This Day In History （请勿跟贴，谢谢！）

brianleeeee

January 7


1610:
Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's four moons.
During this month in 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo made the earthshaking discoveries that four moons revolve around Jupiter and that the telescope reveals many more stars than are visible to the naked eye.

2003:
By presidential decree, Christmas—this day on the Coptic Orthodox calendar—was celebrated for the first time as a national holiday in Egypt, an almost entirely Muslim country.

2001:
John Kufuor was inaugurated as president of Ghana in that country's first peaceful transition from one elected government to another.

1968:
Unmanned U.S. space probe Surveyor 7 was launched and, a few days later, made a soft landing on the Moon.

1955:
American contralto Marian Anderson first performed with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

1891:
Zora Neale Hurston, an American folklorist and writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance who celebrated black culture of the rural South, was born.

1844:
St. Bernadette, the French girl whose visions led to the founding of the shrine of Lourdes, was born in that town.

1800:
Millard Fillmore, the 13th U.S. president, was born.

brianleeeee

January 6


Today:
Epiphany.

Celebrated annually this day, Epiphany is a major feast that commemorates, for Western Christians, the coming of the Magi and, for Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jesus' birth, baptism by John, and first miracle.

1950:
Great Britain announced its recognition of the People's Republic of China.

1941:
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his Four Freedoms in his State of the Union message to Congress.

1878:
American poet, historian, and folklorist Carl Sandburg, whose Abraham Lincoln: The War Years won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1940, was born.

1838:
German composer Max Bruch was born in Cologne, Prussia.

1811:
American Civil War statesman Charles Sumner was born in Boston.

1759:
George Washington married Martha Dandridge in Virginia.

1540:
Henry VIII of England married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

brianleeeee

January 5


1933:
Golden Gate Bridge construction begun.
In San Francisco on this day in 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge, a suspension bridge that once boasted the longest main span in the world and that has been celebrated for the magnificence of its setting.

1998:
Daniel arap Moi was sworn in as president of Kenya for his fifth consecutive term.

1931:
American dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, Jr., was born in Rogers, Texas.

1925:
Nellie Tayloe Ross assumed office in Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in the United States.

1919:
Anton Drexler founded the German Workers' Party, the forerunner of the Nazi Party, in Munich, Germany.

1914:
Following the great success of the Model T, American automobile maker Henry Ford raised his workers' pay from $2.40 to $5.00 a day and reduced the hours of the workday.

brianleeeee

January 4


1948:
Burma granted independence.
On this day in 1948, the Southeast Asian nation of Burma (Myanmar) formally gained independence, completing the transfer of power negotiated by Burmese leader Aung San and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1947.

1965:
American-English author T.S. Eliot died in London.

1935:
American professional boxer Floyd Patterson was born in Waco, North Carolina.

1809:
French educator Louis Braille, who developed a system of printing and writing that is extensively used by the blind and that was named for him, was born near Paris.

brianleeeee

January 3


1521:
Martin Luther excommunicated by pope.
On this day in 1521, Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating Martin Luther, the German priest whose questioning of certain Roman Catholic practices initiated the Protestant Reformation.

2001:
Hillary Rodham Clinton was sworn in as a U.S. senator from New York, having become the first first lady in U.S. history to win elective office.

1939:
Canadian professional ice hockey player Bobby Hull, the “Golden Jet,” was born.
1929: Italian motion-picture director Sergio Leone, known primarily for his popularization of the “spaghetti western,” was born.

1883:
Clement Attlee, British Labour Party leader (1935–55) and prime minister (1945–51), was born.

1777:
The Battle of Princeton (New Jersey) was fought during the American Revolution.

1543:
Spanish soldier and explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the ‘‘discoverer” of California, died.

brianleeeee

January 2


1492:
Granada reclaimed by Spain.

On this day in 1492, Granada, home of the Alhambra palace and the seat and final stronghold of the Moorish kingdom in Spain, was surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II and Isabella I, ending the Reconquest.

1950:
German actor Emil Jannings died.

1935:
The widely publicized trial of Bruno Hauptmann began in New Jersey as he faced charges of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of famed American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh.

