1789

Today in History 08/07 (Philippe Petit)

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Philippe Petit walks across a tightrope suspended between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York on Aug 7, 1974 (© Alan Welner/AP)(1974) High-wire artist walks between the Twin Towers
Frenchman Philippe Petit walks out onto a cable he’s illegally rigged 1,350 feet in the air between the Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center. Petit performs a 45-minute high-wire act, complete with a bit of joyful dancing, to the cheers of astounded onlookers.
Philippe Petit is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, on the morning of August 7, 1974 as well as his high wire walk between the towers of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, 1971. For his unauthorized feat 400 metres above the ground – which he referred to as “le coup” – he rigged a 200-kilogram cable and used a custom-made 8-metre long, 25-kilogram balancing pole. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire. The following week, he celebrated his 25th birthday. All charges were dismissed in exchange for him doing a performance in Central Park for children.
Born: Aug 13, 1949 (age 68) · Nemours, France
Height: 5′ 7″
Nationality: French
Parents: Edmond Petit (Father)

Philippe Petit 2009
Philippe Petit at the 81st Academy Awards
wiki/Philippe_Petit
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(1974) High-wire artist walks between the Twin Towers.
Also on this day,

1789 | Congress shines a spotlight on lighthouses
US Congress approves an act for the establishment and support of lighthouse, beacons, buoys, and public piers. In 1989, Congress will mark the 200th anniversary of the signing by declaring August 7 as National Lighthouse Day.
1959 | Earth is ready for its close-up as Explorer 6 launches
NASA’s Explorer 6 satellite blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to orbit the Earth on a 60-day mission. A UHF transmitter will send back the first satellite TV image of the Earth from orbit a few days later, beginning an era of astounding portraits of our planet.
2007 | Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s record
Barry Bonds hits his 756th career home run, breaking Hank Aaron’s record. The 2007 season will be Bonds’ last, and he’ll finish with 762. His career, however , will also be remembered for his legal troubles related to the BALCO steroids scandal.

Today in History 08/07/17

Explorer 6 satellite (© NASA)(1959) Earth is ready for its close-up as Explorer 6 launches
NASA's Explorer 6 satellite blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to orbit the Earth on a 60-day mission. A UHF transmitter will send back the first satellite TV image of the Earth from orbit a few days later, beginning an era of astounding portraits of our planet.
Explorer 6, or S-2, was an American satellite launched on August 7, 1959. It was a small, spheroidal satellite designed to study trapped radiation of various energies, galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetism, radio propagation in the upper atmosphere, and the flux of micrometeorites. It also tested a scanning device designed for photographing the Earth's cloud cover, and transmitted the first pictures of Earth from orbit.
Date: Aug 07, 1959
Thor-Able III Explorer 6 Launch
The launch of Explorer 6

wiki/Explorer_6
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Today in History 07/14 (Sacco and Vanzetti)

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Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in handcuffs, circa 1920s (© Fotosearch/Getty Images)(1921) Italian anarchists found guilty of murder
The robbery of a Massachusetts shoe company resulted in the shooting death of two employees, and two Italian-born anarchists are now found guilty of the murders. Despite much controversy over the trial, and a growing belief in their innocence, Sacco and Vanzetti will be executed six years later.
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born American anarchists who were controversially convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the April 15, 1920 armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. Seven years later, they were electrocuted in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. Both men adhered to an anarchist movement that advocated relentless warfare against a violent and oppressive government.
Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left), handcuffed to Nicola Sacco (right)
Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left), handcuffed to Nicola Sacco (right). Dedham, Massachusetts Superior Court, 1923. This photo was taken in 1923 when Sacco was on the 23rd day of a hunger strike.
wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti
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(1921) Italian anarchists found guilty of murder.
Also on this day,

1789 | Parisians storm an ancient symbol of royal tyranny
The French Revolution’s flash point is centered on Paris’ Bastille, as upwards of 1,000 insurgents attack the medieval fortress and prison to acquire its large stores of gunpowder. Bastille Day will be celebrated from then on as a national holiday in France.
1881 | A notorious Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid is brought down
Henry McCarty, better known by his deceptively childlike nickname ‘Billy the Kid,’ first killed a man at 17 and has since become famous as both a folk hero and vicious criminal. New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett ends the 21-year-old Kid’s storied career with a shot just above the heart.
1960 | A young Goodall journeys into Africa to study chimpanzees
With funds raised by her friend and mentor, noted paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, 26-year-old Jane Goodall journeys to Gombe Stream National Park on Lake Tanganyika, in what will later be Tanzania, Africa. There the amateur primatologist will begin her groundbreaking studies of chimpanzee communities.

