Words About Worcester

Sunday, February 19

2012-02-19T23:53:00.001Z

1942 - Approximately 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin.
1942 – A book-burning was held and politicians were arrested in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as part of a simulated Nazi invasion.

Friday, February 17

2012-02-17T21:22:00.001Z

1600 – Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, best-known as a proponent of heliocentrism and the infinity of the universe, was burned at the stake as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition.
1859 – The French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress that was manned by 1,000 Nguyễn Dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Vietnam.
1936 - Temperature in McIntosh, South Dakota of -58°F (-50°C), (state record).

Thursday, February 16

2012-02-16T23:17:00.001Z

1918 – The Council of Lithuania signed the Act of Independence of Lithuania, proclaiming the restoration of an independent Lithuania governed by democratic principles. Then Lithuania became part of the Soviet Union, before regaining independence.
1946 – The Sikorsky S-51, the first helicopter to be built for civilian instead of military use, made its first flight.
1972 – Miners' strike means many homes and businesses in Great Britain will be without electricity for up to nine hours a day from today, the Central Electricity Generating Board has announced.

Wednesday, February 15

2012-02-16T00:07:00.001Z

1493 – Christopher Columbus wrote an open letter describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World, which was widely distributed upon his return to Portugal.
1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
2005 – Three former PayPal employees launched the popular website YouTube, where individuals and companies can upload, view and share videos.

Monday, February 13

2012-02-13T18:20:00.001Z

1692 – The Glencoe Massacre took place in the Scottish Highlands, when about 78 MacDonalds were murdered by their traditional enemies, the Campbells.
1867 – Work began on the covering of the Senne, burying the polluted main waterway in Brussels to allow urban renewal in the centre of the city.
1981 – Sewer explosions caused by the ignition of hexane vapors destroyed more than two miles (3 km) of streets in Louisville, Kentucky, US.

Sunday, February 12

2012-02-12T13:21:00.001Z

1818 – On the first anniversary of its victory in the Battle of Chacabuco, Chile formally declared its independence from Spain.
1870 – Women in the Utah Territory gained the right to vote.
1935 – The USS Macon, one of the two largest helium-filled airships ever created, crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and sank.

Saturday, February 11

2012-02-12T13:20:00.001Z

1826 – University College London was founded as the first secular university in England.
1990 – Anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, was released from Victor Verster Prison near Paarl, South Africa.

Friday, February 10

2012-02-10T23:38:00.001Z

1862 – American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroyed the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina.
1906 – The Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought was launched, representing such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships.

Thursday, February 9

2012-02-09T23:50:00.001Z

1913 – A group of meteors was visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude that the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.
1942 – Daylight-saving "war time" went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward.
1971 – A 6.6 Mw earthquake struck the northern San Fernando Valley near the Los Angeles district of Sylmar, killing 65 people.

Wednesday, February 8

2012-02-09T23:47:00.001Z

1915 – Film director D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation was released, becoming one of the most influential and controversial films in the history of American cinema.
2010 – A freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggered a series of at least 36 avalanches that buried over two miles (3.2 km) of road, killed at least 172 people and trapped over 2,000 travellers.

Tuesday, February 7

2012-02-07T15:09:00.001Z

1904 – The Great Baltimore Fire in Maryland began, and would destroy over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
1907 – More than 3,000 women in London participated in the Mud March, the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, seeking women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.

Monday, February 6

2012-02-06T23:30:00.001Z

1819 – British official Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor, establishing Singapore as a trading post for the British East India Company.
1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.
1952 – Elizabeth II ascended to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth countries upon the death of her father, George VI.

Sunday, February 5

2012-02-05T23:42:00.001Z

1869 – Prospectors in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, discovered the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found, known as the "Welcome Stranger".
1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".
1982 – Pioneering budget airliner Laker Airways collapses owing £270 million to banks and other creditors.

Saturday, February 4

2012-02-04T16:11:00.001Z

1899 – The Philippine–American War opened when an American soldier, under orders to keep insurgents away from his unit's encampment, fired upon a Filipino soldier in Manila.
1957 - Smith-Corona Manufacturing Inc., of New York, began selling portable electric typewriters. The first machine weighed 19 pounds.

