April 12

Today is observed as an International Day of Human Space Flight (Cosmonautics Day in Russia), marking the anniversary of the first human space flight. Tonight is Yuri's Night, named for Yuri Gagarin, the first human being in space.

Also observed today, in the U.S. state of North Carolina, is Halifax Day, commemorating the Halifax Resolves the first official call for independence from Britain by any of the colonies.


Events

1204 – The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day.

1776 – American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.

1831 – Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England cause it to collapse.

1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

1862 – American Civil War: The Andrews Raid (the Great Locomotive Chase) occurs, starting from Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw).

1917 – World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.

1927 – Rocksprings, Texas was hit by an F5 tornado that destroyed 235 of the 247 buildings in the town and killed 72 townspeople and injured 205; third deadliest tornado in Texas history.

1934 – The strongest surface wind gust in the world at the time of 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. It has since been surpassed.

1934 – The U.S. Auto-Lite strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.

1945 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry Truman, becomes President upon Roosevelt's death.

1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.

1961 – The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, Vostok 1.

1966 - Jan Berry (Jan and Dean) was almost killed when he crashed his car into a parked truck a short distance from Dead Man's Curve in Los Angeles. Berry was partially paralysed and suffered brain damage. Berry was able to walk again after extensive therapy.

1970 – Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the Bay of Biscay four days after a fire on board.

1975 - During an interview with Playboy Magazine David Bowie announced his second career retirement, saying, "I've rocked my roll. It's a boring dead end, there will be no more rock 'n' roll records from me. The last thing I want to be is some useless fucking rock singer."

1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place: The STS-1 mission.

1990 - The Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center announced that Asteroids 4147-4150, would be named Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr after the four members of The Beatles.

1995 - Two weeks after her death, George W. Bush, (then the governor of Texas), declared "Selena Day" in Texas.

1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a civil lawsuit; he is later fined and disbarred.

:knockdup:Births:knockdup:

1777 – Henry Clay, 1898 – Lily Pons♪ ♫, 1912 – Hound Dog Taylor♪ ♫, 1923 – Ann Miller, 1932 – Tiny Tim, 1936 – Charles Napier, 1944 – John Kay♪ ♫(Steppenwolf), 1946 – Ed O'Neill, 1947 – Tom Clancy, 1947 – Dan Lauria, 1947 – David Letterman, 1949 – Scott Turow, 1950 – David Cassidy♪ ♫, 1951 – Tom Noonan ('The Ripper' in Last Action Hero, the preacher in Hell On Wheels), 1954 – Pat Travers♪ ♫("Snortin' Whiskey, Drinkin' Cocaine", Boom! Boom! Out Go The Lights"), 1956 – Andy Garcia, 1957 – Vince Gill:shred:♪ ♫, 1958 – Will Sergeant♪ ♫(Echo & The Bunnymen), 1971 – Shannen Doherty, 1979 – Claire Danes, 1979 – Jennifer Morrison (House), 1987 – Brooklyn Decker:love:

:reaper:Deaths:reaper:

238 – Gordian I, 238 – Gordian II, 1817 – Charles Messier, 1878 – William M. 'Boss' Tweed, 1912 – Clara Barton (founded the American Red Cross), 1945 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1966 – Sydney Allard:driving:(founded Allard car company), 1981 – Joe Louis:boxers:, 1989 – Abbie Hoffman (co-founded Youth International Party), 1989 – Sugar Ray Robinson:boxers:, 1999 – Boxcar Willie♪ ♫, 2001 – Harvey Ball (created the smiley face), 2016 – Anne Jackson (actress, wife of Eli Wallach)

Not my majesty...

Not here, but when you're over there, don't say Hi Liz. :lol:

It's april 12th, spring is in the air, and a young man's fancy turns to killing. Lots of war stuff on this date.


Correction: ...an old man's fancy turns to sending young men for killing.

gonna miss this thread

Yeah, me too. :( Maybe we could get him to do it once a week so Christmas won't sneak up on us, I'd hate to miss that.

