This Day in History

[Carruthers]

I remember the Aberfan disaster from my schooldays although some of the detail has become hazy with the passage of time.
This week's commemorations of the disaster, have brought to light the disgraceful way the National Coal Board and the Government behaved in the aftermath of the tragedy.

In 1966, the Aberfan Disaster Memorial Fund (ADMF) received 90,000 contributions which reached a total of £1,606,929. The remaining tips were only eventually made safe after a lengthy fight from Aberfan residents, resisted by the NCB and Labour Government. Clearing was paid for by a government grant and forced contribution of £150,000 taken from the charity fund. In 1997 the Labour Government paid back the £150,000 to the ADMF and in 2007 the Welsh Assembly donated £1.5 million to ADMF as recompense for the money wrongly taken.

Despicable is the only way to describe it.

Quote is from UT's link above.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

From this USians perspective I can't believe I had never heard of the Aberfan disaster. I guess that's the nature of disasters like that, overseas you don't hear much of the history of them. What a horrible, horrible event.

I was thinking pretty much the same thing.

[Gravdigr]

October 22

Today, our friends down under celebrate Wombat Day, honoring (what else?) wombats.

Today is Make A Difference Day, so, do that.

The world marks today as International Stuttering Awareness Day.

Also, TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY, SO ♪ ♫SHOUT IT SHOUT IT SHOUT IT OUT LOUD♪ ♫.

Events

4004 BC – The world was created at approximately six o'clock in the evening, according to the Ussher chronology.

1707 – Scilly naval disaster: four British Royal Navy ships run aground near the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and thousands of sailors drown.

1790 – Warriors of the Miami people under Chief Little Turtle defeat United States troops under General Josiah Harmar at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War.

1797 – André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump from one thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris.

1836 – Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1844 – The Great Anticipation: Millerites, followers of William Miller, anticipate the end of the world in conjunction with the Second Advent of Christ. The following day became known as the Great Disappointment.

1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).

1883 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod's Faust.

1884 – The Royal Observatory in Britain is adopted as the prime meridian of longitude by the International Meridian Conference.

1895 – In Paris an express train derails (<--awesome photo, btw) after overrunning the buffer stop, crossing almost 30 metres (100 ft) of concourse before crashing through a wall and falling 10 metres (33 ft) to the road below.

1927 – Nikola Tesla introduces six new inventions including single-phase electric power.

1934 – In East Liverpool, Ohio, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents shoot and kill notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.

1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.

1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but turns down the honor.

1966 – The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A' Go-Go).

1972 – Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris.

1976 – Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.

1983 – Two correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires the Supermax model of prisons.

1986 - Jane Dornacker was killed in a helicopter crash during a live traffic report for WNBC radio in New York. Listeners heard the terrified voice of Dornacker screaming "Hit the water, hit the water!" as the helicopter from which she and pilot Bill Pate were reporting, fell from the sky and crashed into the Hudson River. Dornacker had been a member of The Tubes and Leila And The Snakes.

1990 - Pearl Jam played their first ever concert when they appeared at the Off Ramp in Seattle.

2001 – Grand Theft Auto III was released, popularizing a genre of open-world, action-adventure video games as well as spurring controversy around violence in video games.

2005 – Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.

2013 – The Australian Capital Territory becomes the first Australian jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage with the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013.

2014 – Michael Zehaf-Bibeau attacks the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa, Canada, killing a soldier and injuring three other people.

Births

1734 – Daniel Boone; 1811 – Franz Liszt; 1844 – Louis Riel; 1882 – N. C. Wyeth; 1903 – Curly Howard (of Stooge fame); 1904 – Constance Bennett; 1917 – Joan Fontaine; 1920 – Timothy Leary; 1925 – Robert Rauschenberg; 1931 – Ann Rule; 1938 – Christopher Lloyd; 1939 – Tony Roberts; 1942 – Annette Funicello; 1943 – Catherine Deneuve; 1945 - Leslie West(Mountain); 1947 – Deepak Chopra; 1948 – Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme (attempted assassin of Gerald Ford); 1952 – Jeff Goldblum; 1962 – Bob Odenkirk; 1963 – Brian Boitano; 1965 – Valeria Golino; 1968 – Jay Johnston; 1968 – Shaggy♪ ♫; 1969 – Spike Jonze; 1972 – Saffron Burrows; 1975 – Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family); 1985 – Zac Hanson(Hanson)

Deaths

741 – Charles Martel; 1906 – Paul Cézanne; 1934 – Pretty Boy Floyd; 1973 – Pablo Casals♪ ♫; 1989 – Jacob Wetterling (kidnapping victim); 1992 – Cleavon Little ("Where da white women at?"); 1998 – Eric Ambler; 2006 – Arthur Hill (The Andromeda Strain); 2009 – Soupy Sales; 2012 – Russell Means ('Chingachgook' in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)); 2013 – Marylou Dawes

[Gravdigr]

October 23

Today chemists, chemistry students, and enthusiasts celebrate Mole Day. What the I don't even.

