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Cymru am byth
March 27th, 2007, 08:42 AM
Mar 27 30
Pontius Pilate condemns jesus to death.
Mar 27 1866
Patent for a urinal is granted to Andrew Rankin.
Mar 27 1945
Argentina declares war on Nazi Germany. Of course, this was just a silly charade for the benefit of the world community. Argentina would be a quiet ally of Germany for the duration of the war, even welcoming many Nazi and SS leaders to emigrate there in the aftermath.
Mar 27 1964
One of the largest quakes in US history strikes southeast of Anchorage, Alaska, hitting 8.6 on the richter scale. 118 people are killed, and a tidal wave destroys four square blocks of Anchorage. The control tower at the airport, 60 feet high, snapped. Damage in the state is estimated at $500 million.
Mar 27 1977
The worst airline disaster in history occurs when the confused pilot of a KLM Boeing 747 taking off collides with a Pan Am Boeing 747 which was on the runway. A total of 583 people die.
Mar 27 2001
Vatican officials reported three days ago on the exhumation of Pope John XXIII, which occurred quietly on January 16. The pontiff's body, dead for 37 years now, was described as having a face that "has not changed since his death."
Cymru am byth
March 29th, 2007, 07:07 PM
Mar 28 0
According to Des Pascha Comutus, written in 243 CE, Jesus Christ's (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/jesus-christ/) birthday was March 28. It later became the familiar December 25 after Rome changed it in 336.
Mar 28 193
The Roman ruler Pertinax is murdered by the Praetorian Guard. There being no obvious successor and no Senatorial volunteers, the Guard auctions off the emperorship. The high bidder is Senator Didius Julianus, for 300 million sesterces. After hearing of this, Roman general Septimus Severus in Dalmatia marched on Rome, beheading the new emperor upon arrival.
Mar 28 1930
Constantinople becomes Istanbul.
Mar 28 1941
Virginia Woolf commits suicide (http://www.rotten.com/library/death/suicide/suicide-notes/).
Mar 28 1947
Leftover Jap boobytrap from WWII explodes in Corregidor, killing 28.
Mar 28 1975
A fire in the maternity wing at Kucic Hospital, Rijeka, Yugoslavia, kills 25 incubating babies.
Mar 28 1979
Three Mile Island (http://www.rotten.com/library/history/nuclear-incidents/three-mile-island/) nuclear accident, Harrisburg PA.
Mar 28 1996
78 people apparently perish in a fire at the Pasar Anyar shopping center in Bogor, West Java. The estimate is lowered to 10 after it is discovered that most of the dead are store mannequins.
Mar 28 1997 Martin Lawrence slugs someone in a barroom brawl at the "Gate" nightclub in Hollywood (http://www.rotten.com/library/travel/cities/los-angeles/), apparently because he was jostled while dancing. He receives two years probation and community service
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Mar 29 1951
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/mar/rh-rosenbergs.jpg
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/historical/rosenbergs/) are both convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.
Mar 29 1977
Lee Harvey Oswald (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/assassins/lee-harvey-oswald/)'s best friend, and coincidentally a friend of both Jackie Kennedy (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/misc/jackie-o/) and George HW Bush (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/presidents/george-hw-bush/), Dallas socialite George de Mohrenschildt (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/misc/george-de-mohrenschildt/) dies from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the mouth, at 3:45 pm. It is likely he was going to be called to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Mar 29 1979
A U.S. House of Representatives committee report finds that John F. Kennedy (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/presidents/jfk/)'s assassination (http://www.rotten.com/library/history/assassination/) was the result of a conspiracy.
Mar 29 1992
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/mar/rh-inhale-to-the-chief.jpg
Arkansas Governor and Presidential candidate Bill Clinton tells the New York Times: "When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana (http://www.rotten.com/library/crime/drugs/marijuana/) a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale, and never tried it again."
Mar 29 1997
Kazuo Konya, a former member of the Aum cult, tells Tokyo Municipal Court that he paid $8,100 for the privilege of drinking the guru's blood in a 1988 initiation ritual. Other former cult members also testify they paid for blood, strands of Shoko Asahara (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/cult/shoko-asahara/)'s hair, and his bath water. Some say they paid $2,400 for an intravenous injection of an unknown substance. Ironically, all throughout, Asahara preached to his followers that they should renounce materialism.
Mar 29 2006
Jack Abramoff, Washington D.C. lobbyist extraordinaire, is sentenced to almost six years in prison for defrauding Native American tribes, corruption of public officials and other various fraud charges. He is also ordered to pay $21M in fines. In exchange for a short sentence, Jack agrees to name names. This makes Ralph Reed and Tom DeLay very nervous.
Cymru am byth
March 30th, 2007, 04:42 PM
Mar 30 315
The Donation of Constantine grants to the See of Rome dominion over all earthly thrones of Europe, a document made by that Roman emperor after his conversion to Christianity in return for being cured from leprosy. But in 1440, anachronisms in the document prove that it was really a fraud written around 752 AD, during the reign of and under orders of Pope Stephen II.
Mar 30 1282
After vespers on Easter Monday, a French soldier touches the breast of a young Sicilian bride, causing an outrage that precipitated the slaughter of perhaps 2,000 Frenchmen living and ruling over Sicily.
Mar 30 1968
Two children in the Bowery come across the body of a homeless drug addict later identified as Bobby Driscol, 31, the voice of Disney's "Peter Pan".
Mar 30 1981
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/mar/rh-reagan-shot-th.jpg
While President Reagan undergoes surgery for a life-threatening gunshot wound, Secretary of State Alexander Haig announces to the press: "As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending return of the Vice President."
Mar 30 1995
A police officer who was also a member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult fires three shots into Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of Japan's National Police Agency. Takaji is seriously wounded but survives. Investigators try unsuccessfully to hide the fact that the gunman was a police officer.
Cymru am byth
March 31st, 2007, 03:52 PM
Cheers ace :xyxthumbs:
Mar 31 1492
Ferdinand and Isabel expel all of the Jews from Spain. Even with the infusions of gold and silver arriving during the 16th century from the Americas, this is an act from which Spain never recovers. By expelling their merchant and banking class, Jews and Muslims, the country is left ill-equipped to process the new wealth, which ultimately winds up in the coffers of other countries and squandered on disastrous military campaigns.
Mar 31 1889
Phallic symbol Eiffel Tower completed.
Mar 31 1959
The Dalai Lama is forced to leave Tibet, after the Red Communists make it very unpleasant for him to stay. He accuses the Chinese of making genocide against the Tibetan people, by systematic destruction of Tibetan culture and execution of thousands of prominent citizens.
Mar 31 1991
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/mar/rh-bonaduce-th.jpg
Danny Bonaduce (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/child-stars/danny-bonaduce/) arrested for assault after he fought with a transvestite prostitute. No contest, 750 hours community service.
Mar 31 1995
The president of the Selena Fan Club, Yolanda Saldivar, kills the Tejano music popstar Selena in Corpus Christi, TX. "It just went off, I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to kill anybody". That might be true, but the jury did not believe her.
Mar 31 1996
During a homebrew exorcism in Rhode Island, a man accidentally punctures the esophagus of his mother-in-law when he jams two pointy steel crucifixes down her throat, causing a large quantity of blood to gush out. Mario Garcia is later charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.
Mar 31 2005
Long-time vegetable Terri Schiavo is finally expires despite manufactured outrage from Tom DeLay, Bill Frist and Rick Santorum. An autopsy eventually revealed that Terri had checked out a long time ago, having suffered extensive brain damage, directly contradicting Dr. Frist's earlier diagnosis made from the floor of the Senate.
jaba
March 31st, 2007, 05:54 PM
Mar 31 2007 12.31pm.
A women called me a fucking fat bastard lol! :xyxthumbs: Again!
Monstermash
March 31st, 2007, 09:10 PM
Mar 31 1996
During a homebrew exorcism in Rhode Island, a man accidentally punctures the esophagus of his mother-in-law when he jams two pointy steel crucifixes down her throat, causing a large quantity of blood to gush out. Mario Garcia is later charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.
I took this from your above post Cymru, was this man trying to realy do an exorcism or was it just an excuse to get rid of his mother in law. I don't know I just feel sorry for him somehow, Mother in laws can be Monster-in-laws :D
Cymru am byth
March 31st, 2007, 09:21 PM
Mar 31 1996
During a homebrew exorcism in Rhode Island, a man accidentally punctures the esophagus of his mother-in-law when he jams two pointy steel crucifixes down her throat, causing a large quantity of blood to gush out. Mario Garcia is later charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.
I took this from your above post Cymru, was this man trying to realy do an exorcism or was it just an excuse to get rid of his mother in law. I don't know I just feel sorry for him somehow, Mother in laws can be Monster-in-laws :D
i know, i was tempted to try this one on my "out"laws:1orglaugh:
MontysDouble
April 1st, 2007, 05:00 AM
Impressive posts there Cymru.
Raidenator
April 1st, 2007, 08:37 AM
April 1st. Raidenator masturbates to pictures of dolphin porn as pending his post in the dolphin thread.
Haha, I'm jk...Anyway, I liked the post. Must have taken a hella long time to post. For the record, did you get your info from Wiki?
Cymru am byth
April 1st, 2007, 04:00 PM
nope not from wiki, hadn't thought of that:confused: , might have a look on there later:xyxthumbs:
Apr 1
April Fool's Day
Apr 1 1793
Unsen volcano erupts, accompanied by several devastating earthquakes. The Japanese island is completely destroyed, killing approximately 53,000 inhabitants.
Apr 1 1946
An 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands causes a tsunami that smashes 25-foot-tall waves into Hawaii. Over 170 people are killed, mostly in Hilo. As a result, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is established.
Apr 1 1961
Jim Bakker (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/televangelists/jim-bakker/) (televangelist) and Tammy Faye get married!
Apr 1 1984
Legendary Motown singer Marvin Gaye, who had recently moved back in with his parents, physically batters his own father. Minutes later Dad returns with a gun, shooting Marvin twice in the chest and killing him instantly.
Apr 1 1996
Wilson Pickett arrested for possession of cocaine, after a screaming, bloodied woman is seen running from his house.
Apr 1 1998 Ukranian serial killer (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/serial-killers/) Anatoly Onoprienko is sentenced to death for some 52 murders over the preceding decade. The versatile Onoprienko's weapons of choice include hammers, firearms, pillows, dumbbells and fire.
jaba
April 2nd, 2007, 12:36 AM
April 2nd 07 01:43 - Fat bastard opens another bottle! :xyxthumbs:
Clouds in the Sky
April 2nd, 2007, 12:39 AM
Thank God for rotten.com ;)
jaba
April 2nd, 2007, 12:44 AM
Thank God for rotten.com ;)If it was Johnny Rotten.com I would be there already!
Cymru am byth
April 2nd, 2007, 05:28 PM
Thank God for rotten.com ;)
busted:1bluewinky: but it ain't going to stop me
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/apr/rh-vlad-impaler-banquet.jpg
Vlad the Impaler impales thousands of merchants and burghers of the town of Brasov, in Transylvania. Some estimate as many as 30,000 impalements, but it was probably more on the order of 2,000.
Apr 2 1725
Casanova born.
Apr 2 1932
World-famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and Dr. John F. Condon turn over $50,000 in ransom money to an unidentified man in a Bronx cemetery. Lindbergh's kidnapped infant, however, is never returned -- his corpse is discovered the following month.
Apr 2 1974
A streaker interrupts actor David Niven during his presentation at the Academy Awards. Niven's off-the-cuff remark -- "probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping and showing off his shortcomings" -- was actually prepared in advance.
Apr 2 1979
A mishap in a secret Soviet biological warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk results in the release of airborne anthrax spores, killing 66. Livestock fifty kilometers away also die.
Apr 2 1986
A bomb explodes on a TWA Rome/Athens flight, causing three adults and one infant to be sucked out of the resulting hole in the fuselage. They plunge to their deaths.
Apr 2 1992 John Gotti found guilty for the death of mobster Paul Castellano.
1801 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen - The British destroy the Danish fleet.
1917 - World War I: The Battle of Vimy Ridge commences when the Canada Corps launches an artillary bombardment of the German trenches. To that time, the biggest artillery bombardment in history.
1917 - World War I: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
1982 - Falklands War: 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina. The disputed islands are later retaken by the United Kingdom
2002 - Israeli forces surrounded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians retreated. A siege ensues.
2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt a thwarted bombing of the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid.
2005 - Pope John Paul II dies at the age of 84. His funeral is broadcast to every corner of the globe through the modern media. Millions of Catholic pilgrims journey to Rome, Italy to pay final respects.
Cymru am byth
April 2nd, 2007, 05:34 PM
i tried johnnyrotten.com jaba, got this
http://www.johnlydon.com/jlhome.html
Cymru am byth
April 3rd, 2007, 09:42 AM
Apr 3 1882
Notorious outlaw Jesse James is shot and killed in his own home for a $5,000 reward. The assailants are Charles and Robert Ford, both members of the James gang.
Apr 3 1924
Brilliant actor and total loon Marlon Brando is born.
Apr 3 1936
Bruno Hauptmann executed via Electric Chair, for the kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby.
Apr 3 1996
US Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's plane goes down in Dubrovnik (Croatia), killing 35. Although many who view Brown's body comment that he appeared to have been shot in the head, this is never fully investigated.
Apr 3 1996
The Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski is arrested in his Lincoln, Montana cabin. It takes the FBI months to search the tiny 8 x 10 foot dwelling.
Apr 3 1999 Bad news for Egyptian rapists! Egypt repeals a 1904 law granting rapists the right to escape punishment if they marry their victims. It seems that this was encouraging the abundant practice of rape, rather than discouraging it
1860 - The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins.
1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin arrives in Russia from exile, marking the beginning of Bolshevik leadership in the Russian Revolution.
1922 - Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
1933 - Unsuccessful boycott of Jewish stores in Nazi Germany.
1941 - Hungarian, Italian and German troops march into Yugoslavia.
1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.
1973 - The first portable cell phone call is placed in New York City.
2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.
Cymru am byth
April 4th, 2007, 11:58 AM
Apr 4 1561
Over Nuremberg, Germany, a battle in the sky transpires between black and blood-red balls, disks, and crosses. It is never made clear who prevailed in this UFO incident.
Apr 4 1958
Lana Turner's 14 year old daughter stabs her mother's boyfriend. A coroner's jury finds she committed justifiable homicide.
Apr 4 1968
Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot dead by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee.
Apr 4 1988
Arizona Governor Evan Mecham becomes the first U.S. governor to be impeached and removed from office in nearly 60 years. He was convicted for obstructing justice by discouraging a state official from investigating a death threat, and also misusing $80,000 in public money. Mecham was known for rescinding the state's observation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, requesting lists of state employees who were gay, and using the word "pickaninnies."
Apr 4 2006
Brian J. Doyle, a Department of Homeland Security official, is arrested and charged with using a computer to seduce a child as well as 16 counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor. Doyle had arranged a meeting with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl but turned out to be police. In chat, he bragged about working for DHS and sent her pornographic movies.
1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
1812 - U.S. President James Madison enacted a ninety-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.
1814 - Napoleon abdicates for the first time.
1818 - The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States WITH 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20).
1841 - William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the shortest term served.
1918 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme ends.
1945 - World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
1945 - World War II: Soviet Army liberates Hungary.
1949 - Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
1964 - The Beatles occupy all top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States
1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Baby Lift - A United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, transporting orphans - 172 die.
1983 - Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space (STS-6).
1952 - Gary Moore, Irish guitarist (Thin Lizzy) born
1995 - Kenny Everett, British radio DJ and television entertainer (b. 1944) died
International Day for Landmine Awareness and Assistance
Cymru am byth
April 5th, 2007, 01:49 PM
Apr 5 1815
Mount Tambora erupts in what is now Indonesia, killing 12,000 and spewing eighty cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere at once. The blast is heard more than 900 miles away, and makes summer feel like winter in many parts of the world.
Apr 5 1944
The Nazis begin deporting jews from Hungary.
Apr 5 1949
Twenty newborn babies and 57 other people die as St. Anthony's Hospital in Effingham, IL is destroyed by fire.
Apr 5 1951
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death for acts of treason, which in this case means giving atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union.
Apr 5 1990
London physician Raymond Crocket is removed from the medical register after it is shown that he paid for and removed kidneys from Turkish donors brought to England.
Apr 5 1994
Kurt Cobain blows his fucking head off.
Apr 5 1997
Allen Ginsberg dies. We are sure that Allen's work for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) has touched us all.
Apr 5 1998
"Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of -- of people who are suffering. Because they've exploited -- we have seen the -- we have seen the Nigger and Greaseball, we've seen the Chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen everything but we never saw the Kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the wagons around." --Marlon Brando, on Larry King Live
Apr 5 2005
Rapper C-Murder (AKA C Miller) is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a teenager in Harvey, Louisiana. C-Murder, brother of rapper/CEO Master P, goes on to release an entire album while behind bars, and even manages to film a music video. Quote the Sheriff: "Suffice it to say, I'm not pleased."
456 - St. Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary Bishop.
1614 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
1621 - The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth on a return trip to Great Britain.
1930 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mohandas Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
1942 - World War II: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
1944 - World War II: 270 inhabitants of the Greek town Kleisoura are executed by the Germans.
2006 - Gene Pitney, American singer (b. 1941) died at the Hilton hotel Cardiff
tgd_02
April 5th, 2007, 05:10 PM
Apr 5 1998
"Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of -- of people who are suffering. Because they've exploited -- we have seen the -- we have seen the Nigger and Greaseball, we've seen the Chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen everything but we never saw the Kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the wagons around." --Marlon Brando, on Larry King Live
WTF!?
Cymru am byth
April 5th, 2007, 05:53 PM
Apr 5 1998
"Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of -- of people who are suffering. Because they've exploited -- we have seen the -- we have seen the Nigger and Greaseball, we've seen the Chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen everything but we never saw the Kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the wagons around." --Marlon Brando, on Larry King Live
all that from a wop:1bluewinky:
Cymru am byth
April 6th, 2007, 09:04 PM
Apr 6 1868
Mormon prophet Brigham Young marries 23-year-old Ann Eliza Webb. This is Young's 27th wife, 18 of which are still married to him.
Apr 6 1976
Howard Hughes dies of health complications related to syphilis.
Apr 6 1990
Police trace a series of obscene phone calls to the president's private White House telephone. The caller turns out to be the president of American University in Washington, Richard E. Berendzen, who was apparently hung up over some personal ad. He is later forced to resign his position but is never charged with any crime.
Apr 6 1994 The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi are both killed in a mysterious plane crash near the Rwandan capital. Consequently, widespread violence erupts in Rwanda amidst rumors that the plane had been shot down.
648 BC - Earliest solar eclipse recorded by the Ancient Greeks.
1320 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.
1814 - Napoleon abdicates. He is then exiled to Elba.
1832 - Indian Wars: Black Hawk War begins - The Sauk warrior Black Hawk enters into war with the United States.
1841 - John Tyler is inaugurated as the 10th President of the United States.
1896 - In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.
1917 - World War I: United States declares war on Germany
1938 - Teflon is discovered.
1941 - World War II: Operation Castigo begins; Germany invades Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Greece
1998 - Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
1199 - King Richard I of England (killed in battle) (b. 1157)
Cymru am byth
April 7th, 2007, 10:26 AM
Apr 7 1948
Twenty Buddhist monks in Shanghai are immolated as their monastery burns.
Apr 7 1970
The X-rated movie Midnight Cowboy wins the Oscar for Best Picture.
Apr 7 1989
Soviet nuclear submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Norwegian sea, with two nuclear reactors and two nuclear torpedoes aboard. 41 crew members die, and the submarine remains one mile below the surface of the ocean, with its nuclear weapons intact.
Apr 7 1994
Courtney Love arrested on drug charges in Beverly Hills. What a surprise!
Apr 7 1998
Wendy O. Williams, former porn star and singer for the Plasmatics, kills herself with a gun near her Connecticut home.
Apr 7 1998
Pop singer George Michael is arrested by an undercover police officer after wanking in front him in a public toilet at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills
Apr 7 1999 A bomb goes off in the "Valley of the Fallen" church, which is carved into a mountainside north of Madrid. The church houses the mortal remains of dictator Francisco Franco. The terrorist group GRAPO claims responsibility, and while there were no injuries, the damage was extensive.
1795 - France adopts the metre as the basic measure of length.
1805 - First public performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony
1933 - Prohibition was repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of XXI amendment.
1938 - LSD is first synthesized
1939 - World War II: Italy invades Albania.
1943 - Holocaust in Terebovlia, western Ukraine: Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress to their underwear and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka. They were then shot dead and buried in ditches.
1945 - World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk 200 miles north of Okinawa while en-route on a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.
1948 - The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
1969 - The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.
1994 - Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda.
2003 - U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later.
1860 - born, Will Keith Kellogg, American cereal manufacturer (d. 1951)
1739 - Dick Turpin, English highwayman, hanged (b. 1706)
1947 - Henry Ford, American automobile manufacturer and industrialist died(b. 1863)
UnregisteredSexOffender
April 7th, 2007, 02:13 PM
1938 - LSD is first synthesized
Now that's one for the record books. :)
Big Ozzie
April 7th, 2007, 03:04 PM
WTF!?
Apr 5 1998
"Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of -- of people who are suffering. Because they've exploited -- we have seen the -- we have seen the Nigger and Greaseball, we've seen the Chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen everything but we never saw the Kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the wagons around." --Marlon Brando, on Larry King Live
I'd swear that the only reason that Brando got to play the part of that crazed Colonel in "Apocalypse Now" is because he really was nutso! Then he really went off with the murder of his son-in-law (daughter's long time live in boyfriend) by his son and the subsequent suicide of his gorgeous daughter, Cheyenne. He delivered some type of rambling, mumbo jumbo statement that no one could understand at the sentencing of his son.
Besides his multiple marriages and lovers, he was an admitted Bi-Sexual with a long time relationship with actor Wally Cox.
http://www.classicsquares.com/wally3a.JPG
(from the "Hollywood Squares" TV Game Show)
Brando went into seclusion and ballooned up to over 400lbs before his death about 3 years ago.
Cymru am byth
April 8th, 2007, 11:07 PM
Apr 8 1916
Auto racer Bob Burman crashes and burns during a race in Corona, California. He dies and takes his mechanic Eric Scroeder and a track policeman with him. Burman was in the lead during most of the race but his Peugot broke a wheel sending his car crashing through a crowd barrier and into a pole and badly injuring 5 spectators.
Apr 8 1988
Rev. Jimmy Swaggart resigns from his ministry when it is revealed that he has been consorting with a prostitute, Debra Murphree. She says he was a frequent client but only liked to watch her undress. Only a few months earlier, Swaggart had been giving Rev. Jim Bakker shit about Jessica Hahn.
Apr 8 1991
Retired horse jockey Willie Shoemaker loses control of his Ford Bronco; the resulting crash renders him paralyzed from the neck down. Shoemaker is later arrested for drunk driving, but no charges are ever filed.
Apr 8 1992
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat suffers only minor injuries after his airplane crashes into the Libyan desert. However, three others on board the craft are killed.
Apr 8 1994
Kurt Cobain's body is found 3 days after committing suicide with a shotgun.
1730 - Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
1867 - The first World's Fair is inaugurated in Paris.
1904 - The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sign the Entente cordiale.
1942 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad - Soviet Union forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.
1957 - Egypt: the Suez Canal is reopened
1973 - 32 terrorist bombings in Cyprus
1992 - Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
2005 - Funeral of Pope John Paul II.
1962 - Izzy Stradlin, American musician (Guns N' Roses) born
1963 - Julian Lennon, British musician and singer born
Imbalanced
April 8th, 2007, 11:40 PM
you know, i've always wondered if Cobain hadn't taken a bong rip off that shotgun if Nirvana would have become an even greater band...or if they would have gone the way of say....the Wallflowers.
also makes me wonder if I ever would have missed out on my opportunity to play guitar with Dave Grohl ;)
Rocker Kid
April 9th, 2007, 04:14 AM
you know, i've always wondered if Cobain hadn't taken a bong rip off that shotgun if Nirvana would have become an even greater band...or if they would have gone the way of say....the Wallflowers.
Some say Courtney Love had him kiiled. But why? I'd say jealousy... Nirvana was much more popular than Hole...
Cymru am byth
April 9th, 2007, 05:26 PM
Apr 9 1241
Mongols collect nine bags of ears after a battle with Henry, Duke of Poland, at Liegnitz. A feigned retreat separated the 500 Teutonic Knights from their infantry, and the Mongols slaughtered the entire infantry. Apparently you can fit 25,000 ears into nine bags.
Apr 9 1940
Nazi Germany invades Denmark and Norway. Norwegian national socialist Vidkun Quisling seizes the opportunity to declare himself the new prime minister of Norway, but the Germans replace him only five days later.
Apr 9 1948
Jewish terror groups Irgun and Lehi massacre Arab villagers of Deir Yassin located on Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road. News of massacre creates panic among other Palestinians, who flee former mandatory Palestine at onset of first Arab-Israeli war.
Apr 9 1992
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/apr/rh-manuel-noriega.jpg
Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering, and racketeering by a federal court in Miami.
1682 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
1770 - Capt James Cook discovers Botany Bay in Australia
1867 - Alaska purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
1916 - World War I: Battle of Verdun - German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
1917 - World War I: Battle of Arras - The battle begins with Canadian forces executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
1942 - World War II: Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March - United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast.
1945 - World War II: The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk.
1945 - World War II: Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.
1991 - Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1806 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer born (d. 1859)
1926 - Hugh Hefner, American editor and publisher born
1932 - Cheeta, animal actor chimpanzee born
1974 - Jenna Jameson, American porn star born
UnregisteredSexOffender
April 9th, 2007, 06:15 PM
1974 - Jenna Jameson, American porn star born
1992 - 18 years after Jenna is born, 50 million people suddenly get a boner.
jaba
April 9th, 2007, 06:44 PM
1992 - 18 years after Jenna is born, 50 million people suddenly get a boner.Not me dude. The only real thing about this sad girl is the dollar. She will regret what she does one day because it is childish and uneducated and has little to do with respect for herself!
jaba
April 9th, 2007, 06:55 PM
I doubt it...She's got tons of money..I'm sure she has thought about that before and can really care less..She's the only successful girl porn star that has done anything besides making films!Not my cup of tea fella - sorry! Wanking off to a video is something I grew out of when I was a lot younger. She can turn herself inside out and still have no meaning in modern society. I hate porn as much as it is possible to hate something, try cooking - as you know it encourages more discourse than a few illicit pulls on a sad dick!
Imbalanced
April 9th, 2007, 06:55 PM
Some say Courtney Love had him kiiled. But why? I'd say jealousy... Nirvana was much more popular than Hole...
so what if Love kills herself? will we care as much?
Imbalanced
April 9th, 2007, 06:57 PM
happy birfday hugh hefner. you are my idol.
jaba
April 9th, 2007, 07:59 PM
Thats to bad..your maybe one out of trillion that doesn't like porn but it's all good..to each his own.Thats why I always had a girlfriend or now that I'm married I never have to beat bobo..Cooking just doesn't do it for me thats another reason I got married..:rolleyes:Nice reply bobo! I'm happy with my lot. I've had several scares in my life regarding such disrespectful attitudes on women - the last incident wasn't very good for my so-called friend. I have started to get my own perspective on this kind of treatment of women. My recent experience with my ex has been quite fruitful since she stays several nights every week now. We do of course keep things on a private fun basis but her partner is cracking up - hence my reluctance to take it further than friendship and a lot of whatevers!
Rocker Kid
April 9th, 2007, 10:01 PM
so what if Love kills herself? will we care as much?
Nope.
And to your question.... if Cobain were still alive today, I think Nirvana would've pulled a Green Day.... put out a few crappy albums that do not compare to their origional chart-topping album (Dookie) and then make a triumphant come back years later (American Idiot) with the help of alot of writers. And then all of their origional fans don't come to their concerts anymore because they've "sold out" and a bunch of pre-teens come to see them thinking they're a new band. Ands then they could say "We don't live in the shadow of our old album anymore"...:1orglaugh:
Imbalanced
April 10th, 2007, 12:54 AM
Nope.
And to your question.... if Cobain were still alive today, I think Nirvana would've pulled a Green Day.... put out a few crappy albums that do not compare to their origional chart-topping album (Dookie) and then make a triumphant come back years later (American Idiot) with the help of alot of writers. And then all of their origional fans don't come to their concerts anymore because they've "sold out" and a bunch of pre-teens come to see them thinking they're a new band. Ands then they could say "We don't live in the shadow of our old album anymore"...:1orglaugh:
you stole the words outta my mouth!
Rocker Kid
April 10th, 2007, 01:24 AM
you stole the words outta my mouth!
:D High five! That's serioulsy what I think would happen.
Imbalanced
April 10th, 2007, 08:30 AM
:D High five! That's serioulsy what I think would happen.most likely. now if Metallica would just die off...they disgust me now.
Cymru am byth
April 10th, 2007, 03:51 PM
Apr 10 1848
250 people die in a bridge collapse in Yarmouth, England. They had gathered on the suspension bridge to watch a clown boat be pulled by a flock of geese.
Apr 10 1917
133 people are killed in an explosion at the Eddystone ammunition factory in Chester, PA. Satan is immediately implicated, with one official declaring the blast to be "the result of a diabolical plot conceived in the degenerate brain of a demon in human guise." It later turns out to have been caused by poorly-maintained powder loading machinery.
Apr 10 1919
Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata and his bodyguards are shot to death after being lured to a meeting by army colonel Jesus Guajardo. For his deception, Guajardo collects a reward of 52,000 pesos and is promoted to the rank of general.
Apr 10 1942
Approximately 66,000 Filipino and 11,796 U.S. soldiers near the Philippine town of Mariveles surrender to Japanese forces. Unable to feed their wounded and starving POWs, the Japanese opt for the 61-mile "Bataan Death March" to mitigate the problem.
Apr 10 1945
Buchenwald death camp liberated by U.S. forces.
Apr 10 1947
Agents of the FBI pay a visit to Screen Actors Guild president Ronald Reagan and his wife, actress Jane Wyman. They accuse the couple of belonging to Communist front groups. Reagan quickly agrees to become a secret informer.
Apr 10 1992
Comedian Sam Kinison killed in a car accident.
Apr 10 1997
The Jerusalem Post reports that high rabbinical sources have confirmed the birth of a rare red heifer named Melody in a kibbutz near Haifa. The ashes from such a beast will be needed to ceremonially purify any Jews before they would be permitted to enter the former site of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. At present, the parcel is occupied by the Dome of the Rock mosque, which is located on the spot where Muslims believe that Mohammed rode his horse into Heaven. The goal here is to reconstruct the Hebrew temple, but this would necessitate tearing down the mosque, virtually guaranteeing outright war between Israel and the Arab world. Even more ominous, the construction project is a necessary prerequisite for the second coming of Christ, which itself involves all the End Times stuff in the book of Revelation. Melody is the first red heifer in 2,000 years, and quite possibly the last.
Apr 10 2003
FBI agents raid the Noonday, Texas home of avowed white supremacist William Joseph Krar. Upon searching the domicile and some rented storage units, the agents turn up an arsenal including briefcase bombs with remote-controlled detonators, full-auto machine guns, silencers, nearly 500,000 rounds of ammunition, a 1953 military land mine, more than 800 grams of sodium cyanide, and a copy of The Turner Diaries. Krar later receives 11 years for possession of a dangerous chemical weapon.
1868 - At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Theodore. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two die from the British/ Indian troops.
1912 - The RMS Titanic leaves port in Southampton, England for her first and last voyage.
1941 - World War II: The Axis Powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustase fascist insurgents in power.
1959 - Akihito, future Emperor of Japan, weds Michiko (née Michiko Shoda), a commoner.
1963 - The submarine USS Thresher is lost at sea, with all hands (129 officers, crewmen and civilian technicians).
1970 - Paul McCartney announces that The Beatles have broken up.
1978 - Volkswagen becomes the first non-American automobile manufacturer to build cars in the United States, opening a plant in Pennsylvania.
jaba
April 10th, 2007, 07:32 PM
1970 - Paul McCartney announces that The Beatles have broken up.
Yeh right - John and Yoko were really gutted about that little PR exersise he pulled lol!
Rocker Kid
April 10th, 2007, 11:03 PM
most likely. now if Metallica would just die off...they disgust me now.
Me too.
I was like "I bet everyone just makes a big fuss over them" and then I saw the documentary for Some kind of Monster or St. Anger or some other crappy documentary for MTV, and I was like "OMG those guys DID turn into jerks!" :eek:
Funny how people change huh?
Imbalanced
April 11th, 2007, 05:22 AM
Me too.
I was like "I bet everyone just makes a big fuss over them" and then I saw the documentary for Some kind of Monster or St. Anger or some other crappy documentary for MTV, and I was like "OMG those guys DID turn into jerks!" :eek:
Funny how people change huh?
yeah..same could be said for Anti-Flag. I used to love that band, they are sellouts now on MTV. Makes me sad, used to be one of my favorite punk bands. Listen to Die For Your Government, and then anything off For Blood & Empire...ew fucking ew.
makes me glad that another band, Eighteen Visions is breaking up. They have had one song on the radio, and I think they decided that they didn't want to conform to that, and have split to go off on their own projects, leaving 18V still as a good band, where it will remain. Wherever the new projects go will be determined, but nobody can claim that 18V sold out, they got out just in time before they got too big of a band.
Cymru am byth
April 11th, 2007, 10:28 AM
Apr 11 34
Jesus Christ resurrected?
Apr 11 1890
Death of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man.
Apr 11 1979
Kampala, the capital of Uganda, falls to the Tanzanians and dictator Idi Amin is overthrown. Amin, an occasional cannibal who killed perhaps 300,000 during his reign, had made the mistake of invading Tanzania.
Apr 11 1991
Brian Huntley of Hull, England is convicted of raping a prostitute, aged 19. Because she demanded the rapist use a condom, Huntley is given a short 3 years imprisonment. The next day's headline of the Daily Mirror: "Judge praises rapist who wore condom".
Apr 11 1996
Jessica Dubroff, a 7-year-old pilot hoping to become the youngest American ever to fly coast-to-coast, is killed along with her father and flight instructor when their single-engine plane crashes on takeoff in Cheyenne, WY.
Apr 11 2006
Rapper Proof is shot to death at the CCC Club on 8 Mile Road in Detroit, Michigan. He manages to kill Keith Bender Jr. before dying from a gunshot to the head. Proof was a founding member of D-12.
1775 - Last execution for witchcraft in Germany.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln makes his last public speech.
1868 - The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.
1905 - Einstein reveals his Theory of Relativity.
1915 - Charlie Chaplin releases The Tramp.
1951 - The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which English monarchs are traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its traditional (to the British government) location in Westminster Abbey.
1957 - Britain agrees to Singaporean self-rule.
1961 - Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
1968 - Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
1981 - A massive riot in Brixton, South London, results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.
2001 - Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying game, an international record.
2006 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium
1946 - (whispering) Bob Harris, British disc jockey and presenter (old grey whistle test) born
1960 - Jeremy Clarkson, British journalist born
1969 - Cerys Matthews, Welsh singer (Catatonia) born
1240 - Llywelyn the Great, King of Gwynedd died
2001 - Harry Secombe, Welsh actor and comedian (b. 1921) died
Cymru am byth
April 12th, 2007, 05:00 PM
Apr 12 1945
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only president ever elected to four terms of office, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, GA. The following day, Vice President Harry S. Truman assumes the post and is told for the first time about the Manhattan Project.
Apr 12 1960
Eric Peugeot, 4-year-old son of the auto manufacturer, is kidnapped in Paris. The child is later freed after a $300,000 ransom is paid. Ultimately, the perpetrators are caught and sent to prison.
Apr 12 1961
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gargarin is the first man in space, aboard Vostok I.
Apr 12 1988
U.S. patent 4,736,866 is granted to Harvard University for a genetically-modified mouse, engineered to be particularly susceptible to carcinogens. The cancer-prone "Harvard Oncomouse" is the world's first patented creature, and perhaps also the most screwed.
Apr 12 1989
1960s counterculture icon Abbie Hoffman kills himself by overdosing on barbiturates.
Apr 12 1992
EuroDisney opens to the public, attracting a meager 50,000 visitors. Expectations had been about ten times as many. This underwhelming response by the European public will continue for more than a year. Finally, after 18 months of retooling, the resort is ultimately rechristened Disneyland Paris.
Apr 12 1994
The US Tax Court rules that Indiana exotic dancer Chesty Love can claim a $2,088 tax credit for depreciation on her 56FF breast implants. The judge found that Love's surgical augmentation did in fact increase her income, also that she was unable to derive any personal benefit from them, as the oversized mammaries "contorted her body into a grotesque appearance."
Apr 12 1995
To celebrate David Letterman's 49th birthday, actress Drew Barrymore climbs atop the Late Night desk and flashes her bosomy protuberances at the man.
Apr 12 1995
The Hong Kong Eastern Express reports that China sanctions the consumption of aborted human fetuses as a "health benefit." One practitioner willing to admit a taste for this is Dr. Zou Qin of the Luo Hu Clinic, who boasts having consumed more than 100 meals of human veal -- stew and soup, mostly.
1606 - The Union Jack is adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.
1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
1864 - American Civil War: Fort Pillow massacre -- Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
1917 - World War I: Canadian forces successfully take Vimy Ridge from the Germans. It is also considered a major event in Canadian history for the primary role Canadian forces played in the attack.
1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England.
1954 - Bill Haley & His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" in New York City. Initially unsuccessful, the recording would help launch the rock and roll revolution a year later.
1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe
and effective.
1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
1996 - Yahoo! has its initial public offering, selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.
1999 - American President Bill Clinton was cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in the Paula Jones sexual harassment civil lawsuit
Big Ozzie
April 12th, 2007, 08:20 PM
Cymru....
I "stickied" this thread as long as you keep posting a daily THIS DAY IN HISTORY!
Cymru am byth
April 12th, 2007, 10:16 PM
cool:xyxthumbs: , i'll keep it up as much as i can, i've got a 2 week holiday booked in the summer though and i wont be able to make post that size from my mobile phone:eek: i'd be there all day
Cymru am byth
April 13th, 2007, 06:15 PM
Apr 13 1883
Convicted cannibal Alfred Packer is sentenced to death in Colorado.
Apr 13 1919
British troops fire on a crowd of Indians peacefully protesting the occupation, leaving 379 dead and 1,200 wounded.
Apr 13 1970
56 hours and 205,000 miles from planet Earth, the crew aboard Apollo 13 hears "a pretty loud bang" when oxygen tank number two spontaneously explodes. Astronaut Jack Swigert informs Mission Control in Houston: "Hey, we've got a problem here." Miraculously, the crew manages to return home in their crippled spacecraft.
Apr 13 1981
Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke wins a Pulitzer Prize for her story about Jimmy, an 8 year old heroin addict. Strangely, police could find no trace of this boy. And this was one of those investigative journalism Pulitzers, not a fiction Pulitzer, so she was forced to return the award two days later. Cooke later clerked part-time at a department store cosmetics counter in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Apr 13 1982
David Crosby of CSNY arrested while freebasing cocaine and for illegal possession of a .45 handgun. Sentence: 5 years.
