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...
October 12 After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sees a Bahamian island, and thinks he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route...
October 5 U.S. president Harry Truman makes the first televised presidential address from the White House to ask Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans. – 1947. American David Kunst completes the first round-the-world journey on foot, which took four years and...
September 28 Claiming his right to the English throne, William, duke of Normandy, invades England at Pevensey on Britain’s southeast coast. His subsequent defeat of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings marked the beginning of a new era in British history. – 1066. In one of the worst...
September 21 During the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold meets with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. The plot was foiled and Arnold,...
September 14 U.S. president William McKinley dies after being shot by a deranged anarchist during the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y.. – 1901. September 15 The Battle of Britain reaches its climax when the Royal Air Force (RAF) shoots down 56 invading German aircraft in two dogfights lasting less than...
September 7 The United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam. The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, N.Y., who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. Wilson, 1766-1854, stamped the barrels with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers...
August 31 More than 325,000 unionists gather in Washington, D.C. for a Solidarity Day march and rally for work-place fairness and health care reform. – 1991. September 1 At 4:45 a.m., 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombs...
August 24 After centuries of being dormant, Mount Vesuvius erupts in southern Italy, to devastate the prosperous Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum to kill thousands. A flow of rock and ash follows to bury the dead and freeze the citizens in time, which tells the story of their every-day...
