman Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.

  • 07-12-1862 - Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.

  • 07-12-1984 - Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale became the first major-party candidate to choose a woman as a running mate when he announced his choice of Geraldine Ferraro.

Posted on Monday, July 6, 2009 at 9:49 PM | Top

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

This Week in History... June 29 - July 5, 2009

  • 06-29-1835 Texan William Travis prepares for war with Mexico

  • 06-29-1966 Vietnam air war escalates

  • 06-29-1970 U.S. ground troops return from Cambodia

  • 06-29-1974 Isabela Peron takes office as Argentine president

  • 06-29-1989 Congress votes new sanctions against China

  • 06-30-1520 Spanish retreat from Aztec capital

  • 06-30-1775 Congress impugns Parliament and adopts Articles of War

  • 06-30-1876 Soldiers are evacuated from the Little Big Horn by steamboat

  • 06-30-1936 Gone with the Wind is published

  • 06-30-1950 Truman orders U.S. forces to Korea

  • 07-01-1863 The Battle of Gettysburg begins

  • 07-01-1867 Canadian Independence Day

  • 07-01-1916 Battle of the Somme begins

  • 07-01-1997 Hong Kong returned to China

  • 07-02-1839 Mutiny on the Amistad slave ship

  • 07-02-1863 The second day of battle at Gettysburg

  • 07-02-1881 President Garfield shot

  • 07-02-1937 Amelia Earhart Disappears

  • 07-02-1964 Johnson signs Civil Rights Act

  • 07-03-1775 Washington assumes command

  • 07-03-1863 Pickett leads his infamous charge at Gettysburg

  • 07-03-1863 Lee defeated at Gettysburg

  • 07-04-1776 U.S. Declares Independence

  • 07-04-1826 Death of the founding fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

  • 07-04-1863 Surrender of Vicksburg

  • 07-04-1914 Griffith begins filming Birth of a Nation

  • 07-05-1865 Salvation Army founded

  • 07-05-1950 First U.S. fatality in the Korean War

  • 07-05-1959 U.S. visitors to Soviet exhibition in New York express their feelings

Posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 2:39 AM | Top

Monday, June 22, 2009

This Week in History... June 22-28, 2009

  • 06-22-1775 Congress issues Continental currency

  • 06-22-1944 FDR signs GI bill

  • 06-23-1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser elected as the first president of the Republic of Egypt.

  • 06-24-1675 King Philip's War begins

  • 06-24-1812 Napoleon's Grande Armee invades Russia

  • 06-24-1970 Senate repeals Tonkin Gulf Resolution

  • 06-25-1876 Indians defeat Custer at Little Big Horn

  • 06-25-1942 Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower takes command of U.S. forces in Europe.

  • 06-25-1950 Korean War begins

  • 06-24-1993 Kim Campbell takes office as Canada's first female Prime Minister

  • 06-24-1509 - Henry VIII was crowned king of England.

  • 06-24-1647 - Early American feminist Margaret Brent demanded a seat and vote in the Maryland Assembly, but was ejected from that body.

  • 06-24-1675 - King Philip's War, the most devastating war between the colonists and Indians, began with Indians attacking the Swansea (Mass.) settlement.

  • 06-24-1908 - The 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, died in Princeton, N.J.

  • 06-24-1947 - Kenneth Arnold, an American pilot, reported seeing strange objects near Mt. Rainier, Washington. He described them as "saucers skipping across the water," hence the term "flying saucers" was born.

  • 06-24-1948 - The Soviet Union began a blockade of Berlin. Allied forces responded with what would be known as the Berlin Airlift flying in more than 2 million tons of supplies over the next year.

  • 06-24-1997 - The U.S. Air Force released The Roswell Report, closing the case on the 1947 Roswell, N.M. incident concerning UFOs and alien bodies.

  • 06-25-1788 - Virginia became the 10th state in the Union.

  • 06-25-1876 - Lt. Col. George A. Custer and all his men were killed by Sioux and Cheyanne Indians at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana.

  • 06-25-1950 - Communist North Korean troops invaded South Korea, beginning the Korean War.

  • 06-25-1951 - The first commercial color TV program was transmitted by CBS from New York to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, DC.

  • 06-25-1991 - Croatia and Slovenia proclaimed their independence from Yugoslavia, beginning the Yugoslavian civil war.

