1976

image_pdfimage_print

Today in History 07/20/17

Leave a Comment
The first color photograph taken on the surface of Mars, by the Viking 1 probe, July 20, 1976 (© MPI/Getty Images)(1976) Mars receives its first successful manmade visitor
Exactly seven years to the day that humans first walked on the moon, NASA’s Viking 1 becomes the first manmade object to land on another planet and complete its mission. Just hours after touchdown, the lander got to work, capturing the first clear image of the Martian surface.
Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA’s Viking program. On July 20, 1976, it became the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars and perform its mission. Viking 1 held the record for the longest Mars surface mission of 2307 days or 2245 sols until that record was broken by Opportunity on May 19, 2010.
Website: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html
Manufacturer: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

wiki/Viking_1
4.3.j17

Today in History 04/11/17

William III Of Orange (1650 - 1702) King of Great Britain from 1688, with his wife Mary II, circa 1690 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(1689) Coronation of William and Mary as co-regents
Husband and wife, as well as first cousins, William III and Mary II are crowned King and Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. They will reign together as co-rulers until Mary dies of smallpox at the age of 32.
William and Mary were the co-regnants over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, namely the Dutch Prince of Orange King William III and his spouse Queen Mary II. Their joint reign began in February 1689 after they were offered the throne by the Convention Parliament irregularly summoned by William after his victorious invasion of England in November 1688, the Glorious Revolution. They replaced James II, Mary’s father, who fled the country. Parliament offered William and Mary a co-regency, at the couple’s behest. After Mary died in 1694, William ruled alone until his death in 1702. William and Mary were childless and were ultimately succeeded by Mary’s younger sister, Anne.
wiki/William_and_Mary
Adolf Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem in 1961 (© AP)(1961) Holocaust criminal Adolf Eichmann stands trial in Israel
Following his capture in Argentina by Israeli Mossad agents, Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi fugitive and one of the main organizers of Hitler’s Final Solution, is put on trial for war crimes including the extermination of six million Jews.
Otto Adolf Eichmann was a German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. Eichmann was tasked by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. In 1960, Eichmann was captured in Argentina by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. Following a widely publicised trial in Israel, he was found guilty of war crimes and hanged in 1962.
Lived: Mar 19, 1906 – May 31, 1962 (age 56)
Height: 5′ 9″ (1.76 m)
Spouse: Veronika Liebl (m. 1935 – 1962)
Movies: The Eichmann Show
Children: Ricardo Francisco Eichmann (Son) · Dieter Helmut Eichmann (Son) · Horst Adolf Eichmann (Son) · Klaus Eichmann (Son)
Parents: Adolf Karl Eichmann (Father) · Maria Eichmann (Mother)
Highlights
  • 1933: After returning to Germany in 1933, he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service), where he was appointed head of the department responsible for Jewish affairs—especially emigration, which the Nazis encouraged through violence and economic pressure.

  • 1935: On 21 March 1935 Eichmann married Veronika (Vera) Liebl (1909–93).

  • 1939: On 19 December 1939, Eichmann was assigned to head RSHA Referat IV B4 (RSHA Sub-Department IV-B4), tasked with overseeing Jewish affairs and evacuation.

  • 1948: In 1948 Eichmann obtained a landing permit for Argentina and false identification under the name of “Ricardo Klement” through an organisation directed by Bishop Alois Hudal, an Austrian cleric then residing in Italy with known Nazi sympathies.

  • 1960: In 1960, Eichmann was captured in Argentina by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.

  • 1960: When Eichmann’s father died in 1960, Wiesenthal made arrangements for private detectives to surreptitiously photograph members of the family, as Eichmann’s brother Otto was said to bear a strong family resemblance and there were no current photos of the fugitive.

wiki/Adolf_Eichmann
Apple computers founders Steve Wozniak (left) and Steve Jobs in 1976 (© DB Apple/dpa/Corbis)(1976) Steve Wozniak releases the Apple I
Just days after forming Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) with his friend Steve Jobs, computer hobbyist Steve Wozniak hand-builds and offers to the public a new machine boasting a 1MHz CPU and 4KB standard memory, dubbing it the Apple I.
Apple Computer 1, also known later as the Apple I, or Apple-1, is a desktop computer released by the Apple Computer Company in 1976. It was designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. Wozniak’s friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer. The Apple I was Apple’s first product, and to finance its creation, Jobs sold his only motorized means of transportation, a VW Microbus, for a few hundred dollars, and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500; however, Wozniak said that Jobs planned to use his bicycle if necessary. It was demonstrated in July 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California.
Designer: Steve Wozniak
Apple I Computer

