This Day in History

[stevep]

Oct 25, 2019 6:49:43 GMT lordroel said:

October 25th

1415 – Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England, with his lightly armoured infantry and archers, defeats the heavily armoured French cavalry in the Battle of Agincourt.


1854 – The Battle of Balaclava takes place during the Crimean War. It is soon memorialized in verse as The Charge of the Light Brigade.

  Lordroel

  A couple of small quibbles here.

a)  The archers were lightly armoured but the dismounted men at arms and knights were pretty well protected.  Furthermore the majority of the French also fought on foot.

b)  More a issue of grammar.  Using as rather than by it sounds like the light brigade charge was the battle rather than one relatively small part of it.  [Which was good for the British army as that charge was a bloody disaster as opposed to other elements in the battle such as the "thin red line" stand of the 93rd Sutherland Highlands and the far more successful charge of the heavy brigade.

  Steve

[lordroel]

Oct 25, 2019 10:13:56 GMT stevep said:

b)  More a issue of grammar.  Using as rather than by it sounds like the light brigade charge was the battle rather than one relatively small part of it.  [Which was good for the British army as that charge was a bloody disaster as opposed to other elements in the battle such as the "thin red line" stand of the 93rd Sutherland Highlands and the far more successful charge of the heavy brigade.

  Steve

Did the British not do cavalry charges in the Boer War and Great War as well, remember seeing one in the movie War horse where the cavalry got slaughterer by German heavy machine gun fire.

[stevep]

Oct 25, 2019 10:22:49 GMT lordroel said:

Oct 25, 2019 10:13:56 GMT stevep said:

b)  More a issue of grammar.  Using as rather than by it sounds like the light brigade charge was the battle rather than one relatively small part of it.  [Which was good for the British army as that charge was a bloody disaster as opposed to other elements in the battle such as the "thin red line" stand of the 93rd Sutherland Highlands and the far more successful charge of the heavy brigade.

  Steve

Did the British not do cavalry charges in the Boer War and Great War as well, remember seeing one in the movie War horse where the cavalry got slaughterer by German heavy machine gun fire.

  There was a fair bit of use of cavalry in the early stages of the conflict, and later in other places such as the war against Turkey.  The British cavalry were trained more as mounted infantry who would use horses for speedy transport but largely fight on foot.  However I think there were also some lancers who saw action and probably a case or two where somebody, through idiocy or ignorance of what they were facing send in a charge that got slaughtered by heavy fire, whether machine guns or simply rifles.

  Most of the time the cavalry, as differing for the bulk of the horses used for transport, were idle on the western front waiting for mobile warfare that only really emerged to some degree in the last couple of months of the war.  Even then cavalry in the role of attacks on infantry was very vulnerable.  For most of the last few centuries the role of cavalry was more for scouting and also exploitation, pursuing and hopefully destroying a defeated opponent.  It only played a role against decent infantry anyway, on the battlefield to pin forces - say by making them form square - or if it could catch the flank or take a unit by surprise.  The most well known case of this impotence was probably the French cavalry at Waterloo, who forced the British to form square but couldn't break them and because they were unsupported by either infantry or artillery the cavalry were largely wasted.

[lordroel]

Oct 25, 2019 10:40:50 GMT stevep said:

Oct 25, 2019 10:22:49 GMT lordroel said:

Did the British not do cavalry charges in the Boer War and Great War as well, remember seeing one in the movie War horse where the cavalry got slaughterer by German heavy machine gun fire.

  There was a fair bit of use of cavalry in the early stages of the conflict, and later in other places such as the war against Turkey.  The British cavalry were trained more as mounted infantry who would use horses for speedy transport but largely fight on foot.  However I think there were also some lancers who saw action and probably a case or two where somebody, through idiocy or ignorance of what they were facing send in a charge that got slaughtered by heavy fire, whether machine guns or simply rifles.

  Most of the time the cavalry, as differing for the bulk of the horses used for transport, were idle on the western front waiting for mobile warfare that only really emerged to some degree in the last couple of months of the war.  Even then cavalry in the role of attacks on infantry was very vulnerable.  For most of the last few centuries the role of cavalry was more for scouting and also exploitation, pursuing and hopefully destroying a defeated opponent.  It only played a role against decent infantry anyway, on the battlefield to pin forces - say by making them form square - or if it could catch the flank or take a unit by surprise.  The most well known case of this impotence was probably the French cavalry at Waterloo, who forced the British to form square but couldn't break them and because they were unsupported by either infantry or artillery the cavalry were largely wasted.

Well, i think the Charge Of The Light Brigade will be forever be known as the most stupid cavalry charge against a enemy who had all the advantage.

[stevep]

Oct 25, 2019 10:52:23 GMT lordroel said:

Oct 25, 2019 10:40:50 GMT stevep said:

  There was a fair bit of use of cavalry in the early stages of the conflict, and later in other places such as the war against Turkey.  The British cavalry were trained more as mounted infantry who would use horses for speedy transport but largely fight on foot.  However I think there were also some lancers who saw action and probably a case or two where somebody, through idiocy or ignorance of what they were facing send in a charge that got slaughtered by heavy fire, whether machine guns or simply rifles.

