Munich

Today in History 10/12 (Christopher Columbus)

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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Daily Pic 09/22/18 (Oktoberfest)

Joerg Koch/Getty Images

Time for brass bands and beer

Our photo today shows the crowds at an Oktoberfest parade reflected in the bell of a brass horn. In Munich, Germany, the 16-day festival will include many brass bands marching and playing celebratory Bavarian folk music, while other bands will play for the beer drinkers in the tents and beer halls that dot the festival grounds. Why call it ‘Oktoberfest’ when it begins in September? The original Oktoberfest began on October 12, 1810, as a massive one-day royal wedding celebration open to the public. On October 12 the following year, Munich citizens commemorated the wedding with another party, and an annual tradition was born. The festivities grew longer and longer each year over the course of two centuries, and Oktoberfest eventually extended into the weeks before the original date. Organizers supported the earlier start to take advantage of better weather in late September, but the party will forever be known as Oktoberfest.

Daily Pic 09/22/17

© Anthony Heflin/500px

Bear Rocks Preserve, West Virginia