2000

Today in History 10/12 (Christopher Columbus)

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Engraving from 1876 depicting Christopher Columbus approaching San Salvador in 1492 (© Universal History Archive/Getty Images)(1492) Columbus, having sailed the ocean blue, arrives in North America
Rodrigo de Triana shouts from his lookout atop his ship the ‘Pinta’ that he’s spotted land after five weeks of an open-ocean crossing. The Italian leader of this Spanish-funded voyage, Christopher Columbus, will name the area of their first North American landfall ‘San Salvador.’
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. He led the first European expeditions to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, initiating the permanent European colonization of the Americas.
Lived: Oct 31, 1451 – May 20, 1506 (age 54)
Height: 6′ 0″
Spouse: Filipa Moniz Perestrelo (m. 1479)
Partner: Beatriz Enríquez de Arana (1487 – 1506)
Children: Ferdinand Columbus (Son) · Diego Columbus (Son)
Buried: Seville Cathedral
Highlights
  • 1479: Christopher Columbus married Filipa Moniz Perestrelo in 1479.

  • 1492: During his first voyage in 1492, the brisk trade winds from the east, commonly called “easterlies”, propelled Columbus’s fleet for five weeks, from the Canary Islands to The Bahamas.

  • 1493: On 13 January 1493, Columbus made his last stop of this voyage in the New World, in the Bay of Rincón at the eastern end of the Samaná Peninsula in northeast Hispaniola.

  • 1500: Columbus’s strained relationship with the Spanish crown and its appointed colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and removal from Hispaniola in 1500, and later to protracted litigation over the benefits that he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown.

  • 1502: Accompanied by his brother Bartolomeo and his 13-year-old son Fernando, he left Cádiz on 11 May 1502, with his flagship Santa María and the vessels Gallega, Vizcaína, and Santiago de Palos.

  • 1506: On 20 May 1506, aged probably 54, Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain.

Christopher Colombus map. Lisbon, workshop of Bartolomeo and Christopher Colombus, c.1490
“Columbus map”, drawn c. 1490 in the Lisbon workshop of Bartolomeo and Christopher Columbus
wiki/Christopher_Columbus
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(1492) Columbus, having sailed the ocean blue, arrives in North America.
Also on this day,

1810 | 1st Oktoberfest as wedding party in Munich launches a Bavarian beer fest
Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen throw a wedding party, and all of Munich, Germany is invited. The party is a hit, and festivities will be repeated a year later, starting an annual tradition of suds, song, and sauerkraut called Oktoberfest.
1979 | ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’ answers the ultimate question…
Douglas Adams’ novel based on his radio show spoofs the sci-fi genre with a humorous, surreal travelogue. Adams will publish four more books in the ‘increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Trilogy.’ The franchise will also include stage shows , comic books, a TV series, computer game, and movie.
2000 | Terrorists attack an American navy ship, USS Cole, docked in Yemen
Upwards of 700 pounds of explosives blast a 40-by-60-foot hole into the port side of the USS Cole as it’s docked in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors will die and 40 are wounded in the bombing of the US Navy vessel, and authorities will suspect the terrorist group al-Qaeda is behind the attack.

Today in History 10/12/17

Experts examine the USS Cole on October 13, 2000, after a powerful explosion ripped a hole in the US Navy destroyer (© Dimitri Messinis/AP)(2000) Terrorists attack an American navy ship docked in Yemen
Upwards of 700 pounds of explosives blast a 40-by-60-foot hole into the port side of the USS Cole as it's docked in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors will die and 40 are wounded in the bombing of the US Navy vessel, and authorities will suspect the terrorist group al-Qaeda is behind the attack.
The USS Cole bombing was a terrorist attack against the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole on 12 October 2000, while it was being refueled in Yemen's Aden harbor. Seventeen American sailors were killed and 39 injured in the deadliest attack against a United States naval vessel since 1987.
Date: Oct 12, 2000
USS Cole after attack
USS Cole after the attack

wiki/USS_Cole_bombing
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Today in History 09/10 (Abebe Bikila)

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Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila (11) leads in the final stages of the marathon in the 1960 Olympic Games, Rome, Italy (© AP)(1960) Barefoot Bikila wins Rome’s marathon gold
The son of an Ethiopian shepherd, Abebe Bikila wins the gold medal in the marquee event of the Rome Summer Olympics after running the marathon race in his bare feet from Capitoline Hill to the finish line just outside the ancient Colosseum.
Abebe Bikila was an Ethiopian double Olympic marathon champion. He won the marathon at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot, setting a world record. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Abebe was the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title, breaking his own world record in the process. He was a member of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite infantry division that safeguarded the Emperor of Ethiopia. Enlisting as a soldier before his athletic career, he rose to the rank of shambel. In Ethiopia, Abebe is formally known as Shambel Abebe Bikila.
Lived: Aug 07, 1932 – Oct 25, 1973 (age 41)
Height: 5′ 10″
Spouse: Yewibdar Giorghis (m. 1954 – 1973)
Parents: Bikila Demissie
Movies: Spirit of the Marathon · The Athlete
Awards: BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year (1964)
Highlights
  • 1954: Abebe Bikila married Yewibdar Giorghis in 1954.

