(1843) The Great Emigration wagon trains head westSome 1,000 pioneers begin their journey to America’s West Coast via the Oregon Trail, a 2,200-mile wagon road spanning half a continent from the Missouri River to the Willamette Valley in the future state of Oregon. Upwards of 400,000 more emigrants will follow its wheel ruts west in the coming decades.The Oregon Trail is a 2,170-mile historic east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of the future state of Kansas, and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of the future states of Idaho and Oregon.
Established: 1843 Managed by: National Park Service
wiki/Oregon_Trail(1960) Strongest earthquake ever recorded slams ChileA magnitude 9.5 earthquake, the most powerful in recorded history, rocks the southern coast of Chile for more than 10 minutes, killing thousands, causing massive landslides, triggering volcanic eruptions, and spawning tsunamis so enormous that they cause 61 deaths in Hawaii.The 1960 Valdivia earthquake or Great Chilean earthquake of 22 May is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Various studies have placed it at 9.4–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale. It occurred in the afternoon, and lasted approximately 10 minutes. The resulting tsunami affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia and the Aleutian Islands.
Fatalities: 5,700 Date: May 22, 1960
wiki/1960_Valdivia_earthquake(1980) A recreation revolution begins with a game that gobblesJapanese company Namco introduces ‘Puck Man,’ an arcade maze game based on the idea of eating. Introduced months later to the US and renamed ‘Pac-Man,’ it will grow in popularity to become the most famous, most profitable, and some say most influential, arcade video game ever released.Pac-Man, stylized as PAC-MAN, is an arcade game developed by Namco and first released in Japan in May 1980. It was created by Japanese video game designer Toru Iwatani. It was licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway and released in October 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game—and, subsequently, Pac-Man derivatives—became a social phenomenon that yielded high sales of merchandise and inspired a legacy in other media, such as the Pac-Man animated television series and the top-ten hit single “Pac-Man Fever”. Pac-Man was popular in the 1980s and 1990s and is still played in the 2010s.
Release date: May 22, 1980 Developer: Namco Publishers: Namco · Midway Games · Bandai Namco Entertainment Designer: Toru Iwatani Platforms: Arcade game · Apple II ESRB rating: E for Everyone
wiki/Pac-Man(1992) Johnny Carson’s final ‘Tonight Show’Late-night legend Johnny Carson signs off after 30 years of hosting ‘The Tonight Show.’ His final show features no guests, focusing instead on clips and remembrances from Carson, sidekick Ed McMahon and bandleader Doc Severinsen. Jay Leno will take over the show, but not without some controversy.The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from October 1, 1962 through May 22, 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first decade, Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show was based at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, with some episodes recorded at NBC-TV’s West Coast studios in Burbank, California; on May 1, 1972, the show moved to Burbank as its main venue and remained there exclusively after May 1973 until Carson’s retirement. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked No. 12 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2013 it was ranked No. 22 on their list of 60 Best Series.
First episode: Oct 01, 1962 Episode duration: 105 minutes Creators: Steve Allen · Dwight Hemion · Sylvester Weaver · William O. Harbach Theme song: Johnny’s Theme Producers: Peter Lassally · Fred de Cordova Awards: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series · Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program · Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing – Variety Series Or Special · People’s Choice Award for Favorite Talk Show Host · Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement In Tape Sound Mixing
(1756) Britain declares war on France over North American coloniesNearly two years after skirmishes broke out between the two world powers in the Ohio Territory of North America, Great Britain officially goes to war with France. The Seven Years’ War will expand to include nearly all the major European powers and be fought on almost every continent.The Seven Years’ War was a war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by the Kingdom of Great Britain on one side and the Kingdom of France on the other. Meanwhile, in India, the Mughal Empire, with the support of the French, tried to crush a British attempt to conquer Bengal.
Start date: 1754 End date: Jan 01, 1763
wiki/Seven_Years’_War(1974) ‘Smiling Buddha’ adds another member to the nuclear clubIndia successfully detonates an 8-kiloton atomic bomb in an underground test, joining the US, USSR, UK, France, and China as a nuclear-armed state. The project has been code-named ‘Smiling Buddha,’ with the test taking place on the festival day marking Gautama Buddha’s birthday.Smiling Buddha was the assigned code name of India’s first successful nuclear bomb test on 18 May 1974. The bomb was detonated on the army base, Pokhran Test Range, in Rajasthan by the Indian Army under the supervision of several key Indian generals.
