This Day in History

Amaury · Apr 23, 2012

4/23/1564: William Shakespeare Born

According to tradition, the great English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564. It is impossible to be certain the exact day on which he was born, but church records show that he was baptized on April 26, and three days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newborn. Shakespeare's date of death is conclusively known, however: it was April 23, 1616. He was 52 years old and had retired to Stratford three years before.

Although few plays have been performed or analyzed as extensively as the 38 plays ascribed to William Shakespeare, there are few surviving details about the playwright's life. This dearth of biographical information is due primarily to his station in life; he was not a noble, but the son of John Shakespeare, a leather trader and the town bailiff. The events of William Shakespeare's early life can only be gleaned from official records, such as baptism and marriage records.

He probably attended the grammar school in Stratford, where he would have studied Latin and read classical literature. He did not go to university but at age 18 married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his senior and pregnant at the time of the marriage. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months later, and in 1585 William and Anne had twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet, Shakespeare's only son, died 11 years later, and Anne Shakespeare outlived her husband, dying in 1623. Nothing is known of the period between the birth of the twins and Shakespeare's emergence as a playwright in London in the early 1590s, but unfounded stories have him stealing deer, joining a group of traveling players, becoming a schoolteacher, or serving as a soldier in the Low Countries.

The first reference to Shakespeare as a London playwright came in 1592, when a fellow dramatist, Robert Greene, wrote derogatorily of him on his deathbed. It is believed that Shakespeare had written the three parts of Henry VI by that point. In 1593, Venus and Adonis was Shakespeare's first published poem, and he dedicated it to the young Henry Wriothesley, the 3rd earl of Southampton. In 1594, having probably composed, among other plays, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew, he became an actor and playwright for the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which became the King's Men after James I's ascension in 1603. The company grew into England's finest, in no small part because of Shakespeare, who was its principal dramatist. It also had the finest actor of the day, Richard Burbage, and the best theater, the Globe, which was located on the Thames' south bank. Shakespeare stayed with the King's Men until his retirement and often acted in small parts.

By 1596, the company had performed the classic Shakespeare plays Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. That year, John Shakespeare was granted a coat of arms, a testament to his son's growing wealth and fame. In 1597, William Shakespeare bought a large house in Stratford. In 1599, after producing his great historical series, the first and second part of Henry IV and Henry V, he became a partner in the ownership of the Globe Theatre.

The beginning of the 17th century saw the performance of the first of his great tragedies, Hamlet. The next play, The Merry Wives of Windsor, was written at the request of Queen Elizabeth I, who wanted to see another play that included the popular character Falstaff. During the next decade, Shakespeare produced such masterpieces as Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest. In 1609, his sonnets, probably written during the 1590s, were published. The 154 sonnets are marked by the recurring themes of the mutability of beauty and the transcendent power of love and art.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1616. Today, nearly 400 years later, his plays are performed and read more often and in more nations than ever before. In a million words written over 20 years, he captured the full range of human emotions and conflicts with a precision that remains sharp today. As his great contemporary the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson said, "He was not of an age, but for all time."
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Other Stories:

American Revolution

John Paul Jones burns Whitehaven, England, 1778

Automotive

Chrysler buys luxury automaker Lamborghini, 1987

Civil War

"Panic has seized the country," writes Davis, 1865

Cold War

Truman confronts Molotov, 1945

Crime

Sirhan Sirhan receives death penalty, 1969

Disaster

Soviet cosmonaut is killed, 1967

General Interest

King Brian of Ireland murdered by Vikings, 1014

Hollywood

Otto Preminger dies, 1986

Literary

Birth and death of William Shakespeare celebrated, 1564

Music

Judy Garland plays Carnegie Hall, 1961

Old West

Byers publishes first Denver newspaper, 1859

Presidential

James Buchanan is born, 1791

Sports

Hank Aaron hits first home run of his MLB career, 1954

Vietnam War

Ford says that war is finished for America, 1975

World War I

Poet-soldier Rupert Brooke dies in Greece, 1915

World War II

Germans begin "Baedeker Raids" on England, 1942

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Amaury · Apr 24, 2012

4/24/1916: Easter Rebellion Begins

On this day in 1916, on Easter Monday in Dublin, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization of Irish nationalists led by Patrick Pearse, launches the so-called Easter Rebellion, an armed uprising against British rule. Assisted by militant Irish socialists under James Connolly, Pearse and his fellow Republicans rioted and attacked British provincial government headquarters across Dublin and seized the Irish capital's General Post Office. Following these successes, they proclaimed the independence of Ireland, which had been under the repressive thumb of the United Kingdom for centuries, and by the next morning were in control of much of the city. Later that day, however, British authorities launched a counteroffensive, and by April 29 the uprising had been crushed. Nevertheless, the Easter Rebellion is considered a significant marker on the road to establishing an independent Irish republic.

Following the uprising, Pearse and 14 other nationalist leaders were executed for their participation and held up as martyrs by many in Ireland. There was little love lost among most Irish people for the British, who had enacted a series of harsh anti-Catholic restrictions, the Penal Laws, in the 18th century, and then let 1.5 million Irish starve during the Potato Famine of 1845-1848. Armed protest continued after the Easter Rebellion and in 1921, 26 of Ireland's 32 counties won independence with the declaration of the Irish Free State. The Free State became an independent republic in 1949. However, six northeastern counties of the Emerald Isle remained part of the United Kingdom, prompting some nationalists to reorganize themselves into the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to continue their struggle for full Irish independence.

In the late 1960s, influenced in part by the U.S. civil rights movement, Catholics in Northern Ireland, long discriminated against by British policies that favored Irish Protestants, advocated for justice. Civil unrest broke out between Catholics and Protestants in the region and the violence escalated as the pro-Catholic IRA battled British troops. An ongoing series of terrorist bombings and attacks ensued in a drawn-out conflict that came to be known as "The Troubles." Peace talks eventually took place throughout the mid- to late 1990s, but a permanent end to the violence remained elusive. Finally, in July 2005, the IRA announced its members would give up all their weapons and pursue the group's objectives solely through peaceful means. By the fall of 2006, the Independent Monitoring Commission reported that the IRA's military campaign to end British rule was over.
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Other Stories:

American Revolution

Phillips and Arnold launch attack on Petersburg, Virginia, 1781

Automotive

German endurance driver killed in crash, 1983

Civil War

Union issues conduct code for soldiers, 1863

Cold War

The Bandung Conference concludes, 1955

Crime

Forensic evidence is introduced in Australia, 1922

Disaster

Tornado flattens towns in Louisiana and Mississippi, 1908

General Interest

Library of Congress established, 1800

Churchill knighted, 1953

Hostage rescue mission ends in disaster, 1980

Hollywood

Jane Fondaâ€™s first Workout video released, 1982

Literary

Sue Grafton is born, 1940

Music

Patti LaBelle makes her debut on the pop charts, sort of, 1962

Old West

Author Willa Cather dies, 1947

Presidential

Truman is briefed on Manhattan Project, 1945

Sports

Penguins defeat Capitals in marathon hockey game, 1996

Vietnam War

Westmoreland makes controversial remarks, 1967

North Vietnamese attack South Vietnamese installations, 1971

World War I

The Easter Rising begins in Dublin, 1916

World War II

Erich Raeder, commander in chief of the German navy, is born on this day, 1876

Britain begins its evacuation of Greece in Operation Demon, 1940

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Amaury · Apr 25, 2012

4/25/1983: Andropov Writes to U.S. Student

On this day in 1983, the Soviet Union releases a letter that Russian leader Yuri Andropov wrote to Samantha Smith, an American fifth-grader from Manchester, Maine, inviting her to visit his country. Andropov's letter came in response to a note Smith had sent him in December 1982, asking if the Soviets were planning to start a nuclear war. At the time, the United States and Soviet Union were Cold War enemies.