  Most of the time the cavalry, as differing for the bulk of the horses used for transport, were idle on the western front waiting for mobile warfare that only really emerged to some degree in the last couple of months of the war.  Even then cavalry in the role of attacks on infantry was very vulnerable.  For most of the last few centuries the role of cavalry was more for scouting and also exploitation, pursuing and hopefully destroying a defeated opponent.  It only played a role against decent infantry anyway, on the battlefield to pin forces - say by making them form square - or if it could catch the flank or take a unit by surprise.  The most well known case of this impotence was probably the French cavalry at Waterloo, who forced the British to form square but couldn't break them and because they were unsupported by either infantry or artillery the cavalry were largely wasted.

Well, i think the Charge Of The Light Brigade will be forever be known as the most stupid cavalry charge against a enemy who had all the advantage.

  I don't know about the most stupid as plenty of candidates for that but definitely the most well known stupid charge.

[lordroel]

October 26th

YouTube (Today in History for October 26th)



1185 – The Uprising of Asen and Peter begins on the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki and ends with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire.

1341 – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–47 formally begins with the proclamation of John VI Kantakouzenos as Byzantine Emperor.

1377 – Tvrtko I is crowned the first king of Bosnia.

1520 – Charles V is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor.

1597 – Imjin War: Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang.

1640 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Covenanter Scotland and King Charles.

1689 – General Piccolomini of Austria burns down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera. He died of cholera himself soon after.

1774 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.

1813 – War of 1812: A combined force of British regulars, Canadian militia, and Mohawks defeat the Americans in the Battle of the Chateauguay.

1825 – The Erie Canal opens, allowing direct passage from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.

1859 – The Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey with 459 dead.

1860 – The Expedition of the Thousand ends when Giuseppe Garibaldi presents his conquests to King Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia.

1863 – The Football Association is founded.

1892 – Ida B. Wells publishes Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.

1905 – King Oscar II recognizes the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden.

1909 – An Jung-geun assassinates Japan's Resident-General of Korea.

1912 – First Balkan War: The Ottomans lose the cities of Thessaloniki and Skopje.

1917 – First World War: Brazil declares war on the Central Powers.

1918 – Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1921 – The Chicago Theatre opens.

1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.

1942 – World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier is sunk and another carrier is heavily damaged, while two Japanese carriers and one cruiser are heavily damaged.

1943 – World War II: First flight of the Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil".

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.

1947 – Kashmir conflict: The Maharaja of Kashmir and Jammu signs the Instrument of Accession with India.

1955 – After the last Allied troops have left the country, and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares that it will never join a military alliance.

1955 – Ngô Đình Diệm declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.

1956 – Hungarian Revolution: In the towns of Mosonmagyaróvár and Esztergom, Hungarian secret police forces massacre civilians. As rebel strongholds in Budapest hold, fighting spreads throughout the country.

1958 – Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris.

1967 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran.

1968 – Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy pilots Soyuz 3 into space for a four-day mission.

1970 – Muhammad Ali boxes for the first time after Ali's three-year hiatus due to draft evasion.

1977 – Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops a rash in Somalia. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider this date to be the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.

1979 – Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea, is assassinated by Korean CIA head Kim Jae-gyu.

1985 – The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginals.

1989 – China Airlines Flight 204 crashes after take off from Hualien Airport in Taiwan, killing all 54 people on board.[1]

1991 – Three months after the end of the Ten-Day War, the last soldier of the Yugoslav People's Army leaves the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.

1994 – Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.

1995 – Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shaqaqi in his hotel in Malta.

1995 –An Avalanche hit the Icelandic village Flateyri, destroying 29 homes, burying 45, which resulted in 20 fatalities.[2]

1999 – Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.

2000 – A wave of protests forces Robert Guéï to step down as president after the Ivorian presidential election.

2001 – The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

2002 – Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian special forces troops storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.

2003 – The Cedar Fire, the third-largest fire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km2), and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.

2015 – A 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Hindu Kush mountain range in northeastern Afghanistan, killing 398 people and leaving 2,536 people injured.

2016 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes central Italy.

[lordroel]

October 27th

YouTube (Today in History for October 27th)



312 – Constantine is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.

939 – Æthelstan, the first king of all England, dies and is succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund I.

1275 – Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.

1524 – French troops lay siege to Pavia.

1553 – Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva.

1644 – Second Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War.

1682 – Philadelphia is founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

1775 – King George III expands on his Proclamation of Rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies in his speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament.[1]

1795 – The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which establishes the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S.

1806 – The French Army enters Berlin, following the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt.

1810 – United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida.

1838 – Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be killed.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Marshal Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at the conclusion of the Siege of Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers.

1904 – The first underground New York City Subway line opens, later designated as the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line.

1907 – Fifteen people are killed in Hungary when a gunman opens fire on a crowd gathered at a church consecration.

1914 – First World War: The new British battleship HMS Audacious is sunk by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin.

1916 – Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari abte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu I.

1922 – A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country's annexation to the South African Union.

1924 – The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.

1930 – Ratifications exchanged in London for the first London Naval Treaty go into effect immediately, further limiting the expensive naval arms race among its five signatories.

1936 – Mrs Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.

1944 – World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end.

1954 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.

1958 – Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier.