Perhaps there won't be a full on abandonment. Maybe a branch to music history. Or random weirdness, which is always a possibility.

April 13

Today the United States celebrates Thomas Jefferson's birthday, by Presidential Proclamation (2276).


Events

1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1204 – Constantinople (♪ ♫Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople♪ ♫) falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.

1613 – Samuel Argall captures Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia to ransom her for some English prisoners held by her father, Powhatan; she is brought to Henricus as hostage.

1742 – Handel's Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

1743 - Thomas Jefferson is born in Shadwell, Virginia Colony.

1902 – James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

1919 – Eugene V. Debs is imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, for speaking out against the draft during World War I.

1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.

1945 – World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.

1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra.

1958 – American pianist Van Cliburn wins the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.

1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.

1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.

1972 – Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins.

1974 – Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.

1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

1976 – Forty workers at the Lapua ammunition factory die in an explosion, the deadliest accidental disaster in modern history in Finland.

1992 – Basements throughout the Chicago Loop are flooded, forcing the Chicago Board of Trade Building and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to close.

1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.

:knockdup:Births:knockdup:

1570 – Guy Fawkes (Gunpowder Plot), 1743 – Thomas Jefferson (23rd POTUS), 1852 – Frank Winfield Woolworth (yeah, that Woolworth), 1866 – Butch Cassidy, 1899 – Alfred Mosher Butts (created Scrabble), 1906 – Samuel Beckett, 1909 – Eudora Welty, 1917 – Robert Orville Anderson (founded Atlantic Richfield Oil Co.), 1919 – Howard Keel♪ ♫, 1923 – Don Adams (Get Smart), 1931 – Dan Gurney:driving:, 1933 – Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 1937 – Edward Fox ('Jackal' in The Day of the Jackal (1973)), 1939 – Paul Sorvino (Good Fellas, Nixon), 1943 – Billy Kidd, 1945 – Tony Dow ('Wally' on Leave It To Beaver), 1945 – Lowell George♪ ♫(Little Feat), 1946 – Al Green♪ ♫, 1949 – Christopher Hitchens, 1950 – Ron Perlman, 1951 – Peabo Bryson♪ ♫, 1951 – Max Weinberg:drummer:(E Street Band, Conan O'Brien), 1961 – Hiro Yamamoto:bass:(Soundgarden), 1962 – Hillel Slovak:shred:(Red Hot Chili Peppers), 1963 – Garry Kasparov, 1964 – Davis Love III, 1964 – Caroline Rhea, 1966 – Marc Ford♪ ♫(Black Crowes), 1970 – Ricky Schroder (The Champ, Silver Spoons, NYPD Blue), 1972 – Aaron Lewis♪ ♫(Staind), 1975 – Lou Bega♪ ♫, 1976 – Jonathan Brandis

:reaper:Deaths:reaper:

1641 – Richard Montagu, 1941 – Annie Jump Cannon, 1997 – Bryant Bowles (founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People, I shit you not), 2005 – Johnnie Johnson:keys:, 2013 – Vincent Montana, Jr.:drummer:(MFSB)

Una más, señoras y señores, una más.

Yeah, me too!

I don't always comment, and I don't read every day, but I always come here at least 3-4 times a week, and I always catch up the missed days :)

You've done a sterling job this past year, Grav, but it's a hell of a commitment doing something like this daily, and a mad source of frustration when the Cellar eats a post and you have to piece it all together again:P

Any occasional random historical happenings you feel like sharing will be gratefully accepted and no pressure :)

Y'all are too kind.

It's made the time go by.

I get a hundred of these from the bank every year, they're a double edged sword. Happily received in a gift or tip, not so much by nasty cashiers I punish with them, because there's no slot in the register for them. Hey, just the evil ones, I swear. :blush:

A REPRIEVE!

April 14

Today is Good Friday, commemorating the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and his death at Calvary.

The Americas are celebrating Pan American Day today, commemorating the First International Conference of American States.


Events

43 BC – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Caesar's assassin, Decimus Brutus, in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, but is then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Aulus Hirtius.

