This Day in History

Amaury · Jul 13, 2012

7/13/1985: Live Aid Concert

On July 13, 1985, at Wembley Stadium in London, Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially open Live Aid, a worldwide rock concert organized to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans. Continued at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and at other arenas around the world, the 16-hour "superconcert" was globally linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations. In a triumph of technology and good will, the event raised more than $125 million in famine relief for Africa.

Live Aid was the brainchild of Bob Geldof, the singer of an Irish rock group called the Boomtown Rats. In 1984, Geldof traveled to Ethiopia after hearing news reports of a horrific famine that had killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians and threatened to kill millions more. After returning to London, he called Britain's and Ireland's top pop artists together to record a single to benefit Ethiopian famine relief. "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was written by Geldof and Ultravox singer Midge Ure and performed by "Band Aid," an ensemble that featured Culture Club, Duran Duran, Phil Collins, U2, Wham!, and others. It was the best-selling single in Britain to that date and raised more than $10 million.

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was also a No. 1 hit in the United States and inspired U.S. pop artists to come together and perform "We Are the World," a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie. "USA for Africa," as the U.S. ensemble was known, featured Jackson, Ritchie, Geldof, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, and many others. The single went to the top of the charts and eventually raised $44 million.

With the crisis continuing in Ethiopia, and the neighboring Sudan also stricken with famine, Geldof proposed Live Aid, an ambitious global charity concert aimed at raising more funds and increasing awareness of the plight of many Africans. Organized in just 10 weeks, Live Aid was staged on Saturday, July 13, 1985. More than 75 acts performed, including Elton John, Madonna, Santana, Run DMC, Sade, Sting, Bryan Adams, the Beach Boys, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Queen, Duran Duran, U2, the Who, Tom Petty, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton. The majority of these artists performed at either Wembley Stadium in London, where a crowd of 70,000 turned out, or at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium, where 100,000 watched. Thirteen satellites beamed a live television broadcast of the event to more than one billion viewers in 110 countries. More than 40 of these nations held telethons for African famine relief during the broadcast.

A memorable moment of the concert was Phil Collins' performance in Philadelphia after flying by Concorde from London, where he performed at Wembley earlier in the day. He later played drums in a reunion of the surviving members of Led Zeppelin. Beatle Paul McCartney and the Who's Pete Townsend held Bob Geldof aloft on their shoulders during the London finale, which featured a collective performance of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Six hours later, the U.S. concert ended with "We Are the World."

Live Aid eventually raised $127 million in famine relief for African nations, and the publicity it generated encouraged Western nations to make available enough surplus grain to end the immediate hunger crisis in Africa. Geldof was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his efforts.

In early July 2005, Geldof staged a series of "Live 8" concerts in 11 countries around the world to help raise awareness of global poverty. Organizers, led by Geldof, purposely scheduled the concert days before the annual G8 summit in an effort to increase political pressure on G8 nations to address issues facing the extremely poor around the world. Live 8 claims that an estimated 3 billion people watched 1,000 musicians perform in 11 shows, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and by 2,000 radio stations. Unlike Live Aid, Live 8 was intentionally not billed as a fundraiser--Geldof's slogan was, "We don't want your money, we want your voice." Perhaps in part because of the spotlight brought to such issues by Live 8, the G8 subsequently voted to cancel the debt of 18 of the world's poorest nations, make AIDS drugs more accessible, and double levels of annual aid to Africa, to $50 billion by 2010.
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American Revolution

Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance, 1787

Automotive

Henry Ford II fires Lee Iacocca, 1978

Civil War

Union routs Rebels at the Battle of Corrick's Ford, 1861

Cold War

Democratic Party platform defends Roosevelt-Truman foreign policies, 1948

Crime

Last woman hanged for murder in Great Britain, 1955

Disaster

Record-breaking floods hit Kansas, 1951

General Interest

Charlotte Corday assassinates Marat, 1793

Largest tank battle in history ends, 1943

Kennedy nominated for presidency, 1960

Hollywood

Ghost opens, 1990

Literary

Wordsworth visits Tintern Abbey, 1798

Music

Live Aid is held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia and broadcast live throughout the world, 1985

Old West

Construction begins on Fort Phil Kearny, 1866

Presidential

Reagan's doctors discover possibly cancerous colon polyp, 1985

Sports

First World Cup, 1930

Legendary New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner dies, 2010

Vietnam War

Rockefeller announces new peace proposal, 1968

Wallace criticizes Nixon's handling of the war, 1969

World War I

Austrian investigation into archduke's assassination concludes, 1914

World War II

Soviet General Konev establishes a new western border for the USSR, 1944

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Amaury · Jul 14, 2012

7/14/1789: French Revolutionaries Storm Bastille

Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade of political turmoil and terror in which King Louis XVI was overthrown and tens of thousands of people, including the king and his wife Marie Antoinette, were executed.

The Bastille was originally constructed in 1370 as a bastide, or "fortification," to protect the walled city of Paris from English attack. It was later made into an independent stronghold, and its name--bastide--was corrupted to Bastille. The Bastille was first used as a state prison in the 17th century, and its cells were reserved for upper-class felons, political troublemakers, and spies. Most prisoners there were imprisoned without a trial under direct orders of the king. Standing 100 feet tall and surrounded by a moat more than 80 feet wide, the Bastille was an imposing structure in the Parisian landscape.

By the summer of 1789, France was moving quickly toward revolution. There were severe food shortages in France that year, and popular resentment against the rule of King Louis XVI was turning to fury. In June, the Third Estate, which represented commoners and the lower clergy, declared itself the National Assembly and called for the drafting of a constitution. Initially seeming to yield, Louis legalized the National Assembly but then surrounded Paris with troops and dismissed Jacques Necker, a popular minister of state who had supported reforms. In response, mobs began rioting in Paris at the instigation of revolutionary leaders.

Bernard-Jordan de Launay, the military governor of the Bastille, feared that his fortress would be a target for the revolutionaries and so requested reinforcements. A company of Swiss mercenary soldiers arrived on July 7 to bolster his garrison of 82 soldiers. The Marquis de Sade, one of the few prisoners in the Bastille at the time, was transferred to an insane asylum after he attempted to incite a crowd outside his window by yelling: "They are massacring the prisoners; you must come and free them." On July 12, royal authorities transferred 250 barrels of gunpowder to the Bastille from the Paris Arsenal, which was more vulnerable to attack. Launay brought his men into the Bastille and raised its two drawbridges.

On July 13, revolutionaries with muskets began firing at soldiers standing guard on the Bastille's towers and then took cover in the Bastille's courtyard when Launay's men fired back. That evening, mobs stormed the Paris Arsenal and another armory and acquired thousands of muskets. At dawn on July 14, a great crowd armed with muskets, swords, and various makeshift weapons began to gather around the Bastille.

Launay received a delegation of revolutionary leaders but refused to surrender the fortress and its munitions as they requested. He later received a second delegation and promised he would not open fire on the crowd. To convince the revolutionaries, he showed them that his cannons were not loaded. Instead of calming the agitated crowd, news of the unloaded cannons emboldened a group of men to climb over the outer wall of the courtyard and lower a drawbridge. Three hundred revolutionaries rushed in, and Launay's men took up a defensive position. When the mob outside began trying to lower the second drawbridge, Launay ordered his men to open fire. One hundred rioters were killed or wounded.