President Ronald Reagan, a passionate anti-communist, had dubbed the Soviet Union the "evil empire" and called for massive increases in U.S. defense spending to meet the perceived Soviet threat. In his public relations duel with Reagan, known as the "Great Communicator," Andropov, who had succeeded longtime Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, assumed a folksy, almost grandfatherly approach that was incongruous with the negative image most Americans had of the Soviets.

Andropov's letter said that Russian people wanted to "live in peace, to trade and cooperate with all our neighbors on the globe, no matter how close or far away they are, and, certainly, with such a great country as the United States of America." In response to Smith's question about whether the Soviet Union wished to prevent nuclear war, Andropov declared, "Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are endeavoring and doing everything so that there will be no war between our two countries, so that there will be no war at all on earth." Andropov also complimented Smith, comparing her to the spunky character Becky Thatcher from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain.

Smith, born June 29, 1972, accepted Andropov's invitation and flew to the Soviet Union with her parents for a visit. Afterward, she became an international celebrity and peace ambassador, making speeches, writing a book and even landing a role on an American television series. In February 1984, Yuri Andropov died from kidney failure and was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko. The following year, in August 1985, Samantha Smith died tragically in a plane crash at age 13.
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Other Stories:

American Revolution

Cornwallis retreats from Guilford Courthouse, 1781

Automotive

Italian Formula One driver dies in crash, 2001

Civil War

Confederates overwhelm Union at Marks' Mills, 1864

Cold War

Andropov writes to an American fifth-grader, 1983

Crime

A father is exonerated after 21 years, 1989

Disaster

Air tragedy hits Canary Islands, 1980

General Interest

Ground broken for Suez Canal, 1859

Space telescope in orbit, 1990

Hollywood

Ginger Rogers dies, 1995

Literary

Robinson Crusoe is published, 1719

Music

Ella Fitzgerald is born, 1917

Old West

A play lionizing Davy Crockett opens, 1831

Presidential

Truman inaugurates White House bowling alley, 1947

Sports

Maple Leafs win third Stanley Cup in a row, 1964

Vietnam War

Johnson announces appointment of Westmoreland, 1964

North Vietnamese Army close to cutting South Vietnam in two, 1972

World War I

Allies begin invasion of Gallipoli, 1915

World War II

Americans and Russians link up, cut Germany in two, 1945

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Llave · Apr 26, 2012

This Day in History- April 26th

Hey everyone. Let's get right into This Day in History!

Lead Story:
Apr 26, 1954: Polio vaccine trials begin

On this day in 1954, the Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving 1.8 million children, begin at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. Children in the United States, Canada and Finland participated in the trials, which used for the first time the now-standard double-blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending doctor knew if the inoculation was the vaccine or a placebo. On April 12, 1955, researchers announced the vaccine was safe and effective and it quickly became a standard part of childhood immunizations in America. In the ensuing decades, polio vaccines would all but wipe out the highly contagious disease in the Western Hemisphere.

Polio, known officially as poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease that has existed since ancient times and is caused by a virus. It occurs most commonly in children and can result in paralysis. The disease reached epidemic proportions throughout the first half of the 20th century. During the 1940s and 1950s, polio was associated with the iron lung, a large metal tank designed to help polio victims suffering from respiratory paralysis breathe.

President Franklin Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio in 1921 at the age of 39 and was left paralyzed from the waist down and forced to use leg braces and a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In 1938, Roosevelt helped found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, later renamed the March of Dimes. The organization was responsible for funding much of the research concerning the disease, including the Salk vaccine trials.

The man behind the original vaccine was New York-born physician and epidemiologist Jonas Salk (1914-95). Salk's work on an anti-influenza vaccine in the 1940s, while at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, led him, in 1952 at the University of Pittsburgh, to develop the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), based on a killed-virus strain of the disease. The 1954 field trials that followed, the largest in U.S. history at the time, were led by Salk's former University of Michigan colleague, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr.

In the late 1950s, Polish-born physician and virologist Albert Sabin (1906-1993) tested an oral polio vaccine (OPV) he had created from a weakened live virus. The vaccine, easier to administer and cheaper to produce than Salk's, became available for use in America in the early 1960s and eventually replaced Salk's as the vaccine of choice in most countries.

Today, polio has been eliminated throughout much of the world due to the vaccine; however, there is still no cure for the disease and it persists in a small number of countries in Africa and Asia. (source)
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Also on This Day:

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
David Hume is born, 1711

AUTOMOTIVE
Chrysler and autoworkers' union agree to a deal, 2009

CIVIL WAR
Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth dies, 1865

COLD WAR
Geneva Conference begins, 1954

CRIME
Girl murdered in pencil factory, 1913

DISASTER
Nuclear explosion at Chernobyl, 1986

GENERAL INTEREST
Nazis test Luftwaffe on Guernica, 1937
Nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, 1986

HOLLYWOOD
Maria Shriver marries Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1986

LITERARY
Anita Loos is born, 1888

MUSIC
Studio 54 opens, 1977

OLD WEST
James Beckwourth is born, 1798

PRESIDENTIAL
Reagan visits China, 1984

SPORTS
Olympic track star Fanny Blankers-Koen is born, 1918

VIETNAM WAR
U.S. troop strength in South Vietnam at five-year low, 1971
Nixon announces additional troop withdrawals, 1972

WORLD WAR I
Allies sign Treaty of London, 1915

WORLD WAR II
Rudolf Hess is born, 1894

source- History.com

Amaury · Apr 27, 2012

4/27/4977 B.C.: Universe Is Created, According to Kepler

On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.

Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' theories of planetary ordering. Copernicus (1473-1543) believed that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system, a theory that contradicted the prevailing view of the era that the sun revolved around the earth.