There are 62 until Christmas, and 69 days left in 2016.

Events

42 BC – Liberators' civil war: Second Battle of Philippi – Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeat Brutus's army. Brutus commits suicide.

1642 – Battle of Edgehill: First major battle of the First English Civil War.

1707 – The first Parliament of Great Britain meets.

1739 – War of Jenkins' Ear starts: British Prime Minister Robert Walpole, reluctantly declares war on Spain.

1861 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Westport: Union forces under General Samuel R. Curtis defeat Confederate troops led by General Sterling Price (<--the real one, not Rooster Cogburn's cat in True Grit) at Westport, Missouri, near Kansas City.

1867 – Seventy-two Senators are summoned by Royal Proclamation to serve as the first members of the Canadian Senate.

1911 – First use of aircraft in war: Italo-Turkish War: An Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines.

1915 – Women's suffrage: In New York City, 25,000–33,000 women march on Fifth Avenue to advocate their right to vote.

1917 – Lenin calls for the October Revolution.

1929 – Great Depression: After a steady decline in stock market prices since a peak in September, the New York Stock Exchange begins to show signs of panic.

1935 – Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard "Lulu" Rosencrantz are fatally shot at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre.

1939 – The Japanese Mitsubishi G4M twin-engine "Betty" Bomber makes its maiden flight.

1944 – World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf: The largest naval battle in history begins in the Philippines.

1958 – The Springhill Mine bump: An underground earthquake traps 174 miners 13,000 - 14,000 feet in, and ~4,000 feet deep, in the No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, the deepest coal mine in North America at the time. By November 1, rescuers from around the world had dug out 100 of the victims, marking the death toll at 74.

1958 – The Smurfs, a fictional race of blue dwarves, later popularized in a Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon series, appear for the first time in the story La flute à six schtroumpfs, a Johan and Peewit adventure by Peyo, which is serialized in the weekly Spirou magazine.

1966 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded their first single 'Hey Joe', at De Lane Lea studios in London.

1970 – Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record (622.407 mph) in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.

1973 – The Watergate scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.

1976 - Led Zeppelin made their US television debut on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, they performed ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Dazed And Confused’.

1980 - Mark David Chapman quit his security job and signed out for the last time. Instead of the usual "Chappy" he wrote "John Lennon".

1983 – Lebanese Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.

1993 – The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb prematurely detonates in the Shankill area of Belfast, killing the bomber and nine civilians.

1995 - Def Leppard gave themselves a place in the Guinness book Of World Records, by playing three gigs in three continents in 24 hours. Tangier, London and Vancouver.

1995 – Yolanda Saldívar is found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of popular Latin singer Selena. Three days later, Saldívar was sentenced to life in prison, eligible for parole in 2025.

1998 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a "land for peace" agreement.

1998 – Swatch Internet Time, a measure of 1000 "beats" per day was inaugurated by the Swatch Group.

2002 – Moscow theater hostage crisis: Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.

2015 – The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere (25.75 inHg), and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds (~215 mph), are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 and causing over $280 million in damages.

Births

64 BC – Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa; 1835 – Adlai Stevenson I (23rd VPOTUS); 1869 – John Heisman (Heisman Trophy); 1920 – Ted Fujita (Fujita Scale measuring tornado intensity F-1 through F-5); 1925 – Johnny Carson; 1935 – Chi-Chi Rodríguez; 1936 – Philip Kaufman (director The Right Stuff); 1940 – Pelé; 1942 – Michael Crichton; 1949 – Würzel(Motörhead); 1954 – Ang Lee; 1956 – Dwight Yoakam♪ ♫; 1959 – Nancy Grace (American bitch); 1959 – Sam Raimi; 1959 – "Weird Al" Yankovic♪ ♫; 1960 – Randy Pausch; 1960 – Wayne Rainey (motorcycle racer); 1962 – Doug Flutie; 1964 – Robert Trujillo(Metallica); 1970 – Grant Imahara (robotics guy from Mythbusters); 1976 – Cat Deeley; 1976 – Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool); 1986 – Jessica Stroup (The Following); 1986 – Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones)

Deaths

42 BC – Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger; 1921 – John Boyd Dunlop (founded Dunlop Rubber); 1939 – Zane Grey; 1950 – Al Jolson; 1957 – Christian Dior; 1978 – 'Mother' Maybelle Carter♪ ♫(country/bluegrass royalty); 1983 – Jessica Savitch; 1984 – Oskar Werner; 1994 – Robert Lansing; 2005 – William Hootkins

[sexobon]

My H.S. chemistry teacher's mantra was "Convert to moles!" ("remember to convert to moles"..."when all else fails, convert to moles").