Launay's men were able to hold the mob back, but more and more Parisians were converging on the Bastille. Around 3 p.m., a company of deserters from the French army arrived. The soldiers, hidden by smoke from fires set by the mob, dragged five cannons into the courtyard and aimed them at the Bastille. Launay raised a white flag of surrender over the fortress. Launay and his men were taken into custody, the gunpowder and cannons were seized, and the seven prisoners of the Bastille were freed. Upon arriving at the Hotel de Ville, where Launay was to be arrested by a revolutionary council, the governor was pulled away from his escort by a mob and murdered.

The capture of the Bastille symbolized the end of the ancien regime and provided the French revolutionary cause with an irresistible momentum. Joined by four-fifths of the French army, the revolutionaries seized control of Paris and then the French countryside, forcing King Louis XVI to accept a constitutional government. In 1792, the monarchy was abolished and Louis and his wife Marie-Antoinette were sent to the guillotine for treason in 1793.

By order of the new revolutionary government, the Bastille was torn down. On February 6, 1790, the last stone of the hated prison-fortress was presented to the National Assembly. Today, July 14--Bastille Day--is celebrated as a national holiday in France.
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American Revolution

Sedition Act becomes federal law, 1798

Automotive

"Father of Streamlining" Raymond Loewy dies, 1986

Civil War

Confederates defeated at the Battle of Tupelo, 1864

Cold War

Rupture between USSR and China grows worse, 1963

Crime

Billy the Kid is shot to death, 1881

A mass murderer leaves eight women dead, 1966

Disaster

Claudette crashes into Texas coast, 2003

General Interest

Jerusalem captured in First Crusade, 1099

Hollywood

Influential Swedish director Ingmar Bergman born, 1918

Literary

Byron returns to England after a two-year trip, 1811

Music

A revolutionary new technology is christened "MP3", 1995

Old West

Gunfighter John Ringo found dead, 1882

Presidential

Future President Gerald R. Ford is born, 1913

Sports

Hank Aaron hits 500th homer, 1968

Vietnam War

North Vietnamese regulars are fighting in South Vietnam, 1964

Clifford visits South Vietnam, 1968

World War I

Quentin Roosevelt killed, 1918

World War II

Carl Spaatz dies, 1974

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Amaury · Jul 15, 2012

7/15/1971: Nixon Announces Visit to Communist China

During a live television and radio broadcast, President Richard Nixon stuns the nation by announcing that he will visit communist China the following year. The statement marked a dramatic turning point in U.S.-China relations, as well as a major shift in American foreign policy.

Nixon was not always so eager to reach out to China. Since the Communists came to power in China in 1949, Nixon had been one of the most vociferous critics of American efforts to establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese. His political reputation was built on being strongly anti-communist, and he was a major figure in the post-World War II Red Scare, during which the U.S. government launched massive investigations into possible communist subversion in America.

By 1971, a number of factors pushed Nixon to reverse his stance on China. First and foremost was the Vietnam War. Two years after promising the American people "peace with honor," Nixon was as entrenched in Vietnam as ever. His national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, saw a way out: Since China's break with the Soviet Union in the mid-1960s, the Chinese were desperate for new allies and trade partners. Kissinger aimed to use the promise of closer relations and increased trade possibilities with China as a way to put increased pressure on North Vietnam--a Chinese ally--to reach an acceptable peace settlement. Also, more importantly in the long run, Kissinger thought the Chinese might become a powerful ally against the Soviet Union, Americaâ€™s Cold War enemy. Kissinger called such foreign policy 'realpolitik,' or politics that favored dealing with other powerful nations in a practical manner rather than on the basis of political doctrine or ethics.

Nixon undertook his historic "journey for peace" in 1972, beginning a long and gradual process of normalizing relations between the People's Republic of China and the United States. Though this move helped revive Nixonâ€™s sagging popularity, and contributed to his win in the 1972 election, it did not produce the short-term results for which Kissinger had hoped. The Chinese seemed to have little influence on North Vietnam's negotiating stance, and the Vietnam War continued to drag on until U.S. withdrawal in 1973. Further, the budding U.S.-China alliance had no measurable impact on U.S.-Soviet relations. But, Nixon's visit did prove to be a watershed moment in American foreign policy--it paved the way for future U.S. presidents to apply the principle of realpolitik to their own international dealings.
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American Revolution

Lafayette selected colonel-general of the National Guard of Paris, 1789

Automotive

Ford Motor Company takes its first order, 1903

Civil War

CSS Arkansas attacks Union ships, 1862

Cold War

Nixon announces trip to China, 1971

Crime

A notorious English killer is executed, 1953

John Walker Lindh accepts plea bargain, 2002

Disaster

Volcano buries victims in fiery mud, 1888

General Interest

Rembrandt born, 1606

Pike expedition sets out, 1806

Mariner 4 studies Martian surface, 1965

Versace murdered in Cunanan killing spree, 1997

Hollywood

Die Hard debuts, makes Bruce Willis a movie star, 1988

Literary

Iris Murdoch is born, 1919

Music

Columbia Records drops country legend Johnny Cash after 26 years, 1986

Old West

The Mad Trapper of Rat River heads for U.S., 1904

Presidential

Jimmy Carter speaks about a national "crisis in confidence", 1979

Sports

Tex Schramm dies, 2003

Vietnam War

Goldwater nominated for president, 1964

Nixon announces a visit to China, 1971

World War I

Second Battle of the Marne begins with final German offensive, 1918

World War II

Garbo makes an appearance, 1941

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Amaury · Jul 16, 2012

7/16/1945: Atom Bomb Successfully Tested

On this day in 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., the Manhattan Project comes to an explosive end as the first atom bomb is successfully tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established as early as 1939, when Italian emigre physicist Enrico Fermi met with U.S. Navy department officials at Columbia University to discuss the use of fissionable materials for military purposes. That same year, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt supporting the theory that an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction had great potential as a basis for a weapon of mass destruction. In February 1940, the federal government granted a total of $6,000 for research. But in early 1942, with the United States now at war with the Axis powers, and fear mounting that Germany was working on its own uranium bomb, the War Department took a more active interest, and limits on resources for the project were removed.

Brigadier-General Leslie R. Groves, himself an engineer, was now in complete charge of a project to assemble the greatest minds in science and discover how to harness the power of the atom as a means of bringing the war to a decisive end. The Manhattan Project (so-called because of where the research began) would wind its way through many locations during the early period of theoretical exploration, most importantly, the University of Chicago, where Enrico Fermi successfully set off the first fission chain reaction. But the Project took final form in the desert of New Mexico, where, in 1943, Robert J. Oppenheimer began directing Project Y at a laboratory at Los Alamos, along with such minds as Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, and Fermi. Here theory and practice came together, as the problems of achieving critical mass-a nuclear explosion-and the construction of a deliverable bomb were worked out.

Finally, on the morning of July 16, in the New Mexico desert 120 miles south of Santa Fe, the first atomic bomb was detonated. The scientists and a few dignitaries had removed themselves 10,000 yards away to observe as the first mushroom cloud of searing light stretched 40,000 feet into the air and generated the destructive power of 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT. The tower on which the bomb sat when detonated was vaporized.

The question now became-on whom was the bomb to be dropped? Germany was the original target, but the Germans had already surrendered. The only belligerent remaining was Japan.

