1793

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Today in History 05/15/17

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Illustration of Diego Marín Aguilera (Public Domain Via Wikimedia Commons)(1793) Spanish inventor glides over the countryside on wings
On a moonlit night, Diego Marín Aguilera flies on his invention made of iron, wood, and a myriad of feathers. He soars some 500 yards over Coruña del Conde, Spain, before landing. Others see his glider as heretical and they will burn it, ending Aguilera’s budding career in aviation.
Diego Marín Aguilera was a Spanish inventor who was an early aviation pioneer. Born in Coruña del Conde, Marín became the head of his household after his father died and had to take care of his seven siblings. He worked as an agricultural laborer, tending his animals and fields. Marín spent long afternoons and days herding sheep in the surrounding fields.
Born: 1757
Died: 1799

wiki/Diego_Marín_Aguilera
Mickey Mouse in 'Plane Crazy,' 1928 (© Walt Disney Pictures/Ronald Grant Archive/Alamy)(1928) A mouse named Mickey makes his debut
Screened before a test audience, a silent short animated film made by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks fails to find a movie distributor. The lead character of ‘Plane Crazy,’ Mickey Mouse, won’t be fated to obscurity however, as his second outing, ‘Steamboat Willie,’ makes a big splash.
Inspired by Lindbergh’s flight from New York to Paris, Mickey builds a plane to take Minnie for a trip involving some necking, though Minnie objects to the necking.
Release date: May 15, 1928 (United States)
Directors: Walt Disney · Ub Iwerks
Estimated budget: $3,528 USD
Music by: Carl Stalling
IMDB: www.imdb.com/title/tt0019278

wiki/Plane_Crazy
Alabama Governor George Wallace and his wife, Cornelia, hold up newspaper with headline 'Wallace wins in Maryland, Michigan, Democratic Presidential primaries.' May 17, 1972 (© Everett Collection/REX)(1972) Assassination attempt fells US presidential candidate
Arthur Bremer shoots Alabama governor and US presidential hopeful George Wallace as he campaigns at a Maryland shopping center. Wallace survives the assassination attempt, but will be paralyzed from the waist down the rest of his life.
George Corley Wallace Jr. was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Alabama, having served two nonconsecutive terms and two consecutive terms as a Democrat: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. Wallace has the third longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history, at 16 years and four days. He was a U.S. Presidential candidate for four consecutive elections, in which he sought the Democratic Party nomination in 1964, 1972, and 1976, and was the American Independent Party candidate in the 1968 presidential election. He remains the last third-party candidate to receive pledged electoral college votes from any state.
Lived: Aug 25, 1919 – Sep 13, 1998 (age 79)
Height: 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
Parties: Dixiecrat · Democratic Party
Education: University of Alabama · University of Alabama School of Law
Related movies: Selma
Previous offices: Governor of Alabama (1983 – 1987) · Governor of Alabama (1971 – 1979) · Governor of Alabama (1963 – 1967)
Highlights
  • 1943: George Wallace married Lurleen Wallace on May 21, 1943; their marriage lasted 25 years till May 07, 1968.

  • 1963: Wallace took the oath of office on January 14, 1963, standing on the gold star marking the spot where, nearly 102 years earlier, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America.

  • 1966: He felt somewhat vindicated when Republicans in Idaho denied renomination in 1966 to Governor Robert E. Smylie, author of the article entitled “Why I Feel Sorry for Lurleen Wallace.”

  • 1971: On January 4, 1971, Wallace wed the former Cornelia Ellis Snively (1939–2009), a niece of former Alabama Governor Jim Folsom, known as “Big Jim”.

  • 1982: In the 1982 Alabama gubernatorial Democratic primary, Wallace’s main opponents were Lieutenant Governor George McMillan and Alabama House Speaker Joe McCorquodale.

  • 1998: Wallace died of septic shock from a bacterial infection in Jackson Hospital in Montgomery on September 13, 1998.

wiki/George_Wallace
Hip hop artists Run-D.M.C. (© Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)(1986) Run-D.M.C. breaks through
The hip-hop group releases its third album, which includes a collaboration with Aerosmith on a new version of the band’s hit ‘Walk This Way.’ ‘Raising Hell’ will expand rap’s popularity to MTV and a broader audience, selling more than 3 million copies.
Raising Hell is the third studio album by hip hop group Run–D.M.C.. The breakthrough album trumped standing perceptions of commercial viability for hip-hop groups, achieving triple-platinum status and receiving critical attention from quarters that had previously ignored hip hop, dismissing it as a fad.
Release year: 1986
Genre: Hip Hop, Old School Hip Hop
Label: Arista
Artist: Run-D.M.C.

