This Day in History...

[jcribb16]

December 26


1620 - The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.

1776 - The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.

1865 - The coffee percolator was patented by James H. Mason.

1871 - The "Gods Grown Old" was performed for the first time. It ran for 64 shows.

1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

1908 - Texan boxer "Galveston Jack" Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight title.

1917 - During World War I, the U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads.

1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain.

1927 - The East-West Shrine football game featured numbers on both the front and back of players’ jerseys.

1941 - Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

1943 - The German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk in the North Sea, during the Battle of North Cape.

1944 - Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago, IL.

1947 - Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast United States, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours. The severe weather was blamed for about 80 deaths.

1953 - "Big Sister" was heard for the last time on CBS Radio. The show ran for 17 years.

1954 - "The Shadow" aired on radio for the last time.

1956 - Fidel Castro attempted a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. All but 11 of his supporters were killed.

1959 - The first charity walk took place, along Icknield Way, in aid of the World Refugee Fund.

1974 - Comedian Jack Benny died at age 80.

1982 - The Man of the Year in "TIME" magazine was a computer. It was the first time a non-human received the honors.

1986 - Doug Jarvis, age 31, set a National Hockey League (NHL) record as he skated in his 916th consecutive game. Jarvis eventually set the individual record for most consecutive games played with 964.

1986 - "Search for Tomorrow" was seen for the last time on CBS-TV. The show had been on the air for 35-years.

1990 - Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain the chess championship.

1991 - The Soviet Union's parliament formally voted the country out of existence.

1995 - Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority.

1996 - Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, CO.

1998 - Iraq announced that it would fire on U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the skies over northern and southern Iraq.

1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, won Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in 40 years.

2000 - Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.

2002 - The first cloned human baby was born. The announcement was made the December 27 by Clonaid.

2004 - Under the Indian Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake sent 500-mph waves across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The tsunami killed at least 283,000 people in a dozen countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra, Thailand and India.

[kingozzy]

that is some impressive facts

[mjdoug03]

This is a good idea!

[jcribb16]

On December 27


1703    The Methuen Treaty was signed between Portugal and England, giving preference to the import of Portuguese wines into England.

1831    Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. Darwin's discoveries during the voyage helped him form the basis of his theories on evolution.

1947    The children's television program "Howdy Doody," hosted by Bob Smith, made its debut on NBC.

1971    Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock of Charles Schulz’ "Peanuts" comic strip were on the cover of "Newsweek" magazine.

1978    Spain adopted a new constitution and became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.

1992    The U.S. shot down an Iraqi fighter jet during what the Pentagon described as a confrontation between a pair of Iraqi warplanes and U.S. F-16 jets in U.N.-restricted airspace over southern Iraq.

1997    In Northern Ireland, Billy Wright was assassinated. He was imprisoned as a Protestant paramilitary leader.

2001    U.S. President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal trade status with the United States.

2002    North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said that it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

2002    Clonaid announced the birth of the first cloned human baby. The baby had been born December 26.

2002    In Chechnya, at least 40 people were killed when suicide bombers attacked the administration of Grozny.

[jcribb16]

On December 29


1848    President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.

1851    The first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized in Boston, MA.

1888    The first performance of Macbeth took place at the Lyceum Theatre.

1940    During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

1952    Sonotone Corporation offered the first transistorized hearing aid for sale.

1975    A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.

1998    Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970's genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.
     

Wow, this was a short historic day!

[jcribb16]

On December 30


1879    Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance was first performed, at Paignton, Devon, England.

1887    A petition to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays was handed to the home secretary.

1940    California's first freeway was officially opened. It was the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.

1948    "Kiss Me Kate" opened at the New Century Theatre in New York City. Cole Porter composed the music for the classic play that ran for 1,077 performances.

1953    The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.

1972    The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1980    "The Wonderful World of Disney" was cancelled by NBC after more than 25 years on television. It was the longest-running series in primetime television history.

1988    Colonel Oliver North subpoenaed U.S. President Reagan and Vice President Bush to testify at the Irangate hearings.

1996    About 250,000 striking workers shut down vital services across Israel in protests against budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

1997    More than 400 people were massacred in four villages in the single worst incident during Algeria's insurgency.

[clickers]

This info is pretty interesting!

[lorettahknox]

Thank you for all your research, It is people like you who keep our history and accomplishments alive. You are more than precious to us. Thank you  and God bless your work.

