On This Day - February 28th

On this day in the year 202 before the common era (BCE) the coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, beginning four centuries of the Han dynasty's rule over China; two thousand, one hundred and forty-nine years later, in 1947 of the common era (CE) the February 28^th Massacre takes place, beginning a period known as the “White Terror” when an anti-government uprising in Taiwan is violently put down by the Chiang Kai-shek government, led by the Kuomintang forces of the Republic of China, twenty-eight people are killed.

On this day in in the year 1646 of the common era (CE), Roger Scott is put on trial in Massachusetts for the crime of sleeping in church…seriously folks; this is what happens in a theocracy; one hundred and thirty-eight years later, John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.

On this day in the year 1700 CE, Sweden adopts the modern calendar, its first national calendar, marking the succeeding day (tomorrow) as March 1^st; one hundred and twenty-six years later, Biela's Comet is rediscovered by Austrian astronomer Wilhelm von Biela, who claimed to have originally discovered it in 1772, only to lose track of it before finding it again.

On this day in 1704 CE, Frenchman Elias Neau opens a school for people of African descent in New York, New York; one hundred and fifty-five years later, the Arkansas legislature requires free slaves to choose exile or return to the condition of slavery.

In 1810 CE the first fire insurance joint-stock company in the United States is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; seventeen years later the first commercial railroad is chartered in the United States, the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) line.

In 1850 CE the University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah; thirty-three years later, the first vaudeville theatre in the United States open in Boston, Massachusetts. Eleven years after that, the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of New Mexico passes legislation founding the University of New Mexico, to be established in (or near) Albuquerque.

In 1871 CE the Second Enforcement Act cedes authority to establishes guidelines in congressional elections in the United States to the federal government; nineteen years later the Massachusetts Battalion is organized, becoming the first state run naval militia.  

1878 Congress overrides United States president Rutherford B. Hayes' veto of the Bland-Allison Act, requiring the Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars, it then authorizes a large-size silver certificate.

In 1909 CE the first National Woman's Day is observed in the United States, organized by the Socialist Party of America in honor of the 1908 garment workers' strike in New York, New York where women protested against working conditions; twenty-four years later, Frances Perkins is appointed Secretary of Labor, the first female to serve in the Cabinet of the United States president.

Also on this day in 1933 CE, on Adolf Hitler's advice, German president Paul von Hindenburg signs the Reichstag Fire Decree after the building is destroyed in a false flag operation by members of the Nazi party in in Berlin; they blame communists, then arrest and execute a Dutch communist after framing him for the crime. The Reichstag Decree eliminates many civil liberties in Germany, the German Communist Party (KPD) is essentially outlawed (though not formally banned); other arrests took place, like that of pacifist and anti-fascist writer Carl Von Ossietzky who was sent to the Esterwegen-Papenburg concentration camp.

In 1935 CE Wallace Carothers manufactures the first nylon polymer; eighteen years later; Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of the DNA molecule (double-helix polymer) using X-ray diffraction studies stolen from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins and published the findings as their own without accrediting the source. Three years after that, American engineer Wright Forrester is issued a patent for his computer core memory.

In 1940 CE the United States population was 131,669,275 with 12,865,518 people of African descent among the population (9.8%); though there are many white nationalist-Christian theocrats, neo-Nazis and members of the Klu Klux Klan who would have you believe that United States population is in some kind of a death spiral, the population in the united today is estimated to be about three hundred and forty-nine million, with the percentage of people who are of African descent, (including those identifying as mixed-race) is estimated to be 15.2% of the total U.S. population.

In 1954 CE the United States performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island; twenty-one years later at the Nevada Test Site, and again in Nevada five years after that.

In 1961 CE, United States president John F. Kennedy names Henry Kissinger to the post of special advisor to the president, twenty-two years later, the final TV episode of M*A*S*H airs on CBS, a two-hour special directed by series star Alan Alda titled: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen; a record one hundred and twenty-five million viewers watch in the U.S.. On that same day, in 1983 CE, the Irish supergroup U2 release their third (and only relevant) studio album titled: War, featuring protest song, Sunday Bloody Sunday. It becomes their first number one album in the United Kingdom. Three years after that, the European Economic Community signs "Special Act" for European free trade.

In 1991 CE the first Gulf War ends after Iraq accepts a ceasefire following their retreat from Kuwait; six years later, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia. One year after that, the first flight of the RQ-4 Global Hawk takes place; the Hawk is an unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in civilian airspace within the United States.

In 2019 CE, it is announced that a lost Caravaggio painting: Judith and Holofernes (c. 1607 CE) has been found in a Toulouse attic five years earlier, it sells at auction for one hundred and seventy-one million dollars.

In 2022 CE, the Russian Federation shells the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, while a forty-mile-long Russian military convoy approaches the capital city of Kyiv…their advance is halted, and they are forced to retreat.

