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Post by mrmatt on Mar 21, 2008 17:13:38 GMT -5
March 21 continued...
1778 - Just three days after British Loyalists and Hessian mercenary forces assault the local New Jersey militia at Quinton’s Bridge, three miles from Salem, New Jersey, the same contingent surprises the colonial militia at Hancock’s Bridge, five miles from Salem. During the battle, the Loyalists not only kill several members of the Salem militia, but also two known Loyalists.
1863 - Union General Edwin Vose Sumner, the oldest Corp commander in the Army of the Potomac, dies while awaiting reassignment to the far West. His death came months after he led the Union II Corps at the Battle of Antietam.
1918 - Near the Somme River in France, the Ger.man army launches its first major offensive on the Western Front in two years.
1943 - The second military conspiracy plan to assassinate Hitler in a week fails to come off.
1967 - The North Vietnamese press agency reports that an exchange of notes took place in February between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Ho Chi Minh. The agency said that Ho rejected a proposal made by Johnson for direct talks between the United States and North Vietnam on ending the war. The North Vietnamese demanded that the United States "stop definitely and unconditionally its bombing raids and all other acts of war against North Vietnam." The U.S. State Department confirmed the exchange of letters and expressed regret that Hanoi had divulged this information, since the secret letters were intended as a serious diplomatic attempt to end the conflict. Nothing of any consequence came from Johnson's initiative.
1972 - In Cambodia, more than 100 civilians are killed and 280 wounded as communist artillery and rockets strike Phnom Penh and outlying areas in the heaviest attack since the beginning of the war in 1970. Following the shelling, a communist force of 500 troops attacked and entered Takh Mau, six miles southeast of Pnom Penh, killing at least 25 civilians.
1980 - President Jimmy Carter informs a group of U.S. athletes that, in response to the December 1979 Soviet incursion into Afghanistan, the United States will boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. It marked the first and only time that the United States has boycotted the Olympics.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 21, 2008 22:01:47 GMT -5
March 22
238 - Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperors. 1621 - The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags. 1622 - Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population. 1630 - Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables. 1638 - Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent. 1765 - The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Stamp Act, which introduced a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies. 1784 - The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand. 1809 - Charles XIII succeeds Gustav IV Adolf to the Swedish throne. 1829 - The three protecting powers (Britain, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece. 1849 - The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara. 1871 - In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment. 1873 - A law is approved by the Spanish National Assembly in Puerto Rico to abolish slavery. 1888 - The Football League is formed. 1894 - The first playoff game for the Stanley Cup starts. 1895 - First display (a private screening) of motion pictures by Auguste and Louis Lumière. 1923 - The first radio broadcast of ice hockey is made by Foster Hewitt. 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law a bill legalizing the sale of beer and wine. 1939 - World War II: Germany takes Memel from Lithuania. 1941 - Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity. 1942 - World War II: In the Mediterranean Sea, Britain's Royal Navy confronts Italy's Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte. 1943 - World War II: the entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by Nacospeak occupation forces. 1945 - The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt. 1954 - Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens. 1960 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser. 1975 - A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels. 1978 - Karl Wallenda of the The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1979 - Margaret Thatcher puts down an early day motion censuring the government, which leads to the defeat of the Labour government of James Callaghan. 1984 - Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded. 1989 - Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat in one of the most gruesome sports injuries of all time. 1993 - The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path. 1995 - Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space. 1997 - Tara Lipinski, age 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest champion of the women's world figure skating competition. 1997 - The Comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to earth. 2004 - Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant group Hamas, and bodyguards are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles. 2006 - ETA, armed Basque separatist group, declares permanent ceasefire. 2006 - BC Ferries' M/V Queen of the North runs aground on Gil Island British Columbia and sinks; 101 on board, 2 presumed deaths. 2006 - Three Christian Peacemaker Teams Hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days captivity and the death of their colleague, American Tom Fox.
Observances The fourth day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva. World Water Day. Easter Sunday - 1818, 2285. In the Gregorian Calendar 22 March is the earliest date on which Easter Sunday can fall (25 April is the latest). (23 March is this year's Easter Sunday)
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 22, 2008 22:23:56 GMT -5
March 22 continued...
1765 - Hoping to raise sufficient funds to defend the vast new American territories won from the French in the Seven Years’ War, the British government passes the notorious Stamp Act on this day in 1765. The legislation levied a direct tax on all materials printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies, including everything from broadsides and insurance policies to playing cards and dice.
1817 - Confederate General Braxton Bragg is born in Warrenton, North Carolina. Bragg commanded the Army of Tennessee for 17 months, leading them to several defeats and losing most of the state of Tennessee to theUnion.
1915 - After six months of battle, the Austrian garrison at Przemysl (now in Poland), the citadel guarding the northeastern-most point of the Austro-Hungarian empire, falls to the Russians.
1942 - Sir Stanford Cripps, British statesman, arrives in India for talks with Mohandas Gandhi on Indian independence, in what will become known as the Cripps Mission.
1947 - In response to public fears and Congressional investigations into communism in the United States, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive decree establishing a sweeping loyalty investigation of federal employees.
1965 - The State Department acknowledges that the United States had supplied the South Vietnamese armed forces with a "non-lethal gas which disables temporarily" for use "in tactical situations in which the Viet Cong intermingle with or take refuge among non-combatants, rather than use artillery or aerial bombardment." This announcement triggered a storm of criticism worldwide. The North Vietnamese and the Soviets loudly protested the introduction of "poison gas" into the war. Secretary of State Dean Rusk insisted at a news conference on March 24 that the United States was "not embarking upon gas warfare," but was merely employing "a gas which has been commonly adopted by the police forces of the world as riot-control agents."
