...excuse my curiousity, but is the second picture of Lucia where the term "four eyes' comes from?
Tree
I was just curious, Ulrika...
Tree
I was just curious, Ulrika...
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Milestones
- Thread starter admihoek
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Talking about Lucia Tree................... St Lucia's Flood in my country
1287. The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing thousands of people in St. Lucia's Flood. St. Lucia's flood was a storm tide that affected the Netherlands and Northern Germany the day after St. Lucia Day when a dike broke during a storm, killing approximately 50,000 to 80,000 people in the fifth largest flood in recorded history. The name Zuiderzee dates from this event, as the water had merely been a shallow inland lake when the first dikes were being built, but rising North Sea levels created the "Southern Sea" when floods including this flood came in.
Although not known by the name of St Lucia, the same storm also had devastating effects on the other side of the water in England, where it is better known as the Great Storm. The city of Winchelsea on Romney Marsh was destroyed (later rebuilt on higher ground). Nearby Broomhill was also destroyed. The course of the nearby river Rother was diverted away from New Romney, which was almost destroyed and left a mile from the coast, ending its role as a port. The Rother ran instead to sea at Rye, prompting its rise as a port. The storm contributed to the collapse of a cliff at Hastings, taking part of Hastings Castle with it, blocking the harbor and ending its role as a trade center, though it continued as a center for fishing. Parts of Norfolk were flooded, eg the village of Hickling where 180 died and the water rose a foot above the high altar in the church.
1287. The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing thousands of people in St. Lucia's Flood. St. Lucia's flood was a storm tide that affected the Netherlands and Northern Germany the day after St. Lucia Day when a dike broke during a storm, killing approximately 50,000 to 80,000 people in the fifth largest flood in recorded history. The name Zuiderzee dates from this event, as the water had merely been a shallow inland lake when the first dikes were being built, but rising North Sea levels created the "Southern Sea" when floods including this flood came in.
Although not known by the name of St Lucia, the same storm also had devastating effects on the other side of the water in England, where it is better known as the Great Storm. The city of Winchelsea on Romney Marsh was destroyed (later rebuilt on higher ground). Nearby Broomhill was also destroyed. The course of the nearby river Rother was diverted away from New Romney, which was almost destroyed and left a mile from the coast, ending its role as a port. The Rother ran instead to sea at Rye, prompting its rise as a port. The storm contributed to the collapse of a cliff at Hastings, taking part of Hastings Castle with it, blocking the harbor and ending its role as a trade center, though it continued as a center for fishing. Parts of Norfolk were flooded, eg the village of Hickling where 180 died and the water rose a foot above the high altar in the church.
557. Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake. This great earthquake, described in the works of Agathias, John Malalas and Theophanes the Confessor, caused great damage to Constantinople, then capital of the Byzantine Empire, and a region frequently afflicted with earthquakes. More minor quakes had preceded the large event, including two in April and October respectively. The main quake in December was of unparalleled ferocity, and "almost completely razed" the city. It caused damage to the Hagia Sophia which contributed to the collapse of its dome the next year, as well as damaging the Walls of Constantinople to the extent that Hun invaders were able to penetrate it with ease the following season.
Tremors started towards midnight, when most residents of Constantinople were sleeping. The tremors awoke the citizens and as the buildings trembled, "shrieks and lamentations could be heard". The successive tremors were accompanied by thunder-like sounds from the ground. The air reportedly "grew dim with the vaporous exhalations of a smoky haze rising from an unknown source, and gleamed with a dull radiance".
The panicked residents started evacuating their houses, gathering in streets and alleyways. Agathias observed that the city had precious few "wide open spaces entirely free of obstructions", which meant that residents were not safe from falling debris even outdoors. A shower of sleet soaked those outside and everyone "suffered greatly from the cold". Many sought refuge within the churches of the city. By dawn, the earthquake had ceased.
1503. French astrologer Nostradamus is born. Nostradamus, the Latinized name of Michel de Nostredame, was one of the world's most famous publishers of prophecies. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555.
Since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death and has always been hugely popular throughout the world, Nostradamus has attracted an almost cult following. His many enthusiasts, to say nothing of the popular press, credit him with predicting numerous major world events. Skeptics say his predictions were too vague to mean anything.
1542. Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland, a fae bairn when she is crowned. Her father died just days before, at an early age, She became Mary, Queen of Scots while still in the cradle. Ironically, she would eventually be forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son, James. Her last minutes were spent on the headsman's block, enduring a botched and gruesome beheading.
1640. Aphra Behn is baptized at Harbledown, near Canterbury, England. A successful playwright and novelist, Behn has been called the first Englishwoman to make her living as a writer. After her husband's death, Behn allegedly served as a secret agent in the Netherlands for Charles II of England but was not paid for her services, and was put in prison for debt when she returned to England. She began writing to support herself, and her first play,The Forced Marriage, was produced in 1671 at Lincoln's Inn Fields by the Duke's Company. The play was a hit, and Behn wrote many more successful comedies, of which 17 survive.
Although one of her plays irritated the Duke of Monmouth, the king's illegitimate son, enough to land Behn in jail briefly, she continued to write lively, satiric plays and poetry until her death in 1689. She was the first woman to be buried in Westminster Abbey in recognition of her own achievements.
1751. The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first military academy in the world by Maria Theresa of Austria who gave the first commander of the Academy, Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun (Lord Daun), the order “Mach’ er mir tüchtiger Officirs und rechtschaffene Männer darauß” (“Make me hard working officers and honest men”).
1782. The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight. Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier were the inventors of the montgolfière-style hot air balloon The brothers succeeded in launching the first manned ascent, carrying Étienne into the sky. Later, in December 1783, in recognition of their achievement, their father Pierre was elevated to the nobility and the hereditary appellation of de Montgolfier by King Louis XVI of France.
1799. George Washington, the American revolutionary leader and first president of the United States, dies of acute laryngitis at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia. He was 67 years old. His friend Henry Lee provided a famous eulogy for the father of the United States: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
1819. Alabama is admitted to the Union, and becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1863. During the American Civil War, President Lincoln announces a grant of amnesty for Mrs. Emilie Todd Helm, Mary Lincoln's half sister and the widow of a Confederate general. The pardon was one of the first under Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which he had announced less than a week before. The plan was the president's blueprint for the reintegration of the South into the Union. Part of the plan allowed for former Confederates to be granted amnesty if they took an oath to the United States. The option was open to all but the highest officials of the Confederacy. Emilie Todd Helm was the wife of Benjamin Helm, who, like the Lincolns, was a Kentucky native. Lincoln was said to be a great admirer of Helm, a West Point and Harvard graduate. Lincoln had offered Helm a position in the U.S. Army, but Helm opted to join the Confederates instead. Helm led a group of Kentuckians known as the "Orphan Brigade," since they could not return to their Union-held native state during the war. Helm was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863.
After her husband's death, Helm made her way through Union lines to Washington. She stayed in the White House and the Lincolns tried to keep her visit a secret. General Daniel Sickles, who had been wounded at Gettysburg five months prior, told Lincoln that he should not have a rebel in his house. Lincoln replied, "General Sickles, my wife and I are in the habit of choosing our own guests. We do not need from our friends either advice or assistance in the matter." After Lincoln granted her pardon, Emilie Helm returned to Kentucky.
1874. A botched burglary attempt further clouds one of the earliest kidnap-for-ransom cases. As he was about to go to bed, wealthy New Yorker Holmes Van Brunt heard burglars breaking into his brother's house next door. After rounding up three other men to help him surprise the intruders, Van Brunt engaged the thieves in a shotgun battle that left the robbers severely wounded. On his deathbed, one of the burglars confessed that he had been responsible for kidnapping Charley Ross. He then promised that the child would be returned alive.
The Charley Ross kidnapping was the year's biggest story. Two men had snatched the four-year-old son of rich Philadelphia grocer Christian Ross from the front lawn of his house on July 1. On July 4, the kidnappers delivered the first of 23 poorly spelled ransom notes to Ross. Several days later, they asked for $20,000. After some stalling, Ross agreed to pay the ransom, but no one ever came to pick up the money.
Generating mountains of publicity, the Ross kidnapping became the first widely followed kidnap-for-ransom incident. Despite the dying criminal's confession, Charley Ross was never found.
1896. The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company in Scotland.
1902. The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.
1903. The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It crashes, and three days later, after repairs, they get it to fly. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Look how long it is taking us to return to the Moon.
1911. Roald Amunden's expedition become the first to reach the South Pole, easily winning the race against a British team that died in the attempt.
1918. President of Portugal Sidónio Pais is assassinated. On 5 December 1917, he led an uprising against Afonso Costa's Democratic Party government, and established an authoritarian regime. His short period in office saw a warming of Church-state relations, the extension of the electoral franchise, and the smashing defeat of the ill-prepared Portuguese troops at La Lys, in France. He escaped a first assassination attempt, but was shot on 14 December 1918 by José Júlio da Costa, at Rossio railway station, in Lisbon, when he was preparing to board a train.
1939. As a result of invading Finland and starting the Winter War, the Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations. Stalin shrugs.
1946. Sixties sex kitten Jane Birkin is born (See pictures.) Birkin was born in London, England to David Birkin, a Royal Navy commander and World War II espionage hero, and Judy Campbell, an actress in Noel Coward musicals. Her great aunt was Freda Dudley Ward, a mistress of Edward VIII while he was Prince of Wales.
Birkin emerged in the swinging 60s in London, starring as one of the models in the controversial film Blow Up in 1967. In 1968, Birkin went to France to audition for the lead female role in Slogan. Though she did not speak French, she got the role.
In 1969, she and Serge Gainsbourg released the song "Je t'aime... moi non plus" ("I love you... me neither"), written by Gainsbourg and featuring both of them singing, which caused a scandal for its sexual explicitness. Thanks to the publicity it got from being banned by radio stations in Italy, Sweden, Spain, and the UK, it was a commercial success all over Europe. The song's fame is a result of its salacious lyrics (sung in French) against a background of female moaning and groaning, culminating in an orgasm at the song's conclusion (which some claim to be the result of Jane and Serge actually doing it during the recording of the song).
Here is it
Birkin took a short break from her acting career in 1971-72, but returned as Brigitte Bardot's lover in Don Juan (or if Don Juan were a woman) in 1973. In 1975, she appeared in Gainsbourg's first film, also titled Je t'aime... moi non plus, which created quite a stir for its frank examination of sexual ambiguity. For this performance she was nominated for a Best Actress César Awards. Birkin has starred in the Agatha Christie films Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun, and recorded several albums including Baby Alone in Babylone, Amours des Feintes, Lolita Go Home and Rendez-vous. She won Female Artist of the year in France the Victoires de la Musique award in 1992.
1947. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
1955. Ireland and Portugal join the United Nations.
1958. The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first expedition to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic. A pole of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach owing to its remoteness from geographical features that could provide access. The term describes a geographic construct, not an actual physical phenomenon, and is of interest mostly to explorers.
1962. NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
1963. The Baldwin Hills Reservoir wall bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles.
1967. Record snow continues to fall in New Mexico in a blizzard that eventually kills 51 people. In December of that year, snow fell almost constantly in the northern part of the state for two weeks, piling up to five feet in some areas. Heavy snowfall spread to other states on December 20. Twenty people died in west Texas from snow-related mishaps. Southern Colorado also experienced extraordinary snowfall all the way through Christmas.
1972. Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the Moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the Moon of the 20th century.
1977. The movie Saturday Night Fever is released. The film stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities are dominated by visits to a Brooklyn discotheque.
The movie significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world, and made Travolta a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, became the best selling soundtrack ever.
The film also showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute-couture styles of clothing, and clever choregraphy.
1981. Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights that, on the map at least, still belonged to Syria.
1993. Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River. The dam body was completed in 2006. Except for a ship lift, the originally planned components of the project were completed on October 30, 2008.
The Chinese government regards the project as a historic engineering, social and economic success. However, the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.3 million people, and is causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides. The dam has been a controversial topic both in China and abroad.
1995. The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris, ending the War in Yugoslavia. Among the signatories are Seriban President Slobodan Milošević and U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The peace agreement was reached at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris. These accords put an end to the three and a half year long war in Bosnia, one of the many armed conflicts in the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia.
2003. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
2008. U.S. President George W. Bush makes his fourth and final trip to Iraq as president and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaididuring at a news conference in Baghdad.
2010. At least 30 Sudanese women are arrested after holding a protest march over a video that allegedly shows a policeman whipping a woman.
2011. Time names "The Protester" the magazine's 2011 Person of the Year, as a result of the Arab Spring and subsequent movements. Meanwhile, thirteen people are killed in Hama, Syria, during the latest violence in the ongoing uprising. Elsewhere, the population of the village of Wukan in southern China revolt over the death of a local man who led protests against a land grab; local officials and police flee
Tremors started towards midnight, when most residents of Constantinople were sleeping. The tremors awoke the citizens and as the buildings trembled, "shrieks and lamentations could be heard". The successive tremors were accompanied by thunder-like sounds from the ground. The air reportedly "grew dim with the vaporous exhalations of a smoky haze rising from an unknown source, and gleamed with a dull radiance".
The panicked residents started evacuating their houses, gathering in streets and alleyways. Agathias observed that the city had precious few "wide open spaces entirely free of obstructions", which meant that residents were not safe from falling debris even outdoors. A shower of sleet soaked those outside and everyone "suffered greatly from the cold". Many sought refuge within the churches of the city. By dawn, the earthquake had ceased.
1503. French astrologer Nostradamus is born. Nostradamus, the Latinized name of Michel de Nostredame, was one of the world's most famous publishers of prophecies. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555.
Since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death and has always been hugely popular throughout the world, Nostradamus has attracted an almost cult following. His many enthusiasts, to say nothing of the popular press, credit him with predicting numerous major world events. Skeptics say his predictions were too vague to mean anything.
1542. Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland, a fae bairn when she is crowned. Her father died just days before, at an early age, She became Mary, Queen of Scots while still in the cradle. Ironically, she would eventually be forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son, James. Her last minutes were spent on the headsman's block, enduring a botched and gruesome beheading.
1640. Aphra Behn is baptized at Harbledown, near Canterbury, England. A successful playwright and novelist, Behn has been called the first Englishwoman to make her living as a writer. After her husband's death, Behn allegedly served as a secret agent in the Netherlands for Charles II of England but was not paid for her services, and was put in prison for debt when she returned to England. She began writing to support herself, and her first play,The Forced Marriage, was produced in 1671 at Lincoln's Inn Fields by the Duke's Company. The play was a hit, and Behn wrote many more successful comedies, of which 17 survive.