A footnote: The original $6,000 budget for the Manhattan Project finally ballooned to a total cost of $2 billion.
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American Revolution

Anthony Wayne earns nickname, 1779

Automotive

World's first parking meter installed, 1935

Civil War

Draft riots continue to rock New York City, 1863

Cold War

United States conducts first test of the atomic bomb, 1945

Crime

An army doctor is accused of stabbing his family to death, 1979

Disaster

Earthquake wreaks havoc in the Philippines, 1990

General Interest

First Catholic mission in California dedicated, 1769

Apollo 11 departs Earth, 1969

JFK Jr. killed in plane crash, 1999

Hollywood

Funnyman Will Ferrell born, 1967

Literary

Catcher in the Rye is published, 1951

Music

Tommy James and the Shondells are rescued from oblivion by their #1 hit "Hanky Panky", 1966

Old West

Lewis and Clark help form Missouri Fur Company, 1808

Presidential

Congress declares Washington, D.C., new capital, 1790

Bush unveils strategy for homeland security, 2002

Sports

Durocher leaves Dodgers to manage Giants, 1948

Vietnam War

McNamara visits South Vietnam, 1965

Senate begins investigations into secret bombing of Cambodia, 1973

World War I

Romanov family executed, 1918

World War II

Marshal Petain becomes premier of occupied France, 1940

The first atomic bomb test is successfully exploded, 1945

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Amaury · Jul 17, 2012

7/17/1955: Disneyland Opens

Disneyland, Walt Disney's metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy, and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 14 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion.

Walt Disney, born in Chicago in 1901, worked as a commercial artist before setting up a small studio in Los Angeles to produce animated cartoons. In 1928, his short film Steamboat Willy, starring the character "Mickey Mouse," was a national sensation. It was the first animated film to use sound, and Disney provided the voice for Mickey. From there on, Disney cartoons were in heavy demand, but the company struggled financially because of Disney's insistence on ever-improving artistic and technical quality. His first feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), took three years to complete and was a great commercial success.

Snow White was followed by other feature-length classics for children, such as Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). Fantasia (1940), which coordinated animated segments with famous classical music pieces, was an artistic and technical achievement. In Song of the South (1946), Disney combined live actors with animated figures, and beginning with Treasure Island in 1950 the company added live-action movies to its repertoire. Disney was also one of the first movie studios to produce film directly for television, and its Zorro and Davy Crockett series were very popular with children.

In the early 1950s, Walt Disney began designing a huge amusement park to be built near Los Angeles. He intended Disneyland to have educational as well as amusement value and to entertain adults and their children. Land was bought in the farming community of Anaheim, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and construction began in 1954. In the summer of 1955, special invitations were sent out for the opening of Disneyland on July 17. Unfortunately, the pass was counterfeited and thousands of uninvited people were admitted into Disneyland on opening day. The park was not ready for the public: food and drink ran out, a women's high-heel shoe got stuck in the wet asphalt of Main Street USA, and the Mark Twain Steamboat nearly capsized from too many passengers.

Disneyland soon recovered, however, and attractions such as the Castle, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Adventures, Space Station X-1, Jungle Cruise, and Stage Coach drew countless children and their parents. Special events and the continual building of new state-of-the-art attractions encouraged them to visit again. In 1965, work began on an even bigger Disney theme park and resort near Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney died in 1966, and Walt Disney World was opened in his honor on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom were later added to Walt Disney World, and it remains Florida's premier tourist attraction. In 1983, Disneyland Tokyo opened in Japan, and in 1992 Disneyland Paris--or "EuroDisney"--opened to a mixed reaction in Marne-la-Vallee. The newest Disneyland, in Hong Kong, opened its doors in September 2005.
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American Revolution

Congress learns of war of words, 1776

Automotive

Three-point seatbelt inventor Nils Bohlin born, 1920

Civil War

John Bell Hood takes command of the Army of Tennessee, 1864

Cold War

Potsdam Conference begins, 1945

Crime

Casey Anthony released from prison, 2011

Disaster

Port Chicago disaster, 1944

General Interest

"Wrong Way" Corrigan crosses the Atlantic, 1938

Superpowers meet in space, 1975

Flight 800 explodes over Long Island, 1996

Hollywood

High Society, Grace Kellyâ€™s last film, opens, 1956

Literary

Erle Stanley Gardner is born, 1889

Music

Jimi Hendrix drops out as opening act for The Monkees, 1967

Old West

"Wild Bill" Hickok kills a soldier, 1870

Presidential

Truman records impressions of Stalin, 1945

Sports

Joe DiMaggio ends 56-game hitting streak, 1941

Vietnam War

Wheeler visits South Vietnam, 1969

South Vietnamese paratroopers fight for Citadel, 1972

World War I

Fighting in the streets of Petrograd, Russia, 1917

World War II

Potsdam Conference convenes, 1945

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Amaury · Jul 18, 2012

7/18/1940: FDR Nominated for Unprecedented Third Term

On this day in 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who first took office in 1933 as America's 32nd president, is nominated for an unprecedented third term. Roosevelt, a Democrat, would eventually be elected to a record four terms in office, the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms.

Roosevelt was born January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, and went on to serve as a New York state senator from 1911 to 1913, assistant secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1920 and governor of New York from 1929 to 1932. In 1932, he defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover to be elected president for the first time. During his first term, Roosevelt enacted his New Deal social programs, which were aimed at lifting America out of the Great Depression. In 1936, he won his second term in office by defeating Kansas governor Alf Landon in a landslide.

On July 18, 1940, Roosevelt was nominated for a third presidential term at the Democratic Party convention in Chicago. The president received some criticism for running again because there was an unwritten rule in American politics that no U.S. president should serve more than two terms. The custom dated back to the country's first president, George Washington, who in 1796 declined to run for a third term in office. Nevertheless, Roosevelt believed it was his duty to continue serving and lead his country through the mounting crisis in Europe, where Hitler's Nazi Germany was on the rise. The president went on to defeat Republican Wendell Wilkie in the general election, and his third term in office was dominated by America's involvement in World War II.

In 1944, with the war still in progress, Roosevelt defeated New York governor Thomas Dewey for a fourth term in office. However, the president was unable to complete the full term. On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt, who had suffered from various health problems for years, died at age 63 in Warm Springs, Georgia. He was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman. On March 21, 1947, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stated that no person could be elected to the office of president more than twice. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states in 1951.
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American Revolution

Naval hero John Paul Jones dies in Paris, 1792

Automotive

Juan Manuel Fangio makes Formula One debut, 1948

Civil War

Assault of Battery Wagner and death of Robert Gould Shaw, 1863

Cold War

Charges of communists in the U.S. Army raised, 1945

Crime

Twenty-one people are shot to death at McDonald's, 1984

Disaster

Nero's Rome burns, 64

General Interest

Fire of Rome, 64

Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, 1925

Spanish Civil War breaks out, 1936

Incident on Chappaquiddick Island, 1969

Video of Titanic wreckage released, 1986

Hollywood

The Dark Knight opens with highest-grossing weekend, 2008

Literary

Hunter S. Thompson is born, 1929

Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father" is published, 1995

Music

Fifteen-year-old Brenda Lee earns a #1 hit with "I'm Sorry", 1960

Old West

Singing Wobbly Joe Hill sentenced to death, 1914

Presidential

Truman signs second Presidential Succession Act, 1947

Congress preserves birthplace and property of Theodore Roosevelt, 1962

Sports

David Cone pitches perfect game, 1999

Vietnam War

Soviet Union agrees to grant Hanoi economic aid, 1955

Johnson meets Thieu in Honolulu, 1968

World War I

Allies begin major counter-offensive in Second Battle of the Marne, 1918

World War II

Mein Kampf is published, 1925

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Amaury · Jul 19, 2012

7/19/1799: Rosetta Stone Found

On this day in 1799, during Napoleon Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign, a French soldier discovers a black basalt slab inscribed with ancient writing near the town of Rosetta, about 35 miles north of Alexandria. The irregularly shaped stone contained fragments of passages written in three different scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Egyptian demotic. The ancient Greek on the Rosetta Stone told archaeologists that it was inscribed by priests honoring the king of Egypt, Ptolemy V, in the second century B.C. More startlingly, the Greek passage announced that the three scripts were all of identical meaning. The artifact thus held the key to solving the riddle of hieroglyphics, a written language that had been "dead" for nearly 2,000 years.