1961 – NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.

1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.

1962 – By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.

1962 – An aircraft carrying Enrico Mattei, post-war Italian administrator, crashes in mysterious circumstances.

1964 – Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as "A Time for Choosing".

1967 – Catholic priest Philip Berrigan and others of the 'Baltimore Four' protest the Vietnam War by pouring blood on Selective Service records.

1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.

1979 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1981 – Cold War: The Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.

1986 – The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.

1988 – Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspends construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices in the building structure.

1991 – Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 – United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay, precipitating debate about gays in the military that results in the United States' "Don't ask, don't tell" military policy.

1994 – Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.

1995 – Former Prime Minister of Italy Bettino Craxi is convicted in absentia of corruption.

1997 – The 1997 Asian financial crisis causes a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

1999 – Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing the Prime Minister and seven others.

2004 – The Boston Red Sox defeat the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first World Series in 86 years.

2014 – Britain withdraws from Afghanistan at the end of Operation Herrick, after 12 years four months and seven days.

2017 – Catalonia declares independence from Spain.

2018 – A gunman opens fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing 11 and injuring 6, including 4 police officers.

[lordroel]

October 28th

YouTube (Today in History for October 28th)



AD 97 – Emperor Nerva is forced by the Praetorian Guard to adopt general Marcus Ulpius Trajanus as his heir and successor.

306 – Maxentius is proclaimed Roman emperor.

312 – Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman emperor in the West.

969 – The Byzantine Empire recovers Antioch from Arab rule.

1344 – The lower town of Smyrna is captured by Crusaders in response to Aydınid piracy.

1420 – Beijing is officially designated the capital of the Ming dynasty when the Forbidden City is completed.

1449 – Christian I is crowned king of Denmark.
1453 – Ladislaus the Posthumous is crowned king of Bohemia in Prague.

1492 – Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World.

1516 – Ottoman–Mamluk War: Mamluks fail to stop the Ottoman advance towards Egypt.

1531 – Abyssinian–Adal war: The Adal Sultanate seizes southern Ethiopia.

1538 – The Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino is founded in what is now the Dominican Republic.
1628 – French Wars of Religion: The Siege of La Rochelle ends with the surrender of the Huguenots after fourteen months.

1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony votes to establish a theological college, which would later become Harvard University.

1664 – The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, is established.

1707 – The 1707 Hōei earthquake causes more than 5,000 deaths in Japan.

1726 – The novel Gulliver's Travels is published.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: British troops attack and capture Chatterton Hill from the Continental Army.

1834 – The Pinjarra massacre occurs in the Swan River Colony. An estimated 30 Noongar people are killed by British colonists.

1835 – The United Tribes of New Zealand are established with the signature of the Declaration of Independence.

1864 – American Civil War: A Union attack on the Confederate capital is repulsed.

1886 – President Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.

1891 – The Mino–Owari earthquake is the largest inland earthquake in Japan's history.

1893 – Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique receives its première performance only nine days before the composer's death.

1918 – First World War: The Czechoslovak declaration of independence is proclaimed in Prague.

1918 – First World War: A new Polish government in western Galicia is established, triggering the Polish–Ukrainian War.

1919 – The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.

1922 – Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.

1928 – The Indonesia Raya, now the national anthem, is first sung.

1940 – Second World War: Greece rejects Italy's ultimatum. Italy invades Greece through Albania a few hours later.

1942 – The Alaska Highway first connects Alaska to the North American railway network at Dawson Creek in Canada.

1948 – Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

1949 – An Air France Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores, killing all 48 people on board.

1956 – Hungarian Revolution: A de facto ceasefire comes into effect between armed revolutionaries and Soviet troops, who begin to withdraw from Budapest. Communist officials and facilities come under attack by revolutionaries.

1956 – Elvis Presley receives a polio vaccination on national TV.

1958 – John XXIII is elected Pope.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

1965 – Pope Paul VI promulgates Nostra aetate, by which the Church officially recognizes the legitimacy of non-Christian faiths.

1971 – Prospero becomes the only British satellite to be launched by a British rocket.

1982 – The Spanish general election begins fourteen years of rule by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

1990 – Georgia holds its only free election under Soviet rule.

1995 – The Baku Metro fire sees 289 people killed and 270 injured.

2005 – Vice-president Cheney's chief of staff is indicted due to his involvement in the Plame affair.

2006 – A funeral service takes place at the Bykivnia graves for those Ukrainians who were killed by the Soviet secret police.

2007 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first woman elected President of Argentina.
2009 – The 28 October 2009 Peshawar bombing kills 117 and wounds 213.

2009 – NASA successfully launches the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its short-lived Constellation program.

2013 – Five people are killed and 38 are injured after a car crashes into barriers at the Tiananmen Square in China.

2014 – A rocket carrying NASA's Cygnus CRS Orb-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station explodes seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia.

[lordroel]

October 29th

YouTube (Today in History for October 29th)



539 BC – Cyrus the Great (founder of Persian Empire) entered the capital of Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their land.

312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and beheaded.

437 – Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius.

969 – Byzantine troops occupy Antioch, Syria.

1268 – Conradin is executed along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily.

1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people.

1467 – Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Prince-Bishopric of Liège.

