[Lensky1917]

Inspired by HiFo's "Today In History" thread, what important historical things have occured on the date of your joining?

My date of "December 22, nothing notable appears to have happened in the year I joined except for the death of some Filipino writer, Adrian Cristobal. It is acceptable to post events from other years, but you don't need to post everything. Just the interesting stuff.

69 – Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered at the Gemonian stairs in Rome.

Apparently nothing else happens over the course of 1700 years.

1769 – Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769) ends with an uneasy truce.

1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).

1809 – The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, is passed by the U.S. Congress.

This isn't nearly as interesting as it sounds.

1851 – The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.

This is for you, Joe Biden.

1864 – Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".

1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.

1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge – German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"

1944 – World War II: The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.

1989 – After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.

2001 – Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.

Stupid asshole.

[Lightman]

August 9th - Bombing of Nagasaki.

[Lensky1917]

August 9th - Bombing of Nagasaki.

It says you joined August 10th. You already ruined the thread.

[Lightman]

In my timezone I joined August 9th.

[Lensky1917]

In my timezone I joined August 9th.

So? The only timezone that is important is PoFo's! There are no other timezones, they are on the moon!

[franfran]

Apparently I joined the forum on Groundhog Day (February 2). I don't know if I should read anything into that......

506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgates The Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum) a collection of Roman law.
962 – Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years.
1032 – Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor becomes King of Burgundy.
1207 – Terra Mariana, comprising present-day Estonia and Latvia, is established.
1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England.
1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1542 – Portuguese under Christovão da Gama capture a Muslim-occupied hill fort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente.
1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
1812 – Russia establishes a fur trading colony at Fort Ross, California.
1848 – Mexican-American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.
1848 – California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese immigrants arrives in San Francisco, California.
1876 – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.
1899 – The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.
1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.
1913 – Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.
1920 – The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.
1920 – France occupies Memel.
1922 – Ulysses by James Joyce is published.
1925 – Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race.
1925 – The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
1934 – The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.
1935 – Leonarde Keeler tests the first polygraph machine.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to conclusion as Soviet troops accept the surrender of 91,000 remnants of the Axis forces.
1946 – The Hungarian Republic is proclaimed.
1957 – Iskander Mirza of Pakistan lays the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage.
1966 – Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.
1972 – The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest at Bloody Sunday.
1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time.
1976 – The Groundhog Day gale hits the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada.
1980 – Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation.
1982 – Hama Massacre: Syria attacks the town of Hama.
1987 – After the 1986 People Power Revolution the Philippines enacts a new constitution.
1989 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.
1990 – Apartheid: F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to function legally and promises to release Nelson Mandela.

[Fasces]

1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew performs the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and become the first humans to leave Earth's gravity.

1804 – Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1881)

[Quantum]

1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space centre in Florida. The crew performs the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and become the first humans to leave Earth's gravity.

1804 – Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1881)

[Diligent]

1399 – Henry IV is proclaimed King of England.
1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre and Jérôme Pétion as "incorruptible patriots".
1901 – Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner.
1947 – The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time.
1955 – Film star James Dean dies in a road accident aged 24.
1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area. Seven are killed in all.
2005 – The controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

[The Immortal Goon]

EU leaders meet in Brussels to try to agree on the draft European constitution amid the showing of popular discontent with national governments in the recent European Parliament election. (BBC) (Guardian)

The US's 9/11 Commission states that although meetings between al Qaeda representatives and Iraqi government officials had taken place, it has found "no credible evidence" of a "collaborative relationship" between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks or in any other strike against U.S. interests. It also finds that the original plan involved ten jets and that there was dispute within the terrorist network about its implementation until only shortly before September 11. (Washington Post) (AP) (BBC)

Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr calls upon members of his Mahdi Army to return to their homes and end their attacks. (NYT)

The trial begins of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian oil tycoon on charges of tax evasion and fraud; the proceedings are later adjourned. (VOA) (BBC)

25 people die and 100 hurt in a train derailment on the Konkan Railway in India, near the western city of Mumbai. (Times of India)

Jiang Yanyong's wife, Hua Zhongwei, is reported to have been freed from detention incommunicado in China and returned to the couple's Beijing home. (Reuters)

The Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, a group of 27 retired U.S. diplomats and military officers, publishes an open letter that states that U.S. President George W. Bush has so harmed international relations that only a new leader can repair them. (BBC) (Newsweek) (CNN)

A computer virus capable of infecting cellphones running the Symbian OS with Bluetooth capabilities, "Cabir", has been developed by software experts. (Forbes) (BBC) (Reuters)

The Bloomsday centennial is commemorated in Dublin and around the world. (IHT) (Reuters UK)

The Hong Kong securities-industry watchdog obtained a court order freezing all assets belonging to hedge fund manager Charles Schmitt, or his fund of funds, CSA Absolute Return. Mr. Schmitt himself is in the custody of Hong Kong authorities on suspicions that he's misappropriated investor funds. (TheStreet.com)

[QatzelOk]

Feb 24

1582 – Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.

It's telling that he named it after himself.

The old calendar was probably a lot better.

[Fasces]

Nope.

[Paradigm]

February 21:

1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
1972 – President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.

[dudekebm]

July 9:

In 1877, the first Wimbledon tournament begins. In 1956, Dick Clark makes his first appearance on American Bandstand. In 1982, Margaret Thatcher begins her second term as Prime Minister of the UK. And in 1997, Mike Tyson gets banned from Boxing for biting off Holyfield's ear.

[Melodramatic]

May 7th:

1429 – Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning, wounded, to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.

1945 – World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.

1992 – Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada.

[Prosthetic Conscience]

August 2nd

Military:

338 BC – A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean.
216 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army under command of consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro.
1377 – Russian troops are defeated in the Battle on Pyana River because of drunkenness.

1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: the Battle of the Nile concludes in a British victory.
1964 – Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin Incident – North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy.
1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

Political:

1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.

What took them so long?

1869 – Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869).
1903 – Fall of the Ottoman Empire: an unsuccessful uprising led by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization against Ottoman Turkey, also known as the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, takes place.

Science:

1932 – The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.

[Cartertonian]

4 April 1968 : Martin Luther King is assassinated

Oops.

[Varilion]

15 may...

1648 – The Treaty of Westphalia signed.
1792 – War of the First Coalition: France declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia.
1796 – First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan* in triumph.

*BTW, That's where i live :P