When Napoleon, an emperor known for his enlightened view of education, art and culture, invaded Egypt in 1798, he took along a group of scholars and told them to seize all important cultural artifacts for France. Pierre Bouchard, one of Napoleon's soldiers, was aware of this order when he found the basalt stone, which was almost four feet long and two-and-a-half feet wide, at a fort near Rosetta. When the British defeated Napoleon in 1801, they took possession of the Rosetta Stone.

Several scholars, including Englishman Thomas Young made progress with the initial hieroglyphics analysis of the Rosetta Stone. French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832), who had taught himself ancient languages, ultimately cracked the code and deciphered the hieroglyphics using his knowledge of Greek as a guide. Hieroglyphics used pictures to represent objects, sounds and groups of sounds. Once the Rosetta Stone inscriptions were translated, the language and culture of ancient Egypt was suddenly open to scientists as never before.

The Rosetta Stone has been housed at the British Museum in London since 1802, except for a brief period during World War I. At that time, museum officials moved it to a separate underground location, along with other irreplaceable items from the museum's collection, to protect it from the threat of bombs.
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American Revolution

Massachusetts begins ill-fated Penobscot expedition, 1779

Automotive

George Washington Carver begins experimental project with Henry Ford, 1942

Civil War

Morgan's raiders defeated at Buffington Island, 1863

Cold War

United States withdraws offer of aid for Aswan Dam, 1956

Crime

Mike Tyson rapes a Miss Black America contestant, 1991

Disaster

Oil tankers collide in Caribbean Sea, 1979

General Interest

Lady Jane Grey deposed, 1553

Seneca Falls Convention begins, 1848

Hollywood

Sitcom actress murdered; death prompts anti-stalking legislation, 1989

Literary

Emile Zola flees France, 1898

"Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt dies, 2009

Music

Thousands of fans join the Miami funeral procession of Celia Cruz, 2003

Old West

Doc Holliday kills for the first time, 1879

Presidential

President Arthur proclaims power to impose quarantine on immigrants, 1884

Sports

Nick Faldo wins third British Open, 1992

Vietnam War

President Khanh calls for expanding the war, 1964

Peace talks resume, 1972

World War I

Cenotaph is unveiled in London, 1919

World War II

America bombs Rome, 1943

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Amaury · Jul 20, 2012

7/20/1969: Armstrong Walks on Moon

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth." At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy's bold proposal.

In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination. Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in the fire.

Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.

At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the mission. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: "The Eagle has landed."

At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar module's ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon.

"Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon--July 1969 A.D--We came in peace for all mankind."

At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.

There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars). The expense was justified by Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.
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American Revolution

Mad Anthony Wayne loses to Loyalists in New Jersey, 1780

Automotive

U.S. government study disputes Nader's charges against Corvair, 1972

Civil War

Confederates attack at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, 1864

Cold War

Truman issues peacetime draft, 1948

Crime

A serial-killing couple is apprehended, 1984

Disaster

Second great flood hits Johnstown, 1977

General Interest

Sitting Bull surrenders, 1881

King of Jordan assassinated, 1951

Viking 1 lands on Mars, 1976

Hollywood

Bruce Lee dies at age 32, 1973

Literary

Acclaimed author Cormac McCarthy is born, 1933

Music

Jan and Dean's "Surf City" hits #1, 1963

Old West

Homesteaders murdered by Wyoming ranchers, 1889

Presidential

Nixon watches first lunar landing, 1969

Sports

Sir Edmund Hillary born, 1919

Vietnam War

Viet Cong troops overrun town, 1964

Duck Hook plan completed, 1969

World War I

Caillaux trial begins in Paris, 1914

World War II

Assassination plot against Hitler fails, 1944

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Amaury · Jul 21, 2012

7/21/1861: The First Battle of Bull Run

In the first major land battle of the Civil War, a large Union force under General Irvin McDowell is routed by a Confederate army under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard.

Three months after the Civil War erupted at Fort Sumter, Union military command still believed that the Confederacy could be crushed quickly and with little loss of life. In July, this overconfidence led to a premature offensive into northern Virginia by General McDowell. Searching out the Confederate forces, McDowell led 34,000 troops--mostly inexperienced and poorly trained militiamen--toward the railroad junction of Manassas, located just 30 miles from Washington, D.C. Alerted to the Union advance, General Beauregard massed some 20,000 troops there and was soon joined by General Joseph Johnston, who brought some 9,000 more troops by railroad.

On the morning of July 21, hearing of the proximity of the two opposing forces, hundreds of civilians--men, women, and children--turned out to watch the first major battle of the Civil War. The fighting commenced with three Union divisions crossing the Bull Run stream, and the Confederate flank was driven back to Henry House Hill. However, at this strategic location, Beauregard had fashioned a strong defensive line anchored by a brigade of Virginia infantry under General Thomas J. Jackson. Firing from a concealed slope, Jackson's men repulsed a series of Federal charges, winning Jackson his famous nickname "Stonewall."

Meanwhile, Confederate cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart captured the Union artillery, and Beauregard ordered a counterattack on the exposed Union right flank. The rebels came charging down the hill, yelling furiously, and McDowell's line was broken, forcing his troops in a hasty retreat across Bull Run. The retreat soon became an unorganized flight, and supplies littered the road back to Washington. Union forces endured a loss of 3,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in action while the Confederates suffered 2,000 casualties. The scale of this bloodshed horrified not only the frightened spectators at Bull Run but also the U.S. government in Washington, which was faced with an uncertain military strategy in quelling the "Southern insurrection."
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American Revolution

Battle of Brewster Island, 1775

Automotive

Germany passes controversial "Volkswagen Law", 1960

Civil War

First Battle of Bull Run begins, 1861

Cold War

Eisenhower presents his "Open Skies" plan, 1955

Crime

The "Trial of the Century" draws national attention, 1925

Disaster

Tsunami hits Alexandria, Egypt, 365

General Interest

Monkey Trial ends, 1925

Aswan High Dam completed, 1970

Bombers attempt to attack London transit system, 2005

Hollywood

Final Harry Potter book released, 2007

Literary

Ernest Hemingway is born, 1899

Music

"Soul Makossa" is the first disco record to make the Top 40, 1973

Old West

Wild Bill Hickok fights first western showdown, 1865

Presidential

Former President Martin Van Buren lapses into a coma, 1862

Sports

Pumpsie Green becomes first African-American to play for Red Sox, 1959

Vietnam War

Johnson considers the options, 1965

World War I

David Lloyd George delivers Mansion House speech, 1911

World War II

Hitler to Germany: "I'm still alive.", 1944

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Amaury · Jul 22, 2012

7/22/2003: Jessica Lynch Gets Her Hero's Welcome

On this day in 2003, U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero's welcome when she returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia. The story of the 19-year-old supply clerk, who was captured by Iraqi forces in March 2003, gripped America; however, it was later revealed that some details of Lynch's dramatic capture and rescue might have been exaggerated.

Lynch, who was born April 26, 1983, was part of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss, Texas. On March 23, 2003, just days after the U.S. invaded Iraq, Lynch was riding in a supply convoy when her unit took a wrong turn and was ambushed by Iraqi forces near Nasiriya. Eleven American soldiers died and four others besides Lynch were captured.