In 1600, Kepler went to Prague to work for Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, the imperial mathematician to Rudolf II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Kepler's main project was to investigate the orbit of Mars. When Brahe died the following year, Kepler took over his job and inherited Brahe's extensive collection of astronomy data, which had been painstakingly observed by the naked eye. Over the next decade, Kepler learned about the work of Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who had invented a telescope with which he discovered lunar mountains and craters, the largest four satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, among other things. Kepler corresponded with Galileo and eventually obtained a telescope of his own and improved upon the design. In 1609, Kepler published the first two of his three laws of planetary motion, which held that planets move around the sun in ellipses, not circles (as had been widely believed up to that time), and that planets speed up as they approach the sun and slow down as they move away. In 1619, he produced his third law, which used mathematic principles to relate the time a planet takes to orbit the sun to the average distance of the planet from the sun.

Kepler's research was slow to gain widespread traction during his lifetime, but it later served as a key influence on the English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and his law of gravitational force. Additionally, Kepler did important work in the fields of optics, including demonstrating how the human eye works, and math. He died on November 15, 1630, in Regensberg, Germany. As for Kepler's calculation about the universe's birthday, scientists in the 20th century developed the Big Bang theory, which showed that his calculations were off by about 13.7 billion years.
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GM announces plans to phase out Pontiac, 2009

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John Milton sells the copyright to Paradise Lost, 1667

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Explorer Zebulon Pike dies, 1813

Presidential

President Grant is born, 1822

Sports

Rocky Marciano retires as world heavyweight champion, 1956

Vietnam War

Humphrey announces his candidacy, 1968

North Vietnamese attack outskirts of Quang Tri, 1972

World War I

British attempt to bargain with Turks over Kut, 1916

World War II

German forces enter Athens, 1941

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Amaury · Apr 28, 2012

4/28/1945: Benito Mussolini Executed

On this day in 1945, "Il Duce," Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland.

The 61-year-old deposed former dictator of Italy was established by his German allies as the figurehead of a puppet government in northern Italy during the German occupation toward the close of the war. As the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula, defeat of the Axis powers all but certain, Mussolini considered his options. Not wanting to fall into the hands of either the British or the Americans, and knowing that the communist partisans, who had been fighting the remnants of roving Italian fascist soldiers and thugs in the north, would try him as a war criminal, he settled on escape to a neutral country.

He and his mistress made it to the Swiss border, only to discover that the guards had crossed over to the partisan side. Knowing they would not let him pass, he disguised himself in a Luftwaffe coat and helmet, hoping to slip into Austria with some German soldiers. His subterfuge proved incompetent, and he and Petacci were discovered by partisans and shot, their bodies then transported by truck to Milan, where they were hung upside down and displayed publicly for revilement by the masses.
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Other Stories:

American Revolution

Colonel McIntosh writes to Washington, 1776

Automotive

Ferruccio Lamborghini born, 1916

Civil War

Union general who advocated for black troops is born, 1810

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U.S. troops land in the Dominican Republic, 1965

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Jaycee Dugard's kidnappers plead guilty, 2011

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Gas pipe explodes in South Korea, 1995

General Interest

Mutiny on the HMS Bounty, 1789

De Gaulle resigns as leader of France, 1969

Red Army Faction trial ends, 1977

Port Arthur Massacre in Australia, 1996

Hollywood

Comcast abandons bid to buy Disney, 2004

Literary

T.S. Eliot accepts a job at Faber and Faber publishers, 1925

Music

My Name is Barbra is Barbra Streisand's debut television special, 1965

Old West

Chickasaw and Choctaw abandon communal lands, 1897

Presidential

President Monroe is born, 1758

Sports

Muhammad Ali refuses Army induction, 1967

Vietnam War

Nixon approves Cambodian incursion, 1970

North Vietnamese press South Vietnamese at Hue and Kontum, 1972

World War I

International Congress of Women opens at The Hague, 1915

World War II

Mussolini is executed, 1945

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Amaury · Apr 29, 2012

4/29/2004: World War II Monument Opens in Washington, D.C.

On April 29, 2004, the National World War II Memorial opens in Washington, D.C., to thousands of visitors, providing overdue recognition for the 16 million U.S. men and women who served in the war. The memorial is located on 7.4 acres on the former site of the Rainbow Pool at the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The Capitol dome is seen to the east, and Arlington Cemetery is just across the Potomac River to the west.

The granite and bronze monument features fountains between arches symbolizing hostilities in Europe and the Far East. The arches are flanked by semicircles of pillars, one each for the states, territories and the District of Columbia. Beyond the pool is a curved wall of 4,000 gold stars, one for every 100 Americans killed in the war. An Announcement Stone proclaims that the memorial honors those "Americans who took up the struggle during the Second World War and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us: A nation conceived in liberty and justice."

Though the federal government donated $16 million to the memorial fund, it took more than $164 million in private donations to get it built. Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who was severely wounded in the war, and actor Tom Hanks were among its most vocal supporters. Only a fraction of the 16 million Americans who served in the war would ever see it. Four million World War II veterans were living at the time, with more than 1,100 dying every day, according to government records.

The memorial was inspired by Roger Durbin of Berkey, Ohio, who served under Gen. George S. Patton. At a fish fry near Toledo in February 1987, he asked U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur why there was no memorial on the Mall to honor World War II veterans. Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio, soon introduced legislation to build one, starting a process that would stumble along through 17 years of legislative, legal and artistic entanglements. Durbin died of pancreatic cancer in 2000.

The monument was formally dedicated May 29, 2004, by U.S. President George W. Bush. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it received some 4.4 million visitors in 2005.
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Other Stories:

American Revolution

Nathanael Greene takes command of Long Island, 1776

Automotive

The end of the road for Oldsmobile, 2004

Civil War

Union captures New Orleans, 1862

Cold War

American statesmen deny Lattimore's influence, 1950

Crime

Rodney King trial verdict announced, 1992

Disaster

Cyclone kills 135,000 in Bangladesh, 1991

General Interest

Joan of Arc relieves Orleans, 1429

First African-American college chartered, 1854

Dachau liberated, 1945

Riots erupt in Los Angeles, 1992

Britain's Prince William weds Kate Middleton, 2011

Hollywood

Daniel Day-Lewis born, 1957

Literary

Henry James' Transatlantic Sketches is published, 1875

Music

Hair premieres on Broadway, 1968

Old West

William Randolph Hearst is born, 1863

Presidential

Nixon announces release of White House Watergate tapes, 1974

Sports

Roger Clemens strikes out 20 batters in single game, 1986

Vietnam War

U.S.-South Vietnamese forces launch Cambodian "incursion", 1970

New casualty figures released., 1971

Operation Frequent Wind begins, 1975

World War I

British forces surrender at Kut, Mesopotamia, 1916

World War II

Adolf and Eva marry, 1945

International Military Tribunal indicts Hideki, 1946

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Llave · Apr 30, 2012

This Day in History- April 30th

Tis April 30th, a most interesting day I must say. Let's get into it!