1968 - President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the appointment of Gen. William Westmoreland as Army Chief of Staff; Gen. Creighton Abrams replaced him as commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam. Westmoreland had first assumed command of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam in June 1964, and in that capacity was in charge of all American military forces in Vietnam. One of the war's most controversial figures, General Westmoreland was given many honors when the fighting was going well, but when the war turned sour, many Americans blamed him for problems in Vietnam. Negative feeling about Westmoreland grew particularly strong following the Tet Offensive of 1968.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 23, 2008 8:19:13 GMT -5
March 23
1174 - Jocelin, abbot of Melrose, is elected bishop of Glasgow 1568 - Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. Again Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX of France make substantial concessions to the Huguenots. 1708 - James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth. 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his famous speech -"give me liberty or give me death" at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia. 1801 - Tsar Paul I of Russia is struck with a sword, then strangled, and finally trampled to death in his bedroom at St. Michael's Castle. 1806 - After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home. 1821 - Battle and fall of city of Kalamata, Greek War of Independence. 1848 - The ship John Wickliffe arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. Otago province is founded. 1857 - Elisha Otis's first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway New York City. 1868 - The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into law. 1889 - Land run: President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement starting on April 22. 1889 - The free Woolwich Ferry officially opens in east London. 1889 - The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was established by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian India. 1896 - The Raines Law is passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels 1903 - The Wright Brothers apply for a patent on their invention of one of the first successful airplanes. 1908 - American diplomat Durham Stevens is attacked by Korean assassins Jeon Myeong-un and Jang In-hwan, leading to his death in hospital two days later 1909 - Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society. 1919 - In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement. 1931 - Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev embrace the gallows during the Indian struggle for independence. Their request to be shot by a firing squad is refused. 1933 - The Reichstag passes the Enabling act of 1933, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany. 1935 - Signing of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. 1940 - The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Pakistan or the then Qarardad-e-Lahore) is put forward at the Annual General Convention of the All India Muslim League. 1942 - World War II: In the Indian Ocean, Japanese forces capture the Andaman Islands. 1956 - Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world. (Republic Day in Pakistan) 1962 - NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, was launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative. 1965 - NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young). 1978 - The first UNIFIL troops arrived in Lebanon for peacekeeping mission along the Blue Line. 1980 - Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador gives his famous speech appealing to men of the El Salvadoran armed forces to stop killing the Salvadorans. 1982 - Guatemala's government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García is overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt. 1983 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. 1989 - Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce cold fusion at the University of Utah. 1994 - At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated by Mario Aburto Martínez. 1994 - Aeroflot Flight 593 crashes in Siberia when the pilot's fifteen-year old son accidentally disengages the autopilot, killing 75. 1994 - A United States Air Force (USAF) F-16 aircraft collides with a USAF C-130 at Pope Air Force Base and then crashes, killing a group of 24 United States Army soldiers on the ground later to become known as the Green Ramp Disaster 1996 - Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President. 1997 - The pilot episode of the successful Midsomer Murders series with John Nettles airs for the first time, attracting 13.5 million viewers 1999 - Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña. 2001 - The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji. 2003 - In Nasiriyah, Iraq, 11 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company as well as 18 U.S. Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 2003 - The Australian cricket team defeats India in the cricket World cup to win their second successive Cricket World Cup. 2004 - Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions holds its first conference in Hyderabad, India. 2005 - The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. 2005 - A major explosion at the Texas City Refinery kills 15 workers. 2006 - Federal Reserve discontinues publishing M3 money supply. 2007 - Burnley Tunnel catastrophe occurs in Melbourne Australia. 2007 - Iranian Navy seize Royal Navy personnel in Iraqi waters.
Observances Roman Empire - The fifth and final day of Quinquatria, held in honor of Minerva. Roman Empire - Tubilustrium was held in honor of Mars. Ancient Latvia - Lieldienas held in honor of Mara and other pagan goddesses. Pakistan - National Day (Republic Day). Hungary, Poland - Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship. Easter Sunday (2008).
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 23, 2008 22:45:55 GMT -5
Happy Easter! March 23 continued...
1862 - The Battle of Kernstown, Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson suffers a rare defeat when his attack on Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley fails. Jackson lost 80 killed, 375 wounded, and 263 missing or captured, while the Union lost 118 dead, 450 wounded, and 22 missing. Despite the defeat, the battle had positive results for the Confederates. Unnerved by the attack, President Lincoln ordered McClellan to leave an entire corps to defend Washington, thus drawing troops from McClellan's Peninsular campaign. The battle was the opening of Jackson's famous Shenandoah Valley campaign. Over the following three months, Jackson's men marched hundreds of miles, won several major battles, and kept three separate Union forces occupied in the Shenandoah.
1918 - At 7:20 in the morning on March 23, 1918, an explosion in the Place de la Republique in Paris announces the first attack of a new Ger.man gun here after known as the 'Paris Gun'.
1944 - Ger.man occupiers shoot more than 300 Italian civilians as a reprisal for an Italian partisan attack on an SS unit.
1961 - One of the first American casualties in Southeast Asia, an intelligence-gathering plane en route from Laos to Saigon is shot down over the Plain of Jars in central Laos. The mission was flown in an attempt to determine the extent of the Soviet support being provided to the communist Pathet Lao guerrillas in Laos. The guerrillas had been waging a war against the Royal Lao government since 1959. In a television news conference, President John F. Kennedy warned of communist expansion in Laos and said that a cease-fire must precede the start of negotiations to establish a neutral and independent nation.
1970 - From Peking, Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia issues a public call for arms to be used against the Lon Nol government in Phnom Penh and requests the establishment of the National United Front of Kampuchea (FUNK) to unite all opposition factions against Lon Nol. North Vietnam, the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong), and the communist Pathet Lao immediately pledged their support to the new organization.