Friday, February 3

2012-02-03T21:50:00.001Z

1690 - The first paper money in America was issued by the Massachusetts colony. The currency was used to pay soldiers that were fighting in the war against Quebec.
1947 – Snag, Yukon records the lowest temperature for North America of −63C (−81.4F).

Thursday, February 2

2012-02-02T22:07:00.001Z

1207 – Terra Mariana, comprising present-day Estonia and Latvia, was established as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire.
1848 – The Mexican–American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave 1.36 million square kilometres (530,000 sq mi) of Mexican territory known as the Mexican Cession to the United States in exchange for US$15 million.
1887 – Punxsutawney, Pa., held its first Groundhog Day festival.

I wouldn’t know about ground hogs, but temperature has been too close to freezing for me to want to be out and about.

Wednesday, February 1

2012-02-02T22:02:00.001Z

1327 – Fourteen-year old Edward III became King of England, but the country was ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
1942 – Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States federal government, began broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers during World War II.
1968 – The Government of Canada merged the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and the Royal Canadian Air Force into a unified structure, the Canadian Forces.

Tuesday, January 31

2012-01-31T15:06:00.001Z

1606 – Guy Fawkes, convicted for his part in the Gunpowder Plot against the English Parliament and King James I, was executed.
1919 – Intense rioting over labour conditions broke out in Glasgow, Scotland, and was only quelled when the British government sent tanks to restore order.
1996 – Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake discovered Comet Hyakutake, which was one of the closest comet approaches of the previous 200 years.

Monday, January 30

2012-01-30T20:04:00.001Z

1826 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.
1930 – Soviet meteorologist Pavel Molchanov launched one of the world's first radiosondes, a device attached to weather balloons to measure various atmospheric parameters.
1959 – On the return leg of her maiden voyage, the "unsinkable" Danish ocean liner Hans Hedtoft struck an iceberg and sank with all 95 passengers and crew lost.

Sunday, January 29

2012-01-29T20:51:00.001Z

Constitution Day in Gibraltar

1886 – German engine designer and engineer Karl Benz filed a patent for the Motorwagen, the first purpose-built, gasoline-driven automobile.

Saturday, January 28

2012-01-28T21:52:00.001Z

1547 – Henry VIII dies. His nine year old son, Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England.
1788 - The first British penal settlement was founded at Botany Bay.
1887 – In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.
1986 – The American space shuttle Challenger explodes killing all seven astronauts on board.

Friday, January 27

2012-01-27T21:51:00.001Z

447 – An earthquake destroyed large sections of the Walls of Constantinople.
1888 – The National Geographic Society, publisher of National Geographic magazine, was incorporated in Washington, D.C., as "a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge".
1926 – John Logie Baird, gives the first public demonstration of a television system in London.

Thursday, January 26

2012-01-26T22:21:00.001Z

Australia Day (1788)

1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Commemorated as Australia Day.
1841 – Commodore Sir James Bremer raised the Union Jack at Possession Point and formally claimed Hong Kong as a colony for the British Empire.
1907 – The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III, the second oldest military rifle still in official use, was introduced into British military service.

Wednesday, January 25

2012-01-26T22:19:00.001Z

Burns Night

1971 – General Idi Amin seizes power while President Milton Obote was attending a Commonwealth Conference in Singapore.
1990 – The Burns' Day storm hits northwestern Europe. The storm was responsible for 97 deaths.

Tuesday, January 24

2012-01-25T00:01:00.001Z

1848 – James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, leading to the California Gold Rush.
1900 – Second Boer War: Boer forces stopped a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
1972 – Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.

Monday, January 23

2012-01-23T17:03:00.001Z

Lunar New Year (Chinese calendar, 2012)

1570 – James Hamilton shot and killed James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, in the first recorded assassination using a firearm.
1719 – Emperor Charles VI established Liechtenstein, the only principality in the Holy Roman Empire still remaining today.
1849 – English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.

