This Day in History

[GordMay]

February 20

1524: German mathematician and astronomer, Johannes Stöffler predicted a world-wide flood would occur on this date. He chose this date due to the numerous planetary conjunctions that would occur in the sign of Pisces (the water sign). Count Von Iggleheim built a three-story ark for the occasion. When it started to rain, riots broke out among those trying to get a seat on his ark. Hundreds were killed, and the Count was stoned to death.

1811: Austria declares bankruptcy.

1823: English Captain James Weddell reaches 74°15' S, 1520 km from South Pole.

1856: The steam packet-ship 'John Rutledge', en route from Liverpool to New York, hits an iceberg and sinks, with the loss of 120 passengers and 19 crew; only one survivor (Thomas Nye of New Bedford).

1873: British Naval Officer John Moresby discovers the site of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and claims it for Britain.

1913: Works to build Australia's capital city commence. Canberra is an entirely planned city, and was chosen as the Australian capital, as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne.

1941: 1st transport of Jews to concentration camps leave Plotsk Poland; and Nazi Germany orders Polish Jews barred from using public transportation.

1959: Jimi Hendrix (16 y/o), rock and roll guitarist, plays his first gig in the Temple De Hirsch synagogue basement, Seattle. He is fired from the band after the 1st set, due to "wild" playing.

1959: The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled, by the Diefenbaker government, amid much political debate.

1962: John Glenn becomes the 1st American to orbit the Earth [3 time, in just under five hours] , aboard Friendship 7. Glenn’s flight came almost a year after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth, on April 12, 1961.

1971: An "emergency nuclear attack warning" is broadcast on U.S. television and radio, when the National Emergency Warning Center accidentally sent out the warning. For the next 40 minutes, regularly scheduled programming was put on hold, while listeners waited to hear an announcement from the White House. After the operators realized their mistake, they tried to cancel the alert. However, they were unable to find the correct cancellation code word, "impish", so many stations ignored the cancellation.

1972: Journalist, Walter Winchell, dies. He popularized the phrase "America, love it or leave it" (1950s), which he used in defense of Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunts.

2005: Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.

2016: Tropical Cyclone Winston hits Fiji, killing at least 29 - most powerful storm on record in Southern Hemisphere winds 296 kilometers per hour (184 mph).

[GordMay]

February 21

1848: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish "The Communist Manifesto" in London,

1907: SS ‘Berlin’ sinks off the Hook of Holland (142 dead).

1916: Battle of Verdun begins with a German offensive, leads to an estimated 1 million casualties and becomes the longest battle of the entire war (9 months).

1917: British troopship SS ‘Mendi’ sinks off Isle of Wight (646 dead).

1918: The last-known specimen of the Carolina parakeet dies at the Cincinnati Zoo. The last-known wild specimen had died in 1904.

1922: Airship "Rome" explodes at Hampton Roads, Virginia (34 dead).

1965: Civil rights activist Malcolm X is shot dead by Nation of Islam followers at Audubon Ballroom in New York City.
Or did they? ➥ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/...lcolm-x-murder

[GordMay]

February 22

1632: Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" is published.
➥ http://people.reed.edu/~wieting/math.../Dialogue1.pdf

1825: Russia and Britain establish the Alaska/Canada boundary [Treaty of Saint Petersburg], which set the southern coastal border of the Panhandle at 54°40’ N latitude (near the modern town of Prince Rupert, BC).

1909: Great White Fleet, 1st US fleet to circle the globe, returns to Norfolk, Virginia.

1940: German air force sinks 2 German destroyers, ‘Leberecht Maass’ and ‘Max Schultz’, killing 578.

1979: St Lucia gains independence from Britain.

[ozsailer]

Gday Gordy, just found this thead after all this time. Great job lad.



Ozsailer

[GordMay]

February 23

1954: Children receive first polio vaccine. A group of children, from Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, receive the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.

1945: U.S. Marines plant an American flag atop Mount Suribachi, on Iwo Jima.

1836: Santa Anna lays siege at the Alamo.
During the Texas war for independence, Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna began a siege of the Alamo, which was captured after 13 days, and which became a symbol of heroic resistance for Texans .

[GordMay]

February 24

303: First official Roman edict for persecution of Christians, issued by Emperor Diocletian.

1582: Pope Gregory XIII announces New Style (Gregorian) calendar.

1813: The American sloop Hornet sinks the British sloop Peacock, mouth of Demerara River, Guyana.
More ➥ https://www.history.navy.mil/our-col...s-peacock.html

1821: Mexico gains independence from Spain.

1868: US House of Representatives vote 126 to 47 to impeach President Andrew Johnson.

1895: The Cuban War of Independence begins.

1942: The Voice of America goes on the air, for the first time, under the Office of War Information, with news programs aimed at Japan, the south Pacific, and to areas of Europe and North Africa under the occupation of Nazi Germany.