wiki/Apple_I
The police help an injured man during the Brixton riot of April 11, 1981 (© John Downing/Getty Images)(1981) Brixton riots roil South London
Months of simmering tensions between police and the largely Afro-Caribbean residents of London’s Brixton district come to a head with the widespread (but erroneous) belief that police had the night before unjustifiably arrested a young black man. The riots will later be dubbed Bloody Saturday.
The 1981 Brixton riot, or Brixton Rising, was a confrontation between the Metropolitan Police and protesters in Lambeth, South London, England, between 10 and 12 April 1981. The main riot on 11 April, dubbed “Bloody Saturday” by Time magazine, resulted in almost 280 injuries to police and 45 injuries to members of the public; over a hundred vehicles were burned, including 56 police vehicles; and almost 150 buildings were damaged, with thirty burned. There were 82 arrests. Reports suggested that up to 5,000 people were involved.
Date: Apr 11, 1981

wiki/1981_Brixton_riot
4.0.a17

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
3.2.j17

Today in History 11/18/16

Today in History
(1966) Sandy Koufax, pitcher for Dodgers, retires at 30
1966 After a World Series loss, Dodgers ace Koufax announces his retirement due to a bad elbow. Koufax posted impressive stats in his 12 seasons, including three Cy Young Awards. But he may be best remembered for refusing to pitch in a Series game that fell on Yom Kippur..

Sanford “Sandy” Koufax is a former American Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. He pitched 12 seasons for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1955 to 1966. Koufax, at age 36 in 1972, became the youngest player ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Born: Dec 30, 1935 (age 80) · Brooklyn, NY
Height: 6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
Net worth: $10 million USD (2016)
Spouse: Kimberly Francis (m. 1985 – 1998) · Anne Koufax (m. 1969 – 1982)
Education: Lafayette High School · University of Cincinnati · Columbia University · Columbia University School of General Studies
Parents: Evelyn Lichtenstein (Mother) · Jack Braun (Father)

Highlights

  • 1955: Koufax made only 12 appearances in 1955, pitching  41 2⁄3 innings and walking almost as many men (28) as he struck out (30).

  • 1955: Koufax made his major league debut on June 24, 1955 against the Milwaukee Braves, with the Dodgers trailing 7–1 in the fifth inning.

  • 1959: On August 31, 1959, he surpassed his career high with 18 strikeouts, setting the NL record and tying Bob Feller’s major league record for strikeouts in one game.

  • 1961: Posting an 18–13 record for the Dodgers in 1961, Koufax led the league with 269 strikeouts, breaking Christy Mathewson’s 58-year-old NL mark of 267.

  • 1965: On September 9, 1965, Koufax became the sixth pitcher of the modern era, and eighth overall, to throw a perfect game, the first by a left-hander since 1880.

  • 1966: He pitched 6 1⁄3 innings in four All-Star games including being the starting pitcher for 3 innings in the 1966 All-Star Game.

— Source: wiki/Sandy_Koufax
(1976) Spain’s parliament approves bill to establish a democracy
A year after the death of Fascist dictator Francisco Franco, Spain’s parliament members essentially vote themselves out of office, approving a bill to transition to democracy by allowing elections and the creation of a two-chamber parliament. The bill will later be approved by public referendum.. 1976

The Spanish transition to democracy, or simply the Transition refers to the restoration of democracy in Spain after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. The transition began shortly after Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish Constitution of 1978, the failure of an attempted coup on 23 February 1981, or the electoral victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party on 28 October 1982. Though faced with political and economic at the time, the transition to democracy was one of the factors that allowed Spain to join the European Economic Community and NATO.

— Source: wiki/Spanish_transition_to_democracy
(1978) Over 900 die in mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana
1978 Following the murder of a visiting US congressman, American cult leader Jim Jones leads his followers in a mass murder-suicide that claims over 900 victims, a third of whom are children. Some are forced to drink cyanide-laced punch; others do so willingly. Jones shoots himself. .

James Warren “Jim” Jones was an American cult leader. Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, infamous due to the mass murder-suicide in November 1978 of 918 of its members in Jonestown, Guyana, the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan, and the ordering of four additional Temple member deaths in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital. Nearly three hundred children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of them by cyanide poisoning. Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head; it is suspected his death was a suicide.

Lived: May 13, 1931 – Nov 18, 1978 (age 47)
Height: 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Spouse: Marceline Jones (m. 1949 – 1978)
Children: Stephan Gandhi Jones (Son) · Lew Eric Jones (Son) · Timothy Glen Jones (Son) · Jim Jon Prokes (Son) · Stephanie Jones (Daughter) · Jim W. Jones Jr. (Son) · Suzanne O. Jones (Daughter)
Movies: Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple · Witness to Jonestown
Parents: Lynetta Putnam (Mother) · James Thurman Jones (Father)

Highlights

  • 1949: Jones married nurse Marceline Baldwin in 1949, and moved to Bloomington, Indiana.

  • 1971: The Temple repeatedly claimed that Jones fathered the child when, in 1971, Tim Stoen had requested that Jones have sex with Grace to keep her from defecting.