1983 - In an address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan proposes that the United States embark on a program to develop antimissile technology that would make the country nearly impervious to attack by nuclear missiles. Reagan's speech marked the beginning of what came to be known as the controversial Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 24, 2008 7:17:08 GMT -5
March 24
1401 - Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus. 1603 - James VI of Scotland also becomes James I King of England. 1731 - An Act to naturalize Hieronimus De Salis Esquire, passed. 1765 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the 13 American colonies to house British troops. 1832 - In Hiram, Ohio a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr.. 1837 - Canada gives African men the right to vote. 1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed. 1878 - The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300. 1882 - Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis). 1900 - New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. 1923 - Greece becomes a republic. 1934 - U.S. Congress passes Tydings-McDuffie Act. 1944 - Nacospeak troops kill 335 Italian civilians in the Ardeatine Massacre in Rome. 1944 - In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III. 1959 - The Party of the African Federation (PFA) is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita. 1965 - NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash-landing. 1972 - The United Kingdom imposes "Direct Rule" over Northern Ireland. 1973 - The Dark Side of the Moon concept album by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in the United Kingdom. This album would go on to set the record for most weeks on the pop charts, 741 consecutive weeks (14 years) on the USA-based Billboard 200 album chart, the longest duration in history. 1973 - Kenyan track runner Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles, sanctioned by the International Track Association. 1976 - Argentina's military forces depose president Isabel Perón and start the National Reorganization Process. 1980 - Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed by right-wing terrorists while celebrating Mass in San Salvador. 1989 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, USA the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of petroleum after running aground. 1998 - Jonesboro massacre: Two students, ages 11 and 13, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are dead and ten are wounded. 1998 - Tornado sweeps through Dantan in India killing 250 people and injuring 3000 others. 1999 - Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country. 1999 - Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire: 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire in Mont Blanc Tunnel. 2000 - The S&P 500 reaches an all-time high of 1527.46. 2003 - The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq. 2006 - Long-term protests in Belarus are broken by police. 2006 - Pope Benedict XVI adds 15 men to the College of Cardinals, in the first consistory of his Pontificate. 2007 - The Australian Labor Party is reinstated after the NSW state elections.
Observances Ancient Latvia - Kazimiras Diena observed. World Tuberculosis Day. Labor Day Melbourne, Australia Day of Memory for Truth and Justice in Argentina
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 24, 2008 21:24:26 GMT -5
March 24 continued...
1765 - Parliament passes the Quartering Act, outlining the locations and conditions in which British soldiers are to find room and board in the American colonies.
1862 - Abolitionist orator Wendall Phillips is booed while attempting to give a lecture in Cincinnati, Ohio. The angry crowd was opposed to fighting for the freedom of slaves, as Phillips advocated. He was pelted with rocks and eggs before friends whisked him away while a small riot broke out. This was a good example of how fast the neccessities of war would change the focus of the conflict and eventually the mind set of the North. Three months later Lincoln would write the Peliminary Emancipation and then put it away for use after a Union victory in the East. That wish came true in September of 1862 after CSA General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North was turned back at the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, five days later Lincoln announced his peliminary Emancipation and the focus of the Union war effort was officially shifted from the Union as it was to the Union changed.
1918 - Ger.man forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front.
1944 - Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate, leader of the 77th Indian Brigade, also called the Chindits, dies in a transport plane crash. He was 41 years old.
1965 - The first "teach-in" is conducted at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; two hundred faculty members participate by holding special anti-war seminars. Regular classes were canceled, and rallies and speeches dominated for 12 hours. On March 26, there was a similar teach-in at Columbia University in New York City; this form of protest eventually spread to many colleges and universities.
1975 - The North Vietnamese "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" begins. Despite the 1973 Paris Peace Accords cease fire, the fighting had continued between South Vietnamese forces and the North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. In December 1974, the North Vietnamese launched a major attack against the lightly defended province of Phuoc Long, located north of Saigon along the Cambodian border. They successfully overran the provincial capital at Phuoc Binh on January 6, 1975.
1977 - For the first time since severing diplomatic relations in 1961, Cuba and the United States enter into direct negotiations when the two nations discuss fishing rights. The talks marked a dramatic, but short-lived, change in relations between the two Cold War enemies.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 25, 2008 7:21:48 GMT -5
March 25
1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6. 1306 - Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland. 1409 - The Council of Pisa opens. 1584 - Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to exploit Virginia. 1634 - The first settlers arrive in Maryland. 1655 - Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christian Huygens. 1655 - Protestants take control of Maryland at the Battle of the Severn. 1802 - The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and United Kingdom. 1807 - The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire. 1807 - The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, became the first passenger carrying railway in the world. 1811 - Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism. 1821 - (Julian Calendar) Greeks revolt against the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence. 1865 - American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman from the Union in a bloody battle. 1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington D.C.. 1903 - Racing Club de Avellaneda, one of the big five of Argentina, was founded. 1908 - Clube Atletico Mineiro, Founded in Belo Horizonte,Brazil. 1911 - In New York City the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers. 1917 - The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811. 1918 - The Belarusian People's Republic was established. 1931 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape. 1939 - Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli becomes Pope Pius XII. 1941 - Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact. 1947 - An explosion in a coalmine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111. 1949 - The extensive deportation campaign known as March deportation was conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to force collectivisation by way of terror. The Soviet authorities deported more than 92,000 people from Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union. 1955 - United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene. 1957 - The European Economic Community is established (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg). 1958 - Canada's Avro Arrow makes its first flight. 1965 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery. 1969 - During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace in the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31). 1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight of Pakistan Army against East Pakistani civilians. 1975 - Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by a mentally ill nephew. 1979 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch. 1988 - The Candle demonstration in Bratislava was the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. 1990 - In the Bronx, New York City, a fire at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87 people. 1992 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station. 1996 - An 81-day-long standoff between the anti-government group Montana Freemen and law enforcement near Jordan, Montana, begins. 1996 - The Labour Party is founded in Turkey. 1996 - The EU's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (BSE). 2006 - The Capitol Hill massacre occurs in Seattle, Washington. A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood; it is one of the largest crime scenes the city has ever had. 2006 - Protesters demanding a re-election in Belarus following the rigged Belarusian presidential election, 2006 clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin was among several protesters arrested.
