Today in history

[gsdx]

1892 - the first long distance telephone line between New York and Chicago was officially opened

There were actually 2 long distance calls, both placed by Bell, before that. The first was on August 10, 1876, between Branford, Ontario, to Paris, Ontario. The second was on February 12, 1877, from Salem, Mass. to Boston, Mass.

The first phone call was Bell summoning his assistant, Thomas Watson who was in another room, to his laboratory. The first words ever transmitted were during that call: "Mr. Watson, come here - I want to see you."

From room to room, from town to town, from city to city, from state to state in less than 15 years.

 

[rareboy]

Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile

These kuntz got marriaged.

And besides the Inquisition....threw money at a down-at-heel Italian who though he could find a route to India.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ferdinand_of_Aragon,_Isabella_of_Castile.jpg

 

[rareboy]

1216: King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.

 

[smokeshadow]

1789 - John Jay was sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court
1944 - the U. S. Navy began accepting black women into the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES)
1953 - the Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451, set in a dystopian future where books are banned and burned by the government, was first published
1960 - the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested during a sit-down protest at a lunch counter in Atlanta

 

[unloadonme]

1216: King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.

I was in Worcester Cathedral recently where King John's tomb and effigy can still be seen.

 

[smokeshadow]

1803 - the U. S. Senate retified the Louisiana Purchase
1967 - a jury in Meridian, Mississippi, convicted seven men of violating the civil rights of 3 slain civil rights workers; receiving prison terms ranging from three to ten years
1977 - 3 members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed along with 3 others in the crash of a chartered aircraft near McComb, Mississippi

 

[rareboy]

1097 1st Crusaders arrive in Antioch during the First Crusade


Well that went well.

 

[gsdx]

^ Couldn't find the Holy Hand Grenade, eh?

 

[smokeshadow]

1797 - the U. S. Navy frigate, USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, was christened in Boston Harbor
1805 - a British fleet under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the French / Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson did not survive the engagement
1897 - Thomas Edison perfected a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey
1912 - Classical music conductor Sir Georg Solti was born Gyorgy Stern in Budapest
1917 - Members of the 1st Division of the U. S. Army training in Luneville, France, became the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War I
1944 - During World War II, U. S. troops captured the German city of Aachen
1960 - Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon clashed in their fourth and final presidential debate in New York
1962 - The Seattle World's Fair closed after 6 months and nearly 10 million visitors. President John F. Kennedy, scheduled to attend the closing ceremonies, cancelled his appearance because what was described as a head-cold. The actual reason turned out to be the escallating Cuban Missle Crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_21_Exposition

 

[smokeshadow]

1836 - Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas
1883 - The original Metropolitan Opera House in New York held its grand opening
1962 - President John F. Kennedy revealed the presence of Soviet-built missile bases under construction in Cuba and announced a quarantine of all offensive military equipment being shipped to the island nation
1979 - the U. S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment, a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis
1986 - President Ronald Reagan signed into law sweeping tax-overhaul legislation

 

[rareboy]

1721 Tsar Peter the Great becomes "All-Russian Imperator"

 

[Kulindahr]

1986 - President Ronald Reagan signed into law sweeping tax-overhaul legislation

Nice to see it called "tax overhaul" rather than the usual "tax reform".

 

[rareboy]

0439

Carthage, the leading Roman city in North Africa, falls to Genseric and the Vandals.

 

[Outlooker]

1931: Gangster Al Capone, known as Scarface, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion.

 

[unloadonme]

24 October 1537 - Death of Jane Seymour, Queen Consort of England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Seymour

 

[smokeshadow]

1648 - The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War and effectively destroyed the Holy Roman Empire
1931 - the George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, was officially dedicated. It opened to traffic the next day.
1940 - the 40 hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
1945 - the United Nations officially came into existence as its charter took effect
1962 - a naval quarantine of Cuba ordered by President Kennedy went into effect during the missile crisis
1972 - Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who'd broken Major League Baseball's modern-era color barrier in 1947, died in Stamford, Connecticut, at age 53

 

[gsdx]

1972 - Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who'd broken Major League Baseball's modern-era color barrier in 1947, died in Stamford, Connecticut, at age 53

Jackie finally found a team that would take him... in Montreal, Canada:

 

[Outlooker]

October 25, 1881: Pablo Picasso is born in Málaga, Spain.

 

[unloadonme]

25 October 1415 - On St Crispin's Day, the English beat the French at the Battle of Agincourt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt

 

[rareboy]

Pablo Picasso born in 1881 in Malaga, Andalusia, Spain.