Lynch, who sustained multiple broken bones and other injuries when her vehicle crashed during the ambush, was taken to an Iraqi hospital. On April 1, she was rescued by U.S. Special Forces who raided the hospital where she was being held. They also recovered the bodies of eight of Lynch's fellow soldiers. Lynch was taken to a military hospital in Germany for treatment and then returned to the United States.

Lynch's story garnered massive media attention and she became an overnight celebrity. Various reports emerged about Lynch's experience, with some news accounts indicating that even after Lynch was wounded during the ambush she fought back against her captors. However, Lynch later stated that she had been knocked unconscious after her vehicle crashed and couldn't remember the details of what had happened to her. She also said she had not been mistreated by the staff at the Iraqi hospital and they put up no resistance to her rescue. Criticsâ€“and Lynch herselfâ€“charged the U.S. government with embellishing her story to boost patriotism and help promote the Iraq war.

In August 2003, Lynch received a medical honorable discharge. She collaborated on a book about her experience, I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, which was released later that year. In April 2007, Lynch testified before Congress that she had falsely been portrayed as a "little girl Rambo" and the U.S. military had hyped her story for propaganda reasons. According to Lynch: "I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary." She added: "The truth of war is not always easy to hear but is always more heroic than the hype."
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American Revolution

Battle of Minisink Ford, New York, 1779

Automotive

California governor signs new auto emissions legislation, 2002

Civil War

Battle of Atlanta continues, 1864

Cold War

Gorbachev accepts ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles, 1987

Crime

Dillinger joins the Navy in an attempt to avoid prosecution, 1923

Cannibal and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is caught, 1991

Disaster

Kaskaskia is inundated by flood of '93, 1993

General Interest

The Preparedness Day bombing, 1916

Wiley Post flies solo around the world, 1933

Dillinger gunned down, 1934

Qusay and Uday Hussein killed, 2003

Hollywood

March of the Penguins debuts, 2005

Literary

The Merchant of Venice is entered on the Stationers' Register, 1598

Music

Elvis Costello's debut album, My Aim Is True, is released, 1977

Old West

Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean, 1793

Presidential

Lincoln tells his cabinet about Emancipation Proclamation, 1862

Sports

Greg LeMond wins second Tour De France, 1990

Vietnam War

Taylor and Clifford begin tour of the Pacific region, 1967

North Vietnamese condemn Honolulu Conference, 1968

World War I

Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco, 1916

World War II

Deportations from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka begin, 1942

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Amaury · Jul 23, 2012

7/23/1984: Miss America Resigns

On this day in 1984, 21-year-old Vanessa Williams gives up her Miss America title, the first resignation in the pageant's history, after Penthouse magazine announces plans to publish nude photos of the beauty queen in its September issue. Williams originally made history on September 17, 1983, when she became the first black woman to win the Miss America crown. Miss New Jersey, Suzette Charles, the first runner-up and also an African American, assumed Williams' tiara for the two months that remained of her reign.

Vanessa Lynn Williams was born March 18, 1963, in Millwood, New York, to music teacher parents. She attended Syracuse University and studied musical theater. In 1982, while working a summer job as a receptionist at a modeling agency in Mt. Kisco, New York, photographer Thomas Chiapel took the nude pictures of Williams, telling her they'd be shot in silhouette and that she wouldn't be recognizable. After Williams became Miss America, the photographer sold the pictures to Penthouse without her knowledge. Williams later dropped lawsuits against the magazine and photographer after it was learned that she had signed a model release form at the time the photos were taken.

The Miss America pageant, which prides itself on projecting a wholesome, positive image of women, began in 1921 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a stunt developed by local businessmen to extend the summer tourist season. In 1945, the Miss America Organization handed out its first scholarship. Today, it provides over $45 million each year in cash and tuition assistance to contestants on the national, state and local levels. In 1954, the competition was broadcast live for the first time. Beginning in the 1980s, contestants were required to have a social platform, such as drunk-driving prevention or AIDS awareness, and Miss America winners now travel an estimated 20,000 miles a month for speaking engagements and public appearances. In 2006, following a decline in TV ratings, the pageant moved from Atlantic City for the first time in its history and took place in Las Vegas, where a new Miss America was crowned in January instead of September.

Vanessa Williams rebounded from the Miss America scandal and went on to a successful entertainment career as an actress and recording artist, performing on Broadway as well as in movies and television and releasing a number of popular albums.
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American Revolution

Connecticut Patriot Roger Sherman dies, 1793

Automotive

Honda produces 6 millionth Civic in North America, 2007

Civil War

Halleck takes command of the Union army, 1862

Cold War

An accord on Laos is reached, 1962

Crime

Black Bart strikes again, 1878

A string of mysterious deaths surrounds a Nebraska woman, 1918

Disaster

Legionnaires gather in Philly, 1976

General Interest

Military seizes power in Egypt, 1952

The 12th Street riot, 1967

Hollywood

Actor and two children killed on Twilight Zone set, 1982

Literary

Raymond Chandler is born, 1888

Music

Guns N' Roses make popular breakthrough with "Sweet Child O' Mine", 1988

Old West

Montana rancher Conrad Kohrs dies, 1920

Presidential

Former President Ulysses S. Grant dies, 1885

Sports

U.S. women take home gymnastics gold, 1996

Vietnam War

Taylor and Khanh have "heated" discussions in Saigon, 1964

Johnson urged to declare a state of national emergency, 1965

World War I

Austria-Hungary issues ultimatum to Serbia, 1914

World War II

Petain, leader of the Vichy government, dies, 1951

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Amaury · Jul 24, 2012

7/24/1911: Machu Picchu Discovered

On July 24, 1911, American archeologist Hiram Bingham gets his first look at Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world's top tourist destinations.

Tucked away in the rocky countryside northwest of Cuzco, Machu Picchu is believed to have been a summer retreat for Inca leaders, whose civilization was virtually wiped out by Spanish invaders in the 16th century. For hundreds of years afterwards, its existence was a secret known only to the peasants living in the region. That all changed in the summer of 1911, when Bingham arrived with a small team of explorers to search for the famous "lost" cities of the Incas.

Traveling on foot and by mule, Bingham and his team made their way from Cuzco into the Urubamba Valley, where a local farmer told them of some ruins located at the top of a nearby mountain. The farmer called the mountain Machu Picchu, which meant "Old Peak" in the native Quechua language. The next day--July 24--after a tough climb to the mountain's ridge in cold and drizzly weather, Bingham met a small group of peasants who showed him the rest of the way. Led by an 11-year-old boy, Bingham got his first glimpse of the intricate network of stone terraces marking the entrance to Machu Picchu.