Lead Story:
Apr 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler commits suicide

On this day in 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler's dreams of a "1,000-year" Reich.

Since at least 1943, it was becoming increasingly clear that Germany would fold under the pressure of the Allied forces. In February of that year, the German 6th Army, lured deep into the Soviet Union, was annihilated at the Battle of Stalingrad, and German hopes for a sustained offensive on both fronts evaporated. Then, in June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed at Normandy, France, and began systematically to push the Germans back toward Berlin. By July 1944, several German military commanders acknowledged their imminent defeat and plotted to remove Hitler from power so as to negotiate a more favorable peace. Their attempts to assassinate Hitler failed, however, and in his reprisals, Hitler executed over 4,000 fellow countrymen.

In January 1945, facing a siege of Berlin by the Soviets, Hitler withdrew to his bunker to live out his final days. Located 55 feet under the chancellery, the shelter contained 18 rooms and was fully self-sufficient, with its own water and electrical supply. Though he was growing increasingly mad, Hitler continued to give orders and meet with such close subordinates as Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler and Josef Goebbels. He also married his long-time mistress Eva Braun just two days before his suicide.

In his last will and testament, Hitler appointed Admiral Karl Donitz as head of state and Goebbels as chancellor. He then retired to his private quarters with Braun, where he and Braun poisoned themselves and their dogs, before Hitler then also shot himself with his service pistol.

Hitler and Braun's bodies were hastily cremated in the chancellery garden, as Soviet forces closed in on the building. When the Soviets reached the chancellery, they removed Hitler's ashes, continually changing their location so as to prevent Hitler devotees from creating a memorial at his final resting place. Only eight days later, on May 8, 1945, the German forces issued an unconditional surrender, leaving Germany to be carved up by the four Allied powers. (source)
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Also on This Day

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Samuel Adams writes of hope for more battles, 1776

AUTOMOTIVE
Original Land Rover debuts at auto show, 1948

CIVIL WAR
Confederates attack Union troops at Jenkins' Ferry, 1864

COLD WAR
Organization of American States established, 1948

CRIME
The first federal prison for women opens, 1927

DISASTER
Orange-sized hail reported in India, 1888

GENERAL INTEREST
The first presidential inauguration, 1789
Louisiana Purchase concluded, 1803
New York World's Fair opens, 1939

HOLLYWOOD
â€œComing outâ€ episode of Ellen, 1997

LITERARY
Annie Dillard is born, 1945

MUSIC
Willie Nelson is born, 1933

OLD WEST
Arizona Ranger Burton Mossman is born, 1867

PRESIDENTIAL
George Washington gives first presidential inaugural address, 1789

SPORTS
Tennis star Monica Seles stabbed, 1993

VIETNAM WAR
South Vietnam surrenders, 1975

WORLD WAR I
Battle of the Boot, 1917

WORLD WAR II
Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his underground bunker, 1945

source- History.com

Llave · May 1, 2012

This Day in History- May 1st

Happy May Day everyone!

Lead Story:
May 1, 1931: Empire State Building dedicated

On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City's Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building's lights. Hoover's gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.

The idea for the Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could erect the taller building. Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building, the gleaming 1,046-foot skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. Not to be bested, Raskob assembled a group of well-known investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith. The group chose the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. The Art-Deco plans, said to have been based in large part on the look of a pencil, were also builder-friendly: The entire building went up in just over a year, under budget (at $40 million) and well ahead of schedule. During certain periods of building, the frame grew an astonishing four-and-a-half stories a week.

At the time of its completion, the Empire State Building, at 102 stories and 1,250 feet high (1,454 feet to the top of the lightning rod), was the world's tallest skyscraper. The Depression-era construction employed as many as 3,400 workers on any single day, most of whom received an excellent pay rate, especially given the economic conditions of the time. The new building imbued New York City with a deep sense of pride, desperately needed in the depths of the Great Depression, when many city residents were unemployed and prospects looked bleak. The grip of the Depression on New York's economy was still evident a year later, however, when only 25 percent of the Empire State's offices had been rented.

In 1972, the Empire State Building lost its title as world's tallest building to New York's World Trade Center, which itself was the tallest skyscraper for but a year. Today the honor belongs to Dubaiâ€™s Burj Khalifa tower, which soars 2,717 feet into the sky. (source)
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Also on This Day

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
President Eisenhower proclaims Law Day, 1958

AUTOMOTIVE
Ford factory workers get 40-hour week, 1926

CIVIL WAR
Battle of Chancellorsville begins, 1863

COLD WAR
American U-2 spy plane shot down, 1960

CRIME
Former NBA All-Star indicted, 2002

DISASTER
Record-breaking tornado wave begins, 2003

GENERAL INTEREST
Great Exhibition opens, 1851
The Battle of Manila Bay, 1898
An American tops Everest, 1963
Labour party returns to power in Britain, 1997

HOLLYWOOD
Citizen Kane released, 1941

LITERARY
Joseph Heller is born, 1923

MUSIC
Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro premieres in Vienna, 1786

OLD WEST
Calamity Jane is born, 1852

PRESIDENTIAL
Herbert Hoover dedicates Empire State Building, 1931

SPORTS
Rickey Henderson breaks stolen base record, 1991

VIETNAM WAR
Senator criticizes Nixon's handling of the war, 1969
North Vietnamese troops capture Quang Tri, 1972

WORLD WAR I
International Congress of Women adopts resolutions, 1915

WORLD WAR II
Alan G. Cunningham, British liberator of Ethiopia, is born, 1887

source- History.com

Amaury · May 2, 2012

5/2/1933: Loch Ness Monster Sighted

Although accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland's Loch Ness date back 1,500 years, the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a sighting makes local news on May 2, 1933. The newspaper Inverness Courier related an account of a local couple who claimed to have seen "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface." The story of the "monster" (a moniker chosen by the Courier editor) became a media phenomenon, with London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and a circus offering a 20,000 pound sterling reward for capture of the beast.

Loch Ness, located in the Scottish Highlands, has the largest volume of fresh water in Great Britain; the body of water reaches a depth of nearly 800 feet and a length of about 23 miles. Scholars of the Loch Ness Monster find a dozen references to "Nessie" in Scottish history, dating back to around A.D. 500, when local Picts carved a strange aquatic creature into standing stones near Loch Ness. The earliest written reference to a monster in Loch Ness is a 7th-century biography of Saint Columba, the Irish missionary who introduced Christianity to Scotland. In 565, according to the biographer, Columba was on his way to visit the king of the northern Picts near Inverness when he stopped at Loch Ness to confront a beast that had been killing people in the lake. Seeing a large beast about to attack another man, Columba intervened, invoking the name of God and commanding the creature to "go back with all speed." The monster retreated and never killed another man.