Although one of her plays irritated the Duke of Monmouth, the king's illegitimate son, enough to land Behn in jail briefly, she continued to write lively, satiric plays and poetry until her death in 1689. She was the first woman to be buried in Westminster Abbey in recognition of her own achievements.
1751. The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first military academy in the world by Maria Theresa of Austria who gave the first commander of the Academy, Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun (Lord Daun), the order “Mach’ er mir tüchtiger Officirs und rechtschaffene Männer darauß” (“Make me hard working officers and honest men”).
1782. The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight. Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier were the inventors of the montgolfière-style hot air balloon The brothers succeeded in launching the first manned ascent, carrying Étienne into the sky. Later, in December 1783, in recognition of their achievement, their father Pierre was elevated to the nobility and the hereditary appellation of de Montgolfier by King Louis XVI of France.
1799. George Washington, the American revolutionary leader and first president of the United States, dies of acute laryngitis at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia. He was 67 years old. His friend Henry Lee provided a famous eulogy for the father of the United States: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
1819. Alabama is admitted to the Union, and becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1863. During the American Civil War, President Lincoln announces a grant of amnesty for Mrs. Emilie Todd Helm, Mary Lincoln's half sister and the widow of a Confederate general. The pardon was one of the first under Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which he had announced less than a week before. The plan was the president's blueprint for the reintegration of the South into the Union. Part of the plan allowed for former Confederates to be granted amnesty if they took an oath to the United States. The option was open to all but the highest officials of the Confederacy. Emilie Todd Helm was the wife of Benjamin Helm, who, like the Lincolns, was a Kentucky native. Lincoln was said to be a great admirer of Helm, a West Point and Harvard graduate. Lincoln had offered Helm a position in the U.S. Army, but Helm opted to join the Confederates instead. Helm led a group of Kentuckians known as the "Orphan Brigade," since they could not return to their Union-held native state during the war. Helm was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863.
After her husband's death, Helm made her way through Union lines to Washington. She stayed in the White House and the Lincolns tried to keep her visit a secret. General Daniel Sickles, who had been wounded at Gettysburg five months prior, told Lincoln that he should not have a rebel in his house. Lincoln replied, "General Sickles, my wife and I are in the habit of choosing our own guests. We do not need from our friends either advice or assistance in the matter." After Lincoln granted her pardon, Emilie Helm returned to Kentucky.
1874. A botched burglary attempt further clouds one of the earliest kidnap-for-ransom cases. As he was about to go to bed, wealthy New Yorker Holmes Van Brunt heard burglars breaking into his brother's house next door. After rounding up three other men to help him surprise the intruders, Van Brunt engaged the thieves in a shotgun battle that left the robbers severely wounded. On his deathbed, one of the burglars confessed that he had been responsible for kidnapping Charley Ross. He then promised that the child would be returned alive.
The Charley Ross kidnapping was the year's biggest story. Two men had snatched the four-year-old son of rich Philadelphia grocer Christian Ross from the front lawn of his house on July 1. On July 4, the kidnappers delivered the first of 23 poorly spelled ransom notes to Ross. Several days later, they asked for $20,000. After some stalling, Ross agreed to pay the ransom, but no one ever came to pick up the money.
Generating mountains of publicity, the Ross kidnapping became the first widely followed kidnap-for-ransom incident. Despite the dying criminal's confession, Charley Ross was never found.
1896. The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company in Scotland.
1902. The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.
1903. The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It crashes, and three days later, after repairs, they get it to fly. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Look how long it is taking us to return to the Moon.
1911. Roald Amunden's expedition become the first to reach the South Pole, easily winning the race against a British team that died in the attempt.
1918. President of Portugal Sidónio Pais is assassinated. On 5 December 1917, he led an uprising against Afonso Costa's Democratic Party government, and established an authoritarian regime. His short period in office saw a warming of Church-state relations, the extension of the electoral franchise, and the smashing defeat of the ill-prepared Portuguese troops at La Lys, in France. He escaped a first assassination attempt, but was shot on 14 December 1918 by José Júlio da Costa, at Rossio railway station, in Lisbon, when he was preparing to board a train.
1939. As a result of invading Finland and starting the Winter War, the Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations. Stalin shrugs.
1946. Sixties sex kitten Jane Birkin is born (See pictures.) Birkin was born in London, England to David Birkin, a Royal Navy commander and World War II espionage hero, and Judy Campbell, an actress in Noel Coward musicals. Her great aunt was Freda Dudley Ward, a mistress of Edward VIII while he was Prince of Wales.
Birkin emerged in the swinging 60s in London, starring as one of the models in the controversial film Blow Up in 1967. In 1968, Birkin went to France to audition for the lead female role in Slogan. Though she did not speak French, she got the role.
In 1969, she and Serge Gainsbourg released the song "Je t'aime... moi non plus" ("I love you... me neither"), written by Gainsbourg and featuring both of them singing, which caused a scandal for its sexual explicitness. Thanks to the publicity it got from being banned by radio stations in Italy, Sweden, Spain, and the UK, it was a commercial success all over Europe. The song's fame is a result of its salacious lyrics (sung in French) against a background of female moaning and groaning, culminating in an orgasm at the song's conclusion (which some claim to be the result of Jane and Serge actually doing it during the recording of the song).
Here is it
1947. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
1955. Ireland and Portugal join the United Nations.
1958. The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first expedition to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic. A pole of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach owing to its remoteness from geographical features that could provide access. The term describes a geographic construct, not an actual physical phenomenon, and is of interest mostly to explorers.
1962. NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
1963. The Baldwin Hills Reservoir wall bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles.
1967. Record snow continues to fall in New Mexico in a blizzard that eventually kills 51 people. In December of that year, snow fell almost constantly in the northern part of the state for two weeks, piling up to five feet in some areas. Heavy snowfall spread to other states on December 20. Twenty people died in west Texas from snow-related mishaps. Southern Colorado also experienced extraordinary snowfall all the way through Christmas.
1972. Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the Moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the Moon of the 20th century.
1977. The movie Saturday Night Fever is released. The film stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities are dominated by visits to a Brooklyn discotheque.
The movie significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world, and made Travolta a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, became the best selling soundtrack ever.
The film also showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute-couture styles of clothing, and clever choregraphy.
1981. Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights that, on the map at least, still belonged to Syria.
1993. Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River. The dam body was completed in 2006. Except for a ship lift, the originally planned components of the project were completed on October 30, 2008.
The Chinese government regards the project as a historic engineering, social and economic success. However, the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.3 million people, and is causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides. The dam has been a controversial topic both in China and abroad.
1995. The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris, ending the War in Yugoslavia. Among the signatories are Seriban President Slobodan Milošević and U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The peace agreement was reached at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris. These accords put an end to the three and a half year long war in Bosnia, one of the many armed conflicts in the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia.
2003. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
2008. U.S. President George W. Bush makes his fourth and final trip to Iraq as president and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaididuring at a news conference in Baghdad.
2010. At least 30 Sudanese women are arrested after holding a protest march over a video that allegedly shows a policeman whipping a woman.
2011. Time names "The Protester" the magazine's 2011 Person of the Year, as a result of the Arab Spring and subsequent movements. Meanwhile, thirteen people are killed in Hama, Syria, during the latest violence in the ongoing uprising. Elsewhere, the population of the village of Wukan in southern China revolt over the death of a local man who led protests against a land grab; local officials and police flee
Attachments
Just like us, ancient Romans had an extended holiday season when December rolled around. Instead of just two or three, they had dozens, leading up to the Saturnalia when anybody who was anybody was invited to an orgy. It was the highpoint of the social season.
On December 15 it was time for the Consualia, a festival honoring Consus, the god of counsel and protector of the harvest. The major festival took place in summer. partly to comemorate the Rape of the Sabine Women. The harvest grains were stored in underground vaults, and the temple of Consus was also underground. This shrine was covered with earth all year and was only uncovered for this one day. Mars, as a protector of the harvest, was also honored on this day, There were also sacrifices to Consus on July 7 andDecember 15. Consus' feasts were followed by of the related goddess Ops: and the Opalia on December 19.
1290 BC. Seti I, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies. Ramesses II becomes Pharaoh of Egypt. Ramesses II (also known as Ramesses the Great and alternatively spelled as Ramses and Rameses) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as Egypt´s greatest pharaoh.
He is believed to have taken the throne in his early 20s and to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC for a total of 66 years and 2 months. He was once said to have lived to be 99 years old, but it is more likely that he died in his 90th or 92nd year. He is traditionally believed to have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
AD 37. The Roman Emperor Nero is born as Nero Caludius Drusus Germanicus. He would be the fifth and last emperor of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty. (See picture.)
Nero was adopted by his grand-uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne. As Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus, he succeeded to the throne on October 13, 54, following Claudius' death. In 68, Nero was deposed by a military coup. His subsequent death was reportedly the result of suicide assisted by his scribe Epaphroditos motivated by the threat of execution.
We've all heard stories about Nero -- he fiddled while Rome burned and used Christians for living torches at a garden party. He even killed his mother (after she had gone to the trouble of murdering his Uncle Claudius to put Nero on the throne).
Okay, so he wasn't a model citizem but Nero had another side that is often overlooked. He had a soft spot for the downtrodden masses, which made enemies in the patrician class, who accused him of currying favor with the poor (who were the first recruits in those infamous Roman mobs).
Over the course of his reign, Nero often made rulings that protected and pleased the lower class, often at the expense of the rich and powerful. Nero was criticized as being obsessed with being popular.
Restrictions were put on the amount of bails and fines, Also, fees for lawyers were limited. There was a discussion in the Senate on the misconduct of the freedmen class, and a strong demand was made that patrons should have the right of revoking freedom. Nero supported the freedmen and ruled that patrons had no such right The Senate tried to pass a law in which the crimes of one slave applied to all slaves within a household, but Nero forbid the law from being passed.
After Nero's death in 68, Rome descended into a period of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Nero's enemies fought among themselves for power. Galba, Otho and Vitellius were briefly emperor until Nero's general Titus Flavius Vespasianus returned from Judea and restored order as emperor.
533. Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.
1025. Byzantine Emperor Basil II dies. The first part of his long reign (from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025) was dominated by civil war against powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy. Following their submission, Basil oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontier, and above all, the final and complete subjugation of Bulgaria, the Empire's foremost European foe, after a prolonged struggle. For this he was nicknamed by later authors as "the Bulgar-slayer," by which he is popularly known. At his death, the Empire stretched from Southern Italy to the Caucasus and from the Danube to the borders of Palestine, its greatest territorial extent since the Muslim conquests, four centuries earlier.
1167. Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256. Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
1791. The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature. The Bill of Rights is the term used to describe the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Before the Massachusetts ratifying convention would accept the Constitution, which they finally did in February 1788, the document's Federalist supporters had to promise to create a Bill of Rights to be amended to the Constitution immediately upon the creation of a new government under the document.
These amendments limit the powers of the federal government, protecting the rights of the people by preventing Congress from abridging freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religious worship, the freedom to petition , and the right to keep and bear arms, preventing unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and self-incrimination, and guaranteeing due process of law and a speedy public trial with an impartial jury. In addition, the Bill of Rights states that "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," and reserves all powers not granted to the Federal government to the citizenry or States. These amendments came into effect on December 15, 1791, when ratified by three-fourths of the States.
1864. In the Battle of Nashville during the American Civil War, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John B. Hood.
1890. After many years of successfully resisting white efforts to destroy him and the Sioux people, the great Sioux chief and holy man Sitting Bull is killed by Indian police at the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota.
After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull and his followers fled to Canada for four years. Faced with mass starvation among his people, Sitting Bull finally returned to the United States and surrendered in 1883. Sitting Bull was assigned to the Standing Rock reservation in present-day South Dakota, where he maintained considerable power despite the best efforts of the Indian bureau agents to undermine his influence. When the apocalyptic spiritual revival movement known as the Ghost Dance began to grow in popularity among the Sioux in 1890, Indian agents feared it might lead to an Indian uprising. Wrongly believing that Sitting Bull was the driving force behind the Ghost Dance, agent James McLaughlin sent Indian police to arrest the chief at his small cabin on the Grand River.
The Indian police rousted the naked chief from his bed at 6:00 in the morning, hoping to spirit him away before his guards and neighbors knew what had happened. When the fifty-nine-year-old chief refused to go quietly, a crowd gathered and a few hotheaded young men threatened the Indian police. Someone fired a shot that hit one of the Indian police; they retaliated by shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head. The great chief was killed instantly. Before the ensuing gunfight ended, twelve other Indians were dead and three were wounded.
Two weeks later, the army brutally suppressed the Ghost Dance movement with the massacre of a band of Sioux at Wounded Knee, the final act in the long and tragic history of the American war against the Plains Indians.
1891. In Springfield, Massachusetts, James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.
1915. During World War !, Allied forces begin a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The Gallipoli campaign resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties and a greatly discredited Allied military command.
1933. Happy days are here again! The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution officially becomes effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.
1939. The movie classic Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta, Georgia.
1941. The American Federation of Labor adopts a no-strike policy in war industries.
1944. Legendary band leader Glenn Miller disappears over the English Channel. Miller, the biggest star on the American pop-music scene in the years immediately preceding World War II, set aside his brilliant career right at its peak in 1942 to serve his country as leader of the USAAF dance band. It was in that capacity that Captain Glenn Miller boarded a single-engine aircraft at an airfield outside London on December 15, 1944 -- an aircraft that would go missing over the English Channel en route to France for a congratulatory performance for American troops who had recently helped to liberate Paris. The wreckage of Miller's plane was never found. His official military status remains Missing in Action.
1945. During the Occupation of Japan, General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as state religion of Japan. The Americans decided to bring separation of church and state to Japanese shores in the wake of the Japanese surrender. Soon after the war, the Emperor issued a statement renouncing his claims to the status of "living god."
1954. The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands is signed. The Charter describes the political relationship between the four different countries which form the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten in the Caribbean and the Netherlands (for the most part) in Europe. It is the leading legal document of the Kingdom. The Constitution for the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Basic Laws of the three other countries are legally subordinate to the Charter.