The excited Bingham spread the word about his discovery in a best-selling book, sending hordes of eager tourists flocking to Peru to follow in his footsteps up the Inca trail. The site itself stretches an impressive five miles, with over 3,000 stone steps linking its many different levels. Today, more than 300,000 people tramp through Machu Picchu every year, braving crowds and landslides to see the sun set over the towering stone monuments of the "Sacred City" and marvel at the mysterious splendor of one of the world's most famous man-made wonders.
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American Revolution

Hancock scolds Schuyler, 1776

Automotive

Bidding starts on South Korea's Kia Motors Corp., 1998

Civil War

Battle of Kernstown, Virginia, 1864

Cold War

Nixon and Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate", 1959

Crime

A nine-year-old's murder puts an innocent man in jail, 1984

Disaster

Hundreds drown in Eastland disaster, 1915

General Interest

Mary Queen of Scots deposed, 1567

Mormons settle Salt Lake Valley, 1847

Kennedy's goal accomplished, 1969

Hollywood

Saving Private Ryan opens in theaters, 1998

Literary

O. Henry is released from prison, 1901

Music

"Eye Of The Tiger" from Rocky III tops the U.S. pop charts, 1982

Old West

Bonneville leads first wagon crossing of South Pass, 1832

Presidential

Nixon debates Khrushchev at a fair in Moscow, 1959

Sports

Lance Armstrong wins seventh Tour de France, 2005

Vietnam War

North Vietnam increases air defense capabilities, 1965

World War I

Sultan of Turkey restores constitution at demand of Young Turk rebels, 1908

World War II

Operation Gomorrah is launched, 1943

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Amaury · Jul 25, 2012

7/25/1978: World's First "Test Tube Baby" Born

On this day in 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world's first baby to be conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to parents Lesley and Peter Brown. The healthy baby was delivered shortly before midnight by caesarean section and weighed in at five pounds, 12 ounces.

Before giving birth to Louise, Lesley Brown had suffered years of infertility due to blocked fallopian tubes. In November 1977, she underwent the then-experimental IVF procedure. A mature egg was removed from one of her ovaries and combined in a laboratory dish with her husbandâ€™s sperm to form an embryo. The embryo then was implanted into her uterus a few days later. Her IVF doctors, British gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and scientist Robert Edwards, had begun their pioneering collaboration a decade earlier. Once the media learned of the pregnancy, the Browns faced intense public scrutiny. Louiseâ€™s birth made headlines around the world and raised various legal and ethical questions.

The Browns had a second daughter, Natalie, several years later, also through IVF. In May 1999, Natalie became the first IVF baby to give birth to a child of her own. The childâ€™s conception was natural, easing some concerns that female IVF babies would be unable to get pregnant naturally. In December 2006, Louise Brown, the original "test tube baby," gave birth to a boy, Cameron John Mullinder, who also was conceived naturally.

Today, IVF is considered a mainstream medical treatment for infertility. Hundreds of thousands of children around the world have been conceived through the procedure, in some cases with donor eggs and sperm.
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American Revolution

General Gates takes command of the southern army, 1780

Automotive

Henry Ford writes fan letter to Mahatma Gandhi, 1941

Civil War

Congress passes Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, 1861

Cold War

The Nixon Doctrine is announced, 1969

Crime

Head of frontier bandit placed on display, 1853

A young man turns the death of his parents into a game, 1988

Disaster

Concorde jet crashes, 2000

General Interest

The first railroad accident, 1832

Puerto Rico invaded, 1898

Ships collide off Nantucket, 1956

Dylan appears at Newport Folk Fest, 1965

Hollywood

Rock Hudson announces he has AIDS, 1985

Literary

Jack London sails for the Klondike, 1897

Music

Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival, 1965

Old West

California Rangers kill Joaquin Murrieta, 1853

Presidential

Truman drops hint to Stalin about a terrible new weapon, 1945

Sports

Opening of the XXV Olympiad in Barcelona, 1992

Vietnam War

Joint Chiefs propose air strikes, 1964

Nixon announces new doctrine, 1969

World War I

Mata Hari sentenced to die, 1917

World War II

Mussolini falls from power, 1943

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Amaury · Jul 26, 2012

7/26/1775: U.S. Portal System Established

On this day in 1775, the U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. Franklin (1706-1790) put in place the foundation for many aspects of today's mail system. During early colonial times in the 1600s, few American colonists needed to send mail to each other; it was more likely that their correspondence was with letter writers in Britain. Mail deliveries from across the Atlantic were sporadic and could take many months to arrive. There were no post offices in the colonies, so mail was typically left at inns and taverns. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin, who had been postmaster of Philadelphia, became one of two joint postmasters general for the colonies. He made numerous improvements to the mail system, including setting up new, more efficient colonial routes and cutting delivery time in half between Philadelphia and New York by having the weekly mail wagon travel both day and night via relay teams. Franklin also debuted the first rate chart, which standardized delivery costs based on distance and weight. In 1774, the British fired Franklin from his postmaster job because of his revolutionary activities. However, the following year, he was appointed postmaster general of the United Colonies by the Continental Congress. Franklin held the job until late in 1776, when he was sent to France as a diplomat. He left a vastly improved mail system, with routes from Florida to Maine and regular service between the colonies and Britain. President George Washington appointed Samuel Osgood, a former Massachusetts congressman, as the first postmaster general of the American nation under the new U.S. constitution in 1789. At the time, there were approximately 75 post offices in the country.

Today, the United States has over 40,000 post offices and the postal service delivers 212 billion pieces of mail each year to over 144 million homes and businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The postal service is the nation's largest civilian employer, with over 700,000 career workers, who handle more than 44 percent of the world's cards and letters. The postal service is a not-for-profit, self-supporting agency that covers its expenses through postage (stamp use in the United States started in 1847) and related products. The postal service gets the mail delivered, rain or shine, using everything from planes to mules. However, it's not cheap: The U.S. Postal Service says that when fuel costs go up by just one penny, its own costs rise by $8 million.
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American Revolution

Congress establishes U.S. Post Office, 1775

Automotive

Three race fans killed at Michigan Speedway, 1998

Civil War

Confederate leader John Hunt Morgan captured, 1863

Cold War

Truman signs the National Security Act, 1947

Crime

Real-life Psycho Ed Gein dies, 1984

Disaster

Grasshoppers bring ruin to Midwest, 1931

General Interest

Liberian independence proclaimed, 1847

FBI founded, 1908

Winston Churchill resigns, 1945

Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal, 1956

Hollywood

Entertainer Mick Jagger born, 1943

Literary

William Faulkner begins a screenwriting stint, 1942

Music

Van McCoy's "The Hustle" is the #1 song in America, 1975

Old West

Officer Wyatt Earp fatally wounds cowboy, 1878

Presidential

John Quincy Adams marries Louisa Johnson, 1797

Sports

Bob Mathias wins second Olympic decathlon, 1952

Vietnam War

South Vietnamese opposition leader tried and sentenced, 1968

South Vietnamese troops raise flag over Quang Tri, 1972

World War I

Australians battle Germans at Pozieres, 1916

World War II

United States freezes Japanese assets, 1941

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Amaury · Jul 27, 2012

7/27/1974: House Begins Impeachment of Nixon

On this day in 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommends that America's 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate.

The Watergate scandal first came to light following a break-in on June 17, 1972, at the Democratic Partyâ€™s national headquarters in the Watergate apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C. A group of men linked to the White House were later arrested and charged with the crime. Nixon denied any involvement with the break-in, but several of his staff members were eventually implicated in an illegal cover-up and forced to resign. Subsequent government investigations revealed "dirty tricks" political campaigning by the Committee to Re-Elect the President, along with a White House "enemies list." In July 1973, one of Nixonâ€™s former staff members revealed the existence of secretly taped conversations between the president and his aides. Nixon initially refused to release the tapes, on grounds of executive privilege and national security, but a judge later ordered the president to turn them over. The White House provided some but not all of the tapes, including one from which a portion of the conversation appeared to have been erased.