70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital with four Roman legions (12,000 - 20,000 soldiers).

1294 – Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.

1434 – The foundation stone of Nantes Cathedral, in France is laid. The cathedral is completed 457 years later.

1561 – A Celestial phenomenon is reported over Nuremberg, described as an aerial battle.

1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.

1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln takes in a show.

1881 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight is fought in El Paso, Texas.

1890 – The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.

1908 – Hauser Dam, a steel dam on the Missouri River in Montana, U.S., fails, sending a surge of water 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 m) high downstream.

1912 – The "unsinkable" British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (she sinks morning of April 15th).

1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published.

1944 – The freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed cargo of cotton bales, gold and ammunition, exploded in the harbour in Bombay, India, sinking 13 surrounding ships and killing about 800 people, and wounding 2,400.

1986 – In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin in which two U.S. servicemen were killed, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.

1986 – The heaviest hailstones ever recorded (1 kilogram (2.2 lb)) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.

1994 – In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.

1999 – A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia, dropping an estimated 500,000 tonnes of hailstones, causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian insurance history.

2003 – The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

2014 – Two hundred seventy-six schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria.

:knockdup:Births:knockdup:

1629 – Christiaan Huygens, 1866 – Anne Sullivan (Helen Keller's teacher/companion), 1904 – John Gielgud, 1907 – François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, 1925 – Rod Steiger, 1930 – Bradford Dillman, 1932 – Loretta Lynn♪ ♫, 1936 – Frank Serpico (subject of the Al Pacino movie Serpico), 1940 – Julie Christie, 1941 – Pete Rose:devil:(STILL holds MLB records for hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215), and outs (10,328)), 1945 – Ritchie Blackmore:shred:(Deep Purple, Rainbow, Blackmore's Night), 1948 – Berry Berenson (model/actress/wife of Anthony Perkins, died on AA Flight 11 when it hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11), 1958 – Peter Capaldi (the 12th Doctor/Doctor Who), 1960 – Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond), 1961 – Robert Carlyle, 1967 – Barrett Martin:drummer:(Screaming Trees), 1968 – Anthony Michael Hall, 1969 – Martyn LeNoble:bass:(Porno For Pyros), 1973 – Adrien Brody, 1977 – Sarah Michelle Gellar, 1996 – Abigail Breslin (Signs "There's a monster in my room, can I have a glass of water?")

:reaper:Deaths:reaper:

1759 – George Frideric Handel, 1975 – Fredric March, 1995 – Burl Ives, 1999 – Ellen Corby ('Grandma Walton' on The Waltons), 1999 – Anthony Newley, 2000 – Phil Katz (co-created the zip file format), 2007 – Don Ho (sang "Tiny Bubbles"), 2010 – Peter Steele:bass:(Type O Negative), 2012 – Jonathan Frid ('Barnabas' on Dark Shadows), 2015 – Percy Sledge

Aaaand there ya go.

Hope ya learned something.

Hope ya laughed, or at least smiled.

:D

:keys: :shred:
:violin: :girlband:
:bass: :folks: :3some: :sheep:






Party's over kids :)

Good Friday is not. :(
I laughed, I cried, I learned, and cursed the heavens.
But thank you for your service, tell them about the Meritorious Service Cross, and mention Undertoad's name, at the VA Hospital.

:jig:

Thanks bro!

You finished up early, why don't you just take the rest of the weekend off, come in fresh on Monday. hm?

:cry::cry:I'm sad that it is over.

Well, that don't look like spam at all.:right:

Nope can't be, MarkCPhillips my words. :rolleyes:

I know. It was so subtle.

Instead of deleting links in first posts, we should edit them to pron site urls.

Been away on vacation. Sorry 'bout that.

Wait. What's this?

But we just got into the rhythm of things.

Seriously though, thank you grav. I've enjoyed this thread.

Today is April 17.

The best friend I'll ever have would've been 47 today.

World Hemophilia Day is today.

1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells The Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.

1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

1949 – At midnight 26 Irish counties officially leave the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland.

