This Day in History

[xoxoxoBruce]

1782 – American Revolutionary War: The House of Commons of Great Britain votes against further war in America.

The lying bastards were just waiting for us to relax, until 1812.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The lying bastards were just waiting for us to relax, until 1812.

I don't like it, sir. It's too quiet.

[Gravdigr]

February 28

Today is the last day of February.

Today is marked as Rare Disease Day, raising awareness of rare diseases on an international level.

Today is Shrove Tuesday.

Mardi Gras!!!


Events

202 BC – Coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place thus initiating four centuries of Han dynasty rule over China.

1525 – Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés.

1784 – John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.

1827 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.

1849 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, four months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor.

1867 – Seventy years of Holy See–United States relations are ended by a Congressional ban on federal funding of diplomatic envoys to the Vatican and are not restored until January 10, 1984.

1885 – The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)

1900 – The Second Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.

1935 – DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.

1939 – The erroneous word "dord" is discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.

1940 – Basketball is televised for the first time.

1947 – February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of an estimated 30,000 civilians.

1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April's Nature (pub. April 2).

1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.

1958 – A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork river. The driver and 26 children die in what remains one of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history.

1968 - 25 year old Frankie Lymon, lead singer of The Teenagers, died of a heroin overdose in his grandmother's New York home. Lymon was on leave from a Georgia Army post at the time and was scheduled to record for Roulette Records the next day. He first hit the national charts in 1956 when he was just 13 with 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love'.

1975 – In London, an underground train fails to stop at Moorgate terminus station and crashes into the end of the tunnel, killing 43 people.

1977 - Ray Charles was attacked onstage by a man who tried to strangle him with a microphone cord. The man was a member of a group called Project Heavy, a community program for disadvantaged youths. They promised that the matter would be handled within the organization and no charges were filed.

1983 – The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers. It still holds the record for the highest viewership of a season finale.

1985 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.

1985 - David Byron, singer with Uriah Heep, died from an epileptic fit and liver disease, aged 38. Uriah Heep had a hit with 'Easy Livin' from the 1972 album Demons and Wizards.

1986 – Olof Palme, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.

1991 – The first Gulf War ends.

1993 – The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader David Koresh. Four ATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.

1997 – GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.

1998 – First flight of the RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.

2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since 1415.

Births

1882 – Geraldine Farrar♪ ♫, 1901 – Linus Pauling, 1906 – Bugsy Siegel, 1915 – Zero Mostel, 1919 – Alfred Marshall (founded Marshall's dept stores), 1923 – Charles Durning, 1929 – Frank Gehry, 1931 – Gavin MacLeod, 1939 – John Fahey, 1939 – Tommy Tune♪ ♫, 1940 – Aldo & Mario Andretti, 1940 – Joe South♪ ♫, 1942 – Brian Jones♪ ♫(The Rolling Stones), 1945 – Bubba Smith, 1948 – Mike Figgis, 1948 – Bernadette Peters, 1948 – Mercedes Ruehl, 1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, 1957 – John Turturro, 1957 – Cindy Wilson♪ ♫(The B-52s), 1958 – Jack Abramoff, 1961 – Rae Dawn Chong, 1969 – Robert Sean Leonard ('Dr. James Wilson' on House), 1969 – Patrick Monahan♪ ♫(Train), 1976 – Ali Larter (Final Destination and Final Destination 2), 1977 – Jason Aldean♪ ♫, 1994 – Jake Bugg♪ ♫

Deaths

468 – Pope Hilarius, 1916 – Henry James, 1967 – Henry Luce (co-founded Time Magazine), 1977 – Eddie "Rochester" Anderson (The Jack Benny Program), 1993 – Ruby Keeler, 2005 – Chris Curtis(The Searchers), 2007 – Billy Thorpe♪ ♫, 2009 – Paul Harvey, 2011 – Jane Russell, 2016 – George Kennedy (The Blue Knight, The Sons Of Katie Elder, Cool Hand Luke)

[xoxoxoBruce]

Today is the last day of February.

And the day we celebrated Brianna's birthday, which was actually the 29th. Miss you babe.

[Gravdigr]

March 1

1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.

1642 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine), becomes the first incorporated city in the United States.

1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.

1713 – The siege and destruction of Fort Neoheroka begins during the Tuscarora War in North Carolina, effectively opening up the colony's interior to European colonization.

1781 – The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation.

1815 – Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba, start of the Hundred Days.

1845 – United States President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.

1867 – Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.

1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.

1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.

1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay.

1901 – The Australian Army is formed.

1910 – The worst avalanche in United States history buries a Great Northern Railway train in northeastern King County, Washington, killing 96 people.

1932 – Charles Lindbergh's son is reportedly kidnapped.

1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed.

1946 – The Bank of England is nationalised.

1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.

1954 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.

1954 – Armed Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives.

1961 – United States President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.

1995 – Yahoo! is incorporated.

1998 – Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.

2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.

2006 – English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station.