So I did and aced the class. Good times.

[Carruthers]

1973 – The Watergate scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.

I was at an age when I wasn't paying attention to every little detail about Watergate, but I was still aware of the magnitude of the scandal and a number of events do stick in my mind.
I remember when Nixon made a TV broadcast with a stack of volumes on the desk which contained transcripts of the Oval Office tapes, obviously prior to the above development.
One commentator described him as looking like a 'shifty encyclopaedia salesman'.
I also recall his later statement when he said 'I'm not a crook'.
A sad state of affairs all round.

[Gravdigr]

October 24

In the United States, this day is observed as Food Day.

The United Nations marks today as World Development Information Day, as well as United Nations Day
.

Rotary International has declared Oct. 24 to be World Polio Day.

Events

1260 – Chartres Cathedral is dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France; the cathedral is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

1590 – John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for the "lost" colonists.

1851 – William Lassell discovers the moons Umbriel, and Ariel, orbiting Uranus. Snicker, anus.

1857 – Sheffield F.C., the world's oldest association football club still in operation, is founded in Sheffield, England.

1861 – The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed, spelling the end for the 18-month-old Pony Express.

1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air nine minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

1926 – Harry Houdini's last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.

1929 – "Black Thursday" stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange. The beginning of The Great Depression.

1931 – The George Washington Bridge opens to public traffic.

1945 – Founding of the United Nations. Commemorated as United Nations Day.

1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.

1947 – Famed animator Walt Disney testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists. Snitches, man...

1949 – The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters is laid in New York City.

1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam.

1973 – The Yom Kippur War ends.

1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gaps in gender equality.

1977 – Veterans Day is observed in the U.S. on the fourth Monday in October for the seventh and last time. (The holiday is once again observed on November 11 beginning the following year.)

1990 – Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti reveals to the Italian parliament the existence of Gladio, the Italian "stay-behind" clandestine paramilitary NATO army, which was implicated in false flag terrorist attacks implicating communists and anarchists as part of the strategy of tension from the late 1960s to early 1980s.

1998 – Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission.

2002 – Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, D.C.

2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight.

2008 – "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

2015 – A driver, later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI), crashes into the Oklahoma State Homecoming parade in Stillwater, Oklahoma, killing four people and injuring 34.

Births

1855 – James S. Sherman (27th VPOTUS); 1903 – Melvin Purvis (captured more public enemies than any other agent in FBI history, a record that still stands); 1904 – Moss Hart; 1915 – Bob Kane (co-created Batman); 1919 – Frank Piasecki (pioneer in tandem rotor aircraft); 1926 – Y. A. Tittle; 1930 – The Big Bopper (aka J.P. Richardson); 1933 – Reginald & Ronald Kray (English gangsters); 1936 – Jimmy Dawkins; 1936 – David Nelson; 1936 – Bill Wyman; 1939 – F. Murray Abraham; 1943 – Bill 'Superstar' Dundee; 1947 – Kevin Kline; 1954 – Doug Davidson; 1960 – Ian Baker-Finch; 1960 – B. D. Wong; 1962 – Dave Blaney; 1981 – Tila Tequila; 1983 – Brian Vickers; 1986 – Drake

Deaths

1537 – Jane Seymour (no, not that one, there was another one); 1601 – Tycho Brahe; 1852 – Daniel Webster; 1922 – George Cadbury; 1935 – Dutch Schultz; 1944 – Louis Renault; 1945 – Vidkun Quisling; 1972 – Jackie Robinson; 1979 – Carlo Abarth; 1991 – Gene Roddenberry; 1997 – Don Messick; 2005 – Rosa Parks; 2015 – Maureen O'Hara; 2016 – Bobby Vee

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

2002 – Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, D.C.

Those fuckers.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Today is National Greasy Food Day.

[Gravdigr]

October 25

285 (or 286) – Execution of Saints Crispin and Crispinian during the reign of Diocletian, now the patron saints of leather workers, curriers, and shoemakers.

1415 – Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England and his lightly armoured infantry and archers defeat the heavily armoured French cavalry in the Battle of Agincourt on Saint Crispin's Day.

