Today in History...

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,909]

18 minutes ago, Tylerocks said:

9/25

 

1986- Mike Scott's No-Hitter to Clinch the Western Division

It was an afternoon game and me and a buddy skipped work and went.

[Tylerocks 2,553]

1 minute ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

It was an afternoon game and me and a buddy skipped work and went.

My dad pulled me out of school for a "dentist" appointment.

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

September 26th, 1991, four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed-off structure in Oracle, Arizona, called Biosphere 2. (They emerged from the Biosphere on this date in 1993.)

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

On September 27, 1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the capital of the United States. The Continental Congress was forced to flee Philadelphia in September of that year when British General William Howe made the somewhat puzzling decision to take advantage of vagueness in his orders from London (to support the strategic objectives of General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne in his Chesapeake campaign that ultimately led to the first major surrender of British troops to the Americans).

Howe settled on the tantalizing concept of "capturing the rebel capital" as a way to quickly end the war. Well... he captured the capital, all right. But Americans, not being as sentimental or tied to tradition as the British, simply moved their government elsewhere. And for one day, that somewhere was Lancaster, which had been founded in 1681, and has gone on to have a significant history in many other ways (home of President James Buchanan, Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Civil War era fame, Robert Fulton for whom the Fulton Opera House was named, and a whole host of other people) -- I couldn't find any reference to Lancaster celebrating this day now, but if they don't they should.

[El Diablo 4,232]

October 2, 1835—184 years ago today—a confrontation over a cannon led to the first skirmish in the Texas war for independence. On September 27, 1835, Lt. Francisco de Castañeda of the Mexican Army was sent to Gonzalez to retrieve the cannon, which Mexico lent to the citizens as a defense against Indians. The mission led to a confrontation on October 2, 1835 in which the Texians pointed to the gun and told the soldiers, “There it is—come and take it.” The Mexicans retreated after the resulting battle of Gonzalez. The skirmish over what came to be known as the “Come and Take It” cannon marked the clear break between American colonists and the Mexican government.

[52-80 19,195]

Y'all see rarehistoricalphotos.com?

 

Great walk back in time there

[El Diablo 4,232]

October 4, 1970—49 years ago today—Port Arthur native Janis Joplin was found dead of an overdose of heroin and alcohol at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood. She was just 27. She got her start playing in bars in Austin, but first made her mark in San Francisco as lead singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

[HouTex 1,887]

1537 The 1st complete English-language Bible, the "Matthew Bible" is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale

1883 The Orient Express departs on its first official journey from Paris to Istanbul

1957 Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the 1st artificial Earth satellite into elliptical low Earth orbit

1963 Hurricane Flora, kills 6,000 in Cuba & Haiti

1965 Pope Paul VI becomes 1st Pope to visit Western Hemisphere (UN)

1976 Supreme Court lifts 1972 ban on death penalty for convicted murderers
 

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

October 6, 1968—51 years ago today—was the closing day of HemisFair ’68, a six-month world expo that coincided with the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio. In all, 30 nations participated in the expo, which included a five-nation Central American pavilion and the pavilions of the Organization of American States, representing 11 Latin American countries.  The 750-foot-tall Tower of the Americas dominated the 96-acre site of the fair and remains a San Antonio landmark today. The Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936 at Fair Park in Dallas was the first World's Fair held in Texas.

[HouTex 1,887]

1946 90°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in Oct

1956 Dr Albert Sabin discovers oral polio vaccine

1961 JFK advises Americans to build fallout shelters

1973 Yom Kippur War begins as Syria & Egypt attack Israel
 

[El Diablo 4,232]

October 7th, 1992, trade representatives of the United States, Canada and Mexico initialed the North American Free Trade Agreement during a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, in the presence of President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

[Fuck Tim Beck 3,834]

^^^ and I35 has been fucked ever since 

[HouTex 1,887]

1737 A cyclone causes 40 foot waves that are believed to have killed 300,000 in Calcutta, India

1886 Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba

1944 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel ordered to return to Berlin

1950 US forces invade North Korea by crossing 38th parallel

1963 Hurricane Flora hits Haiti & Dominican Republic, kills 7,190

2001 The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan starts with an air assault and covert operations on the ground

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,909]

Longer than the fucking Vietnam War (depending on when you date the start of the Vietnam War).

Also, Arnold Elected to first term in California in 2003

Edited October 7, 2019 by NeverMarryAStripper

[HouTex 1,887]

1780 Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000 to 30,000 in the Caribbean, hitting Barbados first. Atlantic's deadliest recorded hurricane.