  • 06-26-1819 - The bicycle was patented by W. K. Clarkson.

  • 06-26-1843 - Hong Kong was proclaimed a British crown colony.

  • 06-26-1906 - The first Grand Prix motor race was held in Le Mans, France.

  • 06-26-1959 - The St. Lawrence Seaway, connecting the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, was opened

  • 06-26-1963 - President John Kennedy gave his, "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) speech in West Berlin.

  • 06-26-1976 - The CN tower in Toronto opened, the world's tallest free-standing structure.

  • 06-27-1844 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob in Carthage, Ill.

  • 06-27-1898 - Joshua Slocum became the first person to successfully circumnavigate the earth alone when he landed his sloop Spray in Newport, R.I., a 46,000-mile trip.

  • 06-27-1950 - President Harry S. Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean War.

  • 06-27-1954 - The world's first atomic power station opened at Obninsk, near Moscow.

  • 06-27-1969 - Police and gays clashed at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, fostering the gay rights movement.

  • 06-27-1985 - The legendary Route 66, running from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., was decertified, the victim of the Interstate Highway System.

  • 06-28-1836 - The fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died at Montpelier, his Virginia estate.

  • 06-28-1894 - Labor Day became a federal holiday by an act of Congress.

  • 06-28-1914 - Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were assassinated, setting off World War I.

  • 06-28-1919 - The Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending World War I.

  • 06-28-1978 - The Supreme Court ruled in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke that the use of quotas in affirmative action programs was not permissible.

  • 06-28-2000 - Elian Gonzalez was returned to his father in Cuba.

  • 06-28-2001 - Serbia handed over Slobodan Milosevic over to the UN war crimes tribunal.

  • 06-28-2004 - In Iraq, the United States transferred power back to the Iraqis two days earlier than planned.

Posted on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 12:41 AM | Top

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

This Week in History... June 15-21, 2009

  • 06-15-1215 Magna Carta Sealed

  • 06-15-1775 George Washington assigned to lead the Continental Army

  • 06-15-1846 U.S.-Canadian border established

  • 06-15-1864 Battle of Petersburg begins

  • 06-15-1964 Johnson decides against submitting Vietnam resolution to Congress

  • 06-16-1858 Lincoln warns that America is becoming a "house divided"

  • 06-16-1862 Battle of Secessionville

  • 06-16-1961 Kennedy agrees to send instructors to train troops

  • 06-17-1579 Drake claims California for England

  • 06-17-1775 Battle of Bunker Hill begins

  • 06-17-1930 Hoover signs Smoot-Hawley Tariff

  • 06-17-1972 Watetgate Burglars Arrested

  • 06-18-1798 Adams passes first of Alien and Sedition Acts

  • 06-18-1812 Second Anglo-American War begins

  • 06-18-1815 Napoleon Defeated at Waterloo

  • 06-18-1979 Carter and Brezhnev sign the SALT-II treaty

  • 06-19-1856 First Republican national convention ends

  • 06-19-1864 CSS Alabama sunk off France during the Civil War

  • 06-19-1885 Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor

  • 06-19-1917 Britain's King George V changes royal surname

  • 06-20-1782 Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States

  • 06-20-1863 West Virginia enters the Union

  • 06-20-1963 United States and Soviet Union will establish a "hot line"

  • 06-20-1964 Westmoreland becomes Commander of MACV in Vietnam

  • 06-21-1788 U.S. Constitution ratified

  • 06-21-1864 General Grant extends the Petersburg line during the Civil War

  • 06-21-1942 Allies surrender at Tobruk, Libya

  • 06-21-1964 The KKK kills three civil rights activists: Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney.

Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 12:58 AM | Top

Monday, June 8, 2009

This Week in History... June 8-14, 2009

  • 06-08-0632 - The prophet Muhammad died.

  • 06-08-1845 - Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States, died in Tennessee.

  • 06-08-1861 - Tennessee became the 11th and last state to secede from the Union.

  • 06-08-1968 - James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, assassin, was arrested.

  • 06-08-1982 - President Reagan became the first American president to address a joint session of Britain’s Parliament.

  • 06-08-2001 - Tony Blair and his Labour Party won a second term, overwhelming the opposition at the polls.

  • 06-09-1898 - China agreed to lease Hong Kong to Britain for 99 years.