Apr 13 1984
Itinerant serial killer Henry Lee Lucas found guilty by a Texas jury for the murder of "Orange Socks", a hitchhiker whose name is not known. Lucas and his partner Ottis Toole are thought to have killed as many as 200 people. Ironically new evidence places Lucas in Florida at the supposed time of the Orange Socks murder.
Apr 13 1990
The Soviet Union admits to Katyn Massacre of 15,000 Polish army officers.
Apr 13 1992
Chicago's downtown business center is crippled by massive flooding, as 124 million gallons of water inundate 50 miles of underground freight tunnels and adjoining basements. City workers dump sandbags, rocks, and mattresses into the Chicago River in a vain attempt to slow the floodwaters. All told, it will take 12 days to seal the leak and drain the tunnels. The disaster causes $800 million in damage, and the IRS graciously grants one week of amnesty for Chicago-area residents to file their tax returns.
Apr 13 1994
The United Nations Human Rights Committee declares sodomy to be a basic human right. The committee determined that laws against assfucking (particularly in Tasmania) breach articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
1829 - The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics
1868 - Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala
1939 - In India, the Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) is formed and vows to engage in armed struggle against the British.
1941 - Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
1943 - The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC, on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
1974 - Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the USA's first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.
1975 - An attack by unidentified gunmen on a church in Ain El Remmeneh followed by an attack on a bus that killed 17 Palestinian civilians, Lebanon marks the beginning of a 15 year civil war.
1984 - India moves into Siachen Glacier thus annexed more territory from the Line of Control.
2029 - A meteor will pass by breaking the record for the closest passing by of any other previous meteor.
1570 - Guido "Guy" Fawkes, English Catholic conspirator born (d. 1606)
1866 - Butch Cassidy, American outlaw born(d. 1908)
1892 - Arthur Travers 'Bomber' Harris, British Air Force commander in World War II (d. 1984)
1962 - Hillel Slovak, Israeli-born guitarist (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (d. 1988)
Cymru am byth
April 14th, 2007, 07:28 PM
Apr 14 73
With the 10th Roman Legion about to breach the gates of their mountaintop fortress, 960 Sicarii Jews commit mass suicide at Masada. According to Josephus, the radical cult selected ten swordsmen by lottery to perform the killing. Then they held a second lottery to choose one man to kill the remaining nine. Finally, the last one fell on his sword.
Apr 14 1865
President Abraham Lincoln receives a cranial gunshot wound from the nation's most famous actor, John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln dies the following day, primarily from ill-advised attempts to extract the bullet lodged in his brain.
Apr 14 1986
Hindus crossing a bridge over the sacred Ganges river at Hardwar, India to bathe during the Kumbha Mela fete somehow stampede. 46 pilgrims are trampled.
Apr 14 1989
California winery worker Ramon Salcido picks up a butcher knife and kills his wife, mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, and two of his own daughters. Then he goes to work and kills his supervisor.
1471 - In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under Warwick at the battle of Barnet; the Earl of Warwick is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.
1775 - The first abolition society in the North America is established. The "Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage" is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
1849 - Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Louis Kossuth as its leader.
1860 - The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California
1894 - Thomas Edison demonstrates the kinetoscope, a device for peep-show viewing using photographs that flip in sequence, a precursor to movies.
1912 - The British ocean liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage, plunging beneath the waves and taking with it over 1,500 lives at about 2:20 a.m. the following morning.
1927 - The first Volvo car premieres, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1940 - Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway, occupying key points, preparatory to a larger force arriving two days later.
1941 - World War II: The Ustashe, a Croatian far-right organisation that pursued Nazi and fascist policies, is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers after the April 6 invasion of Yugoslavia during Operation 25.
1956 - Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago, Illinois. It is the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful format called 2" Quadruplex.
1958 - The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days.
1981 - The first operational space shuttle, Columbia, lands at Edwards Air Force Base, California after its first test flight.
1986 - In retaliation for the April 5 bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin in which two U.S. servicemen were killed, Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Tripoli and Benghazi, in Libya, which kills 60 people.
1986 - 2.2 lb (1 kg) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.
1988 - USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. U.S. retaliates against Iran on April 18 with Operation Praying Mantis, the world's largest naval battle since World War II.
1988 - In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
1999 - NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees - Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed.
2000 - Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich filed a lawsuit against P2P sharing phenomenon Napster. This law-suit eventually leads to the movement against file-sharing programs.
2003 - Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit falls to U.S.-led forces with unexpectedly light resistance.
2003 - U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the Achille Lauro in 1985.
1904 - Sir John Gielgud, English actor born (d. 2000)
1929 - Gerry Anderson, English television producer (Thunderbirds etc) born
1945 - Ritchie Blackmore, English guitarist born
1961 - Robert Carlyle, scottish actor born
Cymru am byth
April 15th, 2007, 05:30 PM
Apr 15 1792
The Guillotine is first tested on human corpses.
Apr 15 1912
Unsinkable ship Titanic sinks after being torn by iceberg, with a loss of over 1500 passengers and crew.
Apr 15 1945
British and Canadian troops liberate the Bergen-Belsen death camp in northern Germany.
Apr 15 1955
The first McDonald's franchise opens in Des Plains, a suburb of Chicago. Because it is the first one launched by Ray Kroche, he names it "McDonald's #1" despite the fact that the McDonald brothers had already opened eight of their chain restaurants before they began accepting licensees. Kroc's unfortunate numbering system guarantees perpetual confusion for amateur fast food historians the world over.
Apr 15 1962
Actress Clara Blandick, 80, the Auntie Em of the Wizard of Oz, takes an overdose of sleeping pills and ties a plastic bag around her head in a Hollywood hotel room. Prior to this, she had prominently arranged her resume and press clippings so the newspapers would get her obituary right.
Apr 15 1989
96 soccer fans are crushed to death at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, England. During the opening minutes of the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, Sheffield police order a gate opened at one end of the stadium. A throng of 2,000 Liverpool fans attempt to surge into the seating section, smashing more than 250 already-seated fans against the security fence.
Apr 15 1990
Greta Garbo dead.
Apr 15 1990
Mass food poisoning kills 150 people at an engagement party in Basti, Uttar Pradesh. Advice: Don't eat the bread.
Apr 15 1999
Sean "Puffy" Combs is accused of beating Steve Stoute, a record manager from Interscope Records. Stoute refused to remove images of Combs shot for a Nas video (Hate Me Now). Police arrested Combs for aggravated assault.
Apr 15 1999 Dutch airlines KLM issues an apology for shredding 400 ground squirrels at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, The squirrels did not have proper importation papers, and thus were forced to meet their fate of grinding steel rotary blades. A public outcry forced KLM's apology.
1755 - Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published in London.
1802 - William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen [I]I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud[I].
1923 - Insulin first became generally available for use by diabetics.
1940 - The Allies start their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany
1942 - George Cross awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta[/COLOR] - its people and defenders" by King George VI.
1943 - An Allied bomber attack misses the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, killing 936 civilians.
1989 - Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.
1997 - Fire sweeps through a campsite of Muslimsmaking the Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343.
1971 - Sarah Jane Hamilton, British pornographic actress born
1865 - Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (b.1809) died (gunshot)
1984 - Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (b. 1921) died (heartattack on stage/live tv)
1988 - Kenneth Williams, English actor and comedian (carry on films)(b. 1926) died (suicide/OD)
1998 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925) died
2001 - Joey Ramone, American musician and singer The Ramones) (b.1951) died
United States - April 15 is the official deadline for filing tax return in most areas of the country.
[/COLOR]
Cymru am byth
April 16th, 2007, 03:07 PM
Apr 16 1943
Chemist Albert Hofmann inadvertently experiences the world's first acid trip when a tiny quantity of lysergic acid diethylamide accidently seeps through the skin of his finger. After leaving work early, he went home and settled into "a not unpleasant intoxicated condition." Then he had solid two hours of visual hallucinations: "I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors." It will be another three days before Hofmann gets up the courage to swallow 250 micrograms and ride his bicycle home.
Apr 16 1947
552 people are killed in Texas City, TX when 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer aboard the S.S. Grandcamp suddenly explodes. The blast generates a 2,000-foot mushroom cloud and is heard 160 miles away, leading some witnesses to believe that they had just been hit by a Russian A-bomb. 3,000 people suffer injuries and perhaps 200 more are unaccounted for. One-third of Texas City is decimated, twenty blocks of the waterfront are obliterated, and windows more than ten miles away are shattered.
Apr 16 1953
President Eisenhower addresses the nation concerning the relative priorities of "guns" versus "butter." In a fair fight, we'd have to bet on the guns.
Apr 16 1966
Alongside FBI officials, New York district attorney G. Gordon Liddy arrests Timothy Leary for possession of marijuana after raiding his Millbrook estate. The Supreme Court later rules this bust unconstitutional.
Apr 16 1995
Marlon Brando's daughter Cheyenne hangs herself in Tahiti.
1912 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin returns to Saint Petersburg from exile in Finland.
1919 - Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the British slaughter of Indian protestors in the Amritsar Massacre.
1941 - World War II: The Italian convoy Duisburg, directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed by British ships.
1945 - The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin.
1945 - The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IVc .
1945 - German ship Goya, overfilled with refugees, sinks after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing more than 7,000 people.
1946 - Syria gains independence.
1947 - Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1953 - Queen Elizabeth II launches the Royal Yacht Britannia.
1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
1964 - Sentences totalling 307 years were passed on 12 men who stole Ł2.6m in used bank notes in what became known as the Great Train Robbery.
1889 - Charles Chaplin, English actor, writer, and film producer born (d. 1977)
1918 - Spike Milligan, British comedian born (d. 2002)
1927 - Pope Benedict XVI born
1939 - Dusty Springfield, English singer born (d. 1999)
1943 - Ruth Madoc, Welsh actress born
1963 - Jimmy Osmond, American pop singer born
1985 - Mark Baker, Welsh author and historian born
1850 - Marie Tussaud, founder of the Madame Tussauds wax museum (b. 1761) died
1999 - Skip Spence, Canadian-born guitarist, singer and songwriter (Jefferson Airplane) died (b. 1946)
2007 - Ace's son, born @ 11pm
Cymru am byth
April 17th, 2007, 05:12 PM
Apr 17 1792
The Guillotine is tested at Bicetre Hospital in Paris, decapitating a sheep and a number of human cadavers.
Apr 17 1961
In an effort to overthrow Fidel Castro, 1,500 Cuban exiles make a series of amphibious landings at the Bay of Pigs. After it becomes painfully obvious in just a matter of hours that the forces were trained, equipped, and armed by the United States, President John F. Kennedy withholds necessary air cover. In three days of fighting, Cuba captures 1,197 of the rebels and kills approximately 200.
Apr 17 1965
The FBI Laboratory in Washington reports their inability to make out the vocals on the hit single "Louie Louie." Thus, the Bureau is unable to determine whether the record constitutes obscene matter.
Apr 17 1969
A Los Angeles jury convicts Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Sirhan receives a death sentence, but it is later reduced to life in prison.
Apr 17 1974
Vinnie Taylor of Sha Na Na dies of a smack overdose.
Apr 17 1984
London police officer Yvonne Fletcher is shot dead and ten bystanders are wounded when a gunman in the Libyan Embassy opens fire on a crowd of protestors gathered outside. One week later, the British government cuts off all diplomatic relations and the Libyans are deported. The Libyan Government finally "accepts general responsibility for the behaviour of its diplomats inside its London Embassy at the time of the shooting" in July 1999, and pays an undisclosed sum to Fletcher's family.
Apr 17 1997 After a newspaper publishes photographs of Belgian paratroopers committing human rights violations during a 1993 UN peacekeeping mission in Somalia, Belgium's Defense Minister Jean-Pol Poncelet announces that the elite fighting unit may be disbanded. The photos depict one soldier urinating on a Somali corpse, and two men swinging a child over a campfire by the wrists and ankles.
1397 - Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as when the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury starts.
1492 - Spain and Christopher Columbus sign a contract for him to sail to Asia to get spices.
1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
1924 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios is formed from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company.
1937 - Daffy Duck debuts in Warner Bros.' short Porky's Duck Hunt.
1941 - World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
1942 - POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.
1945 - In Strassfurt, Germany, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash seizes half a ton of uranium, in an attempt to foil Soviet Union plans to build an atomic bomb.
1964 - The Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Mustang at the New York World's Fair.
1964 - Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
1975 - Cambodian Civil War ends: The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.
1982 - Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
1986 - Treaty signed, ending Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly.
2002 - Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two U.S. Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War.
BORN
1622 - Henry Vaughan, Welsh poet (d. 1695)
1894 - Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)
1948 - Jan Hammer, Czech composer
1959 - Sean Bean, English actor
1964 - Maynard James Keenan, American singer (Tool and A Perfect Circle)
1974 - Victoria Beckham, English "singer" (hahahaha yeah right)
DIED
1998 - Linda McCartney, American-born wife of Paul McCartney (b. 1941)
UnregisteredSexOffender
April 17th, 2007, 06:23 PM
1964 - Maynard James Keenan, American singer (Tool and A Perfect Circle)
Hey, that Tool video on the latest vids is posted on Maynard's Birthday. Happy B-Day MJK :smokin:
Cymru am byth
April 18th, 2007, 08:57 PM
Apr 18 1906
A devastating earthquake strikes San Francisco at 5:13 a.m., followed by a major aftershock three hours later. More than 3,000 people are killed from either collapsing structures or any of the 59 separate fires which burn over the next three days. In the downtown area, the U.S. Army is forced to dynamite whole city blocks in order to contain the flames, due to the lack of water pressure.
Apr 18 1955
Nobel Prize recipient Albert Einstein dies in his hospital bed from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Seven hours later, his brain is plunked into a jar of formalin and taken away by the pathologist. It will remain missing for 23 years.
Apr 18 1983
62 people are killed and more than 100 injured in a suicide bombing against the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. The attacker used a van packed with one ton of high explosives. Included among the dead is the CIA's entire Middle East bureau. The group Islamic Jihad claims responsibility, although the intelligence community believes it was actually the work of Hezbollah.
Apr 18 1988
American auto worker John Demjanjuk is convicted of crimes against humanity by an Israeli court. They determined that he was Treblinka's notorious "Ivan the Terrible." The court sentences him to hang one week later, but the conviction is later overturned when it appears to have been a case of mistaken identity. In 2002, a U.S. federal court later strips Demjanjuk of his citizenship after it rules that he did in fact work as a Nazi prison guard, although at Sobibor, Majdanek, and Flossenburg.
1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid
1775 - Two lanterns were hung in Boston, Massachusetts and Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock
1899 - St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria
1915 - French pilot Roland Garros was shot down and glided to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.
1943 - World War II: "Operation Peacock", Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighers over the Solomon Islands.
1945 - World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, leaving nothing standing.
1946 - The League of Nations is dissolved.
1947 - The British Royal Navy detonated 6,800 tonnes of explosives in a concerted attempt to destroy the small island of Heligoland, Germany, creating the biggest non-nuclear explosion in history.
1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.
1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.
1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.
1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in retaliation for damage to the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58). The one-day action is the world's largest naval battle since World War II.
1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
1996 - In Lebanon, at least 106 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana
Births
1946 - Hayley Mills, English actress
1947 - James Woods, American actor
1954 - Rick Moranis, Canadian comedian
1961 - Jane Leeves, British actress
1971 - David Tennant, Scottish actor
1973 - Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian athlete
1986 - Denice Klarskov, Danish porn star
Deaths
1955 - Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
loadrunner
April 19th, 2007, 12:17 AM
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168.
1999 - The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.
2000 - An Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 crashes near Davao International Airport, killing 131.
2005 - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.
Cymru am byth
April 19th, 2007, 09:16 PM
Apr 19 1910 Halley's comet reappears, last seen in 1835. The Earth passes safely through the comet's tail with no perceptible effect, not counting the death of Mark Twain.
Apr 19 1943 During an early-morning operation to exterminate the residents of the Warsaw Ghetto, Nazi troops experience heavy casualties and are forced to retreat before nightfall. Jewish resistance fighters, armed with rifles and Molotov cocktails, manage to kill or wound at least 200. The battle will rage on for another three weeks.
Apr 19 1956 UK Frogman disappeared bugging underside of Khruschev's warship in Portsmouth (1956)
Apr 19 1989 47 crewmen aboard the battleship USS Iowa are killed when a gun turret explodes during a training exercise in the Atlantic. Navy investigators later rule out all accidental causes, and conclude that someone manning the gun, "most probably" one Clayton Hartwig, had sabotaged its operation as a suicide attempt. The Navy ignored the fact that the propellant bags were 44 years old and proven to be chemically unstable.
Apr 19 1993 More than 80 Branch Davidians burn to death in Waco, Texas as the FBI stages a disastrous final assault on their compound. This brings a sudden end to the 51-day siege.
Apr 19 1995 Timothy McVeigh kills 168 Oklahomans when his truck bomb detonates in front of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building.
Apr 19 1995 Singer Bobby Brown is arrested at Disneyworld for beating a man and tearing off his ear. Neil Kelly, the man with the reattached ear, later sues Brown for $6.6 million but eventually settles out of court for an undisclosed sum.
1587 - Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cádiz harbor.
1692 - Bridget Bishop goes on trial in Salem, Massachusetts for witchcraft
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord which began the American Revolutionary War.
1839 - The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
1892 - Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1904 - Much of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is destroyed by fire.
1909 - Joan of Arc receives beatification.
1919 - Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful parachute jump and free-fall.
1927 - Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex
1936 - First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine.
1943 - Bicycle Day – Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.
1956 - Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco.
1961 - The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in failure.
1985 - Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
1985 - U.S.S.R performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk U.S.S.R.
1999 - The German Bundestag returns to Berlin
Births
1933 - Jayne Mansfield, American actress (d. 1967)
1935 - Dudley Moore, English actor, musician, comedian, composer (d. 2002)
1970 - Dame Kelly Holmes, English athlete
1987 - Maria Sharapova, Russian tennis player
Deaths
1390 - King Robert II of Scotland (b. 1316)
1791 - Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (b. 1723)
1881 - Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)
1882 - Charles Darwin, English biologist (b. 1809)
Cymru am byth
April 20th, 2007, 08:03 AM
Apr 20 1233
Pope Gregory IX places the Inquisition, in existence since 1227, under the aegis of the Dominican Order. Torture is apparently sometimes necessary to save souls, and the office continues to exist today as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Apr 20 1889
In Braunau, Austria, Klara Hitler gives birth to a bouncing baby boy named Adolf.
Apr 20 1979
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/apr/rh-bunny-for-carter.jpg
President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a Killer Swamp Rabbit, while on vacation in Plains GA. The rabbit swam menacingly towards him, and he had to repel the ferocious creature with a paddle. There were no injuries. Press Secretary Jody Powell leaked the story to the press, and the White House had a lot of explaining to do.
Apr 20 1992
Alone in his apartment watching TV, British comedic legend Benny Hill suffers a fatal heart attack. His body goes undiscovered for four days.
Apr 20 1993
Latoya Jackson's husband and manager, Jack Gordon, is arrested after allegedly beating her with a dining room chair in their New York apartment.
Apr 20 1999 After their homemade timebombs fail to detonate in the school cafeteria, the heavily-armed duo of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold decide to prowl through Columbine High School, indiscriminately gunning down classmates. A total of 15 are killed in their shooting spree. Contrary to news reports, their selection of victims is apparently random; they aren't hunting for jocks or blacks. Nor do they execute that Christian girl -- Valeen Schnurr in fact manages to crawl away and live to tell her story. They are not goths, they aren't gay, nor were they ever members of that dorky clique calling themselves the "Trenchcoat Mafia." They don't even listen to Marilyn Manson. Harris and Klebold are just a couple of extremely pissed-off kids with an arsenal.
1534 - Jacques Cartier begins his voyage, in which he will discover Canada and Labrador.
1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament.
1657 - Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet under heavy fire at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1657 - Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).
1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.
1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.
1945 - World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
1945 - World War II: U.S. B-29 bombers destroy the Musashi Aircraft plants. Halting production of the Nakajima Ki-84 fighter planes.
1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.
1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.
1999 - Largest bombing of Kosovo by the United States in the Kosovo War.
2004 - In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
Births
570 - Muhammed, founder of Islam (d. 632) (date disputed)
1808 - Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (d. 1873)
1889 - Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born dictator who ruled Nazi Germany during the Second World War (d. 1945)
1893 - Harold Lloyd, American actor (d. 1971)
1924 - Leslie Phillips, English actor
1951 - Luther Vandross, American singer (d. 2005)
Deaths
1912 - Bram Stoker, Irish author (b. 1847)
1992 - Benny Hill, British comedian (b. 1924)
1996 - Christopher Robin Milne, son of A.A. Milne (b. 1920)
MCMXCII
April 20th, 2007, 09:43 PM
April 20th... Dunno? what happened?
Cymru am byth
April 21st, 2007, 04:05 PM
Apr 21 1847
Lewis Keseberg, the final member of the Donner Party still stranded in the mountains, is escorted to safety by a fourth rescue party. Later accounts hold that Keseberg was discovered "seated, like a ghoul, in the midst of dead bodies, with his face and hands smeared with blood, and a kettle of human flesh boiling over the fire."
Apr 21 1910
American original Mark Twain dies of heart failure in Redding, CT.
Apr 21 1918
The Red Baron, Germany's Baron Manfred von Richthofen, is killed when his biplane is shot down during WWI. He is credited for 80 kills.
Apr 21 1930
320 inmates are left to burn alive during a fire in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Locked into their cells, the men could not escape the smoke and flames.
Apr 21 1933
Nazi Germany outlaws shechita, the Jewish butchering ritual for kosher meat preparation. Things only get worse from here.
Apr 21 1947
Rocker Iggy Pop born.
Apr 21 1992
Convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris consumes two large pizzas, a bucket of fried chicken, and some ice cream on the eve of his execution. Later, before the gas chamber is activated, Harris propounds: "You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the grim reaper."
1509 - Henry VIII ascends the throne of England (unofficially) at the death of his father, Henry VII
1836 - Texas Revolution: Battle of San Jacinto Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1898 - Spanish-American War: The U.S. Congress, on April 25, recognizes that a state of war exists between the United States and Spain as of this date.
1944 - Women in France receive the right to vote.
1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
1960 - Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 9:30 am the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
1966 - Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
1967 - A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.
1975 - Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu flees Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
1987 - The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that explodes in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, killing 106 people.
1989 - Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
Births
1816 - Charlotte Brontë, English author (d. 1855)
1926 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
1959 - Robert Smith, British musician (The Cure)
1959 - Jerry Only, American musician (The Misfits)
Deaths
1509 - King Henry VII of England (b. 1457)
1971 - François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Haitian dictator (b. 1907)
1977 - Gummo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1892)
2003 - Nina Simone, American singer and pianist (b. 1933)
andrexote
April 21st, 2007, 04:18 PM
April 20th... Dunno? what happened?
4/20
Cannabis Day!!!
Cymru am byth
April 22nd, 2007, 06:28 PM
Apr 22 1915
The German Army opens 5,700 canisters of chlorine gas upwind of French soldiers at Ypres. It is the first use of poison gas for military purposes.
Apr 22 1923
Kinky centerfold model Bettie Mae Page born in Nashville, Tennessee. As she describes herself, "I was never the girl next door."
Apr 22 1934
John Dillinger's gang shoots their way out of an FBI ambush outside the Little Bohemia Hunting Lodge in northern Wisconsin. The FBI accidentally kills one innocent bystander and injures two others in the humiliating debacle.
Apr 22 1954
Porn star and onetime Ivory Snow model Marilyn Chambers is born in Westport, Connecticut.
Apr 22 1992
215 people are killed and 1,500 injured when two miles of sewer lines explode in Gaudalajara, Mexico. 20 city blocks in the downtown area are leveled by the blast. A corroded petroleum pipeline had filled the sewer with explosive fuel.
Apr 22 1994
Richard M. Nixon suffers a fatal stroke. His body is laid to rest on the grounds of his Presidential Library.
Apr 22 1997
After a four-month standoff, 140 government commandos storm the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru. Of the 72 hostages, one is killed in the ensuing firefight, along with all 14 of their captors.
Apr 22 2004
Army Ranger Pat Tillman is killed in action while kicking ass in Afghanistan. Tillman was a former NFL player who walked away from a $3.6M contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the U.S. Army in May 2002, shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Much was made of his heroic death by Army leadership, but in May it is revealed that Tillman was actually killed by friendly fire.
1500 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil.
1864 - The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
1930 - The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
1944 - World War II: Operation Persecution initiated Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.
1945 - World War II: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.
1972 - Vietnam War: Increased American bombing in Vietnam prompts antiwar protests in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
1978 - One Love Peace Concert held at National Heroes Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Bob Marley united the two opposing political leaders at this concert bringing peace to the civil war ridden streets of Kingston, Jamaica.
1983 - The German magazine, Der Stern claims that Adolf Hitler's diaries were found in a wreckage in East Germany.
1993 - The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC is dedicated.
1993 - The web browser Mosaic version 1.0 is released.
1997 - Haouch Khemisti massacre in Algeria; 93 villagers killed.
2000 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida.
2000 - The Big Number Change takes place in the United Kingdom.
2004 - Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.
2006 - Four Canadian soldiers are killed 75 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan by a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants, the worst single day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War.
Births
1870 (N.S.) - Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary (d. 1924)
1937 - Jack Nicholson, American actor
1950 - Peter Frampton, British musician
1960 - Gary Rhodes, English chef
Deaths
1933 - Henry Royce, British automobile manufacturer (b. 1863)
2002 - Linda Lovelace, American adult actress (b. 1949)
Cymru am byth
April 23rd, 2007, 08:13 PM
Apr 23 33
According to Christian tradition, Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, after being crucified three days prior.
Apr 23 1940
198 negroes are killed when the Rhythm Night Club burns down in Natchez, Mississippi. According to one eyewitness: "Everyone was trying to get out and crushing each other as the fire was burning them. All were crying and yelling and after a while I could smell the burning meat. I hope I never see anything like it again." The fire is blamed on the decorative but highly-combustible Spanish moss.
Apr 23 1951
Lenny Bruce is arrested in Miami Beach, Florida for fraudulently soliciting funds for a leper colony while dressed as a priest.
Apr 23 1969
Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death for assassinating Robert Kennedy.
Apr 23 1975
Peter Ham of Badfinger commits suicide at age 27, by hanging himself. Another bandmate, Tom Evans, commits suicide later in 1983.
Apr 23 1983
The West German magazine Stern announces a major historical find: the discovery of 60 volumes of personal diaries purported to have been handwritten by Adolf Hitler.
Apr 23 1985
The Coca-Cola Bottling Company announces that it has irrevocably changed the formula for its flagship beverage, unveiling "New Coke." The company stands firm on its decision until public pressure finally forces them to reintroduce the original drink, exactly 79 days later.
1348 - The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III of England is announced on St George's Day.
1597 - Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.
1661 - King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
1941 - World War II: Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the attacking Wehrmacht.
1942 - World War II: Baedeker Blitz German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
1948 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Palestinian forces.
1968 - The United Kingdom produces its first decimalised coins, a 5p and a 10p coin.
1974 - A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 crashes in Bali, Indonesia, killing 107.
1979 - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protester Blair Peach.
1988 - Pink Floyd's album Dark Side Of The Moon, after spending the record total of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on the Billboard 200, left the charts for its first time ever.
2003 - Beijing closes all schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus.
Births
1564 - William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright (d. 1616)
1928 - Shirley Temple, American actress and politician
1936 - Roy Orbison, American singer and musician (d. 1988)
1939 - Lee Majors, American actor
1947 - Glenn Cornick, British rock bassist (Jethro Tull)
1958 - Tove Jensen, Swedish porn actress
1960 - Steve Clark, English guitarist (Def Leppard) (d. 1991)
1968 - Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d. 2001)
Deaths
303 - Saint George, Roman soldier and Christian martyr
1616 - William Shakespeare, English writer and actor (b. 1564) (Julian calendar)
1850 - William Wordsworth, English poet (b. 1770)
1975 - Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter (Badfinger) (b. 1947)
1991 - Johnny Thunders, American musician (b. 1952)
2005 - Sir John Mills, English actor (b. 1908)
2007 - Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (b. 1931)
Cymru am byth
April 24th, 2007, 06:39 PM
Apr 24 1928
The Supreme Court of Canada declares that though women are indeed legal "persons," they are nevertheless ineligible to serve in the Canadian Senate. The Court agreed that the term "person" applies equally to humans of both genders, but the British North America Act referred specifically to "fit and qualified persons" -- necessarily excluding unfit and unqualified people (aka females).
Apr 24 1934
The present incarnation of actress Shirley MacLaine is born.
Apr 24 1967
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov soon becomes the world's first space mission fatality after his Soyuz parachutes become entangled four miles above the Earth.
Apr 24 1980
A mission to rescue 53 American hostages from Tehran fails; 8 US soldiers are killed.
Apr 24 1993
An IRA bomb causes $1.5 billion of damage in central London when it destroys several square blocks. One person is killed and 40 injured.
Apr 24 1995
The Unabomber strikes, killing a timber industry lobbyist. Gilbert Murray is killed in his Sacramento office, opening mail addressed to the man he replaced.
Apr 24 1997 A petri dish arrives in an 8x10 manila envelope at the Washington, D.C. offices of B'nai B'rith International. The dish, labeled "anthracks," drips a liquidy red gel which is later determined to contain a relatively harmless strain of Bacillus cereus.
1184 BC - Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional).
1558 - Mary Queen of Scots marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris
1877 - Russo-Turkish War, 18771878: Russia declares war on Ottoman Empire.
1913 - The skyscraper Woolworth Building in New York City was opened.
1915 - The Armenian Genocide starts with the deportation and murder of the Ottoman Armenian intellectuals.
1916 - Easter Rising begins: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett start a rebellion in Ireland.
1941 - World War II: Operation Demon The United Kingdom begins evacuating Greece.
1953 - Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
1955 - Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemned colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
1961 - Bob Dylan earned a $50 session fee for playing harmonica on Harry Belafonte's
1964 - Mexico becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1968 - Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.
1970 - The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.
1970 - The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as the first President
1979 - "Georgia on My Mind" is adopted as the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia, a month after it is performed before a joint session of the Georgia General Assembly by Ray Charles.
1981 - The first IBM PC is introduced.
1990 - STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery.
1990 - Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of anthrax after 48 years of quarantine
1996 - In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is introduced.
2004 - US lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
2006 - King Gyanendra of Nepal gives into the demands of protesters and restores the parliament that he dissolved in 2002.
Births
1533 - William I of Orange (d. 1584)
1945 - Doug Clifford, American drummer (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
1954 - Captain Sensible, British guitarist (The Damned)
1957 - Boris Williams, British musician (The Cure)
1960 - Paula Yates, British television presenter (d. 2000)
1963 - Billy Gould, American musician (Faith No More)
1971 - Aaron Austin, American pornographic actor
Deaths
1731 - Daniel Defoe, English writer (b. 1660)
1986 - Wallis Simpson, American wife of Edward, Duke of Windsor (b. 1896)
Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.
Australia - Kapyong Day a day of remembrance for Korean War veterans, named after the Battle of Kapyong in 1951
The Gambia - Republic Day in (1970).
Cymru am byth
April 25th, 2007, 08:46 PM
Apr 25 1599
Oliver Cromwell -- who will later become the Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland -- is born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
Apr 25 1792
French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier is beheaded by the guillotine, making him its first victim.
Apr 25 1974
Jim Morrison's widow Pamela dies of a heroin overdose.
Apr 25 1994
Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz (King Adrock) is sentenced to 200 hours of community service for battering a TV cameraman during the memorial service for actor River Phoenix.
1607 - Eighty Years' War: Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.
1719 - Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is published.
1792 - "La Marseillaise" (French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
1829 - Charles Fremantle arrives in the HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom.
1846 - Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican-American War.
1847 - The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.
1859 - Ground is broken for the Suez Canal.
1901 - New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
1915 - The ANZAC spirit tradition begins during World War I with a landing at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.
1916 - Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland.
1916 - ANZAC Day commemorated for the first time.
1926 - Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran under the name Reza Shah Pahlavi.
1945 - Elbe Day: United States and Russian troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.
1945 - The U.S. Army blows the swastika from the top of the Zeppelintribüne.
1945 - Nazi occupation army leaves Milan after a partisan insurrection. This day is taken as symbol of the liberation of Italy.
1945 - Fifty nations gather in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organizations.
1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.
1982 - Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
1983 - American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
1983 - Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.
1988 - In Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II.
2005 - The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.
2005 - Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties gaining entrance into the European Union.
2007 - Boris Yeltsin's funeral - the first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.
Births
1214 - King Louis IX of France (d. 1270)
1284 - King Edward II of England (d. 1327)
1917 - Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (d. 1996)
1945 - Stu Cook, American rock bassist (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
1958 - Fish, Scottish singer and lyricist (ex-Marillion)
1965 - Eric Avery, American musician (Jane's Addiction)
1965 - Simon Fowler, English musician (Ocean Colour Scene)
Deaths
1878 - Anna Sewell, English author (b. 1820)
1995 - Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer (b. 1911)
2002 - Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, American rapper (TLC) (b. 1971)
2007 - Alan Ball, Jr., Member of England's 1966 FIFA World Cup winning side (b. 1945)
ANZAC Day (Australia, New Zealand).
Faroe Islands - National Flag Day.
Festa della Liberazione, (Italy), annual commemoration to mark the liberation of Italy at the end of the Second World War
Parental Alienation Awareness Day
Rastafari movement - Celebration of Haile Selassie's visit to Jamaica.
Sinai Liberation Day, (Egypt), Celebrates the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai peninsula.
Swaziland - National Flag Day.
Alice Day, a holiday for female-attracted pedophiles :eek7:
loadrunner
April 26th, 2007, 07:01 PM
April 20th... Dunno? what happened?
Adolf Hitler was born
Cymru am byth
April 26th, 2007, 07:47 PM
Apr 26 1865
Discovered hiding in a farmer's tobacco shed, John Wilkes Booth is shot in the neck by a complete lunatic. Dying and paralyzed from the neck down, he whispers: "Tell my mother I did it for my country." As his hands are held up to his face, Booth mutters "useless... useless..." They are his last words.
Apr 26 1933
Hermann Goering founds the Geheime Staatspolizei, otherwise known as the Gestapo. The original purpose of this "Secret State Police" is to disrupt and harass opponents of National Socialism, but it will later come to adopt many additional responsibilities.
Apr 26 1969
Paul McCartney denies rumors of his recent death. Eventually, most people come to believe him.
Apr 26 1986
44 seconds into a late-night experiment at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, reactor number four sustains two large explosions. A plume of dangerous radioactivity looms three kilometers high, making it the worst catastrophe in the history of nuclear power. The Soviet news agency TASS holds off reporting the incident for almost 48 hours.
Apr 26 1991
In a telephone interview, Michigan judge Francis Bourisseau explains that he would never grant an abortion to a minor, except perhaps for white girls raped by blacks. For some reason, this statement manages to attract wide attention.
Apr 26 2006
Snoop Dogg and his entourage arrested in London's Heathrow Airport for creating a disturbance when British Airways wouldn't allow the group into a first class lounge. After being escorted outside, there was a fight and seven police officers were injured. After a night in jail, the group is freed but Big Snoop Dogg has been banned from the U.K. and British Airways as a result of the melee.
1564 - Shakespeare was christened.
1607 - English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
1802 - Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Regime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
1942 - The worst-ever mining accident in history kills 1,549 miners in an explosion at the Honkeiko Colliery, Manchuria.
1945 - World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful German tank-offensive of the war.
1962 - NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
1963 - In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
2002 - 19-year-old Robert Steinhäuser shoots and kills 17 people at his school in Erfurt, Germany.
2005 - Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.
Births
121 - Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (d. 180)
570 - Muhammed, founder of Islam, according to the Shi'a sect. Other sources suggest April 20.
1765 - Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Horatio Nelson (d. 1815)
1894 - Rudolf Hess, Nazi official (d. 1987)
1975 - Nathan "Joey" Jordison, American musician (Slipknot)
1975 - Nerina Pallot, British singer
1976 - Jose Pasillas, American musician (Incubus)
1979 - Janne Wirman, Finnish musician (Children of Bodom)
Deaths
1865 - John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin (shot) (b. 1838)
1892 - Sir Provo Wallis, British Admiral and naval hero (b. 1791)
1976 - Sid James, British comedian (b. 1913)
1999 - Jill Dando, British television presenter(shot) (b. 1961)
Cymru am byth
April 27th, 2007, 08:09 PM
Apr 27 4977 BC
God creates the universe, according to calculations by mystic and part-time astronomer Johannes Kepler.
Apr 27 1509
The entire state of Venice is excommunicated by Pope Julius II for an entirely secular reason: the refusal to place parts of Romagna under the Pope's control.
Apr 27 1521
In an hourlong battle with Philippine islanders, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his men are repeatedly jabbed with sharpened bamboo spears. After Magellan finally succumbs to his wounds, the natives hack him to pieces with their swords.
Apr 27 1861
In a blatantly unconstitutional act, President Abraham Lincoln suspends habeas corpus inside a zone between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The government may now detain citizens indefinitely without ever filing charges. A year and a half later, Lincoln expands the scope of his order to the entire nation.
Apr 27 1865
At least 1,700 Union soldiers are killed when the boiler aboard the steamship Sultana suddenly explodes.
Apr 27 1940
Heinrich Himmler gives orders to construct a concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland. Only 14 months later, Auschwitz is open for business.
Apr 27 1963
Comedian Lenny Bruce is arrested in Miami for illegal possession of hypodermic needles. They were, however, for legally-prescribed prescription drugs.
Apr 27 1986
During a live TV special, journalist Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault beneath the Lexington Hotel in Chicago. He finds nothing inside, apart from a few empty bottles.
Apr 27 1986
Someone interrupts the HBO satellite feed during the movie The Falcon and The Snowman. For five minutes, two-thirds of their customer base receives the message: Good evening HBO from Captain Midnight. $12.95 a month? No way! (Showtime-Movie Channel Beware.) Three months later, the FCC arrests Florida satellite dish retailer John R. MacDougall for the crime.
Apr 27 1987
After determining that Kurt Waldheim had "assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of persons" during his Nazi years, the Department of Justice places him on a watch list of undesirable aliens. As such, the sitting President of Austria is disallowed entry into the U.S. It is the first time that a foreign head of state is legally forbidden from visiting America.
1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
1773 - The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).
1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
1941 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.
1945 - World War II: Last German troops are expelled from Finnish Lapland (the last day of World War II going on in Finland). The day is the national war veteran day in Finland.
1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
1950 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
1960 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
1961 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
1974 - 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for impeachment of US President Nixon
1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote.
1996 - The Israeli military operation in Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, ends after 16 days of heavy bombing.
1997 - the last international Rugby Union match is played at the Cardiff Arms Park before it is demolished to make way for the Millenium Stadium
2002 - The last successful telemetry from NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus 380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City
Births
1791 - Samuel F. B. Morse, American inventor (d. 1872)
1822 - Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
1947 - Peter Ham, Welsh singer and songwriter (Badfinger) (d. 1975)
1948 - Kate Pierson, American singer (The B-52's)
1951 - Ace Frehley, American musician (Kiss)
1959 - Sheena Easton, Scottish singer
Cymru am byth
April 28th, 2007, 11:11 AM
Apr 28 585
An unforeseen total eclipse of the sun interrupts a battle between Lydia and Media, bringing a sudden end to their six-year war.