 

 

Sid Gateaux, Zen Syndicate Intergalactic, People’s History Project, On This Day

On This Day - February 27th

On this day in the year 837 of the common era (CE) with an orbit that has varied between seventy-four and eighty years since it was first observed by Chinese astronomers, the fifteenth record of the perihelion of Halley’s Comet is made; one thousand, one hundred and five years later, radio emissions from the Sun are first detected by English physicist and radio astronomer James Stanley Hey while they were working on radar anti-jamming methods for use in the combat theatres of World War II. Seventy-eight years after that the biggest cosmic explosion ever detected is observed emanating from a supermassive black hole in Ophiuchus galaxy (a rotating structure fifteen times larger than our Milky Way), located three hundred and ninety million lights years away. Official findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal.

On this day in the year 1693 CE The Ladies' Mercury, the first women's magazine is published in London, England; two hundred and eighty-three years later People magazine hits the newsstands.

On this day in 1801 CE, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the United States Congress; twelve years later, the first federal vaccination legislation is enacted and on this same day Congress authorizes the use of steamboats to transport mail. Forty-eight years after that Congress authorizes the first stamped newspaper wrappers for mailing.

In 1827 CE the first Mardi Gras celebration in held in New Orleans, Louisianna; fifty-six years later, Oscar Hammerstein patents the first cigar-rolling machine. Twenty-four years after that, psychiatrists Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud meet for the first time in Vienna, Austria.

In 1869 CE John Menard becomes the first African-American to make a speech in the United States Congress; three years later Charlotte Ray, becomes the first African American woman lawyer in the United States after graduating from Howard University. Ninety years after that, Wayne Williams is found guilty of murdering two of the twenty-eight black persons he is known to have murdered in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1901 CE the rules committee for baseball’s National League decrees that all fouls are to count as strikes, except after two strikes; seven years later rules for the “Sacrifice Fly” are first adopted (then repealed in 1931 and reinstated 1954).

In 1921 CE the Fascists incite a riot in Florence, Italy; four years later Adolf Hitler resurrects the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) in Munich, Germany. Eight years later, in 1933 CE, Nazi Germany's parliament building, the Reichstag, is set ablaze by members of their own party, who then blame and execute Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe for their crime. Six years after that, in 1939 CE, the United Kingdom and France recognize Francisco Franco's government in Spain. Four years later, University of Munich professor Kurt Huber, advisor to a student non-violent resistance group called the "White Rose", is arrested by Nazis. Twenty-six years after that, in 1967 CE, General Hafez al-Assad becomes head of Syria via military coup; thirty-one years later, Great Britain's House of Lords agrees to end 1,000 years of male precedence by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son. Fifteen years after that, pope Benedict XVI presents his farewell address to Vatican City, becoming the first pope to abdicate the papacy in five hundred and ninety-eight years, taking the title pope-emeritus to himself as he drifted away into an Alzheimer’s haze.

In 1922 CE the United States Supreme Court unanimously upholds the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote; twenty-nine years later, the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, limiting the United States President to two terms in office.

1940 Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14 (radiocarbon dating) at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California; fifty-six years later the first appearance of Pokémon occurs in the role-playing video game Pocket Monsters Red and Green, for Game Boy, in Japan.

In 1958 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya; six years later, France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria. Ten years after that, in 1974 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; four years later, France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll, and they do it again six years after that.

In 1959 CE the Boston Celtic’s, Bob Cousy, sets a National Basketball Association (NBA) record with twenty-eight assists as the Celtics score one hundred and seventy-three points against the Minneapolis Lakers; twenty-two years later, Earl Anthony becomes the first professional bowler to win more than one million dollars.

In 1964 CE the government of Italy asks the world for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.

In 1970 CE the New York Times falsely reports that the United States Army had ended its domestic surveillance program; three years later, two-hundred members of the American Indian Movement occupy the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

In 1981 CE Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder record the single Ebony & Ivory; sixteen years later, British singer Sade is arrested in Jamaica for disobeying a police officer. Five years after that, singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell receives Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy’s.

In 2014 CE, unmarked special forces operatives from the Russian Federation invade neighboring the Crimean region of Ukraine to assist pro-Russian nationalists, they occupy government buildings and declare themselves the Republic of Crimea and force a referendum vote at gunpoint to oust the legitimate regional government of Ukraine. Russian forces then immediately prepare the newly formed republic for annexation; eight years later, Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation are sanction for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine; the European Union (E.U.) closes its airspace to Russian planes and Russian banks are excluded from the worldwide Swift Payment System. Sweden sends arms to Ukraine and the E.U. warns that the Russian invasion of Ukraine means Europe is facing major a humanitarian crisis, with eighteen million Ukrainians already displaced within their own borders, and four million refugees fleeing the country by this date.

 

 

Sid Gateaux, Zen Syndicate Intergalactic, People’s History Project, On This Day

On This Day - February 26th

On this day in the year 747 before the common era (BCE), according to the North African mathematician Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100–170 CE) the Nabonassar Era begins; considered a significant turning point in history for introducing accurate, systematic, astronomical and historical record-keeping, utilized in the Babylonian Chronicle and later in Ptolemy's Almagest…Ptolemy is most well known for his synthesis of Aristotelian and Platonic thought and method; his writing was the principle source of information on those philosopher in Western Europe from the collapse of the Roman Empire until they were reintroduced in the twelfth century due to the collaborative work of Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars over the prior two hundred years.