  • 06-09-1973 - Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes and became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.

  • 06-10-1801 - The Tripolitan War, between the United States and the Barbary States, began.

  • 06-10-1942 - The entire male population of the Czech village of Lidice was massacred in retaliation for the death of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich.

  • 06-10-1946 - Italy replaced its monarchy with a republic.

  • 06-10-1967 - The Six-Day War between Israel and Syria, Egypt, and Jordan ended.

  • 06-10-1978 - Affirmed won the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown.

  • 06-11-1509 - King Henry VIII married his first wife, Katharine of Aragon.

  • 06-11-1770 - Capt. James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia .

  • 06-11-1919 - Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to capture the Triple Crown.

  • 06-11-1963 - Vivian Malone and James Hood successfully enrolled at the University of Alabama following Gov. George Wallace’s famous "stand in the schoolhouse door."

  • 06-11-1977 - Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crow

  • 06-11-1509 - King Henry VIII married his first wife, Katharine of Aragon.

  • 06-11-1770 - Capt. James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia .

  • 06-11-1919 - Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to capture the Triple Crown.

  • 06-11-1963 - Vivian Malone and James Hood successfully enrolled at the University of Alabama following Gov. George Wallace’s famous "stand in the schoolhouse door."

  • 06-11-1977 - Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown

  • 06-12-1880 - John Lee Richmond pitched baseball's first perfect game. A perfect game occurs when no batter reaches a base during a complete game of at least nine innings.

  • 06-12-1898 - Emilio Aguinaldo, head of the Philippine nationalists, proclaimed independence from Spain.

  • 06-12-1939 - The Baseball Hall of Fame opened to the public in Cooperstown, New York.

  • 06-12-1942 - Anne Frank received a diary for her birthday.

  • 06-12-1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.

  • 06-12-1997 - Interleague play began in baseball, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series.

  • 06-13-1900 - The Boxer Rebellion began in China.

  • 06-13-1966 - The U.S. Supreme Court set forth in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must advise suspects of their rights upon taking them into custody.

  • 06-13-1967 - Thurgood Marshall was nominated to become the first African American on the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • 06-13-1971 - The New York Times began publishing the "Pentagon Papers."

  • 06-13-1983 - The U.S. space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.

  • 06-13-2000 - The first meeting between Pres. Kim Jong Il of North Korea and Pres. Kim Dae Jung of South Korea occurred.

  • 06-14-1775 - The United States Army was founded.

  • 06-14-1777 - The Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the U.S.

  • 06-14-1922 - Warren Harding became the first president to be heard on the radio.

  • 06-14-1940 - German troops entered Paris. The Nazis opened the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

  • 06-14-1951 - The first commercial computer, Univac I, was unveiled.

  • 06-14-1954 - President Eisenhower signed the order inserting the words "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance.

  • 06-14-1982 - Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the Falkland Islands.

Posted on Monday, June 8, 2009 at 2:42 AM | Top

Monday, June 1, 2009

This Week in History... June 1-7, 2009

  • 06-01-1958 - General Charles De Gaulle became the premier of France.

  • 06-01-1980 - Cable News Network (CNN) debuted.

  • 06-02-1886 - Grover Cleveland became the first U.S. president to get married in the White House.

  • 06-02-1924 - Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.

  • 06-02-1941 - Baseball great, Lou Gehrig died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS, a rare type of paralysis now referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.

  • 06-02-1946 - In Italy, a plebiscite rejected the monarchy in favor of a republic. 1953

  • 06-02-1953 - Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

  • 06-03-1861 - Stephen Douglas, U.S. politician, died.

  • 06-03-1937 - The Duke of Windsor (formerly Edward VIII) married Wallis Simpson.

  • 06-03-1965 - Maj. Edward White became the first U.S. astronaut to walk in space, during the Gemini 4 mission.

  • 06-03-1989 - Chinese army troops head to Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.

  • 06-04-1892 - The Sierra Club, led by John Muir, was incorporated in San Francisco.

  • 06-04-1896 - Henry Ford took his first car out for a test drive.

  • 06-04-1942 - The Battle of Midway, a decisive Allied victory in World War II, began.

  • 06-04-1944 - The U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, leading to the liberation of the city during World War II.

  • 06-04-1989 - People's Army of China opened fire on crowds of prodemocracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, killing thousands.