1960. Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier. Pavlick was a retired postal worker from New Hampshire who stalked and then attempted to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy on Sunday, December 11, 1960 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Pavlick, 73 years old at the time of the assassination attempt, had previously lived in the small town of Belmont, New Hampshire with no family. He was notorious at local public meetings for his angry political rants, which included complaints that the American flag was not being displayed appropriately, and also criticized the government and disparaged Catholics, focusing much of his anger on the Kennedy family and their wealth. On one occasion, Pavlick's anger erupted when he met the supervisor of the local water company at his home with a gun, which was then confiscated.
Pavlick's enmity toward John F. Kennedy boiled over after the close 1960 U.S. Presidential election, in which Kennedy had defeated Republican Richard Nixon by 118,000 votes. Turning over his run-down property to a local youth camp, Pavlick disappeared after loading his meager possessions into his 1950 Buick.
After Pavlick left town, Thomas M. Murphy, the 34-year-old U.S. Postmaster of the town of Belmont, New Hampshire began receiving bizarre postcards from Pavlick that stated the town would hear from him soon "in a big way." Murphy soon noticed that the postmarked dates coincided with visits by John F. Kennedy to the communities and he then called the local police. The local police, in turn, contacted the Secret Service, who interviewed locals and learned of his previous outbursts. In the midst of these conversations, they also found out that Pavlick had purchased dynamite.
During his travels, Pavlick had visited the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, photographing the Kennedy home while also checking out the compound's security.
Shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday, December 11, as John F. Kennedy was preparing to leave for mass at St. Edward Church in Palm Beach, Pavlick waited in his dynamite-laden car hoping to crash his car into Kennedy's vehicle to cause a fatal explosion. But Pavlick changed his mind after seeing John F. Kennedy with his wife, Jacqueline, and the couple's two small children.
While waiting for another opportunity over the next few days, Pavlick visited the church to learn its interior, but the Secret Service had informed local Palm Beach police to look for Pavlick's automobile.
Four days after the attempt, on Thursday, December 15, Palm Beach, police officer, Lester Free, spotted Pavlick's vehicle as he entered the city via the Royal Poinciana Bridge. Police immediately surrounded the car (which still contained 10 sticks of dynamite) and arrested him. After his arrest, Pavlick said, "Kennedy money bought the White House and the presidency. I had the crazy idea I wanted to stop Kennedy from being President."
On January 27, 1961, Pavlick was committed to the United States Public Health Service mental hospital in Springfield, Missouri, then was indicted for threatening Kennedy's life seven weeks later.
In a tragically ironic twist, charges against Pavlick were dropped on December 2, 1963, ten days after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. Judge Emmet C. Choate ruled that Pavlick was unable to distinguish between right and wrong in his actions, but kept him in the mental hospital. The federal government also dropped charges in August 1964, and Pavlick was eventually released from the New Hampshire State Mental Hospital on December 13, 1966.
Pavlick died at the age of 88 on November 11, 1975 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire.
1961. In Tel Aviv, Israel, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer who organized Adolf Hitler's "final solution of the Jewish question," is condemned to death by an Israeli war crimes tribunal.
1965. Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7
.
1970. The Illinois State Constitution is adopted in a special election.
1970. The Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet
1978. U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and cut off all relations with Taiwan.
1989. A popular uprising that leads to the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu begins in Romania.
1994. The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released.
1997. A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport, killing 85.
2005. Latvia amends its constitution to ban equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
2010. Communist rebels in the Philippines kill 10 soldiers as they return to base to observe a Christmas truce.
2011. The 2010 United States Census shows 1 in 2 people are classified as low-income or poor. Meanwhile, the United States flag is lowered in Baghdad marking the end of U.S. military operations in Iraq after nearly nine years of the Iraq War.
America's worst school shooting: Gunman kills 20 children and six adults in Connecticut primary school shooting, say police
Another victim found dead at second scene
On December 15 it was time for the Consualia, a festival honoring Consus, the god of counsel and protector of the harvest. The major festival took place in summer. partly to comemorate the Rape of the Sabine Women. The harvest grains were stored in underground vaults, and the temple of Consus was also underground. This shrine was covered with earth all year and was only uncovered for this one day. Mars, as a protector of the harvest, was also honored on this day, There were also sacrifices to Consus on July 7 andDecember 15. Consus' feasts were followed by of the related goddess Ops: and the Opalia on December 19.
1290 BC. Seti I, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies. Ramesses II becomes Pharaoh of Egypt. Ramesses II (also known as Ramesses the Great and alternatively spelled as Ramses and Rameses) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as Egypt´s greatest pharaoh.
He is believed to have taken the throne in his early 20s and to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC for a total of 66 years and 2 months. He was once said to have lived to be 99 years old, but it is more likely that he died in his 90th or 92nd year. He is traditionally believed to have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
AD 37. The Roman Emperor Nero is born as Nero Caludius Drusus Germanicus. He would be the fifth and last emperor of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty. (See picture.)
Nero was adopted by his grand-uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne. As Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus, he succeeded to the throne on October 13, 54, following Claudius' death. In 68, Nero was deposed by a military coup. His subsequent death was reportedly the result of suicide assisted by his scribe Epaphroditos motivated by the threat of execution.
We've all heard stories about Nero -- he fiddled while Rome burned and used Christians for living torches at a garden party. He even killed his mother (after she had gone to the trouble of murdering his Uncle Claudius to put Nero on the throne).
Okay, so he wasn't a model citizem but Nero had another side that is often overlooked. He had a soft spot for the downtrodden masses, which made enemies in the patrician class, who accused him of currying favor with the poor (who were the first recruits in those infamous Roman mobs).
Over the course of his reign, Nero often made rulings that protected and pleased the lower class, often at the expense of the rich and powerful. Nero was criticized as being obsessed with being popular.
Restrictions were put on the amount of bails and fines, Also, fees for lawyers were limited. There was a discussion in the Senate on the misconduct of the freedmen class, and a strong demand was made that patrons should have the right of revoking freedom. Nero supported the freedmen and ruled that patrons had no such right The Senate tried to pass a law in which the crimes of one slave applied to all slaves within a household, but Nero forbid the law from being passed.
After Nero's death in 68, Rome descended into a period of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Nero's enemies fought among themselves for power. Galba, Otho and Vitellius were briefly emperor until Nero's general Titus Flavius Vespasianus returned from Judea and restored order as emperor.
533. Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.
1025. Byzantine Emperor Basil II dies. The first part of his long reign (from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025) was dominated by civil war against powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy. Following their submission, Basil oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontier, and above all, the final and complete subjugation of Bulgaria, the Empire's foremost European foe, after a prolonged struggle. For this he was nicknamed by later authors as "the Bulgar-slayer," by which he is popularly known. At his death, the Empire stretched from Southern Italy to the Caucasus and from the Danube to the borders of Palestine, its greatest territorial extent since the Muslim conquests, four centuries earlier.
1167. Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256. Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
1791. The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature. The Bill of Rights is the term used to describe the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Before the Massachusetts ratifying convention would accept the Constitution, which they finally did in February 1788, the document's Federalist supporters had to promise to create a Bill of Rights to be amended to the Constitution immediately upon the creation of a new government under the document.
These amendments limit the powers of the federal government, protecting the rights of the people by preventing Congress from abridging freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religious worship, the freedom to petition , and the right to keep and bear arms, preventing unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and self-incrimination, and guaranteeing due process of law and a speedy public trial with an impartial jury. In addition, the Bill of Rights states that "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," and reserves all powers not granted to the Federal government to the citizenry or States. These amendments came into effect on December 15, 1791, when ratified by three-fourths of the States.
1864. In the Battle of Nashville during the American Civil War, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John B. Hood.
1890. After many years of successfully resisting white efforts to destroy him and the Sioux people, the great Sioux chief and holy man Sitting Bull is killed by Indian police at the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota.
After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull and his followers fled to Canada for four years. Faced with mass starvation among his people, Sitting Bull finally returned to the United States and surrendered in 1883. Sitting Bull was assigned to the Standing Rock reservation in present-day South Dakota, where he maintained considerable power despite the best efforts of the Indian bureau agents to undermine his influence. When the apocalyptic spiritual revival movement known as the Ghost Dance began to grow in popularity among the Sioux in 1890, Indian agents feared it might lead to an Indian uprising. Wrongly believing that Sitting Bull was the driving force behind the Ghost Dance, agent James McLaughlin sent Indian police to arrest the chief at his small cabin on the Grand River.
The Indian police rousted the naked chief from his bed at 6:00 in the morning, hoping to spirit him away before his guards and neighbors knew what had happened. When the fifty-nine-year-old chief refused to go quietly, a crowd gathered and a few hotheaded young men threatened the Indian police. Someone fired a shot that hit one of the Indian police; they retaliated by shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head. The great chief was killed instantly. Before the ensuing gunfight ended, twelve other Indians were dead and three were wounded.
Two weeks later, the army brutally suppressed the Ghost Dance movement with the massacre of a band of Sioux at Wounded Knee, the final act in the long and tragic history of the American war against the Plains Indians.
1891. In Springfield, Massachusetts, James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.
1915. During World War !, Allied forces begin a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The Gallipoli campaign resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties and a greatly discredited Allied military command.
1933. Happy days are here again! The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution officially becomes effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.
1939. The movie classic Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta, Georgia.
1941. The American Federation of Labor adopts a no-strike policy in war industries.
1944. Legendary band leader Glenn Miller disappears over the English Channel. Miller, the biggest star on the American pop-music scene in the years immediately preceding World War II, set aside his brilliant career right at its peak in 1942 to serve his country as leader of the USAAF dance band. It was in that capacity that Captain Glenn Miller boarded a single-engine aircraft at an airfield outside London on December 15, 1944 -- an aircraft that would go missing over the English Channel en route to France for a congratulatory performance for American troops who had recently helped to liberate Paris. The wreckage of Miller's plane was never found. His official military status remains Missing in Action.
1945. During the Occupation of Japan, General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as state religion of Japan. The Americans decided to bring separation of church and state to Japanese shores in the wake of the Japanese surrender. Soon after the war, the Emperor issued a statement renouncing his claims to the status of "living god."
1954. The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands is signed. The Charter describes the political relationship between the four different countries which form the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten in the Caribbean and the Netherlands (for the most part) in Europe. It is the leading legal document of the Kingdom. The Constitution for the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Basic Laws of the three other countries are legally subordinate to the Charter.
1960. Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier. Pavlick was a retired postal worker from New Hampshire who stalked and then attempted to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy on Sunday, December 11, 1960 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Pavlick, 73 years old at the time of the assassination attempt, had previously lived in the small town of Belmont, New Hampshire with no family. He was notorious at local public meetings for his angry political rants, which included complaints that the American flag was not being displayed appropriately, and also criticized the government and disparaged Catholics, focusing much of his anger on the Kennedy family and their wealth. On one occasion, Pavlick's anger erupted when he met the supervisor of the local water company at his home with a gun, which was then confiscated.
Pavlick's enmity toward John F. Kennedy boiled over after the close 1960 U.S. Presidential election, in which Kennedy had defeated Republican Richard Nixon by 118,000 votes. Turning over his run-down property to a local youth camp, Pavlick disappeared after loading his meager possessions into his 1950 Buick.
After Pavlick left town, Thomas M. Murphy, the 34-year-old U.S. Postmaster of the town of Belmont, New Hampshire began receiving bizarre postcards from Pavlick that stated the town would hear from him soon "in a big way." Murphy soon noticed that the postmarked dates coincided with visits by John F. Kennedy to the communities and he then called the local police. The local police, in turn, contacted the Secret Service, who interviewed locals and learned of his previous outbursts. In the midst of these conversations, they also found out that Pavlick had purchased dynamite.
During his travels, Pavlick had visited the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, photographing the Kennedy home while also checking out the compound's security.
Shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday, December 11, as John F. Kennedy was preparing to leave for mass at St. Edward Church in Palm Beach, Pavlick waited in his dynamite-laden car hoping to crash his car into Kennedy's vehicle to cause a fatal explosion. But Pavlick changed his mind after seeing John F. Kennedy with his wife, Jacqueline, and the couple's two small children.
While waiting for another opportunity over the next few days, Pavlick visited the church to learn its interior, but the Secret Service had informed local Palm Beach police to look for Pavlick's automobile.
Four days after the attempt, on Thursday, December 15, Palm Beach, police officer, Lester Free, spotted Pavlick's vehicle as he entered the city via the Royal Poinciana Bridge. Police immediately surrounded the car (which still contained 10 sticks of dynamite) and arrested him. After his arrest, Pavlick said, "Kennedy money bought the White House and the presidency. I had the crazy idea I wanted to stop Kennedy from being President."
On January 27, 1961, Pavlick was committed to the United States Public Health Service mental hospital in Springfield, Missouri, then was indicted for threatening Kennedy's life seven weeks later.
In a tragically ironic twist, charges against Pavlick were dropped on December 2, 1963, ten days after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. Judge Emmet C. Choate ruled that Pavlick was unable to distinguish between right and wrong in his actions, but kept him in the mental hospital. The federal government also dropped charges in August 1964, and Pavlick was eventually released from the New Hampshire State Mental Hospital on December 13, 1966.
Pavlick died at the age of 88 on November 11, 1975 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire.
1961. In Tel Aviv, Israel, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer who organized Adolf Hitler's "final solution of the Jewish question," is condemned to death by an Israeli war crimes tribunal.
1965. Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7
.
1970. The Illinois State Constitution is adopted in a special election.
1970. The Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet
1978. U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and cut off all relations with Taiwan.
1989. A popular uprising that leads to the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu begins in Romania.
1994. The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released.
1997. A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport, killing 85.
2005. Latvia amends its constitution to ban equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
2010. Communist rebels in the Philippines kill 10 soldiers as they return to base to observe a Christmas truce.
2011. The 2010 United States Census shows 1 in 2 people are classified as low-income or poor. Meanwhile, the United States flag is lowered in Baghdad marking the end of U.S. military operations in Iraq after nearly nine years of the Iraq War.
America's worst school shooting: Gunman kills 20 children and six adults in Connecticut primary school shooting, say police
Another victim found dead at second scene
Attachments
Tree does not know how he missed the Jane Birkin pictures...
Tree
Thank you, Ulrika, tree knows he made a mess on the keyboard and he appreciates you licking it off...
Tree
Thank you, Ulrika, tree knows he made a mess on the keyboard and he appreciates you licking it off...
and her song?