Date: May 18, 1974
wiki/Smiling_Buddha(1980) A mountain explodes in the Pacific Northwest The biggest landslide in recorded history follows a magnitude 5.1 earthquake as the north face of Washington’s Mount St. Helens falls away in a volcanic eruption. The sideways blast of lava and rock devastates a 230- square-mile area, and ash clouds that rise 16 miles will fall over 11 states.On May 18, 1980, a major volcanic eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens, a volcano located in Skamania County, in the state of Washington, United States. The eruption was the only significant volcanic eruption to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California. However, it has often been declared as the most disastrous volcanic eruption in United States history. The eruption was preceded by a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an injection of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a large bulge and a fracture system on the mountain’s north slope.
Date: May 18, 1980
wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens(2004) Randy Johnson throws perfect game at age 40Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson, age 40, throws a perfect game against the Atlanta Braves, becoming the oldest player ever to do. Johnson will finish his career in 2010 with more than 300 wins and be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015.Randall David Johnson, nicknamed “The Big Unit”, is an American former baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1988 to 2009 for six teams. He played primarily for the Seattle Mariners and the Arizona Diamondbacks. His 303 career victories rank as the fifth-most by a left-hander in MLB history, while his 4,875 strikeouts place him second all-time behind Nolan Ryan and are the most by a left-hander. He holds five of the seven highest single-season strikeout totals by a left-hander in modern history. Johnson won the Cy Young Award five times, second only to Roger Clemens’ seven, and he is one of two pitchers to win the award four consecutive times. In 1999, he joined Pedro Martínez and Gaylord Perry in the rare feat of winning the award in both the American and National Leagues. He is also one of five pitchers to pitch no-hitters in both leagues. With his second no-hitter in 2004, he became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game. He is one of the few pitchers in history to record a win against all 30 MLB franchises.
Born: Sep 10, 1963 (age 53) · Walnut Creek, CA Height: 6′ 10″ (2.08 m) Net worth: $115 million USD (2017) Spouse: Lisa Wiehoff (m. 1993) Children: Heather Renee Roszel (Daughter) · Alexandria Johnson (Daughter) · Willow Johnson (Daughter) · Tanner Johnson (Son) · Sammi Johnson (Daughter) Education: University of Southern California · Livermore High School
Highlights
1982: In 1982, as a senior, he struck out 121 batters in 66 innings, and threw a perfect game in his last high school start.
1993: Johnson broke out in 1993 with a 19–8 record, 3.24 ERA and his first of six 300-plus strikeout seasons (308).
1993: Randy Johnson married Lisa Wiehoff on November 06, 1993.
1999: In 1999 he joined Pedro Martínez and Gaylord Perry in the rare feat of winning the award in both the American and National Leagues.
2001: On August 23, 2001, Johnson struck out three batters on nine pitches in the 6th inning of a 5–1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, becoming the 30th pitcher in major league history to pitch an immaculate inning.
2004: With his second no-hitter in 2004, he became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game.
(1606) The Union Jack unites the flags of England and Scotland By royal decree of England’s King James I, the English St. George’s Cross, and Scotland’s St. Andrew’s Cross, are brought together in one design to symbolize the new unity of their two nations.
The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. The flag also has an official or semi-official status in some other Commonwealth realms; for example, it is, by parliamentary resolution, an official flag in Canada and known there as the Royal Union Flag. Further, it is used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas territories. The Union Jack also appears in the canton (upper left-hand quarter) of the flags of several nations and territories that are former British possessions or dominions.
The claim that the term Union Jack properly refers only to naval usage has been disputed, following historical investigations by the Flag Institute in 2013.
The origins of the earlier flag of Great Britain date back to 1606. James VI of Scotland had inherited the English and Irish thrones in 1603 as James I, thereby uniting the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland in a personal union, although the three kingdoms remained separate states. On 12 April 1606, a new flag to represent this regal union between England and Scotland was specified in a royal decree, according to which the flag of England (a red cross on a white background, known as St George’s Cross), and the flag of Scotland (a white saltire on a blue background, known as the Saltire or St Andrew’s Cross), would be joined together, forming the flag of England and Scotland for maritime purposes. King James also began to refer to a “Kingdom of Great Britaine”, although the union remained a personal one.
The present design of the Union Flag dates from a Royal proclamation following the union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. The flag combines aspects of three older national flags: the red cross of St George of the Kingdom of England, the white saltire of St Andrew for Scotland (which two were united in the first Union Flag), and the red saltire of St Patrick to represent Ireland.