Apr 28 1789
In the middle of the South Pacific, the crew of the HMS Bounty mutinies, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 other crewmen adrift in an open boat.
Apr 28 1881
Billy the Kid escapes from a New Mexico jail, killing jailer Bob Ollinger and a fellow prisoner in the process. Billy will survive for another three months before Pat Garrett finally kills him.
Apr 28 1942
The ongoing global conflict is given the name "World War II" after a Gallup Poll is taken.
Apr 28 1945
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are captured by partisan fighters and executed.
Apr 28 1996
After finishing his lunch at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, 28-year-old Martin Bryant pulls out an AR15 rifle and kills 12 tourists. Then he drives to a nearby bed & breakfast and slays 23 others. Bryant surrenders himself to police the next morning, after catching himself on fire in the act of burning down the B&B.
Apr 28 2006 Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh surrenders to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. He is placed under arrest (booked, photographed) then released. The charge is a single count of doctor shopping to obtain painkillers. Rush can have his case dismissed if he stays clean for 19 months, gives up the right to own a gun, forks over $30,000 to the state and continues to undergo treatment that includes random drug testing.
1796 - The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
1920 - Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union
1932 - A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO.
1952 - Occupied Japan: The United States occupation of Japan ends.
1965 - United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. citizens.
1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
1970 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
1978 - President of Afghanistan Mohammed Daoud Khan is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
1986 - United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve USS Coral Sea, on station across the "Line of Death" in the Gulf of Sidra off the coast of Libya. The transit began at 0300 and lasted 12 hours.
1987 - U.S. engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.
1988 - Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing is sucked out of Aloha Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
1994 - Former Central Intelligence Agency official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
1996 - Whitewater scandal: President Bill Clinton gives 4˝ hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
1997 - The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention goes into effect, with Russia, Iraq and North Korea notable nations who had not ratified the treaty.
2001 - Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.
2003 - Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store launches, selling 1 million songs in its first week.
Births
1442 - King Edward IV of England (d. 1483)
1758 - James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (d. 1831)
1908 - Oskar Schindler, Austrian businessman (d. 1974)
1926 - Harper Lee, American author
1937 - Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq (d. 2006)
1968 - Daisy Berkowitz, American musician (Marilyn Manson)
Deaths
1695 - Henry Vaughan, Welsh poet (b. 1621)
1865 - Samuel Cunard, Canadian-born british shipping magnate (b. 1787)
1945 - Benito Mussolini, Italian fascist dictator (firing squad) (b. 1882)
1945 - Clara Petacci, Italian mistress of Benito Mussolini (shot) (b. 1912)
National Day of Mourning in Canada to commemorate workers killed, injured, or suffering illness due to occupational hazards and accidents.
World Day for Safety and Health at Work, which developed from the Canadian observance.
National Heroes Day - Barbados.
Cymru am byth
April 29th, 2007, 08:22 PM
Apr 29 1901
Train robber and one of the last of the Old West outlaws, Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum is unsuccessfully hanged in Clayton, New Mexico. The executioner's poor choice of rope and Ketchum's recent increase in weight combine to produce a gruesome decapitation in the gallows.
Apr 29 1945
With Allied forces closing in on Berlin, Adolf Hitler marries Eva Braun in their fortified bunker. They kill themselves the following day.
Apr 29 1945
The American 7th Army liberates the Dachau death camp outside of Munich.
Apr 29 1981
Marilyn Barnett publicly alleged that she had a lesbian relationship for seven years with Billie Jean King, one of America's best-known female athletes and winner of many national and international tennis championships.
Apr 29 1992
Rioting erupts in Los Angeles after Rodney King's assailants are acquitted by a jury. The looting and destruction begins in South Central L.A. and quickly radiates outward. By the time things are under control, 51 are dead and the city has sustained $1.5 billion in property damage. Civil disorder manages to spread to other North American cities, through the influence of live TV coverage.
Apr 29 1996
Search and rescue teams begin dragging Maryland's muddy Wicomico River after former CIA director William Colby is reported missing. They soon discover his partially-submerged canoe underneath a boat dock, but his body isn't located until it rises to the surface a week later.
1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans.
1672 - Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
1770 - James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.
1903 - A 30 million cubic-metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta, Canada.
1916 - Easter Rebellion: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.
1945 - World War II: The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
1945 - World War II: Start of Operation Manna.
1945 - Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor.
1946 - Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.
1967 - After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
1970 - Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
1974 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings related to the scandal.
1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind The last U.S. citizens begin evacuation from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. United States involvement in the war comes to an end.
1986 - Fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles Public Library, some 400,000 books and other items damaged or destroyed.
1991 - 1991 Bangladesh cyclone struck the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 mph. Killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless.
1997 - The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons among its signatories.
1999 - Avala TV Tower near Belgrade destroyed in NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
2002 - The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years.
2004 - Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
2005 - Syria completes withdrawal from Lebanon, ending 29 years of occupation.
Births
534 - Taliesin, Welsh poet, according to legend in Mabinogion (a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts.)
1901 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (d. 1989)
1931 - Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)
1951 - Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (d. 2001)
1952 - David Icke, British writer & self proclaimed son of god
1957 - Daniel Day-Lewis, Irish actor
1958 - Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress
1970 - Andre Agassi, American tennis player
1970 - Uma Thurman, American actress
Deaths
1980 - Alfred Hitchcock, English film director (b. 1899)
Haseknumber39
April 30th, 2007, 05:03 PM
this time 11 years ago i got my first erection
Cymru am byth
April 30th, 2007, 07:43 PM
Apr 30 1943
The body of one Major Martin washes ashore on the Spanish coastline, carrying sensitive papers detailing an upcoming Allied invasion of Sardinia. "Martin" is actually an unidentified corpse carrying forged documents, intended to misdirect Italian defense forces. When the Allies later invade Sicily, most of Italy's defenses are in Sardinia.
Apr 30 1945
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/apr/rh-hitler-braun.jpg
Newlyweds Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun kill themselves in the charming and romantic Fuhrerbunker, ending all hope for a ten-thousand-year Reich.
Apr 30 1961
Lee Harvey Oswald, during his stay in the Soviet Union, marries hospital employee Marina Prusakova. Oswald later becomes disenchanted with Soviet life, and the couple emigrates to the United States. Even so, he never permits his wife to learn English.
Apr 30 1975
Saigon falls to the Communists, necessitating a sudden helicopter evacuation from the U.S. embassy's rooftop. Says one of the pilots: "We sent the journalists out on one of the earliest lifts because they were becoming a pain in the ass."
Apr 30 1991
Tropical cyclone Marian hits the Chittagong region of Bangladesh, killing 138,000 people and causing more than $1.5 billion in damage. Although 95% of the population heard the cyclone warning, most did not believe that a cyclone was actually on its way.
Apr 30 1993
During a quarterfinals match in Hamburg, deranged tennis fan Gunter Parche sneaks up on Monica Seles and stabs her in the back with a boning knife. Parche was just paving the way for Steffi Graf, whom he was actively stalking, to take the top ranking from Seles. His plan succeeds.
711 - Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
1006 - Supernova SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation Lupus.
1483 - Orbital calculations suggest that on this day Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503.
1492 - Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
1789 - On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
1803 - Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling overnight the size of the young nation.
1824 - Crete is occupied by the Egyptians.
1838 - Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation
1856 - Battle of Rivas, Nicaragua, against northamerican mercenaries.
1863 - Mexican forces attacked the French Foreign Legion in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico
1897 - Joseph John Thomson announces the discover of the electron.
1900 - Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
1900 - Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express.
1939 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to appear on television during the World Fair's opening ceremonies broadcast.
1943 - World War II: Operation Mincemeat The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.
1947 - In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is officially renamed Hoover Dam again.
1948 - Creation of the state of Israel.
1948 - In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.
1961 - Soviet Union awards Fidel Castro with the Lenin Peace Prize.
1966 - The Church of Satan is founded.
1973 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned.
1980 - Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
1988 - French-Canadian singer Céline Dion wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland in front of 600 million viewers, representing Switzerland with the song Ne partez pas sans moi
1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. President to visit Northern Ireland.
2006 - Trapped miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell at Beaconsfield, Tasmania are found alive after being unaccounted for for five days.
2007 - Last day when it is legal to smoke in a public building in Northern Ireland
Births
1662 - Queen Mary II of England (d. 1694)
1909 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (d. 2004)
1933 - Willie Nelson, American musician
1959 - Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
1964 - Barrington Levy, Jamaican musician
1969 - Paulo Jr., Brazilian musician (Sepultura)
1971 - Darren Emerson, English DJ (Underworld)
1976 - Amanda Palmer, American musician (The Dresden Dolls)
Deaths
1900 - Casey Jones, American train engineer (b. 1863)
1945 - Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's new wife (b. 1912)
1945 - Adolf Hitler, Austrian Nazi dictator of Germany (b. 1889)
1983 - Muddy Waters, American musician (b. 1915)
Scandinavia - The arrival of spring, Walpurgis Night.
Sweden - Birthday of King Carl XVI Gustav, an official flag day.
The Netherlands - Queen's Day.
Bealtaine Eve (From either Irish Bealtaine or Scottish Gaelic). Originally a Celtic Druid holiday.
Vietnam - Liberation Day.
Mexico - Children's Day.
Czech Republic - Carodejnice (Night of the Witches)
Cymru am byth
May 2nd, 2007, 12:00 PM
Where did yesterdays post go :confused:
Cymru am byth
May 2nd, 2007, 12:30 PM
May 1 1776
Adam Weishaupt founds the Bavarian Illuminati, the secret society which controls your mind as part of its plot to overthrow organized religion and control the global economy. If you don't believe it, ask yourself what novus ordo seclorum is doing on your dollar bill.
May 1 1863
The Confederate Congress decrees that captured Negro soldiers from the Union Army are to be summarily put to death, on the grounds that they have already "incited servile insurrection."
May 1 1889
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/may/rh-anarchists-of-chicago-th.jpg
The first of May is designated "International Workers Day," in commemoration of Chicago's Haymarket riots of 1886. The new holiday is actually an appropriation of the banned Beltane (Day of Fire), or May Day, traditionally celebrated by encircling a phallic maypole with delectable fertile virgins.
May 1 1942
The 215th and final hanging occurs at California's San Quentin maximum security prison. Subsequent executions utilize the facility's gas chamber, and ultimately, inmate's choice of that or lethal injection.
May 1 1945
Joseph Göbbels and his wife Magda tell their six children they are about to receive inoculation shots, but the injections actually contain poison. The parents then exit the Fuhrerbunker, where an SS man shoots them both in the back of the head.
May 1 1960
The Soviet Union fires a SAM-2 surface-to-air missile at the U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers. The aircraft crashes inside Russian territory, near Sverdlosk. For whatever reason, Powers opts not to swallow his suicide pill and is taken into custody.
May 1 1993
During a May Day rally, Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa and his retinue of bodyguards are blown to bits by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.
May 1 1997
Sportscaster Frank Gifford is caught on video having sex with TWA flight attendant Suzen Johnson at the New York Regency Hotel. On the tape, Johnson is heard moaning: "Oh, God that's so good. Oh my, you're so big. I knew you would be -- I just knew you would be." A tabloid paid Johnson $75,000 to fornicate with Gifford, and she later goes on to pose nude in Playboy for a six-figure check.
May 1 2003
Commander in Chief George W. Bush rides shotgun aboard a Navy S-3B Viking jet, lands on the USS Abraham Lincoln, marking the first time a president has boarded an aircraft carrier by plane. Underneath a large "Mission Accomplished." sign, he announces that major combat operations in Iraq have ended.
1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton England recognises Scotland as an independent nation.
1707 - The Act of Union joins England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain
1834 - The British colonies abolish slavery.
1884 - Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States
1886 - The start of the general strike which eventually wins the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labor Day in most industrialized countries.
1915 - RMS Lusitania departs New York City on her two hundred and second and final crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later the ship was torpedoed off the Irish coast with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.
1927 - The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris.
1930 - The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
1940 - The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.
1941 - World War II: German forces launch Operation Mercury the largest airborne invasion to date in their bid to capture Crete.
1941 - World War II: German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.
1945 - Soviet troops raise the Soviet Flag over the Reichstag, in Berlin
1946 - Start of 3 year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
1946 - The Paris Peace Conference decides that the islands of the Dodecanese are returned to Greece by the Italians.
1950 - Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth.
1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
1978 - The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as "spam") was sent by a DEC marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
1994 - Last day of the standing Kop Grandstand for Liverpool F.C., perhaps the most famous stand in English Football.
2001 - Thomas Blanton Jr. became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that claimed the lives of four little girls.
2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
Births
1852 - Calamity Jane, American Wild West performer (d. 1903)
1949 - Paul Teutul, Sr., founder of Orange County Choppers
Deaths
1731 - Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer (b. 1677)
1873 - David Livingstone, Scottish missionary (b. 1813)
May Day, Labour Day, Workers' Day, Day of the International Solidarity of Workers.
Italy - national holiday (Giorno dei Lavoratori).
Switzerland - official feast of Spring.
Czech Republic - "National Love Day" couples tend to flock to the memorial of the poet Karel Hynek Mácha in Prague and kiss.
Lei Day - Hawaiian holiday for the Lei.
Beltane, Lá Bealtaine, the first day of Summer in modern Ireland was celebrated by the Celts, and is now also celebrated by Neopagans and Wiccans
Cymru am byth
May 2nd, 2007, 12:50 PM
May 2 1863
At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson is accidentally shot three times by his own men. Jackson's left arm is amputated, and he dies eight days later from complications.
May 2 1946
Six prisoners attempt to escape the federal prison on Alcatraz island. They take over their cellblock but fail to gain access to the outside. One guard held hostage is executed by prisoners, and another dies in the attempt to retake the cellblock. The Battle of Alcatraz ends only after the deaths of three prisoners, and two others are subsequently executed at San Quentin.
May 2 1957
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/may/rh-joseph-mccarthy-th.jpg
Senator Joseph McCarthy dies of hepatitis, brought about by unabated alcoholism. Two and a half years prior he had been censured by the Senate for his "inexcusable" and "reprehensible" conduct during his highly-publicized Communist witch-hunt. McCarthy eventually discovered that it was far more effective to have private industry oppress its workforce, rather than the government oppress its citizenry.
May 2 1957
Mob figure Frank Costello is shot in the head by Vincent "the Chin" Gigante. Instead of killing him, the bullet circumnavigates between his skin and cranium, exiting through the original wound. Costello retires from the Mafia soon after.
May 2 1972
World famous drag queen and longtime G-man J. Edgar Hoover dies in his sleep at the age of 77.
May 2 1997
At 4:45 a.m., L.A. County Sheriff's deputies pull over a car in West Hollywood driven by comedian/actor Eddie Murphy. In the passenger seat is one Atisone Seiuli, a 20-year-old pre-op transsexual prostitute. Murphy informs the officers that he was just trying to be a "good samaritan" and give his she-male acquaintance a ride home. Seiuli is taken into custody for an outstanding prostitution warrant, but the officers allow Murphy to leave without any further ado.
1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.
1568 - Mary I of Scotland escapes from Loch Leven Castle, where she had been imprisoned by Sir William Douglas.
1670 - King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
1829 - After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.
1866 - Peruvian defenders fight off Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.
1885 - Cree and Assiniboine warriors won the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
1900 - Oscar II, King of Sweden, declares support for Britain at the time of the Second Boer War.
1920 - The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1933 - The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness monster is reported.
1933 - Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.
1945 - World War II: Fall of Berlin The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building. German forces surrender in Italy. German forces surrender to the New Zealand Army in Trieste.
1952 - The world's first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden voyage, flying from London to Johannesburg.
1953 - Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
1964 - Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the USS Card while docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship.
1969 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
1982 - Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.
1997 - The Labour Party's Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule. At 44, he is the youngest prime minister for 185 years.
2000 - Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveiled the Man With Two Hats monument in Ottawa on May 11, 2002, and the other in Apeldoorn on May 2, 2000. Symbolically linking both Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout the Second World War.
Births
1892 - Manfred von Richthofen, German World War I pilot - the Red Baron (d. 1918)
1936 - Engelbert Humperdinck, British-born singer
1945 - Judge Dread, English musician (d. 1998)
1950 - Lou Gramm, American musician (Foreigner)
1975 - David Beckham, English footballer
Deaths
1519 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian inventor and painter (b. 1452)
1945 - Martin Bormann, Nazi official (b. 1900)
1945 - Ludwig Stumpfegger, German SS doctor (b. 1910)
1972 - J. Edgar Hoover, American director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (b. 1895)
1999 - Oliver Reed, English actor (b. 1938)
Poland - Flag Day, an official holiday to honour the Flag of Poland
Iran - Teacher's Day
Cymru am byth
May 3rd, 2007, 11:31 AM
May 3 1945
British torpedo bombers attack the Cap Arcona and the Thielbek in the Baltic Sea. Both vessels are flying white flags, as there are almost 7,000 concentration camp prisoners aboard. In the process of abandoning ship, the German captain of the Arcona uses a machete to hack his way through the mass of people. When the ships sink, virtually all of the prisoners drown, making this the single largest loss of life in the history of ocean travel.
May 3 1963
Eugene "Bull" Connor directs security forces in Birmingham, Alabama to unleash police dogs on civil rights protesters, and then blast them with high-pressure fire hoses. Unfortunately for segregationists, television networks bring the footage to a shocked national audience. In the wake of the overwhelming public response, President Kennedy quips that Connor "has done more for civil rights than almost anybody else."
May 3 1987
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The Miami Herald runs a story that Senator Gary Hart had spent the preceding weekend alone with a woman other than his wife. In an attempt to quell persistent rumors of an extramarital affair, Hart had previously challenged reporters to spy on him, saying: "Follow me around. I don't care. I'm serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They'd be very bored." The Presidential candidate withdraws from the race just five days later, and the homewrecker, one Donna Rice, goes on to launch a career crusading against pornography.
May 3 1988
The White House confirms stories that President Ronald Reagan's travel and public appearances are scheduled around astrological data furnished by a mystic in San Francisco. The astrologer also supplies input to the timing of critical international events, such as a recent arms control summit in Iceland.
1494 - Christopher Columbus first sights land that will be called Jamaica.
1791 - The May Constitution of Poland (first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Polish Diet.
1802 - Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.
1916 - Easter Rising leaders are executed in Dublin.
1923 - Lieutenants John Macready and Oakley Kelly land their Fokker T-2 aircraft in San Diego, California. This is the first non-stop transcontinental flight. It took nearly 27 hrs.
1942 - Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that resulted in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.
1945 - World War II: Sinking of the floating-jails Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the RAF in Lübeck Bay.
1946 - World War II: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
1947 - New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
1951 - The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
1960 - The Anne Frank House opened in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
1973 - The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.
1979 - Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first female prime minister as the Labour government is ousted in parliamentary elections.
2001 - The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
2002 - A military MiG-21 aircraft crashed into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight.
2005 - The first democratically elected government in the history of Iraq is sworn in.
Births
1921 - Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (d. 1989)
1933 - James Brown, American singer (d. 2006)
1934 - Henry Cooper, English boxer
1934 - Frankie Valli, American singer (The Four Seasons)
1950 - Mary Hopkin, Welsh musician and comedian
1959 - Ben Elton, British comedian and author
1965 - Rob Brydon, Welsh comedian
1966 - Darren Morgan, Welsh snooker player
Cymru am byth
May 4th, 2007, 11:30 AM
May 4 1854
Joseph Tussaud returns to London with the well-used blade of the guillotine he purchased from Clement Sanson, the last in a line of Sansons who held the office of Executioner of Paris for over 150 years. The blade is now part of Tussaud's Wax Museum collection.
May 4 1970
28 Ohio National Guardsmen kill four students and wound nine others at Kent State University. The Guardsmen had read them the riot act, but the students refused to disperse. So they shot them.
May 4 1991
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Bing Crosby's son Dennis Crosby puts a shotgun to his head, ending his life in a boarding house in California. A younger brother, Lindsay, had also killed himself with a shotgun two years earlier.
May 4 1999
At the Sigma Chi fraternity at the University of Wisconsin, Chad Alvarez nukes a fraternal brother's Quaker parrot, Iago, in the house microwave. The animal explodes. For this he is sentenced to ten days in jail, and fined $1000. Alvarez is the son of the university's football coach.
May 4 1999
A newly-delivered baby falls through a train toilet as it is born near the city of Guangzhou, China. After the fall, a second train speeds over the newborn. Although the baby survives unharmed, radio announcers are later reprimanded for laughing hysterically as they report the story.
May 4 2000
The "I Love You" computer worm rampages through Internet email systems, inflicting damages somewhere in the $2-to-$15 billion range. The worm spreads by exploiting design flaws in the Microsoft Outlook mail client and also the gullibility of your typical computer user. A variety of Filipino suspects is ultimately narrowed down to an AMA Computer College student from Manila.
May 4 2001
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/may/rh-bakley-th.jpg After dinner at Vitello's in Studio City, film and television actor Robert Blake remembers that he left something at the restaurant. When he returns to the car, he discovers his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, slumped over in the passenger seat. She had been shot in the head by person or persons unknown. Bakley later dies of her injury. One year later, Blake is charged with the murder.
1471 - Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.
1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica.
1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.
1675 - King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
1799 - Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is assaulted and the Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.
1814 - Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, Illinois, three weeks after his assassination.
1904 - Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.
1910 - The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
1912 - Italy occupies the Greek island of Rhodes.
1919 - May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
1930 - British police arrest Mahatma Gandhi and place him in Yeravda Central Prison.
1932 - In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
1942 - World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea The battle begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
1945 - World War II: Liberation of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg by the British Army.
1945 - World War II: Surrender of the North Germany Army to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
1946 - In San Francisco Bay, US Marines from the Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people are killed in the riot.
1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1980 - President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia dies in Ljubljana at the age of 87.
1990 - Latvia proclaims renewal of its independence after the Soviet occupation.
1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
2000 - Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London.
Births
1929 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (d. 1993)
1951 - Mick Mars, American guitarist (Mötley Crüe)
1951 - Jackie Jackson, American singer and musician (The Jackson 5)
Deaths
1471 - Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (killed in battle) (b. 1453)
1984 - Diana Dors, British actress (b. 1931)
International Firefighters' Day.
The Netherlands - Remembrance of the Dead.
People's Republic of China - Youth Day (青年节, commemorating May Fourth Movement).
Republic of China - Literary Day (文藝節, commemorating May Fourth Movement).
Latvia - Day of Re-establishment of Independence
May 4th is often known as 'Star Wars Day', jokingly said: 'May the 4th be with you' in reference to the popular phrase in Star Wars: May the Force be with you.
Cymru am byth
May 5th, 2007, 11:27 AM
May 5 2349 BC
Noah's Ark lands on Mount Ararat, according to calculations by James Ussher, Archbishop of the Church of Ireland.
May 5 840
A son of Charlemagne, Emperor Louis of Bavaria, dies of fright during a total eclipse of the sun. His sons quarrel, causing the division of his Empire into France, Germany, and Italy.
May 5 1821
Napoleon dies on the island of St. Helena, some suspect from arsenic poisoning. More likely, he died from stomach cancer as did his father.
May 5 1925
High school teacher John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution by authorities in Dayton, Tennessee, as part of a publicity stunt to make the town famous. Since Scopes admitted teaching the theory, he was found guilty, and the law remained on the books in the backward state until 1967.
May 5 1945
Elsie Mitchell and five children she is watching are killed by a Japanese balloon bomb which drifted over the Pacific into Oregon. They are the only people killed in action on the US mainland during World War II.
May 5 1955
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An internal CIA memo emphasizes the need for a drug that creates a state of "pure euphoria" and no letdown. From this springs Operation Midnight Climax, in which CIA brothels were set up in San Francisco, and their customers surreptitiously dosed with LSD by prostitutes. Operative George Hunter White observed reactions behind a two way mirror, purely in the interest of science.
May 5 1961
Alan B. Shepard is the first American in space, with a fifteen minute suborbital flight. He was forced to piss himself in his suit prior to launch, as it lacked an evacuation system.
May 5 1982
Secretary Janet Smith in the computer science department at Vanderbilt University is injured when she opens a package from the Unabomber.
May 5 1993
Dude! After getting pulled over for erratic driving, Keanu Reeves is arrested for drunk driving in Los Angeles.
May 5 2000
"On May 5 of the year 2000, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be aligned with the earth for the first time in 6,000 years. On that day the ice buildup at the South Pole will upset the earth's axis, sending trillions of tons of ice in the water sweeping over the surface of our planet."
-- 5/5/2000: Ice -- the Ultimate Disaster by Richard W Noone
1260 - Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
1640 - King Charles I of England disbands the Short Parliament.
1646 - King Charles I of England and Scotland surrenders to the Scottish Presbyterian Army at Newark.
1809 - The Swiss canton of Aargau denies citizenship to Jews.
1835 - In Belgium, the first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen.
1865 - In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the United States takes place.
1877 - Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.
1916 - American marines invade the Dominican Republic.
1925 - Afrikaans established as an official language in South Africa.
1936 - Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
1940 - World War II: In London, a Norwegian government-in-exile is formed.
1941 - Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; this date has been since commemorated as Liberation Day.
1945 - World War II:
German troops in the Netherlands and Denmark capitulate to Canadian and British forces, liberating these countries from Nazi occupation.
Prague uprising against the Nazis.
Mauthausen concentration camp is liberated.
Admiral Karl Dönitz, leader of Germany after Hitler's death, orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases
1955 - West Germany gains full sovereignty.
1980 - Operation Nimrod: The Special Air Service storm the Iranian embassy in London after a six day siege.
1992 - Wolfenstein 3D is released, the first-ever first-person shooter computer game.
2002 - The World Wrestling Federation changes its name to World Wrestling Entertainment due to a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund.
2005 - The United Kingdom general election takes place, in which Tony Blair's Labour Party is re-elected for a third, consecutive term.
Births
1818 - Karl Marx, German political philosopher (d. 1883)
1826 - Empress Eugenie of France, wife of Napoleon III (d. 1920)
1943 - Michael Palin, British writer, actor, and comedian
1944 - Roger Rees, Welsh actor
1944 - John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor
1948 - Bill Ward, British drummer (Black Sabbath)
1959 - Ian McCulloch, English singer of Echo & the Bunnymen
1963 - James LaBrie, Canadian singer (Dream Theater)
1966 - Shawn Drover, Canadian drummer (Megadeth)
1972 - James Cracknell, British rowing champion, double Olymipic gold medalist
Deaths
1821 - Napoleon I of France (b. 1769)
International Make-out day.
International Midwives Day.
International No Pants Day.
International Totse Day.
Council of Europe: Europe Day.
Albania: Martyrs' Day.
Denmark: Liberation Day (1945).
Ethiopia: Liberation Day (1941).
Guyana: Indian Immigration Day (1838).
Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan (2006): Buddha's Birthday.
Japan: Tango no Sekku (Boy's Day) or Kodomo no hi (Children's Day).
Mexico and the United States: Cinco de Mayo (1862).
The Netherlands: May 5, Liberation day (1945).
Northern Territory, Australia: May Day.
South Korea: Children's Day.
Cymru am byth
May 6th, 2007, 08:41 PM
May 6 1527
Mercenaries sack the city of Rome, an event considered by many to mark the end of the Renaissance.
May 6 1626
Manhattan purchased by Dutch governor Peter Minuet for the equivalent of $24 in goods, which compounded at 6% annually is approximately $78 billion. But some scholars feel the actual value of the goods transferred to be in excess of $500, which translates to $1.6 trillion for the island when compounded.
May 6 1853
Ignoring signals, a train travels through an open drawbridge and into the Norwalk river in Connecticut, killing 46 passengers. The engineer and crew jumped clear, not warning the others of their fate.
May 6 1862
Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden and the essay Civil Disobedience, dead at age 44. His last words were "Moose.. Indian".
May 6 1937
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Zeppelin Hindenberg explodes at Lakehurst NJ, leaving 36 dead and others seriously burned. Official cause of the explosion is listed as "St. Elmo's Fire," although it probably also involved the flammable silver paint the Germans used to coat the thing.
May 6 1983
West German authorities announce that the recently discovered "Hitler Diaries" are counterfeits, made from paper not available until at least 1955. Parties unknown managed to swindle the German magazine Stern out of an undisclosed sum, and esteemed historian Hugh Trevor-Roper was so convinced of their authenticity that he proclaimed "I'm staking my reputation on it."
May 6 1987
Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker is formally defrocked by the Assemblies of God.
May 6 1993
Disgruntled postal worker Mark Richard Hilburn (recently fired) enters the Dana Point, CA post office and shoots two former coworkers, killing one.
May 6 1993
Disgruntled 27-year veteran Lawrence Jasion enters the garage area of the Dearborn, Michigan post office and whips out a .38 revolver. He proceeds to kill mechanic Gary Montes and wound two other coworkers. Before anyone can react, Jasion then blows his brains out. The Dearborn office was infamous for its authoritarian policies.
May 6 2002 Dutch right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn is shot six times in the head as he leaves a recording studio in Hilversum, near Amsterdam. His party platform was based on repeal of the discrimination clause of the constitution, an odd position considering that Fortuyn was homosexual. It is not clear what assassin Volkert van der Graaf's motive was, speculations ranging from Fortuyn's public statements regarding fur farming (van der Graaf is a founder of that country's Animal Liberation Front) to his sympathies towards Dutch Muslims.
1536 - King Henry VIII orders translated Bibles be placed in every church.
1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
1757 - Battle of Prague - A Prussian army fought an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
1840 - The Penny Black postage stamp is valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1857 - The British East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose Sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British and is considered to be the First Martyr in the War of India's Independence.
1877 - Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
1882 - The Congress of the U.S.A. pass the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
1910 - George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
1942 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
1945 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
1945 - World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England.
1994 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
1996 - The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
Births
1856 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d. 1939)
1868 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
1895 - Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
1915 - Orson Welles, American director (d. 1985)
1953 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1961 - George Clooney, American actor
Deaths
1910 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1841)
1992 - Marlene Dietrich, German actress (b. 1901)
Cymru am byth
May 7th, 2007, 07:45 PM
May 7 1915
The ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed by German submarine U-20 off the coast of Ireland. The ship goes under in just 18 minutes. In their panic, the crew only manages to launch 6 of the 48 lifeboats. As a result 1,201 are killed. Contrary to published reports of the time, the passenger ship was smuggling 3,863 boxes of ammunition and 323 bundles of guncotton into Britain.
May 7 1945
German admiral Carl Doenitz unconditionally surrenders to Allied forces at Reims, France, thus ending the war in Europe.
May 7 1959
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Small-time boxing promoter Don King is arrested in Cleveland on suspicion of drug dealing. His criminal record includes a 1955 arrest for arson, a 1954 arrest for murder, and others.
May 7 2001
Ronnie Biggs, England's escaped "Great Train Robber," returns to face the music after 35 years as a fugitive. After serving just fifteen months of a 30-year sentence, Biggs escaped from prison and fled to Brazil, where he avoided extradition by fathering the baby of a 19-year-old stripper. Partially paralyzed by a couple of strokes, Biggs returns to England for one last pint of beer before he dies. Instead he is taken into custody at Heathrow airport and promptly sent to Belmarsh prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence.
1298 - Colocation of the first stone of Barcelona's Cathedral.
1429 - Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning wounded to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.
1664 - Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles.
1763 - Indian Wars: Pontiac's Rebellion begins - Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit.
1824 - World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. Work was conducted by Michael Umlauf, under the deaf composer's supervision.
1832 - Greece is recognised independent by the Treaty of London. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen King.
1895 - In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the first in the world radio receiver. In the former Soviet Union this day is celebrated as Day of Radio.
1920 - Kiev Offensive (1920): Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force captured Kiev only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
1920 - Treaty of Moscow (1920): Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrive in Spain to assist Franco's forces.
1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.
1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
1999 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
2006 - Rolling Stone magazine publishes its 1000th issue.
Births
1946 - Bill Kreutzmann, American drummer (Grateful Dead)
1961 - "Filthy" Phil Campbell, British musician (Motörhead)
Cymru am byth
May 8th, 2007, 05:39 PM
May 8 1842
Following a birthday celebration for King Louis Philippe, 59 Parisians returning home by train are trapped in their railcars and incinerated when their train collides with another. In these early days of rail travel, coaches were locked and no means of escape was available.
May 8 1902
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/may/rh-pelee-th.jpg
Mt. Peleé erupts on the West Indies island of Martinique. A wall of superheated ash and rock cascades down the slopes, slamming directly into the community of Saint Pierre. The shockwave and intense heat even manage to destroy twenty ships in the harbor. Only two of the town's 28,000 residents survive the cataclysm.
May 8 1988
Science fiction author Robert A Heinlein dies of emphysema, leaving behind a legacy of subversive novels -- many of which meditating on unconventional sexual mores.
May 8 1991
In a room at Little Rock's Excelsior Hotel, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton exposes his penis to state employee Paula Jones and propositions her to perform fellatio. In her civil deposition, Jones will later claim to have witnessed certain "distinguishing characteristics" of the governor's genitalia, the precise nature of which soon becomes the subject of much speculation. For her trouble, Jones eventually receives an out-of-court settlement for $850,000 and a nude pictorial in Penthouse magazine.
May 8 1998
Former Senator and onetime Presidential candidate Bob Dole tells television interviewer Larry King that he participated in the Viagra impotence drug trials, and thoroughly enjoyed himself in the process. Dole's name soon becomes synonymous with erectile dysfunction.
May 8 1999
Actress Dana Plato, who played Kimberly Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes, dies in Oklahoma of an overdose of Valium and Loritab. Just the previous day, Plato had appeared on the Howard Stern syndicated radio program claiming to be clean and sober.
1541 - Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.
1794 - Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme Générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotined all on one day in Paris.
1821 - Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks in Gravia.
1886 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would later be named "Coca-Cola".
1914 - Paramount Pictures is formed.
1919 - Edward George Honey first proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later resulted in the creation of Remembrance Day.
1933 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest of British oppression in India.
1942 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
1942 - World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
1945 - Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by FRENCH Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.
1945 - World War II: VE Day. German forces agree to an unconditional surrender.
1945 - End of the Prague uprising, today still celebrated as national holiday in the Czech Republic
1984 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
1984 - Cpl. Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three and wounding 13. René Jalbert, sergeant-at-arms of the assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.
1987 - The SAS ambushes and kills the Loughgall Martyrs.
1996 - The Constitutional Assembly of South Africa ratifies the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Considered one of the most liberal Constitutions in the world regarding Human Rights.
2005 - The new Canadian War Museum opens, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of V-E Day.
Births
1839 - Adolphe-Basile Routhier, French Canadian lyricist (O Canada) (d. 1920)
1884 - Harry S. Truman, President of the United States (d. 1972)
1940 - Peter Benchley, American author (d. 2006)
1940 - Ricky Nelson, American singer (d. 1985)
1943 - Paul Samwell-Smith, British bassist (The Yardbirds)
1944 - Gary Glitter, English singer & kiddie fiddler
1951 - Philip Bailey, American singer (Earth, Wind & Fire)
1951 - Chris Frantz, American musician (Talking Heads)
1953 - Alex Van Halen, Dutch drummer
1953 - Billy Burnette, American singer and guitarist (Fleetwood Mac)
1964 - Dave Rowntree, British musician (Blur)
1968 - Jamie Summers, American porn star
Deaths
1947 - Harry Gordon Selfridge, American-born department store founder (b. 1858)
1994 - George Peppard, American actor (b. 1928)
World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
VE Day
Cymru am byth
May 9th, 2007, 09:11 PM
May 9 1950
L. Ron Hubbard publishes the first edition of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. This follows on the heels of a feature article in the pulp sci-fi magazine Astounding Science Fiction. A book review in the The New Republic describes the work as "a bold and immodest mixture of complete nonsense and perfectly reasonable common sense, taken from long-acknowledged findings and disguised and distorted by a crazy, newly invented terminology." The subsequent movement goes on to become one of the scariest, most powerful pseudo-religious cults in modern history.
May 9 1978
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/may/rh-moro-th.jpg
The body of former Italian premier Aldo Moro is discovered in the back seat of a Renault. He had been kidnapped 54 days prior by the Red Brigades, who demanded the release of their incarcerated comrades. When Italian authorities refused to give in, Moro's captors killed him. Above is a photo of the hostage holding a newspaper announcing his own death.
May 9 1979
Northwestern University graduate student John Harris opens a cigar box left sitting on a table in the Technological Institute. The resulting blast only manages to inflict minor lacerations and burns. It is later determined to be the second explosive device fabricated by the Unabomber.
May 9 1980
35 people are killed in Tampa, Florida when the Liberian cargo ship Summit Venture smashes into a supporting pier of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Seven vehicles, including a Greyhound bus, topple into the water 150 feet below.
May 9 1983
The infallible Pope John Paul II retracts the Catholic Church's condemnation of astronomer Galileo Galilei, issued in 1633 by the infallible Pope Urban VIII. The Church had convicted the scientist of heresy, sentenced him to house arrest, and forced him to recant central scientific truths. In the end, this error only took 350 years to correct.
May 9 1995
The CDC in Atlanta identifies a new strain of filovirus in blood samples taken from 14 disease victims in Kikwit, Zaire. Designated "Ebola," this new pathogen proves to be so tremendously virulent that the government of Zaire is forced to place the entire city of Kinshasa under quarantine in order to contain the outbreak.
1092 - Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated
1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final journey to the "New World".
1671 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
1726 - Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house (gay brothel) in London are executed at Tyburn.
1868 - The city of Reno, Nevada, is founded.
1887 - Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London.
1901 - Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
1915 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
1927 - The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.
1936 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
1940 - World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
1941 - World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
1942 - World War II: Belgrade becomes the first Axis-conquered city to murder or eliminate its Jewish population, largely with the help of Serbian collaborators.
1942 - Holocaust: German SS murder 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine). The victims were shot with machine gun in ravine on the order from Gebietskomissar Eggers and Chief of Gendarmerie Busse.
1945 - World War II: The final German surrender to Marshal Georgy Zhukov at Berlin-Karlshorst is signed by Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
1945 - World War II: Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army.
1945 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling is arrested in Norway.
1945 - World War II: Red Army enters Prague (capitulation of Nazi occupation troops).
1945 - World War II: The Soviet Union marks Victory Day.
1945 - World War II: The Channel Islands are formally liberated by the British.
1950 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered by some people to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
1955 - Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
1955 - Sam and Friends debuts on a local U.S. television channel, marking the first television appearance of both Jim Henson and what would become Kermit the Frog and the Muppets.
1960 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves sale of the birth control pill.
1974 - Watergate Scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.
1980 - The first meeting of Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury takes place in Ghana.
1998 - Dana International, a transsexual Israeli singer wins the Eurovision Song Contest
2002 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries.
2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is selected as the successor of Pope John Paul II.
2006 - 2 miners, Todd Russell and Brant Webb, were freed after 14 days trapped underground in a goldmine at Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia.
Births
1962 - David Gahan, English singer (Depeche Mode)
1971 - Paul McGuigan, British bassist (Oasis)
Deaths
1986 - Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa (b. 1914)
2001 - James E. Myers, American songwriter (Rock Around the Clock) and producer (b. 1919)
Russia and some other parts of the former Soviet Union Victory Day as the end of the "Great Patriotic War".
Armenia celebrates Victory Day to simultaneously mark the capture of Shusha in the Karabakh War and the victorious end of WWII.
European Union Europe day, commemorating the "Schuman declaration".