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

2013 – An explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West, Texas, kills 15 people and injures 160 others. [video link]

:knockdup:

1837 – J. P. Morgan, 1918 – William Holden, 1923 – Harry Reasoner, 1934 – Don Kirshner♪ ♫, 1940 – Billy Fury♪ ♫, 1948 – Jan Hammer♪ ♫, 1959 – Sean Bean, 1964 – Maynard James Keenan♪ ♫(<--just for you, Jim), 1970 - My friend John, 1972 – Jennifer Garner, 1974 – Victoria Beckham♪ ♫, 1985 – Rooney Mara

:reaper:

1790 – Benjamin Franklin, 1892 – Alexander Mackenzie, 1960 – Eddie Cochran♪ ♫, 1983 – Felix Pappalardi♪ ♫, 1998 – Linda McCartney♪ ♫, 2016 – Doris Roberts


Ima try something new. I don't know how I'm gonna pick the year each time, but this time it's gonna be 1970, in honor of my buddy John, who took me into his home when no one else wanted ol' Gravdigr around. For no reason.

April 17, 1970

The number one song in the U.S. was "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" by Otis Redding.



The number one song in the U.K. was "Wand'rin' Star" by Lee Marvin.



The number one movie in the U.S. was "2001: A Space Odyssey" directed by Stanley Kubrick, and starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, and Douglas Rain as the voice of the HAL 9000.



The number one movie in the U.K. was "Patton" starring George C. Scott.

1970 was a good year. I approve!

Anybody have any suggestions what to do differently? In addition to? Instead of? Add this? Get rid of that?

I mean, you can just re-read the thread for the same ol'...

I'd prolly change the order up if I kept those new bits...

Anything?

Bueller?

That video of the fertilizer plant explosion gets me every time. It's the kid in the back, freaking out, saying "I can't hear. I can't hear."

I think it's the father in me. I would feel so bad if I drove my kids to a location that blew their eardrums out.

I wonder if the kid ever recovered?

well, extensive as your lists of what happened may be, they're obviously not complete/exhaustive/comprehensive, etc.

btw, it *just now* occurs to me why you called it "a year", now you get to repeat stuff repeat stuff.

aaaanyhow. since you asked, why not pick one or more items from your own list, or what's happened in the intervening year and do a deeper dive on it. Since you don't have to fill the centuries, you can just fill one post with "hey, y'know, back in xyz, when that dude, did that thing... guess what came of it, detail, detail, unexpected consequence, internet meme spawned from, etc." of course, the possibilities are endless.

you have obviously put tremendous effort into compiling this stuff, I'm sure some of it snagged your attention, but you were focused on covering "this day in history" ... now you can indulge your focus and just say something about one thing on this day, or two or three.

hm?

The only 'effort' I put into any of this is trying to not destroy the post. There's no effort involved, I'm copy/pasting shit stuff from Wikipedia.

I've never posted an IOTD because I hate details. When it's me providing them, anyway;). That takes effort. I ain't all that much into effort. I live like I'm broke (<--actually, that takes quite a bit of effort) so that I can go as long as possible without expending any more effort, maybe ever again, if I'm lucky and die young(ish).

And I don't know what you mean when you say "pick one or more items from your own list". I don't have a lot of focus, and am easily bored.

I am going to try to be a little more modern, and a little less deathy in my choice of events to relate.

I'd like to see more Dwellars chime in with stuff like this:

I like Dwellar history.

I thought folks would post things that weren't covered in histories, like "On this day in 1974 President Lipschitz stumbled down the stairs of Air Force One. I know the date because I graduated high school that day.", or stuff like that.

Today is April 18, Tax Day in the United States, so, if you haven't filed yet, you better be getting your shit together.

An International Day For Monuments and Sites is commemorated today.


Events

1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements. "One if by land, two if by sea;"

1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.

1923 – "The House that Ruth Built" opens.

1943 – In Operation Vengeance, in WWII, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.

1949 – The keel for the aircraft carrier USS United States is laid down at Newport News, Virginia. However, construction is canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.