In 1933, a new road was completed along Loch Ness' shore, affording drivers a clear view of the loch. After an April 1933 sighting was reported in the local paper on May 2, interest steadily grew, especially after another couple claimed to have seen the beast on land, crossing the shore road. Several British newspapers sent reporters to Scotland, including London's Daily Mail, which hired big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell to capture the beast. After a few days searching the loch, Wetherell reported finding footprints of a large four-legged animal. In response, the Daily Mail carried the dramatic headline: "MONSTER OF LOCH NESS IS NOT LEGEND BUT A FACT." Scores of tourists descended on Loch Ness and sat in boats or decks chairs waiting for an appearance by the beast. Plaster casts of the footprints were sent to the British Natural History Museum, which reported that the tracks were that of a hippopotamus, specifically one hippopotamus foot, probably stuffed. The hoax temporarily deflated Loch Ness Monster mania, but stories of sightings continued.

A famous 1934 photograph seemed to show a dinosaur-like creature with a long neck emerging out of the murky waters, leading some to speculate that "Nessie" was a solitary survivor of the long-extinct plesiosaurs. The aquatic plesiosaurs were thought to have died off with the rest of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Loch Ness was frozen solid during the recent ice ages, however, so this creature would have had to have made its way up the River Ness from the sea in the past 10,000 years. And the plesiosaurs, believed to be cold-blooded, would not long survive in the frigid waters of Loch Ness. More likely, others suggested, it was an archeocyte, a primitive whale with a serpentine neck that is thought to have been extinct for 18 million years. Skeptics argued that what people were seeing in Loch Ness were "seiches"--oscillations in the water surface caused by the inflow of cold river water into the slightly warmer loch.

Amateur investigators kept an almost constant vigil, and in the 1960s several British universities launched expeditions to Loch Ness, using sonar to search the deep. Nothing conclusive was found, but in each expedition the sonar operators detected large, moving underwater objects they could not explain. In 1975, Boston's Academy of Applied Science combined sonar and underwater photography in an expedition to Loch Ness. A photo resulted that, after enhancement, appeared to show the giant flipper of a plesiosaur-like creature. Further sonar expeditions in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in more tantalizing, if inconclusive, readings. Revelations in 1994 that the famous 1934 photo was a hoax hardly dampened the enthusiasm of tourists and professional and amateur investigators to the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.
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Elias Boudinot is born, 1740

Automotive

GM buys Chevrolet, 1918

Civil War

Confederates deliver blow to Union at Chancellorsville, 1863

Cold War

Joseph McCarthy dies, 1957

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General Interest

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John B. Jones becomes major in Texas Rangers, 1874

Presidential

George W. Bush forms commission on Social Security, 2001

Sports

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World War II

German troops in Italy surrender to the Allies, while Berlin surrenders to Russia's Zhukov., 1945

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Amaury · May 3, 2012

5/3/1469: Niccolo Machiavelli Born

On this day in 1469, the Italian philosopher and writer Niccolo Machiavelli is born. A lifelong patriot and diehard proponent of a unified Italy, Machiavelli became one of the fathers of modern political theory.

Machiavelli entered the political service of his native Florence by the time he was 29. As defense secretary, he distinguished himself by executing policies that strengthened Florence politically. He soon found himself assigned diplomatic missions for his principality, through which he met such luminaries as Louis XII of France, Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and perhaps most importantly for Machiavelli, a prince of the Papal States named Cesare Borgia. The shrewd and cunning Borgia later inspired the title character in Machiavelli's famous and influential political treatise The Prince (1532).

Machiavelli's political life took a downward turn after 1512, when he fell out of favor with the powerful Medici family. He was accused of conspiracy, imprisoned, tortured and temporarily exiled. It was an attempt to regain a political post and the Medici family's good favor that Machiavelli penned The Prince, which was to become his most well-known work.

Though released in book form posthumously in 1532, The Prince was first published as a pamphlet in 1513. In it, Machiavelli outlined his vision of an ideal leader: an amoral, calculating tyrant for whom the end justifies the means. The Prince not only failed to win the Medici family's favor, it also alienated him from the Florentine people. Machiavelli was never truly welcomed back into politics, and when the Florentine Republic was reestablished in 1527, Machiavelli was an object of great suspicion. He died later that year, embittered and shut out from the Florentine society to which he had devoted his life.

Though Machiavelli has long been associated with the practice of diabolical expediency in the realm of politics that was made famous in The Prince, his actual views were not so extreme. In fact, in such longer and more detailed writings as Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy (1517) and History of Florence (1525), he shows himself to be a more principled political moralist. Still, even today, the term "Machiavellian" is used to describe an action undertaken for gain without regard for right or wrong.
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Other Stories:

American Revolution

Dartmouth tells Martin to organize North Carolina Loyalists, 1775

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MADD founder's daughter killed by drunk driver, 1980

Civil War

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Congressional hearings on General MacArthur, 1951

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Japanese war crimes trial begins, 1946

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Fletcher lands on the North Pole, 1952

Hollywood

U.S. Supreme Court decides Paramount antitrust case, 1948

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Music

James Brown is born, 1933

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Cowboy author Andy Adams is born, 1859

Presidential

FDR addresses thousands of Democratic women, 1940

JFK receives honorary degree, 1961

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Shoemaker becomes oldest man to win Kentucky Derby, 1986

Vietnam War

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Llave · May 4, 2012

This Day in History- May 4th

Hey guys, May the 4th be with yo- that's overused too much... Anyway on to today!

Lead Story:
May 4, 1994: Rabin and Arafat sign accord for Palestinian self-rule

On May 4, 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat reached agreement in Cairo on the first stage of Palestinian self-rule.

The agreement was made in accordance with the Oslo Accords, signed in Washington, D.C. on September 13, 1993. This was the first direct, face-to-face agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and it acknowledged Israel's right to exist. It was also designed as a framework for future relations between the two parties.

The Gaza-Jericho agreement signed on this day in history addressed four main issues: security arrangements, civil affairs, legal matters and economic relations. It included an Israeli military withdrawal from about 60 percent of the Gaza Strip (Jewish settlements and their environs excluded) and the West Bank town of Jericho, land captured by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. The Palestinians agreed to combat terror and prevent violence in the famous "land for peace" bargain. The document also included an agreement to a transfer of authority from the Israeli Civil Administration to the newly created Palestinian Authority, its jurisdiction and legislative powers, a Palestinian police force and relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli Defense Forces withdrew from Jericho on May 13 and from most of the Gaza Strip on May 18-19, 1994. Palestinian Authority police and officials immediately took control. During the first few days there was a spate of attacks on Israeli troops and civilians in and near the Strip. Arafat himself arrived in Gaza to a tumultuous, chaotic welcome on July 1.

As time went on, timetables stipulated in the deal were not met, Israel's re-deployments were slowed and new agreements were negotiated. Israeli critics of the deal claimed "Land for Peace" was in reality "Land for Nothing."