On this day in the year 1401 of the common era (CE) William Sawtrey of England, on ordained priest, is convicted of heresy and becomes the first martyr among a group known as the Lollards, whose principle demand was that the scriptures be allowed to be printed in the vernacular and made available to general public for their edification. In an egregious act of human sacrifice he burnt at the stake; two hundred and fifteen years later; the Roman Inquisition delivers an injunction to Galileo demanding he abandon his teaching that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun, a scientific finding that the church had labelled Copernican-heliocentrism and previously condemned. One hundred and ten years after that, the first Mass is celebrated in the first American Catholic church, at St. Joseph's in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On this in the in the year 1606 CE, marks the first known landing by a European in Australia; Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon makes port at the Pennefather River, Cape York, northern Australia.

On this day in 1797 CE the Bank of England issues the first £1 note; sixty-six years later, United States President Abraham Lincoln signs National Currency Act, establishes single currency thought the nation.

In 1866 CE the New York state Legislature forms New York City’s, Metropolitan Board of Health; four years later a pneumatic powered transit system is first demonstrated in for the New York City subway. Forty-seven years after that, in 1917 CE, the first jazz records are recorded: Dixie Jazz Band One Step and Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band for the Victor Talking Machine Company, in New York, New York; thirteen years later the first red & green traffic lights are installed in Manhattan. Five years after that, the New York Yankees release Babe Ruth who then signs a three year contract with the Boston Braves.

In 1895 CE, Michael Owens of Toledo, Ohio, patents a glass-blowing machine to make glass bottles.

In 1919 CE the United States Congress establishes Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona; ten years later President Calvin Coolidge establishes Grand Teton National Park

In 1920 CE the German silent horror film classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, starring Werner Krauss is released; four years later, Adolf Hitler goes on trial for treason in Munich, Germany for his involvement in the "Beer Hall Putsch;" he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, though he only served nine months, and during that time he wrote his tawdry political manifesto Mein Kampf. Twelve years after that, in 1936 CE, Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen" to the German public and the world; six years later, Werner Heisenberg, a principal scientist in the German nuclear weapons program, delivers a lecture to Nazi officials about extracting energy from nuclear fission.

In 1935 CE the first demonstration of R.A.D.A.R (Radio Detection and Ranging) is given by Robert Watson-Watt and Arnold Wilkins in Daventry, England; three years later the first passenger ship is equipped with this new tool. Two years after that, in 1940 CE, the United States Air Defense Command forms at Mitchel Field, LI, New York; nine years later, the United States Air Force, Lucky Lady II, a B-50 Superfortress takes off from Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas on the first nonstop around-the-world, a journey that takes fifteen days to complete.

In 1936 CE a military coup in Japan leaves the young emperor Hirohito in place as the head of state and titular deity of the Japanese people but denudes the throne of all power; five years later the puppet government of Vichy-France, controlled by Nazi Germany, makes religious education in school mandatory.

In 1944 CE Sue Dauser of the Nurse Corps is commissioned as a Captain in the United States Navy, she is the first woman in American history to achieve this rank.

In 1952 CE, British prime minister Winston Churchill announces that the United Kingdom has its own atomic bomb; fifteen years later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan. Nine years after that in 1976 CE, the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; eleven years later the U.S.S.R. resumes nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan. Two years after that, South African president F.W. Willem de Klerk orders the destruction of six completed nuclear weapons in their arsenal, and a seventh device under construction.

In 1954 CE the first typesetting machine (photo engraving) is used in Quincy, Massachusetts; on this same day Michigan representative Ruth Thompson, a Republican, introduces legislation to congress seeking to ban the use of the United States Postal Service for distributing "obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy" phonographic material…she was referring to Rock & Roll records.

In 1960 CE the great Verne Gagne beats Doctor X in Omaha, Nebraska to become National Wrestling Association, world-wrestling champion; seven years later Gagne does it again, beating Mad Dog Vachon in St. Paul, Minnesota to regain the NWA title.

In 1962 CE the United States Supreme Court disallows separation by race on public transportation; twenty-one years later, Michael Jackson's Thriller album goes number one on the LP (long playing record) charts and stays there thirty-seven weeks. Twenty-nine years after that, Trayvon Martin, a seventeen-year-old African-American teenager is shot and killed by the coward, George Zimmerman, in Sanford, Florida; Zimmerman is later acquitted by a sympathetic jury because Martin, who was merely walking home from the store after purchasing some Skittles was black, and Zimmerman who had been following him became scared.

In 1971 CE the United Nations (UN) secretary-general U Thant signs a proclamation marking the vernal equinox as international Earth Day; on this same day two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while on mobile patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast, North Ireland

In 1974 CE the price of gold in Paris hits a record one hundred and eighty-eight dollars per ounce; today the price of gold is $5,214.

In 1979 CE the last total eclipse of sun (viewable from the continental United States) occurs for the twentieth century, eleven years later, from Venezuela to the Pacific Ocean a total eclipse of the sun is viewable for a length of four minutes and nine seconds.