1591 – Pope Innocent IX is elected.

1611 – Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa.

1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.

1658 – Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound.

1665 – Portuguese forces defeat the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King António I of Kongo, also known as Nvita a Nkanga.

1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.

1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague.

1792 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.

1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross.

1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant repel a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee.

1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.

1901 – In Amherst, Massachusetts, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine.

1901 – Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution.

1914 – Ottoman entry into World War I.

1918 – The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny on the night of the 29th-30th, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19.

1921 – The Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, is completed.

1921 – United States: Second trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston, Massachusetts.

1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25-game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football.

1922 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy appoints Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister.

1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.

1941 – The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action".

1942 – The Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.

1944 – The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division.

1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.

1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; after, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF.

1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Israeli army kills at least 70 Palestinian villagers during the Al-Dawayima massacre.

1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco.

1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol.

1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.

1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into Israel's Knesset.

1960 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.

1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio.

1961 – Syria exits from the United Arab Republic.

1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed the United Republic of Tanzania.

1964 – A collection of irreplaceable gems, including the 565 carat (113 g) Star of India, is stolen by a group of thieves (among them is "Murph the surf") from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors.

1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.

1971 – In Macon, Georgia, guitarist Duane Allman is killed in a motorcycle accident.

1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615.

1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida leading to cancellation of Operation Credible Sport.

1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia.

1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway.

1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.

1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton.

1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.

1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.

1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission.

1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel.

1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras.

1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200.

1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India.

2002 – Ho Chi Minh City ITC fire, a fire destroys a luxurious department store where 1500 people are shopping. Over 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for. It is the deadliest disaster in Vietnam during peacetime.

2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill more than 60.

2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five.

2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages.

2015 – China announces the end of One-child policy after 35 years.

2018 – Lion Air Flight 610 of a Boeing 737 MAX crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board

[lordroel]

October 30th

YouTube (Today in History for October 30th)



637 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Antioch surrenders to the Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of the Iron Bridge.

758 – Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates.

1137 – Ranulf of Apulia defeats Roger II of Sicily at the Battle of Rignano, securing his position as duke until his death two years later.

1270 – The Eighth Crusade ends by an agreement between Charles I of Anjou (replacing his deceased brother King Louis IX of France) and the Hafsid dynasty of Tunis, Tunisia.

1340 – Reconquista: Portuguese and Castilian forces halt a Muslim invasion at the Battle of Río Salado.

1485 – King Henry VII of England is crowned, beginning the Tudor reign.

1657 – Anglo-Spanish War: Spanish forces fail to retake Jamaica at the Battle of Ocho Rios.

1806 – War of the Fourth Coalition: Convinced that he is facing a much larger force, Prussian General von Romberg, commanding 5,300 men, surrenders the city of Stettin to 800 French soldiers.

1817 – Simón Bolívar becomes President of the Third Republic of Venezuela.

1831 – Nat Turner is arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United States history.

1863 – Danish Prince Vilhelm arrives in Athens to assume his throne as George I, King of the Hellenes.

1864 – The Treaty of Vienna is signed, by which Denmark relinquishes one province each to Prussia and Austria.

1888 – The Rudd Concession is granted by Matabeleland to agents of Cecil Rhodes.

1905 – Czar Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, granting the Russian peoples basic civil liberties and the right to form a duma. (October 17 in the Julian calendar)

1918 – World War I: The Ottoman Empire signs the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies.

1918 – World War I: Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, a state union of Kingdom of Hungary and Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia is abolished with decisions of Croatian and Hungarian parliaments

1920 – The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.

1925 – John Logie Baird creates Britain's first television transmitter.

1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing anxiety in some of the audience in the United States.

1941 – President Roosevelt approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.

1941 – Holocaust: Fifteen hundred Jews from Pidhaytsi are sent by Nazis to Bełżec extermination camp.

1942 – World War II: Lt. Tony Fasson and Able Seaman Colin Grazier drown while taking code books from the sinking German submarine U-559.

1944 – Holocaust: Anne and Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they die from disease the following year, shortly before the end of WWII.

1945 – Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the baseball color line.

1947 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is founded.

1953 – President Eisenhower approves the top-secret document NSC 162/2 concerning the maintenance of a strong nuclear deterrent force against the Soviet Union.

1956 – Hungarian Revolution: The government recognizes the new workers' councils. Army officer Béla Király leads an attack on the Communist Party headquarters.

1959 – Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 crashes on approach to Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport in Albemarle County, Virginia, killing 26 of the 27 on board.

1961 – The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated.

1961 – Due to "violations of Vladimir Lenin's precepts", it is decreed that Joseph Stalin's body be removed from inside Lenin's tomb and buried nearby with a plain marker instead.

1973 – The Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus for the second time.

1974 – The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Zaire.

1975 – Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain becomes acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.

1980 – El Salvador and Honduras agree to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.

1983 – The first democratic elections in Argentina, after seven years of military rule, are held.

1985 – Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.

1993 – The Troubles: Loyalists carry out a mass shooting at a Halloween party in Greysteel, Northern Ireland, killing six Catholics and two Protestants.