1991: Gulf War ground offensive begins. After six weeks of intensive bombing against Iraq and its armed forces, U.S.-led coalition forces launch a ground invasion, Operation Desert Storm, of Kuwait and Iraq,

2008: The world's first biofuel-powered commercial aircraft has touched down in Amsterdam. It flew to Holland from London's Heathrow Airport, and has been hailed as a first step towards cleaner flying. The Virgin Atlantic jumbo used a fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts. Environmentalists have branded the flight a publicity stunt, and claim biofuel cultivation is not sustainable.
More ➥ https://interestingengineering.com/v...mercial-flight

2020: Scientists identify the first animal [Henneguya salminicola], that doesn't need oxygen to breathe, a tiny parasite living in Chinook salmon tissue, reported in journal PNAS.
“A cnidarian parasite of salmon (Myxozoa: Henneguya) lacks a mitochondrial genome” ~ by Dayana Yahalomi et al
➥ https://www.pnas.org/content/117/10/5358

[GordMay]

February 25

1799: US Congress passes 1st federal quarantine legislation.

1815: Napoleon leaves his exile, on the island of Elba, returning to France.

1836: Samuel Colt patents the first revolving cylinder multi-shot firearm.

1907: US proclaims protectorate over Dominican Republic.

1913: The Sixteenth Amendment, which paved the way for the United States adoption of income tax, was ratified.

1919: Oregon became the first US state to impose a 1 percent tax on gasoline.

1932: Austrian immigrant, Adolf Hitler, gets German citizenship.

1964: Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) TKOs Sonny Liston, for his first world title. Liston was an 8-to-1 favorite.

1969: Mariner 6 launched, for fly-by of Mars.

1977: Liberian oil tanker, “Hawaiian Patriot”, explosion west of Honolulu spills 31 million gallons. The merchant ship “Philippine Bataan” rescued 38 of the men, who leaped into five foot seas, from the flaming vessel. One crewman died.

2012: World Health Organization removes India from the list of polio endemic countries. Today, polio is extremely rare. In 2019 there were 175 cases of wild polio, and 364 cases of vaccine-derived polio; only Afghanistan and Pakistan reported cases of the wild disease.

2018: China briefly bans the letter 'N', as part of widespread censorship efforts.
More ➥ https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/01/asia/...etter-ban-trnd

[GordMay]

February 26:

2012: Trayvon Martin, an African American teen walking home from a trip to a convenience store, is fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer patrolling the townhouse community of the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman later claimed to have shot the unarmed 17-year-old out of self-defense during a physical altercation.

1993: World Trade Center is bombed, 6 people died in the blast.

1991: The world's first web browser is presented to the public. The browser “WorldWideWeb” (later renamed “Nexus”) was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the internet.

1952: Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces Great Britain has developed its own atomic bomb.

1616: Roman Inquisition delivers injunction to Galileo demanding he abandon his belief in heliocentrism.

[GordMay]

February 27

837: 5th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

1665: Battle at Elmina, Gold Coast: Vice-admiral De Ruyter beats English.

1700: English explorer [and pirate], William Dampier is the 1st British person to visit the Pacific Island of New Britain, which he names.

1827: 1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans.

1879: Russian Chemist, Constantin Fahlbergm discovers saccharin.

1933: The Reichstag, German parliament building, destroyed by fire; possibly set by the Nazis, who blame and execute Martin van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist.

1940: Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14 (radiocarbon dating), at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California.

1942: Battle of Java Sea began: 13 US warships sunk and 2 Japanese.
1942: J S Hey discovers radio emissions from Sun.

1951: 22nd amendment ratified, limiting US Presidents to 2 [elected] terms.

1967: Antigua & St Christopher-Nevis become associated states of UK.
1967: Dominica gains independence from England.

1968: CBS news anchor [and sailor], Walter Cronkite, delivers a scathing editorial on America's chances of winning the Vietnam War.
When President Lyndon Johnson saw that newscast, he turned to his press secretary, George Christian, and famously said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost the country."
➥ https://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/...ditorial-1968/

1973: American Indian Movement occupy Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

1977: Keith Richards gets suspended sentence for heroin possession, Canada.

1990: Final day of the rum ration in the Royal New Zealand Navy [‘Black Tot Day’].

2020: Biggest cosmic explosion ever detected from a supermassive black hole in Ophiuchus galaxy, 390 million lights years away, published in "Astrophysical Journal"
“Discovery of a Giant Radio Fossil in the Ophiuchus Galaxy Cluster” ~ by S. Giacintucci et al
➥ https://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...57/ab6a9d/meta

[GordMay]

February 28

1066: Westminster Abbey, the most famous church in England, opens its doors.

1832: Naturalist Charles Darwin, aboard HMS Beagle, arrives in the town of Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia.

1916: Haiti becomes the first U.S. protectorate.

1924: U.S. troops are sent to Honduras, to protect American interests, during an election conflict.

1953: Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of DNA-molecule (double-helix polymer).

1986: Olof Palme, the internationally prominent prime minister of Sweden (1969–76, 1982–86), was assassinated in Stockholm.

1993: Gun battle erupts near Waco, Texas, at Branch Davidian compound, after FBI attempts a raid.

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

[GordMay]

March 1:

1565: Portuguese soldier Estácio de Sá founds the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1692: In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, an enslaved woman from the Barbados, are charged with the illegal practice of witchcraft.

