On This Day in History

[GhostDancer]

1492

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain expelled Jews who would not accept Christianity.

1889

The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially opened.

1917

The United States took possession of the Virgin Islands.

1918

Daylight Saving Time went into effect in the United States.

 

1930 Floyd Gottfredson took over the artwork on the Mickey Mouse daily comic strip, which had formerly been done by Walt Disney himself.

 

1949

Newfoundland became Canada's tenth province.

1959

The Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.

1968

President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election.

1995

Major League Baseball players agreed to end the sport’s longest strike in history after a judge ordered a preliminary injunction against team owners.

2005

 

Terry Schiavo died 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.

[Lucius]

The cities of Constantinople and Angora changed names to Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey.

So it's Istanbul, not Constantinople?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary asks why did Constantinople get the works?

[death tribble]

That's nobody's business but the Turks

[GhostDancer]

1789

Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first Speaker of the House of Representatives.

 

1893 An important step in the development of The Sunday Funnies was achieved. Before The Yellow Kid could become a regular feature, there had to be color printing, and The New York Recorder printed the first full-color newspaper page in America.

 

1933

The Nazi persecution of Jews began in Germany with a boycott of Jewish businesses.

1945

American forces landed on Okinawa during World War II.

1960

The first U.S. weather satellite, TIROS-1, was launched from Cape Canaveral.

1970

President Nixon signed a bill into law banning cigarette ads from radio and television.

1976

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer.

1979

Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

2001

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic arrested on corruption charges.

2003

Pvt. Jessica Lynch was rescued by U.S. commandos in a raid on an Iraqi hospital.

2004

President Bush signed the "Laci Peterson" bill making it a separate federal crime to harm a fetus during an attack on the mother.

2009

 

Sweden becomes the fifth European country to legalize same-sex marriage. The other countries with the same rights are The Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Spain.

[GhostDancer]

 

• 1860 

  First pony express service began, although the Mongols set up the same system six centuries earlier.

• 1882 

  Outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back by Bob Ford, one of his own gang members, reportedly for a $10,000 reward.

1885 one of our important newspaper cartoonists entered our world. Bud Fisher, creator of Mutt & Jeff, was born.

 

 

• 1930 

  Ras Tafari became Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. 

• 1936 

  Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby. 

• 1948 

  President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which would foster the recovery of war-torn Europe. 

• 1974 

  "Super Tornado Outbreak" strikes 13 U.S. states. 

• 1996 

  U.S. commerce secretary Ronald Brown died in plane crash in Croatia. 

• 2004 

  A suspect in Madrid's March bombings blew up himself and three others.

[Lucius]

That's nobody's business but the Turks

I'm not worried about them - how big can Turks be anyway?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary warns that They Might Be Giants

[GhostDancer]

• 1818 

  Congress adopted a U.S. flag with one star for each state. 

• 1841 

  President William Henry Harrison died from pneumonia, one month after his inauguration. 

• 1905 

  Earthquake in Kangra, India, killed more than 20,000. 

• 1945 

  The Ohrdruf death camp was liberated from Nazi occupation. 

• 1949 

  The treaty establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed. 

• 1968 

  Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. 

• 1973 

  The ribbon was cut to open the World Trade Center in New York City. 

• 1979 

  Pakistan prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed by the military. 

• 1981 

  Henry Cisneros became the mayor of San Antonio, Texas: the first Hispanic mayor of a major U.S. city. 

• 1983 

  Sally Ride became the first U.S. woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

   

[GhostDancer]

 

• 1614 

  Pocahontas married John Rolfe. 

• 1792 

  George Washington cast the first presidential veto. 

• 1887 

  Anne Sullivan makes the breakthrough to Helen Keller by spelling "water" in the manual alphabet.

• 1951 

  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for giving away atomic secrets to the Russians. 

• 1955 

  Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister of Britain. 

• 1971 

  Canadian Fran Phipps became the first woman to reach the North Pole.

• 1998 Creators Syndicate (Crank, Thatch) launched a comic based on a popular TV show from Nickelodeon (Ren & Stimpy, The Wild Thornberrys). Rugrats became a daily and Sunday newspaper.

•  

  • 1999 

    Libya gave over two suspects in the Lockerbie, Scotland Pan Am bombing.

     

[GhostDancer]

• 
• 1830 

  Joseph Smith and five others organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fayette, New York. 

• 1862 

  The Battle of Shiloh in the American Civil War began. 

• 1896 

  First modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece. 

• 1909 

  Robert Peary and Matthew Henson became the first to reach the North Pole. 

• 1917 

  U.S. declared war on Germany and entered World War I. 

• 1948 a future cartoonist who would specialize in matters forbidden by polite American society was born; Larry Todd, creator of Dr. Atomic.

•  

  • 1994 

    The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed in a plane crash.

[GhostDancer]

• 1862 

  Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh. 

• 1913 

  5,000 suffragists march to the Capitol in Washington, D.C. , seeking the vote for women. 

• 1927 

  U.S. secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover’s Washington speech was seen and heard in New York in the first long-distance television transmission. 