  • 06-05-1783 - Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier gave the first successful balloon flight demonstration.

  • 06-05-1884 - Civil War hero Gen. William T. Sherman refused the Republican nomination for president with the words, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”

  • 06-05-1933 - The United States went off the gold standard.

  • 06-05-1947 - Sen. George Marshall proposed a plan (Marshall Plan) to help Europe recover financially from the effects of World War II.

  • 06-05-1967 - The Arab-Israeli Six-Day War began.

  • 06-05-1968 - Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot by an assassin and died the next day.

  • 06-05-1981 - The Centers for Disease Control published the first report about the disease that would later become known as AIDS.

  • 06-05-2004 - Former president Ronald Reagan died.

  • 06-06-1934 - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was established to protect investors and maintain the integrity of the securities markets.

  • 06-06-1944 - Thousands of Allied troops invaded the beaches of Normandy, France, on D-Day.

  • 06-06-1982 - Israel invaded Lebanon to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

  • 06-06-2001 - Vermont Republican Senator James Jeffords left the party to become an independent, handing control of the Senate back to the Democrats.

  • 06-06-2002 - President Bush proposed a new Cabinet department: The Department of Homeland Security.

  • 06-07-1494 - Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the New World between the two countries.

  • 06-07-1654 - Louis XIV was crowned king of France.

  • 06-07-1776 - Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress proposing a Declaration of Independence.

  • 06-07-1892 - Homer Plessy was arrested for his refusal to move from a whites-only seat on a train. This led to the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision.

  • 06-07-1929 - Vatican City became a sovereign state.

  • 06-07-1948 - President Eduard Beneš of Czechoslovakia resigned and the Communist takeover of the country was completed.

Posted on Monday, June 1, 2009 at 3:53 AM | Top

Sunday, May 24, 2009

This Week in History... May 25-31, 2009

  • 05-24-1911 - The New York Public Library, at the time the largest marble structure ever built in the United States, was dedicated by President Taft in New York City after 16 years of construction.

  • 05-24-1844 - Samuel Morse transmitted the first telegraph message, in which he asked, "What hath God wrought?"

  • 05-24-1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge, linking Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to traffic.

  • 05-24-2000 - Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon after 18 consecutive years of occupation.

  • 05-24-2001 - Vermont senator James Jeffords quit the Republican Party and became an Independent, giving Democrats control of the Senate.

  • 05-25-1787 - The Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia under the leadership of George Washington, in order to establish a new U.S. government.

  • 05-25-1925 - John Scopes was indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

  • 05-25-1979 - The worst air disaster in U.S. history (excluding the Sept. 11 attacks) occurred when a DC-10 crashed at Chicago's O'Hare airport, killing over 270 people.

  • 05-26-1521 - Martin Luther's writings were banned by the Edict of Worms.

  • 05-26-1868 - President Andrew Johnson avoided conviction for impeachment charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors" by one vote.

  • 05-26-1940 - Allied troops began the massive naval evacuation of troops from Dunkirk, France, during World War II.

  • 05-26-2003 - Rwandans voted to approve a new constitution that instituted a balance of power between Hutu and Tutsi.

  • 05-27-1647 - The first recorded execution of a witch reportedly took place in Massachusetts when Achsah Young was hanged.

  • 05-27-1703 - St. Petersburg was founded by Czar Peter the Great.

  • 05-27-1936 - The Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage, arriving in France four hours later.

  • 05-27-1937 - Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opened.

  • 05-27-1941 - British ships sank the German battleship Bismarck off the coast of France, resulting in the loss of 2,300 lives.

  • 05-27-1996 - After a year and a half of bloodshed, Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with the leader of the Chechen rebels and negotiated a cease-fire.

  • 05-27-1999 - Slobodan Milosevic was indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague for crimes against humanity.

  • 05-28-1754 - Lieutenant Colonel George Washington begins the Seven Years' War

  • 05-28-1863 - Robert Gould Shaw, leading the first northern all-black regiment, leaves Boston for the Civil War.

  • 05-28-1918 - U.S. troops score victory at Cantigny

  • 05-28-1937 - Golden Gate Bridge opens

  • 05-28-1940 - Belgium surrenders unconditionally

  • 05-28-1969 - U.S. troops abandon "Hamburger Hill"

  • 05-28-1987 - Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old pilot from West Germany, landed his private plane in Moscow's Red Square. He was arrested and sentenced to four years in a labor camp, but was released after just one.