1780: Pennsylvania becomes 1st US state to abolish slavery (for newborns only).

1781: The US Articles of Confederation are finally ratified, [the first constitution of the United States of America], after ratification by the 13th state, Maryland.

1845: US President John Tyler signs a resolution annexing the Republic of Texas.

1854: SS “City of Glasgow” leaves Liverpool harbour, with approximately 480 passengers and crew. She was never seen again.

1872: US President Grant signs the bill creating the nation’s first national park at Yellowstone.

1932: The "Lindbergh kidnapping", 20 month old son [Charles Lindbergh, Jr.] of Charles and Anne Lindbergh kidnapped from home. Found dead, May 12.

1949: Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires with a 66-3-0 record, including 52 KOs; defended the title a record 25 times.

1953: After an all-night movie and dinner session, with his top advisers, Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke, and collapses. He dies four days later.

1961: US President Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps [Executive Order #10924.]

1966: 'Venera 3' becomes 1st man-made object to impact on a planet [Venus].

1969: New York Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle announces his retirement from baseball.

1972: Club of Rome publishes report “The Limits to Growth”.
➥ https://www.clubofrome.org/publicati...its-to-growth/

[GordMay]

This Day in Weather History:
➥ https://www.theweathernetwork.com/weatherhistory

March 1st, 2004:
The CN Tower had a 31-year streak and then a chunk of ice fell on a pedestrian.
At the time, it was the tallest free-standing structure in the world.
➥ https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca...the-first-time

[GordMay]

Sorry, I missed it:
International Polar Bear Day was February 27th
Polar bear cubs are born in winter, in dens hidden under the snow. At birth, they are blind, weigh about one pound, and have only a light layer of fur to protect them from the cold. Families remain in the den until spring, when the cubs are finally large enough to survive the rigors of outside Arctic conditions. Denning is the most vulnerable time in a polar bear’s life. And in a warming Arctic, where polar bears face enormous challenges, the survival of every single cub is critically important.

[GordMay]

March 2

1498: Vasco da Gama's fleet visits Mozambique Island.

1807: US Congress abolishes the African slave trade, passing an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States … from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.”
➥ https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.ed...f-slaves-1807/

1836: During the Texas Revolution, a convention of American Texans meets at Washington-on-the-Brazos, and declares the independence of Texas from Mexico. The delegates chose David Burnet as provisional president, and confirmed Sam Houston as the commander in chief of all Texan forces. The Texans also adopted a constitution, that protected the free practice of slavery, which had been prohibited by Mexican law.

1867: The first Reconstruction Act is passed by US Congress.

1872: Métis leader [Red River Uprising], Louis Riel, goes into voluntary exile, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1917: President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act, under which Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory, and Puerto Ricans were granted statutory citizenship, meaning that citizenship was granted by an act of Congress, and not by the Constitution (thus it was not guaranteed by the Constitution).

1945: MacArthur raises the U.S. flag on Corregidor, in the Philippines.

1962: Philadelphia Warriors center, Wilt Chamberlain, scores 100 points against the New York Knicks [169-147]. It was the first [& still only] time that a professional basketball player had scored 100 points, in a single contest. The previous record, 78, had been set by Chamberlain earlier in the season.

1969: 1st test flight of the supersonic Concorde.

1981: Discovery of minor planet 5020 Asimov, named after sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov.

1989: Tanker Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spills 117,000 gallons of oil.

2000: America's Cup, Auckland: Team New Zealand beats Italian yacht Prada Challenge by 0.48s for a 5-0 series sweep. NZ only the 2nd country in 150 years to successfully defend the Cup.

2003: America's Cup, Auckland: Swiss yacht Alinghi beats Team New Zealand by 0.44s to sweep series, 5-0; Alinghi's Russell Coutts wins last 14 America's Cup races he's competed in as skipper; most in history.

2014: President Vladimir Putin receives unanimous approval, from Russia's parliament, to send troops to the Ukraine.

[GordMay]

March 3:

1776: American commodore Esek Hopkins lands Marines at Nassau, Bahamas. The Raid of Nassau (March 1–10, 1776) was a naval operation, and amphibious assault, by Colonial forces, against the British port of Nassau, during the American Revolutionary War.

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

1883: Congress authorizes the 1st steel vessels in US navy, protected cruisers Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and the gunboat Dolphin, known as the "ABCD Ships". These ships paved the way for the armored battleships, such as Texas and Maine.

1899: George Dewey becomes 1st in US to hold the rank of Admiral of the Navy.

1921: U of T's Drs Banting & Best announce discovery of insulin.

1923: US Senate rejects membership of the International Court of Justice, The Hague.

1939: Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast in Mumbai (Bombay) to protest against autocratic rule in India.

1991: Rodney King stars in video, avoids speeding ticket.

2005: Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane around the world solo without any stops without refueling - a journey of 40,234 km/25,000 mi completed in 67 hours and 2 minutes.

2019: SpaceX's Dragon capsule successfully docks with the International Space Station during its demonstration run.