In 1990 CE the U.S.S.R. agrees to withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovak Socialist Republic by July of the following year.

In 1993 CE a truck bomb explodes in parking garage of the World Trade Center at 12:18 PM, in New York, New York. It was carried out by followers the notorious “Blind Sheikh,” later prosecuted and convicted for his crimes; the blast killed six people and injured over one thousand in what was then, the deadliest act of terrorism perpetrated in and against the United States.

In 2001 CE the Taliban destroy two giant, 1500-year-old Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a holy site for Buddhists who follow pilgrimage routes along the ancient Silk Road; this act of religious desecration gave rise to the expression “talibanned,” applied to any act of wanton and ignorant destruction engaged in for the furtherance of a political and propagandistic goal, as in: Donald Trump “talibanned” congress on January 6^th, 2021 when he encouraged his followers to storm the United States Capitol.  Twenty-four years after the Taliban blew up the Buddhas, the first death from measles occurs in United States in over a decade, it happens in the state of Texas and it is the first death of a child to take place in twenty-two years…the outbreak continues and has spread to other states.

In 2009 CE, Yugoslav Army general Nebojsa Pavkovic is convicted of committing crimes against humanity during the Kosovo War and sentenced to 22 years in prison; ten years later it is announced that there have been more than four thousand five hundred complaints of child sexual abuse against migrant children received by United States Health Department, and that the Department of Justice had received an additional one thousand three hundred criminal referrals against agents and officers of Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with the operators of the private and for profit detention centers holding the migrant children in their facilities.

In 2018 CE on the tenth anniversary of its operation the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, receives its one-millionth; six years later, scientists release their findings on the "lost" continent of Balkanatolia, published in Earth-Science Reviews (March 2022), that linked southern Europe with Asia, providing passageway for animal migrations between thirty-five and thirty-eight million years ago.

 

 

On This Day - February 25th

On this day in the year 138 of the common era (CE) the Roman emperor Hadrian adopts his male companion and longtime aide Antoninus Pius, effectively making him his successor. Hadrian and Pius are the third and fourth of Machiavelli’s so-called “five good emperors,” beginning with Nerva in 96 CE, followed by Trajan, Hadrian and Pius, culminating in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Antoninus Pius was the first emperor to issue the legal opinions that a person should be considered innocent until proven guilty, and that they should be judged by a jury of their peers.

On this day in the year 1095 CE at the Council of Rockingham, king William II of England clashes with Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury over papal allegiance, leading to Anselm's eventual exile until William's death in 1100; four hundred and seventy-five years later, pope Pius V excommunicates queen Elizabeth I of England for the persecution of English Catholics during her reign, and the heresy of rejecting the authority of the Church. Pope Pius absolves all of her subjects from their sworn allegiance to the crown. Thirty-one years after that, in the year 1601 CE, Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, is executed for treason against the crown of England; thirty four years later, the an Irish captain serving in the Imperial Army naked Walter Devereaux assassinates the Duke Wallenstein in his quarters…he gores him with a pole-arm as the Imperial General pleads for his life.

On this day in 1751 CE the first performing monkey is put on exhibition New York, New York…admission is one penny.

In 1791 CE the first Bank of the United States is chartered by the United States Congress for a term of twenty years; seventy-one years later, the Legal Tender Act of 1862 is passed by Congress, authorizing the United States Note (the greenback) to go into circulation, it is the first fiat paper money that is legal tender in America. One year after that, Congress creates the national banking system as the comptroller of currency.

In 1799 CE the first federal forestry legislation passed by the United States congress authorizes the purchase of timberland; seventy years later Congress passes the first Timberland Protection Act.

In 1836 CE, Samuel Colt patents the first practical revolving-cylinder, multi-shot revolver, allowing it to fire multiple shots without reloading; one year later the first electric printing press is patented by Thomas Davenport. Ninety-three years after that, a device known as the "Checkograph" was patented by banker George McCarthy. Kodak’s purchase of the technology in 1928 CE marks the beginning of commercial microfilm usage for bank records.

In 1855 CE, Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole "Bill the Butcher" is shot in the back by his archrival John Morrissey in New York, New York…it takes him eleven days to die; fifty three years later, the first tunnel under Hudson River opens, it was built for rail.

In 1870 CE, Hiram R. Revels is sworn in as the United States Senator from Mississippi, he is a Republican and the first African-American member of Congress.

In 1913 CE the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution becomes law, providing the legal basis for the institution of a graduated income tax; six years later Oregon becomes the first state to impose a gasoline tax, the rate is set at one cent per gallon.

In 1926 CE, Francisco Franco becomes Spain's youngest general at the age of thirty-three; six years later Austrian immigrant Adolf Hitler is granted German citizenship. Twenty-four years after that, in 1956 CE, Nikita Khrushchev denounces Joseph Stalin at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; ten years later general Hafiz al-Assad comes to power in Syria by military force and the coup de etat.

In 1957 CE, Buddy Holly and the Crickets record their smash hit That'll Be the Day in Clovis, New Mexico.

