Category: Practice

1793 NYC: Noah Webster published New York’s first daily newspaper, the ‘American Minerva.’ A biography of Noah Webster, the dictionary man, is discussed elsewhere on this blog.

1868 London: Traffic lights were installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Like railway signals, they used semaphore arms and were illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.

1936 MCG: Australia all out for 58 v England in the Bodyline Ashes Tour. Don Bradman was out for duck (0). A rarity indeed for this Lord of the Bat. Not, however, a golden duck. Those who do not know what MCG means will never understand anyway.

1979 Geneva: WHO said smallpox had been eradicated by vaccination, not prayer.

1993 In low earth orbit: Hubble Telescope was repaired and put back into service and it remains in operation.

1609 In Milan the Biblioteca Ambrosiana opened its reading room, the second public library of Europe. There are many claimants for the first public library in Europe, depending on definition of ‘library’ and ‘public.’

1660 The first actress to appear on an English stage was Desdemona in ‘Othello’ at the Thomas Killigrew’s Vere Street Theatre. Her name was not recorded to protect her reputation. Killigrew was an impresario who innovated in many ways.

1813 – Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7 in A major” premiered in Vienna with Ludi at the rostrum at a charity concert for wounded soldiers from the Napoleonic wars.

1991 The Belavezha Accords was signed by Ukraine, Russian Federation, and Belarus. Though members soon fell into conflict among themselves, the Accords were the obituary of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1917-1991).

2004 The two-page Cuzco Declaration was signed in Peru to establish a South American Community of Nations for summit meetings on health, agriculture, trade, defence, policing, free movement of people, terrorism, energy, tariffs, and other matters of mutual interest. The membership fluctuates with regime changes. The Passport Mercosul arose from it to facilitate the free movement of people. I have seen a few in hand while waiting in passport control lines at airports.

185 Chinese Emperor Lo-Yang observed and recorded supernova (MSH 15-52). Astronomers still study the remnants of MSH 15-52. Observing the stars was not a hobby for the Emperor. It was part of his duties to take note of the heavens and the portents therein revealed that might affect the realm.

1941 English-Speaking Harvard educated, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto reluctantly gave the Go (Tora) order. Below is the cable sent under fire from Pearl Harbor. The operator was killed a few minutes later. Having seen the industrial capacity of the United States first hand, Admiral Yamamoto realised the prospects were slim and counselled against war. He was overruled and he obeyed. He was killed during the war.

1960 The first episode of the longest running TV soap opera “Coronation Street” was broadcast by the BBC. It is up to 9,716 episodes and counting. Below is the logo upon entering its 50th year.

1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor by air, land, and sea. Blind eyes were turned in Canberra and elsewhere. Because several Australian journalists were killed in the ensuing conflict, the media rehashes it regularly with nothing new but righteous indignation.

1979 ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ premier and heralded the revitalisation of the franchise. I saw in Boston upon release.

1735 London: The first recorded appendectomy was performed at St George’s Hospital. I had one of those with anaesthetic unlike the chap portrayed.

1784 London: His Majesty’s Government authorised the transportation of convicts to Australia. Pitt the Younger was Prime Minister. With the loss of the American colonies transportation there was precluded. 60,000 had been transported to Georgia and Maryland. Now it the turn of Botany Bay.

1917 Halifax: a Norwegian tanker and a French munitions ship collided in the harbour and blew up in the Halifax Explosion that killed 2,000, injured another 9,000, left 25,000 homeless in the north Atlantic coast winter and flattened all of the port and much of the city. Meanwhile the long lists of the dead, wounded, and missing on the Western Front continued to come. The explosion provides the backdrop to Hugh MacLennan’s novel ‘Barometer Rising.’ Been there in January!

1921 The Anglo-Irish Treaty made Ireland a sovereign dominion. The conflict had begun with the Easter Rising on 1916 which was crushed, but led to the 1919 birth of the IRA and its campaign. This settlement did not stick and more conflict followed among the Irish and with the British.

1973 Gerald Ford was sworn in as Vice President, unelected, who went on to be an unelected President with a second unelected Vice President in Nelson Rockefeller. Unique in all three respects. He was born in Omaha.

1766 London: Christie’s held the first sale in Pall Mall. Still going there at home and around the world.

1831 D.C.: Former President John Quincy Adams took a seat in the House of Representatives where his many accomplishments include creation of the Smithsonian Institute(s) and defending the mutineers of the Amistad. He died at his desk in Congress. He did more good as a representative than as a president. A biography of JQA is discussed elsewhere on this blog. Go there for further enlightenment.

1909 Sydney: George Taylor made the first heavier-than-air flight in Australia in a glider from the sand hills at Narrabeen. He made 20 flights that day of 100 to 250 metres. The Child Bride grew up in those environs.

