A bit of April 25th history…

1507 - Cartographer, Martin Waldseemuller, was the first to use the name America on his world map “Universalis Cosmographia” (pictured)

1792 - 1st use of guillotine in France 

1846 - Thornton Affair: open conflict begins over the disputed borders of Texas, triggering the Mexican-American War

1886 - Sigmund Freud opens practice in Vienna

1901 - NY is 1st state requiring auto license plates ($1)

1953 - Crick & Watson’s discovery of double helix structure of DNA is published

1954 - Bell Labs announces 1st solar battery made from silicon

1990 - Hubble Space Telescope placed into orbit 

A bit of July 3rd history…

1187 - Battle of Horns of Hattin: Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, destroys Jerusalem’s crusader army

1814 - 1st savings bank in US opens

1863 - Battle of Gettysburg, largest battle ever fought on the American continent, ends in a victory for the Union

1928 - John Logie Baird demonstrates the 1st color television transmission in London

1996 - UK House of Commons announces that the Stone of Scone, aka the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish (and subsequently English and British monarchies) will be returned to Scotland after 700 years in Westminster Abbey (pictured)

2019 - Study published that the US produces more waste per head globally and recycles the least at 35%; Germany recycles the most at 68% 

A bit of March 1st history…

752 BC - Romulus, 1st king of Rome, celebrates the 1st Roman triumph after his victory over the Caeninenses, following the Rape of the Sabine Women (pictured)

1781 - Continental Congress officially adopts the Articles of Confederation, the 1st constitution of the USA

1870 - War of the Triple Alliance finally ends with the Battle of Cerra Cora and the death of Paraguayan Dictator Lopez after 5 years of bloodshed between Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay

1872 - Yellowstone becomes world’s 1st national park

1896 - Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity

1932 - The “Lindbergh Kidnapping”, 20 month old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh kidnapped from home in NJ; found dead 12 May

1954 - US explodes Castle Bravo, a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll, which accidentally became the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the US 

A bit of July 12th history…

1630 - New Amsterdam’s governor buys Gull Island from the natives for cargo, renames it Oyster Island, later known as Ellis Island

1843 - Mormon leader Joseph Smith says God allows polygamy

1909 - 16th Amendment passed by congress - power to tax income (pictured)

1933 - US Congress passes 1st minimum wage law - 33 cents per hour

1979 - “Disco Demolition Night” at Comiskey Park; fans go wild destroying disco records and cause White Sox to forfeit game

2013 - Malala Yousafzai addresses UN and calls for worldwide access to education

2017 - World’s largest iceberg breaks away from Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica, about 6000 sq km in length 

A bit of March 3rd history…

1791 - 1st US internal revenue act - taxing distilled spirits and carriages

1849 - US Home Department - later renamed the Department of the Interior - established by Congress

1861 - Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing serfs and granting them the full rights of free citizens

1867 - 1st US wartime military conscription bill enacted

1921 - Discovery of insulin announced

1931 - “Star Spangled Banner” officially becomes the US national anthem

1991 - Los Angeles police officers severely beat motorist Rodney King, the beating is famously captured on amateur video and later leads to riots (pictured) 

A bit of July 5th history…

1687 - Isaac Newton’s work Principia is published, outlining his laws of motion and universal gravitation

1775 - Second Continental Congress drafts the Olive Branch Petition to King George III

1811 - Venezuelan Declaration of Independence from Spain

1937 - Spam, the luncheon meat, is 1st introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation (pictured)

1994 - Amazon.com founded in Washington by Jeff Bezos

2003 - SARS is declared “contained” by WHO after affecting 26 countries

2017 - Volvo announces all new models by 2019 will be either hybrids or battery powered - 1st auto maker to do so 

A bit of June 26th history…

1284 - According to the Luneburg manuscript, a piper leads 130 children of Hamelin away (pictured)

1498 - Toothbrush is invented in China using boar bristles

1945 - United Nations Charter is signed by 50 nations in San Francisco

1974 - The Univeral Product Code (UPC) is scanned for the 1st time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum

1997 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1st book in series, is published

2015 - US Supreme Court rules 5-4 same-sex marriage is a legal right across all US states 

A bit of July 4th history…

1054 - Brightest known supernova SN 1054 (the Crab Nebula) 1st reported by Chinese astronomers (pictured)

1776 - US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Britain

1785 - James Hulton, geologist, publicly reads an abstract of his theory of uniformitarianism for 1st time

1805 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people by President Thomas Jefferson

1876 - 1st public exhibition of electric light in San Francisco

1884 - Statue of Liberty presented to US in Paris

1966 - LBJ signs Freedom of Information Act

1970 - Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40″ debuts on LA radio

2012 - Scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announce the discovery of a new particle consistent with Higgs Boson 

A bit of June 30th history…

1520 - Spanish conquistadors are expelled from Tenochtitlan following an Aztec revolt against their rule under Cortes during “La Noche Triste” (the night of sadness); many soldiers drowned in the escape and Aztec emperor Montezuma II died in the struggle.(pictured)

1860 - Famous debate on Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution at Oxford University

1906 - US Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act; these laws owe much to the journalism of the period - Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” in particular

1908 - Tunguska Event: a giant fireball, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet, flattens 80 million trees near Stoney Tunguska River in Russia; largest event in recorded history

1937 - World’s 1st emergency call telephone service is launched in London

1938 - Superman 1st appears in DC Comics’ Action Comic Series

1982 - Federal Equal Rights Amendment falls 3 states short of ratification 

A bit of March 6th history..

1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte captures city of Jaffa, Palestine defeating the Ottoman Empire

1836 - Battle of the Alamo: After 13 days of fighting, 1500-3000 Mexican soldiers overwhelm the Texas defenders, killing 182-257 including William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett

1857 - Dred Scott Decision: US Supreme Court rules Africans cannot be US citizens

1869 - Mendeleev presents 1st periodic table of the elements to the Russian Chemical Society

1899 - “Aspirin” patented at Bayer

1964 - Boxing legend Cassius Clay joins the Nation of Islam and changes his name to Muhammed Ali, calling his former title a “slave name” (pictured)

2017 - US President Trump signs his 2nd executive order barring travelers from 6 mostly Muslim countries, but leaves out Iraq

2018 - Forbes names Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, the world’s riches person for 1st time at $112 billion, Bill Gates #2