Also in 1957 CE the United States Supreme Court decides 6-3, that Major League Baseball (MLB) is the only antitrust-exempt professional sport; twelve years later the MLB owners finally come up with a pension plan for players.

In 1964 CE, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay)) wins his first world heavyweight boxing title when Sonny Liston fails to come out of his corner for round seven at the Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Florida; twenty-five years later “Iron” Mike Tyson knocks out Frank Bruno in the fifth round to retain his status as the undisputed world heavyweight champion, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 1971 CE the prime minister of Northern Ireland, James Chichester-Clark holds a meeting with Catholic cardinal of Ireland William Conway, it is the first such meeting between persons holding these offices since 1921; one year later John Taylor, the Irish minister of state for home affairs is shot multiple times by members of the Official Irish Republican Army in a botched assassination attempt. Also on this day in 1972 CE, Sir Paul McCartney releases the single, Give Ireland Back to the Irish.

In 1981 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; one years later the final episode of The Lawrence Welk Show airs.

In 1987 CE the United States Supreme Court upholds affirmative action with four justices in the minority. Five years later the blues guitar legend, Muddy Waters, whose instrumentation is foundational to the music of such bands as The Beatles, The Rolling Stone and Led Zeppelin, receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the thirty fourth Annual Grammy Awards.

In 2012 CE the World Health Organization removes India from the list of polio endemic countries.

In 2014 CE, hundreds of pro-Russian protesters block the Crimean parliament and demand a referendum on Crimea's independence; ten years later, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy reports that thirty-one thousand Ukrainian soldiers have died fighting in the previous two years since the Russian invasion began.

 

 

On This Day - February 24th

On this day in the year 1208 of the common era (CE) Francis of Assisi, at 26, receives his vocation in Portiuncula, Italy even though it is clear to all who are gathered to witness the event that Francis was not of sound mind; three hundred and fifty-six years later, pope Gregory XIII announces the advent of an updated calendar which comes to be called the Gregorian Calendar.

On this day in the year 1835 CE the Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun) becomes the first monthly magazine printed entirely in a Native American language; it was launched in present-day Kansas by Baptist missionary Jotham Meeker…there are only two known copies surviving today.

On this day in 1839 CE the steam shovel is patented by William Otis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; twenty-nine years later at a Mardi Gras parade in Mobile, Alabama, the first use of floats is documented in the United States.

In 1868 CE the United States House of Representatives votes 126 to 47 to impeach president Andrew Johnson; fifty-two years later, Adolf Hitler make his first official speech as head of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the Nazi Party) at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany

In 1937 CE the first group hospital-medical cooperative in the United States, is authorized to begin operations in Washington, D.C.; one year later Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles.

In 1942 CE the Voice of America begins a German language broadcast directed toward the citizens of the Nazi Reich.

In 1962 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; four years they do it again. Seventeen years after that in 1983 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics performs an underground nuclear test; six years later the United States performs another nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

In 1983 CE a special commission of the United States Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II; also on this day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1100 mark for first time, today the index is at 49,174.

In 1987 CE the Los Angeles Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores his 36,000th point in a 97-93 win over the Phoenix Suns in Arizona; twenty-four years later, the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery takes place.

In 1991 CE the first Gulf War begins with the ground invasion of southern Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait by the United States leading a multinational coalition in Operation Desert Sabre; thirty-one years later the Russian Federation launches a full-scale unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea, with bombings in several cities. Moments later, Vladimir Putin announces the start of a three-day “special military operation” in Ukraine to "demilitarize" the country...four yeas later the fighting continues.

In 2008 CE, Fidel Castro retires as the president of Cuba after nearly fifty years in power due to ill health; five years later his brother Raúl Castro is elected to a second term as the Cuban president.

In 2014 CE a 4.4 billion-year-old crystal is discovered as the oldest known fragment of Earth's crust

 

 

On This Day - February 23rd

On this day in the year 1763 of the common era (CE) the first major slave rebellion in South America, the Berbice Uprising, begins in the Dutch colony of Bernice (modern Guyana) and lasts until December. It is seen as a major event in Guyana's anti-colonial struggles, with leaders including Coffij considered a national hero, when Guyana became a republic in 1970 the state declared February 23^rd as a day to commemorate the revolt.

On this day in the year 1782 CE, engineer James Watt's patent is granted for his “sun and planet,” rotary-motion gear, as an application to the steam engine for the steam engine; one hundred and one years later the process for manufacturing aluminum is developed. Fifty-eight years after that, at the University of Berkley in California chemist, Glenn T. Seaborg Plutonium is first produced and isolated by American at Berkeley

On this day in 1821 CE the College of Apothecaries is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; it is the first pharmacy college in the United States; sixty-two years later, the American Anti-Vivisection Society organized, also in Philadelphia. Nine years after that, the Tootsie Roll is introduced to the global marketplace by Leo Hirshfield.

In 1822 CE Boston is incorporated, receiving the first city charter in Massachusetts; fourteen years later, the Mexican Army lays siege to the Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas. It continues until March 6^th, under the authority of general Santa Anna; the entire garrison is eventually killed.

