Today in History

SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2009

Today is Saturday, May 23, the 143rd day of 2009. There are 222 days left in the year. 1430 _ Joan of Arc captured by Burgundians at Compiegne, who sell her to the British 1785 _ Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals 1867 _ Jesse James-gang rob bank in Richmond, Mo. (two die, $4,000 taken) 1900 _ Associated Press News Service forms in New York 1922 _ Walt Disney incorporates his first film company Laugh-O-Gram Films 1945 _ Winston Churchill resigns as British P.M. 1949 _ Federal Republic of [West] Germany proclaimed (Republic Day) 1956 _ Presbyterian Church begins accepting women ministers 1958 _ Mao Tse-tung starts ``Great leap forward" movement in China 1969 _ The Who release the rock opera ``Tommy"

May 22, 2009

FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2009

Today is Friday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2009. There are 223 days left in the year. 1570 _ First atlas, with 70 maps, published 1761 _ First life insurance policy in U.S., issued in Philadelphia 1856 _ Violence in Senate, South Carolina Representative Brooks used a cane on Massachusetts Senator Sumner 1892 _ Washington Sheffield invents toothpaste tube 1900 _ Associated Press organizes in NYC as nonprofit news cooperative 1906 _ Wright Brothers patent an airplane 1926 _ Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Guomindang, China 1939 _ Hitler and Mussolini sign ``Pact of Steel" 1973 _ President Nixon confesses his role in Watergate cover-up 1990 _ North and South Yemen merge to form Republic of Yemen

May 21, 2009

THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2009

Today is Thursday, May 21, the 141st day of 2009. There are 224 days left in the year. 1840 _ New Zealand became a British colony 1892 _ Ruggiero Leoncavallo's opera ``I Pagliacci" premieres in Milan 1908 _ First horror movie (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde) premieres in Chicago 1916 _ Britain begins ``Summer Time" (Daylight Savings Time) 1922 _ Pulitzer prize awarded to Eugene O'Neill (Anna Christie) 1945 _ Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart wed 1956 _ U.S. explodes first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll 1978 _ 118 Unification church couples wed in England 1979 _ Elton John becomes first western rocker to perform live in the USSR 1982 _ British troops lands on Falkland Islands

May 20, 2009

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009

Today is Wednesday, May 20, the 140th day of 2009. There are 225 days left in the year. 1293 _ Earthquake strikes Kamakura Japan, 30,000 killed 1310 _ Shoes were made for both right & left feet 1498 _ Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calcutta India 1862 _ Homestead Act provides cheap land for settlement of the West 1867 _ British parliament rejects John Stuart Mills law on women suffrage 1874 _ Levi Strauss markets blue jeans with copper rivets, price $13.50 doz 1895 _ First commercial movie performance (153 Broadway, NYC) 1900 _ Second modern Olympic games opens in Paris France (lasted five months) 1927 _ Saudi Arabia becomes independent of Great Britain (Treaty of Jedda) 1944 _ U.S. Communist Party dissolves

May 19, 2009

TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2009

Today is Tuesday, May 19, the 139th day of 2009. There are 226 days left in the year. 1568 _ English queen Elizabeth I arrests Scottish queen Mary 1780 _ About midday, near-total darkness descends on much of New England to this day its cause is still unexplained 1848 _ Mexico gives Texas to U.S., ending the war 1950 _ New York Times reports of world's smallest and dumbest mechanical brain 1951 _ U.N. begins counter offensive in Korea 1964 _ U.S. diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in the Moscow embassy 1967 _ USSR ratifies treaty with England and U.S. banning nuclear weapons in space 1967 _ U.S. bombs Hanoi 1979 _ Guitarist Eric Clapton marries Patti Boyd 1993 _ Dow Jones closes above 3,500 for first time (3,500.03)

May 18, 2009

MONDAY, MAY 18, 2009

Today is Monday, May 18, the 138th day of 2009. There are 227 days left in the year. 1804 _ Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France 1933 _ Tennessee Valley Act (TVA) Act signed by FDR, to build dams 1934 _ Congress approves ``Lindbergh Act," making kidnapping a capital offense 1944 _ Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars from Crimea by Soviet Union begins, they are accused of collaborating with the Germans 1953 _ First woman to break the sound barrier (Jacqueline Cochrane, USA) 1956 _ Mickey Mantle hits homerun from both sides of plate for record third time 1974 _ India becomes sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb 1978 _ Italy legalizes abortion 1982 _ Unification Church founder Reverend Moon Sun-myung convicted of tax evasion 1990 _ East and West Germany sign a monetary union treaty

May 17, 2009

SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2009

Today is Saturday, May 16, the 136th day of 2009. There are 229 days left in the year. 1532 _ Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor 1770 _ Marie Antoinette (14) marries future King Louis XVI (15) of France 1860 _ Republican convention (Chicago) selects Abraham Lincoln candidate 1920 _ Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) canonized a saint in Rome 1939 _ Food stamps are first issued 1965 _ Spaghetti-O's first sold 1974 _ Helmut Schmidt becomes West German chancellor 1975 _ India annexes Principality of Sikkim 1975 _ Japanese Junko Tabei became first woman to reach Mount Everest's summit 1991 _ Queen Elizabeth becomes first British monarch to address US congress

May 15, 2009

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2009

Today is Friday, May 15, the 135th day of 2009. There are 230 days left in the year. 1525 _ German Boer army surrounded/slaughters 5,000; ends Boer War 1536 _ Anna Boleyn and Lord Rochford accused of adultery/incest 1618 _ Johannes Kepler discovers harmonics law 1672 _ First copyright law enacted by Massachusetts 1730 _ Robert Walpole becomes England first prime minister (was chief minister) 1928 _ Mickey Mouse made his first appearance 1953 _ Heavyweight Rocky Marciano KOs Joe Walcott in Chicago for heavyweight boxing title 1957 _ First British H-bomb explosion (over Christmas Island) 1961 _ 36 Unification church couples wed in Korea 1989 _ Soviet President Gorbachev in Beijing for first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years

May 14, 2009

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2009

Today is Thursday, May 14, the 134th day of 2009. There are 231 days left in the year. 1787 _ Delegates gather in Philadelphia to draw up U.S. constitution 1811 _ Paraguay gains independence from Spain (National Day) 1878 _ Vaseline is first sold (registered trademark for petroleum jelly) 1908 _ First passenger flight in an airplane 1921 _ Florence Allen is first woman judge to sentence a man to death 1945 _ Kamikaze-Zero strikes U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise 1948 _ U.S. grants Israel de facto recognition 1986 _ Institute for War documents publishes Anne Franks complete diary 1989 _ Demonstration for democratic reforms in Beijing's Tiananmen square 1995 _ Dalai Lama proclaims six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima 11th reincarnation of Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most senior spiritual leader

May 13, 2009

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2009

Today is Wednesday, May 13, the 133rd day of 2009. There are 232 days left in the year. 1110 _ Crusaders march into Beirut causing a bloodbath 1637 _ Cardinal Richelieu of France creates the table knife 1643 _ Heavy earthquake strikes Santiago Chile; kills 1/3 of population 1767 _ Mozart's opera ``Apollo et Hyacinthus" premieres in Salzburg 1830 _ Republic of Ecuador is founded, with Juan Jose Flores as president 1930 _ Farmer killed by hail in Lubbock TX; this is the only known fatality due to hail 1950 _ Diner's Club issues its first credit cards 1965 _ Several Arab nations break ties with West Germany after it established diplomatic relations with Israel 1966 _ Rolling Stones release ``Paint it Black" 1989 _ Approximately 2,000 students begin hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China

May 12, 2009

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