1975 - Four Bay City Rollers fans were taken to hospital and 35 others required on site treatment after they attempted to swim across a lake to meet their heroes. The group were making an appearance at a BBC Radio 1 fun day at Mallory Park. This happened on a Friday, the day before S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night.

1983 – A suicide bomber in Lebanon destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people.

1988 – The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II. It was in retaliation of damage to the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts, which struck an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulf. By the end of the operation, U.S. air and surface units had sunk, or severely damaged, half of Iran's operational fleet.

:knockdup:

1857 – Clarence Darrow (lawyer, defended Leopold & Loeb, defended John Scopes in The Scopes Monkey Trial, 1882 – Leopold Stokowski♪ ♫(conductor), 1918 – Clifton Hillegass (created CliffsNotes), 1922 – Barbara Hale ('Della Street' on Perry Mason), 1924 – Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown♪ ♫, 1946 – Hayley Mills, 1946 – Tommy Shannon:bass:(Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble), 1947 – James Woods ("Ooh, a piece o' candy."), 1949 – Geoff Bodine:driving:, 1953 – Rick Moranis, 1956 – Eric Roberts, 1961 – Jane Leeves ('Daphne' on Frasier, Hot In Cleveland), 1962 – Jeff Dunham ("...on a steek."), 1963 – Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), 1963 – Conan O'Brien (big, tall ginger), 1967 – Maria Bello, 1971 – David Tennant, 1976 – Melissa Joan Hart

:reaper:

1945 – Ernie Pyle (war correspondent, killed on Okinawa), 1955 – Albert Einstein (brainiac), 1986 – Marcel Dassault (founded Dassault Aviation), 1996 – Bernard Edwards:bass:(Chic), 2002 – Thor Heyerdahl (sailed the Kon-Tiki 5,000 miles from South America to the Tuamotu Islands), 2012 – Dick Clark (Perhaps you've heard of him?), 2013 – Cordell Mosson:bass:(Parliament-Funkadelic)

Too late. :p:

My shit's together, I mailed it way the hell back... on Friday. :blush:

While driving, I heard on the radio that today is International Amateur Radio Day and Lola Bunny came to mind. I hope she had a good one.

Today is April 19, the 109th day of 2017.

Tripsters will be celebrating Bicycle Day today, commemorating the day that Albert Hofman intentionally ingested 0.25 milligrams of lysergic acid diethylamide, and had to be escorted home by his lab assistant. Since the use of cars was prohibited by wartime restrictions, they rode bicycles.

Today is also Dutch-American Friendship Day, as well as Primrose Day in the U.K., commemorating the anniversary of the death of Benjamin Disraeli.


Events

1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate%E...Bianca_murders.

1980 - 32 year old English singer Brian Johnson joined Australian group AC/DC, replacing Bon Scott who had died after a drinks binge in February 1980.

1985 – Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.

1987 – The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with Good Night.

1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.

1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168.

1997 – The 1997 Red River flood overwhelms the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire breaks out and spreads in downtown Grand Forks, but high water levels hamper efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings.

2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.

2013 – Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.

:knockdup:

1787 – Deaf Smith, 1877 – Ole Evinrude, 1903 – Eliot Ness, 1930 – Dick Sargent, 1933 – Jayne Mansfield, 1935 – Dudley Moore, 1942 – Jack Roush (founded Roush Fenway Racing), 1946 – Tim Curry, 1954 – Bob Rock♪ ♫(producer), 1957 – Tony Martin♪ ♫, 1962 – Al Unser Jr.:driving:, 1965 – Suge Knight♪ ♫, 1968 – Ashley Judd, 1978 – James Franco, 1979 – Kate Hudson:love:

:reaper:

1881 – Benjamin Disraeli, 1906 – Pierre Curie, 1955 – Jim Corbett, 1993 – David Koresh, 2004 – Norris McWhirter, 2005 – Ruth Hussey, 2006 – Albert Scott Crossfield, 2012 – Levon Helm, 2013 – Allan Arbus, 2013 – Al Neuharth (founded USA Today), 2017 – Aaron Hernandez

Yeah, these brothers caused quite a stir in Springfield with their 4hp machine, but they scared the horses. They were bicycle builders like the Wright Brothers, the first on the road, won the first automobile race in Chicago beating 3 Benz cars. They became the largest car maker in the country by building 16 cars in a year, and went to England and won the London to Brighton race by 75 minutes. One of their cars in NYC also had the county's first traffic accident.