In 1969, she and Serge Gainsbourg released the song "Je t'aime... moi non plus" ("I love you... me neither"), complete with txt (french of course)
Naraku
Draconarius
Henry Lee is not to be confused with the more disreputable fellow Revolutionary general Charles Lee. Henry Lee III, known as "Light-Horse Harry", was one the most distinguished members of the famous "Lee's of Virginia". His youngest son, who was born 11 years before Henry death. was Robert Edward Lee, who would become an even more famous general than his father.
Naraku
Draconarius
Nero's birth name was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. After his adoption, his name was changed to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. His Imperial name was (pause to take a deep breath): Imperator Nero Claudius Divi Claudius filius Caesar Augustus Germanicus.
..................................sigh
December 16 is the anniversary of a tea party in Boston that helped spark the American Revolution. It is also the anniversary of two of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in North America, coming just six hours apart, in an area most people don't consider earthquake prone.
755. General An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China. The rebellion spanned the reigns of three Tang emperors before it was quashed, and involved a wide range of regional powers; besides the Tang dynasty loyalists, others involved were anti-Tang Han Chinese families, especially in An Lushan's base area in Hebei, Arab, Gokturk, and Sogdian forces or influences, among others. The rebellion and subsequent disorder resulted in a huge loss of life and large-scale destruction.
1431. Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris. Henry was the only child of King Henry V of England and was his heir. He was born on December 6, 1421 at Windsor, and he succeeded to the throne at the age of nine months on August 31, 1422, when his father died. His mother, Catherine of Valois, was then only twenty years old and as the daughter of King Charles VI of France was viewed with considerable suspicion and prevented from having a full role in her son's upbringing.
Henry was eventually crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on November 6, 1429 a month before his eighth birthday, and King of France at Notre Dame in Paris on this date in 1431. However, he did not assume the reins of government until he was declared of age in 1437 -- the year in which his mother died.
After a violent struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York in the Wars of the Roses, Henry was deposed on March 4, 1461 by his cousin, Edward of York, who became King Edward IV of England. But Edward failed to capture Henry and his queen, and they were able to flee into exile abroad. During the first period of Edward IV's reign, Henry was captured by King Edward in 1465 and subsequently held captive in the Tower of London, where he was murdered on May 21, 1471. Popular legend has accused Richard, Duke of Gloucester of his murder, as well as the murder of Henry VI's son Edward of Westminster. He was succeeded by Edward IV, son of Richard, Duke of York.
1497. Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
1575. The 1575 Valdivia earthquake takes place in Chile. It occurred at 14:30 local time with an estimated magnitude of 8.5. Pedro Mariño de Lobera, who was corregidor (mayor) of Valdivia by that time, wrote that the waters of the river opened like the Red Sea, one part flowing upstream and one downstream.
1598. The Battle of Noryang Point -- the final battle of the Seven Year War -- is fought between the Chinese and the Korean Allied Forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive Allied Forces victory.
1653. Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. The post of Lord Protector was formally established by the Instrument of Government, a constitution passed by the Council of State in December 1653. Cromwell was appointed to the position for life. Although the constitution divided power between the Lord Protector, the Council of State and Parliament, in practice it restored the strong executive power that had been absent since the abolition of the monarchy. Indeed, Cromwellian government has been branded as "one of the first experiments in ( de facto) military dictatorship." This power was entrenched when Cromwell used a royalist uprising as a pretext to sweep away the traditional shire governments in 1655, replacing them with military districts administered by army officers, the so-called "Rule of the Major Generals."
The Protectorate is associated with rigidly enforced puritan legislation (which prohibited Christmas celebrations, among other things.) Religious toleration was extended to Jews and most Protestants, but not to Anglicans or Roman Catholics.
The Instrument of Government was replaced in 1657 by the Humble Petition and Advice, which reinforced the similarities between the Lord Protector and a monarch: for example, Cromwell was addressed as "His Highness;" his subsequent re-installation as Lord Protector was not dissimilar to a coronation; and he was given the right to nominate his successor -- he chose his eldest surviving son, Richard.
After Cromwell's death in September 1658, the new Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, was unable to control the army and resigned in May 1659. After a chaotic "interregnum," the monarchy was restored in May 1660.
1707. The last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan takes place.
1773. The Boston Tea Party takes place as members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the tax on tea.
The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.
1775. English novelist Jane Austen is born, the seventh of eight children of a clergyman in a country village in Hampshire, England. Austen's quiet, happy world was disrupted when her parents suddenly decided to retire to Bath in 1801. Jane hated the resort town and found herself without the time or peace and quiet required to write. Instead, she amused herself by making close observations of ridiculous society manners.
Jane concealed her writing from most of her acquaintances, slipping her writing paper under a blotter when someone entered the room. Though she avoided society, she was charming, intelligent, and funny, and had several admirers. She died at age 42, of what may have been Addison's disease. Nearly 200 years after her death, she is one of a handful of authors to have found enduring popularity with both academic and popular readers.
1811. The first two in a series of severe earthquakes occurs in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri. Four of the largest North American earthquakes in recorded history, with magnitude estimates greater than 8.0 on the Richter scale, occurred in a three month period beginning December 16. Many of the published accounts describe the cumulative effects of all the earthquakes, known as the New Madrid Sequence, so delineating the individual effects of each quake can be difficult. The first two came just hours apart with their epicenters in northeast Arkansas.
Because the region was sparsely settled, there was only slight damage to man-made structures. However, landslides and geological changes occurred along the Mississippi River, and large localized waves occurred due to fissures opening and closing below the Earth's surface. Eyewitness accounts describe the ground rolling like waves.
These catastrophic earthquakes occurred during a three-month period in December 1811 and early 1812. They caused permanent changes in the course of the Mississippi River, which flowed backwards temporarily, and were felt as far away as New York City and Boston, Massachusetts where church bells rang.
Large areas sank into the earth, fissures opened, lakes permanently drained, new lakes were formed, and forests were destroyed over an area of 150,000 acres (600 km²). Many houses at New Madrid were thrown down. "Houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed up" one source notes. Hundreds of aftershocks followed over a period of several years. All three major quakes are generally believed to have exceeded 8.0 on the Richter Scale, and some seismologists believe the largest was 9.0 or larger.
1838. At the Battle of Blood River, Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu regiments, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
1864. At the Battle of Nashville in the American Civil War, Major General George H. Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. It was fought at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15-16, 1864.
1907. The Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world. The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with various escorts. Roosevelt sought to demonstrate growing American military power and blue-water navy capability. The hulls of these ships were painted a stark white, giving the armada the nickname "Great White Fleet."
1910. During a ground test of his Coandă-1910 plane, Henri Coandă, caught unaware by the power of the engine, finds himself briefly airborne and loses control of the machine which crashes to the ground.
1914. During World War I, German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
1920. One of the deadliest earthquakes in history hits the Gansu province of midwestern China, causing massive landslides and the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people. The earthquake, which measured 8.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, affected an area of some 25,000 square miles, including 10 major population centers.
1922. President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
1930. Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a posse of 200, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana. Lamm is widely considered one of the most brilliant and efficient bank robbers to have ever lived, and has been described as "the father of modern bank robbery." Lamm's techniques were studied and imitated by other bank robbers across the country, including the infamous John Dillinger.
A former Prussian Army member who emigrated to the United States, Lamm believed a heist required all the planning of a military operation. He pioneered the concepts of meticulously "casing" a bank and developing escape routes before conducting the robbery. Utilizing a meticulous planning system called "The Lamm Technique," Lamm conducted dozens of successful bank robberies from the end of World War I until 1930, when he committed suicide when surrounded by a posse in Sidell, Illinois, after a botched heist.
Lamm and his gang were cornered by a posse of about 200 police officers and vigilantes. A massive gun battle ensued. Lamm and another gang member, 71-year-old G.W. "Dad" Landy, shot themselves in the head rather than surrender. Two survivors of Lamm's gang, Walter Dietrich and James "Oklahoma Jack" Clark, were captured and eventually sentenced to life in an Indiana state prison.
1937. Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from Alcatraz island. Both men entered the bay on December 16th, neither was ever seen again.
1944. The Germans launch the last major offensive of World War II, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a "bulge" around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front.
The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers into the initial assault, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans. Between the vulnerability of the thin, isolated American units and the thick fog that prevented Allied air cover from discovering German movement, the Germans were able to push the Americans into retreat.
The battle raged for three weeks, resulting in a massive loss of American and civilian life. Nazi atrocities abounded, including the murder of 72 American soldiers by SS soldiers in the Ardennes town of Malmedy. Historian Stephen Ambrose estimated that by war's end, "Of the 600,000 GIs involved, almost 20,000 were killed, another 20,000 were captured, and 40,000 were wounded." The devastating ferocity of the conflict also made desertion an issue for the American troops; General Eisenhower was forced to make an example of Private Eddie Slovik, the first American executed for desertion since the Civil War.
1947. William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
1950. In the wake of the massive Chinese intervention in the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency. Proclaiming that "Communist imperialism" threatened the world's people, Truman called upon the American people to help construct an "arsenal of freedom."
In November, the stakes in the Korean War dramatically escalated with the intervention of hundreds of thousands of communist Chinese troops. Prior to their arrival on the battlefield, the U.S. forces seemed on the verge of victory in Korea. However, massive elements of the Chinese army smashed into the American lines and drove the U.S. forces back. The "limited war" in Korea threatened to turn into a widespread conflict. Against this backdrop, Truman issued his state of emergency and the U.S. military-industrial complex went into full preparations for a possible third world war.
The Soviet Union, which Truman blamed for most of the current world problems in the course of his speech, blasted the United States for "warmongering." Congress, most of America's allies, and the American people appeared to be strongly supportive of the President's tough talk and actions. Truman's speech, and the events preceding it, indicated that the Cold War -- so long a battle of words and threats -- had become an actual military reality. The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953.
1957. Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
1960. While approaching New York's Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.
1965. During the Vietnam War, General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
1971. The surrender of the Pakistan army simultaneously brings an end to both the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and the Liberation War of Bangladesh.
1978. Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first post-Depression era American city to default on its loans, owing $14,000,000 to local banks.
1983. English glamour model Danielle Lloyd is born. The former Miss England 2004 and Miss Great Britain 2006 first rose to prominence when she was stripped of her Miss Great Britain 2006 title after posing for nude pictures featured in the December 2006 edition of Playboy magazine and her alleged affair with one of the pageant's judges, her then-boyfriend, footballer Teddy Sheringham. (See pictures.)
1985. It is election day, Mafia-style, in New York City as godfather Paul Castellano and his bodyguard Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family. Fearing he and his men would be killed by Gambino crime family Boss Paul Castellano for selling drugs, Gotti organized the murder of Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter. This left Gotti as the boss of one of the most powerful crime families in America, one that made hundreds of millions of dollars a year from construction, hijacking, loan sharking, gambling, extortion and other criminal activities. Gotti was one of the most powerful crime bosses during his era and became widely known for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style, which gained him favor with much of the general public.
1989. Walter LeRoy Moody begins his terrorist bombing streak when he sends Judge Robert Smith Vance a bomb in the mail, instantly killing him near his house in Birmingham, Alabama. Two days later, a mail bomb killed Robert Robinson, an attorney in Savannah, Georgia, in his office. Two other bomb packages, sent to the federal courthouse in Atlanta and to the Jacksonville, Florida office of the NAACP, were intercepted before their intended victims opened them.
In June 1991, a federal jury convicted Moody on charges related to the bombings and sentenced him to seven life terms plus 400 years in prison. In 1997, an Alabama judge sentenced Moody to die in the electric chair for Vance's murder.
1997. Typhoon Paka makes landfall on the island of Guam with 150 mph winds.
1998. U.S. President Bill Clinton orders a sustained series of airstrikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of U.N. weapons inspectors.
2000. President-elect George W. Bush selects Colin Powell to become the first African-American secretary of state.
2010. One person is killed by Lake effect snow squalls from Lake Huron on Highway 402 in Southwestern Ontario as the Canadian military rescues people trapped under snowdrifts for over a day.
2011. Syrian troops reportedly open fire on anti-government protesters following Friday prayers while clashes take place between pro-democracy protesters and security forces in Cairo, Egypt. Elsewhere, at least 10 die as the protesters in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, clash with police on the country's Independence Day.
In the United States, star baseball player Barry Bonds is sentenced to 30 days of home detention on obstruction of justice charges following misleading evidence about steroid use.
755. General An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China. The rebellion spanned the reigns of three Tang emperors before it was quashed, and involved a wide range of regional powers; besides the Tang dynasty loyalists, others involved were anti-Tang Han Chinese families, especially in An Lushan's base area in Hebei, Arab, Gokturk, and Sogdian forces or influences, among others. The rebellion and subsequent disorder resulted in a huge loss of life and large-scale destruction.
1431. Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris. Henry was the only child of King Henry V of England and was his heir. He was born on December 6, 1421 at Windsor, and he succeeded to the throne at the age of nine months on August 31, 1422, when his father died. His mother, Catherine of Valois, was then only twenty years old and as the daughter of King Charles VI of France was viewed with considerable suspicion and prevented from having a full role in her son's upbringing.
Henry was eventually crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on November 6, 1429 a month before his eighth birthday, and King of France at Notre Dame in Paris on this date in 1431. However, he did not assume the reins of government until he was declared of age in 1437 -- the year in which his mother died.
After a violent struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York in the Wars of the Roses, Henry was deposed on March 4, 1461 by his cousin, Edward of York, who became King Edward IV of England. But Edward failed to capture Henry and his queen, and they were able to flee into exile abroad. During the first period of Edward IV's reign, Henry was captured by King Edward in 1465 and subsequently held captive in the Tower of London, where he was murdered on May 21, 1471. Popular legend has accused Richard, Duke of Gloucester of his murder, as well as the murder of Henry VI's son Edward of Westminster. He was succeeded by Edward IV, son of Richard, Duke of York.
1497. Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
1575. The 1575 Valdivia earthquake takes place in Chile. It occurred at 14:30 local time with an estimated magnitude of 8.5. Pedro Mariño de Lobera, who was corregidor (mayor) of Valdivia by that time, wrote that the waters of the river opened like the Red Sea, one part flowing upstream and one downstream.
1598. The Battle of Noryang Point -- the final battle of the Seven Year War -- is fought between the Chinese and the Korean Allied Forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive Allied Forces victory.
