Today in History: November 2nd

Happy 237th Birthday, Correspondence Committee! (See the 1772 entry below for details)



Highlights of this day in history: President Harry Truman wins re-election in an upset; South Vietnam's Ngo Dinh Diem killed after coup; Howard Hughes flies his 'Spruce Goose'; Game show scandal rocks early TV; Singer K.D. Lang born.

Other notable November 2nd events include:

1772 – American Revolutionary War: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren form the first Committee of Correspondence.

1783 – In Rocky Hill, New Jersey, US General George Washington gives his "Farewell Address to the Army".

1898 – Cheerleading is started at the University of Minnesota with Johnny Campbell leading the crowd in cheering on the football team.

1920 – In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station.

1936 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established.

1960 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Today in History: November 1st

Highlights of this day in history: The Stamp Act takes effect; The United States explodes the first hydrogen bomb; Sistine Chapel paintings are first shown to the public; The Algerian War of Independence begins; Walter Payton dies.

Other notable November 1st events include:

1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first navigated by Ferdinand Magellan during his global circumnavigation voyage.

1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1611 – William Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1800 – US President John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).

1870 – In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast.

1894 – Nicholas II becomes the new Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies.

1896 – A picture showing the unclad (bare) breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.

1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography.

1957 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.

1982 – Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of their factory in Marysville, Ohio.

Connections: The Long Chain (Part 7 of 10)

The Long Chain is the title of this week's Connections episode. Last week, we followed a path in history from the assembly line to the development of the airplane.

What happened the last time an efficient cargo-carrier was developed? This week, James Burke starts with the Dutch Fluyt ships, which were remarkably similar in principle to the modern 747, and takes us to a long history of disease, war, famine and empires, to end at the last place you'd expect.

Following the video are links to further research on the major topics of this episode, with ones that reveal the ending, as always, purposefully left out.



Links:

Boeing 747
Fluyt
Hoorn
Dutch East India Company
Bank of England
Triangular trade
Edward Lloyd
Lloyd's of London
Mary Celeste
Shipworm
Tar
Pitch
Great Northern War
Turpentine
Revolutionary War
Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald
Coal tar
Copper
Copper sheathing
James Watt
Cotton mill
William Murdoch
Frederick Albert Winsor
Gas Light and Coke Company
Gasometer
The Great Stink
Ammonia
Naphtha
Natural rubber
Charles Macintosh
Thomas Hancock
Spice trade
Anopheles Mosquito
Malaria
Cinchona
Quinine
Gin and tonic
William Henry Perkin
Mauveine
BASF
Hoechst AG
Agfa
Bayer
Indigo-Marsch
Eugénie de Montijo
Analgesic
Combine harvester
Rye bread
Junker
Fertilizer
Fritz Haber
Nitric acid
Sodium nitrate
Haber–Bosch process
Henri Moissan
Calcium carbide
Acetylene
Adolph Frank
Heinrich Caro
Potash
Wuppertal monorail
Wilhelm II
World War I
Oxyacetylene welding
Fritz Klatte
1939 New York World's Fair
Polymer

Today in History: October 31st

Highlights of this day in history: Martin Luther leads start of Protestant Reformation; President Lyndon B. Johnson halts U.S. bombing of North Vietnam; India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated; Magician Harry Houdini dies.

Other notable October 31st events include:

1864 – Nevada (click here for correct pronunciation) is admitted as the 36th U.S. state.

1917 – World War I: Battle of Beersheba – "last successful cavalry charge in history".

1941 – After 14 years of work, drilling is completed on Mount Rushmore.

1943 – World War II: An F4U Corsair accomplishes the first successful radar-guided interception.

1959 – Lee Harvey Oswald attempts to renounce his American citizenship at the US Embassy in Moscow, USSR.

1997 – 19-year-old British au pair Louise Woodward, convicted by a Cambridge, Massachusetts, jury of second-degree murder the day before, is sentenced to life in prison.

1999 – Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.

1999 – Yachtsman Jesse Martin returns to Melbourne after 11 months of circumnavigating the world, solo, non-stop and unassisted.

Today in History: October 30th

Highlights of this day in history: Escaped slave Nat Turner is captured and arrested; The Lamborghini is unveiled for the first time; Michael Jordan briefly comes out of retirement; Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds.

BONUS: Listen to the complete original October 30th, 1938 Mercury Theatre on the Air presentation of War of the Worlds here.

Other notable October 30th events include:

1864 – Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch".

1905 – Czar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.

1922 – Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy.

1944 – Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

1945 – Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.

1950 – Pope Pius XII witnesses "The Miracle of the Sun" while at the Vatican.

1974 – The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire.

1975 – The New York Daily News runs the “Ford to City: Drop Dead” headline.

1985 – Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.

2009 - The USS New York, an amphibious transport dock made with metal from the World Trade Center Towers, is officially commissioned.

Today in History: October 29th

Highlights of this day in history: 'Black Tuesday' on Wall St. as the Great Depression begins; Osama bin Laden admits ordering the Sept. 11th attacks; Suez crisis heats up; McKinley assassin executed; John Glenn returns to space.