Sunday, January 22

2012-01-22T23:49:00.001Z

1689 – The Convention Parliament convened to justify the overthrow of James II, the last Roman Catholic king of England, who had vacated the throne when he fled to France in 1688.
1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial.

Saturday, January 21

2012-01-22T00:04:00.001Z

1853 - Dr. Russell L. Hawes patented the envelope folding machine.
1864 – The Tauranga Campaign begins during the Maori Wars.
1887 – 465 millimetres (18.3 in) of rain falls in Brisbane, a record for any Australian capital city.
1931 – Sir Isaac Isaacs became the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
1976 – The First Concordes with commercial passengers take off From London's Heathrow Airport to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf and Paris Orly Airport to Rio de Janeiro .

Friday, January 20

2012-01-20T21:47:00.001Z

1788 – The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides that Botany Bay is unsuitable for the location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson.

Thursday, January 19

2012-01-19T22:48:00.001Z

1764 – English radical and politician John Wilkes was expelled from the British Parliament and declared an outlaw for seditious libel.
1788 – The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay, Australia.
1977 – Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snow has fallen. It also fell in the Bahamas.

Wednesday, January 18

2012-01-19T00:02:00.001Z

1884 – Welsh physician William Price was arrested for attempting to cremate his deceased infant son; he was acquitted in the subsequent trial, which led to the legalisation of cremation in the United Kingdom.
1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opened in Versailles, France, to set the peace terms for the Central Powers.

Tuesday, January 17

2012-01-18T00:13:00.001Z

1871 – Andrew Smith Hallidie of San Francisco, California received a patent for a cable car system.
1893 – The Citizens' Committee of Public Safety led by Lorrin A. Thurston overthrew the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
1983 – The BBC begins a breakfast time news programme.

Monday, January 16

2012-01-16T23:37:00.001Z

1938 – Benny Goodman performed a concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall which has been considered instrumental in establishing jazz as a legitimate form of music.

Sunday, January 15

2012-01-16T00:12:00.001Z

1559 – England's Queen Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
1759 – The British Museum in London, today containing one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the world, opened to the public in Montagu House, Bloomsbury.
2001 – Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

Saturday, January 14

2012-01-15T00:06:00.001Z

New Year (Julian calendar)

1939 – Norway claimed Queen Maud Land in Antarctica as a dependent territory.
1960 – The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank and banknote-issuing authority, was established.

Friday, January 13

2012-01-13T21:10:00.001Z

1968 – American singer Johnny Cash recorded his landmark album At Folsom Prison live at the Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California.
2001 – The first of two large earthquakes struck El Salvador, killing at least 944 people and destroying over 100,000 homes.

Longest Serving Beefeater Retires

The second longest serving Beefeater in history will retire at the end of this month. Chief Yeoman Warder John Keohane has spent 20 years in service at the Tower of London following an Army career that began in 1964.

Video

Thursday, January 12

2012-01-13T00:33:00.001Z

1777 – Mission Santa Clara de Asís, a Spanish mission that formed the basis of both the city of Santa Clara, California, and the University of Santa Clara, was established.
1945 – World War II: The Soviet Union's Red Army crossed the Vistula River in Poland on their way to invade Germany.

Wednesday, January 11

2012-01-11T14:52:00.001Z

1693 – An intensity XI earthquake, the most powerful in Italian history, struck the island of Sicily.
1986 – The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, at the time the longest prestressed concrete free-cantilever bridge in the world, opened.

From the archives

100 Years Ago: On Sunday, the gale caused great havoc at Malvern, trees being blown down, roofs stripped and pedestrians thrown to the ground by the force of the hurricane. But far worse was the distressing tragedy which befell Arthur Cadbury, the 10-year-old son of Mr and Mrs Richard Cadbury of Rose Hill, Worcester. He was killed through the fall of a brick wall, 30ft long by 12ft high at the back of the Grosvenor Hotel, Malvern, and opposite the Friends Meeting House. He was a pupil of flic Downs School, Colwall and, accompanied by his principal and school fellows, had attended Sunday morning service at the Friends Meeting House. He happened to be the last pupil in the file as the wall fell with a fearful crash, burying him beneath the debris and inflicting shocking injuries from which he died within a few minutes. If the wall had fallen a few seconds earlier, there must have been many victims. (Richard Cadbury was the son of one of the two Cadbury brothers who founded the world-famous chocolate company at Bournville. Richard was a local benefactor in Worcester).