1653. Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. The post of Lord Protector was formally established by the Instrument of Government, a constitution passed by the Council of State in December 1653. Cromwell was appointed to the position for life. Although the constitution divided power between the Lord Protector, the Council of State and Parliament, in practice it restored the strong executive power that had been absent since the abolition of the monarchy. Indeed, Cromwellian government has been branded as "one of the first experiments in ( de facto) military dictatorship." This power was entrenched when Cromwell used a royalist uprising as a pretext to sweep away the traditional shire governments in 1655, replacing them with military districts administered by army officers, the so-called "Rule of the Major Generals."
The Protectorate is associated with rigidly enforced puritan legislation (which prohibited Christmas celebrations, among other things.) Religious toleration was extended to Jews and most Protestants, but not to Anglicans or Roman Catholics.
The Instrument of Government was replaced in 1657 by the Humble Petition and Advice, which reinforced the similarities between the Lord Protector and a monarch: for example, Cromwell was addressed as "His Highness;" his subsequent re-installation as Lord Protector was not dissimilar to a coronation; and he was given the right to nominate his successor -- he chose his eldest surviving son, Richard.
After Cromwell's death in September 1658, the new Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, was unable to control the army and resigned in May 1659. After a chaotic "interregnum," the monarchy was restored in May 1660.
1707. The last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan takes place.
1773. The Boston Tea Party takes place as members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the tax on tea.
The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.
1775. English novelist Jane Austen is born, the seventh of eight children of a clergyman in a country village in Hampshire, England. Austen's quiet, happy world was disrupted when her parents suddenly decided to retire to Bath in 1801. Jane hated the resort town and found herself without the time or peace and quiet required to write. Instead, she amused herself by making close observations of ridiculous society manners.
Jane concealed her writing from most of her acquaintances, slipping her writing paper under a blotter when someone entered the room. Though she avoided society, she was charming, intelligent, and funny, and had several admirers. She died at age 42, of what may have been Addison's disease. Nearly 200 years after her death, she is one of a handful of authors to have found enduring popularity with both academic and popular readers.
1811. The first two in a series of severe earthquakes occurs in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri. Four of the largest North American earthquakes in recorded history, with magnitude estimates greater than 8.0 on the Richter scale, occurred in a three month period beginning December 16. Many of the published accounts describe the cumulative effects of all the earthquakes, known as the New Madrid Sequence, so delineating the individual effects of each quake can be difficult. The first two came just hours apart with their epicenters in northeast Arkansas.
Because the region was sparsely settled, there was only slight damage to man-made structures. However, landslides and geological changes occurred along the Mississippi River, and large localized waves occurred due to fissures opening and closing below the Earth's surface. Eyewitness accounts describe the ground rolling like waves.
These catastrophic earthquakes occurred during a three-month period in December 1811 and early 1812. They caused permanent changes in the course of the Mississippi River, which flowed backwards temporarily, and were felt as far away as New York City and Boston, Massachusetts where church bells rang.
Large areas sank into the earth, fissures opened, lakes permanently drained, new lakes were formed, and forests were destroyed over an area of 150,000 acres (600 km²). Many houses at New Madrid were thrown down. "Houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed up" one source notes. Hundreds of aftershocks followed over a period of several years. All three major quakes are generally believed to have exceeded 8.0 on the Richter Scale, and some seismologists believe the largest was 9.0 or larger.
1838. At the Battle of Blood River, Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu regiments, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
1864. At the Battle of Nashville in the American Civil War, Major General George H. Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. It was fought at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15-16, 1864.
1907. The Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world. The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with various escorts. Roosevelt sought to demonstrate growing American military power and blue-water navy capability. The hulls of these ships were painted a stark white, giving the armada the nickname "Great White Fleet."
1910. During a ground test of his Coandă-1910 plane, Henri Coandă, caught unaware by the power of the engine, finds himself briefly airborne and loses control of the machine which crashes to the ground.
1914. During World War I, German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
1920. One of the deadliest earthquakes in history hits the Gansu province of midwestern China, causing massive landslides and the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people. The earthquake, which measured 8.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, affected an area of some 25,000 square miles, including 10 major population centers.
1922. President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
1930. Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a posse of 200, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana. Lamm is widely considered one of the most brilliant and efficient bank robbers to have ever lived, and has been described as "the father of modern bank robbery." Lamm's techniques were studied and imitated by other bank robbers across the country, including the infamous John Dillinger.
A former Prussian Army member who emigrated to the United States, Lamm believed a heist required all the planning of a military operation. He pioneered the concepts of meticulously "casing" a bank and developing escape routes before conducting the robbery. Utilizing a meticulous planning system called "The Lamm Technique," Lamm conducted dozens of successful bank robberies from the end of World War I until 1930, when he committed suicide when surrounded by a posse in Sidell, Illinois, after a botched heist.
Lamm and his gang were cornered by a posse of about 200 police officers and vigilantes. A massive gun battle ensued. Lamm and another gang member, 71-year-old G.W. "Dad" Landy, shot themselves in the head rather than surrender. Two survivors of Lamm's gang, Walter Dietrich and James "Oklahoma Jack" Clark, were captured and eventually sentenced to life in an Indiana state prison.
1937. Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from Alcatraz island. Both men entered the bay on December 16th, neither was ever seen again.
1944. The Germans launch the last major offensive of World War II, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a "bulge" around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front.
The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers into the initial assault, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans. Between the vulnerability of the thin, isolated American units and the thick fog that prevented Allied air cover from discovering German movement, the Germans were able to push the Americans into retreat.
The battle raged for three weeks, resulting in a massive loss of American and civilian life. Nazi atrocities abounded, including the murder of 72 American soldiers by SS soldiers in the Ardennes town of Malmedy. Historian Stephen Ambrose estimated that by war's end, "Of the 600,000 GIs involved, almost 20,000 were killed, another 20,000 were captured, and 40,000 were wounded." The devastating ferocity of the conflict also made desertion an issue for the American troops; General Eisenhower was forced to make an example of Private Eddie Slovik, the first American executed for desertion since the Civil War.
1947. William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
1950. In the wake of the massive Chinese intervention in the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency. Proclaiming that "Communist imperialism" threatened the world's people, Truman called upon the American people to help construct an "arsenal of freedom."
In November, the stakes in the Korean War dramatically escalated with the intervention of hundreds of thousands of communist Chinese troops. Prior to their arrival on the battlefield, the U.S. forces seemed on the verge of victory in Korea. However, massive elements of the Chinese army smashed into the American lines and drove the U.S. forces back. The "limited war" in Korea threatened to turn into a widespread conflict. Against this backdrop, Truman issued his state of emergency and the U.S. military-industrial complex went into full preparations for a possible third world war.
The Soviet Union, which Truman blamed for most of the current world problems in the course of his speech, blasted the United States for "warmongering." Congress, most of America's allies, and the American people appeared to be strongly supportive of the President's tough talk and actions. Truman's speech, and the events preceding it, indicated that the Cold War -- so long a battle of words and threats -- had become an actual military reality. The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953.
1957. Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
1960. While approaching New York's Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.
1965. During the Vietnam War, General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
1971. The surrender of the Pakistan army simultaneously brings an end to both the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and the Liberation War of Bangladesh.
1978. Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first post-Depression era American city to default on its loans, owing $14,000,000 to local banks.
1983. English glamour model Danielle Lloyd is born. The former Miss England 2004 and Miss Great Britain 2006 first rose to prominence when she was stripped of her Miss Great Britain 2006 title after posing for nude pictures featured in the December 2006 edition of Playboy magazine and her alleged affair with one of the pageant's judges, her then-boyfriend, footballer Teddy Sheringham. (See pictures.)
1985. It is election day, Mafia-style, in New York City as godfather Paul Castellano and his bodyguard Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family. Fearing he and his men would be killed by Gambino crime family Boss Paul Castellano for selling drugs, Gotti organized the murder of Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter. This left Gotti as the boss of one of the most powerful crime families in America, one that made hundreds of millions of dollars a year from construction, hijacking, loan sharking, gambling, extortion and other criminal activities. Gotti was one of the most powerful crime bosses during his era and became widely known for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style, which gained him favor with much of the general public.
1989. Walter LeRoy Moody begins his terrorist bombing streak when he sends Judge Robert Smith Vance a bomb in the mail, instantly killing him near his house in Birmingham, Alabama. Two days later, a mail bomb killed Robert Robinson, an attorney in Savannah, Georgia, in his office. Two other bomb packages, sent to the federal courthouse in Atlanta and to the Jacksonville, Florida office of the NAACP, were intercepted before their intended victims opened them.
In June 1991, a federal jury convicted Moody on charges related to the bombings and sentenced him to seven life terms plus 400 years in prison. In 1997, an Alabama judge sentenced Moody to die in the electric chair for Vance's murder.
1997. Typhoon Paka makes landfall on the island of Guam with 150 mph winds.
1998. U.S. President Bill Clinton orders a sustained series of airstrikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of U.N. weapons inspectors.
2000. President-elect George W. Bush selects Colin Powell to become the first African-American secretary of state.
2010. One person is killed by Lake effect snow squalls from Lake Huron on Highway 402 in Southwestern Ontario as the Canadian military rescues people trapped under snowdrifts for over a day.
2011. Syrian troops reportedly open fire on anti-government protesters following Friday prayers while clashes take place between pro-democracy protesters and security forces in Cairo, Egypt. Elsewhere, at least 10 die as the protesters in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, clash with police on the country's Independence Day.
In the United States, star baseball player Barry Bonds is sentenced to 30 days of home detention on obstruction of justice charges following misleading evidence about steroid use.
Attachments
Dec 16th: Albina of Caesarea or Formiae, virgin martyr (205): a young girl who was martyred in the persecution under Decius. She seems to have been from Caesarea in Palestine, but her relics have been, since an early date, at Formiae (Mola di Gaeta in Campagna, north-west of Naples) - she was either taken there to be executed, or her relics were translated there.
Tree approves of the pictures and would like to add how significantly strong the New Madrid earthquake was. If you Google "Kaskaski, Illinois" you will find it was the first capital of the state of Illinois. After the earthquake the Mississippi river changed course and instead of being on the east bank of the Mississippi it was and still is on the west bank!!!
Tree
I know I get distracted, Ulrika, but I did say I liked the pictures...
T
Tree
I know I get distracted, Ulrika, but I did say I liked the pictures...
AAAAUUUUGGGG!!!! Another one!!!!
T
yes Ulrike I have only nude beauties and my dear in that way I found you between the germanTree approves of the pictures and would like to add how significantly strong the New Madrid earthquake was. If you Google "Kaskaski, Illinois" you will find it was the first capital of the state of Illinois. After the earthquake the Mississippi river changed course and instead of being on the east bank of the Mississippi it was and still is on the west bank!!!
Tree
I know I get distracted, Ulrika, but I did say I liked the pictures...
AAAAUUUUGGGG!!!! Another one!!!!
T
In Ancient Rome, December 17 was the beginning of the Saturnalia, at which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of the god Saturn. Initially, it was a one-day festival but over time it expanded to a week, up to December 23, including the Winter Solstice, the (re)birthday of Sol Invictus, the unconquered Sun. The date of the Solstice, usually December 21, marks the Sun's entry into Capricorn, Saturn's sign in astrology.
The Saturnalia involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents, and a special market
The Saturnalia was originally celebrated in Ancient Rome for only a day, but it was so popular it soon lasted a week, despite Augustus' efforts to reduce it to three days, and Caligula's, to five. Like Christmas, this important holy day was for more than fun and games. Saturnalia was a time to honor the god of sowing, Saturn. But again, like Christmas, it was also a festival day on which a public banquet was prepared. An effigy of the god was probably one of the guests.
The poet Catullus describes Saturnalia as the best of days. It was a time of celebration, visits to friends, and gift-giving, particularly of wax candles and earthenware figurines. It was a time to eat, drink, and be merry. The Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals which led to more tomfoolery, marked chiefly by having masters and slaves switch places, and an orgy in lieu of an office party.
AD 549. During the Gothic War, the Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome, bribing the Byzantine garrison.
Totila's strategy was to move fast and take control of the countryside, leaving the Byzantine forces in control of well-defended cities, and especially the ports. Eventually, however, the Gothic king laid siege to the city and prepared to starve Rome into surrender, Pope Vigilius fled to the safety of Syracuse; when he sent a flotilla of grain ships to feed the city, Totila's navy fell on them near the mouth of the Tiber and captured the fleet. The starving city was forced to open its gates to the Goths.
It was plundered, although Totila did not carry out his threat to make it a pasture for cattle, but left a scene of desolation behind when the Gothic army withdrew into Apulia. But Rome's walls and other fortifications were soon restored, and Totila again marched against it but was stopped by the Byzantine army. In 549 Totila advanced a third time against Rome, which he captured through the treachery of some of its starving defenders.
920. Romanos I is crowned co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII. Romanos I was Byzantine Emperor from 920 until his deposition on December 16, 944. In subsequent years Romanos crowned his own sons co-emperors, Christopher in 921, Stephen and Constantine in 924, although, for the time being, Constantine VII was regarded as first in rank after Romanos himself. It is notable that, as he left Constantine untouched, he was called "the gentle usurper."
Romanos' later reign was marked by the old emperor's heightened interest in divine judgment and his increasing sense of guilt for his role in the usurpation of the throne from Constantine VII. On the death of Christopher, by far his most competent son, in 931, Romanos did not advance his younger sons in precedence over Constantine VII. Fearing that Romanos would allow Constantine VII to succeed him instead of them, his younger sons Stephen and Constantine arrested their father in December 944, carried him off to the Prince's Islands and compelled him to become a monk. When they threatened the position of Constantine VII, however, the people of Constantinople revolted, and Stephen and Constantine were likewise stripped of their imperial rank and sent into exile to their father. Romanos died in June 948.
942. Duke William I of Normandy (aka William Longsword) is assassinated In 939 William became involved in a war with Arnulf I of Flanders, which soon became intertwined with the other conflicts troubling the reign of Louis IV. It began with Herluin appealing to William for help to regain the castle of Montreuil from Arnulf. Losing the castle was a major setback in Arnulf's ambitions and William's part in it gained him a deadly enemy. He was ambushed and killed by followers of Arnulf on 17 December 942 at Picquigny on the Somme while at a meeting to settle their differences.
1398. Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur the Lame (Tamerlane). Tamerlane entered Delhi on December 18. For eight days Delhi was plundered, its population massacred, and over 100,000 war prisoners were killed as well.
1538. Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England. Besides his six marriages, Henry VIII is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry's struggles with Rome led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Yet he remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, even after his excommunication from the Catholic Church.