Today is April 20.

Yes, today is 4/20, ergo:

Gonna sit down in the kitchen
And fix me something good to eat
And make my head a little high
And make my whole day complete
'Cause we gonna lay around the shanty, mama
And put a good buzz on

Well pass it to me baby
Pass it to me slow
Take time out to smile a little
Before we let it go
'Cause we gonna lay around the shanty, mama
And put a good buzz on

Well there ain't nothin' to do
And there's always room for more
Fill it, light it, shut up
And close the door
'Cause we gonna lay around the shanty, mama
And put a good buzz on

We gonna sit around the kitchen
Fix us somethin' good to eat
And make ourselves a little high
And make our whole day complete
'Cause we gonna lay around the shanty, mama
And put a good buzz on
'Cause we gonna lay around the shanty, mama
And put a good buzz on

And I just might have gotten a head start on ya.:fumette:


1818 – In England, the case of Ashford v Thornton ends, with Abraham Thornton allowed to go free rather than face a retrial for murder, after his demand for trial by battle is upheld.

1865 – Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion.

This is a (modified) Secchi Disk:

Attachment 60153

1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day. No, Snoopy did not shoot down the Red Baron.:right:

1961 – Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.

1999 – Columbine High School massacre: 13 people are killed, and 24 others are injured at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.

2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.

:knockdup:

1889 – Adolf Hitler, 1893 – Harold Lloyd, 1904 – Bruce Cabot, 1908 – Lionel Hampton:keys:, 1923 – Mother Angelica, 1923 – Tito Puente:drummer:, 1924 – Nina Foch, 1925 – Elena Verdugo, 1937 – George Takei ("Oh, my!"), 1940 – James Gammon, 1941 – Ryan O'Neal, 1949 – Veronica Cartwright, 1949 – Jessica Lange, 1951 – Luther Vandross♪ ♫, 1962 – Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, 1964 – Andy Serkis ('Smeagol/Gollum' in TLOTR, Planet of the Apes movie series, Star Wars:TFA, Star Wars:The Last Jedi, 'Baloo' in Jungle Book (2018)), 1967 – Mike Portnoy:drummer:(Dream Theater), 1970 – Shemar Moore, 1972 – Carmen Electra, 1976 – Joey Lawrence

:reaper:

1769 – Chief Pontiac, 1912 – Bram Stoker, 1982 – Archibald MacLeish, 1991 – Steve Marriott♪ ♫(Small Faces, Humble Pie), 1991 – Don Siege (director, Dirty Harry, Escape From Alcatraz, The Shootist, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), 1992 – Benny Hill, 1996 – Christopher Robin Milne (basis for 'Christopher Robin' in Winnie The Pooh), 1999 – Rick Rude, 2014 – Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter:boxers:(subject of the Bob Dylan song "Hurricane", and the Denzel Washington movie The Hurricane), 2016 – Chyna (wrestler), 2016 – Victoria Wood

You goofball, you did get a head start dincha. Happy 4-20 :lol:

Heh, that wasn't me. That's straight Wikipedia there.:)

I know Pius IX supported the dogma of immaculate conception, but Immaculata Concezion is a modern fishing boat still in business.

Today is April 21.

753 BC – Romulus founds Rome (traditional date).

1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France. Again, not by Snoopy.

1934 – The "Surgeon's Photograph",

Attachment 60161

the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).

1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.