1991 – The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Madrid Conference commences in an effort to revive peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

1995 – Quebec citizens narrowly vote (50.58% to 49.42%) in favour of remaining a province of Canada in their second referendum on national sovereignty.

2005 – The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project.

2014 – Sweden is the first European Union member state to officially recognize the State of Palestine.

2015 – Sixty-four people are killed and more than 147 injuries after a fire in a nightclub in the Romanian capital Bucharest.

[lordroel]

October 31st

YouTube (Today in History for October 31st)



475 – Romulus Augustulus is proclaimed Western Roman Emperor.

683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba catches fire and is burned down.

802 – Empress Irene is deposed and banished to Lesbos. Conspirators place Nikephoros, the minister of finance, on the Byzantine throne.

932 – Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir is killed while fighting against the forces of general Mu'nis al-Muzaffar. Al-Muqtadir's brother al-Qahir is chosen to succeed him.

1517 – Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

1587 – Leiden University Library opens its doors after its founding in 1575.

1614 – First performance of Ben Jonson's comedy Bartholomew Fair by the Lady Elizabeth's Men company at the Hope Theatre in London.

1822 – Emperor Agustín de Iturbide attempts to dissolve the Congress of the Mexican Empire.

1863 – The New Zealand Wars resume as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron begin their Invasion of the Waikato.

1864 – Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state.

1903 – The Purdue Wreck, a railroad train collision in Indianapolis, kills 17 people, including 14 players of the Purdue University football team.

1913 – Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile highway across United States.

1913 – The Indianapolis Streetcar Strike and subsequent riot begins.

1917 – World War I: Battle of Beersheba: The "last successful cavalry charge in history".

1918 – World War I: The Aster Revolution terminates the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, and Hungary achieves full sovereignty.

1922 – Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy

1923 – The first of 160 consecutive days of 100° Fahrenheit at Marble Bar, Western Australia.

1924 – World Savings Day is announced in Milan, Italy by the Members of the Association at the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks).

1926 – Last issue of the independent Italian newspaper Il Mondo, thereafter suppressed by the Mussolini regime

1938 – Great Depression: In an effort to restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.

1940 – World War II: The Battle of Britain ends: The United Kingdom prevents a possible German invasion.

1941 – After 14 years of work, Mount Rushmore is completed.

1941 – World War II: The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 U.S. Navy sailors. It is the first U.S. Navy vessel sunk by enemy action in WWII.

1943 – World War II: An F4U Corsair accomplishes the first successful radar-guided interception by a United States Navy or Marine Corps aircraft.

1956 – Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1956 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956: A Revolutionary Headquarters is established in Hungary. Following Imre Nagy's announcement of October 30, banned non-Communist political parties are reformed, and the MDP is replaced by the MSZMP. József Mindszenty is released from prison. The Soviet Politburo makes the decision to crush the Revolution.

1961 – In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin's Mausoleum, also known as the Lenin Tomb.

1963 – A propane tank explosion at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Indiana Farmers Coliseum) in Indianapolis kills 74 people and injures another 400 during an ice skating show.

1968 – Vietnam War October surprise: Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.

1973 – Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape. Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escape from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in the exercise yard.

1979 – Western Airlines Flight 2605 crashes on landing in Mexico City, killing 73 people.

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi and other cities and around 3,000 Sikhs are killed.

1994 – American Eagle Flight 4184 crashes near Roselawn, Indiana killing all 68 people on board.[1]

1996 – TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 crashes in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 99 people.

1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.

1999 – Yachtsman Jesse Martin returns to Melbourne after 11 months of circumnavigating the world, solo, non-stop and unassisted.

1999 – EgyptAir Flight 990 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantucket, killing all 217 people on board.

2000 – Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been crewed continuously since then.

2000 – Singapore Airlines Flight 006 crashes on takeoff from Taipei, killing 83.

2002 – A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas indicts former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to the collapse of his ex-employer.

2003 – Mahathir bin Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia and is replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, marking an end to Mahathir's 22 years in power.

2011 – The global population of humans reaches seven billion. This day is now recognized by the United Nations as the Day of Seven Billion.

2014 – During a test flight, the VSS Enterprise, a Virgin Galactic experimental spaceflight test vehicle, suffers a catastrophic in-flight breakup and crashes in the Mojave Desert, California,

2015 – Metrojet Flight 9268 is bombed over the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.

2017 – A truck drives in a crowd of people in Lower Manhattan, killing eight people.

2018 – The Statue of Unity was inaugurated in the Indian state of Gujarat.

[lordroel]

November 1st

YouTube (Today in History for November 1st)



365 – The Alemanni cross the Rhine and invade Gaul. Emperor Valentinian I moves to Paris to command the army and defend the Gallic cities.

996 – Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German).

1009 – Berber forces led by Sulayman ibn al-Hakam defeat the Umayyad caliph Muhammad II of Córdoba in the battle of Alcolea.

1141 – Empress Matilda's reign as 'Lady of the English' ends with Stephen of Blois regaining the title of 'King of England'.

1179 – Philip II is crowned as 'King of France'.

1214 – The port city of Sinope surrenders to the Seljuq Turks.

1348 – The anti-royalist Union of Valencia attacks the Jews of Murviedro on the pretext that they are serfs of the King of Valencia and thus "royalists".

