1774

Today in History 05/10/17

Marie Antoinette à la Rose, 1783 (Heritage Images/Getty Images)(1774) Teen sovereigns begin their sumptuous reign
Amid rumblings of discontent from their subjects, Louis XVI, 19, and his bride Marie Antoinette, 18, become the reigning monarchs of France. Anti-aristocracy passions, already simmering due to the country’s debt problems, will only increase as the populace leans towards revolution.
Louis XVI of FranceLouis XVI, born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France and Navarre before the French Revolution; during which he was also known as Louis Capet. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France, Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. Upon his grandfather’s death on 10 May 1774, he became King of France and Navarre, which he remained until 4 September 1791, when he received the title of King of the French until his suspension on 10 August 1792. Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793.
Lived: Aug 23, 1754 – Jan 21, 1793 (age 38)
Spouse: Marie Antoinette (m. 1770 – 1793)
Children: Louis XVII of France (Son) · Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France (Son) · Marie Thérèse of France (Daughter) · Princess Sophie Hélène Béatrice of France (Daughter)
Siblings: Marie Clotilde of France (Sister) · Louis XVIII of France (Brother) · Charles X of France (Brother) · Princess Élisabeth of France (Sister) · Princess Marie Zéphyrine of France (Sister) · Louis, Duke of Burgundy (Brother) · Xavier, Duke of Aquitaine (Brother) · Marie Thérèse, Madame Royale (Sister)
Parents: Louis, Dauphin of France (Father) · Maria Josepha of Saxony, Dauphine of France (Mother)
Highlights
  • 1765: Upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin.

  • 1770: Louis XVI of France married Marie Antoinette on May 16, 1770.

  • 1782: Suffren became the ally of Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War against British rule in India, in 1782–1783, fighting the British fleet along the coasts of India and Ceylon.

  • 1788: As a last-ditch attempt to get new monetary reforms approved, Louis XVI convoked the Estates-General on 8 August 1788, setting the date of their opening at 1 May 1789.

  • 1792: The two writers did not share the same sociopolitical vision, but they agreed that, even though the monarchy was rightly ended in 1792, the lives of the royal family should have been spared.

  • 1793: Despite his signing of the “Civil Constitution of the Clergy”, Louis had been described as a martyr by Pope Pius VI in 1793.

wiki/Louis_XVI_of_France
Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette; French:; born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna was the last Queen of France and Navarre before the French Revolution. She was born an Archduchess of Austria, and was the fifteenth and second youngest child of Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Lived: Nov 02, 1755 – Oct 16, 1793 (age 37)
Height: 5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
Spouse: Louis XVI of France (m. 1770 – 1793)
Children: Marie Thérèse of France (Daughter) · Louis XVII of France (Son) · Princess Sophie Hélène Béatrice of France (Daughter) · Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France (Son)
Parents: Maria Theresa (Mother) · Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (Father)
Highlights
  • 1770: In 1770 she was instrumental in ousting Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, who had helped orchestrate the Franco-Austrian alliance and Marie Antoinette’s marriage, and exiling his sister, the duchesse de Gramont, one of Marie Antoinette’s ladies-in-waiting.

  • 1774: Upon the death of Louis XV on 10 May 1774, the Dauphin ascended the throne as King Louis XVI of France and Navarre and Marie Antoinette became Queen of France and Navarre.

  • 1778: Marie Antoinette’s daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Madame Royale, was born at Versailles on 19 December 1778.

  • 1780: In 1780 she began to participate in amateur plays and musicals in a theatre built for her by Richard Mique at the Petit Trianon.

  • 1781: Her third pregnancy was affirmed in March 1781, and on 22 October she gave birth to Louis Joseph Xavier François, Dauphin of France.

  • 1792: After their return from Varennes and until the storming of the Tuileries on 10 August 1792, the queen, her family and entourage were held under tight surveillance by the Garde nationale in the Tuileries, where the royal couple was guarded night and day.

wiki/Marie_Antoinette
Driving in the golden rivet (spike) for the Union Pacific Railroad, Promontory, Utah, May 10, 1869 (Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group/REX)(1869) Golden spike completes transcontinental railroad
A ceremonial golden spike, and the official telegraph message ‘DONE,’ mark the end of six years of labor on a massive scale, as the US transcontinental railroad is completed. Once a half-year’s journey, the trip from one coast of North America to the other now takes about a week.
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a 1,912-mile continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Construction was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds. The Western Pacific Railroad Company built 132 mi of track from Oakland/Alameda to Sacramento, California. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California constructed 690 mi eastward from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. And the Union Pacific built 1,085 mi from the road’s eastern terminus at Council Bluffs near Omaha, Nebraska westward to Promontory Summit.
wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad
Victoria Woodhull, American woman's rights leader, circa 1890s (CSU Archives / Everett Collection/REX)(1872) First female US presidential candidate is nominated
The Equal Rights Party nominates suffragist Victoria Woodhull for president of the United States. Her candidacy, the first ever by a woman in the US, will be derailed a few days before the election when she’s arrested on obscenity charges, but she will try again in subsequent elections.
Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin was an American leader of the woman’s suffrage movement. In 1872, Woodhull ran for President of the United States. While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for President of the United States, some have questioned that priority given issues with the legality of her run. They disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because she was younger than the constitutionally mandated age of 35. However, election coverage by contemporary newspapers does not suggest age was a significant issue. The presidential inauguration was in March 1873. Woodhull’s 35th birthday was in September 1873.
Born: Sep 23, 1838 · Homer, OH
Died: Jun 09, 1927 · Bredon, United Kingdom
Spouse: James Blood (m. 1865 – 1876)
Siblings: Tennessee Celeste Claflin (Sister)
Children: Byron Woodhull
Parents: Reuben Buckman Claflin · Roxanna Hummel Claflin
Highlights
  • 1865: Victoria Woodhull married James Blood in 1865; their marriage lasted 11 years till 1876.