Observances In Christianity, March 25 is typically celebrated as the day of the Annunciation so long as it does not fall on a Sunday or during Holy Week or Easter Week. (The Annunciation is when Archangel Gabriel told Mary she was to conceive a child to be born the Son of God). Hilaria, day of resurrection of Attis, a Phrygian deity Historic start of the new year (Lady Day) in England, Wales, Ireland, and the future United States until the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. (The year 1751 began on 25 March; the year 1752 began on 1 January.) As the day falls close to the vernal equinox, similar to the way Christmas falls near the December solstice, both days are regarded as one of the Quarter Days to Christians in the British Isles. Maryland Day; Greek Independence Day; Freedom Day in Belarus; Mother's Day in Slovenia. One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish calendar.
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 25, 2008 21:51:46 GMT -5
March 25 continued...
1774 - British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston and demanding that the city’s residents pay for the nearly $1 million worth (in today’s money) of tea dumped into Boston Harbor during the “Boston Tea Party” of December 16, 1773.
1865 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee makes Fort Stedman his last attack of the war in a desperate attempt to break out of Petersburg, Virginia. The attack failed, and within a week Lee was evacuating his positions around Petersburg.
The Union lost 1,000 men killed, wounded, and captured, while the Lee lost probably three times that number, including 1,500 captured during the retreat. Already outnumbered, these loses were more than Lee's army could bear. Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that it would be impossible to maintain the Petersburg line much longer. On March 29, Grant began his offensive, and Petersburg fell on April 3. Two weeks after the Battle of Fort Stedman, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
1918 - Less than three weeks after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk formally brought an end to Russia’s participation in the First World War, the former Russian province of Belarus declares itself an independent, democratic republic.
1941 - Yugoslavia, despite an early declaration of neutrality, signs the Tripartite Pact, forming an alliance with Axis powers Ger.many, Italy, and Japan.
1946 - In conclusion to an extremely tense situation of the early Cold War, the Soviet Union announces that its troops in Iran will be withdrawn within six weeks. The Iranian crisis was one of the first tests of power between the United States and the Soviet Union in the postwar world.
1967 - The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., leads a march of 5,000 antiwar demonstrators in Chicago. In an address to the demonstrators, King declared that the Vietnam War was "a blasphemy against all that America stands for." King first began speaking out against American involvement in Vietnam in the summer of 1965. In addition to his moral objections to the war, he argued that the war diverted money and attention from domestic programs to aid the black poor. He was strongly criticized by other prominent civil rights leaders for attempting to link civil rights and the antiwar movement.
1968 - After being told by Defense Secretary Clark Clifford that the Vietnam War is a "real loser," President Johnson, still uncertain about his course of action, decides to convene a nine-man panel of retired presidential advisors. The group, which became known as the "Wise Men," included the respected generals Omar Bradley and Matthew Ridgway, distinguished State Department figures like Dean Acheson and George Ball, and McGeorge Bundy, National Security advisor to both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. After two days of deliberation the group reached a consensus: they advised against any further troop increases and recommended that the administration seek a negotiated peace.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 26, 2008 7:25:02 GMT -5
March 26
1026 - Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor. 1484 - William Caxton printed his translation of Aesop's Fables. 1552 - Guru Amar Das becomes the Third Sikh Guru. 1636 - Utrecht University is founded in The Netherlands. 1808 - Charles IV of Spain abdicates in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. 1812 - An earthquake destroys Caracas, Venezuela. 1839 - The first Henley Royal Regatta is held. 1881 - Thessaly is freed and becomes part of Greece again. 1913 - Balkan War: Bulgarian forces take Adrianople. 1917 - World War I: First Battle of Gaza - British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance. 1934 - Driving test introduced in the United Kingdom. 1942 - World War II: In Poland, Auschwitz receives its first female prisoners. 1945 - World War II: In Iwo Jima, US forces declare Iwo Jima "secure." 1953 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine. 1958 - The United States Army launches Explorer 3. 1958 - The African Regroupment Party (PRA) is launched at a meeting in Paris. 1965 - A truck loses control down Moosic Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania, killing the driver. This accident later inspired the 1974 Harry Chapin song, "30,000 Pounds of Bananas." 1967 - Ten thousand people gather for the Central Park Be-In. 1971 - East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form People's Republic of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Liberation War begins. 1975 - The Biological Weapons Convention enters into force. 1976 - Queen Elizabeth II sent out the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment. 1977 - Focus on the Family is founded by Dr. James Dobson 1979 - Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in Washington, DC. 1982 - A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC. 1995 - The Schengen Treaty goes into effect. 1996 - The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan for Russia. 1997 - Thirty-nine bodies found in the Heaven's Gate cult suicides. 1998 - Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria; 52 people killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2. 1999 - The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world. 1999 - A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man. 2005 - The Taiwanese government calls on 1 million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei, in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China. Around 200,000 to 300,000 attend the walk. 2006 - In Scotland, the prohibition of smoking in all substantially enclosed public places comes into force. 2006 - The military junta ruling Myanmar officially named Naypyidaw, a new city in Mandalay Division, as the new capital. Yangon had formerly been the nation's capital.
