1955

Today in History 10/26 (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral)

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Site of the 1881 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral' in Tombstone, Arizona (© Education Images/UIG via Getty Images)(1881) Shots ring out near a corral in Tombstone
It’s three hours past high noon on the streets of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, when lawmen ‘Doc’ Holliday and the Earp Brothers meet the Clanton-McLaury gang and their feud erupts. Thirty seconds later three are dead, three are wounded, and the Gunfight at the OK Corral enters Wild West lore.
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second shootout between lawmen and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. It is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of the American Wild West. The gunfight was the result of a long-simmering feud, with Cowboys Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury on one side and town Marshal Virgil Earp, Special Policeman Morgan Earp, Special Policeman Wyatt Earp, and temporary policeman Doc Holliday on the other side. All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys, who objected to the Earps’ interference in their illegal activities. The four law men faced five Cowboys. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Ike Clanton claimed that he was unarmed and ran from the fight, along with Billy Claiborne and Wes Fuller. Virgil, Morgan, and Doc Holliday were wounded, but Wyatt Earp was unharmed. The shootout has come to represent a period of the American Old West when the frontier was virtually an open range for outlaws, largely unopposed by law enforcement officers who were spread thin over vast territories.
Date: Oct 26, 1881

Tombstone, Arizona in 1881 photographed by C. S. Fly
Tombstone, Arizona in 1881 photographed by C. S. Fly. An ore wagon at the center of the image is pulled by 15 or 16 mules leaving town for one of the mines or on the way to a mill. The town had a population of about 4,000 that year with 600 dwellings and two church buildings. There were 650 men working in the nearby mines. The Tough Nut hoisting works are in the right foreground. The firehouse is behind the ore wagons, with the Russ House hotel just to the left of it. The dark, tall building above the Russ House is the Grand Hotel, and the top of Schieffelin Hall (1881) is visible to the right.
wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corral
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(1881) Shots ring out near a corral in Tombstone.
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1825 | New York opens a manmade waterway to the west as Erie Canal opens
First proposed in 1804 as a navigable link between Manhattan’s harbor traffic and the Great Lakes, a grand engineering feat stretching 425 miles is ready for business. An opening day flotilla sails down the length of the Erie Canal, with celebratory cannon shots marking its progress.
1955 | A new ‘Voice’ as first issue of ‘Village Voice’ published
A new arts and culture newspaper is published from an apartment in New York’s Greenwich Village, pioneering the concept of an alternative weekly. It will win three Pulitzer Prizes and help launch the careers of many notable writers before publishing its final print edition on September 21, 2017.
1968 | Olympian George Foreman takes gold in Mexico City
Rising from a difficult childhood in Texas, George Foreman shows his mettle at the Mexico City Olympics, knocking out Soviet Ionas Chepulis to win the Heavyweight Boxing gold medal. The champ will go on to win professional titles and later find big success with a little grill.

Today in History 10/26/17

'The Village Voice' newspaper (© Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)(1955) First issue of 'Village Voice' published
A new arts and culture newspaper is published from an apartment in New York's Greenwich Village, pioneering the concept of an alternative weekly. It will win three Pulitzer Prizes and help launch the careers of many notable writers before publishing its final print edition on September 21, 2017.
The Village Voice is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher and Norman Mailer, the Voice began as a platform for the creative community of New York City. Since its founding, The Village Voice has received three Pulitzer Prizes, the National Press Foundation Award and the George Polk Award. The Village Voice has hosted a variety of writers and artists, including writer Ezra Pound, cartoonist Lynda Barry, and art critics Robert Christgau, Andrew Sarris, and J. Hoberman. In addition to daily coverage through its website and a weekly print edition that circulates in New York City, the Voice issues a weekly digital edition of its magazine.
Website: www.villagevoice.com
Founded: Oct 26, 1955
Headquarter: Manhattan, NY
Owner: Village Voice Media
1955 October cover The Village Voice
1955 October cover The Village Voice

wiki/The_Village_Voice
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Today in History 10/07 (Achille Lauro)

