1284 Rhuddlan, Politics: King Edward I promulgated the Statutes of Wales making it a principality under the English Crown. In 1535 Henry VIII made Wales a part of the realm of England period.
1875 Paris, Music: George Bizet’s opera ‘Carmen’ premiered with a story derived from Prosper Mérimée’s novel, which was thought too salacious for the stage. How they do roll those cigars. First Bizet struggled to find a financial backer, and then at least a dozen sopranos rejected the title role. Bizet refused to compromise and it finally appeared to a mixed reaction. However Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms and Pyotr Tchaikovsky all heard the music and admired it. Indeed!
1887 Ivy Green (Alabama), Education: Anne Sullivan began to teach the truculent six year old Helen Keller, blind and deaf since a bout of scarlet fever at nineteen months of age, using a touch teaching method. Keller’s parents had written to Alexander Graham Bell who worked with the deaf, and he recommended Sullivan. Keller went on to graduate from Radcliffe with honours in 1904, becoming thereafter a fundraiser and advocate for the disabled. (The Anti-vaxxers are now campaigning to bring back scarlet fever.)
2002 Zurich, Politics: In a referendum the Swiss voted to join the United Nations in 55% versus 45% spilt. Canton by canton the vote was 12 for and 11 against. While all major political parties favoured the move, there was considerable opposition from German- and Italian-speaking areas because it would mean involvement in world affairs. A referendum on the same question in 1986 was decisively defeated 3 to 1. It was also seen as a prelude to greater integration into the Euro and the European Community at the time.
2005 Salina (Kansas), Technology: Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane around the world solo without any stops and without refuelling in a solar powered aircraft – a journey of 40,234 km/25,000 mi completed in 67 hours and 2 minutes. In 2007 Fossett disappeared on a flight over the Great Basin Desert in Nevada.
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