1503 – Pope Julius II is elected.

1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.

1555 – French Huguenots establish the France Antarctique colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1570 – The All Saints' Flood devastates the Dutch coast.

1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1611 – Shakespeare's play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1612 – During the Time of Troubles, Polish troops are expelled from Moscow's Kitay-gorod by Russian troops under the command of Dmitry Pozharsky (22 October O.S.) .

1683 – The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.

1688 – William III of Orange sets out a second time from Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands to seize the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland from King James II of England during the Glorious Revolution.

1755 – In Portugal, Lisbon is totally devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between 60,000 and 90,000 people.

1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.

1790 – Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he predicts that the French Revolution will end in a disaster.

1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).

1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte invades Austria during the War of the Third Coalition.

1814 – Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars.

1848 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens.

1861 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army, replacing General Winfield Scott.

1870 – In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast.

1884 – The Gaelic Athletic Association is set up in Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary.

1893 – The Battle of Bembezi took place and was the most decisive battle won by the British in the First Matabele War of 1893.

1894 – Nicholas II becomes the new (and last) Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies.

1894 – Buffalo Bill, 15 of his Indians, and Annie Oakley were filmed by Thomas Edison in his Black Maria Studio in West Orange, New Jersey.

1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.

1897 – The first Library of Congress building opens its doors to the public; the library had previously been housed in the Congressional Reading Room in the U.S. Capitol.

1901 – Sigma Phi Epsilon, the largest national male collegiate fraternity, is established at Richmond College, in Richmond, Virginia.

1911 – World's first combat aerial bombing mission takes place in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War. Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of Italy drops several small bombs.

1914 – World War I: The first British Royal Navy defeat of the war with Germany, the Battle of Coronel, is fought off of the western coast of Chile, in the Pacific, with the loss of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth.

1914 – World War I: The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) departed by ship in a single convoy from Albany, Western Australia bound for Egypt.

1916 – In Russia, Pavel Milyukov delivers in the State Duma the famous "stupidity or treason" speech, precipitating the downfall of the government of Boris Stürmer.

1918 – Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 102 deaths.

1918 – Western Ukraine separates from Austria-Hungary.

1920 – American fishing schooner Esperanto defeats the Canadian fishing schooner Delawana in the First International Fishing Schooner Championship Races in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1922 – Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate: The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates.

1928 – The Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, replaces the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet.

1937 – Stalinists execute Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan's Lutheran community.

1938 – Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed "the match of the century" in horse racing.

1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography.

1942 – World War II: Matanikau Offensive begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends three days later with an American victory.

1943 – World War II: In the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, United States Marines, the 3rd Marine Division, land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.

1943 – World War II: In support of the landings on Bougainville, U.S. aircraft carrier forces attack the huge Japanese base at Rabaul.

1944 – World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren in the Netherlands.

1944 – Donald Watson, an English animal rights activist, coins the term "veganism."

1944 – World War II: A United States Army Air Forces F-13 Superfortress conducted the first flight by an Allied aircraft over the Tokyo region of Japan since the 1942 Doolittle Raid.

1945 – The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name Chongro.

1948 – Six thousand people die when a Chinese merchant ship explodes and sinks off southern Manchuria.

1948 – Athenagoras I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is enthroned.

1950 – Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman at Blair House.

1950 – Pope Pius XII claims papal infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.

1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred American soldiers are exposed to 'Desert Rock' atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary.

1952 – Nuclear weapons testing: The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, at the Eniwetok atoll. The explosion had a yield of ten megatons TNT equivalent.

1954 – The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence.

1955 – The Vietnam War begins.

1955 – The bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner.

1956 – The Indian states Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Mysore are formally created under the States Reorganisation Act; Kanyakumari district is joined to Tamil Nadu from Kerala.

1956 – Hungarian Revolution: Imre Nagy announces Hungary's neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. Soviet troops begin to re-enter Hungary, contrary to assurances by the Soviet government. János Kádár and Ferenc Münnich secretly defect to the Soviets.

1956 – The Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia kills 39 miners; 88 are rescued.

1957 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

1960 – While campaigning for President of the United States, John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps.

1963 – The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens.

1963 – The 1963 South Vietnamese coup begins

1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.

1970 – Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France kills 146 young people.

1973 – Watergate scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.

1973 – The Indian state of Mysore is renamed as Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu.

1979 – In Bolivia, Colonel Alberto Natusch executes a bloody coup d'état against the constitutional government of Wálter Guevara.

1979 – Griselda Álvarez becomes the first female governor of Mexico.

1981 – Antigua and Barbuda gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1982 – Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, Ohio; a Honda Accord is the first car produced there.

1984 – After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, anti-Sikh riots erupts.

1987 – British Rail Class 43 (HST) hits the record speed of 238 km/h for rail vehicles with on-board fuel to generate electricity for traction motors.

1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

2000 – The Republic of Serbia and Montenegro joins the United Nations.

2012 – A fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, killing 26 people and injuring 135.

[lordroel]

November 2nd

YouTube (Today in History for November 2nd)



619 – A qaghan of the Western Turkic Khaganate is assassinated in a Chinese palace by Eastern Turkic rivals after the approval of Tang emperor Gaozu.