  • 1960: Abebe married 15-year-old Yewebdar Wolde-Giorgis on March 16, 1960.

  • 1961: In the 1961 Athens Classical Marathon, Abebe again won while running barefoot.

  • 1963: Abebe participated in a total of sixteen marathons, winning twelve and finishing fifth in the 1963 Boston Marathon.

  • 1966: In 1966 he ran marathons at Zarautz and Inchon–Seoul, winning both.

  • 1973: Abebe died at age 41 on October 25, 1973, of a cerebral hemorrhage related to his accident four years earlier.

Abebe Bikila wins the marathon at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960
Crossing the finish line
wiki/Abebe_Bikila
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(1960) Barefoot Bikila wins Rome’s marathon gold.
Also on this day,

1509 | Massive earthquake hits Constantinople
The North Anatolian Fault releases 7.2 magnitudes of energy under the Sea of Marmara close to the seat of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople, in what will one day be Turkey. The quake will earn its epithet, ‘The Lesser Judgment Day,’ with its immediate destructiveness and 45 days of seemingly endless aftershocks.
1919 | New Yorkers take to the streets as heroes come home
New Yorkers welcome 25,000 soldiers home from the battlefields of Europe nearly a year after WWI’s armistice with a gigantic victory parade down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. General John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing leads his 1st Infantry Division troops past the grateful throngs.
2000 | ‘Cats,’ Broadway’s longest-running show, finally closes
The Jellicle Cats have their last pad around the New York stage as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical ‘Cats closes after nearly 18 years. At a record-breaking 7,485 performances, it’s Broadway’s longest-running show and will retain that distinction until Webber unleashes a certain ‘Phantom to haunt the boards for an even longer run.

Today in History 09/10/17

Woodcut depicting damage in the Sept 10, 1509 earthquake in the sea of Marmara (Public Domain)(1509) Massive earthquake hits Constantinople
The North Anatolian Fault releases 7.2 magnitudes of energy under the Sea of Marmara close to the seat of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople, in what will one day be Turkey. The quake will earn its epithet, 'The Lesser Judgment Day,' with its immediate destructiveness and 45 days of seemingly endless aftershocks.
The 1509 Constantinople earthquake, referred to as "The Lesser Judgment Day" by contemporaries, occurred in the Sea of Marmara on 10 September 1509 at about 10pm. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.2 ± 0.3 on the surface wave magnitude scale. A tsunami and forty-five days of aftershocks followed the earthquake. Over a thousand houses and 109 mosques were destroyed, and an estimated 10,000 people died.
Date: Sep 10, 1509
1509 Great Istanbul Earthquake
Great Istanbul Earthquake (Little Judgment Day), 1509

wiki/1509_Constantinople_earthquake
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Today in History 07/28 (Tangshan Earthquake)

People work to clear up ruins after an earthquake in Tangshan, China, on July 28, 1976 (© Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)(1976) Devastating earthquake strikes Tangshan, China
At 3:24 AM an earthquake hits Tangshan, an industrial center in northeastern China. The magnitude 7.8 quake levels the city and will cause over 240,000 deaths and more than 160,000 serious injuries. China’s government will turn down offers of help from outside nations.
The 1976 Tangshan earthquake, also known as the Great Tangshan earthquake, was a natural disaster resulting from a magnitude 7.6 earthquake that hit the region around Tangshan on July 28, 1976, at 3:42 in the morning. In minutes the city of Tangshan, an industrial city with approximately one million inhabitants, ceased to exist. Eight-five percent of the buildings in the city collapsed or were unusable, all services failed, and most of the highway and railway bridges collapsed or were seriously damaged. At least 242,000 people died, making this the third deadliest earthquake in recorded history.
Fatalities: 242,769
Date: Jul 28, 1976
Areas affected: People’s Republic of China
Depth: A: 12.2 km B: 16.7 km
Casualties: 242,769–700,000 dead (3rd deadliest earthquake of modern history)

1976 Tangshan Earthquake
1976 Tangshan earthquake
wiki/1976_Tangshan_earthquake
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(1976) Devastating earthquake strikes Tangshan, China.
Also on this day,

1935 | Stalwart of Allied air power, Boeing B-17 ‘Flying Fortress’, takes its first flight
Boeing sends its new four-engine bomber on a test flight, and a reporter dubs the behemoth, fitted out with multiple machine guns, the ‘flying fortress.’ Before a decade is over, the B-17 bomber will live up to that nickname, with extensive service in the skies over Europe and the Pacific in World War II.
1996 | Prehistoric remains of ‘Kennewick Man’ found on banks of the Columbia
A Paleoamerican skull is accidentally discovered near the Columbia River in Washington, and later, archaeologists will recover most of the skeleton of ‘Kennewick Man’ and date it to around 9,000 years old. Controversy will erupt over his possible ancestry to local Native Americans.
2000 | Kathie Lee Gifford says goodbye to ‘Live!’
After 15 years of bantering with Regis Philbin, Gifford says goodbye to her co-host and their morning TV audience to pursue acting and singing opportunities. The show will continue, with Kelly Ripa taking Gifford’s spot.