:knockdup:

1816 – Charlotte Brontë, 1838 – John Muir, 1887 – Joe McCarthy, 1915 – Anthony Quinn, 1922 – Alistair MacLean, 1924 – Ira Louvin, 1926 – Queen Elizabeth II, 1935 – Charles Grodin, 1939 – Reni Santoni ('Poppy' on Seinfeld), 1947 – Iggy Pop♪ ♫, 1949 – Patti LuPone, 1951 – Tony Danza, 1958 – Andie MacDowell, 1959 – Robert Smith, 1979 – James McAvoy

:reaper:

1910 – Mark Twain, 1918 – Manfred von Richthofen "The Red Baron", 1948 – Aldo Leopold, 1971 – François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, 1996 – Zora Arkus-Duntov 'Father of the Corvette), 1996 – Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder, 2003 – Nina Simone♪ ♫, 2015 – Steve Byrnes (sportscaster, racing reporter), 2016 – Lonnie Mack:shred:, 2016 – Prince:shred:

Snoopy never gets the credit he deserves. :cry:

Well, it's a dog's life, so...

Today is April 22.

Earth Day is observed today, concurrently with International Mother Earth Day.


Events

1836 – Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston identify Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna among the captives of the battle when one of his fellow captives mistakenly gives away his identity.

1864 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that mandates that the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

1876 – The first game in the history of the National League was played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. This game is often pointed to as the beginning of MLB.

1889 – At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.

1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.

1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated.

1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.

2000 – In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González

Attachment 60169

from his relatives' home in Miami.

2008 – The United States Air Force retires the last remaining F-117 Nighthawk

Attachment 60168

aircraft in service.

:knockdup:

1724 – Immanuel Kant, 1870 – Vladimir Lenin, 1891 – Nicola Sacco (Sacco and Vanzetti), 1899 – Vladimir Nabokov (author Lolita), 1904 – J. Robert Oppenheimer ("Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."), 1906 – Eddie Albert, 1916 – Yehudi Menuhin:violin:, 1922 – Charles Mingus:bass:, 1923 – Bettie Page (50s pin-up girl), 1923 – Aaron Spelling, 1936 – Glen Campbell:shred:, 1937 – Jack Nicholson, 1939 – Jason Miller ('Father Damien' in The Exorcist), 1944 – Steve Fo$$ett, 1946 – John Waters, 1950 – Peter Frampton:shred:, 1959 – Catherine Mary Stewart, 1959 – Ryan Stiles, 1966 – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 1967 – Sherri Shepherd, 1972 – Willie Robertson (of Duck Dynasty), 1986 – Amber Heard

:reaper:

1616 – Miguel de Cervantes (author Don Quixote), 1933 – Henry Royce (Rolls-Royce), 1978 – Will Geer ('Wyatt Earp' in Winchester '73, 'Bear Claw Chris Lapp' in Jeremiah Johnson, 'Grandpa Walton' in The Waltons), 1984 – Ansel Adams, 1994 – Richard Nixon (37th POTUS), 1996 – Erma Bombeck, 2002 – Linda Lovelace:bj2:, 2004 – Jason Dunham, 2004 – Pat Tillman, 2013 – Richie Havens♪ ♫

I like the pictures, Grav. It's a nice touch!

Funny story about the F-117... The US military had numbered their planes sequentially since the beginning, except they skipped F-13 for superstitious reasons. But then after the F-18, they jumped to F-20, and fueled wild speculation about a top-secret spy plane that was already numbered 19 that no one knew existed. Everyone began taking this supposed F-19 stealth fighter as a given, putting it in action novels, making model airplane kits for it, etc... until finally the military did admit that they had a super secret spy plane--but it wasn't called the F-19, no, it was the F-117. A number which made no sense, and no other planes above 100 were ever made afterwards. A lot of people figured they just changed the number after the fact because they wanted to have the upper hand and tell everyone, "No, you were wrong, see?"

doesn't that ICE agent work for United Airlines now?

I think he's Trump's ambassador to Cuba.

Thankee, ma'am.

I've only used iconic pics so far...Maybe it's a thing, now.

Today is April 23.

Yom HaShoah begins at sundown.

Today is also World Book Day, as well as St George's Day.

Also commemorated today is United Nations English Language Day, so, speak English, damn yer eyes!

In addition to all that, today is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day.