Observances Independence Day - Bangladesh Zoroastrianism - Prophet Zoroaster's Birthday. Prince Kuhio Day in Hawaii
March 27
1329 - Pope John XXII issues his 'In Agro Dominico' condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical. 1513 (not 1512 as often cited) - Explorer Juan Ponce de León sights North America (specifically Florida) for the first time, mistaking it for another island. 1613 - First English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy. 1625 - Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France. 1642 - The sixth Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Joseph takes his office 1782 - Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 1794 - The government of the United States establishes a permanent United States Navy and authorizes the building of six frigates. 1794 - Denmark and Sweden form a neutrality compact. 1814 - War of 1812: In central Alabama, United States forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. 1834 - Andrew Jackson is censured by the U.S. Senate for his actions regarding the U.S. National Bank. 1836 - Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre - Antonio López de Santa Anna orders the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texans at Goliad, Texas. 1846 - Mexican-American War: Siege of Fort Texas. 1851 - First reported case of Europeans seeing Yosemite Valley. 1854 - Crimean War: United Kingdom declares war on Russia. 1868 - The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York. 1871 - First international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place. 1881 - Rioting takes place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of rigid Temperence by the Salvation Army 1890 - A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 and injuring 200. 1906 - Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 1918 - Moldova and Bessarabia join Romania. 1938 - Battle of Tai er zhuang. 1941 - World War II: Yugoslavian Air Force officers topple the pro-axis government in a bloodless coup. 1942 - World War II: United Kingdom forces raid the U-boat base at St. Nazaire, France. 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands - In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska. 1945 - World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins. 1948 - The Second Congress of the Workers Party of North Korea is convened. 1958 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union. 1963 - Dr. Richard Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the United Kingdom's rail network. See Beeching axe. 1964 - The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage. 1968 - Yuri Gagarin, Soviet Cosmonaut, first human in space dies in aircraft training accident. 1969 - Mariner 7 is launched. 1970 - The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight 1977 - Tenerife disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 247 on KLM and 335 on PAN AM) and 61 survived on a PAN AM flight. 1980 - The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212. 1986 - Car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing 1 police officer and injuring 21 people. 1990 - The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba in an effort to bridge the information blackout imposed by the Castro regime. 1993 - Jiang Zemin is appointed President of the People's Republic of China. 1994 - One of the biggest tornado outbreaks in recent memory hits the Southeastern United States. One tornado slams into a church in Piedmont, Alabama during Palm Sunday services killing 20 and injuring 90. 1998 - The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States. 2000 - Phillips explosion of 2000 killed 1 and injured 71 in Pasadena, Texas. 2002 - Passover Massacre: A suicide bomber kills 29 people in Netanya, Israel. 2004 - HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe. 2006 - The UN Commission on Human Rights holds its final meeting.
Observances Angolan Victory Day Osweiler in Luxembourg.
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 27, 2008 21:39:11 GMT -5
Sorry about missing yesterday, RS was down most of the night. March 27 continued...
1775 - Thomas Jefferson is elected to the First Continental Congress
1862 - Confederate forces fight the Battle of Glorieta Pass. Though technically the victor, the Confederates are forced to withdraw from the New Mexico territory after their supply train is destroyed by a Union raid at the end of the battle.
1939 - Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid.
1941 - Battle of Cape Matapan - In the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian battleships and two destroyers.
1942 - In occupied France, British naval forces raid the Ger.man-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
1946 - The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
1979 - In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails in the Three Mile Island accident, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown.
1990 - President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 28, 2008 6:59:25 GMT -5
Understandable. It happens.
March 28
37 - Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate. 193 - Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus. 364 - Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor. 845 - Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. 1776 - Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco. 1794 - Allies under the prince of Coburg defeated French forces at Le Cateau. 1795 - Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia. 1802 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man. 1809 - Peninsular War: In the Battle of Medelin France defeats Spain. 1834 - The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in defunding the Second Bank of the United States. 1854 - Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia. 1860 - First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins. 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass - In New Mexico, Union forces succeed in stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26. 1871 - The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris. 1910 - Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France. 1913 - Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1920 - Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states. 1930 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara. 1939 - Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid. 1940 - The exhibition center to host the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair starts being built. 1941 - World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan - In the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian battleships and two destroyers. 1942 - World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the Nacospeak-occupied port of St. Nazaire. 1946 - Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power. 1969 - Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece. 1978 - US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity. 1979 - In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails in the Three Mile Island accident, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown. 1979 - British Prime Minister James Callaghan, is defeated by one vote in a Motion of No Confidence. This results in Parliament being dissolved in order to make way for a forthcoming General Election. 1990 - President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal. 1994 - In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths. 1994 - BBC Radio Five Live broadcasts for first time in United Kingdom 2000 - A Murray County, Georgia, school bus gets hit by a CSX freight train (3 children die from this accident). 2003 - In a "friendly fire" incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron attacked British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull. 2005 - The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1960. 2006 - At least 1 million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.
Observances Slovakia, Czech Republic - Teachers' Day.
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 28, 2008 22:24:26 GMT -5
March 28 continued...
1774 - Upset by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property by American colonists, the British Parliament enacts the Coercive Acts, to the outrage of American Patriots. The Coercive Acts were a series of four acts established by the British government. The aim of the legislation was to restore order in Massachusetts and punish Bostonians for their “Tea Party,” in which members of the revolutionary-minded Sons of Liberty boarded three British tea ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 crates of tea—nearly $1 million worth in today’s money—into the water to protest the Tea Act. Passed in response to the Americans’ disobedience, the Coercive Acts included:
“The Boston Port Act,” which closed the port of Boston until damages from the Boston Tea Party were paid.
“The Massachusetts Government Act,” which restricted Massachusetts; democratic town meetings and turned the governor’s council into an appointed body.
“The Administration of Justice Act,” which made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in Massachusetts.
“The Quartering Act,” which required colonists to house and quarter British troops on demand, including in their private homes as a last resort.
1862 - Confederate forces fight the Battle of Glorieta Pass. Though technically the victor, the Confederates are forced to withdraw from the New Mexico territory after their supply train is destroyed by a Union raid at the end of the battle. (I put this one a day early yesterday.)
1915 - The first American citizen is killed in the eight-month-old European conflict that would become known as the First World War. Leon Thrasher, a 31-year-old mining engineer and native of Massachusetts, drowned when a Ger.man submarine, the U-28, torpedoed the cargo-passenger ship Falaba, on its way from Liverpool to West Africa, off the coast of England. Of the 242 passengers and crew on board the Falaba, 104 drowned. Thrasher, who was employed on the Gold Coast in British West Africa, was returning to his post there from England as a passenger on the ship.