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Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro is docked in Port Said harbor in Egypt, in 1985 (© Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images)(1985) Terrorism on the high seas as cruise ship is hijacked
As the Italian cruise liner ‘Achille Lauro’ sails out of Alexandria, Egypt, four Palestinian Liberation Front terrorists hijack it, demanding a passage to Syria. The next day hijackers will murder a wheelchair-bound American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, sparking worldwide outrage.
The Achille Lauro hijacking happened on October 7, 1985, when the Italian MS Achille Lauro was hijacked by four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front off the coast of Egypt, as she was sailing from Alexandria to Ashdod, Israel. A 69-year-old Jewish American man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard. The hijacking sparked the “Sigonella Crisis”.
Start date: Oct 07, 1985
End date: Oct 10, 1985
Location: MS Achille Lauro off the Egyptian coast
Attack type: Hijacking and hostage crisis
Deaths: 1
Weapons: Firearms and hand grenades

Americans who were held hostage aboard the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro depart from the base aboard a 438th Military Airlift Wing C-141B Starlifter aircraft. The aircraft stopped at Rhein-Main for refueling while en route to the U.S.
Freed hostages from Achille Lauro returning to the US by military aircraft
wiki/Achille_Lauro_hijacking
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(1985) Terrorism on the high seas as cruise ship is hijacked.
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1870 | Gambetta floats away from the chaos of a Parisian siege in a balloon
One of the greatest orators in French history, an enemy of his country’s imperial rulers, and a political dynamo par excellence, Léon Gambetta escapes a Paris under siege during the Franco-Prussian War by boarding a hot-air balloon and floating to relative safety in the city of Tours.
1955 | Ginsberg reads ‘Howl’ in San Francisco art gallery
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,” begins Allen Ginsberg as he reads his new poem in public for the first time. Jack Kerouac and the crowd approve, but ‘Howl,’ a seminal Beat Generation work, will spark an obscenity trial.
1993 | Flood of ’93 ends when a swollen Mississippi River finally retreats
For the first time in 103 days, the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, falls below flood stage, marking the end to one of America’s most catastrophic disasters. Upwards of $20 billion in damage will be assessed after floodwaters recede from 30,000 square miles of the Midwest.

Today in History 10/07/17

Men canoe through the flooded streets of Keithsburg, Illinois, after the Mississippi River breached the town levee in 1993 (© Eugene Garcia/AFP/Getty Images))(1993) A swollen Mississippi River finally retreats
For the first time in 103 days, the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, falls below flood stage, marking the end to one of America's most catastrophic disasters. Upwards of $20 billion in damage will be assessed after floodwaters recede from 30,000 square miles of the Midwest.
The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 occurred in the American Midwest, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993. The flood was among the most costly and devastating to ever occur in the United States, with $15 billion in damages. The hydrographic basin affected over around 745 miles in length and 435 miles in width, totaling about 320,000 square miles. Within this zone, the flooded area totaled around 30,000 square miles and was the worst such U.S. disaster since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, as measured by duration, area inundated, persons displaced, crop and property damage, and number of record river levels. In some categories, the 1993 flood even surpassed the 1927 flood, at the time the largest flood ever recorded on the Mississippi.
Start date: 1993
MO capital flood 93
US Army Corp of Engineers photo of the Missouri River's damage to US Highway 63, Jefferson City, Missouri, near the Missouri Capitol building during the "Great Flood of 1993". National Guardsmen created sandbag levees in the parking lot, but the building was still several feet above the water line. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of much of Jefferson City's northern area, and such scenes were repeated over a wide section of the central United States.

wiki/Great_Flood_of_1993
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Today in History 09/29 (The Catch)