1577. Francis Drake sails from Plymouth, England, on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for English Queen Elizabeth I.
1637. Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu in the Shimabara Rebellion.
In the wake of the Matsukura clan's construction of a new castle at Shimabara, taxes were drastically raised, which provoked anger from local peasants and lordless samurai. In addition, religious persecution against the local Christians exacerbated the discontent, which turned into open revolt in 1637. The Tokugawa Shogunate sent a force of over 125,000 troops to suppress the rebellion, and after a lengthy siege against the rebels at Hara Castle, defeated them. In the wake of the rebellion, the rebel leader Amakusa Shirō was beheaded, and persecution of Christianity became strictly enforced. Japan's national seclusion policy was tightened, and formal persecution of Christianity continued until the 1850s.
1718. Great Britain declares war on Spain.
1777. The French foreign minister, Charles Gravier, count of Vergennes, officially acknowledges the United States as an independent nation. News of the Continental Army's overwhelming victory against the British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga gave Benjamin Franklin new leverage in his efforts to rally French support for the American rebels. Although the victory occurred in October, news did not reach France until December 4th.
1819 . Simón Bolívar declares the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela). Gran Colombia encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 1831. This short-lived republic included the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru and northwest Brazil.
1843. Charles Dickens' classic story A Christmas Carol is published.
1862. During the American Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. The order was issued as part of a campaign against a black market in Southern cotton, which Grant thought was being run "mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders".
Following protests from Jewish community leaders and an outcry by members of Congress and the press, General Order No. 11 was revoked a few weeks later by order of President Abraham Lincoln. Grant later claimed it had been drafted by a subordinate and that he had signed it without reading.
1903. The Wright Brothers make the first powered heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1927. Indian revolutionary Rajendranath Lahiri is hanged to death in Gonda jail of U.P. in India two days before the scheduled date.
1935. The Douglas DC-3 makes its first flight. The Douglas DC-3 is a fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft, which revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s and is generally regarded as one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made.
The amenities of the DC-3 (including sleeping berths on early models and an in-flight kitchen) popularized air travel in the United States. With just one refuelling stop, transcontinental flights across America became possible. Before the arrival of the DC-3, such a trip would entail short hops in commuter aircraft, during the day, coupled with train travel overnight.
1939. During World War II the Battle of the River Plate is fought. The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo under the threat of imminent capture by the Royal Navy.
1941. Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo during World War II.
1944. The Malmedy massacre unfolds during World War II's Battle of the Bulge when American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
1944. During World War II, U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American "evacuees" from the West Coast could return to their homes. On February 19, 1942, 10 weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable." The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area. By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country.
During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan, but not one of them was of Japanese ancestry. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to recompense each surviving internee with a tax-free check for $20,000 and an apology from the U.S. government.
1950. The F-86 Sabre flies its first mission over Korea. The North American F-86 Sabre (sometimes called the Sabrejet) was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as America's first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War. Considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in the Korean War, the F-86 is also rated highly in comparison with fighters of other eras.
1957. The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1960. Troops loyal to Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.
1961. A fire at a circus in Brazil kills more than 300 people and severely burns hundreds more. The cause of the fire was never conclusively determined but it may have been the result of sparks from a train passing nearby.
1967. Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria.
On December 17, Holt went swimming at Cheviot Beach on Point Nepean, near the holiday resort of Portsea, south of Melbourne. Apparently seeking to impress his friends, Holt, who was 59 and had had a recent shoulder injury, plunged into the surf. He disappeared from view and was never seen again. Despite an extensive search, his remains were never found. He was officially presumed dead on December 19, 1967.
1969. An estimated 50 million viewers watch singer Tiny Tim marry Miss Vicky on NBC's Tonight Show.
1970. In Gdynia, Poland, during an outbreak of strikes and protests, soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing hundreds.
1975. A federal jury in Sacramento, California, sentences Lynette Alice Fromme, also known as "Squeaky" Fromme, to life in prison for her attempted assassination of President Gerald R. Ford. On September 5, a Secret Service agent wrested a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol from Fromme, who brandished the weapon during a public appearance of President Ford in Sacramento. "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson, was pointing the loaded gun at the president when the Secret Service agent grabbed it.
Fromme remained a dedicated disciple of Charles Manson and in December 1987 escaped from Alderson Prison after she heard that Manson, also imprisoned, had cancer. After 40 hours roaming the rugged West Virginia hills, she was caught on Christmas Day, about two miles from the prison. Five years were added to her life sentence for the escape.
1975. American actress and model Milla Jovovich is born in Kiev, Ukraine. In 1981, when Milla was five years old, her family had to leave the Soviet Union for political reasons, and moved to London; they subsequently lived in Sacramento, California. Seven months later, they settled in Los Angeles, California.
At the age of eleven, Jovovich was spotted by the photographer Richard Avedon, who featured her in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements. In October 1987, she was featured on the cover of the Italian fashion magazine Lei, which was the first of her many cover shoots. (See pictures.)
Jovovich received top billing and entered the world of action heroes, with her performances in The Fifth Element (1997) in which she appeared in a costume that looked like oversized Band-Aids, and stole every scene she was in. She later starred in two popular films based upon the survival horror series, Resident Evil. Jovovich's next film, the science fiction/action thriller Ultraviolet, was released on March 3, 2006. It was not screened for critics, but when reviewed, it was critically panned. It has grossed $17 million at the domestic box office. She appeared in the third film in the Resident Evil series titled Resident Evil: Extinction and played a homicidal "honeymooner" in A Perfect Getaway.
1983. The IRA bombs Harrods Department Store in London, killing seven people.
1989. During the Romanian Revolution, protests continue in Timişoara with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party's District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.
1992. President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sign the North American Free Trade Agreement in separate ceremonies.
1997. The United Kingdom commences its Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, which extends the state's gun ban to include all handguns -- with the exception of antique and show weapons.
2007. Governor Jon S. Corzine signs a measure making New Jersey the first U.S. state to abolish the death penalty in more than 40 years.
2010. Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution. The success of the Tunisian protests sparked protests in several other Arab countries, launching the "Arab Spring."
2011. Kim Jong Il, North Korea's enigmatic, reclusive dictator, dies of a heart attack while reportedly traveling on a train in his country. Kim, who assumed leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father in 1994, ruled the Communist nation with an iron fist, and his isolated, repressive regime was accused of numerous human rights violations.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Army soldiers beat protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in a second day of clashes which have resulted in 10 deaths and hundreds injured.
Elsewhere, flash floods triggered by Tropical Storm Washi kill at least 400 people in the Philippines with hundreds more missing while a boat carrying 380 asylum seekers en route from Indonesia to Australia sinks off the coast of Java with hundreds of people missing.
.........
The Saturnalia involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents, and a special market
The Saturnalia was originally celebrated in Ancient Rome for only a day, but it was so popular it soon lasted a week, despite Augustus' efforts to reduce it to three days, and Caligula's, to five. Like Christmas, this important holy day was for more than fun and games. Saturnalia was a time to honor the god of sowing, Saturn. But again, like Christmas, it was also a festival day on which a public banquet was prepared. An effigy of the god was probably one of the guests.
The poet Catullus describes Saturnalia as the best of days. It was a time of celebration, visits to friends, and gift-giving, particularly of wax candles and earthenware figurines. It was a time to eat, drink, and be merry. The Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals which led to more tomfoolery, marked chiefly by having masters and slaves switch places, and an orgy in lieu of an office party.
AD 549. During the Gothic War, the Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome, bribing the Byzantine garrison.
Totila's strategy was to move fast and take control of the countryside, leaving the Byzantine forces in control of well-defended cities, and especially the ports. Eventually, however, the Gothic king laid siege to the city and prepared to starve Rome into surrender, Pope Vigilius fled to the safety of Syracuse; when he sent a flotilla of grain ships to feed the city, Totila's navy fell on them near the mouth of the Tiber and captured the fleet. The starving city was forced to open its gates to the Goths.
It was plundered, although Totila did not carry out his threat to make it a pasture for cattle, but left a scene of desolation behind when the Gothic army withdrew into Apulia. But Rome's walls and other fortifications were soon restored, and Totila again marched against it but was stopped by the Byzantine army. In 549 Totila advanced a third time against Rome, which he captured through the treachery of some of its starving defenders.
920. Romanos I is crowned co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII. Romanos I was Byzantine Emperor from 920 until his deposition on December 16, 944. In subsequent years Romanos crowned his own sons co-emperors, Christopher in 921, Stephen and Constantine in 924, although, for the time being, Constantine VII was regarded as first in rank after Romanos himself. It is notable that, as he left Constantine untouched, he was called "the gentle usurper."
Romanos' later reign was marked by the old emperor's heightened interest in divine judgment and his increasing sense of guilt for his role in the usurpation of the throne from Constantine VII. On the death of Christopher, by far his most competent son, in 931, Romanos did not advance his younger sons in precedence over Constantine VII. Fearing that Romanos would allow Constantine VII to succeed him instead of them, his younger sons Stephen and Constantine arrested their father in December 944, carried him off to the Prince's Islands and compelled him to become a monk. When they threatened the position of Constantine VII, however, the people of Constantinople revolted, and Stephen and Constantine were likewise stripped of their imperial rank and sent into exile to their father. Romanos died in June 948.
942. Duke William I of Normandy (aka William Longsword) is assassinated In 939 William became involved in a war with Arnulf I of Flanders, which soon became intertwined with the other conflicts troubling the reign of Louis IV. It began with Herluin appealing to William for help to regain the castle of Montreuil from Arnulf. Losing the castle was a major setback in Arnulf's ambitions and William's part in it gained him a deadly enemy. He was ambushed and killed by followers of Arnulf on 17 December 942 at Picquigny on the Somme while at a meeting to settle their differences.
1398. Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur the Lame (Tamerlane). Tamerlane entered Delhi on December 18. For eight days Delhi was plundered, its population massacred, and over 100,000 war prisoners were killed as well.
1538. Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England. Besides his six marriages, Henry VIII is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry's struggles with Rome led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Yet he remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, even after his excommunication from the Catholic Church.
1577. Francis Drake sails from Plymouth, England, on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for English Queen Elizabeth I.
1637. Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu in the Shimabara Rebellion.
In the wake of the Matsukura clan's construction of a new castle at Shimabara, taxes were drastically raised, which provoked anger from local peasants and lordless samurai. In addition, religious persecution against the local Christians exacerbated the discontent, which turned into open revolt in 1637. The Tokugawa Shogunate sent a force of over 125,000 troops to suppress the rebellion, and after a lengthy siege against the rebels at Hara Castle, defeated them. In the wake of the rebellion, the rebel leader Amakusa Shirō was beheaded, and persecution of Christianity became strictly enforced. Japan's national seclusion policy was tightened, and formal persecution of Christianity continued until the 1850s.
1718. Great Britain declares war on Spain.
1777. The French foreign minister, Charles Gravier, count of Vergennes, officially acknowledges the United States as an independent nation. News of the Continental Army's overwhelming victory against the British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga gave Benjamin Franklin new leverage in his efforts to rally French support for the American rebels. Although the victory occurred in October, news did not reach France until December 4th.
1819 . Simón Bolívar declares the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela). Gran Colombia encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 1831. This short-lived republic included the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru and northwest Brazil.
1843. Charles Dickens' classic story A Christmas Carol is published.
1862. During the American Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. The order was issued as part of a campaign against a black market in Southern cotton, which Grant thought was being run "mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders".
Following protests from Jewish community leaders and an outcry by members of Congress and the press, General Order No. 11 was revoked a few weeks later by order of President Abraham Lincoln. Grant later claimed it had been drafted by a subordinate and that he had signed it without reading.
1903. The Wright Brothers make the first powered heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1927. Indian revolutionary Rajendranath Lahiri is hanged to death in Gonda jail of U.P. in India two days before the scheduled date.
1935. The Douglas DC-3 makes its first flight. The Douglas DC-3 is a fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft, which revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s and is generally regarded as one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made.
The amenities of the DC-3 (including sleeping berths on early models and an in-flight kitchen) popularized air travel in the United States. With just one refuelling stop, transcontinental flights across America became possible. Before the arrival of the DC-3, such a trip would entail short hops in commuter aircraft, during the day, coupled with train travel overnight.
1939. During World War II the Battle of the River Plate is fought. The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo under the threat of imminent capture by the Royal Navy.
1941. Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo during World War II.
1944. The Malmedy massacre unfolds during World War II's Battle of the Bulge when American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
1944. During World War II, U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American "evacuees" from the West Coast could return to their homes. On February 19, 1942, 10 weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable." The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area. By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country.
During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan, but not one of them was of Japanese ancestry. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to recompense each surviving internee with a tax-free check for $20,000 and an apology from the U.S. government.
1950. The F-86 Sabre flies its first mission over Korea. The North American F-86 Sabre (sometimes called the Sabrejet) was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as America's first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War. Considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in the Korean War, the F-86 is also rated highly in comparison with fighters of other eras.
1957. The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1960. Troops loyal to Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.
1961. A fire at a circus in Brazil kills more than 300 people and severely burns hundreds more. The cause of the fire was never conclusively determined but it may have been the result of sparks from a train passing nearby.
1967. Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria.
On December 17, Holt went swimming at Cheviot Beach on Point Nepean, near the holiday resort of Portsea, south of Melbourne. Apparently seeking to impress his friends, Holt, who was 59 and had had a recent shoulder injury, plunged into the surf. He disappeared from view and was never seen again. Despite an extensive search, his remains were never found. He was officially presumed dead on December 19, 1967.
1969. An estimated 50 million viewers watch singer Tiny Tim marry Miss Vicky on NBC's Tonight Show.
1970. In Gdynia, Poland, during an outbreak of strikes and protests, soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing hundreds.
1975. A federal jury in Sacramento, California, sentences Lynette Alice Fromme, also known as "Squeaky" Fromme, to life in prison for her attempted assassination of President Gerald R. Ford. On September 5, a Secret Service agent wrested a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol from Fromme, who brandished the weapon during a public appearance of President Ford in Sacramento. "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson, was pointing the loaded gun at the president when the Secret Service agent grabbed it.
Fromme remained a dedicated disciple of Charles Manson and in December 1987 escaped from Alderson Prison after she heard that Manson, also imprisoned, had cancer. After 40 hours roaming the rugged West Virginia hills, she was caught on Christmas Day, about two miles from the prison. Five years were added to her life sentence for the escape.