Births

1810 – Frédéric Chopin, 1904 – Glenn Miller, 1910 – David Niven, 1914 – Harry Caray, 1914 – Ralph Ellison, 1924 – Deke Slayton, 1926 – Pete Rozelle, 1927 – Harry Belafonte, 1935 – Robert Conrad, 1942 – Jerry Fisher, 1944 – Roger Daltrey, 1944 – Mike d'Abo, 1945 – Dirk Benedict, 1947 – Alan Thicke, 1952 – Nevada Barr, 1954 – Ron Howard, 1956 – Tim Daly, 1967 – George Eads, 1969 – Javier Bardem, 1983 – Lupita Nyong'o

Deaths

1620 – Thomas Campion, 1984 – Jackie Coogan, 1988 – Joe Besser, 1991 – Edwin H. Land, 2013 – Bonnie Franklin

[Gravdigr]

March 2

1797 – The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes.

1807 – The U.S. Congress passes the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country.

1836 – Texas Revolution: Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico.

1855 – Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.

1859 – The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, begins.

1877 – U.S. presidential election, 1876: Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.

1882 – Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean in Windsor.

1901 – United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion.

1933 – The film King Kong opens at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

1946 – Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.

1949 – Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.

1965 – The US and South Vietnamese Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

1969 – In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.

1972 – The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.

1983 – Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan.

1995 – Researchers at Fermilab announce the discovery of the top quark.

2017 – The elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson were officially added to the periodic table at a conference in Moscow, Russia

Births

1793 – Sam Houston, 1900 – Kurt Weill, 1904 – Dr. Seuss, 1909 – Mel Ott, 1917 – Desi Arnaz, 1919 – Jennifer Jones, 1931 – Mikhail Gorbachev, 1931 – Tom Wolfe, 1942 – Lou Reed, 1943 – Peter Straub, 1948 – Rory Gallagher, 1950 – Karen Carpenter, 1952 – Laraine Newman, 1955 – Dale Bozzio, 1955 – Jay Osmond, 1956 – John Cowsill, 1958 – Ian Woosnam, 1962 – Jon Bon Jovi, 1964 – Laird Hamilton, 1968 – Daniel Craig, 1977 – Chris Martin, 1980 – Rebel Wilson, 1981 – Bryce Dallas Howard, 1982 – Ben Roethlisberger

Deaths

1791 – John Wesley, 1896 – Jubal Early, 1930 – D. H. Lawrence, 1939 – Howard Carter, 1982 – Philip K. Dick, 1987 – Randolph Scott, 1992 – Sandy Dennis, 1999 – Dusty Springfield, 2003 – Hank Ballard, 2004 – Mercedes McCambridge, 2004 – Marge Schott, 2008 – Jeff Healey

[Gravdigr]

March 3

1776 – American Revolutionary War: The first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau.

1820 – The U.S. Congress passes the Missouri Compromise.

1845 – Florida is admitted as the 27th U.S. state.

1849 – The Territory of Minnesota was created.

1857 – Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China.

1865 – Opening of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group.

1873 – Censorship in the United States: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.

1875 – Georges Bizet's opera Carmen receives its première at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

1904 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a sound recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's phonograph cylinder.

1923 – TIME magazine is published for the first time.

1931 – The United States adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.

1939 – In Bombay, Mohandas K. Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest at the autocratic rule in British India.

1942 – World War II: Ten Japanese warplanes raid Broome, Western Australia, killing more than 100 people.

1951 – Jackie Brenston, with Ike Turner and his band, records "Rocket 88", often cited as "the first rock and roll record", at Sam Phillips's recording studios in Memphis, Tennessee.

1980 – The USS Nautilus, the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine, is decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.

1985 – A magnitude 8.3 earthquake strikes the Valparaíso Region of Chile, killing 177 and leaving nearly a million people homeless.

1991 – An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.

1997 – The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction.

2005 – James Roszko murders four Royal Canadian Mounted Police constables during a drug bust at his property in Rochfort Bridge, Alberta, then commits suicide. This is the deadliest peace-time incident for the RCMP since 1885 and the North-West Rebellion.

2005 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.

2005 – Margaret Wilson is elected as Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, beginning a period lasting until August 23, 2006 where all the highest political offices (including Elizabeth II as Head of State), were occupied by women, making New Zealand the first country for this to occur.

Births

1831 – George Pullman, 1847 – Alexander Graham Bell, 1860 – John Montgomery Ward, 1882 – Charles Ponzi, 1895 – Matthew Ridgway, 1911 – Jean Harlow, 1913 – Harold J. Stone, 1920 – James Doohan, 1923 – Doc Watson, 1940 – Perry Ellis, 1945 – Hattie Winston, 1947 – Jennifer Warnes, 1953 – Robyn Hitchcock, 1962 – Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 1962 – Herschel Walker, 1966 – Tone Lōc, 1970 – Julie Bowen, 1971 – Charlie Brooker, 1974 – David Faustino, 1982 – Jessica Biel

Deaths

1706 – Johann Pachelbel, 1959 – Lou Costello, 1966 – William Frawley, 1987 – Danny Kaye, 1991 – Arthur Murray, 1998 – Fred W. Friendly, 2012 – Ronnie Montrose