  • 1975: The move led to Jones and the Temple becoming politically influential in San Francisco politics, culminating in the Temple’s instrumental role in the mayoral election victory of George Moscone in 1975.

  • 1977: In order to avoid potentially giving up the boy in a custody dispute with Grace, Jones ordered Tim to take John to Guyana in February 1977.

  • 1977: In September 1977, California assemblyman Willie Brown served as master of ceremonies at a large testimonial dinner for Jones attended by Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally.

  • 1978: Stoen traveled to Washington, D.C. in January 1978 to visit with State Department officials and members of Congress, and wrote a “white paper” to Congress detailing his grievances against Jones and the Temple.

  • 1978: Jim Jones died on November 18, 1978 in Port Kaituma, Guyana.

— Source: wiki/Jim_Jones
(1991) After four years, British hostage is released in Lebanon
It’s over, thinks religious envoy Waite after being freed by his Shiite Muslim captors. Waite had been kidnapped four years earlier on a trip to secure the release of others held in Lebanon and Iran. He suffered beatings, mock executions, and languished in solitary confinement before his release. . 1991

Terence Hardy “Terry” Waite CBE is an English humanitarian and author. Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages, including the journalist John McCarthy. He was himself kidnapped and held captive from 1987 to 1991.The terrible thing about terrorism is that ultimately it destroys those who practice it. Slowly but surely, as they try to extinguish life in others, the light within them dies.

Born: May 31, 1939 (age 77) · Bollington, United Kingdom
Height: 6′ 7″ (2.01 m)

Highlights

  • 1963: In 1963, Waite was appointed Education Advisor to the Anglican Bishop of Bristol, Oliver Tomkins, and assisted with Tomkins’s implementation of the SALT (Stewardship and Laity Training) programme in the diocese, along with Basil Moss.

  • 1969: In 1969, he moved to Uganda where he worked as Provincial Training Advisor to Erica Sabiti, the first African Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi and, in that capacity, travelled extensively throughout East Africa.

  • 1980: In 1980, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, appointed him the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs on the recommendation of Tomkins and Bishop John Howe.

  • 1984: On 10 November 1984, he negotiated with Colonel Gaddafi for the release of the four remaining British hostages held in the Libyan Hostage Situation, Michael Berdinner, Alan Russell, Malcolm Anderson and Robin Plummer and was again successful.

  • 1985: From 1985, Waite became involved in hostage negotiation in Lebanon, and he assisted in successful negotiations which secured the release of Lawrence Jenco and David Jacobsen.

  • 1987: The group broke trust and took him hostage on 20 January 1987.

— Source: wiki/Terry_Waite
DIH v2.9.o16

Today in History

Today in History
(1859) Emperor Norton I begins his 21-year reign over the US
1859 San Franciscan Joshua A. Norton, frustrated by government bureaucracy, declares himself, ‘Norton I, Emperor of the United States.’ His edicts, including the abolition of the US Congress, endear him to many of his fellow residents, who encourage his delusions of grandeur. .
Born: 1818 · London, England
Died: Jan 08, 1880 · San Francisco, CA
Parents: John Norton · Sarah Norden

— Source: wiki/Emperor_Norton
(1862) Sun sets on bloodiest battle in American history
George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac stems the tide of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate advance into Union territory, but the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, exacts a terrible toll with 22,000 dead, injured, or missing by the end of the bloodiest day in US military history.. 1862
The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South, was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign. It was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.

Date: Sep 17, 1862

— Source: wiki/Battle_of_Antietam
(1976) NASA unveils a new spaceship in the California desert
1976 NASA’s new reusable orbital space vehicle, the space shuttle, is rolled out for its first public viewing in front of thousands of invited guests in Palmdale, California. It’s christened the ‘Enterprise’ after a write-in campaign by ‘Star Trek fans, and most of the show’s original cast is on hand for the unveiling. .
The Space Shuttle Enterprise was the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system. Rolled out on September 17, 1976, it was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform atmospheric test flights after being launched from a modified Boeing 747. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.

Manufacturer: Rockwell International

— Source: wiki/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise
(1980) Shipyard strikes bring anti-Soviet Solidarity union to Poland
What began at the Gdańsk shipyards as support for a fired co-worker has morphed into a movement demanding nothing less than the breaking of Soviet control in Poland. Trade unions merge as ‘Solidarity’ with the help of Lech Wałęsa, a labor leader who will become Poland’s president a decade later.. 1980
Solidarity is a Polish trade union that was founded on 17 September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first trade union in a Warsaw Pact country that was not controlled by a communist party. Its membership reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 Congress, which constituted one third of the total working-age population of Poland.

Founded: Sep 17, 1980
Founder: Lech Walesa

— Source: wiki/Solidarity_(Polish_trade_union)
DIH v2.3.s16