Today in History ^05/13/17

May 13, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ Leave a Comment

General Zachary Taylor leading American troops into battle at Palo Alto during the Mexican-American War (© Nathaniel Currier)

(1846) US declares war on its neighbor

The US annexation of Texas the previous year lit the tinder between neighboring nations, and now the conflict explodes into the Mexican-American War as the US Congress votes in favor of President Polk’s request for military action. The two-year conflict will end in Mexico’s defeat and the loss of about half its national territory.

The Mexican–American War, also known as the Mexican War, the U.S.–Mexican War, the U.S.–Mexico War or the Invasion of Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. It followed in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory in spite of its de facto secession in the 1836 Texas Revolution.

Start date: Apr 25, 1846
End date: Feb 03, 1848

wiki/Mexican–American_War

Pope John Paul II lies wounded after being shot in St. Peter's Square Wednesday, May 13, 1981, by Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca (© AP)

(1981) Pope John Paul II shot in assassination attempt

Four bullets hit Pope John Paul II as he enters Rome’s St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. While the Pope is rushed to the hospital, police capture Mehmet Ali Ağca, of Turkey. The Pope will later forgive his would-be assassin, asking for his crime to be pardoned, and meeting with him in prison.

The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, 13 May 1981, in St. Peter’s Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck four times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately, and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt. He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope’s request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000.

Date: May 13, 1981

wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II_assassination_attempt

File photo of British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves in 1993 (Chris Bacon/AP)

(1995) Everest summited by unassisted female climber

Accomplished mountaineer, and 33-year-old mother of two, Alison Hargreaves makes history as the first woman to conquer Mt. Everest without the help of Sherpa guides or bottled oxygen. Sadly, she will perish after summiting another Himalayan giant, K2, exactly three months later.

Alison Jane Hargreaves was a British mountain climber. Her accomplishments included scaling Mount Everest alone, without supplementary oxygen or support from a Sherpa team, in 1995. She soloed all the great north faces of the Alps in a single season—a first for any climber. This feat included climbing the difficult north face of the Eiger in the Alps, in 1988. Hargreaves also climbed 6,812-metre Ama Dablam in Nepal.

Born: Feb 17, 1962 · Derbyshire, England
Died: Aug 13, 1995 · K2, Pakistan

wiki/Alison_Hargreaves

Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet (© Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

(1938) Armstrong records ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’

Jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong records the traditional gospel hymn in a Dixieland-jazz style. Though it isn’t the first jazz version of the song, Armstrong’s recording will turn it into a jazz standard that will be covered by hundreds of artists and find a place in pop culture and sports.

“When the Saints Go Marching In”, often referred to as “The Saints”, is an American gospel hymn. Though it originated as a Christian hymn, it is often played by jazz bands. This song was famously recorded on May 13, 1938 by Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. The song is sometimes confused with a similarly titled composition “When the Saints are Marching In” from 1896 by Katharine Purvis and James Milton Black.

Album: Hello Louis – The Hit Years (1963-1969)
Artists: Louis Armstrong · Fats Domino · Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra · Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars
Release year: 1939
Duration: 2:45
Genre: Jazz, Contemporary Jazz

wiki/When_the_Saints_Go_Marching_In

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Today in History ^04/19/17

April 19, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ Leave a Comment

Color postcard of a scene from the Battle of Lexington, the first military engagement of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775 (© Archive Photos/Getty Images)

(1775) American Revolutionary War begins

Thirteen colonies enter the bloody struggle to break free from the crown, as British troops arrive in Lexington, Massachusetts, intent on seizing the patriots’ weapons and imprisoning its leaders. Shots are exchanged, eight Americans die, and the war for independence is on.

The American Revolutionary War, also referred to as the American War of Independence and as the Revolutionary War in the United States, was an armed conflict between Great Britain and those thirteen of its North American colonies which after the onset of the war declared independence as the United States of America.

Start date: Apr 19, 1775
End date: Sep 03, 1783

wiki/American_Revolutionary_War

Boston Marathon finish line, April 19, 1910 (Public domain)

(1897) First running of the Boston Marathon

Inspired by the revival of the Olympic Games the year before and the invention there of the marathon running race, the Boston Athletic Association puts on its own footrace. Fifteen runners take off from the starting line, and 10 finish the 24.5-mile hilly route in Boston’s first marathon.

The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by several cities in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is always held on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world’s best-known road racing events. It is one of six World Marathon Majors, and is one of five major events held in the United States through the years of both World Wars.

First occurred: Apr 19, 1897

wiki/Boston_Marathon

A Jewish man is stopped in April 1943 by German soldiers after the rising of the ghetto of Warsaw during WWII (© AFP/Getty Images)

(1943) Jewish resistance fighters battle in Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Hundreds of thousands of Jews have been packed by Nazis inside the Warsaw Ghetto, a 1.3-square-mile sector in Poland’s capital. Thousands have already died of disease and starvation, but today many fight back when Germans attempt to ship off the ghetto’s survivors to concentration camps.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany’s final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka. The uprising started on 19 April when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who then ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. German casualties are not known, but were not more than 300. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II.