  • 1868: She said that she was guided in 1868 by Demosthenes to what symbolism to use supporting her theories of Free Love.

  • 1870: Together with her sister, Tennessee Claflin, she was the first woman to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street; they were among the first women to found a newspaper, Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, which began publication in 1870.

  • 1872: Woodhull was the candidate in 1872 from the Equal Rights Party, supporting women’s suffrage and equal rights; her running mate was abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass.

  • 1872: In 1872, Woodhull publicly criticized well-known clergyman Henry Ward Beecher for adultery.

  • 1901: After her husband died in 1901, Martin gave up publishing and retired to the country, establishing residence at Bredon’s Norton, where she built a village school with Tennessee and Zula.

wiki/Victoria_Woodhull
Boston Bruins defenseman Bobby Orr flies through the air after scoring the winning goal of the Stanley Cup Championship on May 10, 1970. (© A.E. Maloof/AP)(1970) Bobby Orr’s Stanley Cup-winning shot
Boston Bruins defenseman Bobby Orr scores in overtime to sweep the St. Louis Blues and win the Stanley Cup. Tripped as he shoots, Orr raises his arms in victory as he flies through the air, making it one of the most iconic goals in NHL history.
Robert Gordon “Bobby” Orr, OC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. Orr used his ice skating speed, scoring, and play-making abilities to revolutionize the position of defenceman. He played in the National Hockey League for 12 seasons, starting with 10 with the Boston Bruins followed by two with the Chicago Black Hawks. Orr remains the only defenceman to have won the league scoring title with two Art Ross Trophies. He holds the record for most points and assists in a single season by a defenceman. Orr won a record eight consecutive Norris Trophies as the NHL’s best defenceman and three consecutive Hart Trophies as the league’s most valuable player. Orr was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979 at age 31, the youngest to be inducted at that time. On January 27, 2017, in a ceremony during the All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, Orr was part of the second group of players to be named one of the ‘100 Greatest NHL Players’ in history. After his hockey career, he became a well-known scout for many professional teams. He also spends time talking to and mentoring young skaters.
Born: Mar 20, 1948 (age 69) · Parry Sound, Canada
Height: 6′ 0″ (1.82 m)
Net worth: $35 million USD (2017)
Spouse: Margaret Louise Wood (m. 1973)
Written works: Orr: My Story · Orr: My Story 12 Copy Signed Prepack
Awards: Art Ross Trophy (1974, 1969) · Conn Smythe Trophy (1972, 1970) · Calder Memorial Trophy (1967) · Ted Lindsay Award (1975) · Lester Patrick Trophy (1979) · Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year (1970) · Lou Marsh Trophy (1970)
Highlights
  • 1962: Although three other NHL teams (Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens) were interested in Orr, he signed in 1962 with the Bruins.

  • 1966: On December 4, 1966, Toronto Maple Leafs’ defenceman Marcel Pronovost checked him into the boards, injuring Orr’s knees for the first time in the NHL.

  • 1970: Orr went on to lead the Bruins in a march through the 1970 playoffs that culminated on May 10, 1970, when he scored one of the most famous goals in hockey history and one that gave Boston its first Stanley Cup since 1941.

  • 1973: Bobby Orr married Margaret Louise Wood on September 01, 1973.

  • 1974: In the 1974–75 season, Orr broke his own previous record for goals by a defenceman, scoring 46 goals to go with 89 assists for his sixth straight 100-point season.

  • 1994: Orr also helped out Bruins trainer John (Frosty) Forristall, his roommate during his first years with the Bruins, who had just been fired from the Tampa Bay Lightning for alcoholism in 1994.

wiki/Bobby_Orr
4.1.m17

A Historical Day

(1774) Teen sovereigns begin their sumptuous reign
1774 Amid rumblings of discontent from their subjects, Louis XVI, 19, and his bride Marie Antoinette, 18, become the reigning monarchs of France. Anti-aristocracy passions, already simmering due to the country’s debt problems, will only increase as the populace leans towards revolution..
(1869) Golden spike completes transcontinental railroad
A ceremonial golden spike, and the official telegraph message ‘DONE,’ mark the end of six years of labor on a massive scale, as the US transcontinental railroad is completed. Once a half-year’s journey, the trip from one coast of North America to the other now takes about a week. . 1869
(1872) First female US presidential candidate is nominated
1872 The Equal Rights Party nominates suffragist Victoria Woodhull for president of the United States. Her candidacy, the first ever by a woman in the US, will be derailed a few days before the election when she’s arrested on obscenity charges, but she will try again in subsequent elections..
(1975) The alpha Beta
Sony releases the Betamax home video format in Japan. Rival JVC will soon market their alternate Video Home System (VHS), triggering the ‘videotape format wars’ which will see consumers favoring VHS. Despite losing the format war, Sony will continue making Beta products until March 2016. Yes, Millennials, before streaming video, watching a video meant putting a tape into a machine the size of a toaster. . 1975