150 Years Ago: Daring Robbery - On Monday night last, the shop of Mrs Mason, watchmaker and jeweller in St Swithin's Street was burglariously entered and watches to the value of between £200 and £250 stolen. An entry was effected into the shop by taking out some bricks in the wall and making a hole large enough for a boy or small man to pass through. The burglar was evidently well acquainted with the premises as the hole in the wall was made in the only place where no impediment was offered to an entrance by the shop furniture. The watches, 40 in number, nine gold and 31 silver, were removed from two drawers in the shop counter. So quietly was the whole affair conducted that a shop-man whose bedroom is situated just over the passage, states that he heard no noise, although he was awake for many hours during the night on account of illness. A reward for the apprehension of the thieves has been offered but up to the present time no traces of the burglars have been discovered.

From the Berrow's Worcester Journal

Tuesday, January 10

2012-01-10T15:10:00.001Z

1840 - The penny post, whereby mail was delivered at a standard charge rather than paid for by the recipient, began in Britain.
1901 – The first great gusher of the Texas Oil Boom was discovered in the Spindletop oil field near Beaumont, Texas, US.
1949 - Vinyl records were introduced by RCA (45 rpm) and Columbia (33.3 rpm).

Monday, January 9

2012-01-09T22:24:00.001Z

1839 – The French Academy of Sciences announced the daguerreotype photographic process, named after its inventor, French artist and chemist Louis Daguerre.
1894 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
1997 – The lone yachtsman, Tony Bullimore, feared drowned after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean five days ago, has been found safe and well.

Sunday, January 8

2012-01-08T13:29:00.001Z

1297 – Francesco Grimaldi led his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco.

1746 – During the Second Jacobite Rising, Bonnie Prince Charlie occupied the town of Stirling, Scotland, but failed to capture its castle.

1886 - The Severn Railway Tunnel was opened, it was Britain's longest until 2007.

Saturday, January 7

2012-01-08T13:26:00.001Z

1558 – France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.

Friday, January 6

2012-01-06T23:09:00.001Z

1838 – Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail successfully tested the electrical telegraph for the first time at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey.
1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presented his theory of continental drift.
1974 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.

Thursday, January 5

2012-01-05T22:12:00.001Z

1757 – Louis XV of France survived an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, who later became the last person to be executed in the country by drawing and quartering.
1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
1933 – Work is started on The Golden Gate Bridge across the San Francisco Bay.

Wednesday, January 4

2012-01-05T22:11:00.001Z

1642 – King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war.

Tuesday, January 3

2012-01-03T15:22:00.001Z

1888 – The 91 cm refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California, at the time the largest telescope in the world, was used for the first time.
1911 – A 7.7 Mw earthquake destroyed the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.

Monday, January 2

2012-01-02T19:15:00.001Z

1941 – Second World War: The Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales, was severely damaged by German bombing during the Cardiff Blitz.
1971 – At Ibrox Park in Glasgow, Scotland, 66 people were killed in a stampede during an Old Firm football match.

Sunday, January 1

2012-01-02T00:02:00.001Z

New Year's Day

1801 – The Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain merged to form the United Kingdom, adding Saint Patrick's Saltire to the Union Flag.
1810 – Lachlan Macquarie became Governor of New South Wales, eventually playing a major role in the shaping of the social, economic and architectural development of the colony in Australia.
1939 – Sydney, Australia, swelters in 45C (113F) heat, a record for the city.
1983 – The ARPANET changed its core networking protocols from NCP to TCP/IP, marking the beginning of the Internet as we know it today.