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Willie Mays' famous catch in the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians (© Frank Hurley/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)(1954) The miraculous Mays makes an incredible catch
It’s Game 1 of baseball’s World Series and Cleveland Indians’ batter Vic Wertz hits a fly ball 450 feet into centerfield where the New York Giants’ Willie Mays is there to catch it. Over his shoulder. And with his back to home plate. ‘The Catch’ will live on in baseball lore.
The Catch refers to a defensive play made by New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays on a ball hit by Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz on September 29, 1954, during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, New York City.
The Catch
The Catch: Willie Mays hauls in Vic Wertz’s drive at the warning track in the 1954 World Series.
wiki/The_Catch_(baseball)
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(1954) The miraculous Mays makes an incredible catch.
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1918 | ‘The Great War’ nears its end as German defense is smashed as Hindenburg Line broken
Fourteen Allied divisions assault the Hindenburg Line, a series of heavily defended positions protecting a German army in semi-retreat. With help from a new weapon, the armored tank, the 30th Infantry breaks through at the Battle of St. Quentin Canal, dealing a decisive blow to the Germans.
1954 | ‘A Star Is Born’ premieres in Los Angeles
Judy Garland and James Mason star in a musical remake of a 1937 film. ‘A Star Is Born’ will be remade again in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and a third time for a planned 2018 release starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
1955 | ‘A View from the Bridge’ debuts in New York
Arthur Miller’s drama ‘A View from the Bridge’ is performed at New York’s Coronet Theatre. It will later be adapted for film, TV, and radio, and be revived several times on Broadway and London’s West End.

Today in History 09/29/17

A British tank breaking through wire on the Hindenburg Line in Cambrai, France, during World War I (© The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)(1918) 'The Great War' nears its end as German defense is smashed
Fourteen Allied divisions assault the Hindenburg Line, a series of heavily defended positions protecting a German army in semi-retreat. With help from a new weapon, the armored tank, the 30th Infantry breaks through at the Battle of St. Quentin Canal, dealing a decisive blow to the Germans.
The Battle of St Quentin Canal was a pivotal battle of World War I that began on 29 September 1918 and involved British, Australian and American forces operating as part of British Fourth Army under the overall command of General Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson. Further north part of the British Third Army also supported the attack, whilst to the south of the twelve-mile Fourth Army front the First French Army launched a coordinated attack on a six-mile front. The objective was to break through one of the most heavily defended stretches of the German Siegfriedstellung, which in this sector utilised the St Quentin Canal as part of its defences. The assault achieved its objectives, resulting in the first full breach of the Hindenburg Line, in the face of heavy German resistance. In concert with other attacks of the Great Offensive along the length of the line, Allied success convinced the German high command that there was little hope of an ultimate German victory.
Start date: Sep 29, 1918
End date: Oct 10, 1918
U.S. II Corps in the Battle of St Quentin Canal 29 September 1918
Map showing the operations of U.S. 27th and 30th Divisions affiliated to Australian Corps as part of British Fourth Army during the Battle of St Quentin Canal, 29 September 1918. The advance shown was actually made by combined American and Australian forces.

wiki/Battle_of_St._Quentin_Canal
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Today in History 08/27 (Renée Richards)

Renee Richards during a match at the Orange Lawn Tennis Club in South Orange, NJ, on Aug 26, 1976 (© Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)(1976) Tennis bars a transgender pioneer from competition
Nine months after her sex-reassignment surgery, Dr. Renée Richards refuses to take a chromosome test mandated by tennis authorities and is banned from playing in the US Open. A court order will later admit Richards to 1977’s tournament.
Renée Richards is an American ophthalmologist and former tennis player who had some success on the professional circuit in the 1970s, and became widely known following male-to-female sex reassignment surgery, when she fought to compete as a woman in the 1976 US Open.
Born: Aug 19, 1934 (age 84) · New York, NY
Height: 6′ 1″
Turned pro: 1977
Nationality: American
Children: Nicholas Raskind (Son)
Parents: David Raskind (Father)

the semis, against Lea Antonopolis
When Richards’ run in New Jersey came to an end in the semis, against Lea Antonopolis, she thought she would repeat her breakthrough at the US Open. After all, that loss proved a woman could beat her.
wiki/Renée_Richards
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(1976) Tennis bars a transgender pioneer from competition.
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1776 | Washington loses to Howe in Brooklyn Heights
Less than two months a nation, the United States fights the largest Revolutionary War battle yet when George Washington and his 10,000 Continental Army troops battle General William Howe’s 20,000-strong British force at Gowanus Pass in Brooklyn Heights to control New York City’s strategic port.
1883 | A Dutch East Indies island volcano blows its top
Dormant for 200 years, the volcanic island of Krakatoa began erupting yesterday, and today explodes with the loudest sounds in recorded history, destroying two-thirds of the island, causing more than 36,000 deaths, and generating multiple tsunamis, green moonlight, and a weather-altering volcanic winter.
1955 | Amazing accomplishments and freaky facts get their tome in Guinness Records
Inspired by an argument over whether the red grouse or golden plover flies faster, the marketing director at Guinness Breweries and fact-finding colleagues compile a reference book to answer such weird and wonderful questions, and the first ‘Guinness Book of Records’ is published.

