momentsinhistory

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of January 1st history…

177 - Commodus, son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, becomes consul for 1st time at 15 years old - then youngest ever in Roman history

630 - Prophet Muhammed sets out with his army towards Mecca, capturing it bloddlessly

1724 - Daniel Farenheit proposes a system for making thermometers and the Farenheit temperature scale

1818 - Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” is published anonymously (pictured)

1862 - 1st US income tax - 3% of incomes >$600, and 5% greater then $10,000

1863 - Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln to free slaves in US confederate states

1892 - Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station - would go on to be the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people

1896 - German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen announces discovery of x-rays

1939 - Hewlett-Packard founded in Palo Alto, CA “the birthplace of Silicon Valley”

1979 - US and China (People’s Republic) begin diplomatic relations

2018 - Initiative of 300 Hollywood women called “Time’s Up” announced to fight sexual harassment 

[momentsinhistory]

A bit of December 31st…

1744 - English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble)

1904 - 1st New Years Eve celebration held in Times Square NYC

1907 - 1st time the ball drops at Times Square to signal the New Year (pictured)

1911 - Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry for her work with radioactivity

1935 - Charles Darrow patents board game Monopoly, goes on to be 1st millionaire game designer

1955 - the General Motors Corporation becomes the 1st US corporation to make over a billion dollars in a year

1967 - Evel Knievel fails in his attempt to jump Caesar’s Palace Fountain, Las Vegas, breaking his pelvis, femur, wrist, hip, and both ankles

1997 - Microsoft buys Hotmail email service for $400 million and relaunches it as MSN Hotmail

2010 - “The Walking Dead” premiers 

2020 - WHO grants Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization, paving the way for worldwide distribution

[momentsinhistory]

A bit of December 30th history…

1835 - Georgia gold rush forces Cherokees to move across the Mississippi River 

1906 - The All India Muslim League is founded, later laid down the foundations of Pakistan

1924 - Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announces existence of other galactic systems at the American Astronomical Society (pictured)

1972 - US President Nixon halts bombing of North Vietnam and announces peace talks

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 29th history…

1170 - English Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, is assassinated before the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral by 4 knights

1835 - Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokees east of the Mississippi River to the US (pictured)

1851 - 1st American Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) opened

1852 - Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants

1890 - US 7th Cavalry massacre 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee, SD

1940 - Worst German air raid on London as over 10,000 bombs, including the 1st incendiary bombs, are dropped on the city as part of the blitz

1970 - Occupational Safety and Health Act signed into law by President Nixon

2016 - US President Obama retaliates against Russia for hacking American computer systems and trying to influence the 2016 presidential election by ejecting 35 Russian spies and imposing sanctions 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 28th history…

1065 - Westminster Abbey in London consecrated (pictured)

1860 - Harriet Tubman arrives in NY on her last mission to free slaves, having evaded capture for 8 years on the Underground Railroad

1912 - 1st municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, CA as SF Municipal Railway starts operation

1948 - US announced a study to launch an Earth satellite

1973 - US President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law

1981 - 1st American test-tube baby is born

2012 - Putin signs into law a ban on US adoption of Russian children 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 27th history…

537 - Hagia Sophia inaugurated by Emperor Justinian I as Eastern Orthadox Cathedral

1512 - Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regards to native indians in the New World

1831 - HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board departs England for a survey of South America, a voyage Darwin later said “determined my whole career”  (pictured)

1932 - Radio City Music Hall in US opens 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 26th history…

1492 - 1st Spanish settlement, La Navidad, in the New World is founded by Columbus - modern Mole-Saint-Nicolas in Haiti

1620 - Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory (the Blood Countess)’s crimes and serial murders are uncovered (pictured)

1854 - Wood pulp paper 1st exhibited

1973 - “The Exorcist” premiers - 1st horror film nominated for Best Picture

2004 - 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia killing 230,000 people 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 25th history…

274 - Roman Emperor Aurelian dedicates a temple to Sol Invictus on the day of the winter solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun

352 - 1st definite date that Christmas was celebrated on December 25th

800 - Charlemagne (Charles the Great) crowned Holy Roman Emperor

1066 - William the Conqueror is crowned King of England, completing the Norman conquest of England

1223 - St Francis of Assisi assembles the 1st Nativity scene

1492 - Columbus’ flag ship, the Santa Maria, runs aground and sinks on the north coast of Hispaniola; crew are left to found colony as Columbus returns to Spain

1651 - Massachusetts General Court ordered a 5 shilling fine for “observing any such day as Christmas”

1741 - Astronomer Anders Celsius introduces Centigrade temperature scale

1914 - Legendary “Christmas Truce” takes place on the battlefields of WWI between British and German troops; instead of fighting, soldiers exchange gifts and play football (pictured) 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 24th history…

1651 - Jan van Riebeeck departs for cape of Good Hope to found 1st permanent European settlement

1814 - Treaty of Ghent signed, ending the War of 1812 between the US, the UK, and their allies

1818 - Carol “Silent Night” is 1st sung at St Nicholas parish church in Austria

1851 - Fire devastates US Library of Congress, destroys 35,000 volumes

1877 - Thomas Edison files patent for the phonograph

1895 - George Vanderbilt opens Biltmore Estate, largest privately owned house in America at 178,926 sq ft in North Carolina (pictured)

1906 - Music 1st broadcast over radio

2001 - “Time Magazine” names NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani ‘Person of the Year’ for leadership after 9/11 attacks 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 23rd history…

962 - Byzantine - Arab War: Under the future Emperor Phocas, Byzantine troops storm city of Aleppo, recovering the tattered tunic of John the Baptist

