February 22 Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and U.S. secretary of state John Quincy Adams sign the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain agrees to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida to the United States. – 1819. In one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic
February 15 Toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom places two stuffed bears in his shop window and advertises them as Teddy bears. Michtom earlier had petitioned U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt for permission to use his nickname, Teddy. The president agreed and, before long, other toy manufacturers began turning out
February 8 Following the Russian rejection of a Japanese plan to divide Manchuria and Korea into spheres of influence, Japan launches a surprise naval attack against Port Arthur, a Russian naval base in China. The Russian fleet was decimated. – 1904. A severe blizzard in New England finally subsides, and
February 1 The Collar Laundry Union forms in Troy, N.Y.; raises earnings for female laundry workers from $2. to $14. a week. – 1864. The first portion of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published. Today, the OED is
January 25 Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women’s Rights convention. – 1851. At the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered. It is the largest diamond ever found, to weigh in at 1.33 pounds and the estimated price in today’s market would be approximately $400 million.
January 18 For the first time since joining the World Court in 1946, the United States walks out of a case. The case that caused the dramatic walkout concerned U.S. paramilitary activities against the Nicaraguan government. – 1985. January 19 Following the death of Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri,
January 11 U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument. – 1908. The IWW-organized “Bread & Roses” textile strike of 32,000 women and children begins in Lawrence, Mass.. It lasts 10 weeks and ends in victory. – 1912. January 12 There were unseasonably-warm-weather
January 4 Six years after Wilford Woodruff, president of the Mormon Church, issued his Manifesto reforming political, religious, and economic life in Utah, the territory is admitted into the Union as the 45th state. – 1896. For the first time since Charlemagne’s reign in the 9th Century, Europe is united
December 28 The world’s first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris. The film was made by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, two French brothers who developed a camera-projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere brothers unveiled their invention to the public in March 1895 with a brief
December 21 Powered by children seven years-old to 12 years-old who worked dawn to dusk, Samuel Slater’s thread-spinning factory goes into production in Pawtucket, R.I., which launches the Industrial Revolution in the United States. By 1830, 55% of the mill workers in the State were youngsters, many working for less
December 14 Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to reach the South Pole ahead of his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott. – 1911. Some 33,000 striking members of the Machinists end a 69-day walkout at Boeing after winning pay and benefit increases and protections against subcontracting some of their
“Never, never, never give up.” Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier and prime minister of the United Kingdom who was born November 30,1874 to Lord Randolph and Lady Randolph Churchill of wealthy British aristocratic lineage. He was not a handsome man, with a bulldog
December 7 At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings, appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes follow and descends on the U.S. naval base at Pearl
November 30 The first modern instance of a meteorite striking a human being occurs at Sylacauga, Ala., when a meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and strikes Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges who was sleeping on a couch at the time of impact. Mrs. Hodges was not permanently injured, but
November 23 History’s first-recorded strike by Egyptians working on public works projects for King Ramses III in the Valley of the Kings. They were protesting having gone 20 days without pay, portions of grain, and put their tools down. Exact date estimated, described as within “the sixth month of the
November 16 Joseph Goebbels publishes in the German magazine Das Reich that “The Jews wanted the war, and now they have it”—referring to the Nazi propaganda scheme to shift the blame for the world war on to European Jewry, thereby giving the Nazis a rationalization for the so-called Final Solution.
November 9 German Nazis launch a campaign of terror against Jewish people and their homes and businesses in Germany and Austria. The violence, which continued through November 10 and later, was dubbed Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, after the countless smashed windows of Jewish-owned establishments, left approximately 100 Jews
November 2 The Hughes Flying Boat, known as the Spruce Goose, the largest flying boat ever built, is piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight. Built with laminated birch and spruce, the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan longer than a football field and was designed
October 26 After eight years and at least 1,000 worker deaths, mostly Irish immigrants, the Erie Canal opens, which links the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. It cost $7 million and was 363 miles long, 40 feet wide, and four feet deep. – 1825. The Earp brothers face off
October 19 Hopelessly trapped in Yorktown, Va., British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, to effectively bring an end to the American Revolution. – 1781. One month after Napoleon Bonaparte’s massive invading force enters a burning and deserted Moscow, the starving French