1941 - Andrew Browne Cunningham, Admiral of the British Fleet, commands the British Royal Navy's destruction of three major Italian cruisers and two destroyers in the Battle of Cape Matapan in the Mediterranean. The destruction, following on the attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto by the British in November 1940, effectively put an end to any threat the Italian navy posed to the British.
1961 - A U.S. national intelligence estimate prepared for President John F. Kennedy declares that South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and the Republic of Vietnam are facing an extremely critical situation. As evidence, the reports cites that more than half of the rural region surrounding Saigon is under communist control and points to a barely failed coup against Diem the preceding November.
1967 - The Phoenix, a private U.S. yacht with eight American pacifists aboard, arrives in Haiphong, North Vietnam, with $10,000 worth of medical supplies for the North Vietnamese. The trip, financed by a Quaker group in Philadelphia, was made in defiance of a U.S. ban on American travel to North Vietnam. No charges were filed against the participants and the group made a second trip to North Vietnam later.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 28, 2008 22:27:06 GMT -5
March 29
1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England. 1549 - The city of Salvador da Bahia, first capital of Brazil, is founded. 1632 - Treaty of Saint-Germain signed, returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629. 1638 - Swedish colonists establish the first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. 1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade at Stockholm's Royal Opera just 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf. 1799 - New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state. 1806 - Construction authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway. 1809 - King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden. 1831 - Great Bosnian uprising: Bosniak rebel against Turkey. 1847 - Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege. 1849 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab. 1857 - Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry revolts against the British rule in India and inspires a long-drawn War of Independence of 1857 also known as the Sepoy Mutiny. 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Appomattox Court House begins. 1867 - Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes the Dominion of Canada on July 1. 1871 - The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria. 1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus. 1882 - The Knights of Columbus are established. 1886 - Dr John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia. 1930 - Heinrich Brüning is appointed Nacospeak Reichskanzler. 1936 - In Germany, Adolf Hitler receives 99% of the votes in a referendum to ratify Germany's illegal reoccupation of the Rhineland, receiving 44.5 million votes out of 45.5 million registered voters. 1941 - World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces intercept those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesus coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan. 1942 - The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II was the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a Nacospeak city. 1945 - World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England. 1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. 1961 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, DC to vote in presidential elections. 1971 - My Lai massacre: Lt. William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison. 1971 - A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers. 1973 - Vietnam War: The last United States soldiers leave South Vietnam. 1974 - NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first spaceprobe to fly by Mercury. It was launched on November 3, 1973. 1982 - The Canada Act 1982 (U.K.) receives the Royal Assent by Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982 1987 - Wrestlemania III sets a World Indoor Attendance Record at the Pontiac Silverdome with 93,173 fans. 1993 - Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and Canada's first female to be elected in a general election as a premier. 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 – above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever. 2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members. 2004 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.
Observances Earth Hour, a movement that promotes the switching off of non-essential electrical appliances between 8-9 p.m. local time. Día del joven combatiente a remembrance day celebrated with civil disorder in Chile by leftists and anarchists Youth Day in Taiwan
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 29, 2008 22:51:05 GMT -5
March 29th Continued...
1776 - General George Washington appoints Major General Israel Putnam commander of the troops in New York. In his new capacity, Putnam was expected to execute plans for the defense of New York City and its waterways.
1865 - The final campaign of the war begins in Virginia when Union troops of General Ulysses S. Grant move against the Confederate trenches around Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee's outnumbered Rebels were soon forced to evacuate the city and begin a desperate race west.
1917 - Prime Minister Hjalmar Hammarskjold of Sweden, father of the famous future United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, resigns on this day in 1917 after his policy of strict neutrality in World War I—including continued trading with Ger.many, in violation of the Allied blockade—leads to widespread hunger and political instability in Sweden.
1945 - Gen. George S. Patton's 3rd Army captures Frankfurt, as "Old Blood and Guts" continues his march east. Patton then crossed through southern Ger.many and into Czechoslovakia, only to encounter an order not to take the capital, Prague, as it had been reserved for the Soviets. Patton was, not unexpectedly, livid.
1951 - In one of the most sensational trials in American history, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their role in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II. The husband and wife were later sentenced to death and were executed in 1953.
1971 - Lt. William L. Calley is found guilty of premeditated murder at My Lai by a U.S. Army court-martial at Fort Benning, Georgia. Calley, a platoon leader, had led his men in a massacre of Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, at My Lai 4, a cluster of hamlets in Quang Ngai Province on March 16, 1968.
1973 - Under the provisions of the Paris Peace Accords signed on January 27, 1973, the last U.S. troops depart South Vietnam, ending nearly 10 years of U.S. military presence in that country. The U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam headquarters was disestablished. Only a Defense Attache Office and a few Marine guards at the Saigon American Embassy remained, although roughly 8,500 U.S. civilians stayed on as technical advisers to the South Vietnamese.
Also on this day: As part of the Accords, Hanoi releases the last 67 of its acknowledged American prisoners of war, bringing the total number released to 591.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 30, 2008 8:53:38 GMT -5
March 30
240 BC - 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 1282 - The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers. 1296 - Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England. 1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella sign the Alhambra decree aimed at expelling all Jews from Spain unless they convert to Roman Catholicism. 1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris. 1814 - Murat issues the Rimini Declaration which would later inspire Italian Unification. 1822 - Florida Territory created in the United States. 1842 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long. 1844 - One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros. 1855 - Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas - "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature. 1856 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War. 1858 - Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser. 1863 - Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece. 1867 - Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The news media call this Seward's Folly. 1870 - Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction. 1885 - The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire. 1909 - The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan & Queens. 1910 - Mississippi Legislature founded The University of Southern Mississippi. 1912 - Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate. 1939 - The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets the world airspeed record of 463 mph. 1939 - First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway. 1940 - Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei. 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna, Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk. 1945 - World War II: a defecting Nacospeak pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans. 1949 - Riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joined NATO. 1951 - Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau. 1954 - Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada. 1961 - The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York. 1965 - Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others. 1972 - Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam. 1979 - Airey Neave, a British politician, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility. 1981 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. 1982 - Space Shuttle program: STS-3 Mission completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. 1997 - Five (channel) Begins broadcasting in the UK 2006 - Marcos Pontes is the first Brazilian astronaut in space. 2006 - UK Terrorism Act 2006 becomes law.