[jcribb16]

On January 1


1797    Albany became the capital of New York state, replacing New York City.

1801    Italian astronomer, Giuseppe Piazzi, became the first person to discover an asteroid. He named it Ceres.

1863    President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in the rebel states were free.

1902    The first Tournament of Roses collegiate football game was played in Pasadena, CA.

1934    Alcatraz Island officially became a Federal Prison.

1968    Evel Knievel, stunt performing daredevil, lost control of his motorcycle midway through a jump of 141 feet over the ornamental fountains in front of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

1994    The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.

1995    The World Trade Organization came into existence. The group of 125 nations monitors global trade.

1999    In California, a law went into effect that defined "invasion of privacy as trespassing with the intent to capture audio or video images of a celebrity or crime victim engaging in a personal of family activity."

2001    The "Texas 7," rented space in an RV park in Woodland Park, CO.

[jcribb16]

On January 2


1872    Brigham Young, the 71-year-old leader of the Mormon Church, was arrested on a charge of bigamy. He had 25 wives.

1879    Thomas Edison began construction on his first generator.

1910    The nation’s first junior high school opened. McKinley School in Berkeley, CA, housed seventh and eighth grade students. In a separate building, students were housed who attended grades 9-12.

1942    The Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.

1960    Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1974    President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill requiring all states to lower the maximum speed limit to 55 MPH. The law was intended to conserve gasoline supplies during an embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries. Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.

1983    The final edition of Garry Trudeau’s comic strip, "Doonesbury", appeared in 726 newspapers. "Doonesbury" began running again in September 1984.

1983    The smash musical, "Annie", closed on Broadway at the Uris Theatre after 2,377 performances.

1985    The Rebels of UNLV beat Utah State in three overtime periods. The final score of 142-140 set a new new NCAA record for total points in a basketball game (282). The game took over three hours to play.

1991    Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC. She was the first black woman to head a city of that size and prominence.

1996    AT&T announced that it would eliminate 40,000 jobs over three years.

1998    Russia began circulating new rubles in effort to keep inflation in check and promote confidence.

1999    It was announced that 66 people had been killed in Sri Lanka, Columbia, during two days of fighting between rebels and government troops.

[jcribb16]

This was certainly a busy day throughout history.


January 3


1496 - References in Leonardo da Vinci notebooks suggested that he tested his flying machine. The test didn't succeed and he didn't try to fly again for several years.

1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther.

1777 - The Battle of Princeton took place in the War of Independence, in which George Washington defeated the British forces, led by Cornwallis.

1815 - By secret treaty, Austria, Britain, and France formed a defensive alliance against Prusso-Russian plans to solve the Saxon and Polish problems.

1823 - Stephen F. Austin received a grant from the Mexican government and began colonization in the region of the Brazos River in Texas.

1825 - The first engineering college in the U.S. , Rensselaer School, opened in Troy, NY. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

1833 - Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. About 150 years later, Argentina seized the islands from the British, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.

1868 - The Shogunate was abolished in Japan and Meiji dynasty was restored.

1871 - Henry W. Bradley patented oleomargarine.

1888 - The drinking straw was patented by Marvin C. Stone.

1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovered the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

1925 - In Italy, Mussolini announced that he would take dictatorial powers.

1938 - The first broadcast of "Woman in White" was presented on the NBC Red network. The program remained on radio for 10 years.

1938 - The March of Dimes was established by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The organization fights poliomyelitis. The original name of the organization was the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

1947 - U.S. Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time. Viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York City saw some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.

1947 - In Trenton, NJ, Al Herrin, passed away at age 92. He had claimed that he had not slept at all during his life.

1951 - NBC-TV debuted "Dragnet."

1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, became the first mother-son combination to serve at the same time in the U.S. Congress.

1957 - The Hamilton Watch Company introduced the first electric watch.

1959 - In the U.S., Alaska became the 49th state.

1961 - The U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.

1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicated Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro.

1967 - Jack Ruby died in a Dallas, TX, hospital.

1973 - The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sold the New York Yankees to a 12-man syndicate headed by George Steinbrenner for $10 million.

1980 - Conservationist Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free," was killed in northern Kenya by a servant.

1983 - Tony Dorsett (Dallas Cowboys) made the longest run from scrimmage in NFL history. Dorsett ran 99 yards in a game against the Minnesota Vikings.

1984 - A woman died at Disneyland after falling from a ride. She had apparently unfastened her seatbelt while on the Matterhorn bobsled.

1988 - Margaret Thatcher became the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century.

1990 - Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.