  • 05-28-2003 - Pres. Bush signed a $350 billion tax cut into law; the third largest tax cut in U.S. history.

  • 05-29-1780 - Tarleton gives "quarter" in South Carolina

  • 05-28-1765 - Patrick Henry bitterly denounced the Stamp Act in the Virginia House of Burgesses.

  • 05-28-1790 - Rhode Island became the 13th state in the United States, the last of the original colonies to ratify the Constitution.

  • 05-29-1843 - Fremont begins his second western expedition

  • 05-29-1848 - Wisconsin became the 30th state in the United States.

  • 05-29-1864 - Union troops reach Totopotomoy Creek, Virginia

  • 05-29-1865 - President Andrew Johnson issues general amnesty for all Confederates

  • 05-29-1917 - John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass.

  • 05-29-1942 - Jews in Paris are forced to sew a yellow star on their coats

  • 05-29-1942 - Bing Crosby recorded his version of "White Christmas." It would go on to sell over 30 million copies.

  • 05-29-1988 - Reagan arrives in Moscow for summit talks

  • 05-29-1990 - Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian republic by the parliament.

  • 05-30-1431 - Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as a heretic.

  • 05-30-1536 - King Henry VIII of England married his 3rd wife, Jane Seymour, 11 days after he had his 2nd wife, Anne Boleyn executed.

  • 05-30-1806 - Patriot and future President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel

  • 05-30-1861 - Union troops occupy Grafton, Virginia

  • 05-30-1862 - Confederates evacuate Corinth, Mississippi

  • 05-30-1864 - Confederates attack at Bethesda Church, Virginia

  • 05-30-1922 - The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, was dedicated by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

  • 05-31-1775 - Mecklenburg Resolutions reject the power of the British in North Carolina

  • 05-31-1790 - The first U.S. Copyright Law was enacted, protecting books, maps, and other original materials.

  • 05-31-1859 - Big Ben goes into operation in London

  • 05-31-1889 - Heavy rains caused the South Fork Dam to collapse, sending 20 million tons of water into Johnstown, Pa. Over 2,200 people were killed and the town was nearly destroyed.

  • 05-31-1911 - The hull of the Titanic was launched in Belfast. At the ceremony, a White Star Line employee claimed, "Not even God himself could sink this ship."

  • 05-31-1962 - Former Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel.

  • 05-31-2004 - Alberta Martin, 97, one of the last widows of a U.S. Civil War veteran, died. She had married Confederate veteran William Martin in 1927 when she was 21 and he was 81.

Posted on Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 1:32 AM | Top

Monday, May 18, 2009

This Week in History... May 18-24, 2009

  • 05-18-1642 - The city of Montreal was founded by the French.

  • 05-18-1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.

  • 05-18-1896 - The Supreme Court affirmed racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson as "separate but equal."

  • 05-18-1980 - Mount St. Helens, in Washington state, erupted after being dormant for 123 years.

  • 05-18-1994 - Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza strip after three decades of occupation and Palestinians took over.

  • 05-18-2000 - A bill was finally passed that removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse.

  • 05-18-2004 - Sonia Gandhi stunned her party, the Indian National Congress, by refusing to accept the prime ministership of India.

  • 05-19-1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, was beheaded.

  • 05-19-1588 - The 130-ship-strong Spanish Armada set sail for England; it was defeated in August.

  • 05-19-1643 - The colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Harbor met to form the New England Confederation.

  • 05-19-1921 - Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, establishing national quotas for immigrants.

  • 05-19-1935 - British author and soldier, T. E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash.

  • 05-19-1962 - Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday" to president John F. Kennedy.

  • 05-19-1992 - The 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises, went into effect.

  • 05-19-1994 - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York.

  • 05-20-1506 - Christopher Columbus died in Spain.

  • 05-20-1861 - North Carolina voted to secede from the Union.

  • 05-20-1927 - Charles Lindbergh began the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, departing from Long Island aboard the Spirit of Saint Louis.

  • 05-20-1932 - Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

  • 05-20-1961 - A mob attacked a busload of "freedom riders" in Montgomery, Ala., setting the bus on fire.