1905:
The Russians surrendered Port Arthur (now Lüshun, China) to the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War.

1904:
American actress, fan dancer, and bubble dancer Sally Rand was born in Elkton, Missouri.

1896:
Dziga Vertov, a Soviet motion-picture director whose kino-glaz (“film-eye”) theory had international impact on the development of documentaries and cinema realism during the 1920s, was born.

1863:
The Battle of Stones River came to an end during the American Civil War.

1861:
Frederick William IV, king of Prussia from 1840, died at Sanssouci Palace on this day in 1861.

brianleeeee

January 1


2002:
Euro introduced in Europe.
On this day in 2002 the euro, the monetary unit of the European Union, was introduced with the issuance of both currency and coins, and by March 2002 it was the sole legal tender of participating member states.

1994:
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, eliminating most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

1953:
American country-and-western musician Hank Williams died.

1909:
Barry M. Goldwater, a U.S. senator from Arizona (1953–64, 1969–87) and the Republican presidential candidate in 1964, was born.

1863:
The Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves of the Confederacy (the states in rebellion against the Union during the American Civil War), was issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

1804:
Haiti declared its independence from France.

1735:
Paul Revere, the horseback-riding folk hero of the American Revolution, was born.

1449:
Florentine statesman, ruler, and patron of arts and letters Lorenzo de' Medici was born.

brianleeeee

December 31


1857:
Ottawa made capital of Canada.
Ottawa, located in Ontario at the confluence of the Ottawa, Gatineau, and Rideau rivers and whose area was first described by Samuel de Champlain in 1613, was named the capital of Canada by Queen Victoria this day in 1857.

1991:
The Soviet Union legally ceased to exist, Russia and other former Soviet republics having declared themselves independent and having founded the Commonwealth of Independent States on December 21, 1991.

1972:
Baseball great Roberto Clemente died in an airplane crash en route to Nicaragua with relief supplies collected for earthquake survivors.

1880:
George C. Marshall, the U.S. Army chief of staff during World War II (1939–45), U.S secretary of state (1947–49) and of defense (1950–51), architect of the Marshall Plan for European recovery, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1953, was born.

1775:
American troops under General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold were defeated by the British in the Battle of Quebec.

1600:
The East India Company, formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India, was incorporated by English royal charter.

brianleeeee

December 30


1922:
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, formed this day in 1922 with its capital in Moscow, eventually incorporated 15 republics and constituted (in area) the largest country in the world until its dissolution in 1991.

1918:
The Spartacus League was transformed into the Communist Party of Germany at a party congress.

1916:
Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin was poisoned by Russian conservatives in an effort to halt his influence over Empress Alexandra and the royal family.

1902:
A new southing record was set by Robert Falcon Scott, in company with Ernest Henry Shackleton and E.A. Wilson, as they reached the Ross Ice Shelf at the head of the Ross Sea in Antarctica.

1896:
Philippine nationalist José Rizal was publicly executed, enraging and uniting Filipinos.

1853:
The United States acquired nearly 30,000 square miles (78,000 square km) of additional northern Mexican territory with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase.

1847:
The reformist Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld, known principally for his pardon of German American anarchists involved in the Haymarket Riot, was born in Niederselters, Prussia.

1803:
The Maratha chief Daulat Rao Sindhia and the British signed the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon.

brianleeeee

December 29


1845:
U.S. annexation of Texas approved.
The annexation of the Republic of Texas by the United States, approved by the U.S. Congress this day in 1845, sparked the Mexican War because land between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River was disputed territory.

1895:
Leander Starr Jameson launched an abortive raid into the Transvaal to overthrow the Boer government of Paul Kruger.

1890:
U.S. troops under Colonel James W. Forsyth massacred more than 200 Sioux Indians in the Battle of Wounded Knee.

1865:
Abolitionist crusader William Lloyd Garrison published the last issue of The Liberator.

1808:
Andrew Johnson, 17th U.S. president and the first ever to be impeached, was born.

1743:
Hyacinthe Rigaud, one of the most prolific and successful French portrait painters of the Baroque period, died in Paris.