2012

2012-01-01T00:08:00.001Z

Best wishes to everyone for the New Year

Saturday, December 31

2011-12-31T23:54:00.001Z

New Year's Eve (Gregorian calendar)

1695 – A window tax is imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.
1759 – Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum to the St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin and began brewing Guinness.

Friday, December 30

2011-12-30T20:36:00.001Z

1924 – Astronomer Edwin Hubble announced that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe.
1947 – Michael, King of Romania, was forced to abdicate by the country's communist government.

Thursday, December 29

2011-12-29T22:51:00.001Z

1835 – The United States signed the Treaty of New Echota with leaders of a minority Cherokee faction, which became the legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears.
1937 – The Constitution of Ireland, the founding legal document of the state known today as the Republic of Ireland, came into force.
2011 – Samoa and Tokelau are set to skip a day and jump to the other side of the international dateline on 29 December to align with trade partners Australia and New Zealand.

Wednesday, December 28

2011-12-29T22:48:00.001Z

1867 – United States claims Midway Atoll, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.
1879 – The Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.

Tuesday, December 27

2011-12-27T12:46:00.001Z

1947 – Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast USA. Burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours.
1978 – The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in the South Pole recorded temperatures of 7.5F (−13.6C), making it the highest temperature to ever be recorded in the South Pole.

Monday, December 26

2011-12-27T12:45:00.001Z

1135 – Coronation of King Stephen of England.
2004 – Thousands die in Asian tsunami.

Sunday, December 25

2011-12-25T19:03:00.001Z

Christmas Day

1066 – William the Conqueror is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
1643 – Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean was found and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Company vessel, the Royal Mary.
1950 – The Stone of Scone, the traditional coronation stone of Scottish, English, and more recently British monarchs, was stolen from London's Westminster Abbey.

Saturday, December 24

2011-12-25T19:00:00.001Z

1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
1955 – NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.

Friday, December 23

2011-12-23T22:06:00.001Z

1823 – A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known as The Night Before Christmas, is published anonymously.
1834 – Architect Joseph Aloysius Hansom patented his Patent Safety Cab on this day. The 2-wheeled, horse-driven vehicle with the driver seated above and behind the passengers, known as the hansom cab.
1986 – Piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the Rutan Voyager became the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, landing in California's Edwards Air Force Base after a nine-day trip.

Thursday, December 22

2011-12-22T21:17:00.001Z

December Solstice (05:30 UTC, 2011)

1974 – Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli voted to become the independent nation of the Comoros.
1989 – The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin has been opened for the first time in almost three decades. Thousands of German people flooded through from either side of the city.

Wednesday, December 21

2011-12-22T21:16:00.001Z

1620 – The Mayflower Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, establishing the Plymouth Colony.
1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-animated feature in film history, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles.

Tuesday, December 20

2011-12-21T00:31:00.001Z

1981 – A desperate search took place for eight members of RNLI Penlee life boat crew missing off the Cornish coast. The rescue attempt was taking place in winds coming from the south east at hurricane force 12, gusting to 90 knots and the sea reaching 60ft high. The crews of the lifeboat and the ship in distress were lost and some bodies were never recovered.
1999 – Portugal transferred sovereignty of Macau to China.

Monday, December 19

2011-12-19T17:50:00.001Z

1843 – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a novella about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his conversion after being visited by three Christmas ghosts, was first published.
1932 - The British Broadcasting Corporation began transmitting overseas with its "Empire Service" to Australia.

Saturday, December 17

2011-12-17T12:56:00.001Z

1862 – American Civil War: Union General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
1918 – About 1,000 demonstrators marched on Government House in Darwin, Australia, where they burnt an effigy of Administrator John Gilruth and demanded his resignation.
1970 – Soldiers fired at workers emerging from trains in Gdynia, Poland, beginning the government's brutal crackdown on mass anti-communist protests across the country.

Friday, December 16

2011-12-16T22:20:00.001Z

1707 – The last recorded eruption of Japan's Mount Fuji.
1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes struck the Midwestern United States and made the Mississippi River appear to run backward.
1977 – The Queen unveils the new underground link from central London to Heathrow - the first from a capital city to its major airport.

