Tag: History

November 26 Six young women burn to death and 19 more die when they leap from the fourth-story windows of a blazing factory in Newark, N.J.. The floors and stairs were wooden; the only door from which the women could flee was locked. – 1910. Franklin D. Roosevelt. president of...

November 12 Ellis Island in New York City closes after providing the gateway for 12 Million immigrants from 1892 to 1924. From 1924 to 1954 it was mostly used as a detention and deportation center for undocumented immigrants. – 1954. November 13 An immense tidal wave and storm surge, caused...

October 29 Black Tuesday hits Wall Street when investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, to wipe out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading....

October 22 In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, U.S. president John F. Kennedy announces that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites, under construction, but nearing completion, housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including...

October 8 Flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary and ignite a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 residents, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless, and causes an estimated $200 Million, equivalent of $3.8 Billion in today’s dollars, in damages. – 1871. A massive...

September 24 The prophet Muhammad completes his Hegira, or flight, from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution. In Medina, Muhammad set about building the followers of his religion, Islam, into an organized community and Arabian power. The Hegira later would mark the beginning (year 1) of the Muslim calendar. –...

September 10 A 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person to be arrested for drunk driving after he slams his cab into a building. Smith later pled guilty and was fined 25 shillings. -1897. September 11 Approximately 75,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia,...

August 27 The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau, called Krakatoa, a small, uninhabited volcanic island west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions throw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, create 120-foot tsunamis, and kill 36,000 humans. Fine...

August 13 After a three-month siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés capture Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. Cortés’ men leveled the city. – 1521. In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government representatives of East Germany begin building the...

August 6 At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. – 1890. At 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the...