Today in History 07/28/17

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in flight in 1944 (© Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images)(1935) Stalwart of Allied air power takes its first flight
Boeing sends its new four-engine bomber on a test flight, and a reporter dubs the behemoth, fitted out with multiple machine guns, the 'flying fortress.' Before a decade is over, the B-17 bomber will live up to that nickname, with extensive service in the skies over Europe and the Pacific in World War II.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps. Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and exceeded the air corps' performance specifications. Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the air corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances.
Maximum speed: 287.01 mph (461.90 km/h)
Length: 74' 4" (22.66 m)
Wingspan: 104 feet (31.60 m)
Passengers: 10
Retired: 1968
Manufacturer: Boeing
World operators of the B-17
Military operators of the B-17
Civil operators of the B-17
Civil operators of the B-17

wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress
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Today in History 05/07/18

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses WWII veterans on May 7, 2000. (© Mikhail Metzel/AP)(2000) Russia inaugurates Vladimir Putin as president
A former lieutenant colonel in the Soviet KGB, Vladimir Putin becomes Russia’s second president after winning the popular vote. He will wrest tight control of the country’s power structure, as president and later as prime minister, re-establishing the firm authority of the centralized government.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician serving as the current President of Russia since 7 May 2012, previously holding the position from 2000 until 2008. He was Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 until the beginning of his first presidency in 2000, and again between presidencies from 2008 until 2012. During his first term as Prime Minister, he served as Acting President of Russia due to the resignation of President Boris Yeltsin. During his second term as Prime Minister, he was the chairman of the ruling United Russia party.
Born: Oct 07, 1952 (age 65) · Saint Petersburg, Russia
Height: 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
Office: President of Russia (Since 2012)
Spouse: Lyudmila Putina (m. 1983 – 2014)
Children: Katerina Tikhonova (Daughter) · Mariya Putina (Daughter)
Previous offices: Prime Minister of Russia (2008 – 2012) · President of Russia (2000 – 2008) · Prime Minister of Russia (1999 – 2000) · Acting President of Russia (1999 – 2000) · Acting Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (1999 – 1999)
Highlights
  • 1983: Vladimir Putin married Lyudmila Putina on July 28, 1983; their marriage lasted 31 years till April 02, 2014.

  • 1997: On 27 June 1997, at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute, guided by rector Vladimir Litvinenko, Putin defended his Candidate of Science dissertation in economics, titled “The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations”.

  • 2000: The first major challenge to Putin’s popularity came in August 2000, when he was criticized for the alleged mishandling of the Kursk submarine disaster.

  • 2008: In April 2008, Putin became the first Russian President who visited Libya.

  • 2008: In a power-switching operation on 8 May 2008, only a day after handing the presidency to Medvedev, Putin was appointed Prime Minister of Russia, maintaining his political dominance.

  • 2012: Putin’s presidency was inaugurated in the Kremlin on 7 May 2012.

Vladimir Putin in KGB uniform
Putin in KGB uniform, circa 1980
wiki/Vladimir_Putin
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(2000) Russia inaugurates Vladimir Putin as president.
Also on this day,
1824 | Beethoven`s 9th premieres
1965 | `Satisfaction` riff
1982 | Raiders head to L.A.

Today in History 01/04/18

New York Jets head coach Bill Belichick resigns at a press conference in Hempstead, NY, on January 4, 2000 (© Al Pereira/Getty Images)(2000) Bill Belichick resigns from Jets after one day
One day into his tenure as head coach of the NFL’s New York Jets, Bill Belichick resigns via a one-sentence handwritten note and a rambling press conference. The football team will struggle for years, while Belichick will quickly move to the rival New England Patriots and go on to win multiple Super Bowls.
William Stephen Belichick is an American football coach who is the head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League. Belichick has extensive authority over the Patriots’ football operations, effectively making him the general manager of the team as well. He was previously the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
Born: Apr 16, 1952 (age 65) · Nashville, TN
Height: 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Net worth: $35 million USD (2017)
Coaches: New England Patriots
Spouse: Debby Clarke Belichick (m. 1977 – 2006)
Children: Stephen Belichick · Brian Belichick · Amanda Belichick
Highlights
  • 1977: Bill Belichick married Debby Clarke Belichick in 1977; their marriage lasted 29 years till 2006.

  • 1979: In 1979, Belichick began a 12-year stint with the New York Giants alongside head coach Ray Perkins as a defensive assistant and special teams coach.

  • 1991: Parcells and Belichick won two Super Bowls together (XXI and XXV), before Belichick left to become the head coach in Cleveland in 1991.

  • 2000: After being named head coach of the Jets in early 2000, Belichick resigned after only one day on the job to accept the head coaching job for the New England Patriots.

  • 2009: Until 2009, Belichick split many of the duties normally held by a general manager on other clubs with player personnel director Scott Pioli, though Belichick had the final say on football matters.

  • 2014: He completed his 40th season as an NFL coach in 2014 and won his fifth Super Bowl as a head coach following the 2016 season, surpassing former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Noll as the only head coach to win five Super Bowls.

wiki/Bill_Belichick
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