1410 – The Peace of Bicêtre suspends hostilities in the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War.

1675 – Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow leads a colonial militia against the Narragansett during King Philip's War.

1795 – The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created.

1868 – Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally.

1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.

1899 – The Boers begin their 118-day siege of British-held Ladysmith during the Second Boer War.

1912 – Bulgaria defeats the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lule Burgas, the bloodiest battle of the First Balkan War, which opens her way to Constantinople.

1914 – World War I: The Russian Empire declares war on the Ottoman Empire and the Dardanelles are subsequently closed.

1917 – The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities".

1917 – The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian Revolution, holds its first meeting.

1920 – In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the result of the 1920 United States presidential election.

1936 – The British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.

1940 – World War II: First day of Battle of Elaia–Kalamas between the Greeks and the Italians.

1947 – In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.

1949 – The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ends with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to the United States of Indonesia.

1951 – Six thousand British troops arrive in Suez after the Egyptian government abrogates the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936.[1]

1951 – Canada in the Korean War: A platoon of The Royal Canadian Regiment defends a vital area against a full battalion of Chinese troops in the Battle of the Song-gok Spur. The engagement lasts into the early hours the next day.

1956 – Hungarian Revolution: Imre Nagy requests UN aid for Hungary. Nikita Khrushchev meets with leaders of other Communist countries to seek their advice on the situation in Hungary, selecting János Kádár as the country's next leader on the advice of Josip Broz Tito.

1956 – Suez Crisis: Israel occupies the Gaza Strip.

1959 – Quiz show scandals: Twenty-One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.

1959 – The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway.

1960 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

1963 – South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm is assassinated following a military coup.

1964 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia is deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal.

1965 – Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war.

1966 – The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.

1967 – Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and "The Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war.

1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

1984 – Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

1986 – US Hostage, David Jacobsen, is released in Beirut after 17 months in captivity.[1]

1988 – The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT.

1990 – British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television plc merge to form BSkyB as a result of massive losses.

1999 – Xerox murders: Bryan Koji Uyesugi shot at eight people, killing six of his co-workers and his supervisor. This is the worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii.

2016 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years.

2018 – The Milwaukee Streetcar opens in Milwaukee

[lordroel]

November 3rd

YouTube (Today in History for November 3rd)



361 – Emperor Constantius II dies of a fever at Mopsuestia in Cilicia, on his deathbed he is baptised and declares his cousin Julian rightful successor.

644 – Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim caliph, is assassinated by a Persian slave in Medina.

1333 – The River Arno flooding causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani.

1468 – Liège is sacked by Charles I of Burgundy's troops.

1492 – Peace of Etaples between Henry VII of England and Charles VIII of France.

1493 – Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea.

1534 – English Parliament passes the first Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII head of the Anglican Church, supplanting the pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

1592 – The city of San Luis Potosí is founded.

1783 – The American Continental Army is disbanded.

1793 – French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined.

1812 – Napoleon's armies are defeated at the Battle of Vyazma.

1817 – The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal.

1838 – The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.

1848 – A greatly revised Dutch constitution, drafted by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, severely limiting the powers of the Dutch monarchy, and strengthening the powers of parliament and ministers, is proclaimed.

1867 – Giuseppe Garibaldi and his followers are defeated in the Battle of Mentana and fail to end the Pope's Temporal power in Rome (it would be achieved three years later).

1868 – John Willis Menard (R-Louisiana) was the first African American elected to the United States Congress. Because of an electoral challenge, he was never seated.

1881 – The Mapuche uprising of 1881 begins in Chile.

1898 – France withdraws its troops from Fashoda (now in Sudan), ending the Fashoda Incident.

1903 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama separates from Colombia.

1908 – William Howard Taft is elected the 27th President of the United States.

1911 – Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in competition with the Ford Model T.

1918 – Austria-Hungary enters into the Armistice of Villa Giusti with the Allies, and the Habsburg-ruled empire dissolves.

1918 – The German Revolution of 1918–19 begins when 40,000 sailors take over the port in Kiel.

1929 – The Gwangju Student Independence Movement occurred.

1930 – Getúlio Vargas becomes Head of the Provisional Government in Brazil after a bloodless coup on October 24.

1932 – Panagis Tsaldaris becomes the 142nd Prime Minister of Greece.

1935 – George II of Greece regains his throne through a popular, though possibly fixed, plebiscite.

1936 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is re-elected President of the United States.

1942 – World War II: The Koli Point action begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on November 12.

1943 – World War II: Five hundred aircraft of the U.S. 8th Air Force devastate Wilhelmshaven harbor in Germany.

1944 – World War II: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.

1946 – The Constitution of Japan is adopted through Emperor's assent.

1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Battle of Dengbu Island occurs.

1956 – Suez Crisis: The Khan Yunis killings by the Israel Defense Forces in Egyptian-controlled Gaza result in the deaths of 275 Palestinians.

1956 – Hungarian Revolution: A new Hungarian government is formed, in which many members of banned non-Communist parties participate. During negotiations on Tököl Island ostensibly on Soviet troop withdrawal, the KGB arrests Pál Maléter and other Hungarian Revolutionary commanders, effectively decapitating the Revolution's military leadership. János Kádár and Ferenc Münnich form a counter-government in Moscow as Soviet troops ready for the final assault.