Other notable October 29th events include:

1390 – The first trial for witchcraft in Paris begins.

1467 – Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Liege.

1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.

1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25 game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football.

1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1960 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.

1966 – National Organization For Women is founded.

1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.

1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House (Duran is later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton).

2004 – In Rome, European heads of state sign the Treaty and Final Act establishing the first European Constitution.

Today in History: October 28th

Highlights of this day in history: Harvard University founded; President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty; Gateway Arch completed.

Other notable October 28th events include:

1538 – The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established.

1919 – The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.

1936 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and makes peace overtures to the United States.

Today in History: October 27th

Highlights of this day in history: The Federalist Papers are published in New York City; President Theodore Roosevelt is born; Egypian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin win Nobel Peace Prize; John Cleese is born; Boston Red Sox win their first World Series since 1918.

BONUS: View and download your own FREE copy of the Federalist Papers here.

Other notable October 27th events include:

312 – Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.

1682 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded.

1904 – The first underground New York City Subway line opens.

1954 – Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.

1964 – Ronald Reagan delivers his "A Time for Choosing" speech on behalf of Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater.

1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.

1992 – United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is brutally murdered by shipmates for being gay, precipitating first military, then national, debate about gays in the military that resulted in the United States "Don't ask, don't tell" military policy.

1997 – October 27, 1997 mini-crash: Stock markets around the world crash because of fears of a global economic meltdown.

Today in History: October 26th

Highlights of this day in history: The last natural case of smallpox is discovered; "Baby Fae" receives a heart transplant from a baboon; The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law; The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.

Other notable October 26th events include:

1774 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1775 – King George III goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution.

1825 – The Erie Canal opens.

1861 – The Pony Express officially ceased operations.

1905 – Norway becomes independent from Sweden.

1951 – Boxer Joe Louis comes out of retirement to fight Rocky Marciano.

1958 – Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris, France.

Today in History: October 25th

Highlights of this day in history: Adlai Stevenson shows photos of Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba; The United Nations admits the People's Republic of China and expels Taiwan; The US and allies invade Grenada; "Charge of the Light Brigade" -The Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War; Geoffrey Chaucer dies; Payne Stewart dies in a plane crash.

Other notable October 25th events include:

1415 – The army of Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt.

1760 – George III becomes King of Great Britain.

1917 – Traditionally understood date of the October Revolution, involving the capture of the Winter Palace, Petrograd, Russia.

1944 – Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.

1995 – A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.

2007 – The first Airbus A380 passenger flight, operating for Singapore Airlines, with flight number SQ 380, flying scheduled service between Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

Connections: Thunder in the Skies (Part 6 of 10)

This week's Connections episode is titled Thunder in the Skies. In Wheel of Fortune, James Burke took us along the path we followed a path from computers to the assembly line.

Due to the assembly line, we rely more and more on the same fire. Due to the Little Ice Age in medieval times, more and more people also relied on the same common fire. James Burke takes us on a journey from that older common fire to another important invention.

Following the video are links to further research on the major topics of this episode, with ones that reveal the ending, as always, purposefully left out.



Links:

Production line
Energy development
Little Ice Age
Manor house
Hardwick Hall (map)
Chimney
Stairway
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Tapestry
Knitting
Button
Wainscoting/Paneling
Plasterwork
History of hygienic practices
Kitchen
Rotisserie
Window
Deforestation: Pre-industrial history
Jamestown, Virginia
Basilisk (cannon)
Carding
Calamine brass
Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche
Robert Mansell
Viscount Grandison
Abraham Darby I
Thomas Newcomen
Steam engine
James Watt
John Wilkinson (industrialist)
Industrial Revolution
Joseph Priestley
Soda water
Alessandro Volta
History of whaling
Edwin Drake
Gottlieb Daimler
Wilhelm Maybach
Gasoline
Spray nozzle
Automobile
Emil Jellinek
Mercédès Jellinek
Wilhelm Kress

Today in History: October 24th

Highlights of this day in history: Dawn of the UN; Dwight Eisenhower vows to end the Korean War; Suspects caught in D.C.-area sniper shootings; Concorde makes last trans-Atlantic flight; Civil rights activist Rosa Parks dies; Gene Roddenberry dies.

Other notable October 24th events include:

1590 – John White, The governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for the "lost" colonists.

1857 – Sheffield F.C., the world's first football club, is founded in Sheffield, England.

1861 – The First Transcontinental Telegraph line across the United States is completed, spelling the end for the 18-month-old Pony Express.

1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1917 – The day of the October revolution, The Red Revolution.

1926 – Harry Houdini's last performance, which is at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.

1929 – "Black Thursday" stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange.

1931 – The George Washington Bridge opens to public traffic.

1947 – Walt Disney testifies to the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.

1980 – Government of Poland legalizes Solidarity trade union.

2008 – "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experienced the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

Today in History: October 23rd

Highlights of this day in history: Suicide blast kills U.S. Marines and sailors in Lebanon; Students in Hungary spark Cold War revolt; President Richard Nixon agrees to turn over White House tapes; Former Enron president Jeffrey Skilling is sentenced; 'Tonight Show' host Johnny Carson born.