Jersey, Guernsey Liberation Day (commemorating the end of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II).
Cymru am byth
May 10th, 2007, 08:52 AM
May 10 1924
In perhaps the single worst mistake in the history of crime fighting, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone selects J. Edgar Hoover to head the Bureau of Investigation, later known as the FBI. He will remain at the post until his death 48 years later.
May 10 1933
Joseph Göbbels presides over a public book burning in Berlin, which destroys more than 20,000 volumes. The collection includes books by Einstein and Freud. During the bibliocaust, Goebbels declares: "We have directed our dealings against the un-German spirit; consign everything un-German to the fire."
May 10 1941
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/may/rh-hess.jpg
Running out of fuel and unable to find a suitable spot to land his Messerschmitt, Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess bails out over Scotland. When Hess claims to have made the trip in order to negotiate a peace treaty with England, the Nazis declare that he was a psychotic who "lived in a state of hallucination." After the war, Hess is confined to Spandau Prison until his apparent suicide in 1987.
May 10 1969
The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
May 10 1977
Joan Crawford succumbs to stomach cancer at the age of 73. In the early days of her career, Crawford had performed in several stag films, and later spent a considerable sum buying back the prints to destroy them.
May 10 1993
In the worst manufacturing plant fire in history, 188 employees, most of them young women, burn to death in a doll factory in Bangkok, Thailand. The management had locked the doors, so the workers could produce their Bart Simpson dolls without any distractions.
May 10 1994
Former building contractor, children's party clown, and jailhouse artist John Wayne Gacy is executed by lethal injection. Police found 28 shallow graves in the crawlspace beneath Gacy's house in 1978. After a dinner which included fried chicken, fried shrimp, and french fries, Gacy is strapped to a gurney. When asked if he has any last words, the serial killer obliges with: "Kiss my ass."
May 10 1994 300 active-duty Marines stationed at Twenty-Nine Palms receive a 46-question, multiple-choice survey. Given a hypothetical situation, more than a quarter of respondents indicate their willingness to "fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S. government." On the positive side, almost two-thirds recognize that the order would be patently unconstitutional.
1291 - Scottish nobles recognize the authority of King Edward I of England.
1497 - Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
1503 - Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there.
1869 - The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.
1872 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
1940 - World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
1940 - World War II: Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
1940 - World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1940 - World War II: Iceland invaded by the United Kingdom.
1941 - World War II: The House of Commons in London is destroyed by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
1941 - World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland in order to try and negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.
1942 - Thai Phayap Army invaded the Shan States during the Burma Campaign of World War II.
1954 - Bill Haley and the Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts.
1960 - The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
1994 - Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president of South Africa.
2005 - A hand grenade allegedly thrown by Vladimir Arutinian lands about 65 feet(20 meters) from United States President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but malfunctions and does not detonate.
2007- Tony Blair stands down as prime minister of the United Kingdom.
2007 Cymru am byth makes his 2000th post on Filecabi.net
Births
1838 - John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865)
1915 - Denis Thatcher, British businessman and husband of Margaret Thatcher (d. 2003)
1934 - Cliff Wilson, Welsh snooker player (d. 1994)
1946 - Graham Gouldman, British musician and songwriter (10cc)
1955 - Mark David Chapman, American assassin of John Lennon
1957 - Sid Vicious, English bassist (The Sex Pistols) (d. 1979)
1960 - Bono, Irish singer (U2)
1961 - Danny Carey, American drummer (Tool, Pigmy Love Circus)
Deaths
1774 - King Louis XV of France (b. 1710)
Astronomy Day in the United States.
Buddha's Birthday in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Inauguration Day in South Africa.
National Holiday of Israel
Native American Day among Indigenous North Americans.
Cymru am byth
May 11th, 2007, 06:28 PM
May 11 1310
54 members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics. Established during the Crusades to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, this military order came into increasing conflict with Rome until Clement V officially dissolves it at the Council of Vienna in 1312.
May 11 1907
A derailment outside Lompoc, California kills 32 Shriners, when their chartered train jumps off the tracks at a switch near Surf Depot. Many of them were scalded to death when the steam boiler ruptured. No word on the fates of their groovy fezzes.
May 11 1960
Four Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from a bus stop in Buenos Aires.
May 11 1981
Jamaican music legend and U.N. Peace Medal recipient Bob Marley dies of brain cancer in a Miami hospital at the age of 36. Marley had quietly begun a course of radiation therapy at Sloan-Kettering a few months prior, but abandoned it just two days later after word leaked out.
May 11 1985
56 football fans are killed and more than 200 injured in Bradford, England when fire sweeps through the grandstands of Valley Parade stadium. In less than ten minutes, the structure is reduced to a burning pile of wood.
May 11 2001
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" author Douglas Adams dies of a heart attack at age 49.
1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
1792 - Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to visit the Columbia River.
1812 - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London.
1820 - Launch of HMS Beagle the ship that took young Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage
1857 - Indian Mutiny: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.
1867 - Luxembourg gains its independence.
1924 - Mercedes-Benz formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging the two companies.
1943 - World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
1944 - World War II: The Allies start a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.
1949 - Siam changes its name to Thailand.
1949 - Israel joins the United Nations.
1960 - The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market.
1970 - The Beatles song "The Long and Winding Road" is released as a single in the United States. It becomes the group's last number one single in that country.
1987 - Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
1987 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland). The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz, of Stanford University School of Medicine.
1995 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions
1997 - IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.
1998 - India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including a thermonuclear device.
2006 - A science team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign successfully converted pig waste into crude oil.
Births
1811 - Chang and Eng Bunker, famous conjoined twins
1941 - Eric Burdon, British singer (The Animals)
1957 - Peter North, Canadian porn star
1966 - Christoph Schneider, German drummer (Rammstein)
Deaths
1778 - William Pitt, the Elder, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1708)
1812 - Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (assassinated) (b. 1762
1960 - John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American philanthropist (b. 1874)
1981 - Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1945)
2001 - Douglas Adams, English author (b. 1952)
2003 - Noel Redding, English bassist (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) (b. 1945)
Cymru am byth
May 12th, 2007, 08:25 PM
May 12 1797
Following Napoleon's conquest of Venice, Ludovico Manin reluctantly steps down as its last Doge. Thus ends the Most Serene Republic's 820-year history of national sovereignty.
May 12 1932
When a truck driver stops in rural New Jersey to take a leak, he stumbles upon the badly decomposed body of the Lindbergh Baby lying in a shallow grave 45 feet from the highway.
May 12 1971
Tor Johnson dies of congestive heart failure at the age of 67 in San Fernando, California. The man who once wrestled under the name "The Super Swedish Angel" leaves behind a legacy of B-movie acting roles, most famously as the bald zombie in Ed Wood's masterpiece "Plan 9 from Outer Space."
May 12 1982
During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan Fernandez Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, decided that the Pope must be killed for being an "agent of Moscow."
1191 - Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre.
1264 - The Battle of Lewes, between King Henry III of England and the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, begins.
1689 - King William's War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg starting a war with France
1870 - The Manitoba Act was given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.
1885 - North-West Rebellion: The four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.
1926 - UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade unions ends
1937 - Coronation of King George VI of Britain at Westminster Abbey
1941 - Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer in Berlin.
1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
1942 - 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.
1949 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
1958 - A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.
1965 - The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
1965 - West Germany and Israel establish diplomatic relations.
1967 - At Queen Elizabeth Hall, England, Pink Floyd stages the first-ever quadraphonic rock concert.
1975 - Mayagüez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.
1999 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.
2000 - The Tate Modern art gallery opens in London.
2002 - Former President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
2003 - The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, kill 26.
Births
1820 - Florence Nightingale, English nurse (d. 1910)
1889 - Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980)
1942 - Ian Dury, English musician (d. 2000)
1945 - Ian McLagan, English keyboardist (The Small Faces)
1958 - Eric Singer, American drummer (Alice Cooper,Kiss)
1961 - Billy Duffy, British rock guitarist (The Cult)
1962 - Brett Gurewitz, American songwriter and record producer (Bad Religion) (Epitaph)
1967 - Paul D'Amour, American bass guitarist (ex-Tool)
1968 - Tony Hawk, American skateboarder
1975 - Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby union legend
Deaths
1889 - John Cadbury, English chocolate entrepreneur (b. 1801)
2001 - Perry Como, American singer (b. 1912)
Cymru am byth
May 13th, 2007, 06:17 PM
May 13 1913
The latest brainchild of Russian aircraft design genius Igor Sikorsky embarks on its maiden flight. The Grand, easily the world's most luxurious passenger plane, includes such innovations as upholstered seats, a balcony, and even a lavatory.
May 13 1917
Three small children in Fatima, Portugal receive the first of six visitations from the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Over the next five months she lays some pretty heavy shit on the kids, including a three-part secret: a vision of Hell, a prophecy of war with godless Russia, and a third secret which remains classified until Y2K.
May 13 1972
Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and nonfunctional elevators cause 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their death.
May 13 1981
A delusional Turk guns down Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square. Mehmet Ali Agca believes that the Vatican is an abomination before God and must be destroyed. 19 years later, the Church will disclose that the assassination attempt was foretold in 1917, as part of the third secret of Fatima.
May 13 1985 After attempting to serve arrest warrants at 6221 Osage Avenue, police in West Philadelphia are sucked into a 90-minute gunfight with members of the MOVE organization. Later, police drop a bomb on the house from a helicopter. The bomb misses its target and ignites a fire which consumes the entire city block. 61 houses are destroyed in the conflagration, killing 11 MOVE members -- including five children -- and leaving hundreds of neighbors homeless.
1568 - Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary Queen of Scots are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia.
1830 - Ecuador gains its independence.
1846 - Mexican-American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.
1861 - American Civil War: Queen Victoria of Britain issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
1861 - Great Comet of 1861 discovered in Australia.
1880 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
1888 - With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolishes slavery.
1912 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) was established.
1913 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft.
1940 - World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse River. Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
1940 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees the Nazi invasion in the Netherlands to Britain. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
1941 - World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
1943 - World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
1948 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.
1958 - Velcro's trade mark is registered.
1989 - Large groups of students occupied Tiananmen Square and began a hunger strike.
1998 - India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, in addition to the three conducted on May 11. United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
2000 - In Enschede, the Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately 450 million in damage.
2001 - Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition wins the Italian general elections.
2005 - Malcolm Glazer completes a hostile takeover of the world's biggest sports club Manchester United Football Club for $1.4 billion.
Births
1883 - Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek doctor, inventor of the Pap smear (d. 1962)
1937 - Trevor Baylis, English inventor of the wind-up radio
1950 - Stevie Wonder, American singer and musician
1951 - Paul Thompson, British rock drummer (Roxy Music)
1966 - Darius Rucker, American singer (Hootie & the Blowfish)
1967 - Chuck Schuldiner, American musician (Death, Control Denied) (d. 2001)
1976 - Mark Delaney, Welsh footballer
Deaths
1961 - Gary Cooper, American actor (b. 1901)
Rotuma Day in Fiji.
Cymru am byth
May 14th, 2007, 08:13 PM
May 14 964
Pope John XII dies of injuries inflicted eight days prior by a jealous husband who caught him in flagrante delicto with his wife. The 26-year-old pontiff had received a blow to the temple, causing immediate paralysis. Critics had accused John of converting the Lateran Palace into a whorehouse.
May 14 1610
Fanatical monk François Ravaillac jumps aboard the coach of King Henry IV and stabs him twice through the open window. Then the French monarch bleeds to death before medical help can reach him.
May 14 1976
Keith Relf, former vocalist of the Yardbirds, is electrocuted in his London home while either tuning or playing a guitar belonging to either him or his son, in either the basement or the bathtub. Details are sort of sketchy, resulting from the family's reticence to describe the death scene.
May 14 1998
Mobbed-up international recording star and Academy Award winner Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack shortly after the airing of the final Seinfeld episode. The Chairman of the Board of Show Business had an oddly appropriate personal motto: "You gotta love livin' baby, 'cause dyin's a pain in the ass."
May 14 2001
The Supreme Court rules that a federal law classifying marijuana as illegal has no exception for ill patients. The 8-0 decision is a major defeat for suffers of terminal diseases and groovy potheads alike.
1264 - Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured in France making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England.
1607 - Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.
1643 - Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
1747 - A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at first battle of Cape Finisterre.
1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to meet to write a new Constitution for the United States.
1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.
1811 - Paraguay gains independence from Spain.
1870 - The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.
1889 - The children's charity the NSPCC is launched in London.
1900 - The 1900 Summer Olympics open in Paris.
1939 - Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.
1940 - World War II: Rotterdam is bombed by the German Luftwaffe.
1940 - World War II: The Netherlands surrender to Germany.
1943 - Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur off the coast of Queensland, by a Japanese submarine.
1948 - Israel declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel was attacked by the neighboring Arab states.
1955 - Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
1973 - Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. It is the last launch of the Saturn V rocket
Births
1771 - Robert Owen, Welsh social reformer (d. 1858)
1926 - Eric Morecambe, British comedian (d. 1984)
1934 - Siân Phillips, Welsh actress
1943 - Jack Bruce, Scottish bassist (Cream)
1943 - Derek Leckenby, British musician (Herman's Hermits) (d. 1994)
1944 - George Lucas, American film director
1952 - David Byrne, Scottish-American musician (Talking Heads)
1959 - Steve Hogarth, British singer (Marillion)
1962 - C.C. DeVille, American musician (Poison)
1962 - Ian Astbury, English singer (The Cult)
1966 - Mike Inez, American bassist (Ozzy Osbourne/ Alice in Chains/ Slash's Snakepit)
Deaths
1919 - Henry John Heinz, founder of the H. J. Heinz Company (b. 1844)
1976 - Keith Relf, British singer and musician (The Yardbirds) (b. 1943)
1991 - Jiang Qing, wife of Mao Zedong (b. 1914)
1998 - Frank Sinatra, American singer and actor (b. 1915)
Cymru am byth
May 15th, 2007, 08:30 AM
May 15 1960
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik IV, a three-ton spacecraft containing a "dummy cosmonaut." The mission goes fine until they attempt to retrofire. A bug in the guidance system had pointed the capsule in the wrong direction, so instead of dropping into the atmosphere the satellite moves into a higher orbit.
May 15 1972
Hoping to gain everlasting infamy, Arthur Bremer pumps five bullets into Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace during a campaign stop in Laurel, Maryland. In his haste, the gunman forgets to yell his carefully-chosen catchphrase, "Penny for your thoughts!" And when Wallace survives the assassination attempt, albeit confined to a wheelchair, Bremer's name is soon forgotten.
May 15 1974
Three Arab gunmen disguised as Israeli soldiers seize control of the schoolhouse at Ma'alot. Taken hostage are more than 100 teenaged students and their teachers. The captors, members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, demand the release of 26 political prisoners. Israeli commandos storm the school only 15 minutes before the deadline; 18 children are killed in the firefight.
May 15 1985
Graduate student John Hauser loses most of his right hand in a UC Berkeley computer room when he opens an innocent-looking box attached to a looseleaf binder. It is the second device left in this building from the Unabomber. In fact, the engineering professor who applies the tourniquet to Hauser's arm was the victim in the previous attack, three years prior.
May 15 1991
Alan Cooper stands trial in England for "committing a lewd, obscene, and disgusting act on the 12-foot dolphin called Freddie as they frolicked for 20 minutes off the harbor mouth at Amble, Northumberland." Cooper responds by claiming that his accuser was a sworn enemy and had trained dolphins for a movie to jump out of the water and tear off a woman's bikini bra. He is eventually acquitted of masturbating the cetacean.
May 15 1997 Federal prosecutors in the Unabomber trial file the necessary paperwork requesting the death penalty for Ted Kaczynski.
1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe.
1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to see Cape Cod.
1718 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun.
1756 - The Seven Years' War begins when England declares war on France.
1776 - American Revolution: Virginia convention instructs its delegates to propose a declaration of independence from Great Britain.
1811 - Paraguay declares independence from Spain.
1817 - Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1902 - In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore reportedly becomes the first person to fly a powered airplane (a steam-powered glider).
1905 - Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km˛), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
1934 - The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger.
1940 - Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United States.
1940 - World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Nazi Germany, marking the beginning of 5 years of occupation.
1940 - McDonald's is founded.
1942 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
1943 - Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).
1945 - Last skirmish of the Second World War in Europe fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
1948 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel.
1957 - Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.
1958 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
1960 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.
1963 - Mercury program: America launches the last mission of the program, Mercury 9 (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb told Congress the program was complete).
1970 - The Beatles' last LP, Let It Be, is released in the United States.
1972 - The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.
1987 - Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform, which failed to reach orbit.
1988 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Births
1914 - Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese Sherpa (d. 1986)
1948 - Brian Eno, English musician and record producer (Roxy Music)
1953 - Mike Oldfield, English composer
1959 - Andrew Eldritch, English singer and songwriter (The Sisters of Mercy)
1968 - Seth Putnam, American musician (Anal Cunt)
1974 - Ahmet Zappa, American musician (son of Frank)
Deaths
2003 - George Francis, British gangster (b. 1940)
Cymru am byth
May 16th, 2007, 07:28 PM
May 16 1984
Intergender wrestling champion and conceptual comic Andy Kaufman pretends to die of lung cancer. In order to make it really convincing, Andy underwent months of radiation therapy and six weeks of psychic surgery in the Philippines. And he never made any more public appearances.
May 16 1986
In the most notorious retcon in the history of television, Pam Ewing wakes up to find her husband Bobby in the shower -- no small feat, considering he's been dead for a whole season. In order to revivify Bobby's character, the Dallas writers resorted to dismissing the entire preceding year as nothing more than Pam's protracted dream.
May 16 1990
Sammy Davis, Jr. dies of throat cancer in Beverly Hills. After the legendary Rat pack singer/entertainer is buried with $70,000 in jewelry, the family discovers that Mr. Bojangles was broke and left millions of dollars in unpaid back taxes. His widow then orders the body exhumed so they can repo the jewelry.
May 16 1990
Attached to a ventilator and swimming in antibiotics, Muppet creator Jim Henson dies of a severe case of pneumonia in a New York hospital. In keeping with his express wishes, no one is permitted to wear black at Henson's funeral service, which features 5,000 fans waving painted butterflies and a live band playing "When the Saints Go Marching In."
May 16 1995
After receiving an anonymous tip that a runaway teen was hiding there, police in Coral Gables, Florida search Jennifer Capriati's motel room and uncover 20 grams of marijuana. The 18-year-old professional tennis player winds up diverted to a drug treatment program, avoiding a court trial.
1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
1811 - Peninsular War - Allies (Spain, Portugal & Britain) defeat French at the Battle of Albuera.
1836 - Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
1919 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.
1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
1972 - Decimal currency introduced in Malta. The Pound sterling is henceforth divided into 100 cents.
1988 - A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
2004 - The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev, Ukraine. Here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100.000 Ukrainian civilians.
2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.
Births
1919 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
1945 - Nicky Chinn, songwriter (The Sweet, Suzi Quatro)
1946 - Robert Fripp, English guitarist (King Crimson)
1946 - Roger Earl, British rock drummer (Savoy Brown, Foghat)
1955 - Hazel O'Connor, British singer
1965 - Krist Novoselic, American bassist (Nirvana)
1966 - Janet Jackson, American singer
1974 - Sonny Sandoval, American singer (P.O.D.)
1979 - McKenzie Lee, British pornographic actress
Deaths
1969 - Robert R., first confirmed death from AIDS in North America (b. 1954)
1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., American entertainer (b. 1925)
1990 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)
Cymru am byth
May 17th, 2007, 09:00 AM
May 17 1924
Two youths discover a human skull on the banks of the Leine in Hanover, Germany. And although two more skulls are found a month later, police ignore it until a sackful of bones turn up on the riverbank. Dragging the Leine yields another 500 bones, belonging to about 27 victims. Eventually, police arrest Fritz Haarmann for the crimes. He would lure runaway boys back to his apartment, where they would be raped, killed, and cut into steaks. Then the unlicensed butcher would sell the meat as beef on the black market. All told, he killed between 40 and 50 boys.
May 17 1965
Magazine The Nation publishes Hunter S. Thompson's first-hand experiences with the Hell's Angels motorcycle club. The bikers would eventually stomp Thompson when they demanded payment for his time spent. A year later, Random House published his book Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs.
May 17 1974
During a gun battle with members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the LAPD fires tear gas into their Watts hideout. The canisters ignite a fire which soon consumes the house. Three other SLA members, including kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, watch the events unfold on TV in their motel room down the street from Disneyland.
May 17 1980
A three-day race riot breaks out after an all-white jury acquits four white Miami police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance salesman. The cops had beaten him with their flashlights and billyclubs, and he died in the hospital. 18 fatalities and more than $100 million in property damage are the final result.
May 17 1992
Bandleader, accordion player, and soap bubble aficionado Lawrence Welk dies of pneumonia in his beachfront condo in Santa Monica, California.
1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.
1792 - The New York Stock Exchange is formed.
1900 - Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.
1915 - The last British Liberal Party government (Herbert Henry Asquith) falls.
1918 - Almost the entire leadership of Sinn Féin are arrested.
1940 - World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.
1940 - World War II: The old city centre of the Dutch town of Middelburg is bombed by the German Luftwaffe, to force the surrender of the Dutch armies in Zeeland.
1974 - Thirty-three people are killed by terrorist bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland.
1983 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
1987 - An Iraqi fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. warship USS Stark (FFG-31), killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.
2004 - Massachusetts becomes the first state in the United States to legalize Same-sex marriage
2006 - The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to be an artificial reef
Births
1682 - Bartholomew Roberts, AKA Black Bart, notorious Welsh pirate (d. 1722)
1949 - Bill Bruford, English musician (Yes)
1958 - Paul Di'Anno, English singer (Iron Maiden)
1961 - Enya, Irish singer and songwriter
1965 - Trent Reznor, American singer (Nine Inch Nails)
1974 - Andrea Corr, Irish singer (The Corrs)
Cymru am byth
May 18th, 2007, 09:48 AM
May 18 1843 "I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left." -- Joseph Smith, prophet of God and founder of the Mormon church May 18 1904 In Paris, 12 nations ratify the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade. Another 48 countries and territories follow suit over the next six years. Conspicuously absent from the list of signatories is the United States of America. May 18 1936 Tokyo gangster Kichizo Ishida is accidentally strangled by his mistress during a session of rough sex. Ishida had been a "gasper," someone who enjoys the sexual effects of asphyxiation. The woman, Sada Abe, indulged him by wrapping her pink kimono belt around his neck. After her lover's death, Abe cuts off Ishida's penis and scrotum with a meat cleaver and carries them around until she is finally arrested, three days later. May 18 1980 The body of Ian Curtis, lead singer of dirge band Joy Division, is discovered hanging in the kitchen by his wife. Curtis killed himself on the eve of Joy Division's U.S. tour. His surviving bandmates go on to form New Order. May 18 1980 After a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in Washington state, 57 people are killed in an avalanche of volcanic mud in the eruption of Mount St. Helens. The volcano spews out 200 million cubic yards of of pumice, ash, and debris which covers 24 square miles of the valley below.
1152 - Henry II marries Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1652 - Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
1765 - Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec.
1783 - First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States.
1803 - Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France.
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.
1876 - Wyatt Earp starts work in Dodge City, Kansas under Marshal Larry Deger.
1896 - Khodynka Tragedy: a mass panic on Khodynka Field during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II resulted in the deaths of 1389 people.
1897 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published.
1900 - The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
1910 - The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.
1917 - World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 passes the U.S. Congress giving the President the power of conscription.
1944 - World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
1944 - Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.
1944 - World War II: SS troops burn down six villages in the Brkini hills in south western Slovenia.
1953 - Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles per hour (1049.835 km/h) at Rogers Dry Lake, California).
1958 - An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph (2,259.82 km/h).
1959 - Launching of the National Liberation Committee of Côte d'Ivoire in Conakry, Guinea.
1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 launches.
1974 - Nuclear test: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.
1974 - Completion of the Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built at the time. It later collapses on August 8, 1991.
1991 - Helen Sharman from Sheffield becomes the first Briton to orbit in Space
1991 - Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland however it is unrecognised by the international community.
1998 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.
Births
1868 - Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov, Nicholas II, Last Emperor of Russia (d. 1918)
1949 - Rick Wakeman, English composer and musician (Yes)
1957 - Michael Cretu, German musician (Enigma)
1965 - Ingo Schwichtenberg, German drummer (d. 1995) (Helloween)
1973 - Cymru am byth:D Welsh patriot, master chef and rugby fanatic
Deaths
1980 - Ian Curtis, British musician, singer and lyricist (Joy Division) (b. 1956)
Shrek the Third (from Dreamworks Animation and Paramount Pictures) - 2007 released
Cymru am byth
May 19th, 2007, 03:52 PM
May 19 1536
In the first public execution of an English queen, Anne Boleyn is beheaded. In her speech, Boleyn has nothing but good things to say about her husband, Henry VIII: "I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord."
May 19 1890
Nguyen Tat Thanh is born in central Vietnam. After World War I he devotes his life to the Communist cause, adopting a series of pseudonyms along the way. Finally he settles on "The Enlightener," that being the English translation of Ho Chi Minh.
May 19 1928
Saloth Sar, one of the world's most successful mass murderers, is born in French Indochina. He later adopts the name Pol Pot in 1976, a year after the Khmer Rouge seizes control of Cambodia.
May 19 1987
Chet Fleming files for a patent on his method for keeping a severed head alive. The mechanism includes blood filtering, pumping equipment, and nutrient supply. Ultimately, US Patent 4,666,425 is granted.
May 19 1992
17-year-old Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the face. Amy had been having an affair with Mary Jo's 38-year-old husband Joey. Fisher winds up spending seven years in prison, and Mary Jo winds up with a plate in her head.
May 19 1993
Four servicemen are killed on an inspection flight when their Blackhawk helicopter crashes in the woods near Quantico, Virginia. Maj. William Barcley, SSgt. Brian Haney, Capt. Scott Reynolds, and Marine Sgt. Timothy Sabel had flown President Bill Clinton to the USS Theodore Roosevelt during his visit to the aircraft carrier two months prior. Hence, the men qualify as former "Clinton bodyguards" and their untimely deaths should be interpreted as evidence that they were killed simply because they knew too much.
May 19 1994
Jackie O., one the many women John F. Kennedy had sex with, dies of lymphatic cancer in her 15-room Manhattan apartment. In accordance with her 36-page will, most of her personal possessions are to be publicly auctioned by Sotheby's two years later. At which, one bidder observes that people are paying "100 times the value for objects that are amazingly mediocre." In fact, the average price for individual pieces of costume jewelry is $18,750.
1568 - Queen Elizabeth I of England has Mary Queen of Scots arrested.
1604 - The town of Montreal is founded.
1649 - An Act declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.
1749 - King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
1802 - The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte.
1848 - Mexican-American War: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexico ratifies the treaty thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of five other modern-day U.S. states to the USA for USD $15 million.
1897 - Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.
1921 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotas on immigration
1943 - World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the cross-English Channel landing (D-Day would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather).
1961 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back data).
1962 - A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday.
1971 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
2005 - The final Star Wars film and third episode in the series, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, debuted on this day. It broke current box office records, earning over $50 million on opening day.
2007 - Cymru am byth woke up at 12.15 pm with the mother of all hangovers, had a shower, shit and shave and got ready to go out again tonight
Births
1870 - Albert Fish, American serial killer (d. 1936)
1890 - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader (d. 1969)
1925 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (d. 1998)
1928 - Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars (d. 1982)
1945 - Pete Townshend, English musician (The Who)
1948 - Grace Jones, Jamaican singer and actress
1949 - Dusty Hill, American blues rock singer/bassist (ZZ Top)
1951 - Joey Ramone, American musician (The Ramones) (d. 2001)
1954 - Phil Rudd, Australian drummer (AC/DC)
1983 - Eve Angel, Hungarian model/porn star
Deaths
1536 - Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England
1795 - Josiah Bartlett, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1729)
1898 - William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1809)
2006 - Freddie Garrity, English lead singer from the band Freddie and the Dreamers (b. 1940)
1935 - T. E. Lawrence, English soldier (b. 1888) (Lawrence of Arabia)
1945 - Philipp Bouhler, German nazi leader (b. 1889)
Cymru am byth
May 20th, 2007, 04:41 PM
May 20 1960
Music DJ Alan Freed, originator of the term "Rock and Roll," is indicted in New York in the Payola scandal. Freed had accepted $30,650 from five record companies to play their records, although to be fair "pay for play" was the accepted practice up to that point.
May 20 1971
The bassist and lead singer for the band Chicago undergoes five hours of emergency surgery after getting jumped at a Cubs-Dodgers baseball game. Peter Cetera winds up losing four teeth because some guys decided that his hair was too long.
May 20 1987
Conservative British MP Harvey Proctor pleads guilty to committing acts of gross indecency against minors -- paying rent boys to spank them in his London flat.
May 20 1989
Attempting to clear Tiananmen Square of student activists and quell 100 million others protesting throughout the country, China declares martial law in Beijing. Two weeks later, after they continue to loiter in the Square, thousands of students are massacred by government troops.
May 20 1999
The dissolving body parts of eight people are discovered inside six plastic barrels sitting in an abandoned bank vault in Snowtown, Australia.
526 - An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia.
685 - The Battle of Dunnichen or Nechtansmere is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.
1217 - The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
1690 - England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of Roman Catholic James II.
1813 - Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.
1845 - HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.
1862 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
1873 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
1882 - The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed.
1883 - The eruption of Krakatoa begins, leading ultimately to the volcano's destruction three months later.
1902 - Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the first President of Cuba.
1927 - By the Treaty of Jedda, the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merged to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
1927 - At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, touching down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day.
1932 - Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.
1940 - Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1941 - World War II: Battle of Crete German paratroops invade Crete.
1949 - In the United States of America, the Armed Forces Security Agency (predecessor to the National Security Agency) is established.
1954 - Chiang Kai-shek is selected for another term as President of the Republic of China by the National Assembly
1969 - The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
1980 - In a Referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
1983 - First publications of the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo individually.
1995 - In a second Referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a slight majority the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
2002 - East Timor becomes independent from Indonesian rule.
Births
1895 - R. J. (Reginald Joseph) Mitchell, British aircraft designer (d. 1937) (Supermarine Spitfire)
1944 - Joe Cocker, British singer
1946 - Cher, American singer
1958 - Jane Wiedlin, American singer (The Go-Go's)
1968 - Waisale Serevi, Fijian rugby union and Rugby sevens legend
1970 - Louis Theroux, British television presenter
1972 - Busta Rhymes, American singer and rapper
1975 - Mark Zupan, American quadriplegic rugby player
2000 - Leo Blair, Youngest son of Tony Blair
Deaths
685 - King Ecgfrith of Northumbria (b. 645)
1506 - Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer (b. 1451)
1971 - Waldo Williams, Welsh poet (b. 1904)
1996 - Jon Pertwee, British actor (b. 1919) (DR Who, Worzel Gummage)
Cameroon National Day.
East Timor National Day.
saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
Saint Bernardine of Siena
Saint Theodore of Pavia
Saint Lucifer :eek7: :eek:
Saint Austregisilus
Saint Ivo of Chartres
Cymru am byth
May 21st, 2007, 05:56 PM
May 21 1871
Government troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards have been massascred and 38,000 arrested.
May 21 1944
A mortar round explodes while being loaded onto ammunition ship LST-353 at Pearl Harbor. The resulting fire destroys six ships, kills 163 servicemen, and injures another 396.
May 21 1956
The Cherokee test of Operation Redwing commences over Bikini Atoll, consisting of a 3.8 megaton nuclear bomb dropped from a B-52 bomber. The bomb is successfully detonated at an altitude of 4,350 feet, but the flight crew missed their assigned target by four miles. Although it is a complete failure from a scientific standpoint, it demonstrates America's ability to deliver hydrogen bombs over long distances.
May 21 1972
A deranged Australian geologist takes a hammer to Michelangelo's Pieta, shouting "I am Jesus Christ -- risen from the dead!" Laszlo Toth is never charged with any crime, instead receiving a free trip to an Italian insane asylum. Toth's name is later adopted by comedian and SNL regular Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) for a long series of pranks by mail.
May 21 1979
A judge gives Dan White only seven years for the premeditated murders of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone, prompting thousands to march on San Francisco's City Hall. In what will come to be known as the White Night Riots, the demonstration takes a violent turn, resulting in significant property damage and the torching of twelve SFPD cruisers. Police respond with brutal beatdowns at gay bars in the Castro district.
May 21 1991
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/may/rh-rajiv-gandhi-suicide-dhanu.jpg
At an outdoor political rally, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and 16 bystanders are blown to bits by a pregnant woman bearing a basket of flowers. The suicide bomber is believed to have been a member of a Hindu terrorist group called the Tamil Tigers. (The assassin, Dhanu, is pictured above center.)
May 21 1996
At least 500 -- possibly as many as 1,000 -- people are killed when the Bukoba ferry suddenly capsizes on Lake Victoria. The manifest lists 443 people on board, but this doesn't count the hundreds of third-class passengers.
May 21 1997
Mattel introduces Barbie's new friend, Becky The School Photographer, a "differently-abled" doll in a bright purple wheelchair.
1502 - The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator Joăo da Nova.
1851 - Abolition of slavery in Colombia, South America.
1856 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
1894 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry is executed by guillotine.
1904 - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) founded in Paris.
1917 - Great Atlanta fire of 1917.
1927 - Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1932 - Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1936 - Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
1937 - a Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
1941 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
1980 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released into theaters.
1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, suspended for bringing a gun to school, shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home.
2004 - Sherpa Pemba Dorje climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
Births
1943 - Hilton Valentine, British guitarist (The Animals)
1948 - Leo Sayer, English musician
1952 - Mr. T, (Laurence Tureaud) American actor
1955 - Stan Lynch, American drummer (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers )
1960 - Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
1972 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
1974 - Havoc, American rapper (Mobb Deep)
1975 - Lee Gaze, Welsh guitarist (Lostprophets)
1976 - Kardinal Offishall, Canadian rapper
1978 - Briana Banks, German-American adult film star
1978 - Adam Gontier, lead singer of Canadian band Three Days Grace
1979 - Jesse Capelli, Canadian pornographic actress
1981 - Belladonna, American pornographic actress
Deaths
1988 - Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
1991 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
1999 - Karnail "Bugz" Pitts, American rapper (D12) (b. 1979)
Navy Day (Día de las Glorias Navales) in Chile.
Dia de la Afrocolombianidad marks the abolition of slavery in Colombia.
Independence Day is celebrated in Montenegro.
Cymru am byth
May 22nd, 2007, 05:44 PM
May 22 337
Emperor Constantine dies. Although quite dead, his embalmed corpse continues to act as head of state, receving state dignitaries and daily reports from ministers as if nothing had changed. Constantine's macabre leadership continues through winter.
May 22 1851
Hail the size of pumpkins falls on Bangalore, India.
May 22 1949
Former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal falls out of a 16th floor window at Bethesda Naval Hospital with a bathrobe cord knotted tightly around his neck. The death is ruled a suicide, and Forrestal is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
May 22 1954
400 people attend the Bar Mitzvah for Bob Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman) in Hibbing, Minnesota. He later converts to Christianity in 1979.
May 22 1957
A B-36 bomber accidentally drops a 10 megaton hydrogen bomb over an uninhabited area near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The conventional charges detonate on impact, leaving a radioactive crater 12 feet deep and 25 feet wide.
May 22 1967
322 Belgians are killed when fire sweeps through the second-largest department store in Brussels. Many of the victims leaped to their deaths, although most who landed on parked cars survive. The store, L'Innovation, had been having a sale on American goods.
May 22 1968
The nuclear submarine U.S.S. Scorpion sinks to the bottom with all 99 aboard perishing, after it is reassigned to a spy mission and begins to head towards the Canary Islands. Navy Warrant Officer John Walker (a mole) had certainly reported enough to the KGB to allow them to read the Scorpion's encrypted transmissions. For reasons yet unknown, Navy officials of the U.S. and Soviet Union agree not to discuss the circumstances of this incident or the sinking of a Soviet sub the same year.
May 22 1981
Peter Sutcliffe is convicted of murdering 13 women in the Yorkshire Ripper trial. In the words of the presiding judge: "It is difficult to find words that are adequate in my judgment to describe the brutality and gravity of these offences and I say at once I am not going to pause to seek those words. I am prepared to let the catalogue of crimes speak for itself."
1455 - Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
1809 - Second and last Day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna), Napoleon was repelled by an enemy army for the first time.
1819 - The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June 20.
1840 - The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
1906 - Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine"
1939 - World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
1942 - Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
1960 - An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
1972 - Ceylon adopts a new constitution, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1990 - North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
1990 - The Windows 3.0 operating system is released by Microsoft.
Births
1859 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British physician and writer (d. 1930) (Sherlock Holmes)
1907 - Lord Laurence Olivier, prolific English stage and screen actor and director (d. 1989)
1942 - Theodore Kaczynski, American terrorist (The Unabomber)
1950 - Bernie Taupin, English songwriter (Elton John)
1959 - Morrissey, English singer
1964 - Ashley Renee, American fetish model
1970 - Naomi Campbell, English model and actress
1972 - Annabel Chong, Singapore porn actress
1978 - Jordan, English model and media personality
Deaths
1990 - Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1922)
Victoria Day in Canada (This depends on the year. This holiday is celebrated on the first Monday on or before May 24. In 2000 and 2006, Victoria Day was celebrated on May 22nd).
World Biodiversity Day.
Republic of Yemen - National Day.
National Heroes Day in Sri Lanka.
National Maritime Day in the United States
Cymru am byth
May 23rd, 2007, 07:25 PM
May 23 1498
Religious fundamentalist Girolamo Savonarola is executed in Florence, Italy for his many heresies. The Catholic Church had already excommunicated the Dominican friar the year before, but Savonarola continued to preach for radical reforms. Among other things, he held "bonfires of the vanities" for his parishioners' worldly possessions, because they competed with the word of God for attention. Brother Savonarola is hanged along with two accomplices and their bodies burned.
May 23 1618
In what is later called the "Defenestration of Prague," three men representing the soon-to-be Emperor Ferdinand II are thrown from a window in the Hradshin Palace by Protestant noblemen. Luckily for the imperial emissaries, they land on a large pile of trash and survive. But when the Catholic Ferdinand assumes the throne the following year, all hell breaks loose in Europe, starting with Bohemia. Thus begins the horrific religious conflict that comes to be known as the Thirty Years War. It is generally agreed that the war set back the continent a full century.
May 23 1701
Captain William Kidd is hanged in London. Afrer the first attempt fails when the rope snaps, Kidd is brought right back to the gallows and the process repeated. After death, the body is slathered in tar, chained up, and suspended over the Thames where it remains for years as an example to others considering a life of piracy.
May 23 1934
A group of FBI agents and police officers from two states ambush Bonnie and Clyde on a highway near Gibsland, Louisiana. The men open fire as the bank robbers drive past the concealed posse, unloading hundreds of rounds into the car.
May 23 1960
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion reveals that Mossad agents have captured fugitive war criminal Adolf Eichmann and smuggled him out of Argentina. Ben-Gurion announces: "Eichmann is already in this country under arrest and will shortly be brought to trial."
May 23 1984
Candy heiress Helen Brach is declared legally dead, seven years after disappearing mysteriously in February 1977.
May 23 2006
Scientists led by Dr. Anthony Atala (Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University) announce they can grow artificial, fully-functional bunny penises in a lab.
