1660 In London Queen Elizabeth I granted a Royal Charter to the Company of Merchants of London Trading with the East Indies, later know as the East India Company with its own navy and army it became a law unto itself while providing sinecures to James and John Stuart Mill to write their books.
1879 In Honolulu the cornerstone was laid for the Iolani Palace which was the only royal palace in the United States. We have been through it. Jack Lord used to be there in Hawaii 5-Oh.
1929 In Montréal Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians played “Auld Lang Syne” as a New Year’s Eve song for the first time. The group originated in London, Ontario. Been there and Montréal, too..
1935 In Chicago Charles Darrow was granted United States patent 2,026,082 for the board game Monopoly. Play money was a big hit when there was so little of the real thing to go around in the Great Depression. It was such a success that it crossed the Atlantic in the following year. The poster below marketed the game in England in 1936. Played it more than once.
1999 The millennium observed around the world, while pedants declaimed it would be at the end of 2000. Despite the hype, the bug did not show.
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