1975. American actress and model Milla Jovovich is born in Kiev, Ukraine. In 1981, when Milla was five years old, her family had to leave the Soviet Union for political reasons, and moved to London; they subsequently lived in Sacramento, California. Seven months later, they settled in Los Angeles, California.
At the age of eleven, Jovovich was spotted by the photographer Richard Avedon, who featured her in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements. In October 1987, she was featured on the cover of the Italian fashion magazine Lei, which was the first of her many cover shoots. (See pictures.)
Jovovich received top billing and entered the world of action heroes, with her performances in The Fifth Element (1997) in which she appeared in a costume that looked like oversized Band-Aids, and stole every scene she was in. She later starred in two popular films based upon the survival horror series, Resident Evil. Jovovich's next film, the science fiction/action thriller Ultraviolet, was released on March 3, 2006. It was not screened for critics, but when reviewed, it was critically panned. It has grossed $17 million at the domestic box office. She appeared in the third film in the Resident Evil series titled Resident Evil: Extinction and played a homicidal "honeymooner" in A Perfect Getaway.
1983. The IRA bombs Harrods Department Store in London, killing seven people.
1989. During the Romanian Revolution, protests continue in Timişoara with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party's District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.
1992. President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sign the North American Free Trade Agreement in separate ceremonies.
1997. The United Kingdom commences its Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, which extends the state's gun ban to include all handguns -- with the exception of antique and show weapons.
2007. Governor Jon S. Corzine signs a measure making New Jersey the first U.S. state to abolish the death penalty in more than 40 years.
2010. Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution. The success of the Tunisian protests sparked protests in several other Arab countries, launching the "Arab Spring."
2011. Kim Jong Il, North Korea's enigmatic, reclusive dictator, dies of a heart attack while reportedly traveling on a train in his country. Kim, who assumed leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father in 1994, ruled the Communist nation with an iron fist, and his isolated, repressive regime was accused of numerous human rights violations.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Army soldiers beat protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in a second day of clashes which have resulted in 10 deaths and hundreds injured.
Elsewhere, flash floods triggered by Tropical Storm Washi kill at least 400 people in the Philippines with hundreds more missing while a boat carrying 380 asylum seekers en route from Indonesia to Australia sinks off the coast of Java with hundreds of people missing.
.........
Attachments
...nothing happened on the 18th????
Tree
Tree
December 18 was another Roman festival coming amid the Saturnalia (those Romans loved to party). This was the feast of Epona, the goddess of horses, donkeys, and mules. She was also a goddess of fertility; and in a manner of speaking, she was the spoils of war, having been adopted from the Gauls, a vanquished people. Although the name is Gaulish in origin, dedicatory inscriptions to Epona are in Latin or, rarely, Greek and were made not only by Celts but also Germans, Romans and other inhabitants of the Roman Empire.
218 BC. The Battle of Trebia takes place during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's Carthaginian invaders defeat the legions of the Roman Republic, largely because the Roman commander, eager for a triumph, rushed into battle without waiting for reinforcements and blundered into an ambush.
The Second Punic War lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on Carthage's side. The two states had three major conflicts against each other over the courses of their existences. They are called the "Punic Wars" because Rome's name for Carthaginians was Punici, due to their Phoenician ancestry.
1271. Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan," officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China.
1476. Vlad III the Impaler is assassinated. The exact location of his death is unknown, but it would have been somewhere along the road between Bucharest and Giurgiu. Vlad's head was taken to Constantinople as a trophy, and his body was buried unceremoniously by his rival, Basarab Laiota, possibly at Comana, a monastery founded by Vlad in 1461. The Comana monastery was demolished and rebuilt from scratch in 1589. His body was not found.
1620. The Mayflower lands in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts with 102 Pilgrims on board.
1642. Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.
1777. The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
1787. New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1793. French royalists surrender the frigate La Lutine to Lord Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck. She sank on 9 October 1799 during a storm, carrying a large cargo of gold, the majority of which remains unsalvaged. All but one of her 240-odd passengers and crew perished in the breaking seas.
1862. In the Battle of Lexington during the American Civil War, Confederate cavalry leader General Nathan Bedford Forrest routs a Union force under the command of Colonel Robert Ingersoll on a raid into western Tennessee, an area held by the Union.
1865. The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America. The amendment read, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of states' rights. The election of 1864 brought Lincoln back to the White House along with significant Republican majorities in both houses, so it appeared the amendment was headed for passage when the new Congress convened in March 1865. Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support -- some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, seven votes above the necessary two-thirds majority. Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 1865. With the passage of the amendment, the institution that had indelibly shaped American history was eradicated.
1878. John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania. The Molly Maguires was a 19th century secret society of mainly Irish-American coal miners. Many historians believe the "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States between the time of the American Civil War until a series of sensational arrests and trials from 1876−78.
In 1979, Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp, a liberal Democrat, granted a posthumous pardon to Kehoe. The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons recommended the pardon after investigating Kehoe's trial and the circumstances surrounding it. Governor Shapp praised Kehoe and the men "called Molly Maguires" as "heroes" in the struggle to establish a union
1888. Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. (See picture.) The Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The structure, built by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples, is located in Mesa Verde National Park in their former homeland region. The cliff dwelling and park are in the southwestern corner of Colorado, in the Southwestern United States.
1892. The first performance of Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker, is held at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. It has since become a Christmas classic around the world. In Boston, Massachusetts, for example, it is an annual event although the production was recently evicted from its venue to make room for the Rockettes Christmas show from New York. New York, for God's sake! You might as well invite the Yankees to play their home games at Fenway Park. Fortunately, The Nutcracker soldiers on in Beantown while those foreigners from New York were forced to start advertising their show in August, and resorting to parades and the "sponsorship" of a local TV station, in order to hype ticket sales. This year there were no parades, just a well-publicized visit by the Rockettes to a senior citizens home where they showed the residents how to perform high-kicks.
1898. Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car.
1915. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Galt in Washington, D.C. The bride was 43 and the groom was 59. It was the second marriage for Wilson, whose first wife died the year before from a kidney ailment. Edith, who claimed to be directly descended from Pocahantas, was the wealthy widow of a jewelry-store owner and a member of Washington high society.
1915 Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf, born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer who became widely regarded as France's national popular singer, as well as being one of France's greatest international stars. Wikipedia
Born: December 19, 1915, Belleville
Died: October 10, 1963, Alpes-Maritimes
Movies: French Cancan, Música de siempre, Neuf garçons, un coeur,More
Albums: Merveilleuse, The Best of Édith Piaf, L'Intégrale 1936-1945, The Rare Piaf, More
Children: Marcelle Dupont
Songs
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
La Vie en Rose
La Foule
Padam...Padam
1916. During World War I, the Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of Staff Erich Von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French and British, and suffer 337,000 casualties.
1926. The first performance of Leoš Janáček's opera The Makropulos Affair is held in Brno, Czechoslovakia. The Makropulos Affair is a play written in 1922 by Karel Čapek that was turned into an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček. Janáček's penultimate opera, it was, (like so much of his work), inspired by his infatuation with Kamila Stosslova, a married woman much younger than himself.
1932. The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game was moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.
218 BC. The Battle of Trebia takes place during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's Carthaginian invaders defeat the legions of the Roman Republic, largely because the Roman commander, eager for a triumph, rushed into battle without waiting for reinforcements and blundered into an ambush.
The Second Punic War lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on Carthage's side. The two states had three major conflicts against each other over the courses of their existences. They are called the "Punic Wars" because Rome's name for Carthaginians was Punici, due to their Phoenician ancestry.
1271. Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan," officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China.
1476. Vlad III the Impaler is assassinated. The exact location of his death is unknown, but it would have been somewhere along the road between Bucharest and Giurgiu. Vlad's head was taken to Constantinople as a trophy, and his body was buried unceremoniously by his rival, Basarab Laiota, possibly at Comana, a monastery founded by Vlad in 1461. The Comana monastery was demolished and rebuilt from scratch in 1589. His body was not found.
1620. The Mayflower lands in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts with 102 Pilgrims on board.
1642. Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.
1777. The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
1787. New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1793. French royalists surrender the frigate La Lutine to Lord Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck. She sank on 9 October 1799 during a storm, carrying a large cargo of gold, the majority of which remains unsalvaged. All but one of her 240-odd passengers and crew perished in the breaking seas.
1862. In the Battle of Lexington during the American Civil War, Confederate cavalry leader General Nathan Bedford Forrest routs a Union force under the command of Colonel Robert Ingersoll on a raid into western Tennessee, an area held by the Union.
1865. The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America. The amendment read, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of states' rights. The election of 1864 brought Lincoln back to the White House along with significant Republican majorities in both houses, so it appeared the amendment was headed for passage when the new Congress convened in March 1865. Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support -- some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, seven votes above the necessary two-thirds majority. Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 1865. With the passage of the amendment, the institution that had indelibly shaped American history was eradicated.
1878. John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania. The Molly Maguires was a 19th century secret society of mainly Irish-American coal miners. Many historians believe the "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States between the time of the American Civil War until a series of sensational arrests and trials from 1876−78.
In 1979, Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp, a liberal Democrat, granted a posthumous pardon to Kehoe. The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons recommended the pardon after investigating Kehoe's trial and the circumstances surrounding it. Governor Shapp praised Kehoe and the men "called Molly Maguires" as "heroes" in the struggle to establish a union
1888. Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. (See picture.) The Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The structure, built by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples, is located in Mesa Verde National Park in their former homeland region. The cliff dwelling and park are in the southwestern corner of Colorado, in the Southwestern United States.
1892. The first performance of Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker, is held at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. It has since become a Christmas classic around the world. In Boston, Massachusetts, for example, it is an annual event although the production was recently evicted from its venue to make room for the Rockettes Christmas show from New York. New York, for God's sake! You might as well invite the Yankees to play their home games at Fenway Park. Fortunately, The Nutcracker soldiers on in Beantown while those foreigners from New York were forced to start advertising their show in August, and resorting to parades and the "sponsorship" of a local TV station, in order to hype ticket sales. This year there were no parades, just a well-publicized visit by the Rockettes to a senior citizens home where they showed the residents how to perform high-kicks.
1898. Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car.
1915. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Galt in Washington, D.C. The bride was 43 and the groom was 59. It was the second marriage for Wilson, whose first wife died the year before from a kidney ailment. Edith, who claimed to be directly descended from Pocahantas, was the wealthy widow of a jewelry-store owner and a member of Washington high society.
1915 Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf, born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer who became widely regarded as France's national popular singer, as well as being one of France's greatest international stars. Wikipedia
Born: December 19, 1915, Belleville
Died: October 10, 1963, Alpes-Maritimes
Movies: French Cancan, Música de siempre, Neuf garçons, un coeur,More
Albums: Merveilleuse, The Best of Édith Piaf, L'Intégrale 1936-1945, The Rare Piaf, More
Children: Marcelle Dupont
Songs
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
1982
At the Paris OlympiaLa Vie en Rose
1972
CabaretLa Foule
1983
25 Succès Des Années 50, Vol. 1Padam...Padam
1982
At the Paris Olympia1926. The first performance of Leoš Janáček's opera The Makropulos Affair is held in Brno, Czechoslovakia. The Makropulos Affair is a play written in 1922 by Karel Čapek that was turned into an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček. Janáček's penultimate opera, it was, (like so much of his work), inspired by his infatuation with Kamila Stosslova, a married woman much younger than himself.
1932. The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game was moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.
1941. Japanese troops land in Hong Kong during World War II and a slaughter ensues. A week of air raids over Hong Kong, a British crown colony, was followed up on December 17 with a visit paid by Japanese envoys to Sir Mark Young, the British governor of Hong Kong. The envoys' message was simple: The British garrison there should simply surrender to the Japanese -- resistance was futile. The envoys were sent home with the following retort: "The governor and commander in chief of Hong Kong declines absolutely to enter into negotiations for the surrender of Hong Kong..."
The first wave of Japanese troops landed in Hong Kong with artillery fire for cover and the following order from their commander: "Take no prisoners." Upon overrunning a volunteer antiaircraft battery, the Japanese invaders roped together the captured soldiers and proceeded to bayonet them to death. Even those who offered no resistance, such as the Royal Medical Corps, were led up a hill and killed.
The Japanese quickly took control of key reservoirs, threatening the British and Chinese inhabitants with a slow death by thirst. The Brits finally surrendered control of Hong Kong on Christmas Day.
1944. During World War II, 77 B-29 Super Fortresses and 200 other aircraft of U.S. fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow China, a Japanese supply base.
1956. Japan joins the United Nations.
1957. The first nuclear facility in the United States to generate electricity, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, goes online.
1958. Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.
1961. The Lion Sleeps Tonight by the Tokens is the Number One hit in the United States.
1966. Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
1968. As part of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, a squad of Viet Cong guerillas attacks the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The soldiers seized the embassy and held it for six hours until an assault force of U.S. paratroopers landed by helicopter on the building's roof and routed the Viet Cong.
1969. The UK takes a giant step toward the complete abolition of capital punishment. Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to remove the limit on the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act , which suspended the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland for all crimes, except treason, piracy with violence, and certain crimes under the jurisdiction of the armed forces for a period of five years, is carried by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Hanging by the neck as form of capital punishment was introduced to Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the fifth century. By the tenth century it had become a common method of execution. William the Conqueror decreed that hanging should only be used for conspirators or in times of war and ordered that criminals should instead be castrated and have their eyes put out.
William Rufus re-introduced hanging but only for those found guilty of poaching royal deer. Henry I brought hanging back as the main means of execution for many crimes. The first recorded execution at the notorious Tyburn hanging tree (now Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park) was in 1196.
Under the reign of Henry VIII some 72,000 people are estimated to have been executed by various methods including boiling, burning at the stake, beheading and hanging with perhaps the added punishment of drawing and quartering.
Sir Samuel Romilly speaking to the House of Commons on capital punishment in 1810, declared that "..[there is] no country on the face of the earth in which there [have] been so many different offences according to law to be punished with death as in England."
Known as the "Bloody Code," at its height some 220 different crimes were punishable by death. These crimes included such offenses as "being in the company of gypsies for one month," "strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7–14 years of age" and "blacking the face or using a disguise whilst committing a crime." Many of these offenses had been introduced to protect the property of the wealthy classes that emerged during the first half of the eighteenth century; a notable example being the Black Act of 1723 which created fifty capital offenses for various acts of theft and poaching.