Thursday, December 15

2011-12-15T22:58:00.001Z

1944 – Bandleader Glenn Miller's U.S. Army plane disappeared over the English Channel while en route to Paris.
1982 – Gibraltar's frontier with Spain was opened to pedestrian use after 13 years.
2005 – The F-22 Raptor, a stealth fighter aircraft that the United States Air Force claimed is unmatched by any known or projected fighter, entered into service despite a protracted and costly development period.

Glenn Miller's music lives on. I have quite a few CDs with his music.

Wednesday, December 14

2011-12-14T15:44:00.001Z

557 – A large earthquake severely damaged the city of Constantinople.
1782 – In Avignon, France, the Montgolfier brothers conducted their first test of their hot air balloon.
2009 – The Tino Rangatiratanga flag representing the Maori people was officially recognized by the government of New Zealand.

Tuesday, December 13

2011-12-14T00:04:00.001Z

1643 – First English Civil War: Parliamentary forces serving under Sir William Waller led a successful surprise attack on a winter garrison of Royalist infantry and cavalry.
1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces captured Nanjing in China and then began to commit numerous atrocities over the next several weeks.
1981 – Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law, suspended Solidarity and imprisoned many union leaders.

Drive safely?

Police officer takes wrong turn and drives car up utility pole.
Makes me wonder about the safety of other road users if there are pole support wires on the roadside.
Video:

Monday, December 12

2011-12-12T23:51:00.001Z

1915 – President Yuan Shikai of the Republic of China reinstated the monarchy and declared himself Emperor.
1918 – The Flag of Estonia was raised for the first time atop the Pikk Hermann in Tallinn.
1988 – Up to 35 people die and 100 others are injured after three trains are involved in a collision during morning rush hour in south London.

Sunday, December 11

2011-12-11T13:31:00.001Z

1886 – The London-based football club Arsenal, then known as Dial Square, played their first match on the Isle of Dogs.
1907 – The New Zealand Parliament Buildings are almost completely destroyed by fire
2005 – A demonstration by Australians in Cronulla, New South Wales, against recent violence towards locals turned into a race riot.

Saturday, December 10

2011-12-10T16:07:00.001Z

1799 – France became the first country to adopt the metric system as its system for weights and measures.
1884 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by American author Mark Twain was first published in the United Kingdom and Canada.
1911 – Calbraith Rodgers completed the first transcontinental flight across the United States.

Friday, December 9

2011-12-10T00:08:00.001Z

1793 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
1952 – The sunshine returns to London following four days of thick fog that brought the capital to a standstill.
1968 – The NLS, a computer collaboration system that was the first to employ the practical use of hypertext, the computer mouse, and other modern computing concepts, was publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.

Noah Webster was also responsible for a dictionary compilation.

Thursday, December 8

2011-12-08T23:41:00.001Z

1912 – Leaders of the German Empire held an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out.
1991 – Leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine signed the Belavezha Accords, agreeing to dissolve the Soviet Union and establish the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Tuesday, December 6

2011-12-06T13:58:00.001Z

1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed and then came into force exactly one year later, establishing the Irish Free State, the first independent Irish state to be recognised by the British government.
1983 – The first heart and lung transplant operation to be performed in Britain was successfully carried out today, at the specialist heart unit, Harefield Hospital, in north London,

Monday, December 5

2011-12-05T21:35:00.001Z

St Nicholas's Eve in various European countries

1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issued the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, giving Dominican Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer explicit authority to prosecute witchcraft in Germany.
1945 – Flight 19, a squadron of five U.S. naval TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, disappeared in the area now known as the Bermuda Triangle.
1952 – The "Great Smog" began in London and lasted for five days, causing 12,000 deaths and leading to the Clean Air Act 1956.

Sunday, December 4

2011-12-04T15:11:00.001Z

1639 – English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks made the first observation of a transit of Venus.
1791 – The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
1872 – Crew from the Dei Gratia, a small British brig spot the Mary Celeste, at full sail near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was seaworthy, its stores and supplies were untouched, but not a soul was onboard.