Today in History 07/14/17

Woodcut from Beadle's Half Dime Library showing Wild West criminal Billy the Kid meeting his end at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, NM (© MPI/Getty Images)(1789) Parisians storm an ancient symbol of royal tyranny
The French Revolution's flash point is centered on Paris' Bastille, as upwards of 1,000 insurgents attack the medieval fortress and prison to acquire its large stores of gunpowder. Bastille Day will be celebrated from then on as a national holiday in France.
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming but was a symbol of abuses by the monarchy; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution.
Date: Jul 14, 1789

wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille
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Today in History 02/04/18

Gilbert Stuart's 1796 oil-on-canvas portrait of George Washington (© AP)(1789) George Washington elected first US president
In a unanimous vote, the US Electoral College elects General George Washington to the presidency. He will again be elected unanimously to a second term in 1792, with John Adams serving as vice president both times.
George Washington was an American statesman and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and later presided over the 1787 convention that drafted the United States Constitution. He is popularly considered the driving force behind the nation’s establishment and came to be known as the “father of the country,” both during his lifetime and to this day.
Lived: Feb 22, 1732 – Dec 14, 1799 (age 67)
Height: 6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
Spouse: Martha Washington (m. 1759 – 1799)
Children: Martha Parke Custis (Daughter) · Frances Custis (Daughter) · Daniel Parke Custis, Jr. (Son) · Daniel Parke Custis Jr (Son)
Structures: Mount Vernon
Buried: Mount Vernon
Highlights
  • 1755: Lt. Governor Dinwiddie rewarded Washington in 1755 with a commission as “Colonel of the Virginia Regiment and Commander in Chief of all forces now raised in the defense of His Majesty’s Colony” and gave him the task of defending Virginia’s frontier.

  • 1759: On January 6, 1759, Washington married wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis, then 28 years old.

  • 1784: Prior to these, he had a set made with real human teeth, likely ones that he purchased from “several unnamed ‘Negroes,’ presumably Mount Vernon slaves” in 1784.

  • 1789: Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, taking the first presidential oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City.

  • 1797: Washington retired from the presidency in March 1797 and returned to Mount Vernon with a profound sense of relief.

  • 1799: Washington died at home around 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 14, 1799, aged 67.

Gilbert Stuart Williamstown Portrait of George Washington
Portrait of George Washington (1732–99)
wiki/George_Washington
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Today in History 09/25/17

An original manuscript of the Bill of Rights on display in New Jersey (© Mel Evans/AP)(1789) Amendments aim to form a more perfect union
The US Congress passes 12 amendments to the nation’s constitution, ensuring protections for individual liberties, including the freedom of speech and the press, the right to assembly, and the right to exercise religion. Ten of the amendments, comprising the Bill of Rights, will be ratified by the states.

The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the oftentimes bitter 1787–88 battle over ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and crafted to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in several earlier documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the English Bill of Rights 1689, along with earlier documents such as Magna Carta (1215). In practice, the amendments had little impact on judgements by the courts for the first 150 years after ratification.

On June 8, 1789, Representative James Madison introduced nine amendments to the constitution in the House of Representatives. Among his recommendations Madison proposed opening up the Constitution and inserting specific rights limiting the power of Congress in Article One, Section 9. Seven of these limitations would become part of the ten ratified Bill of Rights amendments. Ultimately, on September 25, 1789, Congress approved twelve articles of amendment to the Constitution, each consisting of one one-sentence paragraph, and submitted them to the states for ratification. Contrary to Madison’s original proposal that the articles be incorporated into the main body of the Constitution, they were proposed as supplemental additions (codicils) to it. Articles Three through Twelve were ratified as additions to the Constitution on December 15, 1791, and became Amendments One through Ten of the Constitution. Article Two became part of the Constitution on May 5, 1992, as the Twenty-seventh Amendment. Article One is technically still pending before the states.

Although Madison’s proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states, the amendments that were finally submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government. The door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The process is known as incorporation.

There are several original engrossed copies of the Bill of Rights still in existence. One of these is on permanent public display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.


Bill of Rights Pg1of1 AC
The Bill of Rights, twelve articles of amendment to the to the United States Constitution proposed in 1789, ten of which, Articles three through twelve, became part of the United States Constitution in 1791. Note that the First Amendment is actually “Article the third” on the document, Second Amendment is “Article the fourth”, and so on. “Article the second” is now the 27th Amendment. “Article the first” has not been ratified

wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
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Today in History 07/14/17

Woodcut from Beadle's Half Dime Library showing Wild West criminal Billy the Kid meeting his end at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, NM (© MPI/Getty Images)(1789) Parisians storm an ancient symbol of royal tyranny
The French Revolution’s flash point is centered on Paris’ Bastille, as upwards of 1,000 insurgents attack the medieval fortress and prison to acquire its large stores of gunpowder. Bastille Day will be celebrated from then on as a national holiday in France.
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming but was a symbol of abuses by the monarchy; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution.
Date: Jul 14, 1789

wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille
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