1997

Today in History 11/10 (Badlands National Park)

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Badlands national park in South Dakota (© Andrew Nay/EyeEm/Getty Images)(1978) Badlands becomes a national park
A national monument since 1939, Badlands in southwest South Dakota is designated as a national park. The 244,000-acre park will eventually host about a million visitors a year coming to see wildlife, fossils, and the Badlands wall.
Badlands National Park is an American national park located in southwestern South Dakota. The park protects 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles, along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. The National Park Service manages the park, with the South Unit being co-managed with the Oglala Lakota tribe.
Website: www.nps.gov/badl
Address: 25216 Ben Reifel Pl, Interior, SD 57750
Phone: (605) 433-5361
Established: Jan 29, 1939
Area: 379.31 sq miles
Annual visitors: 1.05 million (2017)

Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park
wiki/Badlands_National_Park
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(1978) Badlands becomes a national park.
Also on this day,

1871 | Henry Stanley finds missing explorer Dr. David Livingstone
‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?’ Journalist Henry Stanley will claim he uttered those words on this day, upon finding David Livingstone after a harrowing search in central Africa. The quote, however, and even the date, will later come into question.
1969 | ‘Sesame Street’ is introduced to the airwaves of American public television
‘Sesame Street,’ featuring Jim Henson’s Muppets, catchy songs, and animated shorts, aims to educate while it entertains young kids. The show will be a huge success, and will be credited as a valuable learning tool, but will also ruffle convention as it tackles serious subjects, such as death, poverty, and AIDS.
1997 | Judge frees British au pair
Louise Woodward, 19, a British au pair convicted for murdering an infant while he was in her care in Massachusetts, has been freed from prison, her conviction reduced from murder to involuntary manslaughter. Woodward’s case drew intense worldwide attention, especially in Britain.

Today in History 11/10/17

Funeral procession of Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow on November 10, 1982 (© KeystoneUSA/ZUMA/Rex Features)(1982) Soviet leader Brezhnev dies at age 75
Leonid Brezhnev, who ruled the USSR for 18 years during the height of the Cold War, dies of a heart attack. In poor health, he had been largely a figurehead during his final years. His death will start a long cycle of reform eventually leading to the country's breakup.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982 as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, presiding over the country until his death and funeral in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in duration. During Brezhnev's rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time. His tenure as leader was marked by the beginning of an era of economic and social stagnation in the Soviet Union.
Lived: Dec 19, 1906 - Nov 10, 1982 (age 75)
Height: 5' 8" (1.73 m)
Spouse: Viktoria Brezhneva (m. 1928 - 1982)
Buried: Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Children: Yuri Brezhnev (Son) · Galina Brezhneva (Daughter)
Previous offices: Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1977 - 1982) · General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1964 - 1982)
Highlights
  • 1928: Leonid Brezhnev married Viktoria Brezhneva in 1928.

  • 1931: Brezhnev had met Khrushchev in 1931, shortly after joining the Party, and before long, as he continued his rise through the ranks, he became Khrushchev's protégé.

  • 1952: In 1952 Brezhnev became a member of the Central Committee, and during 1964, Brezhnev succeeded Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary, while Alexei Kosygin succeeded Khrushchev in his post as Soviet premier.

  • 1957: He was now a senior member of Khrushchev's entourage, and in June 1957, he backed Khrushchev in his struggle with Malenkov's Stalinist old guard in the Party leadership, the so-called "Anti-Party Group".

  • 1977: In 1977, he forced the retirement of Podgorny and became once again Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, making this position equivalent to that of an executive president.

  • 1982: After years of declining health, Brezhnev died on 10 November 1982 and was quickly succeeded in his post as General Secretary by Yuri Andropov.


25th anniversary of conquering virgin land. USSR block. 1979
USSR postage stamp of 1979, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Virgin Lands Campaign

wiki/Leonid_Brezhnev
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Today in History 08/31 (Jack the Ripper)

Illustration showing police discovering the body of one of Jack the Ripper's victims in London in 1888 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(1888) Murderer strikes in London’s Whitechapel district
Mary Ann Nichols, a servant and prostitute, is discovered dead on the street in Whitechapel, in London’s East End. The slum area is notoriously violent, but authorities will begin to suspect a serial killer is at large when another woman is similarly killed just a over a week later.
Jack the Ripper is the best-known name for an unidentified serial killer generally believed to have been active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. In both the criminal case files and contemporary journalistic accounts, the killer was called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.
Nationality: British

