This Day in History

[mctiger]

On this day in 335 Constantine the Great consecrated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jersusalem's Christian Quarter. The church stands over what are believed to the sites of Jesus' crucifixion and burial, and is one of 9 sites in Israel protected by the Status Quo agreements of the 16th and 17th centuries.


On this day in 1848, Phineas Gage, a Vermont railroad worker, is on the job when a premature blast drives a 3 and a half foot steel rod completely through his skull and destroys much of his frontal lobe.

Gage's bad luck is medicine's gain: he lived 12 years after the explosion, but his personality is irreversable changed. His case essentially rewrites much of what doctors know about neuroscience and psychology.

On this day in 1990, Law and Order debuts on NBC. It will become the longest running crime drama in US history (20 years) and spawn several spinoffs.

 

[mctiger]

On this day in 1812, fire broke out and destroyed much of the city of Moscow as Napoleon and his conquering army were entering the city. Most of its residents had evacuated in front of Napoleon's advance over the preceeding month, and the fires left the invaders little supplies to replenish, leading to the disastrous winter march out of Russia. The cause of the fire has never been conclusively determined.

On this day in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as president in the wake of William McKinley's death from a gunshot wound. At age 42, Roosevelt was - and may always be - the youngest president ever.

On this day in 1959, the Soviet-launched space probe Luna 2 crash lands on the moon. It is the first manmade object to contact a celestial body.

 

[mctiger]

On this day in 1950, about 75,000 United Nations troops, mostly American and under the command of Gen. Douglas McArthur, landed at Inchon, South Korea. The landing force recaptured Seoul, the South Korean capitol, from the North Korean invaders 2 weeks later.

On this day in 1963, a bomb detonated in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 4 young girls and injuring 22 people. Investigators linked the bomb, which was consisted of at least 15 sticks of dynamite, to the KKK in the deadliest act of the civil rights era.

On this day in 1978, Muhammad Ali scored a unanimous decision win over Leon Spinks in the Louisiana Superdome, to claim the World's Heavyweight Championship for an unprecedented 3rd time.

 

[Bengal B]

I was at that fight. Had seats way up high and saw there were lots of empty seats below close to the ring. When Frank Sinatra entered the arena the guards were distracted and we jumped the rope and sat below. We were sitting 2 rows behind Sylvester Stallone.

 

[GREG]

On this day in 1821...
Act of Independence of Central America is enacted
The Province of Guatemala proclaims the independence of Central America from the Spanish Empire and invites other provinces to meet and determine a path forward. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua will all briefly become part of the Mexican Empire before forming the Federal Republic of Central America.

 

[mctiger]

On this day in 1620, the Mayflower, with about 130 people on board, including its crew and 102 Puritan pilgrims, set sail from Plymouth, England. They would reach the New World after a 60-day journey across the Atlantic.

On this day in 1810, a Catholic priest incites the residents of Dolores, Mexico to revolt against the Spanish rulers. It is considered the beginning of the War for Mexican Independence, a conflict that lasted 11 years.

On this day in 1920, 38 people were killed and hundreds were injured when a horse drawn cart loaded with more than 100 pounds of dynamite exploded outside the J.P. Morgan Bank on NYC's Wall Street. Italian anarchists are blamed for the attack.

On this day in 1964, The Beatles made their one and only appearance in New Orleans, playing in City Park. A current New Orleans radio journalist who was in attendance says the girl screams - including her own - were so loud, she has no memory of actually hearing any music.

 

[mctiger]

On this day in 1787, The U.S. Constitution is signed by 38 of the 42 delegates of the Constitutional Convention. 12 of the 13 states are represented, Rhode Island having elected not to participate.

On this day in 1862, Union forces under George McLellan meet and turn back Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army at Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The victory stops the first of Lee's 2 attempted incursions into the north, but - with 22,000 killed on both sides - it is the single bloodiest day in US military history.

On this day in 1976, NASA rolls out the Enterprise, the flying blueprint for its first reusable space craft. The Enterprise has no engines or heat shield, so its incapable of space flight, but it will be launched from the back of a 747 in a series of flight tests of the design before the 1st actual space shuttle, Columbia, is prepared for launch in 1981.

 

[mctiger]

OK, I've never heard of this guy, but he needs his own entry....on this day in 1859, San Fransisco businessman Joshua Norton declares himself, Norton I, Emperor of the United States. Norton was frustrated with the political inadequacies he saw in the US government. Over the next 21 years, he would issue proclamations and make numerous civic proposals, including the construction of a tunnel connecting SF with Oakland. He also declared himself "Protector of Mexico" at one point. The US government ignored him, but he was accorded celebrity status in San Fransisco throughout his "reign" which ended with his death in 1880. Merchants sold so many souvenirs bearing his name that a biographer once wrote that the city lived off Norton, rather than the reverse. Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson are among the authors who would base characters on Norton in their literature, and in the 1950s and 60s, the TV shows Death Valley Days and Bonanza would produce episodes that featured Norton as a character.

 

[mctiger]

On this day in 1793, George Washington lays the cornerstone for the US Capitol building. Undergoing several design changes, burning by the British in the War of 1812, and a work stoppage during the Civil War, it will be nearly a century before the building appears as we know it today.

On this day in 1810, the War for Chilean Independence begins, with a 9-man junta seizing control of government. Spain would finally give up its colony and grant Chile independence on January 15, 1826.

On this day in 1976, newspaper heiress and fugitive Patty Hearst was arrested in her San Fransisco apartment. Hearst had been kidnapped on February 4, 1974, by the leftist Symbionese Liberation Army, which began blackmailing the Hearst family for food goods for the needy in Southern California. The family would quietly distribute more than $2 million in food commodities, but two months later, Patty sent authorities a tape in which she declared she was joining the SLA of her own free will. She was caught on surveillance cameras participating in a bank robbery less than a month later. Hearst was sentenced to 7 years in prison, but her sentence was commuted by President Carter, and she received a full pardon from President Clinton in 2001.