1957 – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.

1960 – The land that would become the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established by an Act of Congress after a year-long legal battle that pitted local residents against Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials wishing to turn the Great Swamp into a major regional airport for jet aircraft.

1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson is elected to a full term, winning 61% of the vote and 44 states, while Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time, casting the majority of their votes for Lyndon Johnson.

1967 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dak To begins.

1969 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.

1973 – Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.

1975 – Syed Nazrul Islam, A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman, Tajuddin Ahmad, and Muhammad Mansur Ali, Bangladeshi politicians and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman loyalists, are murdered in the Dhaka Central Jail.

1978 – Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1979 – Greensboro massacre: Five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a "Death to the Klan" rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States.

1982 – The Salang Tunnel fire in Afghanistan kills up to 2,000 people.

1986 – Iran–Contra affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1986 – The Federated States of Micronesia gain independence from the United States of America.

1988 – Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries try to overthrow the Maldivian government. At President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's request, the Indian military suppresses the coup attempt within 24 hours.

1996 – Death of Abdullah Çatlı, leader of the Turkish ultra-nationalist organisation Grey Wolves in the Susurluk car crash, which leads to the resignation of the Turkish Interior Minister, Mehmet Ağar (a leader of the True Path Party, DYP).

1997 – The United States of America imposes economic sanctions against Sudan in response to its human rights abuses of its own citizens and its material and political assistance to Islamic extremist groups across the Middle East and Eastern Africa.

2014 – One World Trade Center officially opens. It is the replacement for the World Trade Center Twin Towers, in New York City, after the towers were each gutted by a plane during the September 11 Attacks.

[lordroel]

November 4th

YouTube (Today in History for November 4th)



1429 – Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War: Joan of Arc liberates Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier.

1501 – Catherine of Aragon (later Henry VIII's first wife) meets Arthur Tudor, Henry VIII's older brother – they would later marry.

1576 – Eighty Years' War: In Flanders, Spain captures Antwerp (after three days the city is nearly destroyed).

1677 – The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange; they later jointly reign as William and Mary.

1737 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated in Naples, Italy.

1780 – The Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II against Spanish rule in the Viceroyalty of Peru begins.

1783 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria.

1791 – The Western Confederacy of American Indians wins a major victory over the United States in the Battle of the Wabash.

1798 – Beginning of the Russo-Ottoman siege of Corfu.

1839 – Newport Rising: The last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain.

1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a Scottish physician, discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform.

1852 – Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, becomes the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, which soon expands to become Italy.

1864 – American Civil War: Confederate troops bombard a Union supply base and destroy millions of dollars in material at the Battle of Johnsonville.

1868 – Camagüey, Cuba, revolts against Spain during the Ten Years' War.

1890 – City and South London Railway: London's first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.

1918 – World War I: The Armistice of Villa Giusti between Italy and Austria-Hungary is implemented.

1921 – The Saalschutz Abteilung (hall defense detachment) of the Nazi Party is renamed the Sturmabteilung (storm detachment) after a large riot in Munich.

1921 – Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi is assassinated in Tokyo.

1922 – In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female elected as governor in the United States.

1939 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons by belligerents.

1942 – World War II: Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel begins a retreat of his forces after a costly defeat during the Second Battle of El Alamein. The retreat would ultimately last five months.

1944 – World War II: The 7th Macedonian Liberation Brigade liberates Bitola for the Allies.

1952 – The United States government establishes the National Security Agency, or NSA.

1956 – Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution against the Soviet Union that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.

1960 – At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community in Tanzania, Dr Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever observation in non-human animals.

1962 – The United States concludes Operation Fishbowl, its final above-ground nuclear weapons testing series, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

1966 – The Arno River floods Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of 6.7 m (22 ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. Also Venice was submerged on the same day at its record all-time acqua alta of 194 cm (76 in).

1970 – Vietnam War: The United States turns over control of the air base at Bình Thủy in the Mekong Delta to South Vietnam.

1970 – Salvador Allende takes office as President of Chile, the first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections.

1973 – The Netherlands experiences the first Car-Free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are used only by cyclists and roller skaters.

1979 – Iran hostage crisis: A group of Iranian college students overruns the U.S. embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages.

1980 – Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th President of The United States, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.

1993 – China Airlines Flight 605, a brand-new 747-400, overruns the runway at Kai Tak Airport.

1995 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by an extremist Israeli.

2002 – Chinese authorities arrest cyber-dissident He Depu for signing a pro-democracy letter to the 16th Communist Party Congress.

2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first person of biracial or African-American descent to be elected President of the United States.

2010 – Aero Caribbean Flight 883 crashes into Guasimal, Sancti Spíritus. All 68 passengers and crew are killed.

2010 – Qantas Flight 32, an Airbus A380, suffers an uncontained engine failure over Indonesia shortly after taking off from Singapore, crippling the jet. The crew manage to safely return to Singapore, saving all 469 passengers and crew.

2015 – A cargo plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Juba International Airport in Juba, South Sudan, killing at least 37 people.
2015 – A building collapses in the Pakistani city of Lahore resulting in at least 45 deaths, and at least 100 injured.