1945 Florida: Flight 19 left Fort Lauderdale for a three-hour training fight and flew into legend in the Bermuda Triangle to became the ‘Lost Squadron.’ The incident is demystified in the book below.

1952 London: The Great Smog began and lasted until March of 1953. Thousands died in accidents and respiratory ailments.

1791 Britain’s Observer, the first Sunday newspaper in the world, began publication and is still going.

1872 The ‘Mary Celeste’ was found abandoned near the Azores, with its cargo intact, but no sign of its crew or passengers. President Tiny said Hillary did it.

1873 Manila paper (made from sails, canvas and rope) was patented in Massachusetts. I always wondered why it was called that. Much of sail hemp came from the Philippines through the port of Manila.

1961 The female contraceptive ‘pill’ became available on the National Health Service in Britain. The sky did not fall, contrary to assertions.

1998 Assembly began in space of the International Space Station, a joint project between USA, Russia, Japan, Canada with eleven members of the ESA. The space station is in low orbit and can be seen from Earth. It has been in use continually.

1468 Teenager Lorenzo the Magnificent became head of the d’ Medici family and the de facto ruler of Florence on the death of his father. His grandfather had made an enormous fortune in banking throughout western Europe, and his son had consolidated it. Grandson Big Larry spent the fortune on art. We saw some of it when I spent a semester at the European Universities Institute there.

1586 Sir Thomas Herriot introduced potatoes to England from Colombia. The Inca Empire cultivated dozens of varieties and they spread from there. Is that potatoes or potatos? Ask Dan Quayle.

1854 The Battle of the Eureka Stockade began near Ballarat, Victoria. Been there; I have commented on the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka elsewhere on this blog.

1947 In New York City ‘Stella!‘ is heard as ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ opened on Broadway. Seen it and been on that streetcar in NOLA.

1967 In Cape Town Dr Christiaan Barnard successfully completed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky. The heart came from a car accident fatality. The operation was successful and the patient died eighteen days later.

1823 Jame Monroe declared the eponymous doctrine of hemispheric independence. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wrote it. At the time both France and Germany had designs on parts of Latin America. With the silent approval of Great Britain, President Monroe warned them off the hemisphere. Later the Doctrine became a cloak for all manner of ignoble purposes. A study of Monroe’s presidency is discussed elsewhere on this blog.

1929 The skull of Peking Man – homo erectus – was found by Davidson Black. It led to breakthroughs in understanding evolution.

1942 In a tent on a squash court at (Alonzo) Stagg Field (University of Chicago) Enrico Fermi engendered the first controlled nuclear fission. ‘The Italian navigator has landed in the New World’ was the coded message send to the White House. Football fans will realise that Alonzo Stagg was himself an innovator in his domain, football. He devised the huddle, the forward pass, and end sweeps.

1867 Charles Dickens did his first public reading of an American tour. We have been full of the Dickens at many times.

1950 Isaac Asimov published ‘I, Robot.’ Read them all and published an article called ‘I. Burocrat’ once. It was struggle to get that spelling through the process.

1824 The Presidential election went to the House of Representatives which voted for John Quincy Adams, though Andrew Jackson had more popular votes. There were two other candidates. Curiously both Adams and Jackson had the same Vice Presidential running mate, John Calhoun. Jackson had campaigned vigorously on the program of the corruption of Congress, only to discover he had no friends there.

1917 Father Flanagan founded Boys Town in Omaha. Quite a story. Seen Spencer Tracey do it. Been there more than once.

1955 In Montgomery, Alabama Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. In those angry, volatile, and murderous times she had volunteered to be a test case for the NAACP.

1987 Under great pressure from the Fitzgerald corruption investigation Country Party Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigned as Queensland’s longest-serving Premier (1967-1987). He freely manipulated electoral boundaries to weight sparsely populated country seats. Recalling his garbled speech reminds me of President Tiny.

1990 Shortly after 11 am, hand-held drills penetrated the last rock wall and to connect the Chunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in 8,000 years. It took four more years to bring the it into service. Been through it a couple of times. Napoleon had an engineering assessment of such a tunnel in 1804. It was assumed in ‘The Trans-Atlantic Tunnel’ (1935) discussed elsewhere on this blog.

1016 Cnut the Great (Canute), King of Denmark, took the English throne. Notice the Ecco shoes as he explains climate change to retainers.

1876 Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found the gold mask of Agamemnon. We saw it in Athens and also visited his house.

1886 First commercially successful AC electric power plant opened, Buffalo, NY

1906 Republican President Theodore Roosevelt at the bully pulpit denounced segregation of Japanese school children in San Francisco.

1924 First radio transmission of photographs from London to New York using the work of Canadian inventor William Stephenson from University of Manitoba. Facsimile forerunner.