Saturday, December 3

2011-12-04T15:10:00.001Z

1854 – Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 gold miners at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.
1967 – At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky).

Friday, December 2

2011-12-02T13:28:00.001Z

1804 – Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.
1943 – World War II: The Luftwaffe conducted a surprise air raid on Allied ships in Bari, Italy, sinking 18 ships and releasing one ship's secret cargo of mustard gas.
1999 – The United Kingdom devolved political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.

Thursday, December 1

2011-12-01T22:14:00.001Z

1913 – Ford Motor Company began operating the world's first moving assembly line for the mass production of automobiles.
1955 – In a key event in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1990 - British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel finally met under the English Channel.

Wednesday, November 30

2011-11-30T16:18:00.001Z

1829 – The first Welland Canal opened, allowing ships to travel between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and bypass the Niagara Falls.
1947 – As the United Nations voted to terminate the British Mandate of Palestine, civil war broke out between the region's Jewish and Arab communities.
2005 – John Sentamu was enthroned as Archbishop of York, becoming the first member of an ethnic minority to serve as an archbishop in the Church of England.

Monday, November 28

2011-11-28T19:40:00.001Z

1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license.
1895 – The first automobile race in the United States, the Chicago Times-Herald race, was held in Chicago.

William Shakespeare

The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence. At the time Stratford was in the Diocese of Worcester, the details are held in the diocese archives.

Sunday, November 27

2011-11-27T13:25:00.001Z

1815 – As specified by the Congress of Vienna, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland was signed for the newly recreated Polish state that was under Russian control.
2001 – The Hubble Space Telescope detected sodium in the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD 209458b, the first planetary atmosphere outside our solar system to be measured.

Saturday, November 26

2011-11-27T13:23:00.001Z

1805 – The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the longest and highest aqueduct in Great Britain, opened.

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Friday, November 25

2011-11-25T23:53:00.001Z

1952 – Agatha Christie's mystery play The Mousetrap, the play with the longest initial run in history, opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London.

What Are You Grateful For?

Comment from New York Times web site Learning Network:

I am gratefull for waking up everyday, to just be alive. i am gratefull for My friends and my family, having food to eat, the few thingss I own personally, and ending the day by tucking myself in a nice warm beds and letting ‘today” become a memory.

— Brandon T

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Thursday, November 24:

2011-11-24T17:12:00.001Z

Thanksgiving (United States) (2011)

1542 – Anglo-Scottish Wars: England captured about 1,200 Scottish prisoners with its victory in the Battle of Solway Moss.
1859 – On the Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
1906 – A local newspaper accused members of two teams of conspiring to deliberately lose games, the first major scandal in American football.

Wednesday, November 23

2011-11-23T15:55:00.001Z

St George's Day in Georgia

1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden encountered a garrison of Somalis in Italian service at Walwal, which led to the Abyssinia Crisis.
2005 – Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was declared the winner of the Liberian general election, making her the first democratically elected female head of state of an African country.

Tuesday, November 22

2011-11-22T13:01:00.001Z

1869 – In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched – one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving today.
1928 – Boléro, Maurice Ravel's most famous musical composition, made its debut at the Paris Opéra.
1963 – In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.

Monday, November 21

2011-11-21T21:11:00.001Z

1969 – The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.
1977 – "God Defend New Zealand" became New Zealand's second national anthem, on equal standing with "God Save the Queen", which had been the traditional one since 1840.

The initial ARPANET consisted of four sites: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Stanford Research Institute; University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and University of Utah. The system evolved into the Internet system we have now.

Sunday, November 20

2011-11-20T13:08:00.001Z

1902 – While discussing how to promote the newspaper L'Auto, sports journalist Henri Desgrange came up with the idea of holding a cycling race that later became known as the Tour de France.
1917 – First World War: The Battle of Cambrai in France began with British forces having initial success over Germany's Hindenburg Line.
1992 – In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage.