Notably, the home country of Wales is not represented separately in the Union Jack, being only indirectly represented through the cross of St George, which represents the former Kingdom of England (which included Wales).
wiki/Union_Flag(1861) America’s Civil War begins at Fort SumterIn the opening salvo of the Civil War, Confederate forces fire upon the Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay. General P.G.T. Beauregard’s shore batteries bombard Major Anderson’s federal troops.The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army that started the American Civil War. Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. On 26 December 1860, Major Robert Anderson of the U.S. Army surreptitiously moved his small command from the vulnerable Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island to Fort Sumter, a substantial fortress built on an island controlling the entrance of Charleston Harbor. An attempt by U.S. President James Buchanan to reinforce and resupply Anderson using the unarmed merchant ship Star of the West failed when it was fired upon by shore batteries on 9 January 1861. South Carolina authorities then seized all Federal property in the Charleston area except for Fort Sumter.
Start date: Apr 12, 1861 End date: Apr 13, 1861
wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sumter(1961) Soviets triumph with first manned space flightTo the dismay of many in the West, a Soviet cosmonaut becomes humankind’s first space traveller. Yuri Gagarin, taking his Vostok spacecraft on a single orbit of Earth, spends 108 minutes on his mission.Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Russian Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.
Lived: Mar 09, 1934 – Mar 27, 1968 (age 34) Height: 5′ 2″ (1.57 m) Spouse: Valentina Goryacheva (m. 1957 – 1968) Movies: First Orbit · Tank on the Moon Space missions: Vostok 1 Children: Yelena Yurievna Gagarina (Daughter) · Galina Gagarina (Daughter)
Highlights
1957: Yuri Gagarin married Valentina Goryacheva on November 07, 1957.
1960: In 1960, after much searching and a selection process, Yuri Gagarin was chosen with 19 other pilots for the Soviet space program.
1961: Yuri Gagarin was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union in 1961.
1961: He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.
1963: On 20 December 1963, Gagarin had become Deputy Training Director of the Star City cosmonaut training base.
1968: On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, he and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach.
wiki/Yuri_Gagarin(1980) Cancer survivor Terry Fox begins cross-country run Having lost a leg to bone cancer three years earlier, Canadian athlete Terry Fox begins a journey dubbed the Marathon of Hope to raise money for his charity. The Terry Fox Run will become the biggest single-day charitable event in history to benefit cancer research.
Terrance Stanley “Terry” Fox CC OD (July 28, 1958 – June 28, 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Although the spread of his cancer eventually forced him to end his quest after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 mi), and ultimately cost him his life, his efforts resulted in a lasting, worldwide legacy. The annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, has grown to involve millions of participants in over 60 countries and is now the world’s largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research; over C$650 million has been raised in his name.
Fox was a distance runner and basketball player for his Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, high school and Simon Fraser University. His right leg was amputated in 1977 after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, though he continued to run using an artificial leg. He also played wheelchair basketball in Vancouver, winning three national championships.
In 1980, he began the Marathon of Hope, a cross-country run to raise money for cancer research. He hoped to raise one dollar from each of Canada’s 24 million people. He began with little fanfare from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in April and ran the equivalent of a full marathon every day. Fox had become a national star by the time he reached Ontario; he made numerous public appearances with businessmen, athletes, and politicians in his efforts to raise money. He was forced to end his run outside Thunder Bay when the cancer spread to his lungs. His hopes of overcoming the disease and completing his marathon ended when he died nine months later.
In addition to being youngest person ever named a Companion of the Order of Canada, Fox won the 1980 Lou Marsh Award as the nation’s top sportsman and was named Canada’s Newsmaker of the Year in both 1980 and 1981. Considered a national hero, he has had many buildings, roads and parks named in his honour across the country.