  • 05-20-1996 - In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court rejected a Colorado measure banning laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination.

  • 05-20-2002 - East Timor became the newest nation.

  • 05-21-1542 - Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto died while searching for gold on the banks of the Mississippi River.

  • 05-21-1881 - Clara Barton founded what became the American Red Cross.

  • 05-21-1927 - Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly across the Atlantic (from New York to Paris) in his monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis.

  • 05-21-1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (from Newfoundland to Ireland).

  • 05-21-1956 - The first hydrogen bomb to be dropped by air exploded over the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

  • 05-21-1989 - In Hong Kong, approximately one million people took to the streets to show their support for students protesting for democratic reforms in China’s Tiananmen Square.

  • 05-22-1455 - The first battle in the 30-year War of Roses took place at St. Albans.

  • 05-22-1761 - The first life insurance policy in the United States was issued in Philadelphia.

  • 05-22-1849 - Abraham Lincoln received patent number 6469 for his floating dry dock.

  • 05-22-1947 - Harry S. Truman's Doctrine brought aid to Greece and Turkey to combat the spread of Communism.

  • 05-22-1972 - Richard Nixon arrived in Moscow, becoming the first U.S. president to visit the Soviet Union.

  • 05-22-2003 - The UN Security Council approved a resolution lifting the economic sanctions against Iraq and supporting the U.S.-led administration in Iraq.

  • 05-23-1430 - Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians and subsequently sold to the English.

  • 05-23-1788 - South Carolina became the 8th state in United States.

  • 05-23-1830 - The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began the first passenger service in the United States.

  • 05-23-1873 - The North West Mounted Police force was formed in Canada. It would later be known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

  • 05-24-1911 - The New York Public Library, at the time the largest marble structure ever built in the United States, was dedicated by President Taft in New York City after 16 years of construction.

  • 05-24-1844 - Samuel Morse transmitted the first telegraph message, in which he asked, "What hath God wrought?"

  • 05-24-1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge, linking Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to traffic.

  • 05-24-2000 - Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon after 18 consecutive years of occupation.

  • 05-24-2001 - Vermont senator James Jeffords quit the Republican Party and became an Independent, giving Democrats control of the Senate.

Posted on Monday, May 18, 2009 at 2:12 AM | Top

Monday, May 11, 2009

This Week in History... May 11-17, 2009

  • 05-11-1858 - Minnesota became the 32nd state in the United States.

  • 05-11-1894 - The Pullman Strike began.

  • 05-11-1949 - Siam changed its name to Thailand.

  • 05-11-1960 - Israeli agents captured Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

  • 05-11-1973 - Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed.

  • 05-11-2003 - 91% of Lithuanian voters opted to join the European Union—the first former Soviet nation to do so.

  • 05-12-1870 - Manitoba became a province of Canada.

  • 05-12-1932 - The body of Charles and Anne Lindbergh's kidnapped baby was found.

  • 05-12-1937 - Britain's King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London.

  • 05-12-1949 - The Soviet blockade that prompted the Berlin airlift was ended.

  • 05-12-1970 - Harry A. Blackmun was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice.

  • 05-12-2002 - Former president Jimmy Carter became the first U.S. president (in or out of office) to visit Fidel Castro's Cuba.

  • 05-13-1568 - Mary Queen of Scots was defeated at the Battle of Langside and immediately fled to North England.

  • 05-13-1846 - The United States formally declared war on Mexico after several days of fighting.

  • 05-13-1938 - Louis Armstrong and his orchestra recorded the New Orleans's jazz classic, When the Saints Go Marching In, on Decca Records.

  • 05-13-1940 - Winston Churchill gave his first speech as prime minister: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

  • 05-13-1981 - Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Agca as he drove through a crowd in St. Peter's Square, Rome.

  • 05-14-1796 - Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccine to 8-year-old James Phipps.

  • 05-14-1804 - The Lewis and Clark expedition set out from St. Louis.

  • 05-14-1904 - The Olympic Games were held in the United States for the first time, in St. Louis, Missouri.

  • 05-14-1948 - British rule in Palestine came to an end as The Jewish National Council proclaimed the State of Israel. Within hours, Israel was under attack from Arab forces.

  • 05-14-1955 - The Warsaw Pact was signed by the Soviet Union and seven other Communist bloc countries. It finally dissolved in 1991.

