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Today in History 06/15/17

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King John of England signs the Magna Carta at Runnymede near Windsor, in an artwork engraved by Davenport and drawn by T. H. Jones (© Rischgitz/Getty Images)(1215) King John concedes absolute power and puts it in writing
Absolute monarchical power comes to an end when a beleaguered King John formally agrees to respect the feudal privileges of England’s nobility. Belief that this Magna Carta strengthens individual liberty will greatly influence the American Constitution and the development of modern democracies.
Magna Carta Libertatum, commonly called Magna Carta, is a charter agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons’ War. After John’s death, the regency government of his young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war in 1217, it formed part of the peace treaty agreed at Lambeth, where the document acquired the name Magna Carta, to distinguish it from the smaller Charter of the Forest which was issued at the same time. Short of funds, Henry reissued the charter again in 1225 in exchange for a grant of new taxes; his son, Edward I, repeated the exercise in 1297, this time confirming it as part of England’s statute law.
Magna Carta (British Library Cotton MS Augustus II.106)

wiki/Magna_Carta
The English Camp of the Pig War, San Juan Island, Washington State (© Norman Barrett/Alamy)(1859) Two world powers send military forces to solve pig problem
One pig is shot but no people perish in a conflict that proves the necessity of precisely worded territorial treaties. The Pig War begins between British Canada and the US near the San Juan Islands when an ostensibly British-Canadian pig is found rooting for tubers on a supposedly American farm.
The Pig War was a confrontation in 1859 between the United States and Great Britain over the Canada–U.S. border in the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The Pig War, so called because it was triggered by the shooting of a pig, is also called the Pig Episode, the Pig and Potato War, the San Juan Boundary Dispute or the Northwestern Boundary Dispute. With no shots exchanged and no human casualties, this dispute was a bloodless conflict.
Date: 1859
PigWar Boundaries

wiki/Pig_War_(1859)
Time-lapse photographs by Edweard Muybridge of a man riding a galloping horse (© ullstein bild/Getty Images)(1878) Dawn of the movies as Muybridge stops time with his camera
Leland Stanford is fairly certain that when a horse gallops there is a moment when all four of its legs leave the ground. He hires photographer Eadweard Muybridge who takes pioneering stop-motion photographs, proving that horses can indeed become airborne for a split second, and the innovative images will mark the dawn of motion pictures.
Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the name Eadweard Muybridge, believing it to be the original Anglo-Saxon form of his name.
Born: Apr 09, 1830 · Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom
Died: May 08, 1904 · Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom
Spouse: Flora Shallcross Stone (m. 1872 – 1875)
Inventions: Film
Children: Florado Helios Muybridge (Son)
Parents: Susan Muggeridge (Mother) · John Muggeridge
Highlights
  • 1872: In 1872, Muybridge married 21-year-old Flora Shallcross Stone.

  • 1874: In 1874, Muybridge discovered that a drama critic known as Major Harry Larkyns might have fathered Flora’s seven-month-old son Florado.

  • 1875: While travelling on a photography expedition in the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America in 1875, the photographer advertised his works under the name “Eduardo Santiago Muybridge” in Guatemala.

  • 1877: Today, Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion in 1877 and 1878, which used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-motion photographs, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography.

  • 1878: In 1878, Muybridge made a famous 13-part 360° photographic panorama of San Francisco, to be presented to the wife of Leland Stanford.

  • 1904: Muybridge died on 8 May 1904 in Kingston upon Thames of prostate cancer at the home of his cousin Catherine Smith.

wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge
Ulrike Meinhof in the editorial office of the political magazine 'Konkret,' circa 1960 (© Max Ehlert/ullstein bild/Getty Images)(1972) Infamous German radical arrested
Former journalist Ulrike Meinhof is caught by police two years after helping form the Red Army Faction, a violent leftist organization considered a terrorist group. Her subsequent murder trial and the controversy surrounding her apparent jail-cell suicide will transfix Europe.
Ulrike Marie Meinhof was a German left-wing militant. She co-founded the Red Army Faction in 1970, after having worked as a journalist for the monthly left-wing magazine konkret. She was arrested in 1972, charged with numerous murders and the formation of a criminal association. In 1976, before the trial concluded, Meinhof was found hanged in her prison cell.
Born: Oct 07, 1934 · Oldenburg, Germany Died: May 09, 1976 · Stuttgart, Germany Founded: Red Army Faction Movies: Children of the Revolution Parents: Werner Meinhof (Father)
Highlights
  • 1936: In 1936, her family moved to Jena when her father, art historian Dr. Werner Meinhof, became director of the city’s museum.

  • 1940: Her father died of cancer in 1940, causing her mother to take in a boarder, Renate Riemeck, to make money.

  • 1958: In 1958, she spent a short time on the AStA (German: Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss, or General Committee of Students) of the university and wrote articles for various student newspapers.

  • 1961: In 1961, she married the co-founder and publisher of konkret, Klaus Rainer Röhl.

  • 1970: She co-founded the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) in 1970 after having previously worked as a journalist for the monthly left-wing magazine konkret.

  • 1972: In December 1972, Meinhof, who was awaiting trial, was called to testify at Horst Mahler’s trial where Mahler questioned her about the statement of support the two had issued for the September 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

wiki/Ulrike_Meinhof
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A Historical Day

(1215) King John concedes absolute power and puts it in writing
1215 Absolute monarchical power comes to an end when a beleaguered King John formally agrees to respect the feudal privileges of England’s nobility. Belief that this Magna Carta strengthens individual liberty will greatly influence the American Constitution and the development of modern democracies. .
(1859) Two world powers send military forces to solve pig problem
One pig is shot but no people perish in a conflict that proves the necessity of precisely worded territorial treaties. The Pig War begins between British Canada and the US near the San Juan Islands when an ostensibly British-Canadian pig is found rooting for tubers on a supposedly American farm.. 1859
(1878) Dawn of the movies as Muybridge stops time with his camera
1878 Leland Stanford is fairly certain that when a horse gallops there is a moment when all four of its legs leave the ground. He hires photographer Eadweard Muybridge who takes pioneering stop-motion photographs, proving that horses can indeed become airborne for a split second, and the innovative images will mark the dawn of motion pictures..
(1972) Infamous German radical arrested
Former journalist Ulrike Meinhof is caught by police two years after helping form the Red Army Faction, a violent leftist organization considered a terrorist group. Her subsequent murder trial and the controversy surrounding her apparent jail-cell suicide will transfix Europe.. 1972