The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act of 1965 suspended the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland for murder for a period of five years. In 1969 the act came up for renewal and the then Home Secretary, James Callaghan proposed a motion to remove the five year limit which was carried by both houses on December 16, 1969. The death penalty survived for other crimes, although no more executions were carried out under UK law.
The last person sentenced to death in England was David Chapman who was sentenced to hang in November 1965 for the capital murder of swimming pool night watchman in Scarborough. He was released from prison in 1979 and later died in a car accident. The last person to be sentenced to death in Wales was Edgar Black, who was reprieved on 6 November 1963. He shot his wife's lover to death in Cardiff. The last person to be sentenced to death in Scotland was Patrick McCarron in 1964 for shooting his wife. He died in prison in 1970.
Arguably, the strangest execution in English history came in 1660 during the Restoration of the monarchy. John Bradshaw, Oliver Cromwell, and Henry Ireton were posthumously executed -- disinterred from Westminster Abbey and hanged, drawn, and quartered for their part in the death of King Charles I. Along with the dead, nine living "regicides" were hanged, drawn and quartered.
The last woman to be executed by burning was Catherine Murphy, for the crime of counterfeiting. She was executed at Newgate prison on March 18, 1789. Her co-defendants, including her husband, were executed at the same time by hanging, but as a woman the law provided that she should be burned at the stake.
At that time, the practice was to hang the woman for half an hour before lighting the fire, and this was done in Catherine Murphy's case. She was brought out past the hanging bodies of eight men and made to stand on a foot high 10 inch square removable platform in front of the stake. She was secured to the stake with ropes and an iron ring. The noose, which was hanging from a ring on top of the stake, was put around her neck. When she finished her prayers, the platform was removed and she was left hanging. As she strangled, the hangman piled faggots of straw around the stake and after half an hour, lit them. Burning as a method of execution was abolished the next year.
1972. The United States began the heaviest bombing of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
1973. Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
1975. Canadian professional wrestler Trish Stratus (see pictures)
is born as Patricia Anne Stratigias. Formerly working for World Wrestling Entertainment, Stratus retired from professional wrestling on September 17, 2006 after winning her seventh Women's Championship.
As a fitness model, Stratus has been featured on the cover of many major health and fitness magazines such as Musclemag, Flare andTotal Women's Fitness. She also released a calendar series called "Dream Team" with fellow model, Stacey Lynn. As a sports entertainer, she was proclaimed the "Diva of the Decade" on the WWE RAW X Anniversary Show. She was voted "WWE Babe of the Year" three times between 2001 and 2003.
1978. American actress Katie Holmes is born as Kate Noelle Holmes. (See pictures.) She first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her part on the show, only her second professional role, made Holmes a star. Her movie roles have ranged from art house films such as The Ice Storm to thrillers such as Abandon to blockbusters such as Batman Begins, but she has not found the same success in films as she did on television and admits most of her films have been "bombs."
Weeks after ending her engagement with actor Chris Klein in 2005, Holmes began a highly publicized relationship with actor Tom Cruise, sixteen years her senior. In June, two months after they first met, she became engaged to Cruise. Their relationship has made Holmes the subject of international media attention. On April 18, 2006, she gave birth to a baby girl, Suri Cruise. On November 18, 2006, she and Cruise were married in Italy, accompanied by much gushing on tabloid TV and the usual swooning from they-need-to-get-a-lifers.
1980. American singer Christina Aguilera is born as Christina Maria Aguilera. Her first major role in entertainment came in 1993 when she joined the Disney Channel's variety show The New Mickey Mouse Club . Her co-stars included Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Rhona Bennett (who later became a member of En Vogue), Ryan Gosling, and Keri Russell.
She was signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection" for the film Mulan, and her bubblegum pop-oriented debut album Christina Aguilera (1999) was a critical and commercial success: it produced four hit singles and helped Aguilera win a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2000.
Aguilera took creative control over her second studio album Stripped (2002), which produced the hip-hop-influenced "Dirrty" and the award-winning (including the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance) "Beautiful." It received mixed reviews, and Aguilera's increasingly sexual image during its promotion became the subject of criticism, controversy and ridicule. (See pictures.)
1987. Ivan F. Boesky is sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street's biggest insider-trading scandal.
1989. The European Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
1996. The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring "Ebonics" a language or dialect. The Oakland resolution was widely seen as intended to teach Ebonics and "elevate it to the status of a written language." It gained national attention and was derided and criticized, most notably by Jesse Jackson and Kweisi Mfume who regarded it as an attempt to teach slang to children
1997. HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
2002. Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier. The announcement -- tantamount to an admission of electoral lying -- started the 2003 California recall movement, which resulted in Gray's removal from office, and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor.
2003. A judge in Seattle sentences confessed Green River killer Gary Ridgeway to 48 consecutive life terms. Meanwhile, a jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, convicts teenager Lee Boyd Malvo of two counts of murder in the Washington-area sniper shootings. (He is later sentenced to life in prison without parole.)
2010. An Italian court grants Amanda Knox a review of the forensic evidence used to convict her of the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher. Knox is later exonerated.
2011. The last convoy of United States Army soldiers withdraws from Iraq, marking the formal end of the Iraq War.
Elsewhere, clashes continue in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a third day between the Egyptian Army and protesters while villagers revolting in Wukan, southern China, threaten to march on government offices this week if detained protesters are not released, and thousands protest in several Russian cities for a second week against the results of the parliamentary elections.
The first wave of Japanese troops landed in Hong Kong with artillery fire for cover and the following order from their commander: "Take no prisoners." Upon overrunning a volunteer antiaircraft battery, the Japanese invaders roped together the captured soldiers and proceeded to bayonet them to death. Even those who offered no resistance, such as the Royal Medical Corps, were led up a hill and killed.
The Japanese quickly took control of key reservoirs, threatening the British and Chinese inhabitants with a slow death by thirst. The Brits finally surrendered control of Hong Kong on Christmas Day.
1944. During World War II, 77 B-29 Super Fortresses and 200 other aircraft of U.S. fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow China, a Japanese supply base.
1956. Japan joins the United Nations.
1957. The first nuclear facility in the United States to generate electricity, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, goes online.
1958. Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.
1961. The Lion Sleeps Tonight by the Tokens is the Number One hit in the United States.
1966. Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
1968. As part of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, a squad of Viet Cong guerillas attacks the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The soldiers seized the embassy and held it for six hours until an assault force of U.S. paratroopers landed by helicopter on the building's roof and routed the Viet Cong.
1969. The UK takes a giant step toward the complete abolition of capital punishment. Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to remove the limit on the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act , which suspended the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland for all crimes, except treason, piracy with violence, and certain crimes under the jurisdiction of the armed forces for a period of five years, is carried by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Hanging by the neck as form of capital punishment was introduced to Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the fifth century. By the tenth century it had become a common method of execution. William the Conqueror decreed that hanging should only be used for conspirators or in times of war and ordered that criminals should instead be castrated and have their eyes put out.
William Rufus re-introduced hanging but only for those found guilty of poaching royal deer. Henry I brought hanging back as the main means of execution for many crimes. The first recorded execution at the notorious Tyburn hanging tree (now Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park) was in 1196.
Under the reign of Henry VIII some 72,000 people are estimated to have been executed by various methods including boiling, burning at the stake, beheading and hanging with perhaps the added punishment of drawing and quartering.
Sir Samuel Romilly speaking to the House of Commons on capital punishment in 1810, declared that "..[there is] no country on the face of the earth in which there [have] been so many different offences according to law to be punished with death as in England."
Known as the "Bloody Code," at its height some 220 different crimes were punishable by death. These crimes included such offenses as "being in the company of gypsies for one month," "strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7–14 years of age" and "blacking the face or using a disguise whilst committing a crime." Many of these offenses had been introduced to protect the property of the wealthy classes that emerged during the first half of the eighteenth century; a notable example being the Black Act of 1723 which created fifty capital offenses for various acts of theft and poaching.
The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act of 1965 suspended the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland for murder for a period of five years. In 1969 the act came up for renewal and the then Home Secretary, James Callaghan proposed a motion to remove the five year limit which was carried by both houses on December 16, 1969. The death penalty survived for other crimes, although no more executions were carried out under UK law.
The last person sentenced to death in England was David Chapman who was sentenced to hang in November 1965 for the capital murder of swimming pool night watchman in Scarborough. He was released from prison in 1979 and later died in a car accident. The last person to be sentenced to death in Wales was Edgar Black, who was reprieved on 6 November 1963. He shot his wife's lover to death in Cardiff. The last person to be sentenced to death in Scotland was Patrick McCarron in 1964 for shooting his wife. He died in prison in 1970.
Arguably, the strangest execution in English history came in 1660 during the Restoration of the monarchy. John Bradshaw, Oliver Cromwell, and Henry Ireton were posthumously executed -- disinterred from Westminster Abbey and hanged, drawn, and quartered for their part in the death of King Charles I. Along with the dead, nine living "regicides" were hanged, drawn and quartered.
The last woman to be executed by burning was Catherine Murphy, for the crime of counterfeiting. She was executed at Newgate prison on March 18, 1789. Her co-defendants, including her husband, were executed at the same time by hanging, but as a woman the law provided that she should be burned at the stake.
At that time, the practice was to hang the woman for half an hour before lighting the fire, and this was done in Catherine Murphy's case. She was brought out past the hanging bodies of eight men and made to stand on a foot high 10 inch square removable platform in front of the stake. She was secured to the stake with ropes and an iron ring. The noose, which was hanging from a ring on top of the stake, was put around her neck. When she finished her prayers, the platform was removed and she was left hanging. As she strangled, the hangman piled faggots of straw around the stake and after half an hour, lit them. Burning as a method of execution was abolished the next year.
1972. The United States began the heaviest bombing of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
1973. Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
1975. Canadian professional wrestler Trish Stratus (see pictures)
is born as Patricia Anne Stratigias. Formerly working for World Wrestling Entertainment, Stratus retired from professional wrestling on September 17, 2006 after winning her seventh Women's Championship.
As a fitness model, Stratus has been featured on the cover of many major health and fitness magazines such as Musclemag, Flare andTotal Women's Fitness. She also released a calendar series called "Dream Team" with fellow model, Stacey Lynn. As a sports entertainer, she was proclaimed the "Diva of the Decade" on the WWE RAW X Anniversary Show. She was voted "WWE Babe of the Year" three times between 2001 and 2003.
1978. American actress Katie Holmes is born as Kate Noelle Holmes. (See pictures.) She first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her part on the show, only her second professional role, made Holmes a star. Her movie roles have ranged from art house films such as The Ice Storm to thrillers such as Abandon to blockbusters such as Batman Begins, but she has not found the same success in films as she did on television and admits most of her films have been "bombs."
Weeks after ending her engagement with actor Chris Klein in 2005, Holmes began a highly publicized relationship with actor Tom Cruise, sixteen years her senior. In June, two months after they first met, she became engaged to Cruise. Their relationship has made Holmes the subject of international media attention. On April 18, 2006, she gave birth to a baby girl, Suri Cruise. On November 18, 2006, she and Cruise were married in Italy, accompanied by much gushing on tabloid TV and the usual swooning from they-need-to-get-a-lifers.
1980. American singer Christina Aguilera is born as Christina Maria Aguilera. Her first major role in entertainment came in 1993 when she joined the Disney Channel's variety show The New Mickey Mouse Club . Her co-stars included Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Rhona Bennett (who later became a member of En Vogue), Ryan Gosling, and Keri Russell.
She was signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection" for the film Mulan, and her bubblegum pop-oriented debut album Christina Aguilera (1999) was a critical and commercial success: it produced four hit singles and helped Aguilera win a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2000.
Aguilera took creative control over her second studio album Stripped (2002), which produced the hip-hop-influenced "Dirrty" and the award-winning (including the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance) "Beautiful." It received mixed reviews, and Aguilera's increasingly sexual image during its promotion became the subject of criticism, controversy and ridicule. (See pictures.)
1987. Ivan F. Boesky is sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street's biggest insider-trading scandal.
1989. The European Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
1996. The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring "Ebonics" a language or dialect. The Oakland resolution was widely seen as intended to teach Ebonics and "elevate it to the status of a written language." It gained national attention and was derided and criticized, most notably by Jesse Jackson and Kweisi Mfume who regarded it as an attempt to teach slang to children
1997. HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
2002. Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier. The announcement -- tantamount to an admission of electoral lying -- started the 2003 California recall movement, which resulted in Gray's removal from office, and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor.
2003. A judge in Seattle sentences confessed Green River killer Gary Ridgeway to 48 consecutive life terms. Meanwhile, a jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, convicts teenager Lee Boyd Malvo of two counts of murder in the Washington-area sniper shootings. (He is later sentenced to life in prison without parole.)
2010. An Italian court grants Amanda Knox a review of the forensic evidence used to convict her of the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher. Knox is later exonerated.
2011. The last convoy of United States Army soldiers withdraws from Iraq, marking the formal end of the Iraq War.
Elsewhere, clashes continue in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a third day between the Egyptian Army and protesters while villagers revolting in Wukan, southern China, threaten to march on government offices this week if detained protesters are not released, and thousands protest in several Russian cities for a second week against the results of the parliamentary elections.
Attachments
there ain't no naked ladies and tree feels like he's drinking alone...
tree
' ... you know when I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself...' G. Thourgood and the Delaware Destroyers
...opps, now there are. Yes, Ulrika, I'll have another and get one for Blue Nose...
tree
' ... you know when I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself...' G. Thourgood and the Delaware Destroyers
...opps, now there are. Yes, Ulrika, I'll have another and get one for Blue Nose...
1591. Marigje Arriens is burned at the stake for witchcraft in the Netherlands. Arriens was active in medicine. One theory is, that she was accused by an old patient of having threatened to put a spell on a boy. She was judged guilty of sorcery and sentenced to be burned alive at the stake. Arriens is often mentioned as one of the last people executed for sorcery in the Netherlands, a country where the witch hunt ended earlier than in many other European countries. One of the reasons for this misconception was that the year of her death had long been confused and believed to be 1597 instead of 1591. In reality, there were several people in the Netherlands executed for sorcery after her; the last people executed for sorcery in the Netherlands were Anna Muggen, burned at the stake in Gorinchem in 1608, and Triene Lancheldes in 1613.
yes ulrike, you can find them on the web
but Tree find that another that had to do so he can crucified them
next round is for me, my dear............yes the same
yes ulrike, you can find them on the web
but Tree find that another that had to do so he can crucified them
next round is for me, my dear............yes the same