• 1943 

  LSD was first produced at Sandoz Laboratorie in Basil, Switzerland, by Albert Hoffman. 

• 1948 

  The World Health Organization, a UN agency, was founded. 

• 1949 

  Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer Prize winner, South Pacific opened on Broadway. 

• 1994 

  Hutu extremists in Rwanda began massacring ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. In 100 days of killing, an estimated 800,000 are murdered. 

• 2003 

  Cécile de Brunhoff, creator of Babar the elephant, died. 

  Astro Boy was "born," according to his 1951 origin story.
•  
• 2009 

  Vermont becomes the fourth U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage, just days after Iowa becomes the third.

   

[Cancer]

A hundred years ago, this day in 1917, the Battle of Vimy Ridge opened in France. It was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps operated together, and the attack was successful, incorporating a number of lessons learned from the operations the previous year. For that and a whole complex of related reasons, the battle looms large in Canadian national identity.

[Old Man]

Happy Inception Day, Leon!

 

[GhostDancer]

• 1814 

  Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba. 

• 1899 

  The treaty ending the Spanish-American War took effect.

• 1921 

  Iowa imposed the first state cigarette tax.

• 1941 one of the first families of comics got a little bit bigger. Cookie Bumstead, Blondie's daughter, was born.

•  

  • 1945 

    Allies liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. 

  • 1951 

    President Harry Truman fired General Douglas McArthur. 

  • 1968 

    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1968 Civil Rights Act. 

  • 1979 

    Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was overthrown. 

  • 1981 

    President Ronald Reagan returned to the White House after he was shot in an assassination attempt. 

  • 2007 

    Science-fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut died in New York City at age 84.

[GhostDancer]

 

• 1861 

  The Civil War began when Fort Sumter was attacked. 

• 1862 

  James J. Andrews led the raiding party that stole the Confederate locomotive "The General," inspiring the 1926 Buster Keaton movie. 

• 1945 

  President Franklin Roosevelt died. 

• 1955 

  The polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was called "safe, effective, and potent." 

• 1961 

  Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human in space and also the first human to orbit the earth in a spacecraft. 

• 1981 

  The first space shuttle, Columbia, took its first test flight. 

• 1983 

  Harold Washington was elected Chicago’s first African-American mayor. 

• 1999 

  Arkansas federal judge Susan Webber Wright found President Clinton in contempt of court for lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

  2003 the Rugrats babies were seen at a later point in their lives for the second time, the first having been an anniversary special in 2001. Though the regular All Grown Up series was still several months off, it was in production.

[GhostDancer]

• 1775 

  Benjamin Rush was among those who founded the first American antislavery society. 

• 1828 

  Noah Webster copyrighted the first edition of his dictionary. 

• 1860 

  The first pony express rider reached his destination of San Francisco. He left St. Joseph, Mo., on April 3. 

• 1865 

  Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. 

• 1894 

  The first  kinetoscope parlor opened in New York City. 

• 1912 

  Titanic hit the iceberg that would sink her the next morning. 

• 1969 

  In a record breaking night at the Academy Awards, a tie between Katherine Hepburn and Barbra Streisandresulted in the two sharing the the Best Actress Oscar and Hepburn broke the record as the only actress to win three Best Actress Oscars. 

• 2002 

  Hugo Chávez returned as president of Venezuela after being forced out of office two days previously. 

• 2003 

  Abu Abbas, the leader of the terrorist group Palestine Liberation Front when the group hijacked the liner Achille Lauro, was captured by U.S. forces in Iraq. 

• 2010 

  An explosion in the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland results in a volcanic ash plume in the atmosphere over northern and central Europe. Air travel in the region is halted for several days.

   

[GhostDancer]

• 1775 

  Benjamin Rush was among those who founded the first American antislavery society. 

• 1828 

  Noah Webster copyrighted the first edition of his dictionary. 

• 1860  

  The first pony express rider reached his destination of San Francisco. He left St. Joseph, Mo., on April 3.  Mongols did much the same six centuries earlier in Asia. 

• 1865 

  Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. 

• 1894 

  The first  kinetoscope parlor opened in New York City. 

• 1912 

  Titanic hit the iceberg that would sink her the next morning. 

• 1969 

  In a record breaking night at the Academy Awards, a tie between Katherine Hepburn and Barbra Streisandresulted in the two sharing the the Best Actress Oscar and Hepburn broke the record as the only actress to win three Best Actress Oscars. 

• 2002 

  Hugo Chávez returned as president of Venezuela after being forced out of office two days previously. 

• 2003 

  Abu Abbas, the leader of the terrorist group Palestine Liberation Front when the group hijacked the liner Achille Lauro, was captured by U.S. forces in Iraq. 

• 2010 

  An explosion in the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland results in a volcanic ash plume in the atmosphere over northern and central Europe. Air travel in the region is halted for several days.

   

[GhostDancer]

• 1790 

  Benjamin Franklin, U.S. patriot, diplomat, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, died in Philadelphia. 