1430 - Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compičgne.
1568 - Netherlands declared independence from Spain.
1568 - Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War.
1805 - Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Cathedral of Milan
1846 - Mexican-American War: Mexico declares war on the United States.
1915 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
1939 - The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 26 sailors. The remaining 32 crewmen and one passenger are rescued the following day.
1945 - World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
1945 - World War II: The Flensburg government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz was dissolved when its members were captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany.
1949 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established, and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany proclaimed.
1967 - Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran and blockades the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, laying the foundations for the Six Day War.
1969 - Rock band The Who release Tommy, the first rock opera.
1970 - An outbreak of fire occurs in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits in north Wales contributing to its partial destruction and amounting to approximately Ł1,000,000 worth of fire damage.
1985 - U.S. engineer Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is sentenced to life in prison for attempting to sell stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, what remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is imploded.
1998 - The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum, with a high margin of three-quarters 'yes' votes to Northern Ireland.
Births
1967 - Phil Selway, English drummer (Radiohead)
1971 - Charmaine Sinclair, Playboy model
1974 - Richard Jones, Welsh bassist (Stereophonics)
Deaths
1701 - Captain Kidd, Scottish pirate (b. 1645)
1934 - Clyde Barrow, American outlaw (b. 1909)
1934 - Bonnie Parker, American outlaw (b. 1910)
1937 - John D. Rockefeller, American entrepreneur (b. 1839)
1945 - Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official (b. 1900)
World Turtle Day
Discordianism: Day of Disunity
Cymru am byth
May 24th, 2007, 09:57 PM
May 24 1610
Buggery is criminalized for the first time in North America, when the Virginia colony declares that "[n]o man shal commit the horrible, and detestable sinnes of Sodomie upon pain of death."
May 24 1856
A small gang led by abolitionist John Brown murders five pro-slavery homesteaders in Franklin County, Kansas, hacking them to pieces with swords. The event comes to be known as the Pottawatomie Massacre.
May 24 1920
Senile French President Paul Deschanel falls off a train bound for Montbrison, and is later discovered wandering along the track in his pajamas.
May 24 1964 All hell breaks loose in the closing minutes of a football match between Peru and Argentina, after a referee disallows a goal. 318 people are killed and 500 injured in Lima, Peru, making it the worst football riot in history.
1218 - The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
1487 - Imposter Lambert Simnel is crowned as "King Edward VI" at Dublin.
1626 - Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.
1689 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded).
1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.
1830 - Mary had a little lamb by Sarah Hale is published.
1844 - Samuel F. B. Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a Bible quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Supreme Court room in Washington, D.C. to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland.
1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge in New York is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
1893 - The Niagara Falls Park and River Railway opens in Ontario.
1900 - Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
1930 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
1940 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
1941 - World War II: In the North Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood killing all but three crewmen on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.
1943 - Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer in Auschwitz concentration camp.
1949 - The Soviet Union ends the 11-month Berlin Blockade.
1976 - London to Washington, DC Concorde service begins.
1988 - Section 28 is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom.
1989 - Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, is awarded a six-figure sum in damages after winning a libel action against Private Eye.
1991 - Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
1993 - Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
1993 - Microsoft unveils Windows NT.
2000 - Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
2001 - Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
Births
1819 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)
1955 - Rosanne Cash, American singer (daughter of Johnny)
1960 - Guy Fletcher, British keyboardist (Dire Straits)
1969 - Rich Robinson, American musician (Black Crowes)
Deaths
1153 - King David I of Scotland (b. 1084)
1991 - Gene Clark, American singer and songwriter (The Byrds) (b. 1944)
1995 - Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
Bermuda: Bermuda Day.
Eritrea: National Day.
Russia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia: Saints Cyril and Methodius Day
Aldersgate Day (Methodism).
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea: Buddha's Birthday
Cymru am byth
May 25th, 2007, 09:00 PM
May 25 1895
British playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons," to wit: fucking some rent boys. For his crime, Wilde is sentenced to two years of hard labor in Reading jail.
May 25 1925
John T. Scopes is indicted by a grand jury for violating Tennessee's anti-evolution statute, which he claimed to have broken by teaching Darwin's theory of natural selection in a Dayton high school. Later, on July 10th, the "Scopes Monkey Trial" begins.
May 25 1979
Immediately after flight 191 takes off from Chicago's O'Hare Airport, engine number one tears loose from its wing and falls off. A few seconds later, the DC-10 rolls onto its left side and impacts the ground. All 271 aboard the plane are killed in the explosion, along with two bystanders.
May 25 1980
Televangelist Oral Roberts senses an "overwhelming holy presence" and hallucinates a 900-foot-tall Jesus Christ. The deity reaches down and picks up a 60-story hospital, bragging to the Oklahoman preacher: "See how easy it is for Me to lift it!"
May 25 1985
11,000 people are killed in Bangladesh when a cyclone hits the Bay of Bengal. A 10-to-15 foot wall of water surges over the Ganges delta, devastating a wide area and drowning half a million cattle.
May 25 1996
The body of Bradley Nowell is discovered in his room at San Francisco's Ocean View Motel. Nowell, lead singer for radio trio Sublime, was killed by an accidental smack overdose.
May 25 2006
Enron CEO Kenneth Lay is found guilty on six counts of conspiracy.
1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth.
1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presides.
1914 - The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes Home Rule Act for devolution in Ireland.
1938 - Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Alicante, 313 deaths.
1940 - World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins.
1953 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
1977 - George Lucas' film, Star Wars, is released, and becomes an instant hit.
1982 - HMS Coventry is sunk during the Falklands War.
1995 - The Bosnian Serb Army kills 72 youngsters in the Bosnian city of Tuzla.
Births
1939 - sir Ian McKellen, English actor
1948 - Klaus Meine, German musician (Scorpions)
1958 - Paul Weller, British musician (The Jam)
1969 - Glen Drover, Guitar player (Megadeth)
1975 - Lauryn Hill, American singer
1979 - Jonny Wilkinson, English international and Newcastle Falcons rugby player
Deaths
1996 - Bradley Nowell, American singer and guitarist (Sublime) (b. 1968)
2006 - Desmond Dekker, Jamaican ska musician (b. 1941)
Argentina - Day of May Revolution/National Day (1810)
Africa Day commemorating the 1963 fouding of he AU's precursor, OAU
Chad, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe - African Liberation Day
United States - National Tap Dance Day:1orglaugh: ; celebrated on the birthday of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, born in 1878.
Lebanon, Liberation Day (1999)
The former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Day of Youth
Ancient Latvia - Urbanas Diena observed
Towel Day celebrated Worldwide :confused:
Universal Day of the Jedi celebrated worldwide by Star Wars fans.
Cymru am byth
May 26th, 2007, 10:21 PM
May 26 1232
Gregory IX issues the bull Declinante jam mundi, bringing the Papal Inquisition to Spain.
May 26 1647
Alse Young, a widow, is hanged for witchcraft in Hartford, Connecticut. Her daughter Alice is accused of the same offense 30 years later, in Massachusetts.
May 26 1868
In England's last public execution, Michael Barrett is hanged at Newgate. All subsequent hangings are held behind prison walls. Presiding over the event is executioner William Calcraft, who frequently supplements his income by selling the clothes and noose worn by the condemned.
May 26 1960
America's UN Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge charges the Soviets with having bugged the Moscow embassy. He shows off a large wooden carving of the United States seal which had been hollowed out to conceal a sophisticated resonant cavity transmitter. Less than 30 years later a newly-rebuilt Moscow embassy is determined to be "structurally riddled with eavesdropping devices."
May 26 1978
A safety officer at Northwestern University opens a suspicious package which had been delivered to a professor. The object explodes in Terry Marker's hands, making him the first victim of the Unabomber.
May 26 1980
By orders of military dictator Chun Doo Hwan, and with the blessing of the Carter administration, the South Korean government massacres 2,000 pro-democracy protesters in Kwangju city.
May 26 1994
"Price Is Right" host Bob Barker admits to having had an 18-month sexual relationship with former co-host Dian Parkinson. The onetime Playboy model was suing the game show's host and its production company for sexual harassment. Barker denies that the sex had been anything but consensual, claiming that "she volunteered the hanky-panky." Parkinson later drops the suit.
May 26 1994
Dogged by rumors of pedophilia, Michael Jackson weds Lisa Marie Presley in the Dominican Republic. The couple keeps their marriage secret for six weeks, then files for divorce 18 months after that.
1637 - Pequot War: A combined Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.
1670 - In Dover, King Charles II of England and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover.
1736 - Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw soldiers repel a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France.
1879 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
1889 - Opening of the first Eiffel Tower elevator to the public.
1896 - Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia.
1906 - Vauxhall Bridge is opened in London.
1908 - At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
1936 - In the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson begins speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sat down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours.
1940 - World War II: Battle of Dunkirk In France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk.
1966 - British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.
1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their second Bed-In for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
1972 - Willandra National Park is established in Australia.
1972 - The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
1986 - The European Community adopts the European flag.
2003 - Only three days after a previous record, Sherpa Lakpa Gelu climbs Mount Everest in 10 hours 56 minutes. The tourism ministry of Nepal confirms this record in July that year.
2007 - Cymru am byth makes the 100 post in his "this day in history" thread on filecabi.net
2007 - Gareth Thomas becomes the most capped player in Welsh rugby history playing his 93rd international game for his country
Births
1886 - Al Jolson, American singer (d. 1950)
1904 - George Formby, English singer and comedian (d. 1961)
1907 - John Wayne, American actor (d. 1979)
1909 - Sir Matt Busby, Scottish footballer and manager (d. 1994)
1913 - Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)
1946 - Mick Ronson, English musician (d. 1993) (Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars)
1954 - Danny Rolling, American murderer (the Gainstville Ripper)(d. 2006 lethal injection)
1959 - Steve Hanley, English musician (The Fall, Tom Hingley and the Lovers)
1964 - Lenny Kravitz, American musician
Deaths
946 - King Edmund I of England (b. 921)
1948 - Theodore Morell, Hitler's personal physician (b. 1886)
Australia - National Sorry Day
Poland - Mother's Day
Georgia - National Day
Cymru am byth
May 27th, 2007, 10:05 PM
May 27 1923
Henry Kissinger is born in Fuerth, Germany. 50 years later, Dr. Kissinger receives the Nobel Peace Prize for quitting the Vietnam War. No kidding.
May 27 1942
A couple of Czech assassins ambush the car carrying Reinhard Heydrich and toss a grenade into the front seat. The man who headed the Wannsee Conference is mortally wounded in the attack, and dies of septicemia a week later. The Nazis retaliate by obliterating the Catholic village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia and its inhabitants.
May 27 1977
After the pressing plant initially refuses to duplicate the record and the printer refuses to make the covers, Virgin finally releases "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols in time for the monarch's Jubilee celebration.
May 27 1991
Cannibal killer Jeffrey Dahmer manages to convince Milwaukee police that the dazed naked boy found staggering on the sidewalk and bleeding from the ass is his drunken lover, instead of a 14-year-old boy struggling to fight the effects of date-rape drugs. The MPD officers chalk it up to a "homosexual lovers spat" and escort them both back to Dahmer's apartment. After the cops leave, Jeffrey strangles the boy, rapes his corpse, and eats some flesh from the carcass of his twelfth victim.
May 27 1993
Five are killed and 37 wounded when a Fiat Fiorino explodes outside the Uffizi museum in Florence, Italy. The car bomb (a combination of PETN, T4, and TNT) also manages to obliterate three priceless artworks and substantially damage thirty more. The bombing appears to have been the work of the Sicilian Mafia.
May 27 1995
During the third jump of an equestrian event in Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is thrown headfirst over his horse. Reeve breaks his neck in two places, instantly rendering him a quadriplegic, unable to move or breathe without assistance.
1153 - Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.
1328 - Philip VI is crowned King of France.
1703 - Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
1883 - Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
1919 - The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
1927 - The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacturing the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make Ford Model A's.
1930 - The 1,046 feet (319 meters) tall Chrysler Building in New York (tallest man-made structure at the time) opens to the public.
1937 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County.
1939 - DC Comics publishes its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most topical comic book superheroes of all time.
1940 - World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knoechlein, is eventually hanged for war crimes.
1941 - World War II: U.S. President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
1941 - World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing 2,300 men.
1942 - World War II: Operation Anthropoid - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
1996 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
1998 - Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
1999 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Miloević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
Births
1626 - William II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)
1879 - Hans Lammers, German SS officer (d. 1962)
1911 - Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
1921 - Caryl Chessman, American robber and rapist (d. 1960)
1922 - Christopher Lee, English actor
1957 - Siouxsie Sioux, English musician (Siouxsie and the Banshees )
1958 - Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter (Crowded House)
1971 - Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, American singer (d. 2002)
1975 - Jamie Oliver, British chef and television personality
Deaths
735 - Bede, English historian and theologian (b. 672 or 673)
Cymru am byth
May 28th, 2007, 07:54 PM
May 28 1946
Manhattan Project scientists Klaus Fuchs and John von Neumann file for a secret patent on their design for the hydrogen bomb initiator.
May 28 1959
America launches a Jupiter rocket containing a rhesus monkey named Able and a squirrel monkey named Miss Baker. After experiencing nine minutes of microgravity, the capsule successfully returns to Earth with both monkeys intact. However, Able dies during surgery to remove his electrodes.
May 28 1981
Former Milwaukee police officer and Playboy bunny Laurie "Bambi" Bemenek breaks into the house of her husband's ex-wife and murders her. Prosecutors will claim that Bemenek was incensed over the amount of alimony her husband was paying. Bambi later escapes from prison in 1990, fleeing to Canada.
May 28 1987
German teenager Matthias Rust lands his Cessna in Moscow's Red Square, buzzing the Kremlin on the way in. He serves 18 months in prison for this prank, which also costs the commander of the Soviet Air Command his job.
May 28 1998
Talented comedian Phil Hartman dies at the hand of his crazy wife Brynne, who then commits suicide after the police arrive. Hartman's corpse is found in bed with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. SNL televises a very bad retrospective of his work several weeks later.
585 BC - A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.
1503 - The Treaty of Everlasting Peace between Scotland and England is signed, which would actually last 10 years.
1533 - The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declares the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid
1588 - The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. (It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port).
1644 - Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of the Earl of Derby.
1830 - President Andrew Jackson signs The Indian Removal Act which relocates Native Americans.
1863 - American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first African American regiment, leaves Boston, Massachusetts, to fight for the Union.
1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Togo Heihachiro and the Imperial Japanese Navy.
1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC, who pushes a button signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the span.
1937 - Neville Chamberlain becomes British Prime Minister.
1940 - World War II: Belgium surrenders to Germany.
1940 - World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik. First allied infantry victory in World War II.
1942 - World War II: In retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1800 people.
1964 - The Palestine Liberation Organization is formed.
1974 - Northern Ireland's power-sharing Sunningdale Agreement collapses following a general strike by loyalists.
1979 - Constantine Karamanlis signs the full treaty of the accession of Greece with the European Economic Community.
1982 - Falklands War: British forces defeat the Argentines at the Battle of Goose Green.
1991 - The capital city of Addis Ababa, falls to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War.
1998 - Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of Indian nuclear tests with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
1999 - In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's newly-restored masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display.
2002 - NATO declares Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance.
2004 - The Iraqi Governing Council chooses Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, to become prime minister of Iraq's interim government.
2006 - German-born Pope Benedict XVI visits Auschwitz to conclude his pilgrimage to Poland.
Births
1660 - King George I of Great Britain (d. 1727)
1759 - William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1806)
1883 - Clough Williams-Ellis, Welsh architect (d. 1978) (Portmeirion, North Wales, setting for The Prisoner)
1892 - Sepp Dietrich, German SS officer (d. 1966)
1908 - Ian Fleming, English author (d. 1964)
1914 - W. G. G. Duncan Smith, British World War II pilot (d. 1996)
1944 - Rudy Giuliani, ex-Mayor of New York City
1944 - Gladys Knight, American singer
1945 - John Fogerty, American musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
1945 - Hunter "Patch" Adams, American doctor
1949 - Wendy O. Williams, American musician (The Plasmatics) (d. 1998)
1955 - John McGeoch, Scottish musician (Siouxsie and the Banshees) (d. 2004)
1962 - Roland Gift, English musician (Fine Young Cannibals)
1965 - Chris Ballew, American musician (The Presidents of the United States of America.)
1968 - Kylie Minogue, Australian actress and singer
1970 - Morgan Fox, Canadian model and 1990 Playboy playmate
Deaths
1787 - Leopold Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1719)
1849 - Anne Brontë, English author (b. 1820)
1878 - John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)
1972 - King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (The Duke of Windsor) (b. 1894)
1984 - Eric Morecambe, British comedian (Morecambe and Wise) (b. 1926)
Republic Day in Azerbaijan and Armenia (both 1918).
National Flag Day in the Republic of the Philippines
Cymru am byth
May 29th, 2007, 08:59 PM
May 29 526
A major earthquake accompanied by a fire destroys the city of Antioch, killing perhaps a quarter of a million people. The rebuilding efforts are wiped away two years later by another major quake.
May 29 1453
Constantinople is taken by Ottoman Turks, after a fifty day siege led by Sultan Mehmet II. The city defense of 10,000 men was no match for a force of 100,000 armed with heavy artillery. It is the final gasp of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.
May 29 1806
Dueling over a horse racing wager, future President Andrew Jackson takes a bullet in the chest from fellow lawyer Charles Dickinson. The slug shatters two ribs and buries itself near his heart. Then it is Jackson's turn to fire, which manages to sever an artery and kill his opponent.
May 29 1985
Two hours before kickoff of the European Cup Final, a riot breaks out in the stadium between supporters of Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. 39 soccer fans are killed and more than 350 injured on live television.
May 29 1999
Hikers discover the skeletal remains of Philip "Taylor" in his Ford Aerostar at the bottom of a 200-foot ravine in Malibu, California. The onetime bassist for the band Iron Butterfly had disappeared four years prior.
1660 - English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the throne of Great Britain.
1727 - Peter II becomes Tsar of Russia.
1733 - Right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves upheld at Quebec City.
1886 - Chemist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in the Atlanta Journal.
1886 - Putney Bridge opens in west London.
1919 - Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil.
1932 - WW I Veterans begin to assemble in Washington, DC in the Bonus Army to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945.
1935 - Construction of Hoover Dam is completed.
1942 - Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas album in history, for Decca Records in Los Angeles.
1953 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay's 39th birthday.
1982 - Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff ever to visit Canterbury Cathedral.
1988 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union as he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
1990 - Boris Yeltsin is elected president of the Russian SFSR by the Russian parliament.
1996 - Benjamin Netanyahu is elected prime minister of Israel.
1999 - Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.
1999 - Space shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
2004 - The World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
2005 - France, one of the founders of a united Europe, resoundingly rejects the European Constitution.
Births
1630 - Charles II of England (d. 1685)
1903 - Bob Hope, British-born comedian and actor (d. 2003)
1914 - Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa (d. 1986)
1917 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (d. 1963)
1941 - Roy Crewsdon, British guitarist (Freddie and the Dreamers)
1945 - Gary Brooker, musician (Procol Harum)
1956 - LaToya Jackson, American musician
1961 - Melissa Etheridge, American musician
1963 - Blaze Bayley, British singer (ex-Iron Maiden)
1967 - Noel Gallagher, English musician (Oasis)
1976 - David Buckner, American musician (Papa Roach)
1978 - Pelle Almqvist, Swedish musician (The Hives)
Deaths
1593 - John Penry, Welsh Protestant leader (b. 1559)
1946 - Martin Weiss, Commandant of Dachau concentration camp (b. 1905)
Nigeria: Democracy Day
United Kingdom: Oak Apple Day
Cymru am byth
May 30th, 2007, 07:39 PM
May 30 1431
Joan of Arc is burned at the stake in Rouen, France for relapsing into heresy. After having signed a confession a week earlier, Joan appeared in court wearing difformitate habitus -- degenerate apparel -- or more precisely, men's clothing.
May 30 1593
After a night of drinking, Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe is killed in the boarding house of Eleanor Bull. The official determination is that Ingram Frizer stabbed Marlowe in the head while they were fighting over the bill.
May 30 1942
Returning home from a night of drinking and reminiscing about the recent death of John Barrymore, movie star Errol Flynn flips on the lights and is horrified to discover Barrymore's corpse propped up in a living room chair. Some of Flynn's friends had given a funeral director $200 to borrow the body for a couple of hours.
May 30 1961
After a group of armed men ambushes the Chevrolet carrying Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican dictator attempts to bargain with them. He is shot five times point-blank, and dies face down in the street.
1536 - King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives.
1539 - In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.
1574 - Henry III becomes King of France.
1588 - The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel.
1879 - New York City's Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
1883 - In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes twelve people.
1913 - First Balkan War: Treaty of London, 1913 signed ending the war. Albania becomes an independent nation.
1914 - New & then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
1922 - In Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.
1941 - World War II: Germany captures Crete.
1941 - World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb on the athenian Acropolis, tear down the nazi swastika and replace it with the Greek flag.
1942 - World War II: 1000 British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.
1958 - Memorial Day: The bodies of several unidentified soldiers killed in action during World War II and the Korean War are buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.
1967 - At the Ascot Park in Gardena, California, daredevil Evel Knievel jumps his motorcycle over 16 cars lined-up in a row.
1972 - The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout Britain.
1982 - Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO and the first nation to enter the alliance since West Germany's admission in 1955.
1989 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
2003 - The final flight of an Air France Concorde.
Births
1672 - Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia (d. 1725)
1757 - Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1844)
1912 - Hugh Griffith, Welsh actor (d. 1980)
1955 - Topper Headon, British musician (The Clash)
1961 - Harry Enfield, British comedian
1962 - Kevin Eastman American comic book creator (co creator, ninja turtles)
1964 - Tom Morello, American guitarist (Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine)
Deaths
1431 - Joan of Arc, French peasant girl that joined the French royal army, heroine and saint (burned at the stake) (b. 1412)
1912 - Wilbur Wright, aviation pioneer (Wright Brothers) (b. 1867)
1980 - Carl Radle, American bass guitarist (b. 1942) (Derek and the Dominos)
Trinidad and Tobago Indian Arrival Day (National Holiday).
Peru National Potato Day [1].
United States Memorial Day (originally currently last Monday in May).
Canary Islands Canary Islands' Day
Cymru am byth
May 31st, 2007, 09:52 PM
May 31 1889
Relentless rain and inadequate maintenance causes the South Fork Dam to fail, unleashing a 35-foot-high wall of water on Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Then 2,209 people are entombed beneath a pile of debris half a mile wide.
May 31 1921
After a white woman claims that a black man had grabbed her arm in an elevator, the largest race riot in U.S. history breaks out in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Marauding whites set fire to the exclusively-negro Greenwood district, leveling its 35 city blocks of black-owned businesses. The official death toll is reported as 36, but later historians estimate it was more like 300.
May 31 1962
For crimes against humanity, the nation of Israel hangs Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Ramleh prison. He is later cremated and his ashes scattered in the Mediterranean Sea, outside the territorial waters of the Jewish state.
May 31 1963
Nun Nu Thanh Quang, a Buddhist monk, immolates himself at the Dieu de Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam.
May 31 1996
Timothy Leary dies quietly in his sleep, thereby failing his intended mission of suiciding live on the Internet. On a brighter note, a longstanding Moody Blues prophecy is fulfilled.
May 31 2005
Actor Christian Slater is arrested in New York City after a woman complains of ass-grabbery to police. Slater denies everything and is charged with third-degree sexual abuse.
1279 BC - Ramesses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
1223 - Mongol invasion of the Cumans: Battle of the Kalka River - Mongol armies of Genghis Khan lead by Subutai defeat Kievan Rus, Kipchaks, Cumans, and Volga Bulgars warriors under Mstislav the Bold.
1578 - Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada, eventually to mine fool's gold, used to pave streets in London.
1678 - The Godiva procession through Coventry begins.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Mecklenburg Resolutions adopted urging the American Colonies to declare independence from Great Britain.
1866 - In the Fenian Invasion of Canada, John O'Neill leads 850 Fenian raiders across the Niagara River at Buffalo, New York/Fort Erie, Ontario, as part of an effort to free Ireland from the English. Canadian militia and British regulars repulse the invaders over the next three days, at a cost of 9 dead and 38 wounded to the Fenian's 19 dead and about 17 wounded.
1884 - John Harvey Kellogg patents corn flakes
1902 - Second Boer War: The last Afrikaner resistance forces sign a peace treaty with the British at Pretoria, ending the war, and ensuring British control of South Africa.
1910 - Creation of the Union of South Africa.
1911 - R.M.S. Titanic launched.
1916 - World War I: Battle of Jutland - The British Grand Fleet under the command of Sir John Jellicoe & Sir David Beatty engage and defeat the Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Reinhard Scheer & Franz von Hipper in the largest naval battle of the war.
1924 - The Soviet Union signs an agreement with the Peking government, referring to Outer Mongolia as an "integral part of the Republic of China", whose "sovereignty" therein the Soviet Union promises to respect.
1927 - The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
1942 - World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.
1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower retires from active service in the United States Army.
1961 - Republic of South Africa created.
1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono record Give Peace a Chance, the first single recorded by a solo Beatle, from their hotel bed.
1973 - The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.
1977 - The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System completed.
1985 - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) became a Schedule I drug in the United States.
1997 - The Confederation Bridge opens, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick.
2002 - The United States Secretary of the Navy issued Instruction 10520.6 directing all United States Navy ships to fly the First Navy Jack in honor of those killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The ensign will be flown for the duration of the War on Terrorism.
2003 - 1996 Atlanta Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph is captured in Murphy, North Carolina.
2004 - A foul-up during routine software update at the Royal Bank of Canada leads to a three-day misplacement of 10 million account balances.
Births
1922 - Denholm Elliott, English actor (d. 1992)
1930 - Clint Eastwood, American film director and actor
1938 - John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1939 - Terry Waite, British humanitarian (held captive in Lebanon between 1987 and 1991.)
1940 - Gilbert Shelton, American underground comics illustrator (Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat)
1948 - John Bonham, British musician (Led Zeppelin) (d. 1980)
1964 - Scotti Hill, American rock guitarist (Skid Row)
1964 - Darryl McDaniels, American musician (Run-D.M.C.)
1977 - Scott Klopfenstein, American musician (Reel Big Fish, The Littlest Man Band
1980 - Andy Hurley, American musician (Fall Out Boy)
Deaths
1246 - Isabella of Angouleme, queen of John of England
1495 - Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England, (b. 1415)
1945 - Odilo Globocnik, Austrian nazi (b. 1904)
1960 - Walther Funk, Nazi leader (b. 1890)
1996 - Timothy Leary, American professor and LSD advocate (b. 1920)
2004 - Robert Quine, American guitarist (b. 1941)
2006 - Lula Mae Hardaway, American songwriter (b. 1930), mother of singer Stevie Wonder
The Godiva procession.
World No Tobacco Day.
Cymru am byth
June 1st, 2007, 10:12 AM
Jun 1 1571
The "Triple Tree" gallows is installed at Tyburn, England in time for the execution of John Storey, who is hanged, drawn, and quartered for committing treason. The Triple Tree consists of an equilateral triangle nine feet long on each side, 18 feet off the ground. It can hang as many as 24 prisoners at once, and will remain in place for almost 200 years.
Jun 1 1660
After having received a last-minute reprieve seven months earlier, Mary Dyer is hanged for heresy after returning to Boston. Dyer was a member of the Quakers, a subversive religious sect which had been banned by the Puritan colony under "pain of death."
Jun 1 1926
Gladys Baker gives birth to Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles.
Jun 1 1967
The Beatles officially release their new album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in both mono and stereo versions.
Jun 1 1968
Helen Keller -- America's all-time favorite deaf, dumb, and blind Socialist -- finally dies in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 87.
Jun 1 2001
In just two minutes, Nepal's royal family is nearly exterminated by one of its own. With a selection of machine guns, Crown Prince Dipendra massacres eight relatives, including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya. He then turns the gun on himself. Even though Dipendra winds up comatose in a hospital bed, a government council crowns him king anyway. The new monarch dies three days later.
Jun 1 2006
The Department of Homeland Security decides that New York has "no national monuments or icons" and anti-terrorism funding is reduced by $83 million. Instead, the money is distributed to fly-over states like Nebraska and Kentucky.
1495 - Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
1533 - Anne Boleyn crowned queen.
1815 - Napoleon swears fidelity to the Constitution of France.
1831 - Sir James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole.
1868 - Treaty of Bosque Redondo signed allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico.
1869 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine.
1879 - Napoleon Eugene (only son of Napoleon III) killed in the Anglo-Zulu War.
1910 - Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition sets off from Cardiff
1918 - World War I Western Front: Battle for Belleau Wood - Allied Forces under John J. Pershing & James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
1922 - Royal Ulster Constabulary founded .
1935 - The first driving tests are introduced in the United Kingdom.
1941 - World War II: Battle of Crete ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.
1942 - World War II: The Warsaw paper Liberty Brigade publishes the first news of the concentration camps.
1943 - British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
1967 - The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is released.
1979 - The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power.
1980 - Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
1990 - George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production.
2003 - Same-sex marriage comes into force in Belgium (Timeline of same-sex marriage)
2005 - The Dutch referendum on the European Constitution results in its rejection.
Births
1843 - Henry Faulds, Scottish fingerprinting pioneer (d. 1930)
1907 - Frank Whittle, English Royal Air Force officer and jet propulsion pioneer (d. 1996)
1939 - Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, British race car driver
1947 - Ron Wood, English guitarist (Rolling Stones)
1953 - David Berkowitz, American serial killer, a.k.a. The Son of Sam
1959 - Alan Wilder, British musician (Depeche Mode and Recoil)
1960 - Simon Gallup, English guitarist (The Cure)
1963 - Mike Joyce, English drummer (The Smiths)
1967 - Roger Sanchez, American disc jockey
1974 - Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer-songwriter
Deaths
1868 - James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (b. 1791)
1879 - Napoléon Eugčne, Prince Imperial son of Emperor Napoleon III (b. 1856)
1960 - Paula Hitler, Adolf Hitler's final living sibling (b. 1896)
1962 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (b. 1906)
1968 - Helen Keller, American humanitarian (b. 1880)
1991 - David Ruffin, American singer (The Temptations) (b. 1941)
Children's Day in some countries.
U.S. - National Accordion Awareness Month begins.
Kenya - Madaraka Day 1963.
Nirvana of Buddhists.
Samoa - Independence Day 1962.
Tunisia - Constitution Day / Victory Day 1959.
Foundation Day in Western Australia
UnregisteredSexOffender
June 1st, 2007, 10:58 AM
U.S. - National Accordion Awareness Month begins.
WTF??
While I'd love to spend the entire month of June being aware of a musical instrument called an accordion, I think I'll pass.
Cymru am byth
June 2nd, 2007, 10:31 AM
Jun 2 1740
Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade is born at Condé palace in Paris.
Jun 2 1793
Jean-Paul Marat recites names of 29 people to the French Assembly, virtually all of whom will be guillotined. Over the next year 17,000 will be executed in the Reign of Terror.
Jun 2 1996
Ray Combs, host of television's Family Feud, hangs himself with his bedsheets at Glendale Adventist Hospital. Combs was on a 72 hour suicide watch.
Jun 2 1999
Pope John Paul II blesses the Vatican's new underground parking garage. A miracle of modern technology!
Jun 2 2003
Thousands of defeated Iraqi troops marched on U.S. occupation headquarters in Baghdad, demanding to be paid. It is perhaps the first time in history a defeated army has demanded payroll from the victors.
Jun 2 2006
Right-wing nutjob Ann Coulter hires a White House-connected law firm to defend herself against charges of knowing voting in the wrong precinct (a felony).
455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks.
1774 - Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to let British soldiers into their homes, is reenacted.
1800 - First smallpox vaccination in North America, at Trinity, Newfoundland.
1896 - Guglielmo Marconi receives a patent for his newest invention: the radio.
1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
1946 - Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia is exiled.
1953 - Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the first to be televised.
1965 - Vietnam War: The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives in South Vietnam.
1975 - French sex workers occupied a Lyon church in protest against excessive fines and taxes, as well as a lack of police action against violence, thereby sparking the birth of the modern sex worker rights movement.
1979 - Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
1992 - Denmark rejects the Maastricht Treaty by a thin margin in a national referendum.
1998 - The CIH computer virus is discovered in Taiwan.
Births
1857 - Edward Elgar, English composer (d. 1934)
1941 - Charlie Watts, English musician (The Rolling Stones)
1941 - William Guest, American singer (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
1946 - Peter Sutcliffe, English murderer (Yorkshire Ripper)
1955 - Michael Steele, American musician (The Bangles)
1976 - Tim Rice-Oxley, English musician (Keane)
1980 - Fabrizio Moretti, American rock drummer (The Strokes)
Deaths
1882 - Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian revolutionarist (b. 1807)
1948 - Viktor Brack, Nazi physician (b. 1904)
1948 - Karl Brandt, personal physician of Adolf Hitler (b. 1904)
1948 - Karl Gebhardt, Nazi doctor (b. 1897)
1948 - Waldemar Hoven, German physician (b. 1903)
1948 - Wolfram Sievers, Nazi physician (b. 1905)
1999 - Junior Braithwaite, Jamaican musician (The Wailers) (b. 1949)
2005 - Chloe Jones, Model and pornographic actress (b. 1975)
2006 - Vince Welnick, musician, keyboardist (The Grateful Dead) (b. 1951)
MontysDouble
June 3rd, 2007, 03:00 AM
Wow- the US gave Indians citizenship in 1924. Shamefully, Australia didn't grant citizenship rights to Aboriginals until 1967- the 27th of May. :(
Another grand collection of nuggets there Cymru.
Cymru am byth
June 3rd, 2007, 11:39 AM
Jun 3 1791
The French Assembly passes a resolution bringing decapitation to the common criminal: "Every person condemned to the death penalty shall have his head severed."
Jun 3 1943
Three days after a sailor had been badly injured in a brawl with a group of Hispanics, a mob of 60 servicemen leaves the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory and bludgeons anybody wearing a zoot suit. The first two victims are a couple of boys, aged 12 and 13, who were just sitting in the Carmen Theater watching a movie. Thus begins a week-long race riot.
Jun 3 1968
Valerie Solanas, author of the SCUM Manifesto, arrives at the art studio of Andy Warhol and shoots him three times in the torso. Warhol barely survives the attempt on his life. Solanas is later jailed and institutionalized.
Jun 3 1989
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini dies after 11 days in a hospital, recovering from surgery to stop internal hemorrhaging.
Jun 3 1991
Students throw eggs at South Korean Prime Minister Chung Won Shik. Nobody is injured in the incident at Hankuk University in Seoul.
Jun 3 1998
15-year-old teen idol Brad Renfro is arrested in Knoxville, Tennessee and charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine.
Jun 3 1998
The world's first fatal high-speed rail accident occurs when a train near Eschede, Germany derails and 101 people are killed.
1539 - DeSoto claims Florida for Spain
1608 - Samuel de Champlain completes his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.
1620 - Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins at Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
1621 - The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherlands.
1665 - James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England) defeats the Dutch Fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.
1800 - U.S. President John Adams takes up residence in Washington, DC (in a tavern the White House was not yet completed).
1866 - Fenians are driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States to a heroes' welcome.
1885 - Last military engagement fought on Canadian soil: Cree leader Big Bear escapes the North West Mounted Police.
1889 - The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed from coast to coast.
1937 - The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson.
1940 - World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.
1940 - World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German victory and with Allied forces in full retreat.
1956 - British Rail renames 'Third Class' passenger facilities as 'Second Class' (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).
1965 - Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew.
1965 - For 21 minutes, Edward H. White floats free outside the space vehicle Gemini IV for the first time.
1969 - Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
1977 - Reggae stars Bob Marley and the Wailers release the classic album Exodus, which would be named Time magazine's "Album of the Century" in 1999.
1979 - A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill to date.
1982 - The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street. He survives but is permanently paralysed.
1989 - The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.
1991 - Mount Unzen erupts in Japan in Kyūshū killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.
1992 - The Mabo Decision is handed down, recognising the land rights of Australian Aborigines.
2006 - The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence.
2006 - Canada conducts largest domestic anti-terrorism operation, arresting 17 suspected of planning attacks in Ontario.
Births
1865 - George V of the United Kingdom (d. 1936)
1905 - Martin Weiss, Commandant of Dachau concentartion camp (d. 1945)
1939 - Ian Hunter (singer), English musician ( Mott the Hoople)
1946 - Michael Clarke American drummer (The Byrds) (d. 1993)
1947 - Mickey Finn, British guitarist and percussionist (T. Rex) (d. 2003)
1950 - Suzi Quatro, American musician and actress
1952 - Billy Powell, American keyboardist (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
1963 - Doro Pesch, German singer (Warlock)
1964 - Kerry King, American musician (Slayer)
1970 - Peter Tägtgren, Swedish musician (Hypocrisy) and producer
1974 - Kelly Jones, Welsh singer & Guitarist (Stereophonics)
Deaths
1659 - Morgan Llwyd, Welsh Puritan preacher and writer (b. 1619)
1899 - Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer (b. 1825)
1955 - Barbara Graham, American murderer (Gas chamber)(b. 1923)
1970 - Hjalmar Schacht, Nazi official (b. 1877)
1989 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian Shi'ite leader (b. 1900)
1990 - Stiv Bators, American musician (The Dead Boys) (b. 1949)
1991 - Katia Krafft, French volcanologist (eruption) (b. 1942)
1991 - Maurice Krafft, French volcanologist (eruption) (b. 1946)
Confederate Memorial Day observed in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
Cymru am byth
June 4th, 2007, 09:22 AM
Jun 4 1939
After already having been turned away by Cuba, the SS St. Louis is also denied permission to land in Florida. So it is forced to return to Europe with its cargo of 963 Jewish refugees, most of whom will later die in Nazi concentration camps.
Jun 4 1967
The Emmy for best comedy TV series is won by The Monkees. Good heavens.
Jun 4 1989
Chinese troops, firing a few warning shots, manage to push tens of thousands of student protesters out of Tiananmen Square without killing any of them. This changes once they're out of the Square, however. In the end, hundreds of unarmed citizens on the streets of Beijing are massacred by the army. Later, several leaders of the pro-democracy demonstration are publicly executed.
Jun 4 1989
645 rail passengers are killed in a natural gas explosion near Ufa, Russia. Their two trains are torn apart as they pass each other, throwing sparks near a leaky pipeline.
Jun 4 2000
Detroit rapper Eminem pistol-whips John Guerrera for kissing Kim Mathers, the object of his affections and/or rage. He is charged with disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct. Eminem tells a different story on his album The Eminem Show: "you're full of shit too Guerrera / that was a fist that hit you"
780 BC - The first historic solar eclipse is recorded in China.
1584 - Sir Walter Raleigh establishes first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina).
1760 - Great Upheaval: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia Canada taken from the Acadians.
1769 - A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in the historical past.
1783 - The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfičre (hot air balloon).
1792 - Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Great Britain.
1794 - British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
1876 - An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
1878 - Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.
1913 - Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies a few days later, never having regained consciousness.
1920 - Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population when the Treaty of Trianon is signed in Paris.
1940 - World War II: Dunkirk evacuation ends; British forces complete evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk in France.