  • 05-14-1973 - Skylab, the United States' first space station, was launched into orbit.

  • 05-15-1862 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture was created by an act of Congress.

  • 05-15-1911 - The Standard Oil Company, headed by John D. Rockefeller, was ordered dissolved by the Supreme Court, under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

  • 05-15-1918 - The first air mail route in the U.S. was established between New York and Washington, DC, with a stop at Philadelphia.

  • 05-15-1972 - Alabama Governor George Wallace was shot and crippled as he campaigned for the presidency.

  • 05-15-1988 - The Soviet Union began to withdraw its estimated 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.

  • 05-16-1770 - Marie Antoinette married the future King Louis XVI of France.

  • 05-16-1868 - The first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment in the U.S. Senate failed to convict President Andrew Johnson.

  • 05-16-1929 - The first Academy Awards were given on this night. The term, Oscars, was not used to describe the statuettes given to actors and actresses until 1931.

  • 05-16-1991 - Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the United States Congress.

  • 05-16-1997 - President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire ended 32 years of autocratic rule when rebel forces led by Laurent Kabila expelled him from the country.

  • 05-17-1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was established when a group of 24 brokers and merchants met by a tree on what is now Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement.

  • 05-17-1875 - The first Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky.

  • 05-17-1954 - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against segregation in schools in Brown v. Board of Education.

  • 05-17-1973 - Televised Watergate hearings opened, headed by North Carolina senator Sam Ervin.

  • 05-17-1987 - An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S.S. Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors and wounding 62.

  • 05-17-1997 - Laurent Kabila declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Posted on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 2:04 AM | Top

Sunday, May 3, 2009

This Week in History... May 4-10, 2009

  • 05-04-1626 - Peter Minuit landed in Manhattan, which he later bought for $24 worth of cloth and brass buttons.

  • 05-04-1886 - The Haymarket Square riot broke out as a result of a labor demonstration.

  • 05-04-1932 - Public Enemy Number One, Al Capone, was jailed for tax evasion.

  • 05-04-1961 - Civil rights activists, called "freedom riders," left Washington, DC for New Orleans.

  • 05-04-1970 - Four Kent State University students were shot down by National Guard members during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration.

  • 05-04-1998 - The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was sentenced to four life terms plus 30 years for his series of bombings that killed three and injured 23.

  • 05-05-1809 - Mary Kies of South Killingly, Conn., became the first woman to be granted a patent. The patent was for the rights to a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread.

  • 05-05-1821 - Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of St. Helena.

  • 05-05-1891 - Carnegie Hall (then known as Music Hall) opened in New York City. Peter Tchaikovsky was the guest conductor.

  • 05-05-1925 - John Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for teaching Darwinism.

  • 05-05-1961 - Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

  • 05-05-2004 - Pablo Picasso's "Boy with a Pipe" became the most expensive painting ever sold.

  • 05-06-1882 - Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act over President Chester A. Arthur's veto.

  • 05-06-1889 - The Universal Exposition opened in Paris, marking the completion and dedication of the Eiffel Tower.

  • 05-06-1937 - The German airship Hindenburg blew up and burst into flames at Lakehurst, N.J.

  • 05-06-1941 - Dictator Joseph Stalin became the premier of Russia.

  • 05-06-1999 - Scotland elected its first separate parliament in three centuries.

  • 05-07-1915 - The British ocean liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine in World War I off the coast of Ireland.

  • 05-07-1945 - Germany unconditionally surrendered to the allies in Rheims, France.

  • 05-07-1954 - The 56-day-long battle of Dienbienphu ended with Ho Chi Minh's forces defeating the French, signaling the end of French power in Indochina.

  • 05-07-1992 - The 27th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting mid-term Congressional pay raises, was ratified.

  • 05-08-1794 - Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was guillotined during the Reign of Terror.

  • 05-08-1902 - Mount Pelee on Martinique erupted, destroying the town of St. Pierre, and killing 40,000 people.

  • 05-08-1945 - V-E Day marks the European victory of the Allies in World War II.

  • 05-09-1914 - Mother's Day became a public holiday.

  • 05-09-1926 - Explorers Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett flew over the North Pole.

  • 05-09-1936 - Fascist Italy annexed Ethiopia.

  • 05-09-1994 - The South African parliament chose Nelson Mandela as president.

