Tag: History

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...

August 17 Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman is struck in the temple by a ball pitched by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. He dies 12 hours later. It was the first and only death as the result of a pitched ball in Major League Baseball history. – 1920....

August 10 Missouri becomes the 24th state, the first state entirely west of the Mississippi River. Missouri was admitted within the Missouri Compromise in 1820 which admitted Maine as a northern state. – 1821. Construction on the St. Lawrence Seaway begins. Ultimately 22,000 workers spent five years building the 2,342-mile...

August 3 From the Spanish port of Palos, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets sail in command of three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, on a journey to find a western sea route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. – 1492....

July 27 The House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate. – 1974. In Atlanta, Ga., the XXVI Summer...

July 20 New York City newsboys, many so poor that they were sleeping in the streets, begin a two-week strike. Several rallies drew more than 5,000 newsboys, complete with charismatic speeches by strike leader Kid Blink, who was blind in one eye. The boys had to pay publishers up front...

July 13 At Wembley Stadium in London, Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially open Live Aid, a worldwide rock concert organized to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans. Continued at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia and at other arenas around the world, the 16-hour superconcert was linked...

July 6 In Hartford, Conn., a fire breaks out under the big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, to kill 167 individuals and injure 682. The cause of the fire was unknown, but it spread at incredible speed, racing up the canvas of the circus tent....

June 29 In Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court rules by a vote of 5-4 that capital punishment, as it is employed on the state and federal level, is unconstitutional. The majority held that, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, the death penalty qualified as “cruel...

June 22 U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the G.I. Bill, an unprecedented act of legislation designed to compensate returning members of the Armed Services, known to thank G.I.s, for their efforts in World War II. – 1944. During World War II, the U.S. 10th Army overcomes the last major...