1910

Today in History 10/22 (Pope John Paul II)

Pope John Paul II blesses the faithful in St. Peter's Square from a Vatican City balcony after he was named pope in 1978 (© AP)(1978) Poland’s Cardinal Wojtyła inaugurated as pope
Elected six days earlier, Karol Józef Wojtyła, 58, is now inaugurated as Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the second youngest in history. His pontificate will last 26 years, take him to 129 countries, and lead to sainthood less than a decade after his death.
Pope John Paul II served as Pope and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 to 2005.
Lived: May 18, 1920 – Apr 02, 2005 (age 84)
Height: 5′ 10″
Buried: St. Peter’s Basilica
Education: Jagiellonian University (1953 – 1954) · Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1947 – 1948)
Parents: Karol Wojtyła (Father) · Emilia Kaczorowska (Mother)
Siblings: Edmund Wojtyła (Brother) · Olga Wojtyła (Sister)
Highlights
  • 1967: In 1967, he was instrumental in formulating the encyclical Humanae vitae, which dealt with the same issues that forbid abortion and artificial birth control.

  • 1978: In August 1978, following the death of Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Wojtyła voted in the papal conclave, which elected Pope John Paul I. John Paul I died after only 33 days as pope, triggering another conclave.

  • 1979: In 1979 John Paul II visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where many of his compatriots (mostly Jews) had perished during the Nazi occupation in World War II, the first pope to do so.

  • 1984: In 1984 and 1986, through Cardinal Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI) as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, John Paul II officially condemned aspects of liberation theology, which had many followers in South America.

  • 2000: In 2000, he was the first modern pope to visit Egypt, where he met with the Coptic pope, Pope Shenouda III and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria.

  • 2005: In April 2005, shortly after John Paul II’s death, the Israeli government created a commission to honour the legacy of John Paul II.

Ivan Pavao II., grafiti u Rijeci (Mrtvi kanal)
Graffiti showing Pope John Paul II with quote “Do not be afraid” in Rijeka, Croatia
wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II
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(1978) Poland’s Cardinal Wojtyła inaugurated as pope.
Also on this day,

1797 | Parachuting pioneer as a gutsy Garnerin takes a plunge over Paris
Inspired by his time confined behind the high ramparts of a Hungarian prison, French balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin floats 3,200 feet above Paris, releases the hydrogen balloon from his new invention the parachute, and under a 23-foot wide canopy he descends safely to the ground.
1910 | Dr. Crippen convicted as a body buried in the basement leads to conviction
Months after Dr. Crippen’s spouse disappeared, police turn up human remains buried in the basement of his home. Today, after a sensational trial at London’s Old Bailey, it takes the jury only 27 minutes to find Hawley Harvey Crippen guilty of murdering his wife.
1964 | French existentialist turns down his Nobel Prize as Sartre wins
Arguably one of the most notable public intellectuals of the 20th century, Jean-Paul Sartre, is this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for work the committee deems ‘filled with the spirit of freedom.’ The French philosopher exercises this same spirit and declines the honor.

Today in History 10/22/17

Engraving of Jacques Garnerin's parachute descent in 1797 (© Apic/Getty Images)(1797) A gutsy parachutist takes a plunge over Paris
Inspired by his time confined behind the high ramparts of a Hungarian prison, French balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin floats 3,200 feet above Paris, releases the hydrogen balloon from his new invention the parachute, and under a 23-foot wide canopy he descends safely to the ground.
André-Jacques Garnerin was a French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute. He was appointed Official Aeronaut of France. Garnerin was born in Paris. He was captured by British troops during the first phase of the French Revolutionary Wars 1792–1797, turned over to the Austrians and held as a prisoner of war in Buda in Hungary for three years.
Born: Jan 31, 1769 · Paris, France
Died: Aug 18, 1823 · Paris, France
Spouse: Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse
Siblings: Jean-Baptiste-Olivier Garnerin (Brother)
First Parachute Schematics
Schematic depiction of Garnerin's first parachute used in the Parc Monceau descent of 22 October 1797. Illustration dates from the early nineteenth century.

wiki/André-Jacques_Garnerin
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Today in History 06/19/17

Participants march in the Juneteenth celebration parade through the streets of Harlem in New York in 2011 (© Richard Levine/Alamy)(1865) Last slaves in America are declared free
General Gordon Granger arrives on Galveston Island, Texas, with official news for the state’s slaves: More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been implemented, America’s remaining slaves are freed. The day will be celebrated in Texas, and later in other states, as ‘Juneteenth.’
Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is a holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas, and more generally the emancipation of African-American slaves throughout the Confederate South. Celebrated on June 19, the word is a portmanteau of “June” and “nineteenth”. Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in most states.
wiki/Juneteenth
Emperor of Mexico and Archduke of Austria, Maximillian I, circa 1860 (© Imagno/Getty Images)(1867) Austrian-born Emperor of Mexico faces firing squad
Born in Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace as a descendant of the House of Habsburg, brother to Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I, and installed as the ruler of Mexico by France’s Napoleon III, Maximilian I ends his 3-year reign as Mexico’s emperor in front of Benito Juarez’s firing squad.