The momentum toward peaceful relations between Israel and the Palestinians was seriously jolted by the outbreak of the 2000 Palestinian uprising, known as "Second Intifada." Further strain was put on the process after Hamas came into power in the 2006 Palestinian elections. (source)
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Also on This Day

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Rhode Island declares independence, 1776

AUTOMOTIVE
Bruce Springsteen releases "Pink Cadillac", 1984

CIVIL WAR
Army of the Potomac crosses the Rapidan, 1864

COLD WAR
Tito dies, 1980

CRIME
A riot breaks out in Haymarket Square, 1886
An inhumane execution, 1990

DISASTER
Nigerian aircraft crashes in crowded city, 2002

GENERAL INTEREST
The Haymarket Square Riot, 1886
National Guard kills four at Kent State, 1970
Margaret Thatcher sworn in, 1979

HOLLYWOOD
Audrey Hepburn born, 1929

LITERARY
Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published, 1948

MUSIC
Gene Vincent records "Be-Bop-A-Lula", 1956

OLD WEST
Jack Slade joins the army, 1847

PRESIDENTIAL
Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois, 1865
David Frost interviews Richard Nixon, 1977

SPORTS
Willie Mays breaks National League home run record, 1965

VIETNAM WAR
Rusk reports on Viet Cong strength, 1961
Four students killed at Kent State, 1970

WORLD WAR I
Germany agrees to limit its submarine warfare, 1916

WORLD WAR II
As the Nazi threat dies, the Red Army rises, 1945

source- History.com

Amaury · May 5, 2012

5/5/1961: The First American in Space

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

NASA was established in 1958 to keep U.S. space efforts abreast of recent Soviet achievements, such as the launching of the world's first artificial satellite--Sputnik 1--in 1957. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the two superpowers raced to become the first country to put a man in space and return him to Earth. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet space program won the race when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into space, put in orbit around the planet, and safely returned to Earth. One month later, Shepard's suborbital flight restored faith in the U.S. space program.

NASA continued to trail the Soviets closely until the late 1960s and the successes of the Apollo lunar program. In July 1969, the Americans took a giant leap forward with Apollo 11, a three-stage spacecraft that took U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon and returned them to Earth. On February 5, 1971, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission.
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American Revolution

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Automotive

Driving pioneer Bertha Benz dies, 1944

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General Interest

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IRA militant Bobby Sands dies, 1981

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Vietnam War

U.S. forces capture Snoul, Cambodia, 1970

North Vietnamese turn back South Vietnamese relief column, 1972

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World War II

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Amaury · May 6, 2012

5/6/1994: English Channel Tunnel Opens

In a ceremony presided over by England's Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterand, a rail tunnel under the English Channel was officially opened, connecting Britain and the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age.

The channel tunnel, or "Chunnel," connects Folkstone, England, with Sangatte, France, 31 miles away. The Chunnel cut travel time between England and France to a swift 35 minutes and eventually between London and Paris to two-and-a-half hours.

As the world's longest undersea tunnel, the Chunnel runs under water for 23 miles, with an average depth of 150 feet below the seabed. Each day, about 30,000 people, 6,000 cars and 3,500 trucks journey through the Chunnel on passenger, shuttle and freight trains.

Millions of tons of earth were moved to build the two rail tunnels--one for northbound and one for southbound traffic--and one service tunnel. Fifteen thousand people were employed at the peak of construction. Ten people were killed during construction.

Napoleon's engineer, Albert Mathieu, planned the first tunnel under the English Channel in 1802, envisioning an underground passage with ventilation chimneys that would stretch above the waves. In 1880, the first real attempt was made by Colonel Beaumont, who bore a tunnel more than a mile long before abandoning the project. Other efforts followed in the 20th century, but none on the scale of the tunnels begun in June 1988.

The Chunnel's $16 billion cost was roughly twice the original estimate, and completion was a year behind schedule. One year into service, Eurotunnel announced a huge loss, one of the biggest in United Kingdom corporate history at the time. A scheme in which banks agreed to swap billions of pounds worth of loans for shares saved the tunnel from going under and it showed its first net profit in 1999.

Freight traffic was suspended for six months after a fire broke out on a lorry in the tunnel in November 1996. Nobody was seriously hurt in the incident.

In 1996, the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
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Other Stories:

American Revolution

William Franklin warns Dartmouth of repercussions from Lexington and Concord, 1775

Automotive

Harry Gant is oldest NASCAR winner -- again, 1991

Civil War

Grant and Lee continue fighting in the Wilderness, 1864

Cold War

Gorbachev reviews the Cold War, 1992

Crime

The theft of Duchess of Devonshire stirs interest, 1876

Disaster

Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey, 1937

General Interest

The Hindenburg disaster, 1937

First four-minute mile, 1954

Hollywood

Final episode of Friends airs on NBC, 2004

Literary

John Steinbeck wins a Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath, 1940

Music

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Old West

Hangman George Maledon dies, 1911

Presidential

FDR creates the WPA, 1933

Sports

Roger Bannister breaks four-minutes mile, 1954

Vietnam War

Students launch nationwide protest, 1970

South Vietnamese defenders hold on to An Loc, 1972

World War I

Second Battle of Krithia, Gallipoli, 1915

World War II

All American forces in the Philippines surrender unconditionally, 1942

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Llave · May 7, 2012

This Day in History- May 7th

A rather interesting day today for you artistic buffs. Let's get into it!

Lead Story:
May 7, 1994: Munch's The Scream recovered

On May 7, 1994, Norway's most famous painting, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three months after it was stolen from a museum in Oslo. The fragile painting was recovered undamaged at a hotel in Asgardstrand, about 40 miles south of Oslo, police said.

The iconic 1893 painting of a waiflike figure on a bridge was stolen in only 50 seconds during a break-in on February 12, the opening day of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Two thieves broke through a window of the National Gallery, cut a wire holding the painting to the wall and left a note reading "Thousand thanks for the bad security!"

A few days after the theft, a Norwegian anti-abortion group said it could have the painting returned if Norwegian television showed an anti-abortion film. The claim turned out to be false. The government also received a $1 million ransom demand on March 3, but refused to pay it due to a lack of proof that the demand was genuine.

Eventually, police found four pieces of the painting's frame in Nittedal, a suburb north of Oslo, and what may have been a cryptic messages that the thieves wanted to discuss a ransom. Finally, in January 1996, four men were convicted and sentenced in connection with the theft. They included Paal Enger, who had been convicted in 1988 of stealing Munch's "The Vampire" in Oslo. Enger was sentenced this time to six-and-a-half-years in prison. He escaped while on a field trip in 1999, and was captured 12 days later in a blond wig and dark sunglasses trying to buy a train ticket to Copenhagen.

In August 2004, another version of The Scream was stolen along with Munch's The Madonna, this time from the Munch Museum in Oslo. Three men were convicted in connection with that theft in May 2006. Police recovered both works in August with minor marks and tears.

