1816

Today in History 12/30 (Marcos is President)

Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos in 1965 (© AP)(1965) Ferdinand Marcos is inaugurated president of Philippines
The leader of the Philippine Senate is sworn in as president. During his campaign, Marcos touted his decorated war record, which will later be found to be largely untrue. He will impose martial law in 1972 and his 20 years in power will be known for corruption and brutality.
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. was a Filipino politician and kleptocrat who was the tenth President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. A leading member of the far-right New Society Movement, he ruled as a dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981. His regime was infamous for its corruption, extravagance, and brutality.
Lived: Sep 11, 1917 – Sep 28, 1989 (age 72)
Height: 5′ 7″
Spouse: Imelda Marcos (m. 1954 – 1989)
Children: Bongbong Marcos (Son) · Imee Marcos (Daughter) · Irene Marcos-Araneta (Daughter) · Aimee Marcos (Daughter)
Buried: Ferdinand E. Marcos Presidential Center
Parents: Mariano Marcos (Father) · Josefa Edralin (Mother)
Highlights
  • 1954: Ferdinand Marcos married Imelda Marcos on May 01, 1954.

  • 1965: Marcos won the presidency in 1965.

  • 1972: Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law on September 23, 1972, during which he revamped the constitution, silenced the media, and used violence and oppression against the political opposition, Muslims, communist rebels, and ordinary citizens.

  • 1978: In 1978, the position returned when Ferdinand Marcos became Prime Minister.

  • 1984: By 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan started distancing himself from the Marcos regime that he and previous American presidents had strongly supported even after Marcos declared martial law.

  • 1989: Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were jointly credited in 1989 by Guinness World Records with the largest-ever theft from a government: an estimated 5 to 10 billion dollars.

The second inauguration of President Ferdinand Marcos on December 30, 1969
Ferdinand Marcos takes the Oath of Office for a second term before Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion on December 30, 1969
wiki/Ferdinand_Marcos
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(1965) Ferdinand Marcos is inaugurated president of Philippines.
Also on this day,

1816 | Mary Godwin now Shelley as Percy Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin marry
Two years after poet Percy Shelley and then-17-year-old Godwin eloped to France, the couple marries in England after Shelley’s first wife, whom he never divorced, dies. Later, the couple and their friend Lord Byron will challenge each other to write a ghost story. Only Mary Shelley will finish hers.
1903 | Deadly fire kills 600 at Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre
The “most beautiful” stage in Chicago, the Iroquois Theatre, turns into a death trap for over 600 people when a fire erupts backstage. Most of the victims die on the balcony level, which lacks fire escapes or ladders to safety. The tragedy will lead to new safety standards for public buildings that will be adopted nationwide.
1922 | USSR established as the Soviet Union is founded
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union, becomes the first Marxist country in the world, following the October Revolution and the grueling Civil War that ended the Russian Empire. The USSR comprises a federation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation, but will grow larger still.

Today in History 12/30/17

Flag of the Soviet Union (© David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)(1922) The Soviet Union is founded
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union, becomes the first Marxist country in the world, following the October Revolution and the grueling Civil War that ended the Russian Empire. The USSR comprises a federation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation, but will grow larger still.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, abbreviated as USSR, was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The Russian nation had constitutionally equal status among the many nations of the union but exerted de facto dominance in various respects. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Alma-Ata and Novosibirsk. The Soviet Union was one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possessed the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. It was a founding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as well as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the leading member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact.
Dissolved: Dec 26, 1991
Population: 293.05 million (1991)
Official language: Russian
Area: 8.65 million sq miles (22.40 million km²)
Calling code: 7
Capital: Moscow

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (orthographic projection)
Location of the Soviet Union

wiki/Soviet_Union
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Today in History 08/24 (Treaty of St. Louis)

Makataimeshekiakiak, or Black Hawk, a chief of the Sauk tribe, who resisted the treaty and was the last to sign it. (© MPI/Getty Images)(1816) US and Native American tribes sign treaty
The Council of Three Fires, an alliance of Native American tribes, signs a treaty with the United States. It will be one of 14 treaties signed in the St. Louis area . The tribes relinquish all rights to land that was previously ceded to the United States in 1804 and give up an additional 20-mile strip of land to the US.
The Treaty of St. Louis is the name of a series of treaties signed between the United States and various Native American tribes from 1804 through 1824. The fourteen treaties were all signed in the St. Louis, Missouri area.
Map showing lands ceded in the 1804 Treaty of St. Louis in yellow
The land ceded to the United States in the 1804 treaty is shown here in yellow.
wiki/Treaty_of_St._Louis_(1804)
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(1816) US and Native American tribes sign treaty.
Also on this day,

79 CE | Vesuvius awakes, darkening skies and burying cities
An ash and cinder plume rockets into the afternoon sky of southern Italy as Mt. Vesuvius erupts with a terrifying force, killing tens of thousands in Pompeii with searing heat and burying them in ash where they lay. The eruption’s flows also consume the city of Herculaneum.
1814 | British set the White House and US Capitol ablaze
President James Madison and First Lady Dolley Madison flee Washington, DC, just ahead of a British commander bent on destruction. After dining at a deserted White House, Major General Robert Ross’ soldiers set fire to the Presidential Mansion, the Capitol, and other public buildings.
1891 | Inventor extraordinaire patents a motion picture camera
With the invention of the light bulb, electric power lines, and the phonograph behind him, Thomas Alva Edison patents his newest invention, the Kinetographic Camera, a movie-recording device he describes as “an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear.”

Today in History 08/24/17

Engraving depicting the destruction of Washington, DC, by British forces on Aug 24, 1814 (© Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-44919)(1814) British set the White House and US Capitol ablaze
President James Madison and First Lady Dolley Madison flee Washington, DC, just ahead of a British commander bent on destruction. After dining at a deserted White House, Major General Robert Ross' soldiers set fire to the Presidential Mansion, the Capitol, and other public buildings.
The Burning of Washington was a British attack against Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, during the War of 1812. On August 24, 1814, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, a British force led by Major General Robert Ross occupied Washington and set fire to many public buildings, including the White House, and the Capitol, as well as other facilities of the U.S. government. The attack was in part a retaliation for the recent American destruction of Port Dover in Upper Canada. It marks the only time in U.S. history that Washington, D.C. has been occupied by a foreign force.
Date: Aug 24, 1814

wiki/Burning_of_Washington
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