This Day in History

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December 28

There are 3 days remaining in 2016.


Events

1065 – Westminster Abbey is consecrated.

1795 – Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto).

1832 – John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign.

1835 – Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army.

1836 – South Australia and Adelaide are founded.

1846 – Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.

1867 – United States claims Midway Atoll, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.

1879 – Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.

1895 – The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines.

1895 – Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.

1908 – The 7.1 Mw Messina earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 75,000 and 200,000.

1912 – The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco.

1918 – Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons.

1948 – The DC-3 airliner NC16002 disappears 50 miles south of Miami.

1958 – "Greatest Game Ever Played": Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium.

1972 – Kim Il-sung, already Prime Minister of North Korea and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, becomes the first President of North Korea.

1973 – The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.

2010 – Arab Spring: Popular protests begin in Algeria against the government.

2015 - Lemmy, lead vocalist and bassist with Motörhead, died at his home in Los Angeles, California, four days after his 70th birthday following a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. Lemmy played in several rock groups in the 1960s, including the Rockin' Vickers and worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and The Nice, before joining the space rock band Hawkwind in 1971, singing lead on their hit 'Silver Machine'.

Births

1763 – John Molson (Molson Brewery); 1856 – Woodrow Wilson (28th POTUS); 1903 – Earl Hines; 1908 – Lew Ayres; 1914 – 'Pops' Roebuck Staples♪ ♫(The Staple Singers); 1922 – Stan Lee; 1931 – Martin Milner (Route 66, Adam-12); 1932 – Nichelle Nichols ('Uhura' on Star Trek TOS); 1933 – John Y. Brown Jr.; 1934 – Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Downton Abbey, Harry Potter movies); 1938 - Charles Neville♪ ♫(The Neville Bros); 1946 – Mike Beebe; 1946 – Edgar Winter♪ ♫; 1953 - Richard Clayderman; 1953 – Martha Wash♪ ♫(The Weather Girls); 1954 – Gayle King; 1954 – Denzel Washington; 1960 – Melvin Turpin (with Sam Bowie, one of University Of Kentucky basketball's 'Twin Towers'); 1969 – Linus Torvalds (developed Linux kernel); 1970 – Elaine Hendrix; 1973 – Seth Meyers; 1978 – John Legend; 1981 – Sienna Miller

Deaths

1734 – Rob Roy MacGregor; 1937 – Maurice Ravel♪ ♫; 1983 – William Demarest ('Uncle Charley' on My Three Sons); 1983 – Dennis Wilson(The Beach Boys); 1984 – Sam Peckinpah; 1999 – Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger); 2004 – Jerry Orbach (Law & Order); 2004 – Susan Sontag; 2012 – Mark Crispin (designed the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol); 2015 – Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister(Motörhead)