In 1883 CE the state of Alabama becomes the first in the United States to enact an antitrust law. Forty-four years later, Unites States president Calvin Coolidge creates the Federal Radio Commission (FRC).

In 1921 CE the first United States Postal Service (U.S.P.S.) transcontinental airmail flight arrives in New York, New York, from San Francisco, California; fifteen years later, the first U.S.P.S. airmail-rocket-flight in Greenwood Lake, New York.

In 1945 CE the United States Marines raise the flag of the United States on top of Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima; nine years later the first mass inoculation against polio is performed with the Jonas Salk vaccine, it takes place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sixteen years after that, the eucharist given by women for the first time in during mass in a Roman Catholic church.

In 1973 CE the price of gold goes up ten dollars overnight, reaching a record ninety-five dollars per ounce in the markets at London, England; today the price of gold closed at $5,249.70/ounce.

In 1976 CE the final meeting takes place in Beijing, China between Mao Zedong, chairman of Chinese Communist Party, and United States president Richard Nixon; fifteen years later United States president George H. W. Bush (former ambassador to China under Richard Nixon) gives Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, a twenty-four hour deadline to withdraw from Kuwait or face a ground war from a multi-national force and led by the United States. Seven years after that Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa, declaring jihad against all Jews and Euro-American Crusaders.

In 1980 CE, France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll.

In 1987 CE, the first supernova to be seen with the naked-eye since the year 1604 CE is witnessed and designated: SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

In 1995 CE the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 4,000 (4,003.33) for the first time; today the DOW closed at 48,804.06.

In 2002 CE the Sky Disc of Nebra, at three thousand six hundred years old, the world's oldest map of the stars is recovered in police sting operation in Basal, Switzerland after being illegally excavated in Germany; nineteen years later the discovery of oldest the oldest Australian rock art is made, dating to about the year fifteen thousand, three hundred before the common era. It is a painting of a kangaroo found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and published in: Nature Human Behaviour.

 

 

On This Day - February 22nd

On this day in the year 303 of the common era (CE) the Roman emperor Diocletian, while in Nicomedia issues his first official edict expressing condemnation for and authorizing the persecution of Christians, ordering all churches to be closed and scriptures burnt; this marks the fourth period of general persecution that the early church would endure…but not the last; one thousand, three hundred and twenty-nine years later, Galileo Galilei publishes his book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems comparing the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems and whether the Earth orbits the sun…or not; leading to his trial for heresy and subsequent condemnation. One hundred and forty-three years after that, in the year 1774 CE the British House of Lords rules that authors do not have perpetual copyright to their work; two hundred and forty nine years later, astronomers explain how data being produced by the James Webb deep-space-telescope is upending existing theories of how early galaxies were/are formed, after finding six massive galaxies 100x larger than expected soon after the Big Bang

On this day in the year 1775 (CE) the first joint stock company in the United States (a cloth weaver) sells shares at 10 cents in its initial public offering (IPO); nine years later the Empress of China, the first United States ship to trade with China, sails from New York, New York.

On this day in 1854 CE the first meeting of the Republican Party in held in Michigan[ two years later they hold their first national meeting in Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania. Nine years after that, in 1865 CE, the state of Tennessee adopts a new constitution abolishing slavery; thirty-three years later an African-American postmaster is lynched, while his wife and three daughters are shot in Lake City, South Carolina. One hundred and twenty-four after that, three white men are convicted of killing black jogger Ahmaud Arbery and found guilty of federal hate crimes, in Georgia.

In 1876 CE Johns Hopkins University opens.

In 1889 CE, United States president Grover Cleveland signs a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington into the union. Thirty-four years later the first enduring and profitable chinchilla farm opens in Los Angeles, California; also on this day, transcontinental airmail service begins in the United States. Twelve years later it is announced that airplanes are no longer permitted to fly over the White House

In 1933 CE the Hungarian scholar and the founder of Tibetan studies, Alexander Csoma de Kőrös is declared to be a Bodhisattva in Japan.

In 1972 CE the Irish Republican Army bombs Aldershot military barracks, the headquarters of the British Parachute Regiment, killing seven people; in retaliation for the Irish Bloody Sunday.

In 1989 CE, United Kingdom physicist Stephen Hawking calls the proposed missile defense system known as Star Wars a "deliberate fraud;" eight years later, scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announce they have cloned an adult mammal, producing Dolly the sheep, born on 5 July 1996 (d. 2003); twenty-one years after that it is revealed that Neanderthals, not humans, were the first artists on Earth, producing red cave paintings 65,000 years ago in Spain, according to new research published in Science.

In 2009 CE, at the eighty-first Academy Awards, Heath Ledger posthumously wins Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, while his death is ruled a suicide by drug overdose, it is widely marked as the first killing of a human being by the ultra-nihilistic Joker, in the real world…Heath Ledger could not recover from his complete self-identification with the mass-murderer and succumbed to his madness; five years later Viktor Yanukovych is ousted as President of Ukraine by its Parliament following the Euromaidan revolution.