Streetmap showing the locations of the first seven Whitechapel murders
The sites of the first seven Whitechapel murders – Osborn Street (centre right), George Yard (centre left), Hanbury Street (top), Buck’s Row (far right), Berner Street (bottom right), Mitre Square (bottom left), and Dorset Street (middle left)
wiki/Jack_the_Ripper
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(1888) Murderer strikes in London’s Whitechapel district.
Also on this day,

1928 | Mack the Knife and Pirate Jenny meet in a Berlin premiere of ‘Threepenny Opera’
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s adaptation of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ opens in Berlin as a musical slyly critiquing capitalism and socialism. ‘The Threepenny Opera’ introduces the world to ‘Mack the Knife,’ and will become one of the most performed works of musical theater in history.
1972 | Soviet gymnast Korbut wows the world with Olympic gold
All 4′ 11″ and 84-pounds, the USSR’s Olga Korbut has the Olympic crowds cheering in Munich as she performs nearly flawless, and boldly athletic, gymnastics. Cold War tensions melt as the sweet-faced 17-year-old ‘Sparrow from Minsk’ wins three gold medals for her individual routines.
1997 | The world mourns for the ‘People’s Princess’ as Diana dies
Speeding through a Paris tunnel, the car carrying Diana, Princess of Wales, 36, crashes, killing her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver, injuring another passenger, and causing fatal injuries that claim the life of one of the most famous and beloved women in the world.

Today in History 08/31/17

Princess Diana (© Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images)(1997) The world mourns for the 'People's Princess'
Speeding through a Paris tunnel, the car carrying Diana, Princess of Wales, 36, crashes, killing her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver, injuring another passenger, and causing fatal injuries that claim the life of one of the most famous and beloved women in the world.
On 31 August 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul, the driver of the Mercedes-Benz S280, were pronounced dead at the scene; the bodyguard of Diana and Fayed, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor.
Date: Aug 31, 1997
Flowers for Princess Diana's Funeral
Flowers left outside Kensington Palace in tribute to Diana

wiki/Death_of_Diana,_Princess_of_Wales
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Today in History 08/31/17

Princess Diana (© Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images)(1997) The world mourns for the ‘People’s Princess’
Speeding through a Paris tunnel, the car carrying Diana, Princess of Wales, 36, crashes, killing her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver, injuring another passenger, and causing fatal injuries that claim the life of one of the most famous and beloved women in the world.
On 31 August 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul, the driver of the Mercedes-Benz S280, were pronounced dead at the scene; the bodyguard of Diana and Fayed, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor.
Date: Aug 31, 1997
Flowers for Princess Diana's Funeral
Flowers left outside Kensington Palace in tribute to Diana

wiki/Death_of_Diana,_Princess_of_Wales
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Today in History 06/26/17

Portrait of King Richard III circa 15th century (© Art Images/Getty Images)(1483) King Richard III begins his rule of England
The House of York sends their last king to the throne of England, as Richard III begins his rule. His reign will be brief, ending two years later at the Battle of Bosworth Field, but his infamy will live on, as a future scribe named Shakespeare will find inspiration in Richard’s reputed villainy.
Richard III was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485, at the age of 32, in the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the subject of the historical play Richard III by William Shakespeare.
Lived: Oct 02, 1452 – Aug 22, 1485 (age 32)
Height: 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
Spouse: Anne Neville (m. 1472 – 1485)
Buried: Greyfriars, Leicester
Children: Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales (Son) · John of Gloucester (Son) · Katherine Plantagenet (Daughter)
Siblings: Edward IV of England (Brother) · Edmund, Earl of Rutland (Brother) · Margaret of York (Sister) · George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (Brother)
Highlights
  • 1472: Edward IV set up the Council of the North as an administrative body in 1472 to improve government control and economic prosperity and benefit the whole of Northern England.

  • 1472: Following a decisive Yorkist victory over the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury, Richard married Anne Neville, the younger daughter of the Earl of Warwick, on 12 July 1472.

  • 1483: Arrangements were made for Edward’s coronation on 22 June 1483; but, before the young king could be crowned, his father’s marriage to his mother Elizabeth Woodville was declared invalid, making their children illegitimate and ineligible for the throne.

  • 1483: The first, in October 1483, was led by staunch allies of Edward IV and Richard’s former ally, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham; but the revolt collapsed.

  • 1485: In August 1485, Henry Tudor and his uncle, Jasper Tudor, led a second rebellion.