1828 – St Katharine Docks open in London.

1854 – The Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade). Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1920 – After 74 days on hunger strike in Brixton Prison, England, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney dies.

1938 – The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces swing music as "a degenerated musical system ... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell". His warning is widely ignored.

1940 – Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army.

1944 – The USS Tang under Richard O'Kane (the top American submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship's own malfunctioning torpedo.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council proving that Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba.

1964 - The Rolling Stones appeared for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show from New York, performing ‘Around And Around’ and ‘Time Is On My Side’. A riot broke out in the studio, prompting Sullivan’s infamous quote, ‘I promise you they’ll never be back on our show again.’ The Rolling Stones went on to make a further five appearances on Sullivan’s show between 1965 and 1969.

1966 - Aged 7 months old, Jeff Healey had his right eye surgical removed (and subsequently his left eye, 4 months later), and replaced with artificial ones, necessitated by a form of cancer of the eyes called retinoblastoma. Three years later Healey was given his first guitar by his father. At the age of 13, the Canadian guitarist formed his first band, Blue Direction.

1977 – Digital Equipment Corporation releases OpenVMS V1.0.

1983 – Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état.

1995 – A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.

Births

1838 – Georges Bizet; 1864 – John Francis Dodge (yeah, that Dodge); 1881 – Pablo Picasso; 1886 – Leo G. Carroll; 1888 – Richard E. Byrd; 1912 – Minnie Pearl ("HOOOWDEE!! I'm jist s'proud to be h'yere!"); 1913 – Klaus Barbie; 1924 – Billy Barty; 1928 – Jeanne Cooper ('Katherine Chancellor' on The Young and the Restless); 1928 – Tony Franciosa; 1928 – Marion Ross ('Mrs. Cunningham' on Happy Days); 1940 – Bobby Knight; 1941 – Helen Reddy♪ ♫; 1944 – Jon Anderson♪ ♫(Yes); 1944 – James Carville (played 'Gollum' in The Lord of The Rings); 1947 – Glenn Tipton(Judas Priest); 1955 – Matthias Jabs(Scorpions); 1957 – Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson); 1959 – Chrissy Amphlett♪ ♫(Divinyls); 1961 – Ward Burton; 1961 – Chad Smith(The Red Hot Chili Peppers); 1964 – Michael Boatman (Spin City, China Beach); 1970 – Adam Goldberg; 1970 – Ed Robertson♪ ♫(Barenaked Ladies); 1970 – Chely Wright♪ ♫; 1984 – Katy Perry♪ ♫; 1985 – Ciara♪ ♫

Deaths

1400 – Geoffrey Chaucer; 1806 – Henry Knox (namesake of Fort Knox & Knox County, KY); 1920 – Terence MacSwiney; 1921 – Bat Masterson; 1957 – Albert Anastasia (mob boss); 1986 – Forrest Tucker; 1991 – Bill Graham♪ ♫(concert promoter); 1992 – Roger Miller♪ ♫; 1993 – Vincent Price; 1995 – Bobby Riggs; 1999 – Payne Stewart; 2002 – Richard Harris (left his cake out in the rain); 2004 – John Peel; 2008 – Gerard Damiano (wrote & directed Deep Throat, directed The Devil in Miss Jones); 2013 – Hal Needham; 2013 – Marcia Wallace (voice of 'Edna Krabappel' on The Simpsons); 2014 – Jack Bruce(Cream)

[Gravdigr]

October 26

Today is the 300th day of 2016, and there are 66 days left in 2016.

There are 59 days until Christmas.

Events

306 – Martyrdom of Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki.

1185 – The Uprising of Asen and Peter begins on the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki and ends with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire, ruled by the Asen dynasty.

1597 – Imjin War: Admiral Yi Sun-sin routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang.

1689 – General Piccolomini of Austria burns down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera. He died of cholera himself soon after.

1775 – King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorizes a military response to quell the American Revolution.

1776 – Benjamin Franklin departs from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.

1825 – The Erie Canal opens: Passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie.

1861 – The Pony Express officially ceases operations.

1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, one of the most famous gunfights in the history of the American Old West, took place in Tombstone, Arizona, between The Cowboys and lawmen led by Wyatt Earp.

1912 – First Balkan War: The Ottoman occupied city of Thessaloniki, is liberated and unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron saint Demetrius. On the same day, Serbian troops captured Skopje.

1917 – World War I: Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat to the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany. The young unknown Oberleutnant Erwin Rommel captures Mount Matajur with only 100 Germans against a force of over 7000 Italians.