1170:
Knights of King Henry II of England killed the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in the cathedral.

brianleeeee

December 28


1065:
Westminster Abbey opened.
The original Westminster Abbey, located in London, was consecrated and opened this day in 1065 by Edward the Confessor and became the site of coronations and other ceremonies of national significance in England.

1934:
Spanish sculptor Pablo Gargallo, known for his figures sculpted from iron and other metals, died.

1923:
Gustave Eiffel, designer of the famous Eiffel Tower, died in Paris.

1895:
The first public demonstration of the Cinématographe, an early motion-picture apparatus designed by the Lumière brothers, took place at the Grand Café in Paris.

1734:
The outlaw Rob Roy, known as the Scottish Robin Hood, died.

1694:
Mary II, who became queen of England in 1689, died of smallpox in London at age 32.

brianleeeee

December 27


1949:
Dutch transfer of Indonesian sovereignty .
On this day in 1949, four years after nationalist revolutionary leader Sukarno had declared Indonesia's independence, formal sovereignty over the country was transferred from the Dutch to the United States of Indonesia.

1978:
Houari Boumedienne, president of Algeria, died at age 51.

1932:
The internal passport system, previously denounced by Vladimir Ilich Lenin as one of the worst stigmas of tsarist backwardness and despotism, was reinstated in the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin.

1831:
Charles Darwin set sail on the HMS Beagle, beginning the voyage on which he would formulate his theory of evolution.

1801:
After conquering Italy, Napoleon established the Republic of Lucca.

1512:
Ferdinand II issued the Laws of Burgos to “regulate the relations” between Spaniards and Indians in Spain's American colonies.

brianleeeee

December 26


2004:
Indian Ocean tsunami.
On this day in 2004, a large earthquake shook the Indian Ocean floor west of the island of Sumatra, triggering a devastating tsunami that swamped coastal areas from Thailand to Africa and killed more than 200,000 people.

Today:
Boxing Day is celebrated as a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

1943:
The German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was sunk by the British battleship Duke of York during World War II.

1893:
Mao Zedong, chairman of the People's Republic of China, was born.

1805:
Napoleon enforced harsh penalties on Austria with the signing of the Treaty of Pressburg.

1647:
Charles I and the Scots reached a secret agreement, whereby the Scots offered to support the king's restoration to power in return for his acceptance of Presbyterianism in Scotland and its establishment in England for three years.

brianleeeee

December 25


Today:
Christmas celebrated worldwide.
Though the precise origin of the date is unclear, Christmas, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, is celebrated on this day, having been first identified as the date of Jesus' birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221.

1991:
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned the presidency of the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist at the end of the year.

1979:
The Soviet Union began its occupation of Afghanistan during the Afghan War.

1977:
Charlie Chaplin, the British comedic actor and director who is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in motion-picture history, died in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.

1776:
During the American Revolution, General George Washington crossed the Delaware River and surprised the British at Trenton, New Jersey.

1066:
William I was crowned king of England, formally completing the Norman Conquest.

800:
Charlemagne, king of the Franks, became the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

brianleeeee

December 24


1814:
Treaty of Ghent.
On this day in 1814, the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium, ending the War of 1812, marking a decline of American dependence on Europe, and stimulating a sense of U.S. nationalism.

1997:
Japanese actor Mifune Toshirō, known internationally for his energetic, flamboyant portrayals of samurai characters, especially in films directed by Kurosawa Akira, died near Tokyo.

1951:
Idris I, head of the Sanūsīyah (an Islamic Sufi brotherhood), was proclaimed king of an independent United Kingdom of Libya.

1943:
General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II.

1942:
Admiral Fran鏾is Darlan, a leading figure in Marshal Philippe Pétain's Vichy government, was assassinated in Algiers.

1822:
English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold, a literary and social critic noted especially for his Classical attacks on the contemporary tastes and manners of the “Barbarians” (the aristocracy), the “Philistines” (the commercial middle class), and the “Populace,” was born.

brianleeeee

December 23


1995:
Aleksander Kwaśniewski inaugurated as Polish president.
Aleksander Kwaśniewski, formerly an apparatchik of Poland's ruling communist party, was sworn in as the country's president this day in 1995, having narrowly defeated Lech Wałęsa, Poland's first postcommunist president.