  • 1485: In 1485, following his death in battle against Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field, Richard III’s body was buried in Greyfriars Church in Leicester.

wiki/Richard_III_of_England
Charlie Chaplin in a scene from 'The Gold Rush' in 1925 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images )(1925) Chaplin’s Little Tramp stakes his Klondike claim
Silent-film star Charlie Chaplin hits a rich vein of comedy with a tale pitting his ‘Little Tramp’ against severe snowstorms, vicious villains, and dance hall dames. Two months after its Hollywood premiere, ‘The Gold Rush’ will go into wide release, striking box office gold.
During the Gold Rush, prospectors brave Alaska’s dangerous Chilkoot Pass, hoping to strike it rich in the snowy mountains. Just as Big Jim McKay discovers gold on his claim, a storm arises, prompting a Lone Prospector to take refuge in a cabin. Unknown to him, the cabin’s occupant is desperado Black Larsen, who attempts to throw the vagabond Prospector out. Strong winds, however, repeatedly blow the little man back inside, and soon after, Jim is also swept into the cabin. Jim fights with Larsen over his shotgun, and after Jim prevails, the Prospector claims him as a close friend in order to remain safe. Over the next few days, the three men live together uneasily, their hunger growing as the storm rages on.
Release date: Aug 17, 1925 (United States)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Gross revenue: $2.50 million USD
Music by: Charlie Chaplin · James L. Fields · Max Terr
Screenwriter: Charlie Chaplin
Awards: Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film

wiki/The_Gold_Rush
President John F. Kennedy delivers a speech concerning the Berlin Wall in West Berlin on June 26, 1963 (© AP )(1963) Kennedy is a Berliner in key Cold War speech
Almost two years after communist East Germany built a wall separating East and West Berlin, US President John F. Kennedy speaks in front of a crowd of 450,000 in West Berlin and assures the city, surrounded by Soviet-backed East Germany, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner,’ or, ‘I am a Berliner.’
“Ich bin ein Berliner” is a quotation from a June 26, 1963, speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. Kennedy aimed to underline the support of the United States for West Germany 22 months after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall to prevent mass emigration to the West. The message was aimed as much at the Soviets as it was at Berliners and was a clear statement of U.S. policy in the wake of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Another phrase in the speech was also spoken in German, “Lasst sie nach Berlin kommen”, addressed at those who claimed “we can work with the Communists”, a remark at which Nikita Khrushchev scoffed only days later.
wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner
Cover of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' (© Akira Suemori/AP)(1997) Harry meets Hogwarts in a spellbinding story
A boy learns he is not merely a muggle, and is summoned to study at a school of sorcery, in the debut children’s novel published on this day by an unknown British writer. ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ will spawn six sequels and make a household name of author J.K. Rowling.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series and J. K. Rowling’s debut novel, first published in 1997 by Bloomsbury. It was published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by Scholastic Corporation in 1998. The plot follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage as he makes close friends and a few enemies in his first year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. With the help of his friends, Harry faces an attempted comeback by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry’s parents, but failed to kill Harry when he was just 15 months old.
Author: J. K. Rowling
Number of pages: 223
Word count: 77,325
Series: Harry Potter
Characters: Harry Potter · Lord Voldemort · Hermione Granger · Ron Weasley · Professor Albus Dumbledore · Rubeus Hagrid · Severus Snape · Draco Malfoy · Professor Quirinus Quirrell · Dudley Dursley · The Sorting Hat · Newt Scamander · Sirius Black · Gellert Grindelwald · Vernon Dursley
Adaptations: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher’s_Stone
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Today in History 02/22/17

Memorial stone at Fishguard, Wales, commemorating the last invasion of Wales by the French in 1797 (© ChalkyWhite/Getty Images)(1797) ‘Last invasion of Britain’ begins
Revolutionary 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
Members of the 'People's Militia,' formed by members of the Communist Party, march in Czechoslovakia in Feb 1948 (© STR/AFP/Getty Images)(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
The US hockey team celebrates after beating the Soviet Union in the semifinals at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, on Feb. 22, 1980 (© Focus on Sport/Getty Images)(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
The world's first clone of an adult animal, Dolly the sheep, in 2002 (© Jeff J Mitchell/Reuters)(1997) First cloned animal is announced
Scientists 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.
Born: Jul 05, 1996
Died: Feb 14, 2003
Birth place: Scotland

wiki/Dolly_(sheep)
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