In May 1974, the House Judiciary Committee began formal impeachment hearings against Nixon. On July 27 of that year, the first article of impeachment against the president was passed. Two more articles, for abuse of power and contempt of Congress, were approved on July 29 and 30. On August 5, Nixon complied with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring that he provide transcripts of the missing tapes, and the new evidence clearly implicated him in a cover up of the Watergate break-in. On August 8, Nixon announced his resignation, becoming the first president in U.S. history to voluntarily leave office. After departing the White House on August 9, Nixon was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, who, in a controversial move, pardoned Nixon on September 8, 1974, making it impossible for the former president to be prosecuted for any crimes he might have committed while in office. Only two other presidents in U.S. history have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.
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American Revolution

Silas Deane writes Congress of success, 1776

Automotive

Last Citroen 2CV rolls off the line in Portugal, 1990

Civil War

Ardent secessionist William Lowndes Yancey dies, 1863

Cold War

Armistice ends the Korean War, 1953

Crime

Adam Walsh is abducted, 1981

Disaster

Fighter jet crashes into crowd at air show, 2002

General Interest

Robespierre overthrown in France, 1794

Insulin isolated in Toronto, 1921

First jet makes test flight, 1949

Ousted shah of Iran dies in exile, 1980

Bombing at Centennial Olympic Park, 1996

Hollywood

Bob Hope dies at 100, 2003

Literary

Elizabeth Hardwick is born, 1916

Music

Natalie Cole's Unforgettable: With Love goes to #1, 1991

Old West

Meriwether Lewis shoots Blackfoot Indian, 1806

Presidential

Nixon charged with first of three articles of impeachment, 1974

Sports

Reggie Lewis dies, 1993

Vietnam War

Pentagon announces 5,000 more troops to Vietnam, 1964

U.S. jets attack new North Vietnamese air defense sites, 1965

World War I

Germans execute British seaman Captain Charles Fryatt, 1916

World War II

Stalin issues Order No. 227â€”outlawing cowards, 1943

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Amaury · Jul 28, 2012

7/28/1868: 14th Amendment Adopted

Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

Two years after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts, where new state governments, based on universal manhood suffrage, were to be established. Thus began the period known as Radical Reconstruction, which saw the 14th Amendment, which had been passed by Congress in 1866, ratified in July 1868. The amendment resolved pre-Civil War questions of African American citizenship by stating that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States...are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside." The amendment then reaffirmed the privileges and rights of all citizens, and granted all these citizens the "equal protection of the laws."

In the decades after its adoption, the equal protection clause was cited by a number of African American activists who argued that racial segregation denied them the equal protection of law. However, in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that states could constitutionally provide segregated facilities for African Americans, so long as they were equal to those afforded white persons. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which announced federal toleration of the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine, was eventually used to justify segregating all public facilities, including railroad cars, restaurants, hospitals, and schools. However, "colored" facilities were never equal to their white counterparts, and African Americans suffered through decades of debilitating discrimination in the South and elsewhere. In 1954, Plessy v. Ferguson was finally struck down by the Supreme Court in its ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
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American Revolution

Sargent and Hutchinson arrive at Horn's Hook, New York, 1776

Automotive

Tazio Nuvolari triumphs over Germans at the Nurburgring, 1935

Civil War

Battle of Ezra Church begins, 1864

Cold War

U.S. Senate approves United Nations charter, 1945

Crime

A soft drink containing liquid cocaine sickens an unsuspecting drinker, 1990

Disaster

Plane crashes into Empire State Building, 1945

General Interest

Bonus Marchers evicted by U.S. Army, 1932

Worst modern earthquake, 1976

Hollywood

Animal House released, 1978

Literary

Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin elope to France, 1814

Music

Rudy VallÃ©e is born, 1901

Old West

Indian agent James McLaughlin dies, 1923

Presidential

Future first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy is born, 1929

Sports

Dennis Martinez pitches perfect game, 1991

Vietnam War

Johnson announces more troops to Vietnam, 1965

CIA reports minor damage done to North Vietnam's dikes, 1972

World War I

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, 1914

World War II

Hamburg suffers a firestorm, 1943

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Amaury · Jul 30, 2012

Sorry, guys. I was busy yesterday.

Anyway, here is the history for yesterday and today.

7/29/1958: NASA Created

On this day in 1958, the U.S. Congress passes legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America's activities in space. NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system and universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites that have been instrumental in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.

NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union's October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The 183-pound, basketball-sized satellite orbited the earth in 98 minutes. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America. The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U.S.-Soviet space race.

On November 3, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik II, which carried a dog named Laika. In December, America attempted to launch a satellite of its own, called Vanguard, but it exploded shortly after takeoff. On January 31, 1958, things went better with Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite to successfully orbit the earth. In July of that year, Congress passed legislation officially establishing NASA from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and other government agencies, and confirming the country's commitment to winning the space race. In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy declared that America should put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. On July 20, 1969, NASA's Apollo 11 mission achieved that goal and made history when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, saying "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

NASA has continued to make great advances in space exploration since the first moonwalk, including playing a major part in the construction of the International Space Station. The agency has also suffered tragic setbacks, however, such as the disasters that killed the crews of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986 and the Columbia space shuttle in 2003. In 2004, President George Bush challenged NASA to return to the moon by 2020 and establish "an extended human presence" there that could serve as a launching point for "human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond."
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American Revolution

French navy contacts Continentals, 1778

Automotive

General Motors buys Cadillac, 1909

Civil War

Confederate spy Belle Boyd is captured, 1862

Cold War

NASA established, 1958

Crime

Son of Sam terrorizes New York, 1976

Disaster

Rocket causes deadly fire on aircraft carrier, 1967

General Interest

Spanish Armada defeated, 1588

Tipperary Revolt ends in failure, 1848

Italian American assassinates Italian king, 1900

Prince Charles marries Lady Diana, 1981

Hollywood

Hollywood golden couple weds, 2000

Literary

Chang-Rae Lee's birthday, 1965

Music

The Doors score their first #1 hit with "Light My Fire", 1967

Old West

Escalante and Dominguez begin expedition, 1776

Presidential

President Eisenhower authorizes creation of NASA, 1958

Sports

Carl Lewis wins fourth consecutive long jump at 35, 1996

Vietnam War

101st Airborne Division arrives in Vietnam, 1965

Fire ravages U.S. carrier off Vietnam, 1967

Former U.S. Attorney General visits North Vietnam, 1972

World War I

Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and Czar Nicholas of Russia exchange telegrams, 1914

World War II

Japanese sink the USS Indianapolis, 1945

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7/30/1965: Johnson Signs Medicare into Law

On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare, a health insurance program for elderly Americans, into law. At the bill-signing ceremony, which took place at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, former President Harry S. Truman was enrolled as Medicare's first beneficiary and received the first Medicare card. Johnson wanted to recognize Truman, who, in 1945, had become the first president to propose national health insurance, an initiative that was opposed at the time by Congress.

The Medicare program, providing hospital and medical insurance for Americans age 65 or older, was signed into law as an amendment to the Social Security Act of 1935. Some 19 million people enrolled in Medicare when it went into effect in 1966. In 1972, eligibility for the program was extended to Americans under 65 with certain disabilities and people of all ages with permanent kidney disease requiring dialysis or transplant. In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA), which added outpatient prescription drug benefits to Medicare.

Medicare is funded entirely by the federal government and paid for in part through payroll taxes. Medicare is currently a source of controversy due to the enormous strain it puts on the federal budget. Throughout its history, the program also has been plagued by fraud--committed by patients, doctors and hospitals--that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Medicaid, a state and federally funded program that offers health coverage to certain low-income people, was also signed into law by President Johnson on July 30, 1965, as an amendment to the Social Security Act.

