A bit of June 29th history…

1613 - Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London burns down during a performance of Henry VIII (pictured)

1767 - British pass Townshend Revenue Act, levying taxes on America, helping to intensify opposition to British rule

1888 - 1st known recording of classical music made, Handel’s Israel in Egypt on a wax cylinder

1940 - US passes Alien Registration Act requiring aliens to register

2006 - US Supreme Court rules that President GW Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunal violates US and international law

2008 - Thomas Beatie, world’s first pregnant man, gives birth to daughter

2009 - Financier Bernard Madoff sentenced to 150 years in prison, US maximum, for his massive Ponzi scheme

2015 - Beijing Times reports 30% of the Great Wall has disappeared due to natural forces and the stealing of bricks 

A bit of December 30th history…

1835 - Georgia gold rush forces Cherokees to move across the Mississippi River (pictured)

1906 - The All India Muslim League is founded, later laid down the foundations of Pakistan

1924 - Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announces existence of other galactic systems at the American Astronomical Society

1972 - US President Nixon halts bombing of North Vietnam and announces peace talks 

A bit of June 25th history…

1867 - 1st barbed wire patented

1876 - Battle of Little Bighorn: US 7th Cavalry under General Custer were wiped out by the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in what has become famously known as “Custer’s Last Stand” (pictured)

1938 - Federal minimum wage law guaranteed workers 25 cents per hour and a maximum 44 hour work week

1950 - North Korea invades South Korea, beginning Korean war

1978 - 1st use of the rainbow flag, symbol of gay pride, at a San Francisco march

1982 - Blade Runner released (pictured below)

1984 - Prince releases Purple Rain 

A bit of June 27th history…

1922 - Newberry Medal 1st presented for children’s literature

1950 - North Korean troops reach Seoul, UN asks members to aid South Korea; Harry Truman orders US Air Force and Navy into Korean conflict

1972 - Atari, inc founded in California (pictured)

2003 - US National Do Not Call Registry, formed to combat unwanted telemarketing calls, gets almost ¾ of a million members its first day

2008 - Bill Gates steps down as Chairman of Microsoft Corporation to work on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

2017 - Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook has reached 2 billion monthly users

2018 - Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 arrives at diamond-shaped asteroid Ryugu

2019 - US Supreme Court rules 2020 census cannot contain a question about citizenship 

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