Today in History 08/27/17

Painting of the Delaware Regiment at the Battle of Long Island in 1776 (© Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)(1776) Washington loses to Howe in Brooklyn Heights
Less than two months a nation, the United States fights the largest Revolutionary War battle yet when George Washington and his 10,000 Continental Army troops battle General William Howe's 20,000-strong British force at Gowanus Pass in Brooklyn Heights to control New York City's strategic port.
The Battle of Long Island is also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. It was fought on August 27, 1776 and was the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776. It was a victory for the British Army and the beginning of a successful campaign that gave them control of the strategically important city of New York. In terms of troop deployment and fighting, it was the largest battle of the entire war.
Date: Aug 27, 1776
Brooklyn Map 1766
American strategy called for the first line of defense to be based on the Heights of Guan, a series of hills which stretched northeast across King's County. The main defensive works were a series of forts and entrenchments located in the northwest of the county, in and around the Dutch-founded town of Brookland. The "Road to Narrows" is the Gowanus Road. No. 5 is the "Old Stone House". Map by Bernard Ratzer based on his 1766-1767 survey.

wiki/Battle_of_Long_Island
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Today in History 07/17 (Battle of Castillon)

Painting depicting the Battle of Castillon (1453) by the French painter Charles-Philippe Larivière (© Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)(1453) France bests England in last battle of Hundred Years’ War
Famous and feared, Commander John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, falls in battle at a Frenchman’s axe, and with his death ends England’s hold on their neighbor across the Channel. The rout of English forces near Gascony, France, will begin the closing of the epic Hundred Years’ War.
The Battle of Castillon was a battle fought on 17 July 1453 in Gascony near the town of Castillon-sur-Dordogne. A decisive French victory, it is considered to mark the end of the Hundred Years’ War. As a result of the battle, the English lost all landholdings in France, except Calais.
Date: Jul 17, 1453

The death of John Talbot
The death of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury at the battle of Castillon from Vigilles de Charles VII by Martial d’Auvergne
wiki/Battle_of_Castillon
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(1453) France bests England in last battle of Hundred Years’ War.
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1945 | New global superpowers plot post-war strategy at Potsdam
More than two weeks of diplomatic talks begin outside Berlin, Germany, as WWII’s victors decide what to do about the losing side, the devastation wreaked on Europe, and the continuing war with Japan. The Potsdam Conference will be the last time the ‘Big Three’ Allied leaders meet.
1955 | Walt Disney opens a new theme park in Anaheim, California
Animation mogul Walt Disney introduces Disneyland, his new theme park, to a live TV audience and 28,000 people in attendance. Employees will later refer to this day as ‘Black Sunday’ due to technical glitches. Disneyland would open to the public the following day.
1979 | Nicaraguan Sandinistas force a dictator to flee the country
Leftist Sandinista revolutionaries are one step closer to controlling Nicaragua after General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees the country, ending his family’s dictatorial control after 43 years. The Sandinistas will take full power two days later.

Today in History 07/17/17

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Harry S. Truman, and Soviet Premier and Supreme Commander Josef Stalin pose at the entrance of Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, on July 23, 1945 (© AP)(1945) New global superpowers plot post-war strategy at Potsdam
More than two weeks of diplomatic talks begin outside Berlin, Germany, as WWII's victors decide what to do about the losing side, the devastation wreaked on Europe, and the continuing war with Japan. The Potsdam Conference will be the last time the 'Big Three' Allied leaders meet.
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The three powers were represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and, later, Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman.
End date: 1945
Start date: Jul 17, 1945
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R67561, Potsdamer Konferenz, Konferenztisch

wiki/Potsdam_Conference
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