  • 05-09-2004 - Chechnya's Moscow-backed leader, Akhmad Kadyrov, was killed in a bombing. Six others were killed and another 60 wounded.

  • 05-10-1775 - Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British.

  • 05-10-1863 - Confederate General Stonewall Jackson died after being accidentally shot by his own troops.

  • 05-10-1869 - The United States' first transcontinental railroad was completed with a ceremony in Promontory Point, Utah.

  • 05-10-1924 - J. Edgar Hoover became director of the FBI.

  • 05-10-1940 - Winston Churchill succeeded Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister.

  • 05-10-1994 - Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa's first black president.

Posted on Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 4:50 PM | Top

Monday, April 27, 2009

This Week in History... April 27-May 3, 2009

  • 04-27-1521 - Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a fight with natives of the Philippines.

  • 04-27-1865 - The worst steamship disaster in the history of the United States occurred when there was an explosion aboard the Sultana; more than 1,400 people were killed.

  • 04-28-1788 - Maryland became the 7th state in the United States.

  • 04-28-1789 - Fletcher Christian led the mutiny aboard the British ship Bounty against Captain William Bligh.

  • 04-28-1945 - Benito Mussolini was executed.

  • 04-28-2004 - The Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal first comes to light when graphic photos of U.S. soldiers physically abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners were shown on CBS's 60 Minutes II.

  • 04-29-1429 - Joan of Arc entered the city of Orléans. She would end its months-long siege and would become known as the "Maid of Orléans."

  • 04-29-1916 - The Easter rebellion in Ireland ended with the surrender of Irish nationalists.

  • 04-29-1945 - American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration cam

  • 04-29-1992 - A Los Angeles jury acquitted four police officers accused of beating Rodney King. Massive rioting and looting ensued.

  • 04-30-1803 - France sold Louisiana and adjoining lands to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

  • 04-30-1812 - Louisiana became the 18th state in the United States.

  • 04-30-1939 - U.S. commercial television made its official debut at the New York World's Fair.The signal was transmitted from the Empire State Building.

  • 04-30-1945 - Adolf Hitler and his newly married mistress Eva Braun committed suicide.

  • 04-30-1975 - The Vietnam War ended with South Vietnam's surrender to North Vietnam.

  • 04-30-2003 - Libya accepted responsibility for the 1998 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

  • 05-01-1707 - The Act of Union joined England and Scotland to form Great Britain.

  • 05-01-1931 - The Empire State Building opened in New York City. At 102 stories, it would be the world's tallest building for the next 41 years.

  • 05-01-1941 - Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, considered by many the greatest film ever made, premiered in New York.

  • 05-01-1948 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was established with Kim Il Sung as president.

  • 05-01-1960 - The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Soviet territory.

  • 05-01-2003 - President Bush made a speech aboard an aircraft carrier proclaiming "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

  • 05-02-1945 - The Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin.

  • 05-02-1955 - Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

  • 05-02-1994 - Nelson Mandela was victorious in South Africa’s first multiracial election.

  • 05-02-1997 - The Labour Party’s Tony Blair became Prime Minister of Britain, ending 18 years of conservative rule. At 44, he was the youngest prime minister in 185 years.

  • 05-03-1937 - Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for Gone With the Wind.

  • 05-03-1948 - The Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court decision stated that it is unconstitutional for a court to enforce a restrictive covenant which prevents people of a certain race from owning or occupying property.

  • 05-03-1979 - Margaret Thatcher became the first woman elected prime minister of England.

  • 05-03-2001 - The United States, a member of the UN Human Rights Commission since its inception, lost its seat. It would be restored the following year.

Posted on Monday, April 27, 2009 at 12:41 AM | Top

Home Newsletter Submissions Advertising Donations Archives Internships About Us FAQs Contact Us All Articles

 

 

Recent Entries

News

Roundup

HNN Blogs

Recent Comments

    Archives

    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009

    RSS Feed (Summaries)
    RSS Feed (Full Posts)

    ASHP-CUNY Banner

    Subscribe to HNN's newsletter.

    HNN Donations--click here.

    Subscribe to HNN's newsletter.

    Just How Stupid Are We? By Rick Shenkman

    Subscribe to HNN's newsletter.

    Subscribe to HNN's newsletter.

    Subscribe to HNN's newsletter.