In 1977, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) was created to administer Medicare and work with state governments to administer Medicaid. HCFA, which was later renamed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is part of the Department of Health and Human Services and is headquartered in Baltimore.
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American Revolution

Isaac Shelby takes Fort Thicketty, South Carolina, 1780

Automotive

Last classic VW Beetle rolls off the line, 2003

Civil War

Union forces stopped at the Battle of the Crater, 1864

Cold War

Summit meeting in Helsinki begins, 1975

Crime

Man charged in murder of Megan Kanka, 1994

Disaster

Fighter jet collides with passenger plane, 1971

General Interest

First legislative assembly in America, 1619

Henry Moore born, 1898

USS Indianapolis bombed, 1945

England wins World Cup, 1966

Watergate affair approaches climax, 1974

Hollywood

Blair Witch Project released, 1999

Literary

Emily Bronte's birthday, 1818

Music

The Troggs take their signature hit, "Wild Thing," to #1, 1966

Old West

Chief Pocatello signs peace treaty, 1863

Presidential

President Eisenhower signs "In God We Trust" into law, 1956

Sports

Bruce Jenner wins decathlon, 1976

Vietnam War

South Vietnamese boats raid islands in the Tonkin Gulf, 1964

Nixon visits South Vietnam, 1969

World War I

Battle of Hooge, 1915

World War II

Hitler gets news of Italy's imminent defection, 1943

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jafar · Jul 30, 2012

Amaury said: ↑

7/24/1911: Machu Picchu Discovered
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machu picchu had to be discovered? i honestly thought it was one of those things that was always there.

Amaury · Jul 31, 2012

7/31/1975: Jimmy Hoffa Disappears

On July 31, 1975, James Riddle Hoffa, one of the most influential American labor leaders of the 20th century, disappears in Detroit, Michigan, never to be heard from again. Though he is popularly believed to have been the victim of a Mafia hit, conclusive evidence was never found, and Hoffa's death remains shrouded in mystery to this day.

Born in 1913 to a poor coal miner in Brazil, Indiana, Jimmy Hoffa proved a natural leader in his youth. At the age of 20, he helped organize a labor strike in Detroit, and remained an advocate for downtrodden workers for the rest of his life. Hoffa's charisma and talents as a local organizer quickly got him noticed by the Teamsters and carried him upward through its ranks. Then a small but rapidly growing union, the Teamsters organized truckers across the country, and through the use of strikes, boycotts and some more powerful though less legal methods of protest, won contract demands on behalf of workers.

Hoffa became president of the Teamsters in 1957, when its former leader was imprisoned for bribery. As chief, Hoffa was lauded for his tireless work to expand the union, and for his unflagging devotion to even the organization's least powerful members. His caring and approachability were captured in one of the more well-known quotes attributed to him: "You got a problem? Call me. Just pick up the phone."

Hoffa's dedication to the worker and his electrifying public speeches made him wildly popular, both among his fellow workers and the politicians and businessmen with whom he negotiated. Yet, for all the battles he fought and won on behalf of American drivers, he also had a dark side. In Hoffa's time, many Teamster leaders partnered with the Mafia in racketeering, extortion and embezzlement. Hoffa himself had relationships with high-ranking mobsters, and was the target of several government investigations throughout the 1960s. In 1967, he was convicted of bribery and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

While in jail, Hoffa never ceded his office, and when Richard Nixon commuted his sentence in 1971, he was poised to make a comeback. Released on condition of not participating in union activities for 10 years, Hoffa was planning to fight the restriction in court when he disappeared on July 31, 1975, from the parking lot of a restaurant in Detroit, not far from where he got his start as a labor organizer. Several conspiracy theories have been floated about Hoffaâ€™s disappearance and the location of his remains, but the truth remains unknown.
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American Revolution

Marquis de Lafayette becomes a major-general without pay, 1777

Automotive

"First Lady" of NASCAR Louise Smith born, 1916

Civil War

Union General George Thomas is born in Virginia, 1816

Cold War

Senator Robert A. Taft dies, 1953

Crime

Jimmy Hoffa vanishes, 1975

Disaster

Hurricane sinks Spanish treasure ships, 1715

General Interest

Ignatius of Loyola dies, 1556

Fugitive Vichy leader surrenders in Austria, 1945

Ranger 7 photographs moon, 1964

Hollywood

J.K. Rowling born, 1965

Literary

Daniel Defoe is put in the pillory, 1703

Music

Ahmet Ertegun is born in Istanbul, Turkey, 1923

Old West

Apache scout Martine dies, 1937

Presidential

Former President Andrew Johnson dies, 1875

Sports

Nolan Ryan wins 300th game, 1990

Vietnam War

Agreement on conduct of war, 1964

Hanoi claims that U.S. bombers have struck dikes, 1972

World War I

Third Battle of Ypres begins in Flanders, 1917

World War II

Goering orders Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution, 1941

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Amaury · Aug 1, 2012

8/1/1961: Texans Head for the Thrills at Six Flags

On this day in 1961, amusement park lovers "head for the thrills" as Six Flags Over Texas, the first park in the Six Flags chain, opens. Located on 212 acres in Arlington, Texas, the park was the first to feature log flume and mine train rides and later, the first 360-degree looping roller coaster, modern parachute drop and man-made river rapids ride. The park also pioneered the concept of all-inclusive admission price; until then, separate entrance fees and individual ride tickets were the standard. During its opening year, a day at Six Flags cost $2.75 for an adult and $2.25 for a child. A hamburger sold for 50 cents and a soda set the buyer back a dime.

The park, which took a year and $10 million to build, was the brainchild of Texas real estate developer and oilman Angus Wynne Jr., who viewed it as a short-term way to make a buck from some vacant land before turning it into an industrial complex. Wynne reportedly recouped his personal investment of $3.5 million within 18 months and changed his mind about the park's temporary status. With 17.5 million visitors in its first 10 years, the park became the Lone Star State's top for-profit tourist attraction. Today, average annual attendance at the park is over 3 million.

One of Six Flags' unique aspects was that it wasn't just a random collection of rides; it was developed around a theme: the history of Texas. The park's name was a nod to the six flags that had flown over the state at various times--France, Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, Texas and the United States. The park's rides and attractions were grouped into six themed sections that represented the cultures of these governments and enabled visitors to experience everything from cowboy culture to Southern belles and pirates. Originally, the park was to be called Texas Under Six Flags, before it was decided that Texas should never be under anything.

Angus Wynne sold Six Flags in 1969 and in the coming years, the company expanded and was resold. Today, Six Flags, Inc. is the world's largest regional theme park company and owns and operates 30 theme, water and zoological parks in North America. In 2005, almost 34 million people spent a combined 250 million hours at Six Flags parks.
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American Revolution

Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen, 1774

Automotive

First drive-through ATM opens in China, 2007

Civil War

Sheridan takes command of Army of the Shenandoah, 1864

Cold War

Helsinki Final Act signed, 1975

Crime

An ex-Marine goes on a killing spree at the University of Texas, 1966

Disaster

Mysterious flood strikes North Vietnam, 1971

General Interest

Columbus lands in South America, 1498

First World War erupts, 1914

Warsaw Revolt begins, 1944

Hollywood

MTV launches, 1981

Literary

Pope John Paul II receives record-breaking advance, 1994

Music

MTV makes its maiden broadcast, 1981

Old West

Shane released by Paramount, 1953

Presidential

Bush is suspended from flying with the Air National Guard, 1972

Sports

Michael Johnson brings home second gold, 1996

Vietnam War

North Vietnamese accuse South Vietnam and the United States of attack, 1964

World War I

First World War erupts in Europe, 1914

World War II

PT-109 sinks; Lieutenant Kennedy is instrumental in saving crew, 1943

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