1942 - World War II: Reinhard Heydrich dies in Prague due to the assassination of Czechoslovak paratroopers (Operation Anthropoid).
1942 - World War II: Battle of Midway begins. Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island with much of the Imperial Japanese navy.
1943 - Military coup in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.
1944 - World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy capture the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
1944 - World War II: Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis capital to fall.
1960 - Lake Bodom murders. 3 Die, one survives with severe injuries
1970 - Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1986 - Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel.
1989 - Solidarity's victory in the first partly free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparks off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe and leads to creation of the so-called Contract Sejm.
1991 - The United Kingdom's Conservative government announces that some British regiments would disappear or be merged into othersthe largest armed forces cuts in almost twenty years.
1998 - Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Births
1738 - King George III of Great Britain (d. 1820)
1910 - Christopher Sydney Cockerell, British engineer and inventor (d. 1999) (the hovercraft)
1944 - Michelle Phillips, American singer (The Mamas & the Papas) and actress
1953 - Paul Samson, British guitarist (Samson) (d. 2002)
Deaths
1941 - Kaiser Wilhelm II, last German emperor (b. 1859)
1942 - Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official (b. 1904)
1973 - Murry Wilson, father of Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Carl Wilson (b. 1917)
1994 - Derek Leckenby, British guitarist (Herman's Hermits) (b. 1943)
1997 - Ronnie Lane, British bass player (b. 1946) (Small Faces (1965-69) and Faces (1970-75).)
Holidays and observances
International Innocent Child Abuse Victim Day.
Tonga - National Day.
Finland - National flag day of the Finnish Defence Forces (on Mannerheim's birthday).
Hong Kong - Tiananmen Square Protest of 1989 memorial day.
Saint Petrock of Cornwall
Cymru am byth
June 5th, 2007, 09:37 AM
Jun 5 1956
Elvis Presley appears on Milton Berle TV show. His undulating hip movements during the song "Hound Dog" cause quite a controversy.
Jun 5 1968
Seconds after Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot dead by Sirhan Sirhan in a Los Angeles hotel, witnesses wrestle the Palestinian to the ground and grab his smoking .22-caliber revolver. Sirhan later claims to have been acting unconsciously, possibly the result of hypnotic brainwashing.
Jun 5 1975
During the Wish You Were Here recording sessions, Syd Barrett just happens to wander into Abbey Road studio while Pink Floyd are mixing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," a song written about Barrett. At first, none of Syd's former bandmates recognizes their former bandmate, who is compulsively brushing his teeth.
Jun 5 1986
A 52-year old man in Auburn, Washington dies after taking an Excedrin capsule laced with cyanide. This is the first of two Excedrin deaths.
Jun 5 1998
Reuters and ABC News both erroneously report the death of Bob Hope, after Arizona congressman Bob Stump announces the comedian's demise on the floor of the U.S. Congress. This is to the great surprise of Bob Hope himself, who was eating breakfast at the time.
70 - Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem.
1798 - Battle of New Ross: The attempt to spread United Irish Rebellion into Munster is defeated.
1829 - HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.
1900 - Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria.
1917 - World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day."
1924 - Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean (to his father in Sweden).
1944 - World War II: The two largest invasion fleets in history sailed this morning on opposite sides of the world.
1944 - World War II: More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
1944 - World War II: Rome liberated by the Allies
1945 - Allied Control Council, military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.
1947 - Marshall Plan: At a speech at Harvard University, United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe.
1959 - The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in.
1963 - British Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigns in a sex scandal.
1967 - Six-Day War begins: The Israeli air force launches simultaneous pre-emptive attacks on the air forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.
1969 - The gates at Richard Nixon's new house are finished. As they looked over the water, they were nicknamed the "watergates". Many years later the irony was duely noted.
1975 - The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War.
1975 - The UK holds its first and only UK-wide referendum, on remaining in the EEC.
1976 - Collapse of the Teton Dam in Idaho, United States kills 14 people and 13,000 cattle.
1977 - The Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale.
1981 - The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.
1984 - Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders an attack on the Golden Temple, the holiest site of the Sikh religion.
1989 - The Inuvialuit Final Agreement is signed in Canada to give the Inuit of western Canada the first comprehensive land claim agreement north of the 60th parallel.
1989 - The Unknown Rebel halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
2002 - Mozilla 1.0, the first 'official' version, is released.
Births
1718 - Thomas Chippendale, English furniture maker (d. 1779)
1850 - Pat Garrett, American Western lawman (d. 1908)
1946 - John Bach, Welsh actor (Madril in Lord of the Rings pt2 & 3)
1947 - Tom Evans British musician,( Badfinger )(d. 1983)
1949 - Ken Follett, Welsh author
1952 - Nicko McBrain, English drummer (Iron Maiden)
1956 - Richard Butler, English singer (Psychedelic Furs)
1971 - Mark Wahlberg, American singer:1orglaugh: and actor
1979 - Pete Wentz, American musician (Fall Out Boy)
1981 - Sebastien Lefebvre, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
1981 - Jade Goody, British television personality :1orglaugh: & fat, ugly, racist bitch:D
Deaths
1916 - Horatio Kitchener, Lord Kitchener, British field marshal (b. 1850)
1920 - Rhoda Broughton, Welsh author (b. 1840)
2002 - Dee Dee Ramone, American bassist (The Ramones) (b. 1952)
2004 - Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (b. 1911)
Holidays and observances
World Environment Day, since the United Nations General Assembly resolution in 1972.
National holiday of Denmark (Constitution Day).
Seychelles - Liberation Day.
Cymru am byth
June 6th, 2007, 08:57 AM
Jun 6 1752
A devastating fire destroys a third of Moscow, including 18,000 homes. Two other large-scale fires already struck the city in the previous 13 days.
Jun 6 1882
A cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushes huge waves into Bombay harbor, drowning 100,000 inhabitants.
Jun 6 1968
Senator Robert F. Kennedy dies at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. The Democratic lawmaker had been campaigning for his party's Presidential nomination when he was shot three times by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
Jun 6 1976
American expatriate J. Paul Getty, named the richest man in the world in 1957, dies in London at age 83. According to the oil baron, "If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars."
Jun 6 1981
An Indian passenger train traveling between Mansi and Saharsa jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing, submerging 11 compartments beneath the Bagmati river. Although the government places the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing, the actual figure is more like 1,000 killed.
Jun 6 1984
Indira Gandhi dispatches the Indian Armed Forces to attack the Golden Temple in Amritsar, in an effort to flush out terrorists hiding inside Sikhism's most holy shrine. The government asserts that 576 combatants were killed and 335 wounded in the operation, although independent observers claim that this figure omits thousands of unarmed Sikh civilians who were killed in the crossfire.
Jun 6 1985
Authorities in Embu, Brazil exhume the grave of one Wolfgang Gerhard in order to determine its true identity. The remains are later proven to be those of Dr. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's notorious "Angel of Death." Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in the ocean in February 1979.
Jun 6 1989
During the Tehran funeral of the Ayatollah Khomeini, frenzied mourners accidentally tip his corpse out of its coffin and onto the ground. Three million horrified followers bear witness to the desecration.
Jun 6 1990
US district court judge Jose Gonzalez rules that the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by 2 Live Crew violates Florida's obscenity law. Gonzalez declares that the predominant subject matter of the record is "directed to the 'dirty' thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind."
Jun 6 1991
For robbing a Las Vegas video store five weeks earlier, a judge gives former Diff'rent Strokes child star Dana Plato a six-year suspended sentence. Plato's haul from the caper was $164, which she obtained by brandishing a pellet gun at the clerk.
Jun 6 1997
During her senior prom, New Jersey teenager Melissa Drexler gives birth to a healthy baby in a bathroom stall. She then strangles the child with a plastic bag and severs the umbilicus with the sharp edge on the tampon dispenser. After stashing the corpse in the trash, Drexler returns to prom and proceeds to eat a salad, request a Metallica song, and dance.
Jun 6 1999
In the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history, 345 prisoners run out of the main gate of Putim maximum security prison, without even the slightest response from the warden or guards. This makes the 10th escape for the 3-year-old detention center. Authorities will kill two of the fugitives and accidentally jail five innocent bystanders in the ensuing manhunt.
1808 - Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte is crowned King of Spain
1813 - War of 1812: Battle of Stoney Creek - A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeat an American force three times its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
1844 - The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
1859 - Australia: Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales (Queensland Day).
1918 - WWI - Battle of Belleau Wood begins .
1925 - The Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.
1939 - German dictator Adolf Hitler gives a public address to returning German volunteers who fought as Legion Kondor during the Spanish Civil War.
1944 - World War II: Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
1969 - The first Internet connection was created when network control protocol packets were sent from the data port of one IMP to another
1982 - 1982 Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
2002 - Eastern Mediterranean Event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 metres diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
2005 - United States Supreme Court says no to medical marijuana in Gonzales v. Raich.
Births
1868 - Robert Falcon Scott, English explorer (d. 1912)
1872 - Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (d. 1918)
1896 - Henry Allingham, English pilot and founding member of the Royal Air Force
1960 - Steve Vai, American musician
1961 - Tom Araya, Chilean musician (Slayer)
1966 - Sean Yseult, American musician (White Zombie)
1966 - Murdoc Niccals, English musician (Gorillaz)
1970 - James Shaffer, American musician (Korn)
1972 - Cristina Scabbia, Italian singer (Lacuna Coil)
1978 - Carl Barât, English singer and guitarist (The Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things)
Deaths
1968 - Robert F. Kennedy, United States Attorney General and Senator (b. 1925)
1968 - Randolph Churchill, son of Winston Churchill (b. 1911)
2002 - Robbin Crosby, American guitarist (Ratt) (b. 1959)
2003 - Dave Rowberry, British musician (The Animals) (b. 1940)
Holidays and observances
International Metal day.
D-Day landings - Europe.
Memorial Day - South Korea.
National holiday of Sweden.
Queensland Day.
Cymru am byth
June 7th, 2007, 08:37 AM
Jun 7 1692
At 11:43am, a catastrophic earthquake strikes Port Royal, Jamaica, then known as "the richest and wickedest city in the world." Buildings are shaken apart and ships in harbor hurled onto busy streets. In just three minutes, the temblor takes out 70% of the population, killing 1,600 and seriously injuring 3,000 others.
Jun 7 1954
Despondent over court-ordered estrogen treatments to cure his homosexuality, Alan Turing commits suicide by consuming an apple laced with cyanide. Turing is considered the founder of modern computing, a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and a crucial member of the team that cracked Germany's Enigma cipher in World War II.
Jun 7 1958
Prince Roger Nelson is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The boy is destined to one day be known as the artist formerly known as Prince.
Jun 7 1982
In an effort to defray its $500,000 annual upkeep costs, Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public only five years after Elvis died in an upstairs bathroom. The bathroom is kept off-limits to tourists.
1099 - The First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins.
1494 - Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.
1800 - David Thompson reaches the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba.
1832 - Asian cholera brought to Quebec by Irish immigrants kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada.
1862 - The United States and Britain agree to suppress the slave trade.
1863 - Mexico City is captured by French troops.
1866 - 1800 Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after they loot and plunder around Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg, Quebec.
1893 - Gandhi's first act of civil disobedience.
1905 - Norway dissolves its union with Sweden.
1906 - Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania is launched at the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow(Clydebank), Scotland.
1917 - World War I: Battle of Messines - Allied ammonal mines underneath German trenches in Mesen Ridge are detonated, killing 10,000 German troops.
1940 - King Haakon VII of Norway, Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government leave Tromsř and go into exile in London.
1942 - World War II: The Battle of Midway ends.
1942 - Japanese soldiers occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, as the Axis power continues to expand its defensive perimeter.
1944 - Nazi Panzer SS troops murder 23 Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy.
1945 - King Haakon VII of Norway returns with his family to Oslo after five years in exile.
1948 - Edvard Bene resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing a Constitution making his nation a Communist state.
1967 - The Israeli forces enter Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.
1975 - Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder for sale to the public.
1977 - 500 million people watch on television as the high day of Jubilee gets underway for Queen Elizabeth II.
1981 - The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera. The Israelis charged the facility could have been used to make nuclear weapons.
2001 - Tony Blair's Labour Party wins another landslide victory in the General Election.
2006 - British Houses of Parliament temporarily shut down due to anthrax alert.
Births
1770 - Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1828)
1837 - Alois Hitler, father of Adolf Hitler (d. 1903)
1940 - Tom Jones, Welsh singer
1967 - Dave Navarro, American musician
Deaths
1329 - Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (b. 1274)
1394 - Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II of England (plague) (b. 1367)
1951 - Oswald Pohl, German Nazi leader (b. 1892)
Holidays and observances
Norway - Union Dissolution Day, observing the 1905 decision to dissolve the Union between Sweden and Norway.
Malta - Sette giugno - Riot in Malta that began the road to self government and then independence
Cymru am byth
June 8th, 2007, 07:08 PM
Jun 8 632
The prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam, dies in Mecca. One can safely assume he is at this very moment reclining on a soft couch somewhere in Paradise, being serviced by a high-bosomed virgin with dark eyes.
Jun 8 1967
34 American servicemen are killed and 171 wounded when the highly-conspicuous U.S.S. Liberty is strafed twice in 75 minutes by Israeli fighters and torpedo boats. The American spy ship happens to be sitting in international waters, 15 miles off the coast of Egypt, monitoring unfolding events of the Six Day War. Israel soon labels the incident a regrettable "error," claiming that they did not realize it was an American ship. For some reason, the United States pretends to accept this laughable explanation as well as a large restitution payment for the damage incurred by the vessel.
Jun 8 1986
Former UN Secretary General and Nazi war criminal Kurt Waldheim is elected president of Austria. One year later, the U.S. Justice Department places him on a watch list of undesirable aliens, making Waldheim the first foreign head of state legally forbidden from visiting America.
Jun 8 1998 The President of Nigeria, general Sani Abacha, dies of apparent heart failure during a Viagra-driven romp with three Indian whores. Abacha is quickly buried the following day without an autopsy or even a state funeral, fueling speculation that the general may have been poisoned by political rivals. Abacha stole more than $4 billion during his five years as dictator, and his widow Maryam is captured shortly thereafter attempting to flee the country with 30 suitcases full of American currency.
793 - The first Viking raid on British soil at Lindisfarne where a set date for the raid is known.
1191 - Richard I arrives in Acre thus beginning his crusade.
1866 - The Canadian Parliament meets for the first time in Ottawa.
1941 - World War II: Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
1942 - World War II: Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
1949 - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is published.
1953 - The United States Supreme Court rules that Washington, D.C. restaurants could not refuse to serve black patrons.
1959 - The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
1967 - Six-Day War: The USS Liberty incident occurs, killing 34 and wounding 171.
1968 - James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
1968 - The body of assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
1984 - Homosexuality is declared not a crime in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
1987 - New Zealand's Labour government legislates against nuclear weapons and nuclear powered vessels. This makes New Zealand the first and (as at June 2006) only nation to ban these things from its territory.
1995 - Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
1995 - Rasmus Lerdorf launched version 1.0 of the popular scripting language PHP.
1999 - War on Drugs: The government of Colombia announces it will include the estimated value of the country's illegal drug crops, exceeding half a billion US dollars, in its gross national product.
Births
1885 - Karl Genzken, Nazi physician (d. 1957)
1942 - Doug Mountjoy, Welsh snooker player
1944 - Boz Scaggs, American singer and songwriter (Steve Miller band)
1951 - Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer and guitarist
1955 - Tim Berners-Lee, British inventor of the internet
1955 - Greg Ginn, American guitarist (Black Flag)
1960 - Mick Hucknall, English singer and songwriter (Simply Red)
1962 - Nick Rhodes, English musician (Duran Duran)
Deaths
1874 - Cochise, Apache leader
2003 - Leighton Rees, Welsh darts player (b. 1940)
Cymru am byth
June 9th, 2007, 11:40 AM
Jun 9 68
Rather than suffer a Senate-imposed death by flogging, Nero implores his secretary Epaphroditus to slit his throat. The freedman complies, giving the condemned emperor a quick death, just as centurions arrive at the villa to haul him away.
Jun 9 1930
Jake Lingle, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, is shot dead gangland-style at the Illinois Central train station underpass, during rush hour. Dozens of people witness the murder, and the Leo Vincent Brothers are caught four months later after an intensive manhunt. Lingle was allegedly killed over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone.
Jun 9 1980
In the midst of a cocaine binge, comedian Richard Pryor attempts suicide by dousing himself with rum and setting it ablaze. The self-immolation attempt goes haywire when the flaming man leaps from his apartment window and runs down the street, screaming in agony. Pryor barely survives the incident, and only after six weeks of intensive care and three skin graft surgeries.
Jun 9 1999
Honduran officials warn that, due to years of inadequate maintenance and obstructions caused by hurricane Mitch, the clogged sewers in Tegucigalpa pose an imminent threat to human life. They announce that the water treatment system includes tanks clogged with fecal matter that could disastrously explode at any moment.
1534 - Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the St. Lawrence River.
1856 - 500 Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa and head west for Salt Lake City, Utah carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.
1944 - World War II: The Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, since 1941 occupied by Finland.
1959 - The USS George Washington is launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
1967 - Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War.
1978 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opens the priesthood to "all worthy men", ending a 148-year-old policy excluding black men.
1983 - Margaret Thatcher wins a second term by a landslide in the British General Election with a majority of 144 for her Conservative Party. Tony Blair is elected for the first time to Parliament.
1985 - Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped in Lebanon (he was not released until 1991).
1999 - Kosovo War: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization sign a peace treaty.
1999 - Kosovo War: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization sign a peace treaty.
Births
1891 - Cole Porter, American composer and lyricist (d. 1964)
1915 - Les Paul, American guitarist
1941 - Jon Lord, organist in Deep Purple
1978 - Matthew Bellamy, British musician (Muse)
1983 - Alektra Blue, American porn star
Deaths
62 - Claudia Octavia, wife of Nero (b. 40)
68 - Nero, Roman Emperor (b. 37)
1656 - Thomas Tomkins, Welsh composer (b. 1572)
1870 - Charles Dickens, English author (b. 1812)
Cymru am byth
June 10th, 2007, 11:28 AM
Jun 10 1692
Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts after having been convicted of "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries." Bishop is just the first casualty of what will come to be known as the Salem Witch Trials.
Jun 10 1942
The town of Lidice (Loditz) is liquidated by the Nazis as penalty for the assassination of Adolf Hitler's favorite general, Reinhard Heydrich. Every adult male is killed, the women sent to the camps, and the town bulldozed.
Jun 10 1973
The 17-year-old grandson of J. Paul Getty is abducted in Rome. When the kidnappers demand a $17 million ransom, the billionaire refuses. "I have 14 other grandchildren, and if I pay one penny now, then I will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren." After the grandson's severed ear arrives in the mail, Getty finally coughs up the money.
Jun 10 1980
Percy Wood, president of United Airlines, receives a parcel at his home in Lake Forest, Illinois. Inside is a copy of the book Ice Brothers by Sloan Wilson. When he opens the book, it suddenly explodes, throwing shrapnel into Wood's hands, face, and thigh. The book turns out to be a present from the Unabomber.
Jun 10 1999
Outside on the front lawn of his Miami home, Russell Cameron is covered with trash and doused with gasoline. Then his lunatic nephew, Thomas Pellechio, sets the pile on fire and runs away. When police arrive, they discover a 12.5 inch Oriental sword in Cameron's rectum, rammed in all the way up to the hilt.
1719 - Battle of Glen Shiel between the British government and an alliance of Jacobites and Spaniards, the last close engagement of British and foreign troops on mainland British soil.
1829 - First Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge.
1846 - Mexican-American War: The California Republic declares independence from Mexico.
1854 - The first class of United States Naval Academy students graduate.
1886 - Eruption of Mount Tarawera in New Zealand, killing 153 people and destroying the famous Pink and White Terraces.
1898 - Spanish-American War: US Marines land on the island of Cuba.
1918 - Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Szent Istvan sinks after being torpedoed by an Italian MAS motorboat.
1935 - Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob.
1940 - World War II: Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.
1940 - World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy's actions with "Stab in the Back" speech from the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.
1940 - World War II: German forces, under General Erwin Rommel, reach the English Channel.
1940 - World War II: Canada declares war on Italy.
1940 - World War II: Norway Surrenders to German forces.
1942 - World War II: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
1944 - World War II: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
1944 - World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 children,women and men were massacred by German troops.
1945 - Australian Imperial Forces landed in Brunei Bay to liberate Brunei.
1947 - Saab produces its first automobile.
1967 - Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire.
1977 - James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee, but is recaptured on June 13 at London's Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the United Kingdom on a false Canadian passport
1977 - Apple Computer ships its first Apple II personal computer.
1980 - The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a call to fight from their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela.
1991 - In what was dubbed "The Mother of All Parades," New York City hosts a parade welcoming back troops from Operation Desert Storm.
19b96 - Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without Sinn Féin.
1997 - Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold.
1999 - Kosovo War: NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Miloević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
Births
1910 - Howlin' Wolf, American musician (d. 1976)
1921 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
1961 - Kim Deal, American musician (Pixies), (The Breeders)
1961 - Kelley Deal, American musician (The Breeders)
1964 - Jimmy Chamberlin, American musician (The Smashing Pumpkins)
1967 - Emma Anderson, British guitarist and songwriter (Lush, Sing-Sing)
Deaths
323 BC - Alexander the Great (b. 356 BC)
1959 - Zoltán Meskó, Hungarian Nazi (b. 1883)
1973 - Erich von Manstein, German military commander (b. 1887)
2003 - Dr Phil Williams, Welsh politician and scientist (b. 1939)
2004 - Ray Charles, American musician (b. 1930)
Holidays and observances
Portugal Day National day of Portugal, Camőes and the Portuguese Communities
Cymru am byth
June 11th, 2007, 10:38 AM
Jun 11 1881
A phantom vessel appears in the sky to the passengers and crew of the ship Bacchante, including Prince Albert Victor and Prince George, both sons of the Prince of Wales.
Jun 11 1936
Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian, commits suicide by blowing his brains out.
Jun 11 1955
An Austin-Healy and Mercedes-Benz collide at the Le Mans Grand Prix. The Mercedes drove into a dirt retaining wall, disintegrated, and the hood, chassis, and various auto parts sliced through the spectator crowd. Eighty-three were killed, and 100 others were missing various "parts".
Jun 11 1962
Frank Morris and the brothers John and Clarence Anglin escape from Alcatraz.
Jun 11 1963
Protesting the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection.
Jun 11 1963
Governor Wallace stands in the schoolhouse door, blocking admission of blacks to the University of Alabama.
Jun 11 1964
Just after 9am, deranged World War II veteran Walter Seifert barges into a busy Cologne, Germany elementary school with a homemade flamethrower. He then proceeds to burn 8 children to death and seriously injure 21 others. In the process, he also stabs 2 teachers to death with a lance. Before police are finally able to apprehend him with a gunshot to the leg, Seifert swallows insecticide and proceeds to die in the hospital the next day.
Jun 11 1979
John Wayne dies of lung cancer.
Jun 11 1993
Actor Ray Sharkey dies from AIDS. Ray was a cocaine/heroin addict who appeared as mobster Sonny Steelgrave on the TV show Wiseguy.
Jun 11 1999
I ' M D E A D J I M
DeForest Kelley, "Bones" from the original Star Trek television series, dies of a "lingering illness".
1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy was sacked and burned, according to the calculations of Eratosthenes.
1429 - Hundred Years' War: The start of the Battle of Jargeau.
1509 - Marriage of King Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon.
1770 - Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef.
1776 - Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to a committee to draft a declaration of independence.
1788 - Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska.
1901 - New Zealand annexes the Cook Islands.
1937 - Great Purge: The Soviet Union executes eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin.
1940 - World War II: British forces bomb Genoa and Turin in Italy.
1940 - World War II: First attack of the Italian Airforce on the island of Malta.
1942 - World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
1970 - After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first females to do so.
1988 - Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Wembley Stadium, London.
1998 - Compaq Computer pays $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in largest high-tech acquisition.
2001 - Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
2004 - Ronald Reagan's funeral held at Washington National Cathedral.
2005 - G8 finance ministers agree to cancel the debt owed by 18 of the poorest countries.
Births
1947 - Richard Palmer-James, British lyricist and guitarist (King Crimson and Supertramp)
1949 - Frank Beard, member of rock group ZZ Top
1950 - Graham Russell, British guitarist and vocalist (Air Supply)
1965 - Joey Santiago, Filipino guitarist (Pixies)
1969 - Steven Drozd, American drummer (The Flaming Lips)
Deaths
1183 - Henry the Young King, son of Henry II of England (b. 1155)
1488 - King James III of Scotland
1727 - King George I of Great Britain (b. 1668)
1937 - R. J. (Reginald Joseph) Mitchell, British aircraft designer (b. 1895)(Spitfire)
1979 - John Wayne (born Marion Morrison), American actor (b. 1907)
2001 - Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (executed) (b. 1968)
Holidays and Observances
Kamehameha Day, official state holiday of Hawaii, United States, in honor of its first monarch, celebrated with floral parades, hula competition, and festivals
Davis Day, in remembrance of William Davis, observed in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada
National Puerto Rican Day, Started in 1956, Festivals and Parades will be held
Cymru am byth
June 12th, 2007, 04:28 PM
Jun 12 1963
Civil rights lawyer Medgar Evers is shot dead in the driveway of his home in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The assassin, a Klansman named Byron De La Beckwith, dodges prison when two all-white juries return hung verdicts, but is finally convicted of the crime in 1994.
Jun 12 1978
David Berkowitz is sentenced to 365 consecutive years in prison without the possibility of parole. Berkowitz killed six New Yorkers between 1976 and 1977, known collectively as the Son of Sam murders.
Jun 12 1991
After 500 years of silence, Mount Pinatubo erupts, making an estimated 100,000 homeless and killing 300. Two U.S. military bases, Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, are abandoned. The blast is ten times larger than the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
Jun 12 1994
Nicole Brown Simpson and her male friend Ronald Goldman are savagely murdered in front of Simpson's condominium complex in Brentwood, California. The most plausible suspect turns out to be Nicole's estranged husband O.J., who is arrested for the crime a month later.
1381 - Peasants' Revolt: In England rebels arrive at Blackheath
1429 - Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau.
1653 - First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Gabbard – lasted until June 13.
1665 - England installs a municipal government in New York City. This was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.
1885 - At a murder trial in France, a roof collapses, killing 30 people.
1898 - Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain.
1902 - Australia: Women in the four Australian States without female suffrage achieved the right to vote in Commonwealth elections under Section 3 of the Commonwealth Franchise Act for an Uniform Federal Franchise. Specifically excluded from enrolling to vote were 'aboriginal native[s] of Australia Africa Asia or the Islands of the Pacific except New Zealand' unless covered under Section 41 of the Constitution of Australia.
1922 - In Windsor Castle, King George V receives the colours of the six Irish regiments that are to be disbanded - the Royal Irish Regiment, the Connaught Rangers, the South Irish Horse, the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
1940 - World War II: 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.
1942 - Holocaust: Future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
1943 - Holocaust: German Nazis liquidate Jewish Ghetto in Berezhany, western Ukraine. On Saturday morning, 1,180 Jews of Berezhany were led to face death at city's old Jewish graveyard, where they had been shot into a mass grave.
1964 - South Africa sentences Nelson Mandela to life in prison.
1967 - The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.
1987 - Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall at Brandenburg Gate.
1990 - Russia Day – The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
1991 - Russians elect Boris Yeltsin as the president of their republic.
1998 - The Philippines celebrates its centennial year of Independence from Spain.
1999 - Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins – NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force KFor enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Births
1897 - Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1977)
1924 - George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States
1929 - Anne Frank, German-born Dutch Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim (d. 1945)
1949 - John Wetton, English musician (Asia)
1951 - Bun E. Carlos, American musician (Cheap Trick)
1951 - Brad Delp, American singer (Boston) (d. 2007)
1952 - Pete Farndon, English musician (The Pretenders) (d. 1983)
1959 - John Linnell, American musician (They Might Be Giants)
1962 - Paul Clark, English musician (The Bolshoi)
1983 - Bryan Habana, South African rugby player
1985 - Kendra Wilkinson, American Playboy bunny/Playmate
Deaths
1778 - Philip Livingston, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1716)
1994 - Ronald Goldman, American actor and model (murdered) (b. 1969)
1994 - Nicole Brown Simpson, American ex-wife of O.J. Simpson (murdered) (b. 1959)
Holidays and observances
Philippines – Araw ng Kalayaan (Independence Day) 1898
Russian Federation – Russia Day (Independence Day) 1990
United Kingdom – Trooping the Colour (Military celebration of the monarch's official birthday held in London on the second Saturday of June)
Brazil – Dia dos Namorados (Lover's Day; similar to St. Valentine's)
World Day Against Child Labor
Cymru am byth
June 13th, 2007, 08:20 AM
Jun 13 1886
The bodies of Bavaria's mad King Ludwig II and his physician, Dr. Gudden, are discovered floating face-down in Lake Starnberg. The recently-deposed monarch had been under house arrest ever since his uncle, Prince Luitpold von Bayern, staged a coup a few days earlier.
Jun 13 1920
The United States Postal Service rules that children may not be sent via Parcel Post.
Jun 13 1934
Two months before becoming Fuhrer, Hitler meets Mussolini in Venice. Unfortunately, Mussolini refuses to have an interpreter and his German is not good, so neither man can understand the other. Unimpressed, Mussolini gathers a general impression of the German as "a silly little monkey."
Jun 13 1944
The Third Reich fires eleven V-1 flying bombs at England from France. Only four of the Buzzbombs actually strike London, but the Germans will eventually follow that up with another 9,000.
Jun 13 1971
Next to the White House wedding photo of President Nixon's daughter Tricia, the New York Times runs its first story on the "Pentagon Papers," a top secret DoD analysis authored by the RAND Corporation detailing every mistake and deception made during the 30-year history of the Vietnam War. Attorney General John Mitchell manages to block any further publication of the embarrassing documents, but the court order is countermanded two weeks later in a Supreme Court decision.
Jun 13 1981
During the Trooping the Colour ceremony, a 17-year-old fires six blanks from a revolver at Queen Elizabeth II, startling her horse. Marcus Sargeant is later sentenced to five years imprisonment for the offense.
Jun 13 1985
Mailroom workers discover a bomb inside a suspicious parcel at Boeing, Inc.'s Fabrication Division in Auburn, Washington. After the police bomb squad disarms it, investigators discover the initials "FC" stamped on both caps, making it the first explosive device recovered intact from the Unabomber.
1625 - King Charles I is married to the French princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon
1774 - Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
1881 - The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
1886 - A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.
1942 - The United States opens its Office of War Information.
1944 - World War II: Germany launches a counter attack on Carentan.
1952 - Catalina affair, a Swedish Douglas DC-3 was shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.
1966 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
1967 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1970 - "The Long and Winding Road" becomes the Beatles' last Number 1 song.
1977 - Convicted Martin Luther King assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
1978 - Israeli Defense Forces withdraw from Lebanon.
1982 - Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.
1983 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system.
1994 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
1995 - French president Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
1996 - The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.
1997 - A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to the death penalty for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
2005 - A jury in Santa Maria, California, acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland Ranch.
Births
1963 - Paul De Lisle, American musician (Smash Mouth)
1970 - Rivers Cuomo, American musician (Weezer)
1974 - Steve-O, American television personality
Cymru am byth
June 14th, 2007, 10:27 AM
Jun 14 1648
Midwife Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft. It is the first such execution for the Massachusetts colony, but not the first in the colonies.
Jun 14 1954
At the Lincoln Memorial, President Dwight Eisenhower signs a law inserting the words "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance. Eisenhower declares: "From this day forward, the millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty." Precisely which Almighty is left to the listener's imagination.
Jun 14 1961
1980s pop music star Boy George is born in Kent, England. As he later comes to describe his childhood, "I had five brothers and I was brought up drinking the same water and being fed the same doctrine as my brothers, but somehow I turned out to be a fabulous homosexual."
Jun 14 1962
Albert DeSalvo murders Anna Slesersby by strangling her with the belt from her robe. She is only the first victim of "The Boston Strangler."
Jun 14 1966
The Vatican announces the abolition of its Index librorum prohibitum (Index of Prohibited Books), originally instituted in 1557 by Pope Paul IV.
Jun 14 1976
The Gong Show debuts on NBC. People with dubious talents perform their acts before a celebrity panel of judges, who are free to eject the performer at any time by banging a large gong. The best non-gonged performer each night wins $516.32.
Jun 14 1989
Zsa Zsa Gabor is arrested for slapping a Beverly Hills police officer and driving with an expired license. Afterwards Zsa Zsa complains to the press that the handling she received from the BHPD "was like Nazi Germany." Ultimately, Gabor is convicted and sentenced to 72 hours in jail.
Jun 14 1993
During a week-long Product Tampering scare, Pepsi-Cola suspends its advertising campaign after nationwide reports of customers discovering syringes in unopened cans of Diet Pepsi. In response, television host David Letterman suggests ten new slogans, including "200cc's of great taste" and "Every can inspected by Ray Charles" (the company's blind celebrity spokesman).
1381 - King Richard II of England meets the leaders of Peasants' Revolt.
1645 - English Civil War: Battle of Naseby – 12,000 Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers.
1777 - Stars and Stripes adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.
1789 - Mutiny on the Bounty: HMAV Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,000-mile) journey in an open boat.
1789 - Whisky distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It is named Bourbon because Rev Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
1800 - Napoleon Bonaparte's French Army defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in Northern Italy and re-conquers Italy.
1839 - Henley Royal Regatta: The village of Henley, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, stages its first Regatta.
1846 - Bear Flag Revolt begins - Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the California Republic.
1872 - Trade unions are legalised in Canada.
1900 - Hawaii becomes a United States territory.
1900 - The Reichstag approves a second law that allows the expansion of the German navy.
1907 - Norway adopts female suffrage.
1908 - Fourth German Navy Bill is passed authorising the financing the building of another four major warships.
1919 - John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.
1937 - U. S. House of Representatives passes the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.
1938 - Action Comics issues the first Superman comic.
1940 - World War II: Paris falls under German occupation.
1940 - Spanish invade Tangier international zone.
1940 - World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Naval Expansion Act into law which aims to increase the United States Navy's tonnage by 11%.
1940 - A group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów become the first residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
1941 - Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Lithuanians and Latvians begun.
1942 - Anne Frank begins to keep a diary.
1952 - The keel is laid for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.
1962 - The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
1962 - New Mexico Supreme Court in the case of Montoya v. Bolack, 70 N.M. 196, prohibited state and local governments from denying Indians the right to vote because they lived on a reservation.
1967 - The People's Republic of China tests its first hydrogen bomb.
1976 - The trial begins at Oxford Crown Court of Donald Neilson, the killer known as the Black Panther.
1982 - Falklands War ends: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley unconditionally surrender to British forces.
1985 - TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah.
2002 - Twelve are killed and 50 injured by a car bomb explosion in front of the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.
2005 - Asafa Powell from Jamaica sets a new world record on the 100 m sprint in Athens with 9.77 seconds
Births
1928 - Che Guevara, Argentine-born revolutionary (d. 1967)
1945 - Rod Argent, English musician (The Zombies)
1949 - Jimmy Lea, British musician (Slade)
1949 - Alan White, British drummer (Yes)
1950 - Dr Rowan Williams, Welsh 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
1956 - King Diamond, Danish singer (King Diamond, Mercyful Fate)
1964 - Stacy Burke, American adult actress and model
Deaths
1928 - Emmeline Pankhurst, British feminist (b. 1857)
1946 - John Logie Baird, Scottish television pioneer (b. 1888)
Holidays and observances
Liberation Day (Falkland Islands)
Flag Day (United States)
Mother's Day (Afghanistan)
National Day of Commemoration - Estonia
World Blood Donor Day – Celebration of blood donation on the birthdate of Karl Landsteiner, who discovered ABO blood groups
International Weblogger's Day – Celebration of the work of webloggers around the world
Cymru am byth
June 15th, 2007, 08:44 AM
Jun 15 1409
Petros Philargos is elected Pope Alexander V by the Council of Pisa. This poses a certain amount of difficulty, as there already is a Pope in Rome, Gregory XII, and another in Avignon, Benedict XII. Ultimately, none of the three is willing to step down, leading the Chuch into a double schism.
Jun 15 1667
Jean-Baptiste Denis performs the world's first blood transfusion on a human subject. He gives a feverish and drowsy man about 12 ounces of lamb's blood, after which the patient "rapidly recovered from his lethargy, grew fatter and was an object of surprise and astonishment to all who knew him." Nevertheless, it will be another century before human-to-human transfusions are attempted.
Jun 15 1955
The Eisenhower administration stages the first annual OPAL exercise. In the "Operation Alert" drill, air raid sirens blare across America to assess our preparations for a nuclear attack. Duck and cover, people.
Jun 15 1969
Hee Haw debuts on CBS television as a summer replacement for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The country bumpkin musical comedy show quickly becomes an institution, airing weekly until its demise in December 1997.
Jun 15 1992
The Supreme Court rules in US v. Alvarez-Machain that it is permissible for America to abduct suspects in foreign countries and smuggle them into the United States for trial, without extradition approval from those other countries. Of course, the U.S. recognizes no reciprocal right for the reverse to happen on our soil.
Jun 15 1993
The Washington Times reports that at least 1,416 Boy Scout leaders have been expelled for molestation since 1973. Of course, those were only the ones who actually got caught.
Jun 15 1999
Nicholas Vitalich is arrested outside a supermarket in San Diego, California for slapping his girlfriend upside the head with a large tuna. Vitalich is booked for assault with a deadly weapon, namely the fish.
1215 - King John of England puts his seal to the Magna Carta.
1752 - Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity.
1808 - Joseph Bonaparte becomes King of Spain.
1844 - Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
1846 - The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
1859 - Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers.
1864 - Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.8 km˛) around Arlington Mansion are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
1877 - Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.
1888 - Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II and is the last emperor of the German Empire
1919 - John Alcock and Arthur Brown complete first nonstop transatlantic flight at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland.
1944 - World War II: Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.
1994 - Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations.
1996 - In Manchester, UK, a terrorist bomb (IRA) injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city centre causing damage estimated at Ł411 million.
2002 - Near earth asteroid 2002 MN misses our planet by 75,000 miles (120,000 km) about one third the distance to the moon
Births
1330 - Edward the Black Prince, (English) Prince of Wales (d. 1376)
1906 - Léon Degrelle, Belgian SS officer (d. 1994)
1908 - Sam Giancana, American mafioso (d. 1975)
1943 - Muff Winwood, British songwriter, producer and bassist (Spencer Davis Group)
1946 - Noddy Holder, British singer (Slade)
1949 - Russell Hitchcock, Australian singer (Air Supply)
1953 - Rita Lee, Playboy Playmate (november 1977)
1963 - Nigel Walker, Welsh athlete and rugby union player
1969 - Ice Cube, American rapper
1980 - Mary Carey, American pornographic actress
Deaths
1381 - Wat Tyler, English rebel, leader of the Peasants' Revolt (beheaded)
1381 - John Cavendish, Lord Chief Justice of England (beheaded by an angry mob in revenge for Wat Tylers death)
1849 - James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States (b. 1795)
1996 - Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (b. 1917)
2002 - Choi Hong Hi, South Korean General and founder of Taekwon-Do (b. 1918)
Holidays and observances
Flag Day - Denmark
Freedom Day - Malawi
Cymru am byth
June 16th, 2007, 05:44 PM
Jun 16 1750 BC
King Hammurabi dies in Babylon, and is succeeded by his son Samsu-iluna.