Start date: Apr 19, 1943
End date: May 16, 1943

wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising

The north side of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, seen after a bomb exploded on April 19, 1995 (© AP)

(1995) Oklahoma City bombing destroys federal building, kills 168

An enormous blast tears through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, causing massive damage and casualties. One hundred sixty-eight will die, and upwards of 700 are injured after Timothy McVeigh detonates a homemade truck bomb.

The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Downtown, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States on April 19, 1995. Carried out by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing destroyed one-third of the building, killed 168 people, and injured more than 680 others. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius, shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings, and destroyed or burned 86 cars, causing an estimated $652 million worth of damage. Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations. This was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil until the September 11 attacks six years later, and it still remains as the deadliest domestic terrorism incident in United States history.

Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Charlie Hanger for driving without a license plate and arrested for illegal weapons possession. Forensic evidence quickly linked McVeigh and Nichols to the attack; Nichols was arrested, and within days, both were charged. Michael and Lori Fortier were later identified as accomplices. McVeigh, who was a U.S. militia movement sympathizer and a veteran in the Gulf War, had detonated a Ryder rental truck full of explosives parked in front of the building. His co-conspirator, Nichols, had assisted in the bomb preparation. Motivated by his dislike for the U.S. federal government and angry about its handling of the Ruby Ridge incident in 1992 and the Waco Siege in 1993, McVeigh timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the deadly fire that ended the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

The official investigation, known as “OKBOMB”, saw FBI agents conduct 28,000 interviews, amass 3.5 short tons (3.2 tonnes) of evidence, and collect nearly one billion pieces of information. The bombers were tried and convicted in 1997. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, and Nichols was sentenced to life in prison in 2004. Michael and Lori Fortier testified against McVeigh and Nichols; Michael was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn the United States government, and Lori received immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.

As a result of the bombing, the U.S. Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which tightened the standards for habeas corpus in the United States, as well as legislation designed to increase the protection around federal buildings to deter future terrorist attacks. On April 19, 2000, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building, commemorating the victims of the bombing. Annual remembrance services are held at the same time of day as the explosion occurred.

Date: Apr 19, 1995
Fatalities: 168

wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing

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Today in History ^11/21/16

November 21, 2016 by GµårÐïåñ

(1953) A prized early human fossil is exposed as a fake

	The British Natural History Museum reveals that its treasured Piltdown Man fossil is a fake. The skull fragments, discovered in 1912, purported to be the missing link between apes and humans. Scientists confirm that the bones, skillfully doctored and stained, came from an orangutan and a human..
The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological hoax in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. In 1912 amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson claimed he had discovered the “missing link” between ape and man. After finding a section of a human-like skull in Pleistocene gravel beds near Piltdown, East Sussex, Dawson contacted Arthur Smith Woodward, Keeper of Geology at the Natural History Museum. Dawson and Smith Woodward made further discoveries at the site which they connected to the same individual, including a jawbone, more skull fragments, a set of teeth and primitive tools. Date: 1912 — Source: wiki/Piltdown_Man
(1980) Fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas kills 87 people

In the early morning, a fire breaks out in a ground floor deli at the luxury hotel-casino MGM Grand and quickly spreads as it hits flammable plastics in the casino. Eighty-seven people will die, mainly from smoke inhalation. The fire will rank among the deadliest in the US. .
The MGM Grand fire occurred on November 21, 1980 at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, USA. The fire killed 85 people, most through smoke inhalation. The tragedy remains the worst disaster in Nevada history, and the third-worst hotel fire in modern U.S. history, after the 1946 Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta that killed 119 people and the Dupont Plaza Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico fire on December 31, 1986, in which 97 perished. Fatalities: 87 Date: Nov 21, 1980 — Source: wiki/MGM_Grand_fire
(1985) US authorities arrest Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard

	Jonathan Pollard, a US government intelligence analyst, is arrested on charges of passing classified security information to Israel, a US ally. Pollard is taken into custody outside the Israeli Embassy after he tried to seek asylum, and will later be sentenced to life in prison..
Jonathan Jay Pollard is a former intelligence analyst for the United States government. In 1987, as part of a plea agreement, Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison for violations of the Espionage Act. Born: Aug 07, 1954 (age 62) · Galveston, TX Spouse: Anne Henderson Pollard (m. 1985) · Elaine Zeitz Parents: Morris Pollard (Father) · Molly Pollard (Mother) Education: Stanford University · Tufts University Highlights 1984: Within a few days, in June 1984 Pollard started passing classified information to Sella. 1985: Jonathan Pollard married Anne Henderson Pollard on August 09, 1985. 1987: In 1987, as part of a plea agreement, Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. 1989: In 1989 Pollard’s attorneys filed a motion for withdrawal of his guilty plea and trial by jury due to the government’s failure to abide by terms of the plea agreement. 2006: In February 2006, his attorneys filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court regarding access to the classified documents. 2010: The New York Times reported on September 21, 2010, that the Israeli government (again under Netanyahu) informally proposed that Pollard be released as a reward to Israel for extending by three months a halt to new settlements in occupied territories. 2015: A bill introduced in the Knesset in November 2015 would, if passed, authorize the Israeli government to fund Pollard’s housing and medical expenses, and pay him a monthly stipend, for the remainder of his life. — Source: wiki/Jonathan_Pollard
(1995) Three warring Balkan states make peace