1871 The Great Chicago Fire is finally extinguished after 3 days, leaving approximately 300 dead, 100,000 homeless, and costing $222m in damage

 

[HouTex 1,887]

1939 Albert Einstein informs FDR of the possibilities of an atomic bomb

1962 Second Vatican Council (21st ecumenical) convened by Pope John XXIII

1975 "Saturday Night Live" created by Lorne Michaels premieres on NBC with George Carlin as host

1986 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev open talks at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland

[El Diablo 4,232]

October 13th, 1972, a Uruguayan chartered flight carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes; survivors resorted to feeding off the remains of some of the dead in order to stay alive until they were rescued more than two months later.

There are no plans for an anniversary dinner.

[HouTex 1,887]

54 Nero succeeds Claudius as Roman Emperor

1845 Texas ratifies a state constitution

1943 Italy declares war on former Axis partner Germany

1983 Ameritech Mobile Communications (now Cingular) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.
 

[El Diablo 4,232]

October 15th, 1917, Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari (Margaretha ZelleGeertruida MacLeod), 41, convicted by a French military court of spying for the Germans, was executed by a firing squad outside Paris. (Maintaining her innocence to the end, Mata Hari refused a blindfold and blew a kiss to her executioners.)

[HenryJames 66,133]

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

Two entries for the same individual today with some slightly conflicting info. Regardless, he was a Texan and a badass in his own right.

October 20, 1871—148 years ago today--Everett Townsend was born in Colorado County. He grew up in Wharton and Eagle Pass and at 20 lied about his age and joined the Texas Rangers. Two years later he became a deputy U.S. Marshal and in 1894 went to Big Bend as a mounted U.S. Customs inspector. That experience provided the spark of what would eventually become his dream to preserve the region. As a state representative in 1933, he was credited as co-author of a bill that established in the Big Bend. Later that year he assisted in an expansion of the park, which was renamed Big Bend State Park. But he was determined to win national park status for the region and when land deeds were handed to the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1943, he was singled out for his pivotal role. Big Bend National Park was established the next year. Townsend died in 1948, but in 1954, on the park’s 10th anniversary, he was posthumously named an honorary park ranger. Years later the second highest point in the Chisos Mountains was named Townsend Point.

TOWNSEND, EVERETT EWING (1871–1948). Everett Ewing Townsend, called the "father of the Big Bend National Park," was born on October 20, 1871, in Colorado County, the son of William Wallace and Margaret (Long) Townsend. At the age of nineteen he joined the Texas Rangers and was appointed deputy United States marshal at twenty-two. In May 1894 he was appointed a United States customs mounted inspector. While in the ranger service in 1900, he assumed charge of a 200,000-acre unimproved and unstocked ranch in Pecos County. After sixteen years it was fully improved, with 14,000 cattle. In 1918 he was elected sheriff of Brewster County, the largest county in the nation. He served three terms, but refused a fourth term. Townsend was an earnest advocate of friendly relations with Mexico. He was one of the founders of the Sul Ross College Museum, and for several years he served as its curator. In 1932 he was elected representative to the Forty-third Texas Legislature and, with Representative Robert M. Wagstaff, coauthored the first bill to make the Big Bend area a state park. As a result, 150,000 acres of land were set aside for park purposes. Townsend interested the National Park Service in the idea of a national park there, the establishment of the Big Bend Park Association, and the purchase of the land. On September 5, 1943, he witnessed a ceremony at Sul Ross State College at Alpine, where Governor Coke R. Stevenson of Texas signed the deed to the United States government, transferring 750,000 acres of the Big Bend country to the National Park Service. Townsend's first wife, Alice A. (Jones) Townsend, died on May 26, 1940; they had one daughter. He married Ada Blocker of Austin in 1942. Townsend died on November 19, 1948.

[El Diablo 4,232]

October 22, 1836—183 years ago today--Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas. After defeating Santa Anna’s Forces in April 1836 in the battle of San Jacinto, Houston rode a wave of popularity into office, defeating Stephen F. Austin, and then went on to serve in the Texas House from 1839 to 1841 before he succeeded Mirabeau B. Lamar to a second term as president from Dec. 12, 1841 to Dec. 9, 1844. When Texas joined the union, he became one of the state’s two U.S. senators, serving until March 1859. He ran for governor as a lame-duck senator in 1857, but lost to Hardin R. Runnels. He ran again against Runnels in 1859, and won, but he was removed from office after refusing to pledge loyalty to the Confederacy after Texas seceded from the union. He died in July 1863 and is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville.