Maximilian (Spanish: Maximiliano; born Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire. He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph I. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he accepted an offer by Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico. France (along with the United Kingdom and Spain, who both withdrew the following year after negotiating agreements with Mexico’s democratic government) had invaded Mexico in the winter of 1861, as part of the War of the French Intervention. Seeking to legitimize French rule in the Americas, Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish a new Mexican monarchy for him. With the support of the French army, and a group of conservative Mexican monarchists hostile to the liberal administration of new Mexican President Benito Juárez, Maximilian traveled to Mexico. Once there, he declared himself Emperor of Mexico on 10 April 1864.

The Empire managed to gain recognition by major European powers including Britain, Austria, and Prussia. The United States however, continued to recognize Juarez as the legal president of Mexico. Maximilian never completely defeated the Mexican Republic; Republican forces led by President Benito Juárez continued to be active during Maximilian’s rule. With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States (which had been too distracted by its own civil war to confront the Europeans’ 1861 invasion of what it considered to be its sphere of influence) began more explicit aid of President Juárez’s forces. Matters worsened for Maximilian after the French armies withdrew from Mexico in 1866. His self-declared empire collapsed, and he was captured and executed by the Mexican government in 1867. His wife, Charlotte of Belgium (Carlota), had left for Europe earlier to try to build support for her husband’s regime; after his execution, she suffered an emotional collapse and was declared insane.


wiki/Maximilian_I_of_Mexico
Sonora Dodd, founder of Father's Day (© Nicholas K. Geranios/AP)(1910) Daughter of Civil War vet inaugurates Father’s Day
After hearing a Mother’s Day sermon, Sonora Dodd inaugurates a Father’s Day celebration to honor her father, a Civil War vet and single dad of six children. Dodd’s campaigning will take decades, but the third Sunday in June will catch on throughout the US as a day to honor dads.
Father’s Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. The tradition was said to be started from a memorial service held for a large group of men who died in a mining accident in Monongah, West Virginia in 1907. It was first proposed by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington in 1909. It is currently celebrated in the United States annually on the third Sunday in June.
wiki/Father’s_Day_(United_States)
Lord Lucan, Richard John Bingham, aristocrat and alleged murderer in 1963 (© Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images)(1975) Missing member of the House of Lords found guilty of murder
For the first time in more than two centuries, a member of Britain’s House of Lords is found guilty of murder. But Richard John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan, is not present to receive sentencing for the bludgeoning death of his children’s nanny, having disappeared months previously.
Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, commonly known as Lord Lucan, was a British peer suspected of murder who disappeared in 1974. He was born into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family in Marylebone, the eldest son of George Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan, by his marriage to Kaitlin Dawson. An evacuee during the Second World War, Lucan returned to attend Eton College, and then from 1953 to 1955 served with the Coldstream Guards in West Germany. He developed a taste for gambling and, skilled at backgammon and bridge, became an early member of the Clermont Club. Although his losses often exceeded his winnings, he left his job at a London-based merchant bank and became a professional gambler. He was known as Lord Bingham during his father’s earldom from April 1949 until January 1964.
Born: Dec 18, 1934 · Marylebone, England
Died: 1981
Children: George Bingham, 8th Earl of Lucan (Son) · Lady Frances Bingham (Daughter)
Parents: George Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan (Father)
Education: Eton College
Highlights
  • 1960: In 1960 he met Stephen Raphael, a rich stockbroker who was a skilled backgammon player.

  • 1964: Two months after the wedding, on 21 January 1964, the 6th Earl of Lucan died of a stroke.

  • 1972: The combined pressures of maintaining their finances, paying for Lucan’s gambling addiction and Veronica’s weakened mental condition took their toll on the marriage; two weeks after a strained family Christmas in 1972, Lucan moved into a small property in Eaton Row.

  • 1972: Lucan told his friends that nobody would work for Veronica (she sacked the children’s long-term nanny, Lillian Jenkins, in December 1972).

  • 1974: The last confirmed sighting of Lucan was at about 1:15 am on 8 November 1974 as he exited the driveway of the Maxwell-Scott property, in his friend’s Ford Corsair.

  • 1974: A warrant for Lucan’s arrest, to answer charges of murdering Sandra Rivett, and attempting to murder his wife, was issued on Tuesday 12 November 1974.

wiki/John_Bingham,_7th_Earl_of_Lucan
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