With US President Bill Clinton brokering the peace plan, Bosnian, Serb, and Croat leaders accept the Dayton Accords, which ends four years of a fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war, the worst in Europe since WWII, has killed an estimated 200,000 people and included campaigns of ethnic cleansing. .
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the 3 1⁄2-year-long Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars. Complete Dayton Accords Document [U.S. Department of State] — Source: wiki/Dayton_Agreement
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Today in History ^11/20/16

November 20, 2016 by GµårÐïåñ

(1789) New Jersey becomes first state to ratify the Bill of Rights

	New Jersey ratifies the Bill of Rights, a collection of amendments written by James Madison to ease concerns that the US Constitution had invested the federal government with too much power. New Jersey does, however, reject one of the original 12 amendments: Article II, which regulated congressional pay raises..
The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the oftentimes bitter 1787–88 battle over ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and crafted to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in several earlier documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the English Bill of Rights 1689, along with earlier documents such as Magna Carta (1215). Created: September 25, 1789 Ratified: December 15, 1791 Location: National Archives Author: James Madison — Source: wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
(1820) Sperm whale sinks whaling ship

An 80-ton sperm whale rams and sinks a whaleship, the Essex, from Massachusetts. Twenty crewmembers escape in open boats, but only five will survive the harrowing three months adrift; three others will be rescued off an island. Herman Melville will base his novel ‘Moby-Dick’ on this true-life tale..
Essex was an American whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, launched in 1799. While under the command of Captain George Pollard, Jr., in 1820 a sperm whale attacked and sank her. The sinking stranded the twenty-man crew in the southern Pacific Ocean with little food and water. During the 95 days that the survivors were at sea, they ate the bodies of five crewmen who had died. When that was insufficient, members of the crew drew lots to determine whom they would sacrifice so that the others could live. A total of seven crew members were cannibalized before the eight survivors were rescued. First mate Owen Chase and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson wrote accounts of their ordeal; these accounts inspired Herman Melville to write his famous 1851 novel Moby-Dick. Length: 88′ 7″ (27 m) Displacement: 238 ton Launched: 1799 — Source: wiki/Essex_(whaleship)
(1945) Nazi leaders go on trial for World War II atrocities

	Judges from the US, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union preside over the military tribunals in Nuremburg opening today to try Nazi officials for crimes against humanity, among other charges. Twelve Nazi leaders will be sentenced to death. Adolf Hitler won’t be among them, having already shot himself..
The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II, which were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in The Holocaust and other war crimes. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany. Start date: Nov 20, 1945 End date: Oct 01, 1946 — Source: wiki/Nuremberg_trials
(1995) Princess Diana admits she had an affair

Britain’s Princess Diana speaks candidly about her troubled marriage with Prince Charles in a widely watched BBC interview. Diana admits to infidelity and talks about her struggles with depression and bulimia. She also predicts she will never be queen of England, but hopes to be “queen of people’s hearts.”.
Diana, Princess of Wales, has spoken openly for the first time about her separation from the Prince of Wales in a frank interview for the BBC’s Panorama programme. During her hour-long conversation with BBC reporter Martin Bashir, she admitted to an adulterous affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt. She also described her hurt at her husband’s relationship with long-term friend Camilla Parker-Bowles, but said she did not want to divorce. The Princess spoke freely about her depression and bulimia, her children, the media and the future of the monarchy. — Source: news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_4341000/4341436.stm
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Today in History

July 9, 2016 by GµårÐïåñ

(1877) Wimbledon hosts its first tennis championship
	The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London, hosts the Gentlemen’s Singles Competition in lawn tennis. Tennis will prove a more enduring spectator sport than croquet, and Wimbledon will go on to become the world’s premiere tennis venue..
(1922) Future matinee idol breaks swimming record
Before he becomes world famous as a vine-swinging jungle yodeler, future ‘Tarzan’ Johnny Weissmuller completes a 100-meter freestyle swimming race in 58.6 seconds, beating the world record and becoming the first swimmer to splash through the minute barrier. .
(1955) A plea for sanity in an age of nuclear menace
	Remember your humanity, and forget the rest, is Bertrand Russell’s warning on the threat posed by nuclear weapons and the possibility of global annihilation. The English philosopher is joined by 10 other prominent thinkers, including Albert Einstein, in signing a Manifesto seeking peaceful alternatives. .
(1995) Jerry Garcia jams at his final concert with the Dead
After delighting Deadheads for decades, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead play their last concert featuring all the band’s core members at Chicago’s Soldier Field, capping a touring career that logged more than 2,300 concerts. Garcia, their lead guitarist and unofficial spokesman, will die exactly a month later..