Munch developed an emotionally charged style that served as an important forerunner of the 20th century Expressionist movement. He painted "The Scream" as part of his "Frieze of Life" series, in which sickness, death, fear, love and melancholy are central themes. He died in January 1944 at the age of 81. (source)
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Also on This Day

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Pontiac's plot is foiled, 1763

AUTOMOTIVE
Daimler-Benz announces purchase of Chrysler Corp., 1998

CIVIL WAR
Grant leaves the Wilderness for Spotsylvania, 1864

COLD WAR
Brezhnev becomes president of the USSR, 1960

CRIME
A serial killer is hanged, 1896

DISASTER
Volcanic eruption buries Caribbean city, 1902

GENERAL INTEREST
Pontiac's Rebellion begins, 1763
Lusitania sinks, 1915
French defeated at Dien Bien Phu, 1954

HOLLYWOOD
Gary Cooper born, 1901

LITERARY
Robert Browning is born, 1812

MUSIC
"Satisfaction" comes to Keith Richards, 1965

OLD WEST
Gary Cooper is born, 1901

PRESIDENTIAL
George Washington attends inaugural ball, 1789

SPORTS
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VIETNAM WAR
French fall to Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, 1954

WORLD WAR I
German submarine sinks Lusitania, 1915

WORLD WAR II
Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at Reims, 1945

source- History.com

Amaury · May 8, 2012

5/8/1945: V-E Day Is Celebrated in American and Britain

On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.

The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark--the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany.

The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender.

Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.

Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: "The age-long struggle of the Slav nations...has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over."
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American Revolution

Militia Act establishes conscription under federal law, 1792

Automotive

Henry Ford II leaves post at Ford Foundation, 1956

Civil War

Lee beats Grant to Spotsylvania, 1864

Cold War

Soviets announce boycott of 1984 Olympics, 1984

Crime

Woman convicted for tampering with Excedrin, 1988

Disaster

Flash floods in Nebraska kill 23, 1950

General Interest

De Soto reaches the Mississippi, 1541

AIM occupation of Wounded Knee ends, 1973

Soviets to boycott L.A. Olympics, 1984

Hollywood

Sean Connery stars in his first Bond movie, Dr. No, 1963

Betty White becomes oldest Saturday Night Live host, 2010

Literary

Yeats' The Countess Cathleen opens at the Irish Literary Theatre, 1899

Music

The theme song from Welcome Back, Kotter is the #1 song in America, 1976

Old West

Zachary Taylor fights the Battle of Palo Alto, 1846

Presidential

Harry S. Truman is born, 1884

Sports

Knicks beat Lakers for NBA title, 1970

Vietnam War

Nixon defends invasion of Cambodia, 1970

Mining of North Vietnamese harbors is announced, 1972

World War I

New celebration of Armistice Day proposed, 1919

World War II

Victory in Europe, 1945

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Amaury · May 9, 2012

5/9/1950: L. Ron Hubbard Publishes Dianetics

On this day in 1950, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1911-1986) publishes Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. With this book, Hubbard introduced a branch of self-help psychology called Dianetics, which quickly caught fire and, over time, morphed into a belief system boasting millions of subscribers: Scientology.

Hubbard was already a prolific and frequently published writer by the time he penned the book that would change his life. Under several pseudonyms in the 1930s, he published a great amount of pulp fiction, particularly in the science fiction and fantasy genres. In late 1949, having returned from serving in the Navy in World War II, Hubbard began publishing articles in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction, a magazine that published works by the likes of Isaac Asimov and Jack Williamson. Out of these grew the elephantine text known as Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

In Dianetics, Hubbard explained that phenomena known as "engrams" (i.e. memories) were the cause of all psychological pain, which in turn harmed mental and physical health. He went on to claim that people could become "clear," achieving an exquisite state of clarity and mental liberation, by exorcising their engrams to an "auditor," or a listener acting as therapist.

Though discredited by the medical and scientific establishment, over 100,000 copies of Dianetics were sold in the first two years of publication, and Hubbard soon found himself lecturing across the country. He went on to write six more books in 1951, developing a significant fan base, and establishing the Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Despite his fast-growing popularity from books and touring, strife within his organization and Hubbard's own personal troubles nearly crippled his success. Several of his research foundations had to be abandoned due to financial troubles and in-fighting. Also, in late 1950, his second wife filed for divorce, accusing Hubbard of kidnapping their baby and of conducting "systematic torture, beatings, strangulations and scientific torture experiments."

By 1953, however, Hubbard was able to rebound from the widespread condemnation beginning to be heaped upon him, and introduced Scientology. Scientology expanded on Dianetics by bringing Hubbard's popular version of psychotherapy into the realm of philosophy, and ultimately, religion. In only a few years, Hubbard found himself at the helm of a movement that captured the popular imagination. As Scientology grew in the 1960s, several national governments became suspicious of Hubbard, accusing him of quackery and brainwashing his followers. Nonetheless, Hubbard built his religion into a multi-million dollar movement that continues to have a considerable presence in the public eye, due in part to its high profile in Hollywood.
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American Revolution

Patriot politician and composer Francis Hopkinson dies, 1791

Automotive

"Speed Racer" movie released, 2008

Civil War

Union troops take Snake Creek Gap, Georgia, 1864

Cold War

West Germany joins NATO, 1955

Crime

Cunanan continues murder spree, 1997

Disaster

Soccer fans trampled in Ghana, 2001

General Interest

Captain Blood steals crown jewels, 1671

Byrd flies over the North Pole?, 1926

FDA approves the pill, 1960

Aldo Moro found dead, 1978

Former POW is ambassador to Vietnam, 1997

Hollywood

Last Honeymooners episode airs, 1971

Literary

James Barrie is born, 1860

Music

An unlikely challenger ends the Beatles' reign atop the U.S. pop charts, 1964

Old West

Buffalo Bill's Wild West show opens, 1887

Presidential

Woodrow Wilson proclaims the first Mother's Day holiday, 1914

Sports

Johnny Bench hits three home runs off Steve Carlton, 1973

Vietnam War

Reporter breaks the news of secret bombing in Cambodia, 1969

Demonstrations held in Washington, 1970

House votes to initiate impeachment proceedings, 1974

World War I

Allies launch dual offensive on Western Front, 1915

World War II

Herman Goering is captured by the U.S. Seventh Army, 1945

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Llave · May 10, 2012

This Day in History- May 10th

Tis May 10th, a rather interesting day today. (Everyday is an interesting day!) Let's get into today's history!

Lead Story:
May 10, 1869: Transcontinental railroad completed

On this day in 1869, the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history. No longer would western-bound travelers need to take the long and dangerous journey by wagon train, and the West would surely lose some of its wild charm with the new connection to the civilized East.

Since at least 1832, both Eastern and frontier statesmen realized a need to connect the two coasts. It was not until 1853, though, that Congress appropriated funds to survey several routes for the transcontinental railroad. The actual building of the railroad would have to wait even longer, as North-South tensions prevented Congress from reaching an agreement on where the line would begin.

