1649

Today in History 01/30/17

Illustration by Ernest Crofts of King Charles I (center) walking to his execution in 1649 (© The Print Collector/Getty Images)(1649) England’s King Charles I executed on charge of treason
Controversial from his reign’s start, King Charles clashed frequently with the English parliament, leading to two civil wars, Oliver Cromwell’s rise, and finally to his own beheading.
Charles I was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles was the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. He became heir apparent to the English, Irish, and Scottish thrones on the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1612. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Anna culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiations. Two years later, he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France instead.
Lived: Nov 19, 1600 – Jan 30, 1649 (age 48)
Height: 5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
Spouse: Henrietta Maria of France (m. 1625)
Children: Charles II of England (Son) · James II of England (Son) · Elizabeth Stuart (Daughter) · Henrietta of England (Daughter) · Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (Daughter) · Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester
Parents: James VI and I (Father) · Anne of Denmark (Mother)
Siblings: Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (Brother) · Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (Sister) · Robert Stuart, Duke of Kintyre and Lorne (Brother)
Highlights
  • 1617: In 1617, the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, a Catholic, was elected king of Bohemia.

  • 1619: In August 1619, the Bohemian diet chose as their monarch Frederick V, who was leader of the Protestant Union, while Ferdinand was elected Holy Roman Emperor in the imperial election.

  • 1623: Charles and the Duke of Buckingham, James’s favourite and a man who had great influence over the prince, travelled incognito to Spain in February 1623 to try to reach agreement on the long-pending Spanish match.

  • 1625: Charles I of England married Henrietta Maria of France on May 11, 1625.

  • 1637: In 1637, the king ordered the use of a new prayer book in Scotland that was almost identical to the English Book of Common Prayer, without consulting either the Scottish Parliament or the Kirk.

  • 1645: At the battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645, Rupert’s horsemen again mounted a successful charge, against the flank of Parliament’s New Model Army, but Charles’s troops elsewhere on the field were pushed back by the opposing forces.

wiki/Charles_I_of_England
Mahatma Gandhi on the day he was shot, Jan. 30, 1948 (© Toronto Star Archives/Getty Images)(1948) Mahatma Gandhi assassinated
Gandhi, India’s political and spiritual leader whose use of nonviolent civil disobedience led to his country’s independence from British colonial rule, is slain in New Delhi by a Hindu extremist.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated at the Birla House in New Delhi on 30 January 1948. Gandhi was outside on the steps where a prayer meeting was going to take place, surrounded by a part of his family and some followers, when Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist and prominent member of Hindu Mahasabha, approached and shot him three times in the chest at close range. Gandhi was taken back inside the Birla House, where he died. Godse was arrested, convicted in court and later executed.
Date: Jan 30, 1948

wiki/Assassination_of_Mahatma_Gandhi
American soldiers run for cover as an incoming artillery round explodes nearby on January 30, 1968, in Khe Sanh, Vietnam, at the beginning of the Tet Offensive (© STF/AFP/Getty Image)(1968) The Tet Offensive begins with surprise attacks
Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces break the holiday truce, launching a widespread military campaign against US and South Vietnamese targets that is among the largest of the Vietnam War.
The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, launched on January 30, 1968, by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces, and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam. The name of the offensive comes from the Tết holiday, the Vietnamese New Year, when the first major attacks took place.
Start date: Jan 30, 1968
End date: Sep 23, 1968

wiki/Tet_Offensive
Demonstrators throw objects at British soldiers during a civil rights gathering in Derry, Northern Ireland, on 'Bloody Sunday,' Jan. 30, 1972 (© Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images)(1972) Northern Ireland suffers ‘Bloody Sunday’
British soldiers fire on unarmed Catholic civil rights protestors during a Derry, Northern Ireland, march, killing 14 and wounding 17. The incident ratchets up tension and strife during The Troubles.
Bloody Sunday – sometimes called the Bogside Massacre – was an incident on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest march against internment. Fourteen people died: thirteen were killed outright, while the death of another man four months later was attributed to his injuries. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by rubber bullets or batons, and two were run down by army vehicles. The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. The soldiers involved were members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, also known as “1 Para”.
Date: Jan 30, 1972

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Today in History

Today in History
(1649) An Irish town is crushed under Cromwell’s command
1649 Oliver Cromwell, having had King Charles I of England executed the previous year, now goes after Ireland and the Royalists who’ve fled there for sanctuary. His New Model Army sacks Wexford, destroying much of a town that was negotiating surrender, and killing many of its inhabitants..