Events

1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston.

1914 – First baseball game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park, in Chicago.

Ya see what I did there? Handy.:jig:

On this day April 23 2006, Claudette wrote,

~Somebody (most people, prolly)

Thought provoking, though.

Today is April 24.

Today is Fashion Revolution Day, as well as International Sculpture Day.

Today is also a World Day for Laboratory Animals, so maybe take 5 minutes and 15 seconds out of your day, and have a thought for the lowly lab rat.


Events

1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy. I guess Troy shoulda watched where he was going.:neutral:

1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a 22.5 foot open lifeboat, the James Caird, from uninhabited Elephant Island, in the Southern Ocean, to South Georgia Island, a distance of 800 miles, to organize a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.

1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.

1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope

Attachment 60177

is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

:knockdup:

1905 – Robert Penn Warren, 1906 – William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw), 1914 – Justin Wilson ("I gar-on-tee!"), 1930 – Richard Donner, 1934 – Shirley MacLaine, 1936 – Jill Ireland, 1942 – Richard M. Daley, 1942 – Barbra Streisand♪ ♫, 1943 – Richard Sterban♪ ♫("oom-pa-pa-oom-pa-pa-oom-pa-pa-mow-mow"), 1945 – Doug Clifford:drummer:(CCR), 1954 – Jack Blades♪ ♫(Night Ranger, Damn Yankees), 1964 – Cedric the Entertainer, 1964 – Djimon Hounsou, 1982 – Kelly Clarkson

:reaper:

1731 – Daniel Defoe, 1947 – Willa Cather, 1974 – Bud Abbott (Abbot & Costello), 1975 – Pete Ham♪ ♫(Badfinger), 1997 – Pat Paulsen, 1997 – Eugene Stoner (designed the AR-15 rifle, and others), 2004 – Estée Lauder

Yeah, I miss Labrat. :(

Seal Team Six. Why six? So that Soviet spies would spend lots of time looking for Teams one through five.

Today is April 25. There are 250 days remaining in 2017.

Today is ANZAC Day.

Also, today is DNA Day, as well as Parental Alienation Awareness Day, Red Hat Society Day, and World Malaria Day.


Events

1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.:behead:

1829 – Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom.

1846 – Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War.

1847 – The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.

1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.

1901 – New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.

1916 – Anzac Day is commemorated for the first time on the first anniversary of the landing at ANZAC Cove.

1944 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.

1953 – Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA.

1954 – The first practical solar cell is publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories.

1960 – The United States Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

1977 - Elvis Presley made the last recordings of his life during a concert at the Saginaw, Michigan Civic Center. Three songs from the show appeared on the posthumously released Presley album, 'Moody Blue'.

1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.

1983 – Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.

2015 – Riots break out in Baltimore, Maryland following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.

:knockdup:

1599 – Oliver Cromwell, 1874 – Guglielmo Marconi, 1908 – Edward R. Murrow, 1917 – Ella Fitzgerald, 1923 – Albert King:shred:, 1932 – Meadowlark Lemon (Harlem Globetrotter), 1933 – Jerry Leiber♪ ♫, 1940 – Al Pacino, 1945 – Stu Cook:bass:(CCR), 1946 – Talia Shire ('Aaaaadrriiiiiaaaaann!!!'), 1964 – Hank Azaria (voices of Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Carl, and others on The Simpsons), 1969 – Joe Buck, 1969 – Renée Zellweger, 1970 – Jason Lee


:reaper:

1792 - Nicolas J. Pelletier:behead:, 1919 – Augustus D. Juilliard (yeah, that Juilliard), 1995 – Art Fleming (Jeopardy!, "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should."),

1996 – Saul Bass (graphic designer, Oscar-winner, corporate logo designer), all these logos were designed by Saul Bass:

Attachment 60187

2002 – Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes♪ ♫(TLC), 2007 – Bobby 'Boris' Pickett♪ ♫, 2009 – Bea Arthur (Maude, The Golden Girls)

Hey Gravdigr!

I'm glad you are continuing the good work you do in this thread.

Thank you.