1575 The Netherlands, Education: The University of Leiden was founded. I was affiliated it with while a visitor at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies.
1879 Ottawa, Science: At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, Sanford Fleming proposed to divide the world into twenty-four time zones, representing the hours of the day, taking Greenwich Observatory in England as the zero point, or prime meridian since it was well known to mariners as that. He was a railway engineer who wanted to schedule railway track use and avoid collisions by using a standard time across the continent.
1895 Russia, Music: Tchaikovsky’s revival of ‘Swan Lake’ was presented in St Petersburg. Seen it a few times, once in St Petersburg, and seen its echoes in many other works, including the popular culture. Dancers maybe bored with it but audiences never are.
1922 Washington, D.C., Technology: President Warren Harding had a radio installed in the White House. Was he ever sober enough to listen? Not likely. Within a decade Franklin Roosevelt mastered the use of radio to communicate with the fireside chats.
1984 Russia, Space: Soyuz T-10 launched with crew of three to Salyut 7. The Russian film about a later mission to regain control the satellite is called ‘Salyut 7,’ available from Amazon Prime and it is a corker. It is discussed elsewhere on this blog.
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