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Today in History 12/28 (Westminster Abbey)

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Westminster Abbey in London (© Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images)(1065) Westminster Abbey is consecrated in London
King Edward the Confessor is near death and unable to attend the consecration ceremony of the church he commissioned as a burial place and to atone to the pope for a broken vow. Edward will die eight days later. The abbey will be completed in 1090 but rebuilt in the Gothic style by Henry III.
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom’s most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. The building itself was a Benedictine monastic church until the monastery was dissolved in 1539. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral. Since 1560, the building is no longer an abbey or a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England “Royal Peculiar”—a church responsible directly to the sovereign.
Address: 20 Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3PA
Phone: 020 7222 5152
Construction completed: 960 AD
Height: 225 feet (Architectural)
Denomination: Church of England
Architects: Christopher Wren · Nicholas Hawksmoor · Henry Yevele · John of Gloucester · Robert of Beverley · Henry of Reyns

Panorama of Westminster North Entrance
North entrance of Westminster Abbey
wiki/Westminster_Abbey
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(1065) Westminster Abbey is consecrated in London.
Also on this day,

1846 | Iowa becomes the 29th US state
President James K. Polk signs a law making an area that was part of the Louisiana Purchase the 29th state. Iowa, named for a Native American tribe, joins the nation as a slave-free state and will support the Union in the Civil War.
1895 | Audience pays admission to see a movie
At the Grand Cafe in Paris, brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière charge admission to see short films they made about ordinary French life. It marks the first time an audience has paid money to see a movie. The films are shown on a hand-cranked camera-projector the brothers invented: the Cinematographe.
1958 | ‘Greatest’ football game as Baltimore Colts win ‘Greatest Game Ever Played’
The 1958 National Football Championship Game between the Colts and the New York Giants is the first playoff game in NFL history to go into sudden-death overtime. The Colts win 23-17 in Yankee Stadium and the matchup will become known as the ‘Greatest Game Ever Played.’

Today in History 12/28/17

US and Iowa state flags (© Brian Snyder/Reuters)(1846) Iowa becomes the 29th US state
President James K. Polk signs a law making an area that was part of the Louisiana Purchase the 29th state. Iowa, named for a Native American tribe, joins the nation as a slave-free state and will support the Union in the Civil War.
Iowa is a state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River on the east and the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west. Surrounding states include Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the east, Missouri to the south, Nebraska to the west, South Dakota to the northwest, and Minnesota to the north.
Population: 3.13 million (2016)
Area: 56,272 sq miles (145,743 km²)
Colleges and universities: Iowa State University · University of Iowa · University of Northern Iowa · Drake University · Grinnell College
Capital: Des Moines
Governor: Kim Reynolds
Senators: Joni Ernst · Chuck Grassley

Iowa in United States
Map of the United States with Iowa highlighted

wiki/Iowa
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Today in History 10/25 (Battle of Agincourt)

The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 (© Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)(1415) Weary English soldiers outnumbered by French on St. Crispin’s Day
England’s King Henry V charges into a battle that sees his troops dangerously outnumbered by the French on the fields of Agincourt. Thickets of longbows send arrows flying at the French and before the day’s end the English secure one of their greatest, and most improbable, military wins.
The Battle of Agincourt (UK:; US:; French: Azincourt) was a major English victory in the Hundred Years’ War. It took place on 25 October 1415 in the County of Saint-Pol, Artois, some 40 km south of Calais. England’s unexpected victory at Agincourt against a numerically superior French army boosted English morale and prestige, crippled France, and started a new period in the war during which the English began enjoying great military successes.
Date: Oct 25, 1415

Map Agincort
The battle of Agincourt
wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt
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(1415) Weary English soldiers outnumbered by French on St. Crispin’s Day.
Also on this day,

1938 | Big bands get a big boo from the Archbishop as Swing music denounced
Catholic Archbishop Francis J.L. Beckman of Dubuque, Iowa, lets it be known that he is not a fan of a newfangled national craze. He claims it is “turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people,” and that swing music will catapult fans down a “primrose path to hell.”
1978 | Michael Myers goes home for the holiday as ‘Halloween’ premieres
Moviegoers in Kansas City, Missouri, attend the premiere of John Carpenter’s low-budget horror film, titled appropriately enough for the season, ‘Halloween.’ Those expecting a cheesy gore fest are instead treated to a masterful take on the genre, and some of the best scares since ‘Psycho.’
1983 | Grenada invaded as Operation Urgent Fury sends US invasion force to Caribbean
The small Caribbean island nation of Grenada has been embroiled in a political power struggle for months, and with the revolutionary prime minister now murdered, the island is invaded by more than 7,000 troops in the largest US military engagement since Vietnam. The invading forces will claim victory within weeks.

Today in History 10/25/17

A patrol of US Marines during the invasion of Grenada in October 1983 (© DOD handout viaAP )(1983) Operation Urgent Fury sends US invasion force to Caribbean
The small Caribbean island nation of Grenada has been embroiled in a political power struggle for months, and with the revolutionary prime minister now murdered, the island is invaded by more than 7,000 troops in the largest US military engagement since Vietnam. The invading forces will claim victory within weeks.
The Invasion of Grenada was a 1983 United States–led invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, which has a population of about 91,000 and is located 160 kilometres north of Venezuela, that resulted in a U.S. victory within a matter of weeks. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, it was triggered by the internal strife within the People's Revolutionary Government that resulted in the house arrest and the execution of the previous leader and second Prime Minister of Grenada Maurice Bishop, and the establishment of a preliminary government, the Revolutionary Military Council with Hudson Austin as Chairman. The invasion resulted in the appointment of an interim government, followed by democratic elections in 1984. The country has remained a democratic nation since then.
Start date: Oct 25, 1983
End date: Dec 15, 1983
US Plan Grenada Urgent Fury
Operation Urgent Fury

wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada
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