[El Diablo 4,232]

Oct. 24, 1940, the 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

[BillyGoatHill 4,312]

October 25,1983.....0531 local time, Operation Urgent Fury kicks off. Rangers along with CCT jump without reserves from 500' onto Pt Salines runway in Grenada. 

[HouTex 1,887]

1854 The infamous "Charge of the Light Brigade" during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War results in over 100 killed

1935 Hurricane-produced floods kill 2,000 in Jeremie & Jacmel Haiti

1955 Austria resumed its sovereignty after departure of last Allied occupation forces, for 1st time since German occupation of 1938

1962 US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson demands USSR UN rep Zorin answer regarding Cuban missile bases saying "I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over"

1964 "The Wrong Way Run", Viking Jim Marshall runs 66 yards in wrong direction for a safety (NFL's #1 blooper)

1968 Yoko Ono announces she is having John Lennon's baby

[HouTex 1,887]

312 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross

1938 DuPont announces its new synthetic polyamide fiber will be called "nylon"

1941 Chicago Daily Tribune editorialize there will not be war with Japan

1962 Black Saturday during the Cuban Missile Crisis: An American spy plane is shot down over Cuba and the navy drops warning depth charges on Soviet submarines

2004 The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time in 86 years

[Parliament 14,266]

23 minutes ago, HouTex said:

312 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross

1938 DuPont announces its new synthetic polyamide fiber will be called "nylon"

1941 Chicago Daily Tribune editorialize there will not be war with Japan

1962 Black Saturday during the Cuban Missile Crisis: An American spy plane is shot down over Cuba and the navy drops warning depth charges on Soviet submarines

2004 The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time in 86 years

[El Diablo 4,232]

October 29, 1911—108 years ago today Narcisco Martínez, the father of conjunto music, was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. His family later settled outside of Brownsville and in 1928 he took up the accordion. At around the same time he moved to Bishop where he learned the accordion traditions of Czechs and Germans. Martínez and bajo sexto player Santiago Almeida became well known as a team, establishing the accordion and bajo sexto (A Mexican instrument with 12 strings in six courses) as the foundation of conjunto. His major innovation was emphasizing the right-side melody and treble notes of the accordion while letting the bajo sexto player tend to the left side bass notes. He made his first recording in 1936 and remained popular through the 1950s. His career lagged in the 1960s, but revived after he was featured in a 1976 documentary film, “Chulas Fronteras,” about Texas-Mexican Music. He was inducted into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in 1982 and received a National Heritage Award from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1983. In 1989, he was nominated for a Grammy. He died in June 1992.

[WithoutAClue 15,393]

10/29/1069: The internet was born 50 years ago today. Back then it was known as ARPANET.

Without the ARPANET I wouldn't be wasting my time here...

The story here.

[El Diablo 4,232]

Byproduct of the Battle of Hastings?

[WithoutAClue 15,393]

26 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Byproduct of the Battle of Hastings?

yep.

try 1969.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,909]

That article has to be a fake, it does not mention Al Gore a single time

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

37 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Byproduct of the Battle of Hastings?

Isn't everything ?

[HouTex 1,887]

1940 Battle of Britain, fought between the RAF and Luftwaffe over the English Channel and southern England, ends with a British victory

1941 Mount Rushmore Monument is completed

1952 1st thermonuclear bomb detonated at Marshall Islands

1961 Hurricane Hattie kills 400 in British Honduras

1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh at her home in New Delhi

1999 Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.

[El Diablo 4,232]

November 1, 1939—80 years ago today—the first section of the Pedernales Electric Cooperative’s miles of transmission lines was energized in Bertram, delivering power to the first of several thousand families in the rural Hill Country. During the 1930s, farmers and ranchers across the state formed nonprofit electric cooperatives and applied for funds from the Rural Electrification Administration. The cooperatives used loans to pay for construction and repair them with the proceeds of the sales of electricity. An initial loan paid of $1.3 million paid for more than 1,700 miles of electric lines.

ETA: I had to correct the spelling of "Pedernales", post I was quoting had it as "Perd". 

[Armybrat 40,854]

Well, the Ped is Perd.