Observances Roman Empire - Festival devoted to Salus. Land Day. Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day - Public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago.
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 30, 2008 20:24:49 GMT -5
March 30 continued...
1775 - Hoping to keep the New England colonies dependent on the British, King George III formally endorses the New England Restraining Act on this day in 1775. The New England Restraining Act required New England colonies to trade exclusively with Great Britain as of July 1. An additional rule would come into effect on July 20, banning colonists from fishing in the North Atlantic.
1825 - Confederate General Samuel Maxey is born in Tompkinsville, Kentucky. Maxey served in the West and led Native Americans troops in Indian Territory.
1855 - In territorial Kansas' first election, some 5,000 so-called "Border Ruffians" invade the territory from western Missouri and force the election of a pro-slavery legislature. Although the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters in the territory, Kansas Governor Andrew Reeder reluctantly approved the election to prevent further bloodshed.
1867 - U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signs a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as "Seward's folly," "Seward's icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden."
1870 - Following its ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment reads, "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." One day after it was adopted, Thomas Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first African American to vote under the authority of the 15th Amendment.
1918 - British, Australian and Canadian troops mount a successful counter-attack against the Nacospeak offensive at Moreuil Wood, recapturing most of the area and forcing a turn in the tide of the battle in favor of the Allies.
1940 - Japan establishes its own government in conquered Nanking, the former capital of Nationalist China.
1948 - Henry Wallace, former vice-president and current Progressive Party presidential candidate, lashes out at the Cold War policies of President Harry S. Truman. Wallace and his supporters were among the few Americans who actively voiced criticisms of America's Cold War mindset during the late-1940s and 1950s.
1965 - A bomb explodes in a car parked in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, virtually destroying the building and killing 19 Vietnamese, 2 Americans, and 1 Filipino; 183 others were injured. Congress quickly appropriated $1 million to reconstruct the embassy. Although some U.S. military leaders advocated special retaliatory raids on North Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson refused.
1972 - A major coordinated communist offensive opens with the heaviest military action since the sieges of Allied bases at Con Thien and Khe Sanh in 1968. Committing almost their entire army to the offensive, the North Vietnamese launched a massive three-pronged attack into South Vietnam. Four North Vietnamese divisions attacked directly across the Demilitarized Zone in Quang Tri province. Thirty-five South Vietnamese soldiers died in the initial attack and hundreds of civilians and soldiers were wounded.
1981 - 1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named John Hinckley Jr.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Mar 30, 2008 21:31:43 GMT -5
March 31
307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian. 1146 - Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade. 1492 - Queen Isabella of Castille orders her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. 1717 - A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provoked the Bangorian Controversy. 1774 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act. 1822 - The massacre of the population of the Greek island of Chios by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire following a rebellion attempt, depicted by the French artist Eugène Delacroix. 1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade. 1866 - The Spanish Navy bombs the harbour of Valparaíso, Chile. 1877 - The family with samurai antecedents who responded to the Saigo army in Ōita Nakatsu rebels. 1885 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland. 1889 - The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated. 1903 - Richard Pearse alledgedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft. 1906 - The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for amateur sports in the United States. 1909 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina. 1917 - The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the U.S. Virgin Islands. 1918 - Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time. 1930 - The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in motion pictures for the next thirty eight years. 1931 - An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000. 1933 - The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment. 1942 - In World War II, Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession. 1942 - Holocaust in Ivano-Frankivsk (then called Stanislawow), western Ukraine. Nacospeak Gestapo organise the first deportation of 5.000 Jews from Stanislawow ghetto to Belzec death camp. It was one of the biggest transports to Belzec in the first phase of the camp. 1946 - The first election is held in Greece after World War II. 1949 - The Dominion of Newfoundland joins Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada. 1951 - The first commercial US made computer, UNIVAC I, was delivered to the United States Census Bureau. 1957 - Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government. 1959 - The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum. 1964 - The Dictatorship in Brazil, under the aegis of general Castello Branco, begins. 1965 - Iberia Airlines Convair 440, crashed into the sea on approach to Tangier killing 47 of 51 occupants. 1966 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first spaceprobe to enter orbit around the Moon. 1968 - President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not run for re-election. 1970 - Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere (after 12 years in orbit). 1970 - Eight terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb. 1979 - The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien). 1980 - The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad operate final train after ordered to be liquidated due to bankruptcy and debt owed to creditors. 1986 - A Mexicana Boeing 727 en route to Puerto Vallarta erupts in flames and crashes in the mountains northwest of Mexico City, killing 166. 1986 - Six metropolitan county councils are abolished in England. 1990 - 200,000 protestors took to the streets of London to show their displeasure at the newly introduced Poll Tax. 1991 - The Establishment of Islamic Constitutional Movement - Hadas in Kuwait. 1991 - Georgian independence referendum, 1991: nearly 99 per cent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union. 1992 - USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active US Navy Battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California. 1994 - The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution). 1995 - In Corpus Christi, Texas, Latin superstar Selena Quintanilla Perez is shot and killed by Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her own fan club. 1998 - Netscape releases the code base of its browser under an open-source license agreement; the project is given the code name Mozilla and would eventually be spun off into the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. 2002 - 331 Earthquake in Taiwan, which measured 7.1 and killed at least four people. 2004 - In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed. 2007 - In Sydney, Australia 2.2 million people take part in the first Earth Hour.
Observances New Jersey - Thomas Mundy Peterson Day Freedom Day (Malta) Abdas of Susa Anesius and companions
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Post by mrmatt on Mar 31, 2008 18:45:53 GMT -5
March 31 continued...