 

On This Day - February 21st

On this day in the year 362 of the common era (CE) the bishop Athanasius of Alexandria returns to his home city following an edict by the Emperor Julian that recalled exiled bishops, thereby ending his third exile (356–362 CE). This allowed Athanasius to convene the influential Synod of Alexandria to promote a clear definition of what was now the Catholic and Orthodox Christian position on trinitarian theology and the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth as Christ, the incarnated Son of God according to the terms laid out at the Nicaean Council in 325 CE, formulated in its creed and agreed to by a majority of those bishops and theologians in attendance. Athanasius’ intention was to manage members of the Alexandrian who did not accept the preposterous new doctrine of the preexistence of Christ, holding the same view as Arius, and his followers that Jesus was a human being…like the rest of us, and that his divinity (such as it is) was bestowed on him after his death for having lived a meritorious life, which was the prevailing view of the church in its first three hundred years of existence…and was only suppressed by centuries more of bloody war as the Athanasian version of Chrisitan doctrine slowly became transformed into the Imperial Church, carrying the force of law; seven hundred and eleven years later, pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, as a martyr of church for refusing the orders of his king in while holding up the authority of the Catholic Church in England. Becket was murdered by the king’s men in the Canterbury Cathedral; seventy-two years after that, in 1245 CE another Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is allowed to resign after having confessed to being a torturer of his fellow human beings, as well as a forger of church documents. One hundred and eighty-six years after that, Joan of Arc's faces her first day of interrogation at her trial for heresy; three hundred and sixty-four years later, freedom of worship is established in France under its new constitution co-authored by American patriot, revolutionary and founder, Thomas Payne. Fifty-three years after that; Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London, England, calling religion “the opiate of the masses.”

On this day in the year 1613 CE, Michael Romanov, son of the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow is elected the first Russian Tsar of the House of Romanov.

On this day in 1792 CE the United States Congress passes the Presidential Succession Act; sixty-five years later, Congress outlaws foreign currency as legal tender in the United States.

In 1804 CE the world’s first steam locomotive, built by Richard Trevithick, makes its inaugural run the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales; thirty-eight years later, the first known sewing machine is patented by John Greenough of Washington, D.C.. Sixteen years after that, Edwin T. Holmes installs the first electric burglar alarm, in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1828 CE the first American Indian newspaper is published in the United States, the Cherokee Phoenix; fifty years later, telegraph manager George Coy of New Haven, Connecticut, issues the world's first telephone directory, a single page containing information for 50 subscribers. Forty-seven years after that, the first issue of New Yorker is published.

In 1846 CE Sarah G. Bagley of Lowell, Massachusetts becomes the first female telegrapher in the United States; twenty years later, Lucy B. Hobbs (Taylor) becomes the first woman in the United States to earn the degree of Doctor in Dental Science (D.D.S.)

In 1864 CE the first Catholic parish church for black worshippers in the United States is dedicated in Baltimore, Maryland; thirty-one years later, the North Caroline legislature adjourns for the day to mark the passing of Frederick Douglass. Seventy years after that in 1965 CE, civil rights activist and Muslim minister Malcolm X is shot dead by Nation of Islam followers at the Audubon Ballroom in New York, New York; five years later the Jackson 5 make their Television debut on Dick Clark’s, American Bandstand. Forty-four years after that. United States president Barack Obama meets with the Dalai Lama.

In 1887 CE, Oregon becomes the first state in the United States to make Labor Day a holiday; eighty-one years later Major League Baseball announces a minimum annual salary of ten thousand dollars for its rostered players.

In 1916 CE the Battle of Verdun begins with a German offensive and continues for nine months, the longest battle of World War I (WWI), resulting in an estimated one million casualties; six years later, Irish Nationalist Eamon De Valera calls a convention of the Sinn Féin, declaring that the Republican Government is the only legitimate government in all of Ireland. Forty-eight years after that the first session of the Widgery Tribunal opens its investigation of events that led to the 'Bloody Sunday' massacre of January 30^th, 1972. It is held in Coleraine, County Derry

In 1931 CE, Alka Seltzer is introduced to the global marketplace, much to relief of many people.

In 1958 CE, British artist Gerald Holtom designs Nuclear Disarmament logo, based on blended semaphore signals for the letters N and D; it later became an international peace symbol; five years later the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

In 1971 CE the Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna, Austria; one year later Richard Nixon becomes the first United States President to visit China, normalizing relations between the two countries in a meeting with Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing. Three years after that in 1975 CE, Watergate figures John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman are sentenced to 2½-8 yrs for conspiracy and obstruction of justice in their efforts to protect Richard Nixon for his culpability as the sitting president in their crimes; thirteen years later, the Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggert confesses to his congregation (on national T.V.) to the sin of adultery, confirming allegations that he had been habitually sleeping with prostitutes while engaging in an effusive use of pornography. One year after that, Pete Rose, also known as “Charlie Hustlel” and still the all-time leading hitter with four thousand, two hundred and fifty-two hits, meets with MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth to discuss his gambling as both a player and a manager…claiming to be an ethical cheater, never having bet on himself or his team to lose.