Jun 16 1948
In the first skyjacking of a commercial plane, three armed men storm the cockpit of the Miss Macao, a passenger seaplane operated by Cathay Pacific airline. When the pilot refuses to turn over the controls, he is shot dead and the plane crashes into the ocean. The only survivor among the 27 people on board is the leader of the terrorists.
Jun 16 1958
Imre Nagy, once prime minister of Hungary for all of ten days, is executed by the Soviet Union for attempting to withdraw his country from the Warsaw Pact.
Jun 16 1959
While entertaining friends at his home, George Reeves, who played the title character in the original Superman TV series, goes upstairs to his bedroom and commits suicide with a 9mm German Luger.
Jun 16 1960
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho opens in New York.
Jun 16 1976
15,000 schoolchildren take to the streets of Soweto to protest South Africa's adoption of bilingual instruction in the Afrikaans language. The nonviolent march ends abruptly when police and soldiers open fire on the crowd, killing 600 and igniting days of rioting throughout the region.
Jun 16 1999
The founder of the United Kingdom's Monster Raving Loony Party, one Screaming Lord Sutch (real name David Edward Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow), is found hanged at his late mother's residence. Sutch was the longest lasting party leader in the UK at the time of his death, ruled a suicide. One of the Loony Party planks was to ask rhetorically, "Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?"
1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses.
1586 - Mary Queen of Scots recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir.
1745 - British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada.
1755 - French and Indian War: French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
1779 - Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the siege of Gibraltar begins.
1815 - Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before Waterloo.
1858 - Battle of Morar, during the Indian Mutiny.
1871 - University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests, except for courses in theology.
1922 - General election in Irish Free State: large majority to pro-Treaty Sinn Féin.
1940 - World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Premier of Vichy France.
1940 - A Communist government is installed in Lithuania.
1964 - Leonid Brezhnev becomes president of the USSR.
1983 - Yuri Andropov becomes president of the USSR.
1996 - First round of voting in the Russian presidential election.
1999 - Maurice Greene sets a new 100m world record at 9.79 seconds. This is the largest drop in a 100m world record in the history of electronic timing from Donovan Bailey's 9.84.
2000 - Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years of it issuance, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel withdrew from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Sheba Farms.
2006 - Japan and Montenegro declare truce, ends Russo-Japanese War.
Births
1829 - Geronimo, Apache leader (d. 1909)
1890 - Stan Laurel, British-born actor and comedian (d. 1965)
1941 - Aldrich Ames, CIA officer and spy for the Soviet Union
1953 - Ian Mosley, British drummer (Marillion)
1969 - Mark Crossley, Welsh footballer
1970 - James "Munky" Shaffer, American guitarist (KoЯn)
1971 - Tupac Amaru Shakur, aka 2Pac, American rapper (d. 1996)
Deaths
1977 - Wernher von Braun, German-born rocket scientist (b. 1912)
1982 - James Honeyman-Scott, English guitarist and songwriter (The Pretenders) (b. 1956)
1990 - Megan Leigh, American porn star (suicide) (b. 1964)
1994 - Kristen Pfaff, American bass guitarist (Hole) (b. 1967)
1999 - David Edward Sutch, British musician(Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages) and politican (Monster Raving Loony Party) (Suicide) (b. 1940)
Holidays and observances
South Africa - Youth Day.
Veterans day - Wales
Cymru am byth
June 17th, 2007, 08:25 PM
Jun 17 1939
In Versailles, Eugene Weidmann becomes the last person to be publicly guillotined.
Jun 17 1968
Ohio Express' "Yummy Yummy Yummy (I've got love in my tummy)" goes gold.
Jun 17 1972
The "plumbers" break into Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate complex, in the course of what President Nixon will later describe as a "third rate burglary." In actuality, it is an attempt by the Republican Party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
Jun 17 1974
The IRA explodes a bomb in Houses of Parliament. An hour before the explosion, the IRA calls to warn of the threat but officers fail to clear the building in time and 11 are killed.
Jun 17 1994
O.J. Simpson fails to turn himself in to the LAPD at a prearranged time and is later spotted in a white Ford Bronco on a Los Angeles expressway. After a low-speed pursuit through the freeways and streets of Brentwood, O.J. is finally arrested live on television in the driveway of his mansion. According to one of the defense attorneys who served on O.J.'s "Dream Team," Simpson tried to kill himself in the car, but the gun misfired. The Juice allegedly told him: "I pulled the trigger and it didn't go off."
1462 - Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II in The Night Attack, and the latter is forced to retreat from Wallachia.
1497 - Battle of Deptford Bridge - Forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof
1579 - Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
1631 - Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years to build her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
1876 - Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
1877 - Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon - The Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.
1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
1940 - World War II: Operation Ariel begins - Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
1940 - World War II: Sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
1940 - The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
1944 - Iceland becomes independent from Denmark and forms a republic.
1982 - The body of "God's Banker", Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
1987 - With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
1991 - Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
1992 - A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin
Births
1239 - King Edward I of England (d. 1307)
1900 - Martin Bormann, Nazi official (d. 1945)
1962 - Michael Monroe, Finnish singer (Hanoi Rocks)
Deaths
2005 - Karl Mueller, American bassist (Soul Asylum) (b. 1962)
Holidays and observances
Iceland's national day, celebrating independence from Denmark in 1944.
Cymru am byth
June 18th, 2007, 07:28 PM
Jun 18 1815
Napoleon is defeated in the Battle of Waterloo, partly because of an inability to properly survey the battlefield (due to a case of inflamed hemorrhoids).
Jun 18 1900
The Empress Dowager of China orders all foreigners killed. Among those meeting this fate are the foreign diplomats, their families, as well as hundreds of Christian missionaries and their Chinese converts.
Jun 18 1959
Based on his erratic behavior, the Governor of Louisiana, Earl K. Long, is committed to a state mental hospital. Long responds by arranging for the hospital's director to be fired, and the new director proclaims him perfectly sane. (It is no secret that the man was completely nuts.)
Jun 18 1967
Famed guitarist Jimi Hendrix burns his guitar on stage at the Monterey Pop Festival.
Jun 18 1984
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-turner-diaries.jpg
Jewish talk show host Alan Berg is gunned down in the driveway of his Denver home by members of The Order, a neo-Nazi group partially inspired by the novel The Turner Diaries.
Jun 18 1996
Ted Kaczynski is indicted on ten criminal counts. He is suspected of being the Unabomber, who perpetrated 16 bomb attacks on people involved in technology.
1178 - Five Canterbury monks see what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the moon's distance (on the order of metres) are a result of this collision.
1264 - The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
1429 - French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc crush the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
1767 - Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sighted Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island.
1778 - American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1812 - War of 1812: The U.S. Congress declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1815 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Waterloo leads to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for a second and final time.
1858 - Charles Darwin receives from Alfred Russel Wallace a paper that included nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own. This prompts Darwin to publish his theory.
1928 - Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she was a passenger; Wilmer Stutz was pilot and Lou Gordon,mechanic).
1940 - Appeal of June 18 by Charles de Gaulle. (The appeal is the origin of the French Resistance to the German occupation.)
1940 - "Finest Hour" speech by Winston Churchill.
(Excerpt:- What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour.")
1945 - William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw American born (to an English mother and Irish father) Nazi propaganda broadcaster) is charged with treason.
1953 - The Republic of Egypt is declared and the monarchy is abolished
1979 - SALT II is signed by the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
1983 - Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
1984 - Major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of miners at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984-1985 miners' strike. Incident later known as the Battle of Orgreave.
Births
1942 - Sir Paul McCartney, English singer and songwriter (The Beatles)
1964 - Uday Hussein, Iraqi leader (d. 2003)
1975 - Jemma Griffiths, Welsh singer-songwriter (Jem)
Holidays and observances
Seychelles - National Day.
Autistic Pride Day
Cymru am byth
June 19th, 2007, 10:11 AM
Jun 19 1312
Piers Gaveston, the disturbingly open homosexual lover of King Edward II of England, is beheaded after he attempted to return to Edward's side. For a time Gaveston was ward of the underage boy before the death of his father Edward I, to the great dismay of many important lords. After succession to king, Edward appointed Gaveston as Earl of Cornwall for no other reason than being the king's personal cornhole.
Jun 19 1867
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-maximilian.jpg
Emperor Maximilian of Mexico is executed by firing squad. Although he bribed the seven riflemen to not shoot him in the head, one did anyway.
Jun 19 1934
The Federal Communications Commission, perhaps the most wicked body of do-gooders ever to exist in the United States, is created with the passage of the Communications Act of 1934. The FCC's ostensible purpose is to censor interesting broadcasts, silence dissenting political opinion and shelter Americans from dirty words and boobies.
Jun 19 1953
Atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are electrocuted at Sing-Sing Prison, becoming the first civilians ever executed for espionage in American history. Five jolts of electricity were required to kill Ethel. Her husband Julius was on the Soviet payroll, according to recently released archives. It is not clear whether Ethel had any involvement or how much Julius actually assisted the Soviet atomic bomb effort.
Jun 19 1964
San Francisco's Condor Club becomes the first topless bar in the United States when dancer Carol Doda steps onstage in a bottom-only swimsuit designed by Rudi Gernreich. Other San Francisco clubs follow suit just days later.
Jun 19 1999
While taking a walk, horror author Stephen King is struck by a van piloted by a distracted Bryan Smith. King's extensive injuries (broken leg, broken hip, lacerated scalp and collapsed lung) remanded him to a hospital bed for three weeks. Smith would later die in his sleep on Stephen King's birthday.
1269 - King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.
1306 - The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
1862 - U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying the Dred Scott Case.
1865 - Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 13 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
1870 - After all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States of America, the Confederate States of America ceases to exist.
1914 - A radiotelegraphic link is established between Germany and the United States and German Emperor Wilhelm II and US President Woodrow Wilson exchange telegrams to mark the event.
1944 - The Battle of the Philippine Sea takes place.
1961 - Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
1982 - In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University in Beirut, is kidnapped.
1987 - ETA commits one of its most violent attacks, in which a bomb is set off in a supermarket, Hipercor, killing 21 and injuring 45.
2005 - The ill fated 2005 United States Grand Prix takes place with just six cars after those running Michelin tyres are withdrawn because of safety fears.
Births
1566 - King James I of England and VI of Scotland (d. 1625)
1947 - Salman Rushdie, Indian author
1950 - Ann Wilson, American singer (Heart)
1960 - Luke Morley, British guitarist & songwriter (Thunder)
1963 - Rory Underwood, English rugby union footballer
1970 - Brian Welch, American guitarist (ex-KoЯn)
Deaths
1312 - Piers Gaveston, French favorite of Edward II of England
1937 - J. M. Barrie, Scottish author (b. 1860) (Peter Pan)
1953 - Julius Rosenberg, American spy (executed) (b. 1918)
1953 - Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (executed) (b. 1915)
Holidays and observances
Juneteenth celebrates the Emancipation Proclamation
Cymru am byth
June 20th, 2007, 12:06 PM
Jun 20 1756
In Calcutta, 146 British prisoners are placed in a 18 foot by 14 foot cell known as The Black Hole by a Bengali, Siraj-ud-daula, and held there until the following morning. Of those imprisoned, only 23 survive.
Jun 20 1782
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-great-seal-trenchard-th.jpg
Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States. Although several people on the were Masons, the Masonic institutions themselves deny that the Seal is Masonic; therefore, any resemblance is purely coincidental. Of course.
Jun 20 1893
Lizzie Borden is found innocent of giving her stepmother and father forty and forty-one whacks, respectively.
Jun 20 1947
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-bugsy-toe-th.jpg
Bugsy Siegel is shot to death at Virginia Hill's mansion, on orders from Meyer Lansky. Siegel gets it twice in the face, and his right eyeball ends up on the dining room floor. [We don't have a picture of the eyeball, but we do have his toe tag.]
Jun 20 1993
Vince Foster, Deputy White House Counsel for President Clinton, apparently commits suicide with an unnumbered pistol at Fort Marcy Park in Virginia. Foster's empty briefcase later turns up at the White House. But after it is searched again, it is miraculously found to contain his suicide note.
Jun 20 2001
Houston mommy Andrea Yates drowns her five children, one after another, in the bathtub then notifies the authorities. Yates is later sentenced to life in prison which is overturned. She was on medication for post-partum depression and had recently attempted suicide.
1214 - University of Oxford receives its charter.
1631 - The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
1685 - Monmouth Rebellion: The Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater
1819 - The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. She is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, but most of the journey was made under sail.
1837 - Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
1877 - Alexander Graham Bell installs world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
1963 - The so-called "red telephone" is established between Soviet Union and United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1966 - Canada sells 336 million bushels (9.14 teragrams) of wheat to Soviet Union.
1991 - German parliament decides to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.
Births
1942 - Brian Wilson, American musician; founder of The Beach Boys
1949 - Lionel Richie, American musician (The Commodores)
1954 - Michael Anthony, American musician (Van Halen)
1960 - John Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran)
1973 - Chino Moreno, American musician (Deftones)
Deaths
1837 - William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
1947 - Bugsy Siegel, American crime figure (b. 1906)
Holidays and observances
Day of The Royal Victorian Order.
Zalu Diena - Ancient Latvia
UNHCR - World Refugee Day.
Flag Day in Argentina (1938).
West Virginia West Virginia Day
Imbalanced
June 20th, 2007, 05:50 PM
Holy Shit, It's West Virginia Day! Grab Your Sister And Slap Her In The Face With Yer Weiner, It's A Party!!! Wooooo!!!
UnregisteredSexOffender
June 21st, 2007, 09:43 AM
Holy Shit, It's West Virginia Day! Grab Your Sister And Slap Her In The Face With Yer Weiner, It's A Party!!! Wooooo!!!
consider it done!!!!! woo hooooo
Wait, I'm not from West Virginia. Dammit :mad2:
Heero Valentine
June 21st, 2007, 10:55 AM
consider it done!!!!! woo hooooo
Wait, I'm not from West Virginia. Dammit :mad2:
do u have a sister? and if u do...why would u slap her in the face with your weener :1orglaugh:
Imbalanced
June 21st, 2007, 05:01 PM
consider it done!!!!! woo hooooo
Wait, I'm not from West Virginia. Dammit :mad2:
well in that case i'll slap your sister in the face with my weiner.
Cymru am byth
June 21st, 2007, 08:21 PM
Jun 21 1877
The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants who were labor activists, are hanged at Carbon County Prison in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Author and Judge John P. Lavelle of Carbon County said of this, "The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows."
Jun 21 1982
Using an innovative Jodie Foster defense, John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. Nobody is impressed by this verdict.
Jun 21 1989
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-flagburn.jpg
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson that flag burning is indeed protected speech under the Constitution, prompting Congress to put forth an endless series of amendments to ban the activity.
Jun 21 2001 At the beginning of Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling's speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, Francine Cavanaugh throws a pie at him. She is arrested by San Francisco police as Skilling begins his lecture entitled "The Roles and Responsibilities of the Energy Industry".
1665 - First soldiers of Le Régiment de Carignan-Saličres arrive at Quebec to invade Iroquois territories.
1734 - In Montreal in New France (today primarily Quebec), a black slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique, having been convicted of the arson that destroyed much of the city, was tortured and hanged by the French authorities in a public ceremony that involved her disgrace and the amputation of a hand.
1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at Battle of Vinegar Hill
1813 - Peninsular War: Battle of Vitoria - The Marquess of Wellington's 78,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops, with 96 guns, defeated 58,000 French with 153 guns under King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain.
1813 - Laura Secord sets out to warn British forces of an impending U.S. attack on Queenston, Ontario during the War of 1812.
1854 - First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands.
1864 - New Zealand Land Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
1887 - Queen Victoria's golden jubilee.
1898 - Guam becomes a U.S. territory.
1919 - Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of the First World War.
1940 - World War II: France surrenders to Germany.
1940 - First successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage begins at Vancouver, British Columbia.
1942 - World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces.
1942 - World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the U.S. mainland.
1945 - World War II: Battle of Okinawa ends.
1964 - Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
1973 - In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller Test, which now governs obscenity in U.S. law.
2001 - A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.
2002 - The World Health Organization declares Europe polio free.
2004 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
2006 - Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially christened Nix & Hydra.
Births
1732 - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (d. 1791)
1941 - John O'Kea, Welsh rally driver
1944 - Ray Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
1947 - Joey Molland, English musician (Badfinger)
1950 - Joey Kramer, American drummer and percussionist (Aerosmith)
1970 - Sindee Coxx, American pornographic actress
1976 - Mike Einziger, American musician (Incubus)
1981 - Brandon Flowers, American singer and keyboardist (The Killers)
1982 - Prince William of Wales, British prince
1984 - Alicia Alighatti, American pornographic actress
Deaths
1305 - King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Poland (b. 1271) (Good King??:1orglaugh: )
1377 - King Edward III of England (b. 1312)
2001 - John Lee Hooker, American musician (b. 1916)
Holidays and observances
Summer solstice (Northern Hemisphere) and winter solstice (Southern Hemisphere) celebrations
National Aboriginal Day - Canada (starting in 1996)
Midsummer Neopagan festival Litha
National Day of Greenland
Fęte de la Musique in France, Belgium and Switzerland.
World Humanist Day
Go Skateboard Day
Cymru am byth
June 22nd, 2007, 10:20 AM
Jun 22 1633
The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his scientific view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe: "I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith these errors and heresies, and I curse and detest them as well as any other error, heresy or sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church."
Jun 22 1940
France surrenders; hilarity ensues. Adolf Hitler forces the instrument of surrender to be signed in the very railcar in which the French inflicted the humiliating World War I Treaty of Versailles upon the Germans.
Jun 22 1941
The German Army invades Russia, quickly destroying five Russian armies and one fourth of the Red air force. At completion of the war in 1945, nearly 27 million Soviets were dead. Thus ended the German-Soviet "Peace and Friendship" Treaty.
Jun 22 1969
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-garland.jpg
Judy Garland dies of a barbiturate overdose in her London apartment, either by accident or suicide. Quote from Judy: "When I die I have visions of fags singing 'Over the Rainbow' and the flag at Fire Island being flown at half mast."
Jun 22 1993
Dr. Charles Epstein of Tiburon, CA is injured when he opens a padded manilla package containing a surprise gift from the Unabomber.
Jun 22 2004
In a chance meeting between Vice-President Dick Cheney and Senator Patrick Leahy, the pair argue about Halliburton's no-bid Iraq contracts. The "frank exchange of views" ends, Cheney says this to Leahy: Fuck yourself! Cheney's spokesman does not deny the VP dropped the f-bomb.
1812 - Napoleonic Wars- Napoleon invades Russia.
1825 - British Parliament abolishes feudalism and the seigneurial system in British North America.
1893 - The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet's commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
1898 - Spanish-American War: United States Marines land in Cuba.
1911 - George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom, succeeding his father, Edward VII.
1940 - France forced to sign armistice with Nazi Germany.
1941 - Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, one of the most dramatic turning points of World War II.
1941 - First anti-fascist armed unit in occupied Europe founded by Croatian partisans near Sisak, Croatia.
1941 - The Lithuanian 1941 independence begins
1941 - Various Communist and Socialist French Resistance movements merge to one group.
1944 - Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against Army Group Centre
1969 - The Cuyahoga River, Northeast Ohio, USA caught fire, which triggered a crack-down on pollution in the river..
1976 - Canadian House of Commons abolishes capital punishment.
1978 - Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered.
1986 - Argentine footballer Diego Maradona scored both the Hand of God goal and the Goal of the Century against England during the FIFA World Cup in Mexico City. :1orglaugh:
Births
1903 - John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934)
1953 - Cyndi Lauper, American singer
1961 - Jimmy Sommerville, Scottish singer (Bronski Beat, Communards)
1970 - Steven Page, Canadian singer (Barenaked Ladies)
1981 - Chris Urbanowicz, British guitarist (Editors)
Deaths
1969 - Judy Garland, American singer and actress (b. 1922)
1987 - Fred Astaire, American dancer and actor (b. 1899)
1994 - Otto Bradfisch, Nazi leader (b. 1903)
Holidays and Observances
Anti-fascist struggle day in Croatia
School-teachers' Day in El Salvador.
World Wide VW Beetle Day
Bring your pet to work Day
Cymru am byth
June 23rd, 2007, 10:29 PM
Jun 23 1611
Believing there to be a secret stash of food hidden aboard ship, the mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son, and seven loyal shipmates adrift in an open boat on the Atlantic Ocean. They are never heard from again.
Jun 23 1968
A soccer stampede towards a closed exit leaves 74 crushed to death and 150 injured in Buenos Aires.
Jun 23 1993
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-bobbitt.jpg
In the middle of the night, Lorena Bobbitt severs her husband John's penis and drives off, casually discarding the organ in a farm field. Surgeons successfully reattach the penis, allowing John to enter the porn industry. The media devotes 1.3 million column-inches of type to the story as both Lorena and John gain celebrity status; consequently, their last name becomes a verb.
Jun 23 1996
A story by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward in the Washington Post reveals to the world that First Lady Hillary Clinton employed psychic Jean Houston to help her get in touch with her inner "Eleanor Roosevelt." We elect freaks, people.
Jun 23 1997
Malcolm X's widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz, dies after three agonizing weeks in the hospital with third-degree burns covering 80% of her body. The injuries were sustained when her 12-year-old grandson set fire to the family home in Yonkers, New York.
1314 - Start of the Battle of Bannockburn south of Stirling, Edward II of England & Robert I of Scotland met in battle. Scotland won and Edward fled the field and Scotland.
1532 - Henry VIII & François I sign secret treaty against Emperor Charles V.
1661 - Marriage contract between Charles II of England & Catharina of Portugal.
1683 - William Penn signs friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.
1713 - French residents of Acadia given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia Canada.
1757 - Battle of Plassey - 3000 British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey.
1758 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld - British forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany.
1760 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut - Austria beats Prussia.
1812 - War of 1812: Great Britain had revoked the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.
1888 - Frederick Douglass is the first African-American nominated for US president.
1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.
1941 - Lithuanian Activist Front initiates Lithuanian 1941 independence from the Soviet Union; it lasted only briefly as the Nazis occupied Lithuania a few weeks later.
1942 - World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a trainload of Jews from Paris.
1942 - World War II: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 is captured intact when it mistakenly lands in Wales.
1943 - World War II: The British destroyers Eclipse and Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser Newfoundland.
1945 - The Imperial Japanese armed forces ended organized resistance to the U.S. armed forces in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island of Okinawa.
1972 - Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
1972 - 45 countries leave the Sterling Area, allowing their currencies to fluctuate independently of the British Pound.
1973 - A fire at a house in Hull, England, which kills a six year old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.
1990 - Moldavia declares independence.
Births
1894 - King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (d. 1972)
1940 - Stuart Sutcliffe, first bassist with The Beatles (d. 1962)
1941 - Robert Hunter, American lyricist and poet (The Grateful Dead)
1955 - Glenn Danzig, American musician (The Misfits and Danzig)
1955 - Jordan, (Pamela Rooke) British actress and model
1963 - Steve Shelley, American musician (Crucifucks and Sonic Youth)
1965 - Paul Arthurs, British guitarist (Oasis)
1975 - K.T. Tunstall, Scottish singer and songwriter
Deaths
1989 - Werner Best, German jurist and nazi leader (b. 1903)
2006 - Harriet, a 175 year old tortoise (b. 1830)
Holidays and observances
Midsummer's Eve, Christianized the eve of the feast of Saint John the Baptist, is celebrated in much of Northern Europe and the British Islands
Victory Day - Estonia
Father's Day - Poland, Nicaragua and Uganda
Grand Duke's Official Birthday - Luxembourg
Cymru am byth
June 24th, 2007, 02:00 PM
Jun 24 1374
In a sudden outbreak of Dancing Mania (aka "St. John's Dance"), people in the streets of Aix-la-Chapelle, Prussia experience terrible hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion. Many of the sufferers are afflicted with frothing at the mouth, diabolical screaming, and sexual frenzy. The phenomenon lasts well into the month of July. Nowadays, ergot madness is suspected as being the ultimate cause of the disorder.
Jun 24 1947
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-arnold-wing.jpg
Businessman pilot Kenneth Arnold encounters a formation of nine flying saucers near Mt. Ranier, Washington, exhibiting unusual movements and velocities of 1,700 mph. No explanation is found for this first report of flying saucers in the recent era, but it does earn Mr. Arnold legions of skeptics and an eventual IRS tax audit.
Jun 24 1948
East Germany blockades the city of West Berlin making overland travel between the West and West Berlin impossible
Jun 24 1957
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, though a dissenting opinion included with the ruling notes the issue of prior restraint renders this a terrible decision.
Jun 24 1993
Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter opens a padded envelope in his office when it suddenly explodes. Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand. In this condition he manages to walk down five flights of stairs and over to the university hospital a block away. It is the handiwork of the Unabomber.
Jun 24 2004
Rapper DMX is arrested at New York's JFK Airport after he and a partner were trying to steal a car. While attempting to flee, DMX plows his SUV into a security gate while claiming to be an undercover federal agent. He later pleads guilty, blames Valium and receives jail time.
1314 - End of the Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeat Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
1340 - Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys The French fleet was almost totally destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by Edward III of England.
1441 - Eton College founded.
1497 - John Cabot lands on North America in Newfoundland; first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.
1497 - Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank executed at Tyburn, London
1509 - Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon crowned King and Queen of England.
1597 - The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).
1662 - Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macau.
1664 - The colony of New Jersey is founded.
1692 - Kingston, Jamaica is founded.
1717 - The Grand Lodge of England, the first Freemasonic Grand Lodge (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England.
1813 - Battle of Beaver Dams : A British, and Indian joint force defeat the U.S Army.
1880 - First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrčs national des Canadiens-Français.
1894 - The IOC decides to hold the Olympic Games every four years.
1902 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
1916 - Battle of the Somme begins with a week long artillery bombardment on the German Line.
1918 - First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
1932 - A military coup ends the absolute power of the king of Siam (Thailand).
1940 - France and Italy sign an armistice.
1945 - Moscow Victory Parade
1963 - Zanzibar is granted internal self-government by the UK.
1981 - What would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years, the Humber Bridge opens, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
1982 - British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as the Jakarta incident, flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
1983 - Yasir Arafat banned from Damascus
2004 - In New York, Capital punishment was declared unconstitutional.
Births
1850 -(Lord) Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, British field marshal (d. 1916)
1914 - Pearl Witherington CBE, British WW II secret agent
1944 - Jeff Beck, English musician (The Yardbirds)
1944 - Arthur Brown, English musician (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown)
1944 - John "Charlie" Whitney, English guitarist (Family, Streetwalkers, Axis Point)
1944 - Chris Wood, English musician (d. 1983) (Traffic)
1945 - Colin Blunstone, English musician (The Zombies)
1947 - Mick Fleetwood, English musician (Fleetwood Mac)
1948 - Patrick Moraz, Swiss keyboard player (Yes)
1949 - John Illsley, English bassist (Dire Straits)
1961 - Curt Smith, English musician and songwriter (Tears for Fears)
1966 - Hope Sandoval, American singer-songwriter (Mazzy Star)
1967 - Richard Kruspe-Bernstein, German guitarist (Rammstein)
Cymru am byth
June 24th, 2007, 02:00 PM
Deaths
1803 - Matthew Thornton, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1714)
1817 - Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1734)
1908 - Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (heart failure) (b. 1837)
1968 - Tony Hancock, British comedian (b. 1924)
Holidays and observances
Fęte nationale du Québec, also called St-Jean-Baptiste Day
Original Midsummer's Eve in Finland and Sweden, although the official holiday is now moved to the nearest Friday
One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish Calendar.
Discovery Day in Newfoundland and Labrador (celebrating the 1497 discovery by John Cabot)
Inti Raymi in Cusco
Dan Dravnosti in Croatia- Independence Day in 1991, independence from Yugoslavia.
Jāņi - Latvia
Juhannuspaiva in Finland
Battle of Carabobo Day in Venezuela (1821)
Bannockburn Day in Scotland (see 1314 above)
Quarter days in England
American Radio Relay League - Field Day 2006
Cymru am byth
June 25th, 2007, 03:10 PM
Jun 25 1876
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-custer.jpg
During the Battle of Little Big Horn, General George Armstrong Custer witnesses a large group of Indians fleeing their village, and decides to press his advantage. The cavalry officer shouts, "We've caught them napping, boys!" Then he splits his force of 210 men into three groups, in order to slaughter as many of the retreating noncombatants as possible. Which is right about the time Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse sweep in and kill the white men. Two days later, Custer's body is found amidst a cluster of 42 other corpses, the general entirely naked except for one boot, one sock, and an arrow stuck in his penis.
Jun 25 1910
The Mann Act, sometimes known as the White Slave Traffic Act of 1910, makes it a federal crime to convey or assist in transporting women across state lines for prostitution, debauchery, or "any other immoral purpose." Men convicted of this heinous (if vague) statute face up to five years and a $5,000 fine for each count. Penalties are doubled if the female is underage, but men and boys are apparently not covered.
1905 - Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough gem-quality diamond known, is discovered by Frederick Wells.
1938 - Dr. Douglas Hyde is inaugurated the first President of Ireland.
1940 - France formally surrenders to Nazi Germany.
1944 - The Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic Countries begins. (June 25 to July 9, 1944) part of the Continuation War (1941-1944) between Finland and the Soviet Union that occurred during World War II.
1947- The Diary of Anne Frank is published.
1948 - The Berlin Airlift begins.
1950 - The beginning of the Korean War, with the invasion of the South by the North.
1981 - Microsoft Inc. is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.
1982 - Greece abolishes headshaving of the recruits in the military.
1991 - Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia.
1996 - The Khobar Towers bombing leaves 19 U.S. servicemen dead in Saudi Arabia.
Births
1900 - Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Viceroy of India (d. 1979)
1903 - George Orwell (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair), British writer (d. 1950)
1945 - Carly Simon, American singer
1946 - Ian McDonald, musician (King Crimson and Foreigner)
1954 - David Paich, composer (Toto)
1963 - George Michael, British singer
1969 - Zim Zum, American musician (former Marilyn Manson guitarist)
1974 - Jim LaMarca, American bassplayer (Chimaira)
Deaths
1876 - George Armstrong Custer, U.S. Army officer (b. 1839)
1876 - Thomas Custer, Brother of George A. Custer & 2-time Medal of Honor winner (b. 1845)
1876 - Boston Custer, Brother of George A. Custer (b. 1848)
1876 - James C. Calhoun, Brother-in-Law of George Armstrong Custer & U.S. Soldier (b. 1845)
1876 - Myles Keogh, U.S. Soldier & Irish Soldier of Fortune (b. 1840)
1959 - Charles Starkweather, American spree killer (b. 1938)
1985 - Morris Mason, American rapist, arsonist & murderer (b. 1954) (Electric chair)
1988 - Hillel Slovak, Israeli-born musician (Anthym/What Is This?, Red Hot Chili Peppers (b. 1962) (Heroin overdose)
1990 - Ronald Gene Simmons, American mass murderer (Lethal injection)
Holidays and Observances
Statehood Day - Slovenia and Croatia
National Catfish Day - U.S.A
Mozambique Independence Day (1975)
Cymru am byth
June 26th, 2007, 11:08 AM
Jun 26 1945
The United Nations Charter is signed at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, paving the world for the New World Order. Aim for the blue helmets, everyone!
Jun 26 1961
John F. Kennedy tells the German nation and pastry lovers everywhere "Ich bin ein Berliner"; whether or not he is, in fact, a jelly donut remains a matter of speculation to this day.
Jun 26 1968
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-saint-peter.jpg
Pope Paul VI declares that the bones of Apostle and first Pope, Saint Peter, were found underneath St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The bones are now housed in plexiglass containers near where they were found, but some of them are clearly those of domesticated animals.
Jun 26 1990
Irish Republican Army bombs the Carlton Club, an exclusive conservative gentleman's cabal in London. (It is a well known fact that Margaret Thatcher was denoted an "honorary man" in order to become a member. It is not clear what surgical modifications, if any, were necessary.)
Jun 26 1992
Secretary of the Navy H. Lawrence Garrett resigns over the handling of the Tailhook Scandal, in which 26 women were sexually abused. Some of the women, including 14 Navy officers, had been forced to run through a "gauntlet" where they were groped by Navy personnel.
1483 - Richard III becomes king of England.
1819 - The bicycle is patented.
1857 - The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.
1870 - The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
1918 - World War I Western Front: Battle for Belleau Wood - Allied Forces under John J. Pershing & James Harbord defeat Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
1924 - American occupying forces leave the Dominican Republic.
1934 - Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.
1940 - World War II: Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina.
1960 - Former British Protectorate of Somaliland British Somaliland gains its independence
1977 - The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16 year old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she was the first victim who was not a prostitute.
1993 - The U.S. launches a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for a thwarted assassination attempt against former President George H.W. Bush in April in Kuwait.
2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.
Births
1898 - Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer (d. 1978)
1914 - Laurie Lee, British writer (d. 1997)
1921 - Violette Szabo, French WWII secret agent (d. 1945)
1923 - Barbara Graham, American murderer (d. 1955)
1955 - Mick Jones, British guitarist (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite)
1956 - Chris Isaak, American singer
1957 - Patty Smyth, American singer (Scandal)
1969 - Colin Greenwood, British musician (Radiohead)
1976 - Joe Landon, American pornographic actor
Deaths
1541 - Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conqueror of Peru (murdered)
1784 - Caesar Rodney, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1728)
1810 - Joseph Michel Montgolfier, inventor of the hot air balloon (b. 1740)
1836 - Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French composer (La Marseillaise) (b. 1760)
1946 - Max Kögel, SS officer (b. 1895)
2003 - Sir Dennis Thatcher MBE, husband of Margaret Thatcher (b. 1915)
Holidays and observances
International Day in Support of Torture Victims
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
Madagascar: Independence Day
Romania: Flag Day
Thailand: Sunthorn Phu Day
Somaliland: Independence Day
Cymru am byth
June 27th, 2007, 08:54 AM
Jun 27 1844
Mormon leader Joseph Smith, along with his brother Hyrum, are shot and killed by a mob while in jail at Carthage, Illinois. According to church legend, after Smith is shot a man raises a knife to decapitate him, but is thwarted by a thunderbolt from heaven.
Jun 27 1995
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jun/rh-hugh-grant.jpg
The LAPD arrests streetwalker Divine Brown on Hawthorn Ave. where she is discovered giving British movie star Hugh Grant a blowjob in his white BMW. To be fair, they also arrest Grant for procuring said blowjob.
Jun 27 2001
Police arrest comedian Paula Poundstone in Malibu, California on charges of lewd conduct with a minor. Poundstone's pending criminal trial remains front page news for the next three months, until it is overshadowed by the World Trade Center attacks in September. Soon thereafter, she pleads guilty to a lesser charge, and the details of her indictment are never disclosed to the public.
1542 - Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claims California for Spain.
1743 - War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Dettingen On the battlefield in Bavaria, George II personally led troops into battle. The last time that a British monarch would command troops in the field.
1759 - General James Wolfe starts siege of Quebec.
1806 - The British capture Buenos Aires.
1898 - The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.
1950 - The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
1954 - The world's first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.
1967 - The world's first ATM is installed in Enfield, London.
1969 - Stonewall riots begin in New York City.
1974 - U.S president Richard Nixon visits the U.S.S.R..
1977 - France grants independence to Djibouti.
1979 - Muhammad Ali announces his retirement from boxing.
1985 - U.S. Route 66 ceases to be an official U.S. highway.
1986 - The International Court of Justice finds against the United States in its judgement in Nicaragua v. United States.
1991 - Slovenia, after declaring independence two days previous, is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft, starting the Ten-Day War.
2005 - AMD files broad antitrust complaint against Intel Corporation in U.S. Federal District Court, alleging abuse of monopoly powers and antitrust violations.
Births
1880 - Helen Keller, American deaf and blind activist (d. 1968)
1942 - Bruce Johnston, American musician (The Beach Boys)
Deaths
1917 - Karl Allmenroder, German World War I Ace (b. 1896)
1920 - Adolphe-Basile Routhier, French Canadien lyricist (O Canada) (b. 1839)
2002 - John Entwistle, English bassist (The Who) (b. 1944)
2005 - Domino Harvey, English-born bounty hunter (b. 1969) ( fentanyl O.D.)
2006 - Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, Mexican serial killer, known as "The Railway Killer" (b. 1959) (Lethal injection)
Holidays and observances
National HIV Testing Day in United States
National Veterans' Day in the United Kingdom
Cymru am byth
June 28th, 2007, 08:29 AM
Jun 28 1905
Dr. Beaurieux picks up the freshly-severed head of Henri Languille just after it drops into the guillotine basket and shouts the man's name three times. According to the doctor's report: "Languille's eyes very definitely fixed themselves on mine and the pupils focused themselves. ... I was dealing with undeniably living eyes which were looking at me."
Jun 28 1914
During a parade in Sarajevo, Nedjelko Cabrinovic tosses a grenade into the automobile carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife Sofia. But Ferdinand knocks the bomb away with his arm and his driver speeds away from the would-be assassin. A short while later, during the return drive, Gavrilo Princip pulls out an automatic pistol and kills both Ferdinand and his pregnant wife. Five weeks later, the continent of Europe erupts into World War I.
Jun 28 1997
Mike Tyson is disqualified from a championship boxing bout after biting off a large portion of Evander Holyfield's ear. Tyson is later banned from boxing and fined $3 million for the incident. Tastes like chicken.
1098 - Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul.
1776 - Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and Life Guard to General George Washington, was hanged for mutiny and sedition.
1778 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Monmouth fought between the American Continental Army under George Washington and the British Army led by Sir Henry Clinton.
1838 - The coronation of Victoria of the United Kingdom.
1859 - First conformation dog show is held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.
1880 - Ned Kelly the Australian bushranger captured at Glenrowan.
1894 - Labor Day becomes an official US holiday.
1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris, formally ending World War I between Britain, France, Italy, the United States and allies on the one side and Germany and Austria Hungary on the other side.
1922 - The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces.
1950 - Seoul is captured by troops from North Korea.
1960 - Cuba confiscates and nationalizes U.S.-owned oil refineries.
1964 - Malcom X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
1967 - Israel annexes East Jerusalem.
1973 - Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time.
1976 - The Angolan court sentenced US and UK mercenaries to death sentences and prison terms in the Luanda Trial.
2001 - U.S. Appeals Court overturns a lower court's order to breakup Microsoft in an antitrust case.
2004 - Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation.
2004 - Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism
2005 - Canada becomes the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
2005 - A final design for Manhattan's Freedom Tower is formally unveiled.
Births
1491 - King Henry VIII of England (d. 1547)
1577 - Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter (d. 1640)
1926 - Mel Brooks, American filmmaker
1945 - David Knights, English bass guitarist (Procul Harum)
1977 - Mark Stoermer, American bass player (The Killers)
Deaths
1836 - James Madison, President of the United States (b. 1751)
1914 - Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1863)
1971 - Franz Stangl, commandant of concentration camps (b. 1908)
1993 - GG Allin, American punk rock singer (b. 1956)
2006 - George Unwin, British fighter ace WWII (b. 1913)
Cymru am byth
June 29th, 2007, 08:16 PM
Jun 29 1967
Actress Jayne Mansfield is decapitated in a car crash, when her convertible collides with a parked tractor-trailer. To downplay the gruesome death, sources spread the falsehood that only her wig flew off in the accident.