1776 - Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John Adams, urging him and the other members of the Continental Congress not to forget about the nation’s women when fighting for America’s independence from Great Britain.
1865 - The final offensive of the Army of the Potomac gathers steam when Union General Phil Sheridan moves against the left flank of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The limited action set the stage for the Battle of Five Forks on April 1.
1905 - Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany arrives in Tangiers to declare his support for the sultan of Morocco, provoking the anger of France and Britain in what will become known as the First Moroccan Crisis, a foreshadowing of the greater conflict between Europe’s great nations still to come, the First World War.
1940 - The Nacospeak auxiliary cruiser Atlantis sets off on a mission to catch and sink Allied merchant ships.
1965 - Responding to questions from reporters about the situation in Vietnam, President Johnson says, "I know of no far-reaching strategy that is being suggested or promulgated." Early in the month, Johnson had sent 3,500 Marines to Da Nang to secure the U.S. airbase there. These troops were ostensibly there only for defensive purposes, but Johnson, despite his protestations to the contrary, was already considering giving the authorization for the U.S. troops to go from defensive to offensive tactics. This was a sensitive area, since such an authorization could (and did) lead to escalation in the war and a subsequent increase in the American commitment to it.
1968 - In a televised speech to the nation, President Lyndon B. Johnson announces a partial halt of bombing missions over North Vietnam and proposes peace talks. He said he had ordered "unilaterally" a halt to air and naval bombardments of North Vietnam "except in the area north of the Demilitarized Zone, where the continuing enemy build-up directly threatens Allied forward positions."
1972 - After firing more than 5,000 rockets, artillery, and mortar shells on 12 South Vietnamese positions just below the Demilitarized Zone, the North Vietnamese Army launches ground assaults against South Vietnamese positions in Quang Tri Province. The attacks were thrown back, with 87 North Vietnamese killed. South Vietnamese fire bases Fuller, Mai Loc, Holcomb, Pioneer, and two smaller bases near the Demilitarized Zone were abandoned as the North Vietnamese pushed the defenders back toward their rear bases. At the same time, attacks against three bases west of Saigon forced the South Vietnamese to abandon six outposts along the Cambodian border.
1991 - After 36 years in existence, the Warsaw Pact-the military alliance between the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellites-comes to an end. The action was yet another sign that the Soviet Union was losing control over its former allies and that the Cold War was falling apart.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on Apr 1, 2008 7:32:42 GMT -5
April 1 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne. 1318 - Berwick-upon-Tweed is captured by the Scottish from the English. 1340 - Niels Ebbesen kills Gerhard III of Holstein in his bedroom, ending the 1332-1340 interregnum in Denmark. 1572 - In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic. 1789 - In New York City, the United States House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker. 1826 - Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine. 1854 - Hard Times begins serialisation in Charles Dickens magazine, Household Words. 1857 - Herman Melville publishes The Confidence-Man. 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks - In Siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive. 1867 - Singapore becomes a British crown colony. 1873 - The British steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547. 1891 - The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois. 1912 - The Greek athlete Konstantinos Tsiklitiras breaks the world record -in standing long jump jumping 3.47 meters. 1918 - The Royal Air Force is created by merging the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. 1924 - Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch". However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes the book Mein Kampf. 1924 - First revenue flight for Belgium's Sabena Airlines 1924 - The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed. 1933 - The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in the series of anti-Semitic acts that will become known as the Holocaust. 1936 - Formation of the Indian state of Orissa, formerly known as UTKAL. 1937 - Aden becomes a British crown colony. 1939 - Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender. 1941 - The Blockade Runner Badge for Nacospeak navy is instituted. 1944 - Accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen. The bombers were lost. 1945 - World War II: Operation Iceberg - United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war. 1946 - Aleutian Island earthquake: A 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands creates a tsunami that strikes the Hawaiian Islands killing 159 (mostly in Hilo, Hawaii). 1946 - Formation of the Malayan Union. 1948 - Cold War: Berlin Airlift - Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin. 1948 - Faroe Islands receive autonomy from Denmark. 1949 - Chinese Civil War: Communist Party of China holds unsuccessful peace talks with the Kuomintang in Beijing, after three years of fighting. 1949 - The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland. 1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. 1955 - The EOKA rebellion starts in Cyprus, with the goal of obtaining the island's independence from the United Kingdom. 1963 - The soap opera General Hospital has its TV debut. 1967 - The United States Department of Transportation begins operation. 1969 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF. 1970 - President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring the Surgeon General's warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States starting on January 1, 1971. 1973 - Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India. 1974 - In the United Kingdom, the Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties come into being. 1976 - Apple Computer is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 1976 - Conrail takes over operations from six bankrupt railroads in the northeastern U.S.. 1976 - Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect is first reported by the astronomer Patrick Moore. 1978 - Philippine College of Commerce, through a presidential decree, becomes the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. 1979 - Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah. 1980 - New York City's Transit Worker Union 100 begins a strike lasting 11 days. 1981 - Daylight saving time is introduced in the USSR. 1989 - Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Community Charge (commonly known as the 'poll tax'), is introduced in Scotland. 1996 - The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is created. 1999 - Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories. 2001 - An EP-3E United States Navy plane collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army fighter jet. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, People's Republic of China and is detained. See Hainan Island incident. 2001 - Former president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Miloševiæ surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes. 2001 - Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, which is the first country to allow it. 2002 - The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia, becoming the first nation in the world to do so. 2006 - The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the 'British FBI', is created in the United Kingdom.
Observances April 1 is known as April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day in many countries. Last day of the Assyrian New Year Celebration. Roman Empire - Veneralia celebrated to honor Venus. Brielle celebrates the victory of 1572 over the Spaniards. In San Marino, two Captains Regent, elected by Parliament, take office for six months. Užupis - Residents celebrate their independence on Užupis Day.
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