In 1974 CE, silver hits a record five dollars and ninety-six cents per ounce in London, England; today the price of silver is eighty-four dollars and fifty-seven cents per ounce.

In 1980 CE, American country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton tops the Billboard pop chart in the United States with her single 9 to 5 from the film of the same name, in which she co-starred with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.

 

 

On This Day - February 20th

On this day in the year 1280 of the common era (CE) the Japanese Imperial Court orders all temples and shrines to pray for victory in the impending second Mongol invasion…the Japanese were victorious in 1281 CE at the Battle of Kōan after the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan send an armada of four thousand, four hundred ships, carrying one hundred and forty thousand troops to attack Kyushu, they were repelled by the Japanese samurai and finally destroyed by a devastating typhoon in their retreat…a storm famously labeled the kamikaze, meaning divine wind. Sixteen years later, the Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan departs Mingzhou for Angkor, the chief city of the Khmer Empire; his logs are the first account made by a foreigner describing life in the city.

On this day in the year 1768 CE the first American chartered fire insurance company opens in Pennsylvania.

On this day in 1792 CE the United States Postal Service (U.S.P.S.) is created; the price of postage six to twelve depending on distance.

In 1798 CE French general Louis Alexandre Berthier forcibly removes pope Pius VI from Rome during the French occupation of the city, Pius VI dies while imprisoned in Valence, France.

In 1809 CE the United States Supreme Court rules that the power of the of the federal government is greater than any state in establishment of the supremacy clause; thirty years later the United States congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia. Nienty-nine years after that, congress passes the Ratification Act of 1929 recognizing American Samoa as an unincorporated territory of the United States; four years later the United States House of Representatives completes congressional action to repeal Prohibition.

In 1816 CE, Gioachino Rossini's comic opera, the Barber of Seville, premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, Italy,

In 1824 CE the first description of a dinosaur is published in the Geological Society of London by William Buckland: Megalosaurus or Great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield, it is the beginning dinosaur-mania; seventy five years later the Futurist Manifesto is published in the French journal Le Figaro.

In 1856 CE the steam packet-ship John Rutledge, hits an iceberg and sinks with the loss of one hundred and twenty passengers and nineteen crew while en route from Liverpool, England to New York, New York; there is only one survivor…a movie has yet to be made of this disaster.

In 1865 CE the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) forms the first collegiate architectural school in the United States; eight years later the University of California opens its first Medical School at the San Francisco campus.

In 1869 CE Tennessee Governor W. C. Brownlow declares martial law in order to suppress the activities of the nascent Ku Klux Klan, driving the organization underground and turning it into a secret society of American terrorists and white supremacists; sixty-nine years later Adolf Hitler announces his support for Japan during the Sino-Japanese War. One year after that, the American pro-Nazi organization, the German American Bund hold a rally at Madison Square Garden attended by twenty thousand sympathizers.

In 1872 CE the hydraulic-electric elevator is patented by Cyrus Baldwin, while Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley patent a toothpick manufacturing machine, and Luther Crowell patents a machine that manufactures paper bags; five years later the first cantilever bridge in the United Ctates is completed in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.

Also in 1872 CE the Metropolitan Museum of Art (M.O.M.A) opens in New York, New York; seventy two years later the Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers across the United States.

In 1952 CE Emmett Ashford is certified to be first African-American umpire in organized baseball; but has to wait until 1966 CE for his Major League debut; one year later the United States Court of Appeals rules that organized baseball is a sport and not a business, affirming the twenty-five-year-old Supreme Court ruling. Ten years after that, in 1963 CE, future Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays becomes the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball, signing a record one-hundred-thousand-dollar contract with the San Francisco Giants; thirty four years later, the same San Francisco Giants sign slugger and all-time leading home run hitter, Barry Bonds to a record thirty-million-dollar, two years contract.

In 1958 CE an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov, starring Yul Brynner and featuring William Shatner's film debut, premieres at Radio City Music Hall, in New York, New York; one year later, guitarist Jimi Hendrix (age 16), plays his first gig in Seattle, Washington, in the basement of the Temple De Hirsch synagogue; he is fired from the band after the first set on account of his "wild" playing. Fifty-six years after that, Kristen Stewart becomes the first American actress to win a French César Award, winning Best Supporting Actress for Clouds of Sils Maria; nine years later, the Queen Bee, Beyoncé’ becomes the first African-American female artist to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart, with her single Texas Hold ’Em.

In 1962 CE, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth aboard his vessel, Friendship 7; six years later the Chinese Academy of Space Technology is established in Beijing, Cina.

In 1975 CE a feud begins between the official Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Irish National Liberation Army; the two groups assassinate a number of each other's volunteers until the feud ends in June; four years later , eleven so-called loyalists known as the "Shankill Butchers" named for their late-night kidnapping, torture and murder (by throat slashing) of random Catholic civilians in Belfast, are sentenced to life in prison for nineteen murders. Ten years after that an IRA bomb destroys a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England.

In 1975 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan.

In 2005 CE, Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratifying the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin but with low turnout; eight years later Estonia becomes the first country to establish a national system of fast chargers for electric cars.