Jun 29 1971
When Soyuz 11 disengages from the Salyut space station, cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are killed by a faulty pressurization valve. All the oxygen leaks out of the Soyuz cabin before Patsayev can close the valve by hand, and the crew is asphyxiated.
Jun 29 1978
The body of Bob Crane is discovered in bed with an electric cord wrapped around his neck and his head smashed in. When Scottsdale police search the apartment belonging to the former star of television's Hogan's Heroes, they discover a video camera and a large library of amateur porn starring Crane and a parade of random women.
Jun 29 1989
Under the headline "Homosexual Prostitution Probe Ensnares Official of Bush, Reagan" the Washington Times reports that "a homosexual prostitution ring is under investigation by federal and District authorities and includes among its clients key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, military officers, congressional aides and U.S. and foreign businessmen with close ties to Washington's political elite." The story alleges that homosexual call boys had been given tours of the White House, under the aegis of Republican Craig Spence. Spence's body is later found at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, an apparent suicide.
Jun 29 1992 Mohammed Boudiaf is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards less than six months after becoming President of Algeria. A former hero in the war of independence, Boudiaf had been chosen by the Islamic Salvation Front to serve as figurehead for their regime. More than 100,000 Algerians will later die in political bloodshed in the following decade.
512 - A solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland.
1534 - Jacques Cartier makes the European discovery of Prince Edward Island.
1613 - The Globe Theatre in London, England burns to the ground.
1644 - Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, the last battle won by an English King on English soil.
1914 - Jina Guseva attempts to assassinate Grigori Rasputin at his home town in Siberia.
1916 - Sir Roger Casement, Irish Nationalist and British diplomat is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.
1922 - France grants 1 km˛ at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes."
1925 - Canada House opens in London, England.
1976 - The Seychelles becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
2002 - Naval clashes between North Korea and South Korea lead to the death of four South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel
Births
1948 - Ian Paice, drummer (Deep Purple)
1953 - Colin Hay, Scottish/Australian guitarist and singer (men at work)
1961 - Greg Hetson, American punk-rock guitarist (Bad Religion/The Circle Jerks)
1965 - Tripp Eisen, American musician (Murderdolls/Static-X)
1971 - Kaitlyn Ashley, American adult actress
1980 - Katherine Jenkins, Welsh soprano
1982 - Andrea Butjko, Hungarian porn star
Deaths
69 - Saint Peter, Apostle and 1st Bishop of Rome
Holidays and observances
Seychelles - Independence Day.
The Netherlands - Veterans Day.
Malta - l-Imnarja
Jegar
June 30th, 2007, 02:03 AM
I see you got a shitload of time there cymru? Well, better than smoking i guess :p
Cymru am byth
June 30th, 2007, 02:00 PM
Jun 30 1520
After looting Tenochtitlan, Spaniards are attacked by an angry Aztec mob. Tied down by armor and treasure, they are no match for the natives and nearly half of Cortes' men lose their lives.
Jun 30 1837
England outlaws the use of the pillory. Too bad.
Jun 30 1882
Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, is hanged. Tickets for the event went for as much as $300.
Jun 30 1908
A huge airburst explodes over Podkamennaya Tunguska at 7:30 am. The blast flattens thousands of square miles of trees, and is now believed to have been caused by an asteroid or comet impact.
Jun 30 1934
Acting on behalf of the Fuhrer, SS troops around Germany arrest hundreds of loyal SA stormtroopers under the charge of treason in order to eliminate the group. One squad descends on a Bavarian resort, where it interrupts a contingent of SA men engaged in homosexual festivities. Lieutenant Edmund Heines is caught in bed with a teenage boy, and shot to death on the spot. The rest are taken into custody. The event will come to be known as The Night of the Long Knives.
Jun 30 1999 Two members of the Old Order Amish, Abner Stoltzfus and Abner Stoltzfus, are sentenced to one year in prison for trafficking cocaine to other Amish folk in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The men had scored their drugs from a Philadelphia motorcycle gang.
1688 - The Immortal Seven issue the Invitation to William, beginning the struggle for English independence from Rome which would culminate in the Glorious Revolution.
1864 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation."
1882 - Charles Guiteau hanged in Washington, DC for the shooting death of President James Garfield.
1905 - Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", where he introduces special relativity.
1944 - The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.
1960 - Congo gains independence from Belgium.
1990 - East and West Germany merge their economies.
1992 - Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher joins the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.
1997 - The first book in the award winning Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling is published.
1997 - The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
2005 - Spain legalizes same-sex marriage.
Births
1892 - Oswald Pohl, German Nazi leader (d. 1951)
1953 - Hal Lindes, British-American musician (Dire Straits)
1963 - Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Swedish guitarist
1982 - Dan Jacobs, American guitarist (Atreyu)
1982 - Andy Knowles, British musician (Franz Ferdinand)
Deaths
1670 - Henrietta Anne Stuart, Princess of England, Scotland, and Ireland (b. 1644)
1704 - John Quelch, a pirate was hanged (b. 1665)
1709 - Edward Lhuyd, Welsh scientist (b. 1660)
Holidays and observances
Independence Day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Cymru am byth
July 1st, 2007, 09:17 PM
Jul 1
Feast of the Most Precious Blood, celebrating the blood shed during Christ's Passion and reassumed into His body at Resurrection. Yum!
Jul 1 1945
The date proposed by Churchill for the start of WWIII, where U.S. and British forces were to meet Russian forces in Poland with a two pronged attack, using 47 divisions. It would have been a terrible mistake to attempt what both Napoleon and Adolf Hitler failed to accomplish.
Jul 1 1946
Atomic Bomb testing begins, using the Nagasaki-type implosion bomb, at Bikini Atoll.
Jul 1 1951
Mary Reeser spontaneously combusts in St. Petersburg, Florida, after taking a couple of sleeping pills and settling down with a lit cigarette.
Jul 1 1991
Michael Landon, star of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, dies of pancreatic cancer just three months after its initial diagnosis.
Jul 1 1993
Gian Luigi Ferri steps into the San Francisco law offices of Pettit & Martin at 101 California Street with two full-auto TEC-DC9s and a .45 semiauto pistol. In the span of four minutes, Ferri kills 8 and wounds 6 others before blowing his brains out. Almost as quickly, the victims' families file suit against Intratec, the manufacturer of the TEC-9, as well as the owner of the Las Vegas pawn shop where he bought one of them.
Jul 1 1996
The body of Margeaux Hemingway is found in her Santa Monica, California apartment after the actress apparently overdosed on Phenobarbital.
1520 - La Noche Triste: Joint Mexican Indian force led by Aztecs under Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish Conquistadors under Hernán Cortés.
1782 - American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
1858 - The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
1867 - The British North America Act, 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation; John A. Macdonald sworn as first Prime Minister.
1870 - The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
1873 - Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.
1881 - World's first international telephone call takes place between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
1881 - General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army's organisation, came into effect.
1916 - First day of the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 20,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
1921 - Communist Party of China was founded.
1933 - Canadian Parliament suspends all Chinese immigration.
1942 - World War II: First Battle of El Alamein.
1943 - Tokyo City merged with Tokyo Prefecture and was dissolved. Since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo." (Present-day Tokyo is not a city.)
1960 - Independence of Somalia. From Britain (26th june) and Italy (1st July)
1962 - Independence of Rwanda. From Belgium
1962 - Independence of Burundi. From Belgium
1963 - ZIP Codes are introduced for United States mail.
1963 - The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
1963 - The Beatles release She Loves You as a single in the United Kingdom.
1967 - The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
1967 - Canada celebrates the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867.
1968 - The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.
1968 - The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed by about sixty countries in Geneva, Switzerland.
1972 - First Gay Pride march in England
1976 - Portugal granted autonomy to Madeira.
1979 - Sony introduces the Walkman.
1980 - O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
1987 - Excavation begins on the Channel Tunnel.
1990 - East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
1991 - The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
1997 - The People's Republic of China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule.
1999 - The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
2000 - The Oresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark, opens for traffic.
2002 - The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
2003 - In Hong Kong, 500,000 people march to protest a new anti-subversion law.
2004 - In Hong Kong, 530,000 people march to urge a faster pace of democratisation and universal suffrage.
Births
1908 - Peg Entwistle, Welsh actress (d. 1932)
1945 - Deborah Harry, American musician (Blondie)
1949 - John Farnham, Australian singer
1951 - Fred Schneider, American singer (The B-52's)
1961 - Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
1963 - Roddy Bottum, American musician (Faith No More and Imperial Teen)
1967 - Pamela Anderson, Canadian model
Deaths
1782 - Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1730)
2004 - Marlon Brando, American actor (b. 1924)
2005 - Luther Vandross, American singer (b. 1951)
Holidays and observances
Canada Day (formerly Dominion Day) - national holiday of Canada.
Moving Day in the province of Québec
Memorial Day in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day.
Surinam Keti Koti (Breaking of Chains) Day of Liberty; On July 1, 1863 slavery was abolished.
Cymru am byth
July 2nd, 2007, 09:53 AM
Jul 2 1881
President James A. Garfield is shot in a train station by Charles Julius Guiteau, a lunatic trying to become ambassador either to Austria or France. Garfield lingers for three months before finally dying.
Jul 2 1937
Attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe in an airplane, Amelia Earhart disappears over the Pacific with her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Jul 2 1942
On page six, the New York Times reports Germany's mass extermination of 700,000 Jews, by use of poison gas.
Jul 2 1947
Mr. and Mrs. Dan Wilmot witness a "large glowing object" zoom across the sky at 400 or 500 miles per hour. The next day, Mac Brazel discovers the wreckage of a flying saucer -- not fragments of an experimental balloon composed of neoprene -- on a remote pasture outside Roswell, New Mexico.
Jul 2 1961
In the tile-covered foyer of his home in Ketchum, Idaho, novelist Ernest Hemingway commits suicide with his favorite shotgun. When the body was later found, "only his chin, mouth, and vestigial scraps of his cheeks were still connected to his body."
Jul 2 1982
UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor Diogenes Angelakos picks up an unattended package in Cory Hall. The pipe bomb hidden inside the parcel explodes, shredding the man's right hand. Coincidentally, Angelakos is present three years later, when the Unabomber claims a second victim in the computer science department, John Hauser.
Jul 2 1982
Vietnam vet Larry Walters climbs aboard an aluminum lawn chair in Southern California, equipped with 42 weather balloons, a CB radio, a parachute, and a pellet gun. During his two-hour voyage from San Pedro to Long Beach, Walters reaches an altitude of 16,000 feet and eventually becomes tangled in some power lines. Walters survives, but receives a $1,500 fine from the FAA.
Jul 2 1990
In Mecca, 1,426 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated and/or crushed to death when panic erupts in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel. Saudi Arabia opts to bury the victims in a mass grave.
Jul 2 1994
Colombian soccer star Andres Escobar is shot twelve times outside a bar in Bogota, and dies on the spot. Only ten days prior, Escobar had inadvertently scored a goal for the American team in the 1994 World Cup playoffs, resulting in a first-round elimination for Colombia.
Jul 2 1997
The Russian minister of Justice, Valentin Kovalyov, is fired after grainy black-and-white photos of him appear in the tabloid Sovershenno Sekretno. The government official had been secretly filmed in a nightclub sauna with a bevy of young women. No one was wearing clothes.
Jul 2 1998
The eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which has burned continuously since 1921 to commemorate the dead of World War I, is extinguished by an intoxicated soccer fan with his beer-enriched urine. Mexican national Rodrigo Rafael Ortega is arrested and charged with public drunkenness and offending the dead.
Jul 2 1999
Former U.S. Treasury undersecretary Ron Noble, the man who oversaw his department's inquiry into the Waco siege, is chosen to lead Interpol.
1578 - Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island.
1613 - First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia - led by Samuel Argall.
1644 - English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor.
1776 - The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with Great Britain, though a public Declaration of Independence is not formally printed for the masses until July 4.
1776 - John Hancock signs Declaration of Independence
1777 - Vermont becomes the first American state to abolish slavery.
1823 - "Bahia Independence Day" - the end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the diehard Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.
1839 - Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinque take over the slave ship Amistad.
1850 - The self-contained gas mask is patented by Benjamin J. Lane.
1853 - The Russian Army invades Turkey, beginning the Crimean War.
1900 - First zeppelin flight on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
1941 - Nazi massacre of Jews in Lutsk, Ukraine. Jewish men were summoned for work, about 2000 of them were taken to the Lubart Fortress and murdered. German soldiers from rearguard units stationed in the city participated in the murder.
1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits segregation in public places.
1966 - The French military explode their nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.
1969 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience break up.
1976 - North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
1983 - The Police release their final album, "Synchronicity", which would eventually spend 17 weeks at #1 on the U.S. album chart
1998 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released to the public as the second installment to the Harry Potter book series.
2001 - AbioCor self contained artificial heart created.
2002 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
2005 - Ten Live 8 concerts are held around the world in an attempt to force G8 countries to address poverty.
Births
1893 - Ralph Hancock, Welsh garden designer (Rockefeller Center) (d. 1950)
1903 - Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
1917 - Murry Wilson, American musician and producer (The Beach Boys) (d. 1973)
1949 - Roy Bittan, American musician (E Street Band)
1953 - Mark Hart, British musician (Crowded House and Supertramp)
1954 - Pete Briquette, English musician (Boomtown Rats)
Deaths
1743 - Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, second Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1778 - Bathsheba Spooner, American murderer, the first woman to be executed in the United States by Americans rather than the British.
1850 - Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1788)
1934 - Ernst Röhm, Nazi official (b. 1887)
Cymru am byth
July 3rd, 2007, 04:14 PM
Jul 3 1905
Russian troops kill 6,000 in Odessa to break a general strike.
Jul 3 1963
Two former secretaries of the Nation of Islam file paternity suits against the head of their church, the honorable Elijah Muhammad. They claimed the prophet had fathered their four children. The allegations eventually cause Malcolm X to quit the NOI.
Jul 3 1971
Jim Morrison is found dead of an apparent heart attack in his Paris apartment bathtub. That's what he wants us to think, anyway.
Jul 3 1987
Vladimir Nikolayev is sentenced to death for killing and eating two people in Novocheboksary, Chuvashia. When police arrested Nikolayev the previous year, they found human meat roasting on the stove, more in the oven, and body parts stashed on his balcony packed in snow.
Jul 3 1988
Mistaking it for a F-14 fighter plane, the American warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air flight 655, killing all 290 people aboard. Despite his country's having recklessly downed a passenger airliner while operating inside Iran's territorial waters, Vice President George Bush declares a month later: "I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what the facts are."
Jul 3 1989
Television actor Jim Backus, known to millions as Thurston Howell III from Gilligan's island, dies in Los Angeles of Parkinson's disease.
1754 - French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.
1767 - Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
1778 - American Revolutionary War: British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in the Wyoming Valley massacre.
1778 - Prussia declares war on Austria.
1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
1848 - Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands).
1866 - Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
1884 - Dow Jones published its 1st stock average.
1898 - Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, destroyed by the U.S. Army in Santiago, Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
1928 - First color television broadcast in London.
1938 - World speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 203 km/h (126 mph).
1944 - World War II: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration.
1976 - Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during Operation Yonatan.
1979 - US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
1986 - US President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.
Births
1959 - Stephen Pearcy, American singer (Ratt)
1960 - Vince Clarke, British songwriter (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure)
1969 - Kevin Hearn, Canadian musician (Barenaked Ladies)
Deaths
1749 - William Jones, Welsh mathematician (b. 1675)
1969 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (drowned) (b. 1942)
1971 - Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (b. 1943)
Cymru am byth
July 4th, 2007, 06:02 PM
Jul 4 1054
A supernova suddenly appears in the constellation Taurus. It is so bright that for the first 23 days it is visible during the day. Then it gradually fades away, finally disappearing after a year or so. Today the remnants of this star are the Crab Nebula.
Jul 4 1826
A comatose Thomas Jefferson dies on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, only a few hours before John Adams also expires.
Jul 4 1961
In the North Atlantic, a leaky pipe drains all of the coolant from the starboard reactor aboard the Soviet submarine K-19. 22 sailors are killed in the resulting nuclear accident.
Jul 4 1976
After receiving an especially bloody beating at the hands of her husband Ike, Tina Turner sneaks out of the Dallas hotel they're staying at while he is asleep. She walks away from their 16-year relationship with only 36 cents in her pocket.
Jul 4 1984
For the first time, Nancy Reagan utters the immortal words: "Just say no."
Jul 4 1987
A court in Lyon, France convicts Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, for the deportation of Jews, torture of resistance fighters, and crimes against humanity during World War II. Barbie spends the rest of his life in prison.
1712 - 11 slaves are executed in New York for starting an uprising that killed 9 Caucasians
1776 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress approves a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. (The Lee Resolution of Independence had been passed on July 2nd.)
1802 - At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.
1827 - Slavery is abolished in New York State.
1837 - Grand Junction Railway, world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
1840 - The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end.
1862 - Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.
1910 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
1918 - Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family
1934 - Joe Louis wins his first professional boxing match.
1934 - Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.
1941 - Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by Nazi Germans in captured Polish city of Lwów.
1946 - After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule, the Philippines is granted full independence by the United States.
1947 - "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before British House of Commons, suggesting bifurcation of British India into two sovereign countries - India and Pakistan.
1950 - First broadcast by Radio Free Europe.
1976 - The United States celebrates its bicentennial.
1992 - USS George Washington (CVN-73), a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy is commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia.
1997 - NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
2004 - The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
2005 - The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
2006 - North Korea tests four short-range missiles one medium-range
missile, and a long-range Taepodong-2. The latter reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan.
Births
1790 - George Everest, Welsh surveyor and namesake of Mt. Everest (d. 1866)
1807 - Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian patriot (d. 1882)
1872 - Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States (d. 1933)
1916 - Iva Toguri D'Aquino, American thought to be Tokyo Rose in World War II (d. 2006)
1938 - Bill Withers, American singer and songwriter
1943 - Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson, American musician (Canned Heat) (d. 1970)
1958 - Kirk Pengilly, Australian musician (INXS)
1963 - Matt Malley, American musician (Counting Crows)
1964 - Mark Slaughter, American singer (Slaughter)
1971 - Andy Creeggan, Former Barenaked Lady
Deaths
1826 - John Adams, 2nd President of the United States (b. 1735)
1826 - Thomas Jefferson 3rd President of the United States (b. 1743)
1831 - James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (b. 1758)
1946 - Gerda Steinhoff, Nazi concentration camp overseer (b. 1922)
2003 - Barry White, American singer (b. 1944)
Holidays and observances
United States - Independence Day (1776)
Filipino-American Friendship Day
Cymru am byth
July 5th, 2007, 08:28 AM
Jul 5 1946
Louis Reard's latest swimsuit creation, the two-piece Bikini, goes on sale in Paris.
Jul 5 1948
The body of 29-year-old actress Carole Landis is discovered in her home in Brentwood Heights, California. Landis, whose film career had recently stalled, overdosed on Seconal and left behind a suicide note addressed to her mother.
Jul 5 1963
The Catholic Church finally sanctions cremation as an acceptable means of remains disposal. (Code of Canon Law, Can. 1176)
Jul 5 1984
In deciding United States v. Leon, the Supreme Court permits "good faith" exceptions the exclusionary rule. Illegal evidence is now admissible if obtained by the police in "good faith." Justice William Brennan writes, "The Court's victory over the Fourth Amendment is complete."
1610 - John Guy sets sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists for Newfoundland.
1687 - Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
1775 - US Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition.
1811 - Venezuela declares independence from Spain.
1813 - War of 1812: Three weeks of British raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York begin.
1814 - War of 1812: Battle of Chippewa - American Major General Jacob Brown defeats British General Phineas Riall at Chippewa, Ontario.
1830 - France invades Algeria.
1833 - Admiral Charles Napier defeats the navy of the Portuguese usurper Dom Miguel at the third Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1865 - The world's first maximum speed law is enacted in England.
1865 - The Salvation Army is founded in the East End of London, England.
1884 - Germany takes possession of Cameroon.
1937 - Spam, the luncheon meat, was introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
1937 - Highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan: 45 °C.
1940 - World War II: The United Kingdom and the Vichy France government break off diplomatic relations.
1941 - World War II: German troops reach the Dniepr River.
1943 - World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily (Operation Husky, July 10, 1943).
1945 - World War II: Liberation of the Philippines declared.
1948 - British National Health Service Act enacted.
1950 - Korean War: Task Force Smith - First clash between American and North Korean forces.
1950 - Zionism: The Knesset passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.
1954 - Elvis Presley has his first commercial recording session. He sang That's All Right (Mama) and Blue Moon of Kentucky. Widely considered to be the birth of Rock and Roll.
1954 - The BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin.
1962 - Algeria becomes independent from France.
1975 - Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title.
1975 - Cape Verde gains its independence from Portugal.
2003 - SARS is declared to be contained by WHO.
Births
1874 - Eugen Fischer, Nazi physician (d. 1967) (one of those responsible for the Nazi German scientific theories of racial hygiene)
1950 - Huey Lewis, American musician
1950 - Michael Monarch, American guitarist (Steppenwolf)
1972 - Letha Weapons, US porn actress
1973 - Róisín Murphy, Irish musician (Moloko)
1996 - Dolly the sheep, first cloned mammal (d. 2003)
Holidays and observances
Venezuela: Independence Day (1811).
Algeria: Independence Day (1962).
Cape Verde: Independence Day (1975).
Armenia: Constitution Day (1995)
Isle of Man: Tynwald Day (1266).
United States: Bloody Thursday,
Haseknumber39
July 5th, 2007, 06:57 PM
Happy B'Day Letha Weapons
Cymru am byth
July 7th, 2007, 05:25 PM
Jul 6 1415
Jan Hus is burned at the stake for various heresies by the Council of Constance. Among other things, Hus had incited the citizens of Prague to protest against antipope John XXIII and his policy of granting indulgences.
Jul 6 1535
Sir Thomas More, author of Utopia and one time Lord Chancellor of England , is sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered for treason after refusing to agree to Henry VIII decision to separate the English church from the Roman Catholic church.. King Henry takes pity on him and changes the sentence to beheading. Said head is hung on display from London Bridge before being rescued by his daughter a month later.
Jul 6 1944
Fire breaks out at a matinee performance of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Baily Circus burning 168 people to death, and injuring an additional 250. The main tent had been waterproofed with wax thinned by gasoline. Said one of the Flying Wallendas, "I can never look down at a crowd again without smelling the flames and the burning flesh."
Jul 6 1945
The Joint Chiefs of Staff approve Operation OVERCAST, intended to "exploit ... chosen rare minds whose continuing intellectual productivity we wish to use." The directive authorizes the immigration of up to 350 German and Austrian specialists, primarily experts in rocketry. Operation OVERCAST is later renamed Project PAPERCLIP.
Jul 6 1988
The Piper Alpha oil platform catches fire, explodes killing 167 men. The workers were faced with the choice of choking on smoke, being burned to death or leaping 150 feet into 57-degree water. The world's worst offshore oil disaster.
1483 - Richard III is crowned king of England.
1560 - The Treaty of Edinburgh is signed by Scotland and England.
1777 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Ticonderoga: Due to a bombardment by British artillery under General John Burgoyne, American forces retreat from Fort Ticonderoga, New York.
1785 - The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States.
1801 - Battle of Algeciras: The French navy defeats the British Royal Navy.
1885 - Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
1887 - David Kalakaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is forced at gunpoint, at the hands of Americans, to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights.
1892 - Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.
1917 - World War I: Arabian troops led by Lawrence of Arabia and Auda ibu Tayi capture Aqaba from the Turks during the Arab Revolt.
1919 - The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship.
1939 - Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
1942 - Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
1957 - Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships, becoming the first black athlete to do so.
1957 - John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles meet for the first time at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete, Liverpool.
1964 - Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
1978 - Yana Mintoff hurled horse manure onto the floor of the British House of Commons.
1983 - Tony Blair gives his maiden speech in the British Parliament.
1999 - US Army private Barry Winchell dies from baseball-bat injuries inflicted in his sleep the previous day by fellow soldiers for his relationship with transgendered showgirl and former Navy combat medic, Calpernia Addams.
2005 - Bob Geldof and Bono meet with the G8 in Gleneagles to discuss increasing aid to Africa. Afterwards, both make appearances at the Edinburgh 50,000 concert, a last concert in the Live 8 series.
2005 - The International Olympic Committee announced that London will host the 2012 Summer Olympics
2006 - The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years
Births
1907 - George Stanley, Canadian Politian and designer of Canada's Flag (d. 2002)
1935 - Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
1946 - George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
1946 - Sylvester Stallone, American actor
1978 - Kevin Senio, New Zealand rugby player
1984 - Lauren Harris, British rock singer (Daughter of Iron Maidens Steve Harris)
Deaths
1189 - King Henry II of England (b. 1133)
1249 - King Alexander II of Scotland (b. 1198)
1553 - King Edward VI of England (b. 1537)
1762 - Tsar Peter III of Russia (b. 1728)
1960 - Aneurin Bevan, Welsh politician & founder of the National Health Service (b. 1897)
1971 - Louis Armstrong, American musician (b. 1901)
Holidays and observances
Czech Republic - Jan Hus Day (1415).
Lithuania - Statehood Day.
Malawi - Independence Day (1964).
Malawi - Republic Day (1966).
Cymru am byth
July 7th, 2007, 05:59 PM
Jul 7 1348
The Black Death makes its first appearance in England.
Jul 7 1665
http://www.rotten.com/today/images/jul/rh-bill-of-mortality.jpg
King Charles II and his entourage flee London, a city suffering the ravages of the black plague. At this point, about 2,000 Londoners are dying weekly.
Jul 7 1942
Himmler gives the go-ahead for sterilization experiments at Auschwitz.
Jul 7 1970
46 people are shot dead in the downtown area during a five-day race riot in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
1456 - A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.
1534 - European colonization of the Americas: First known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick.
1543 - French troops invade Luxembourg.
1668 - Isaac Newton received an MA from Trinity College, Cambridge.
1798 - Quasi-War: The U.S. Congress rescinds treaties with France sparking the 'war.'
1846 - Mexican-American War: American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States annexation of California.
1863 - United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $100
1865 - American Civil War: Four conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were hanged.
1898 - History of United States overseas expansion: President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
1915 - World War I: End of First Battle of the Isonzo.
1917 - Russian Revolution: Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov forms Provisional Government in Russia after the deposing of the Tsar Nicholas II.
1937 - Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge - Japanese forces invade Beijing, China.
1941 - World War II: American forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by Germany.
1941 - World War II: Beirut is occupied by Free France and British troops.
1947 - Downed UFO believed to be found in the Roswell UFO incident.
1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law.
1969 - In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government.
1978 - The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
1980 - Institution of sharia in Iran.
1980 - Last concert by rock band Led Zeppelin.
1994 - Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen, completing the reunification of Yemen.
2002 - A scandal broke out in the United Kingdom when news reports alleged MI6 of sheltering Abu Qatada, the supposed European Al Qaeda leader.
2005 - A series of four terrorist explosions occur on London's transport system killing 52 people, plus four suicide bombers.
2005 - Influenced by Live 8, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to Africa from US$25 to US$50 billion by the year 2010.
Births
1940 - Ringo Starr, English drummer and singer (The Beatles)
1981 - Synyster Gates, American musician (Avenged Sevenfold)
Deaths
1307 - King Edward I of England (b. 1239)
1993 - Mia Zapata, American singer with The Gits (b. 1965) (Raped and murdered)
2006 - Syd Barrett, British musician, co-founder and former member of Pink Floyd (b. 1946)
Holidays, Feasts, and Observances
Tanzania: Saba Saba Day
Japan: Tanabata
Cymru am byth
July 8th, 2007, 06:46 PM
Jul 8 1932
Tod Browning's groundbreaking horror movie Freaks, featuring genuine carnival sideshow performers, premieres at the Rialto theater in New York. The film opens to critical outrage, and is later banned by the British government for 30 years.
Jul 8 1976
Former President Richard M. Nixon is disbarred by the New York Bar Association. Nixon attempted to resign voluntarily, as he had from the California and U.S. Supreme Court bars, but New York refused to accept his resignation unless he acknowledged that he had obstructed justice during the Watergate coverup.
Jul 8 1987
Kitty Dukakis, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Governor Michael Dukakis, reveals that she was formerly addicted to amphetamines. Kitty waits until after the November election to acknowledge her raging alcoholism, however.
Jul 8 1997
Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, publicly apologizes to his children's babysitter, with whom he had a five year relationship starting when she was age 14. The local district attorney declines to press charges, but Kennedy winds up dead in an apparent skiing accident five months later.
1099 - First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders mock them.
1663 - Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.
1758 - French and Indian War: French forces hold Fort Carillon against British at Ticonderoga, New York.
1760 - French and Indian War: Battle of Restigouche - British defeat French forces in last naval battle in New France.
1776 - The Liberty Bell was rung to summon citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the reading of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.
1822 - Chippewas turn over huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.
1889 - At the last championship bare-knuckle boxing match, John L. Sullivan defeats Jake Kilrain after 75 rounds. :eek7:
1982 - Assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Dujail.
1997 - NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.
1999 - Allen Lee Davis is executed by electrocution by the state of Florida, the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida.
Births
1838 - Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, German inventor (d. 1917)
1839 - John D. Rockefeller, American businessman (d. 1937)
1961 - Andrew Fletcher, English musician (Depeche Mode)
1970 - Beck, American singer
1983 - Elizabeth Del Mar, American pornographic actress
1985 - Jamie Cook, Guitarist for Arctic Monkeys
Deaths
975 - King Edgar of England
Haseknumber39
July 8th, 2007, 08:25 PM
BTW
you may want to include
"2007 - Haseknumber39 Reaches 1000 Posts"
Cymru am byth
July 9th, 2007, 05:32 PM
BTW
you may want to include
"2007 - Haseknumber39 has a 1 inch Penis"
:eek7: ok then:eek7:
Cymru am byth
July 9th, 2007, 06:10 PM
Jul 9 1952
Musical genius and all-around renaissance man John Tesh is born in Garden City, New York.
Jul 9 1980
Seven faithful are trampled in a stampede during a papal visit to Brazil by Pope John Paul II. Way to go!
Jul 9 1982
Michael Fagan, dressed in jeans and a dirty t-shirt, and bleeding from a fresh cut on his hand, walks into the private bedroom of Queen Elizabeth II while she is asleep and her personal guard out walking her dogs. Fagan had scaled the wall surrounding Buckingham Palace and gained entry without triggering any alarms. The two carry on a 12-minute conversation, while the intruder holds a jagged broken ashtray, before somebody finally apprehends him.
Jul 9 1986
After spending one year and half a million dollars, the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography releases their two-volume, 1960-page final report. In contrast to the 1970 Presidential Commission on Pornography, the report finds that porn causes violent sex crimes and other antisocial activities. Afterwards, one impartial commission member admits: "I, for one, have no hesitation in condemning nearly every specimen of pornography that we have examined in the course of our deliberations as tasteless, offensive, lewd and indecent. According to my values, these materials are themselves immoral, and to the extent that they encourage immoral behavior they exert a corrupting influence on the family and the moral fabric of society."
Jul 9 1995
Disgruntled postal worker William Clark kills his supervisor, in the City of Industry, California.
Jul 9 1997
Mike Tyson banned from boxing for one year, and fined $3M for biting Evander Holyfield's ear off in a mysterious cajun ritual.
Jul 9 1997
Attempting to spring him from the Arizona state prison at Florence, Rebecca Thornton meets her husband Floyd at the perimeter fence with a rifle. There the escape plan goes haywire, and Rebecca shoots her death-row husband after he instructs her: "Shoot me! I'm sorry things went wrong. Shoot me! Shoot me!" Then they are both gunned down by the guards.
1540 - Henry VIII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
1755 - French and Indian War: Braddock Expedition - British troops and colonial militiamen are ambushed and suffer a devastating defeat by French and Native American forces.
1793 - Act Against Slavery passed in Upper Canada and importation of slaves into Lower Canada is prohibited.
1810 - Napoleon annexes the Kingdom of Holland as part of the First French Empire.
1816 - Argentina declares independence from Spain.
1846 - By an Act of Congress, the Washington, DC area south of the Potomac River (39 mi˛ or about 100 km˛) is returned to Virginia.
1850 - President Zachary Taylor dies and Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th President of the United States.
1867 - An unsuccessful expedition led by E.D Young set out to search for Dr David Livingstone (Scottish Missionary and explorer).
1868 - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
1900 - Queen Victoria gives royal assent to an act creating the Commonwealth of Australia thus uniting separate colonies on the continent under one federal government.
1922 - Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds breaking a world swimming record and the 'minute barrier'.
1943 - World War II: Operation Husky - Allied forces perform an amphibious invasion of Sicily.
1944 - World War II: Battle of Normandy - British and Canadian forces capture Caen, France.
1944 - World War II: Battle of Saipan - Americans take Saipan.
1979 - A car bomb destroys a Renault owned by famed "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.
1991 - South Africa is reintroduced into the Olympic movement after 30 years of exclusion.
1995 - Musical group The Grateful Dead perform the last concert of their 30-year career at Soldier Field, Chicago.
Births
1836 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1908)
1916 - Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
1932 - Donald Rumsfeld, 13th & 21st United States Secretary of Defense
1946 - Bon Scott, Australian singer (AC/DC) (d. 1980)
1947 - O.J. Simpson, American football player, actor & alleged murderer
1956 - Marc Almond, British singer
1959 - Jim Kerr, Scottish singer (Simple Minds)
1964 - Courtney Love, American musician
1965 - Frank Bello, American musician (Anthrax)
1975 - Jack White, American musician (The White Stripes)
Deaths
1850 - Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States (b. 1784)
1967 - Eugen Fischer, Nazi physician (b. 1874)
1985 - Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911)
2006 - Milan Williams, American musician (The Commodores) (b. 1948)
Holidays and observances
Argentina - Independence Day.
Palau - Constitution Day.
Cymru am byth
July 10th, 2007, 06:03 PM
Jul 10 1856
Inventor and electromechanical genius Nikola Tesla is born to Serbian parents in what is now Croatia.
Jul 10 1923
Hailstones as heavy as two pounds kill 23 people in Rostov, Russia.
Jul 10 1972
A herd of angry, startled elephants emerges from India's Chandka Forest, and tramples five villages, killing 24 inhabitants.
Jul 10 1984
British customs officials in London open a large wooden crate marked "diplomatic baggage" because of its extremely odd odor. Inside they discover Alhaji Umaru Dikko, Nigeria's former Minister of Transport and Aviation. He had been abducted, drugged, and bound for Nigeria to face trial for embezzlement.
Jul 10 1985
Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior is blown up by in Auckland Harbor, killing a photographer. After the New Zealand government determines that French secret agents were responsible, the French Defense Minister resigns and the agents are jailed.
Jul 10 1992
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega sentenced to 40 years in prison for eight counts of drug trafficking, money laundering, and racketeering.
988 - The City of Dublin is founded on the banks of the river Liffey.
1212 - The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground.
1553 - Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England.
1584 - William I of Orange was assassinated in his home in Delft, Holland by Balthasar Gérard.
1645 - English Civil War: Battle of Langport.
1778 - American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1800 - British Indian Government established Fort William College to promote Urdu, Hindi and other vernaculars of sub continent.
1806 - The Vellore Mutiny was the first instance of a mutiny by Indian sepoys against the British East India Company
1821 - The United States takes possession of its newly-bought territory of Florida from Spain.
1850 - Millard Fillmore is inaugurated as the 13th President of the United States.
1925 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.
1940 - World War II: Vichy France government established.
1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain - The German Luftwaffe begin to hit British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle (this start date is contested, though).
1941 - Jedwabne Pogrom was a massacre of Jewish people living in and near the village of Jedwabne in Poland.
1943 - World War II: The launching of Operation Husky begins the Italian Campaign.
1973 - The Bahamas gain full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.
1991 - Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected President of Russia.
1997 - London, scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neandertal skeleton which support the out of Africa theory of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
2002 - At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for Ł49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Lord Kenneth Thomson.
Births
1452 - King James III of Scotland (d. 1488)
1903 - Werner Best, German jurist and nazi leader (d. 1989)
1905 - Wolfram Sievers, Nazi physician (d. 1948)
1954 - Neil Tennant, British musician (The Petshop Boys)
1980 - Jesse Jane, American porn actress
1980 - Jessica Simpson, American singer
Deaths
138 - Hadrian, Roman Emperor (b. 76)
1989 - Mel Blanc, American voice actor (voiced Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble, etc.) (b. 1908)
Holidays and observances
Bahamas - Independence Day.
Silence Day - celebrated by followers of Meher Baba.
Mauritania - Armed Forces Day.
Cymru am byth
July 11th, 2007, 07:45 PM
Jul 11 1804
Former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and sitting Vice President Aaron Burr duel in Weehawken, New Jersey after Hamilton allegedly slandered Burr during a political dinner in New York. Hamilton is shot in the liver and dies the next day. Meanwhile, Burr lives on to finish his term in office and is eventually tried for treason after attempting to raise an army and seize land for himself, either in Mexico or the Louisiana Territory.
Jul 11 1812
The United States invades Canada, in what is actually America's involvement in the Napoleonic world war. (Yes, there were two World Wars before WWI.)
Jul 11 1945
For the first time, Napalm powder is mixed with gasoline and sprayed on live human beings. This feat is achieved by U.S. Army forces against the Japanese on Luzon in the Philippines.
In grand Internet tradition, we now give you the recipe to produce this horrible substance: Take styrofoam, add benzene and gasoline; ignite; pour on [insert ethnic slur here].
Jul 11 1979
The derelict space station Skylab finally returns to Earth, ignominiously breaking into 500 separate fragments which are swallowed by the Indian Ocean. That is, except for the ones which crash into Woorlba Sheep Station, near Balladonia in Western Australia. Shortly thereafter, President Jimmy Carter telephones the prime minister of that country to apologize for scattering NASA litter on his nation.
Jul 11 1994
In the garage of her home in Universal City, California, Shannon Michelle Wilsey commits suicide with a .40 caliber Beretta. Wilsey -- better known as porn superstar Savannah -- had made lots of enemies during her career. Her obituary in Screw magazine runs beneath the headline DING DONG THE BITCH IS DEAD.
Jul 11 1997
Bodybuilder and wannabe actor Jonathan Norman is arrested for trespassing on Steven Spielberg's estate in Malibu, California. Believing that the film director "wanted to be raped," Norman had brought along a kit containing handcuffs, duct tape, nipple clamps, chloroform, and a stun gun.
1776 - Captain James Cook begins third voyage.
1789 - Jacques Necker dismissed as Finance Minister for France sparking the Storming of the Bastille.
1796 - The U.S. takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.
1798 - The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
1848 - The Waterloo railway station in London opens.
1859 - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is published.
1919 - Eight-hour working day and free Sunday made into law in the Netherlands.
1921 - Truce called in the Irish War of Independence.
1940 - World War II: Vichy France regime formally established. Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France.
1943 - World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily - German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
1955 - The phrase In God We Trust is added to all US currency.
1960 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published.
1962 - First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
1975 - Chinese archaeologists discover a large burial site with 6,000 clay statutes of warriors from 221 BC.
1977 - Martin Luther King is posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom.
1987 - According to the