1991 - The British government announced that seven Iraqi diplomats, another embassy staff member and 67 other Iraqis were being expelled from Britain.

1993 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Moscow.

1995 - WHO reported that the cumulative total of officially reported cases of AIDS had risen to 1,025,073 in 192 countries as at the end of 1994.

1995 - The U.S. Postal Service raised the price of the first-class stamp to 32 cents.

1997 - Bryant Gumbel signed off for the last time as host of NBC's "Today" show.

1998 - China announced that it would spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.

1999 - Israeli authorities detained, and later expelled, 14 members of Concerned Christians. Israili officials claimed that the Denver, CO-based cult was plotting violence in Jerusalem to bring about the Second Coming of Christ.

2000 - Charles M. Schulz's final original daily comic strip appeared in newspapers.

2001 - The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) charged the "Texas 7" with weapons violations. An autopsy showed that Office Aubrey Hawkins, killed by the convicts, had been shot 11 times and run over with a vehicle.

2004 - NASA's Spirit rover landed on Mars. The craft was able to send back black and white images three hours after landing.

[ricdsm]

Very interesting.  Thanks

[jcribb16]

On January 4


1850    The first American ice-skating club was organized in Philadelphia, PA.

1935    Bob Hope was heard for the first time on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue."

1936    The first pop music chart based on national sales was published by "Billboard" magazine.

1958    The Soviet satellite Sputknik I fell to the earth from its orbit. The craft had been launched on October 4, 1957.

1962    New York City introduced a train that operated without conductors and motormen.

1981    The Broadway show "Frankenstein" lost an estimated $2 million, when it opened and closed on the same night.

1984    Wayne ‘The Great One’ Gretsky scored eight goals for the second time in his National Hockey League (NHL) career. Edmonton’s Oilers defeated the Minnesota North Stars, 12-8.

1999    16 people were killed and 25 injured when gunmen opened fire on Shiite Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan.

1999    Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota's 37th governor.

[jcribb16]

On January 5


1643    Anne Clark granted the first legal divorce in the American colonies.

1781    Richmond, VA, was burned by a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold.

1896    German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovers a type of radiation that later becomes known as "X-rays."

1914    Ford Motor Company announced that there would be a new daily minimum wage of $5 and an eight-hour workday.

1920    Boston Red Sox trade Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.

1925    Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross was sworn in as the governor of Wyoming. She was the first female governor in the U.S.

1933    Construction begins on Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

1934    Both the National and American baseball leagues decided to use a uniform-size baseball. It was the first time in 33 years that both leagues used the same size ball.

1964    For the first time in 500 years, a meeting occurs between a Roman Catholic pontiff (Pope Paul VI) and an Eastern Orthodox patriarch (Athenagoras of Jerusalem).

1970    "All My Children" premiered on ABC.

1972    President Richard Nixon signs a $5.5 billion bill approving the building and testing of the NASA space shuttle.

1993    The state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd. It was America's first legal hanging since 1965. Dodd was an admitted child sex killer.

1998    U.S. Representative Sonny Bono died in skiing accident.

2002    A 15 year-old student pilot, Charles Bishop, crashed a small plane into a building in Tampa, FL. Bishop was about to begin a flying lesson when he took off without permission and without an instructor.

[jcribb16]

On January 7


1610    Italian scientist Galileo discovers three moons orbiting Jupiter. (He will discover a fourth moon weeks later.)

1782    The Bank of North America opened in Philadelphia. It was the first commercial bank in the United States.

1785    First "successful" balloon flight across the English Channel. (Both pilots are forced to throw all their belongings -- including their clothes -- into the Channel when their hydrogen balloon begins to leak before reaching the coast of France.)

1896    The "Fannie Farmer Cookbook" was published.

1927    Transatlantic telephone service began between New York and London. 31 calls were made on this first day.

1953    President Truman announces the U.S. has developed the hydrogen bomb.

1959    The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.

1990    The Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public. The accelerated rate of "leaning" raised fears for the safety of its visitors.

1993    Secondhand smoke is identified as a proven carcinogen in a report issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.

1996    One of the biggest blizzards in U.S. history hit the eastern states. More than 100 deaths were later blamed on the severe weather.

1998    Former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, signed an affidavit denying that she had an affair with U.S. President Clinton.

1999    President Clinton went on trial before the Senate. It was only the second time in U.S. history that an impeached president had gone to trial. Clinton was later acquitted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

2002    Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates introduced a new device code named Mira. The device was tablet-like and was a cross between a handheld computer and a TV remote control.