• 1895 

  The Sino-Japanese War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. 

• 1937 

  Daffy Duck made his debut in Porky's Duck Hunt. 

• 1961 

  Supported by the U.S. government, 1,500 exiles made the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. 

• 1964 

  Geraldine Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world. 

• 1969 

  Sirhan Sirhan was convicted for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy. 

• 1970 

  The Apollo 13 astronauts safely splashed down after their near-disastrous flight. 

• 1975 

  Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, ending the five year Cambodian war.

   

[GhostDancer]

• 1775 

  Paul Revere rode from Charlestown to Lexington to warn Massachusetts colonists of the arrival of British troops during the American Revolution. 

• 1906 

  The Great San Francisco Earthquake destroyed over 4 sq mi. and killed over 500 people. 

• 1923 

  The first game was played in Yankee Stadium (“the House that Ruth built”). Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4–1.

• 1936

• Champions Day (also known as "Day of Champions" or "City of Champions Day") is a special day that was set aside in to commemorate a number of sporting victories and accomplishments by Detroit, Michigan natives and teams in the early 1930s, and especially the 1935–36 sports season. This season was called "...the most amazing sweep of sport achievements ever credited to any single city" by the Windsor Daily Star. This sports season featured, among other Detroit national championships, the rise of Joe Louis in the professional boxing world, the Detroit Tigers winning their first World Series, the Detroit Lions winning their first NFL championship, and the Detroit Red Wings winning their first NHL championship.

•  

• 1956 

  Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. 

• 1968 

  London Bridge was sold to an American. It was rebuilt in Arizona. 

• 1978 

  The U.S. Senate voted to hand over the Panama Canal to Panamanian control on Dec. 31, 1999. 

• 2002 

  Afghanistan’s former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, returned after 29 years in exile. 

• 2012 

  American Bandstand and New Year's Rockin' Eve host Dick Clark died of heart failure.

[BoloOfEarth]

Wait... the Detroit Lions actually won?!?!  (Checks Hell to see if it froze over.)

[GhostDancer]

• 1775 

  The "shot heard around the world" was fired. Colonial Minute Men took on British Army regulars at Lexington and Concord, Mass., starting the American Revolution. 

• 1824 

  Lord Byron died of a fever while helping the Greeks fight the Turks. 

• 1882 

  Naturalist Charles Darwin, developer of the theory of evolution, died. 

• 1897 

  The first Boston Marathon was run. 

• 1933 

  The United States went off the gold standard. 

• 1943 

  The Warsaw ghetto uprising began, one of the first mass rebellions against the Nazis. 

• 1993 

  The siege at Waco, Texas, ended when FBI moved into the Branch Davidian compound with tear gas and cult members set fire to the compound killing over 80 people. 

• 1995 

  The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla., was destroyed by a car bomb. 168 people, including 19 children were killed in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history up to that time. 

  2000
•  TV version of a comic book superhero appeared in a feature-length movie. Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker.
• • 2005 

    Germany's Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.

[GhostDancer]

• 1836 

  Texan army under Sam Houston defeated Mexicans in the Battle of San Jacinto. 

• 1910 

  Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), author of the novel Huckleberry Finn, died at the age of 74. 

• 1918 

  Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious World War I German flying ace known as the "Red Baron," was killed in action today. 

• 1960 

  Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia. 

• 1975 

  South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned. 

• 1980 

  Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. She was later disqualified for cheating. 

• 1991

• Daffy Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Alvin and many others teamed up to warn kids about the dangers of using drugs. All of the major TV networks simultaneously broadcast Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.

• 1995 

  Timothy McVeigh was arrested in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing. 

• 1997 

  The ashes of Timothy Leary, Gene Roddenberry, and 22 others blasted into space for the first space funerals.

•  

[GhostDancer]

 

 

1901 

New York became the first state to require license plates on cars. 

• 1915 

  British, Australian, and New Zealand forces landed at Gallipoli. 

• 1928 

  The first seeing eye dog was presented to Morris S. Frank. 

• 1945 

  Delegates met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations. 

• 1953 

  The Francis Crick and James Watson article describing the double helix of DNA is published in the magazine Nature. 

• 1959 

  The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.

• 1960

•  Peanuts character Lucy Van Pelt made a statement that became a book title, as well as one of the most-parodied utterances in comics history. Lucy's famous sentence, "Happiness is a Warm Puppy."

•  

• 1990 

  Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua. 

• 1992 

  Islamic forces took over most of Kabul, Afghanistan after the Soviet-controlled government collapsed. 

• 2003 

  The Georgia legislature voted to scrap the "Confederate flag" design from its state flag.

[Lucius]

•  TV version of a comic book [/size]superhero appeared in a feature-length movie. [/size]Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker.

Superhero movies had been made for decades. What makes this one historic?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary points out that there was a Batman movie in the 1960s

[GhostDancer]

First cartoon TV version of a comic book superhero lead in a feature-length movie?

[Lucius]

First cartoon TV version of a comic book superhero lead in a feature-length movie?

Thanks

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Insert palindromedary tagline here