The Sack of Wexford took place in October 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, when the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell took Wexford town in south-eastern Ireland. The English Parliamentarian troops broke into the town while the commander of the garrison, David Sinnot, was trying to negotiate a surrender – massacring soldiers and civilians alike. Much of the town was burned and its harbour was destroyed. Along with the Siege of Drogheda, the sack of Wexford is still remembered in Ireland as an infamous atrocity.

Start date: Oct 02, 1649
End date: Oct 11, 1649

— Source: wiki/Sack_of_Wexford
(1975) Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night
A new late-night comedy-variety show, ‘NBC’s Saturday Night,’ premieres with guest host George Carlin. The scrappy 90-minute program is launched to replace re-runs of ‘The Tonight Show’ and proves to have more than a little staying power. Two years later it’ll be renamed ‘Saturday Night Live.’. 1975

A late-night comedy show featuring several short skits, parodies of television commercials, a live guest band, and a pop-cultural guest host each week. Many of the SNL players have spun off successful independent comedy and/or movie careers from here.

First episode: Oct 11, 1975
Number of episodes: 808
Episode duration: 90 minutes
Creator: Lorne Michaels
Producers: Lorne Michaels · Al Franken · John Mulaney · Jean Doumanian · Dick Ebersol · Steve Higgins · Jim Downey · Marci Klein · Michael Shoemaker · SNL Studios · Erin Doyle · Ken Aymong · Lindsay Shookus · Erik Kenward
Origin: United States

— Source: wiki/Saturday_Night_Live
— Additional Source: www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live
(1986) Superpower leaders meet in Iceland’s capital
1986 Nothing less than the eradication of nuclear ballistic missiles is on the table during a negotiating summit between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Their talks will end in an apparent stalemate, but later lead to the groundbreaking INF Treaty..

The Reykjavík Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in Hofdi in Reykjavík, on 11–12 October 1986. The talks collapsed at the last minute, but the progress that had been achieved eventually resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union.

— Source: wiki/Reykjavík_Summit
(1991) Supreme Court confirmation hearing rivets a nation
The US Senate Judiciary Committee calls a former assistant to Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas to testify regarding her time working for him. What Anita Hill tells the panel will cause a firestorm of controversy and open up a national debate around workplace sexual harassment.. 1991

Clarence Thomas is an American judge, lawyer, and government official who currently serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Thomas succeeded Thurgood Marshall and is the second black American to serve on the court.

Born: Jun 23, 1948 (age 68) · Pin Point, GA
Spouse: Virginia Thomas (m. 1987) · Kathy Ambush (m. 1971 – 1984)
Children: Jamal Adeen Thomas (Son)
Education: College of the Holy Cross · Yale Law School · Yale University
Written works: My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir

— Source: wiki/Clarence_Thomas
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A Historical Day

(1649) Oliver Cromwell establishes the Commonwealth of England
1649 Forces led by Oliver Cromwell have won the Second English Civil War, King Charles I is executed, and now Cromwell and the Rump Parliament do away with royal rule in favor of a Commonwealth. England will be a republic for only 11 years before the Restoration revives monarchical power..
(1916) Three world powers carve up the Middle East
With expectations of an Ottoman defeat at the hands of the Triple Entente, the Sykes-Picot Agreement maps out the territories that the United Kingdom, France, and Russia plan to control in the Middle East. The secret plan will be exposed, angering Arab leaders who were promised independent rule. . 1916
(1935) Lawrence dies far from Arabia
1935 Having survived almost suicidal risk in the Arabian Desert fighting alongside Arabs battling Turks, a capture and torture, and a plane crash in Egypt, ex-British Army officer T.E. Lawrence, 46, finds death among the quiet hedgerows of Dorset, England, after crashing his motorcycle..
(1963) Excerpts from a landmark civil rights letter published
Jailed for civil disobedience in Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Luther King, Jr. pens a letter outlining his nonviolent civil rights struggle. Parts of the forceful ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ are published in the New York Post Sunday Magazine and will inspire both debate and devotion to King’s cause.. 1963