(630) True Cross relic returns to Jerusalem Having defeated the Sassanid Emperor, Byzantine Emperor Heraclius regains a fragment of the cross Jesus Christ was said to have been crucified on. Heraclius today returns the sacred relic to JerusalemThe True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Catholic Church tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. According to post-Nicene historians such as Socrates Scholasticus, the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, travelled to the Holy Land in 326–28, founding churches and establishing relief agencies for the poor. Historians Gelasius of Caesarea and Rufinus claimed that she discovered the hiding place of three crosses that were believed to be used at the crucifixion of Jesus and of two thieves, St. Dismas and Gestas, executed with him, and that a miracle revealed which of the three was the True Cross. wiki/True_Cross(1952) First rock and roll concertDJ Alan Freed’s Moondog Coronation Ball, in Cleveland, Ohio, notably features racially mixed performers and fans. Considered history’s first big rock concert, some 20,000 screaming teens try to crowd into a venue that can hold just half that number. Police will halt the show after just one song is performed.The Moondog Coronation Ball was a concert held at the Cleveland Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on March 21, 1952. It is generally accepted as the first major rock and roll concert. Alan Freed had joined WJW-Radio in 1951 as the host of a classical-music program, but he took up a different kind of music at the suggestion of Cleveland record-store owner Leo Mintz, who had noted with great interest the growing popularity, among young customers of all races, of rhythm-and-blues records by black musicians. Mintz decided to sponsor Freed’s three hours of late-night programming. Once they saw the popularity of the program increase, they decided on holding a live dance event featuring some of the artists whose records were appearing on Freed’s show. wiki/Moondog_Coronation_Ball(1963) Alcatraz Prison opens its cells and shuts its doorsIts final inmates transferred off ‘The Rock,’ America’s most notorious prison closes after nearly three decades. It will morph from one of the country’s most feared locales to one of California’s biggest tourist attractions.The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary or United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island was a maximum high-security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles off the coast of San Francisco, California, which operated from 1934 to 1963.
Address: Alcatraz Island Golden Gate National Recreation Area B201 Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA 94123 Phone: (415) 561-4900 Opened: Aug 11, 1934 Closed: Mar 21, 1963
wiki/Alcatraz_Federal_Penitentiary(1980) Carter announces Moscow Olympics boycott Protesting the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan, US President Jimmy Carter declares that the US won’t be participating in the upcoming Moscow Summer Olympics. In the end, 65 nations won’t participate in the games, but some will do so for economic, rather than political reasons. The USSR will respond in kind, snubbing the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games.The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott was one part of a number of actions initiated by the United States to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics, and other countries would later boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. wiki/1980_Summer_Olympics_boycott3.3.f17
(1797) ‘Last invasion of Britain’ beginsRevolutionary French forces land at Carregwastad Head, near Fishguard, on the Welsh coast. This failed two-day campaign will be the last time to date that a foreign military force has set foot on British soil.The Battle of Fishguard was a military invasion of Great Britain by Revolutionary France during the War of the First Coalition. The brief campaign, on 22 – 24 February 1797, is the most recent landing on British soil by a hostile foreign force, and thus is often referred to as the “last invasion of Britain”. The French General Lazare Hoche had devised a three-pronged attack on Britain in support of the Society of United Irishmen. Two forces would land in Britain as a diversionary effort, while the main body would land in Ireland. Adverse weather and ill-discipline halted two of the forces but the third, aimed at landing in Wales and marching on Bristol, went ahead.
Start date: Feb 22, 1797 End date: Feb 24, 1797
wiki/Battle_of_Fishguard(1948) Coup brings Communist rule to Czechoslovakia With the might of the Soviets behind them, Czechoslovak socialists take power by coup d’état, ushering in what will be 40 years of dictatorship, and spurring the West to enact the Marshall Plan.The 1948 Czechoslovak coup d’état – in Communist historiography known as “Victorious February” – was an event late that February in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, marking the onset of four decades of Communist dictatorship in the country.
Start date: Feb 21, 1948 End date: Feb 25, 1948
wiki/1948_Czechoslovak_coup_d’état(1980) US hockey team pulls off ‘Miracle on Ice’At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, a US Olympic hockey team made up of amateur and college players takes on the mighty juggernaut of the Soviet crew and, in a shockingly unexpected turn, wins their medal-round match 4-3.The “Miracle on Ice” refers to a medal-round game during the men’s ice hockey tournament at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, played between the hosting United States, and the defending gold medalists, the Soviet Union.
Date: Feb 22, 1980
wiki/Miracle_on_Ice(1997) First cloned animal is announcedScientists in Scotland reveal the existence of Dolly the sheep, the first animal successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell. Created from a mammary cell, she’s named after Dolly Parton.Dolly was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, based near Edinburgh. The funding for Dolly’s cloning was provided by PPL Therapeutics and the UK’s Ministry of Agriculture. She was born on 5 July 1996 and died from a progressive lung disease five months before her seventh birthday. She has been called “the world’s most famous sheep” by sources including BBC News and Scientific American.
(1843) The Great Emigration wagon trains head west
(1960) Strongest earthquake ever recorded slams Chile
(1980) A recreation revolution begins with a game that gobbles
(1992) Johnny Carson’s final ‘Tonight Show’