One year into the Civil War, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act (1862), guaranteeing public land grants and loans to the two railroads it chose to build the transcontinental line, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. With these in hand, the railroads began work in 1866 from Omaha and Sacramento, forging a northern route across the country. In their eagerness for land, the two lines built right past each other, and the final meeting place had to be renegotiated.

Harsh winters, staggering summer heat, Indian raids and the lawless, rough-and-tumble conditions of newly settled western towns made conditions for the Union Pacific laborers--mainly Civil War veterans of Irish descent--miserable. The overwhelmingly immigrant Chinese work force of the Central Pacific also had its fair share of problems, including brutal 12-hour work days laying tracks over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. On more than one occasion, whole crews would be lost to avalanches, or mishaps with explosives would leave several dead.

For all the adversity they suffered, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific workers were able to finish the railroad--laying nearly 2,000 miles of track--by 1869, ahead of schedule and under budget. Journeys that had taken months by wagon train or weeks by boat now took only days. Their work had an immediate impact: The years following the construction of the railway were years of rapid growth and expansion for the United States, due in large part to the speed and ease of travel that the railroad provided. (source)
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Also on This Day

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Second Continental Congress assembles as Ticonderoga falls, 1775

AUTOMOTIVE
Government gives Chrysler $1.5 billion loan, 1980

CIVIL WAR
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson dies, 1863

COLD WAR
China releases Tiananmen Square prisoners, 1990

CRIME
J. Edgar Hoover begins his legacy with the FBI, 1924

DISASTER
Death on Mount Everest, 1996

GENERAL INTEREST
Jefferson Davis captured, 1865
Churchill becomes prime minister, 1940
Nelson Mandela inaugurated, 1994

HOLLYWOOD
Joan Crawford dies, 1977

LITERARY
The final volume of Tom Jones is published, 1749

MUSIC
"Mother" Maybelle Carter is born, 1909

OLD WEST
First transcontinental railroad is completed, 1869

PRESIDENTIAL
Hayes has first phone installed in White House, 1877

SPORTS
Bobby Orr leads Bruins to Stanley Cup title, 1970

VIETNAM WAR
Operation Apache Snow is launched, 1969
Intense air war continues over North Vietnam, 1972

WORLD WAR I
Treaty of Frankfurt am Main ends Franco-Prussian War, 1871

WORLD WAR II
As Germany invades Holland and Belgium, Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of Great Britain, 1940

source- History.com

Llave · May 11, 2012

This Day in History- May 11th

Happy May 11th. Not sure what sort of thing to celebrate on this day... save THIS DAY IN HISTORY!!! Yeah!

Lead Story:

May 11, 1934: Dust storm sweeps from Great Plains across Eastern states

On this day in 1934, a massive storm sends millions of tons of topsoil flying from across the parched Great Plains region of the United States as far east as New York, Boston and Atlanta.

At the time the Great Plains were settled in the mid-1800s, the land was covered by prairie grass, which held moisture in the earth and kept most of the soil from blowing away even during dry spells. By the early 20th century, however, farmers had plowed under much of the grass to create fields. The U.S. entry into World War I in 1917 caused a great need for wheat, and farms began to push their fields to the limit, plowing under more and more grassland with the newly invented tractor. The plowing continued after the war, when the introduction of even more powerful gasoline tractors sped up the process. During the 1920s, wheat production increased by 300 percent, causing a glut in the market by 1931.

That year, a severe drought spread across the region. As crops died, wind began to carry dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed lands. The number of dust storms reported jumped from 14 in 1932 to 28 in 1933. The following year, the storms decreased in frequency but increased in intensity, culminating in the most severe storm yet in May 1934. Over a period of two days, high-level winds caught and carried some 350 million tons of silt all the way from the northern Great Plains to the eastern seaboard. According to The New York Times, dust "lodged itself in the eyes and throats of weeping and coughing New Yorkers," and even ships some 300 miles offshore saw dust collect on their decks.

The dust storms forced thousands of families from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico to uproot and migrate to California, where they were derisively known as "Okies"--no matter which state they were from. These transplants found life out West not much easier than what they had left, as work was scarce and pay meager during the worst years of the Great Depression.

Another massive storm on April 15, 1935--known as "Black Sunday"--brought even more attention to the desperate situation in the Great Plains region, which reporter Robert Geiger called the "Dust Bowl." That year, as part of its New Deal program, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration began to enforce federal regulation of farming methods, including crop rotation, grass-seeding and new plowing methods. This worked to a point, reducing dust storms by up to 65 percent, but only the end of the drought in the fall of 1939 would truly bring relief. (source)
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source- History.com

Amaury · May 12, 2012

5/12/1957: Race Car Driver A.J. Foyt Gets First Pro Victory

On this day in 1957, race car driver A.J. Foyt (1935- ) scores his first professional victory, in a U.S. Automobile Club (USAC) midget car race in Kansas City, Missouri.

A tough-as-nails Texan, Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr. raced midget cars--smaller vehicles designed to be driven in races of shorter distances--and stock cars before moving up to bigger things in 1958, when he entered his first Indianapolis 500 race. Foyt won his first Indy 500 crown in 1961, when rival Eddie Sachs was forced to make a tire change in the final laps, giving Foyt the chance to overtake him and win with a then-record average speed of 139.13 mph.

The 1964 season saw Foyt earn a record-setting winning percentage of .769 with 10 wins in 13 races. His most important win that year came in the Indy 500, which he finished with an average speed of 147.45 mph. After a near-fatal crash in a stock car race in 1965--in which he broke his back, fractured his ankle and suffered severe chest injuries--Foyt came back to continue his string of impressive achievements. In 1967, he won his third Indy 500 in a car he had designed himself, with his father Tony as chief mechanic. Two weeks later, he traveled to France and won the 24 Hours of LeMans international competition with teammate Don Gurney. With a win at the Daytona 500 in 1972, Foyt became the first driver to win all three major races in motor sports: the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans.

In addition to the records for most total victories (67), most national championships (7) and most victories in one season (10), Foyt also has the most consecutive Indy 500 starts: He competed in the race for 35 straight years. His fourth win came in 1977, when the 42-year-old Foyt screamed around the track at an average speed of 161.331 mph. Only two other men have equaled his record of four Indy 500 wins.

In 1989, Foyt became the first driver inducted into the brand-new Motor Sports Hall of Fame in Novi, Michigan. He practiced at the Indy 500 track in 1993, but retired on the first day of qualifying races. Apart from auto racing teams, Foyt's later business interests have included car dealerships, funeral homes, oil investments and thoroughbred racehorses.
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Cold War

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Crime

Body of Lindbergh baby found, 1932

Disaster

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General Interest

George VI crowned at Westminster, 1937

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Music

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