Other notable October 23rd events include:

1707 – The first Parliament of Great Britain meets.

1861 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases.

1915 – Woman's suffrage: In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women march on Fifth Avenue to advocate their right to vote.

1917 – Lenin calls for the October Revolution.

1929 – Great Depression: After a steady decline in stock market prices since a peak in September, the New York Stock Exchange begins to show signs of panic.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly convened for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing, Queens, New York City.

1958 – The Smurfs, a fictional race of blue dwarves, appear for the first time.

1989 – The Hungarian Republic is officially declared by president Mátyás Szűrös, replacing the communist Hungarian People's Republic.

2001 – Apple releases the iPod.

Today in History: October 22nd

BONUS: Like reading history and Bill Whittle? Check out his latest post, An Excellent Question, for some terrific recommendations of history books.



Highlights of this day in history: A Cold War crisis over Cuba leads to brink of nuclear war; Shah of Iran allowed into U.S. for treatment; 'Pretty Boy' Floyd killed; Last victim slain in D.C. sniper shootings; Cellist Pablo Casals dies.

Other notable October 22nd events include:

1836 – Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1883 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod's Faust.

1924 – Toastmasters International is founded.

1926 – J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal.

1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.

1966 – The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A' Go-Go).

Today in History: October 21st

Highlights of this day in history: Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb; Postal worker dies from inhaled anthrax; The British gain naval dominance in the Battle of Trafalgar; Carrie Fisher born.

Other notable October 21st events include:

1797 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.

1854 – Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.

1959 – In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public.

1959 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.

1973 – Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.

Today in History: October 20th

Highlights of this day in history: The Saturday Night Massacre occurs; General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines; The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood; Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick pleads guilty to Abu Grahib abuse charges; Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis; Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashes in Mississippi.

Other notable October 20th events include:

1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.

1818 – The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.

1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

1951 – The "Johnny Bright Incident" occurred in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

1973 – The Sydney Opera House opens.

1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.

Today in History: October 19th

Highlights of this day in history: Cornwallis formally surrenders at Yorktown, ending the Revolutionary War; On "Black Monday", the DJIA falls by 22%, 508 points; Napoleon I of France retreats from Moscow; The Concorde makes its first landing in New York City.

Other notable October 19th events include:

1512 – Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology.

1789 – Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.

1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1933 – Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.

1960 – The United States government places an embargo on Communist Cuba.

1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.

2003 – Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.

2005 – Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

Today in History: October 18th

Highlights of this day in history: Thomas Edison dies; James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins win the Nobel Prize for their determination of the structure of DNA; CBS announces an employee tested positive for anthrax; 4 Al-Qaeda members sentenced for their role in the 1998 United States embassy bombings; The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends two black athletes for giving a "black power" salute; Chuck Berry born.

Other notable October 18th events include:

1648 – Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.

1767 – Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.

1851 – Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million.

1898 – United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.

1925 – The Grand Ole Opry opens in Nashville, Tennessee.

1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.

1964 – The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.

1991 – Azerbaijan declares independence from USSR.

Connections: Wheel of Fortune (Part 5 of 10)

Wheel of Fortune is the name of this week's Connections episode. In last week's episode, James Burke began with communications networks, and followed the path to computers.

What happened long ago, when, like computers, we first mastered the ability to work with data to try and predict the future? Among other things, we accidentally gained knowledge from the past that would take us farther into the future than we could ever expect.

Following the video are links to further research on the major topics of this episode, with ones that reveal the ending, as always, purposefully left out.



Links:

Punch card
Computer
Planetarium
Astronomy
Zodiac
Planet
Ptolemy
Almagest
Geocentric model
Astronomy in medieval Islam
Astrolabe (Astrolabe history)
Al-Mansur
Gundeshapur
Academy of Gundishapur
Salerno/medical learning revival
Toledo, Spain
Spanish Inquisition (I bet you didn't expect that!)
Jocelyn de Brakelond
Water clock
Verge and foliot
12-hour clock
Clockspring
Fusee
Nuremberg eggs
Nuremberg
Hans Lippershey
Telescope
Galileo Galilei
Pendulum
Christiaan Huygens
Celestial navigation
Benjamin Huntsman
Jesse Ramsden
Polelathe
Henry Maudslay
Block (sailing)
Marc Isambard Brunel
Honoré Blanc
Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr.

Today in History: October 17th

Highlights of this day in history: OPEC starts an oil embargo; American troops defeat the British in the Battle of Saratoga; The Loma Prieta earthquake hits the San Francisco Bay Area; Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion; Arthur Miller born.

Other notable October 17th events include:

1604 – German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus.

1781 – General Charles Cornwallis offers his surrender to the American revolutionists at Yorktown, Virginia.

1814 – London Beer Flood occurs in London killing nine.

1888 – Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1907 – Guglielmo Marconi's company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.

1933 – Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the U.S..

1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.

1979 – Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2006 – The United States population reaches 300 million.

2007 – The Dalai Lama receives the United States Congressional Gold Medal.