2001:
Argentina announced the suspension of payments on its external debt—the biggest debt default in history to date.

1968:
Eighty-two crewmen of the USS Pueblo were released after being held in captivity for 11 months by North Korea, which claimed the U.S. Navy intelligence ship had crossed into its waters.

1941:
Early in World War II, invading Japanese forces defeated U.S. troops at the Battle of Wake Island.

1913:
With the signing of the Federal Reserve Act by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, the Federal Reserve System came into being.

1876:
The first comprehensive constitution of the Ottoman Empire went into effect, giving the sultan full executive power.

1805:
Joseph Smith, an American prophet whose writings, along with the Bible, provide the theological foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Mormon denominations, was born.

1783:
Before the Continental Congress, George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army.

brianleeeee

December 22


1894:
Alfred Dreyfus sentenced to life in prison.
On this day in 1894, on the basis of specious evidence and anti-Semitism, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to life in prison for treason, sparking a controversy that divided France for 12 years.


1990:
The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was promulgated, granting such classic civil rights as freedom of speech, religion, information, and association, as well as guaranteeing the equality of nationalities.

1989:
Nicolae Ceaușescu was ousted after 24 years of dictatorial rule in Romania.

1989:
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was reopened, signifying the reunion of East and West Germany.

1941:
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Washington, D.C., to discuss World War II.

1856:
Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. secretary of state from 1925 to 1929 who negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928—a multilateral agreement designed to prohibit war as an instrument of national policy—and won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1929, was born.

1481:
The member states of the Swiss Confederation concluded the Diet of Stans, an agreement whereby civil war was averted.

1216:
The Dominican order was sanctioned by Pope Honorius III.

brianleeeee

December 21


1898:
Radium discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie.
On this day in 1898, having recently discovered polonium, future Nobel Prize winners Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive chemical element radium, a silvery white metal that would be used to treat cancer.

1988:
Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, apparently because of a terrorist bombing; in 2003 the government of Libya accepted responsibility for the explosion and in 2004 agreed to compensate the families of the victims.

1968:
Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral) and eventually completed 10 lunar orbits.

1958:
Charles de Gaulle was elected president of the French Fifth Republic.

1913:
The New York World published the first modern crossword puzzle.

1864:
General William Tecumseh Sherman captured Savannah, Georgia, during his “March to the Sea” in the American Civil War.
1845: The Battle of Fīroz Shāh began between British and Sikh forces during the First Sikh War.

1804:
Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman and novelist who was twice prime minister (1868, 1874–80), was born.

brianleeeee

December 20


1999:
Macau made an administrative region of China.
On this day in 1999, 12 years after an agreement was reached between China and Portugal, several centuries of Portuguese rule ended in Macau when it became a special administrative region under Chinese sovereignty.

1989:
The United States launched Operation Just Cause, a military invasion of Panama, the initial attack focusing primarily on the Panama City headquarters of leader Manuel Noriega.

1974:
Ethiopia was declared a socialist state under the leadership of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

1971:
Pakistani President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan transferred power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

1960:
The Vietnamese National Liberation Front was formed, with the purpose of effecting the reunification of North and South Vietnam.

1860:
Following Abraham Lincoln's election as U.S. president, South Carolina became the first U.S. state to secede from the Union.

1841:
French educator Ferdinand-蒬ouard Buisson, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1927 (jointly with the German pacifist Ludwig Quidde), was born.

brianleeeee

December 19


1998:
Articles of impeachment approved against U.S. President Bill Clinton.
On this day in 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice, though Clinton was acquitted by the Senate the following month.

1974:
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States.

1966:
The United Nations General Assembly endorsed the Outer Space Treaty, an international treaty binding the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes.

1946:
The Viet Minh, founded by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh, began the First Indochina War against France.

1910:
Jean Genet, a French criminal and social outcast turned writer who, as a dramatist, became a leading figure in the avant-garde theatre, especially the Theatre of the Absurd, was born.

1777:
During the American Revolution, General George Washington led 11,000 regulars to take up winter quarters at Valley Forge on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Philadelphia.