Friday, November 18

2011-11-18T16:09:00.001Z

1883 – The United States and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones.
1928 – Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, the first completely post-produced synchronized sound animated cartoon, was released.
1943 – Second World War: The Royal Air Force began its bombing campaign against Berlin.
1987 – Twenty seven people are dead after a fire at King's Cross station in central London.

Thursday, November 17

2011-11-17T17:14:00.001Z

1292 – John Balliol was chosen to be King of Scots over Robert de Brus.
1869 – The Suez Canal opened, allowing shipping to travel between Europe and Asia via the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
1950 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was enthroned as Tibet's head of state at the age of fifteen.

Wednesday, November 16

2011-11-16T16:23:00.001Z

1776 – American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian units captured Fort Washington from the Patriots.
1944 – World War II: Operation Queen commenced in Düren, Germany, with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombing attacks of the war.
1959 – The Sound of Music, a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein based on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

Tuesday, November 15

2011-11-15T14:46:00.001Z

655 – Penda of Mercia was defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria at the Battle of the Winwaed in modern-day Yorkshire, England.
1859 – Sponsored by businessman Evangelos Zappas, the first modern revival of the Olympic Games took place in Athens, Greece.
1926 – In the United States the National Broadcasting Co. debuted with a radio network of 24 stations.

Monday, November 14

2011-11-14T20:02:00.001Z

1910 – Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performed the first takeoff from a ship, flying from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in Hampton Roads, Virginia, US.
1940 – Second World War: Coventry Cathedral and much of the city centre of Coventry, England, were destroyed by the German Luftwaffe during the Coventry Blitz.
1990 – Germany and Poland signed the German–Polish Border Treaty, confirming their border at the Oder-Neisse line, which was originally defined by the Potsdam Agreement in 1945.

Sunday, November 13

2011-11-13T23:35:00.001Z

Remembrance Sunday

1002 – St. Brice's Day massacre: King Ethelred II ordered the massacre of all Danes in England.
1927 – The Holland Tunnel, connecting New York City's Manhattan with Jersey City, New Jersey, under the Hudson River, opened.
1970 – The Bhola tropical cyclone hit the densely populated Ganges Delta in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people.

Saturday, November 12

2011-11-13T23:30:00.001Z

1439 – Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.
1990 – Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

Friday, November 11

2011-11-11T11:54:00.001Z

Armistice Day in Europe
Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth
Veterans Day in the United States

1620 – The Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the Plymouth Colony, was signed by 41 of the Mayflower's passengers while the ship was anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor.
1918 – The armistice treaty between the German Empire and the Allies was signed in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne of France.

At 11.00a.m. in the United Kingdom two minutes silence was observed in memory of those killed during the many conflicts since the first World War.

Thursday, November 10

2011-11-10T23:56:00.001Z

1898 – White supremacists seized power in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in United States history.
1951 – Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, N.J., called his counterpart in Alameda, Calif.
1958 – Merchant Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond, the "most famous diamond in the world", to the Smithsonian Institution.

Wednesday, November 9

2011-11-09T15:41:00.001Z

1867 – Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun of Japan, tendered his resignation to the Emperor Meiji.
1913 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people.
1965 – An electricity blackout occurred which affected several states in New England and parts of Canada lasting up to 13 hours.

Tuesday, November 8

2011-11-08T18:20:00.001Z

1576 – The provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands signed the Pacification of Ghent, to make peace with the rebelling provinces Holland and Zeeland, and also to form an alliance to drive the occupying Spanish out of the country.
1895 – German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range that is known today as X-ray (example pictured).

Monday, November 7

2011-11-07T14:05:00.001Z

1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language newspaper, was first published as the Oxford Gazette.

1885 – Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first transcontinental railroad across Canada, concluded with the driving of the "last spike" in Craigellachie, British Columbia.

1940 – Four months after the bridge's completion, the middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge across the Tacoma Narrows in the U.S. state of Washington collapsed in a windstorm.

Week two without power

Tens of thousands of Connecticut residents awoke Monday as part of an unenviable fraternity: people entering their second week without power after an early-season storm that hammered the Northeast with wet, heavy snow. In Massachusetts, 100 customers remained without power.

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