1788 - Maryland votes to cede 10 square mile area for the District of Columbia

1888 - Vincent Van Gogh cuts off his left ear with a razor after an argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, and sent it to a prostitute for safe keeping

1913 - US President Wilson signs Federal Reserve Act into law

1938 - Discovery of 1st modern coelacanth off South Africa (pictured)

1972 - 16 plane crash survivors rescued after 72 days on the Andean Mountains, surviving through cannibalism

2002 - An MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the 1st time in history an aircraft and an unmanned drone engage in combat  

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 22nd history…

1807 - US Congress passes Embargo Act; prohibits American ships from trading in foreign ports as a result of involvement in hostilities between France and Britain

1882 - 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Edison

1932 - “The Mummy” is released, 1st mummy horror film

1956 - Colo is born, 1st gorilla to be bred in captivity - Columbus, Ohio (pictured)

1975 - US President Ford signs the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA)

2010 - Repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, a policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the US military

2016 - Ebola vaccine VSV-EBOV is found to be 70-100% effective, becoming the world’s 1st proven vaccine against Ebola 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 21st history…

1891 - 1st game of basketball, based on the rules created by James Naismith, played in Springfield, Massachusetts

1898 - French scientists, Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium

1934 - French film “Zouzou” premiers; stars Josephine Baker - 1st black woman to star in a major motion picture

1937 - 1st full length animated feature film and the earliest in the Disney Animated Classics, “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs” premiers

1968 - Apollo 8: 1st manned Moon voyage launched

1970 - Elvis Presley meets President Nixon in the White House - the image of this meeting is most requested photo from the entire National Archives

1988 - Lockerbie disaster: Pan Am flight 103 destroyed mid air by a terrorist bomb killing all 258 on board over Scotland

1991 - Soviet Union formally dissolves as 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States

2012 - “Gangnam Style” by Psy becomes 1st video to reach 1 billion views on YouTube 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 20th history…

1606 - The English colonial expedition to America departs London to found Jamestown, VA

1803 - French flag lowered in New Orleans to mark the formal transfer of the Louisiana Purchase from France to the US for $27 million

1812 - “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” or “Children’s and Household Tales” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is 1st published (pictured)

1860 - South Carolina declared an “independent commonwealth” and secedes from the Union - 1st state to do so

1922 - 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)

1990 - The world’s 1st website and server go live at CERN

2007 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes oldest ever monarch of the UK, surpassing Queen Victoria who lived 81 years

2019 - United States Space Force founded, an armed forces branch dedicated to space warfare 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 19th history…

1732 - Benjamin Franklin, under the name Richard Saunders, begins publication of “Poor Richard’s Almanack”

1776 - Thomas Paine publishes his 1st “American Crisis” essay, beginning  “These are the times that try men’s souls” (date disputed)

1918 - Robert Ripley began his “Believe It or Not” column

1941 - Adolf Hitler takes complete command of German army

1950 - Chinese invasion of Tibet forces the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to flee

1971 - Stanley Kubrick’s x-rated film “A Clockwork Orange” premiers (pictured)

1984 - Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration to transfer Hong Kong back to China in 1997 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 18th history…

1271 - Kublai Khan renames his empire “Yuan” marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty in China

1719 - “Mother Goose’s Melodies For Children” published

1892 - Peter Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Nutcracker Suite” premiers in St Petersburg, Russia; now the world’s most performed ballet

1912 - Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is found in the Piltdown Gravel Pit by Charles Dawson

1916 - Battle of Verdon, longest of WWI officially ends in German defeat after 9 months of fighting and almost 1 million casualties

1917 - The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution authorizing prohibition of alcohol is approved by US Congress and sent to the states for ratification

1966 - Dr Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” airs for 1st time (pictured)

2009 - James Cameron’s “Avatar” released, becomes highest-grossing film of all time

2019 - US House of Representatives votes to impeach President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 17th history…

1398 - Tamerlane captures and sacks Delhi, defeating Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud’s armies by setting camels loaded with hay alight and charging them at Sultan’s armored elephants

1538 - Pope Paul II excommunicates King Henry VIII of England

1843 - Henry Cole, founder of London’s V&A Museum, commissions printing of the 1st Christmas Card (pictured)

1900 - 1st prize of 100,000 francs offered for communications with extraterrestrials; Martians excluded, considered too easy

1900 - New Ellis Island Immigration Station completed costing $1.5 million

1903 - The Wright Brothers make the 1st sustained motorized aircraft flight at Kitty Hawk, NC

1969 - USAF closed Project Blue Book, concluding no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings

1989 - “The Simpsons” premiers 

[momentsinhistory]

Today In History:

A bit of December 16th history…

1653 - Parliamentarian General, Oliver Cromwell, appointed as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland

1689 - English Parliament passes Bill of Rights establishing limits on crown’s powers and requirements for regular elections

1773 - Boston Tea Party incident - Sons of Liberty protesters throw tea shipments into Boston Harbor in protest against British imposed Tea Act (pictured)

1907 - As a gesture of the US’s new presence as a world power, President Roosevelt sends the ‘Great White Fleet’ on a round-the-world cruise, visiting ports internationally

1944 - Nazi Germany launches a counteroffensive against the Allies in Belgium, beginning the “Battle of the Bulge”

1953 - 1st White House Press Conference - Eisenhower  & 161 reporters

1998 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert Fox - the US and UK bomb targets in Iraq

2009 - Ben Bernanke, Chair of the US Federal Reserve is named Time’s Person of the Year for rescuing the global economy from the Great Recession