Post by MacBeth on May 5, 2009 5:59:00 GMT -5
In 2349 BC, Noah's Ark lands on Mount Ararat, according to calculations by James Ussher, Archbishop of the Church of Ireland.
In 840, a son of Charlemagne, Emperor Louis of Bavaria, dies of fright during a total eclipse of the sun. His sons quarrel, causing the division of his Empire into France, Germany, and Italy.
In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. Helena.
In 1862, Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeated French troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.
In 1891, Carnegie Hall (then named "Music Hall") had its official opening night in New York City.
In 1893, panic hit the New York Stock Exchange; by year's end, the country was in the throes of a severe depression.
In 1904, Cy Young pitched the American League's first perfect game as the Boston Americans defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 3-0.
In 1925, schoolteacher John T. Scopes was charged in Tennessee with violating a state law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)
In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces landed on the Philippine island of Corregidor.
In 1945, Elsie Mitchell and five children she is watching are killed by a Japanese balloon bomb which drifted over the Pacific into Oregon. They are the only people killed in action on the US mainland during World War II.
In 1955, West Germany became a fully sovereign state. The baseball musical "Damn Yankees" opened on Broadway. An internal CIA memo emphasizes the need for a drug that creates a state of "pure euphoria" and no letdown. From this springs Operation Midnight Climax, in which CIA brothels were set up in San Francisco, and their customers surreptitiously dosed with LSD by prostitutes; operative George Hunter White observed reactions behind a two way mirror, purely in the interest of science.
In 1961, Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America's first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
In 1981, Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands died at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in his 66th day without food.
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan attended a wreath-laying ceremony at a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany. The visit drew worldwide condemnation because 49 members of the Waffen SS were buried there.
In 2000, the tightest alignment in 38 years of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the sun and the moon - as seen from Earth - took place.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton began a morale-boosting trip to Europe that included a visit to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he met the three American soldiers just released by Yugoslavia. The first Kosovo refugees brought to the United States, 453 of them, arrived at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
In 2004, seeking to calm international outrage, President George W. Bush acknowledged mistakes but stopped short of an apology as he condemned the abuse and deaths of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers during appearances on two Arabic-language TV networks. Picasso's 1905 painting "Boy with a Pipe" sold for $104 million at Sotheby's in New York, breaking the record at that time for an auctioned painting.
In 2008, three men were arrested and beaten by Philadelphia police officers after a vehicle chase in a scene videotaped by a TV news helicopter. (No charges have been filed against the officers; however, the three men have been ordered to stand trial on attempted murder charges for a triple shooting earlier that night.)
In 840, a son of Charlemagne, Emperor Louis of Bavaria, dies of fright during a total eclipse of the sun. His sons quarrel, causing the division of his Empire into France, Germany, and Italy.
In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. Helena.
In 1862, Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeated French troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.
In 1891, Carnegie Hall (then named "Music Hall") had its official opening night in New York City.
In 1893, panic hit the New York Stock Exchange; by year's end, the country was in the throes of a severe depression.
In 1904, Cy Young pitched the American League's first perfect game as the Boston Americans defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 3-0.
In 1925, schoolteacher John T. Scopes was charged in Tennessee with violating a state law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)
In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces landed on the Philippine island of Corregidor.
In 1945, Elsie Mitchell and five children she is watching are killed by a Japanese balloon bomb which drifted over the Pacific into Oregon. They are the only people killed in action on the US mainland during World War II.
In 1955, West Germany became a fully sovereign state. The baseball musical "Damn Yankees" opened on Broadway. An internal CIA memo emphasizes the need for a drug that creates a state of "pure euphoria" and no letdown. From this springs Operation Midnight Climax, in which CIA brothels were set up in San Francisco, and their customers surreptitiously dosed with LSD by prostitutes; operative George Hunter White observed reactions behind a two way mirror, purely in the interest of science.
In 1961, Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America's first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
In 1981, Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands died at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in his 66th day without food.
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan attended a wreath-laying ceremony at a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany. The visit drew worldwide condemnation because 49 members of the Waffen SS were buried there.
In 2000, the tightest alignment in 38 years of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the sun and the moon - as seen from Earth - took place.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton began a morale-boosting trip to Europe that included a visit to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he met the three American soldiers just released by Yugoslavia. The first Kosovo refugees brought to the United States, 453 of them, arrived at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
In 2004, seeking to calm international outrage, President George W. Bush acknowledged mistakes but stopped short of an apology as he condemned the abuse and deaths of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers during appearances on two Arabic-language TV networks. Picasso's 1905 painting "Boy with a Pipe" sold for $104 million at Sotheby's in New York, breaking the record at that time for an auctioned painting.
In 2008, three men were arrested and beaten by Philadelphia police officers after a vehicle chase in a scene videotaped by a TV news helicopter. (No charges have been filed against the officers; however, the three men have been ordered to stand trial on attempted murder charges for a triple shooting earlier that night.)