[HouTex 1,887]

1512 Michelangelo's paintings on ceiling of Sistine Chapel in the Vatican first exhibited

1800 John Adams becomes the first US President to live in the White House

1946 Karol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul II)  is ordained as a Catholic priest

1950 Puerto Rican nationalists try to kill US President Harry Truman at Blair House

1955 Time bomb aboard United DC-6 kills 44 above Longmont, Colorado

2012 Acid is poured over a 15 year old girl by her parents after being seen talking to a young man in an "honour killing" in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

2017 Houston Astros win their first Baseball World Series; beat LA Dodgers, 5-1 in Game 7 at Dodger Stadium; Astros outfielder George Springer III MVP

[El Diablo 4,232]

November 4, 1835—184 years ago today--Texans engaged Mexican forces three miles above San Patricio directly across from Fort Lipantitlán, a wooden picket post that the Mexicans constructed in 1831 in anticipation of trouble from Anglo immigrants. The Texas force of about 70 battled a Mexican force of about 90 in a 32-minute fight that left 28 Mexicans dead. The Texans suffered only one casualty. William Bracken lost three fingers from his right hand to a rifle ball.

[Trey3216 15,349]

Nov 4, 1979-  Revolutionary Extremists storm the US Embassy in Tehran and take 52 Americans hostage in an international event that would last 444 days.  

 

One of them was my Dad/Grandparents' friend and down the street neighbor...

 

https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/40-years-later-mt-pleasant-tie-to-iran-hostage-crisis-revisited/?printerfriendly=true

[El Diablo 4,232]

This date, 1980, I reported to the USN for my 4 year party. Carter voted out, Reagan voted in and the day Ronnie took office our hostages were released.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,909]

 

Nvm

[Parliament 14,266]

The Berlin Wall came down on this date in 1989.

[Parliament 14,266]

1975:

 

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

November 13th is the feast day of St. Brice, fifth-century Bishop of Tours. The most notable event associated with this day was the November 13, 1002 "St. Brice's Day Massacre" in England, wherein Æthelred the Unready "ordered slain all the Danish men who were in England" as a response to Danish threats to take his life, kill his councillors (as well as his kingdom), and just generally burn his damned house down.

There is not much archaeological evidence (and therefore no reliable estimates of casualties) related to this massacre, though most historians agree that there was significant loss of life.

Perhaps the best circumstantial evidence for this being a large-scale event comes from the words of a royal charter two years later when Æthelred explained the need to rebuild St. Frideswide's Church:

"For it is fully agreed that to all dwelling in this country it will be well known that, since a decree was sent out by me with the counsel of my leading men and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in this island, sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a most just extermination, and thus this decree was to be put into effect even as far as death, those Danes who dwelt in the afore-mentioned town, striving to escape death, entered this sanctuary of Christ, having broken by force the doors and bolts, and resolved to make refuge and defence for themselves therein against the people of the town and the suburbs; but when all the people in pursuit strove, forced by necessity, to drive them out, and could not, they set fire to the planks and burnt, as it seems, this church with its ornaments and its books. Afterwards, with God's aid, it was renewed by me."

[HouTex 1,887]

326 Old St. Peter's Basilica consecrated in Rome (stood 4th - 16th century), later replaced by current Basilica

1421 Southern sea floods 72 villages, killing estimated 10,000 in Netherlands

1626 St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated, replacing an earlier basilica on the same site and becoming the world's largest Christian basilica

1906 Anarchists bomb St. Peter's Basilica in Rome

1916 British General Douglas Haig finally calls off the 1st Battle of the Somme in World War I after more than 1 million soldiers had been killed or wounded

1936 Main span of Golden Gate Bridge joined

1961 JFK sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam

1978 In Jonestown, Guyana, 918 members of the Peoples Temple are murdered or commit suicide under the leadership of cult leader Jim Jones

1999 In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when a massive bonfire under construction collapses.

 

[Parliament 14,266]

The folks running St, Peter's Basilica must shit bricks every November 18.

[HouTex 1,887]

1620 The Mayflower reaches Cape Cod and explores the coast

1805 Lewis and Clark expedition, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, reaches the Pacific Ocean, first European Americans to cross the west

1863 US President Abraham Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg address beginning; "Four score and seven years ago..."

1942 Operation Uranus: Soviet offensive begins during Battle of Stalingrad, 1 million Soviet soldiers encircle the German Sixth Army

1985 US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for first time

1985 In the largest civil verdict in US history, Pennzoil wins $10.53 billion judgement against Texaco

 

[Armybrat 40,854]

Joe Jamail still has a smile.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,909]

The judgement was later settled between the two companies for $3.0 billion.

[HouTex 1,887]

The heralded defense team decided against providing their own damage model thinking it would go against their theory of the case on liability. Bold strategy.