1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.

1940 – The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.

1942 – World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier, USS Hornet, is sunk and another aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, is heavily damaged, while two Japanese carriers and one cruiser are heavily damaged.

1958 – Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris, France.

1984 - 19-year-old John D. McCollum killed himself with a .22 caliber handgun after spending the day listening to Ozzy Osbourne records. One year later, McCollum's parents took court action against Ozzy and CBS Records, alleging that the song "Suicide Solution" from the album Blizzard of Ozz contributed to their son's death. The case was eventually thrown out of court.

1984 – "Baby Fae" receives a heart transplant from a baboon.

1985 – The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.

1992 – The London Ambulance Service is thrown into chaos after the implementation of a new CAD, or Computer Aided Dispatch, system which failed.

1999 - American singer/songwriter and actor Hoyt Axton died of a heart attack in Victor, Montana aged 61. Wrote songs for, Elvis Presley, Three Dog Night, (1971 US No.1 Joy To The World), John Denver, Ringo Starr, Glen Campbell. His mother Mae Boren Axton wrote 'Heartbreak Hotel'.

1999 – Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.

2001 – The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

2002 – Moscow theater hostage crisis: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.

2007 - Rapper T.I. was released on $3m (£1.5m) bail in Atlanta after he was charged with unlawfully possessing firearms, unregistered machine guns and silencers. US Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman said the rapper would remain under house arrest in Henry County, Georgia, being monitored 24 hours a day by a private firm paid for by himself. The rapper was also electronically tagged.

2011 - Aerosmith were forced to delay a concert in South America after Steven Tyler fell in his hotel bathroom. The singer suffered cuts to his face and lost two of his teeth ahead of a concert in Asuncion, Paraguay. He was said to have received stitches and had emergency dental work, forcing the gig to be postponed by 24 hours.

Births

1854 – C. W. Post (founded Post Foods); 1865 – Benjamin Guggenheim (of the mining Guggenheims, went down with the Titanic); 1871 – Guillermo Kahlo (Mexican photog, father of Frida Kahlo); 1874 – Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (founded MOMA in NYC); 1902 – Jack Sharkey; 1911 – Mahalia Jackson♪ ♫; 1912 – Don Siegel; 1914 – Jackie Coogan; 1916 – François Mitterrand (21st President of France); 1919 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Shah of Iran); 1929 – Neal Matthews, Jr.♪ ♫(The Jordanaires); 1936 – Shelley Morrison (Megan Mullally's maid on Will & Grace, 'Sister Sixto' on The Flying Nun); 1942 – Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?); 1945 – Pat Conroy (wrote the novels The Great Santini, The Prince Of Tides); 1945 – Jaclyn Smith (Charlie's Angels (tv)); 1946 – Pat Sajak; 1946 – Holly Woodlawn(Holly came from Miami F.L.A., Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A., Plucked her eyebrows on the way, Shaved her legs and then he was a she, She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side); 1947 – Hillary Clinton; 1951 – Bootsy Collins(James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic); 1954 – D. W. Moffett; 1956 – Rita Wilson (Tom Hank's main squeeze); 1961 – Dylan McDermott; 1962 – Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride, Saw); 1963 – Natalie Merchant♪ ♫(10,000 Maniacs); 1966 – Steve Valentine♪ ♫(Crossing Jordan (tv); 1967 – Keith Urban♪ ♫; 1973 – Seth MacFarlane; 1977 – Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite)

Deaths

1866 – John Kinder Labatt (founded Labatt Brewing Company); 1881 - Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, Billy Clanton (all 3 died at the Gunfight At The O.K. Corral, in Tombstone, Arizona); 1902 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton; 1931 – Charles Comiskey (Chicago's Comiskey Park baseball stadium); 1952 – Hattie McDaniel (Gone With The Wind); 1972 – Igor Sikorsky (founded Sikorsky Aircraft); 1999 – Hoyt Axton; 2008 – Tony Hillerman; 2009 – Troy Smith (founded Sonic Drive-In); 2012 – Arnold Greenberg (co-founded Snapple); 2012 – Alan Kirschenbaum

[xoxoxoBruce]

1940 – The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.

And the Socony-Mobil flying horse is born.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

1946 – Holly Woodlawn(Holly came from Miami F.L.A., Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A., Plucked her eyebrows on the way, Shaved her legs and then he was a she, She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side)

didn't know there was any actual truth to those lyrics.

[Undertoad]

It turns out, to all of them:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/sh...ndy-little-joe

[Gravdigr]

The things ya learn in This Day In History.