wiki/Raising_Hell_(album)
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Today in History 01/21/17

Painting depicting the execution of Louis XVI in 1793 (© DEA/M. Seemuller/Getty Images)(1793) France’s deposed King Louis XVI guillotined
Four years after the revolution turned his gilded world upside down, King Louis XVI is the first French king to be executed, bringing more than a millennium of monarchical rule to an end.
The execution of Louis XVI, by means of the guillotine, took place on 21 January 1793 at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. It was a major event of the French Revolution. After events on the 10 August 1792, which saw the fall of the monarchy after the attack on the Tuileries by insurgents, Louis was arrested, interned in the Temple prison with his family, tried for high treason before the National Convention, convicted in a near-unanimous vote, and condemned to death by a slight majority. His execution made him the first victim of the Reign of Terror. His wife Marie Antoinette was guillotined on 16 October, the same year.
Date: Jan 21, 1793

wiki/Execution_of_Louis_XVI
Alger Hiss at the entrance to the US Courthouse in New York City on Jan. 21, 1950 (© Harry Harris/AP)(1950) Suspected Soviet spy Alger Hiss convicted of perjury
Beyond the statute of limitations for treason, former US State Department official Alger Hiss is found guilty of the lesser charge of perjury for lying about his involvement in a Soviet spy ring.
Alger Hiss was an American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before he was tried and convicted, he was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department official and as a U.N. official. In later life he worked as a lecturer and author.
Lived: Nov 11, 1904 – Nov 15, 1996 (age 92)
Spouse: Isabel Johnson (m. 1985 – 1996) · Priscilla Hobson (m. 1929 – 1984)
Written works: Recollections of a life · In the court of public opinion
Children: Tony Hiss (Son) · Timothy Hobson
TV shows: The World at War
Parents: Mary Lavinia Hughes · Charles Alger Hiss

wiki/Alger_Hiss
The British Airways Concorde makes its inaugural flight from Heathrow Airport in London on Jan. 21, 1976 (© Dave Caulkin/AP)(1976) The Concorde supersonic jet begins commercial flights
With two scheduled routes, London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio, the Concorde begins ferrying commercial customers at 1,350 miles per hour, breaking the sound barrier and reducing transcontinental travel time by roughly half.
Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde is a British-French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet airliner that was operated until 2003. It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04, with seating for 92 to 128 passengers. First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for the next 27 years. It is one of only two supersonic transports to have been operated commercially; the other is the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, which was operated for a much shorter period.
Maximum speed: 1,354 mph (2,179 km/h)
Range: 4,505 miles (7,250 km)
Maiden flight: Mar 02, 1969
Length: 202 feet (61.67 m)
Wingspan: 84′ 0″ (25.60 m)
Cruising speed: 1,320 mph (2,124 km/h)

wiki/Concorde
President Jimmy Carter holds his first news conference in 1977 (© AP)(1977) Carter pardons most Vietnam draft dodgers
On his second day as president, Jimmy Carter honors a campaign promise to pardon Vietnam-era draft evaders, expunging their criminal records. Up to a million estimated AWOL veterans are excluded.
Draft evasion is an intentional decision not to comply with the military conscription policies of one’s nation. Such practices that do not involve law breaking or which are based on conscientious objection are sometimes referred to as “draft avoidance.” Refusing to submit to the draft is considered a criminal offense in most countries where conscription is in effect. Those who practice draft evasion are sometimes pejoratively referred to as “draft dodgers”, a term which was made popular during the Vietnam War. Draft evasion is distinct from desertion in that only an active member of a military service can become a deserter by absenting himself or herself from the army without receiving a valid leave of absence or discharge and without any intention of returning to the army.
wiki/Draft_evasion
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Today in History

Today in History
(1793) After the revolution a bloody power struggle takes its toll
1793 In France, a Committee of Public Safety is set up to deal with government enemies in the wake of the monarchy’s overthrow. But safety will not be maintained as in-fighting reaches epic proportions, leaving tens of thousands dead, many by the “National Razor” (guillotine), during the 11-month Reign of Terror. .
The Reign of Terror, also known as The Terror, was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and The Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of “enemies of the revolution”. The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine, and another 25,000 in summary executions across France.

Start date: Sep 05, 1793
End date: Jul 28, 1794
(1914) Military might turns the tide on the Marne
World War I’s Allied forces take the upper hand for the first time as more than a million French and British soldiers begin to drive back hundreds of thousands of German fighters advancing on Paris at the First Battle of the Marne. The three-day clash will see roughly 500,000 killed or wounded.. 1914
The Battle of the Marne was a First World War battle fought from 5–12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army. The battle was the culmination of the German advance into France and pursuit of the Allied armies which followed the Battle of the Frontiers in August and had reached the eastern outskirts of Paris. A counter-attack by six French field armies and the British Expeditionary Force along the Marne River forced the Imperial German Army to retreat north-west, leading to the Battle of the Aisne and the “Race to the Sea”. The Battle of the Marne was a victory for the Allies, but it also set the stage for four years of trench warfare stalemate on the Western Front.

Start date: Sep 05, 1914
End date: Sep 12, 1914
(1957) Sal and Dean hit the road in a bold Beat manifesto
1957 Reading more like a prose poem than a novel, the 320-page semiautobiographical work published today journeys across sunbaked tarmacs to define the ethos of the Beat Generation. The rambling, stream-of-consciousness travelogue, ‘On the Road,’ will also launch author Jack Kerouac into the literary stratosphere..
On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use. The novel, published in 1957, is a roman à clef, with many key figures in the Beat movement, such as William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady represented by characters in the book, including Kerouac himself as the narrator Sal Paradise.

Author: Jack Kerouac
Written: Apr 1951
First published: Sep 05, 1957
(1972) ‘Black September’ terrorists take Israeli athletes hostage
Munich’s Olympic Games are plunged into panic after Palestinian terrorists storm the Olympic Village rooms housing Israeli athletes and staff, killing two, and taking dozens hostage. A rescue attempt by German authorities at the Munich airport will be botched, resulting in the deaths of nine Israelis, five terrorists, and a West German police officer.. 1972
The Munich massacre was an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, at which eleven Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage and eventually killed, along with a German police officer, by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Shortly after the crisis began, they demanded 234 prisoners jailed in Israel and the German-held founders of the Red Army Faction be released. Black September called the operation “Iqrit and Biram”, after two Palestinian Christian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by the IDF in 1948.

Start date: Sep 05, 1972
End date: Sep 06, 1972
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Today in History

Today in History
(1519) Magellan’s fleet sets sail to circle the globe
1519 Explorer Ferdinand Magellan leads a fleet of five Spanish ships bound westward for an Atlantic crossing, then to sail into what Magellan will name the ‘Mar Pacifico,’ meaning ‘peaceful sea.’ He will die before his one surviving vessel completes the first circumnavigation of the Earth. .
(1793) Revolutionaries open French royal art collection to the public
France’s revolutionary government opens to the public what used to be a grand royal residence, displaying a previously private collection of 537 paintings and 184 objects. Paris’ Louvre Museum will grow to hold almost 35,000 works and become the world’s most visited art museum.. 1793
(1937) Electric guitars get their start in Hawaiian-music craze
1937 America’s love affair with exotic Hawaiian music gives musician George Beauchamp a reason to turn up the volume, as acoustic guitars just aren’t loud enough to please large crowds. He receives a patent on his ‘Frying Pan,’ a cast-aluminum guitar with amplifying electric pickups, which he had created in 1931..
(1950) Old Hollywood meets mid-century cynics in new noir
Former silent-screen star Norma Desmond dreams of resurrection, while hard-boiled screenwriter Joe Gillis just wants to avoid the repo men as a dark take on Hollywood hubris, ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ premieres. The film will garner 11 Oscar nominations and be named one of the best movies of all time.. 1950

Today in History

Today in History
(1587) English colonists land at Roanoke Island
1587 Hundreds of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina. Although a previous colony on the island had vanished, Sir Walter Raleigh hopes this second colony will flourish. But three years later, relief ships will find it completely deserted, and the Lost Colony of Roanoke will become a haunting mystery..
(1793) Explorer completes crossing of North America
Twelve years before Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific, Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie finishes a North American cross-continental trip in what will be Canada. Mackenzie will lay the groundwork for Britain’s settlement of Canada and future continent-spanning expeditions further south.. 1793
(1812) French are routed at Salamanca by Wellington
1812 His historic battle with Napoleon at Waterloo less than three years away, Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Wellington, helps liberate Madrid as he leads Anglo-Portuguese units against France in the Battle of Salamanca, an offensive that will garner him great praise and a rapid military rise..
(1934) Dillinger’s criminal career ends in a hail of bullets
John Dillinger’s seemingly superhuman skill at prison breaks, evading police raids, and literally getting away with murder finally falters as he leaves Chicago’s Biograph Theater. His companion, brothel owner Anna Sage, has set him up and he’s shot while attempting to flee police. . 1934