This day in history actually had some fascinating events take place through the course of history! There was the founding of the modern city of Montreal. Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles. The revolt against the French in Haiti began. The first ever postage stamp, the Penny Black, was issued in the United Kingdom. The first ever American railroad disaster with major fatalities occurred. Jefferson Davis approved a bill recognizing war between the newly formed Confederate States, and the United States. An act ceasing Chinese immigration was passed. The Eiffel Tower was completed, and the Universal Exposition in Paris opened on this day. Germany lost all overseas colonies on this day in the Paris Peace Treaty following defeat in the so-called Great War. Stalin became the premier of the Soviet Union. JFK received the Pulitzer Prize, and Eisenhower signed a Civil Rights bill into law. South Africa first got involved in the Angolan civil war. Some years later, back in South Africa, President PW Botha quit the ruling National Party. Scotland voted the first separatist government in three centuries.
Some pretty fascinating stuff, and you can find it all at this website, or simply scroll down below it to read further:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
May 6, 1994: English Channel tunnel opens
In a ceremony presided over by England's Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterand, a rail tunnel under the English Channel was officially opened, connecting Britain and the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age.
The channel tunnel, or "Chunnel," connects Folkstone, England, with Sangatte, France, 31 miles away. The Chunnel cut travel time between England and France to a swift 35 minutes and eventually between London and Paris to two-and-a-half hours.
As the world's longest undersea tunnel, the Chunnel runs under water for 23 miles, with an average depth of 150 feet below the seabed. Each day, about 30,000 people, 6,000 cars and 3,500 trucks journey through the Chunnel on passenger, shuttle and freight trains.
Millions of tons of earth were moved to build the two rail tunnels--one for northbound and one for southbound traffic--and one service tunnel. Fifteen thousand people were employed at the peak of construction. Ten people were killed during construction.
Napoleon's engineer, Albert Mathieu, planned the first tunnel under the English Channel in 1802, envisioning an underground passage with ventilation chimneys that would stretch above the waves. In 1880, the first real attempt was made by Colonel Beaumont, who bore a tunnel more than a mile long before abandoning the project. Other efforts followed in the 20th century, but none on the scale of the tunnels begun in June 1988.
The Chunnel's $16 billion cost was roughly twice the original estimate, and completion was a year behind schedule. One year into service, Eurotunnel announced a huge loss, one of the biggest in United Kingdom corporate history at the time. A scheme in which banks agreed to swap billions of pounds worth of loans for shares saved the tunnel from going under and it showed its first net profit in 1999.
Freight traffic was suspended for six months after a fire broke out on a lorry in the tunnel in November 1996. Nobody was seriously hurt in the incident.
In 1996, the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
May 6, 1937: The Hindenburg disaster
The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crewmembers.
Frenchman Henri Giffard constructed the first successful airship in 1852. His hydrogen-filled blimp carried a three-horsepower steam engine that turned a large propeller and flew at a speed of six miles per hour. The rigid airship, often known as the "zeppelin" after the last name of its innovator, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was developed by the Germans in the late 19th century. Unlike French airships, the German ships had a light framework of metal girders that protected a gas-filled interior. However, like Giffard's airship, they were lifted by highly flammable hydrogen gas and vulnerable to explosion. Large enough to carry substantial numbers of passengers, one of the most famous rigid airships was the Graf Zeppelin, a dirigible that traveled around the world in 1929. In the 1930s, the Graf Zeppelin pioneered the first transatlantic air service, leading to the construction of the Hindenburg, a larger passenger airship.
On May 3, 1937, the Hindenburg left Frankfurt, Germany, for a journey across the Atlantic to Lakehurst's Navy Air Base. Stretching 804 feet from stern to bow, it carried 36 passengers and crew of 61. While attempting to moor at Lakehurst, the airship suddenly burst into flames, probably after a spark ignited its hydrogen core. Rapidly falling 200 feet to the ground, the hull of the airship incinerated within seconds. Thirteen passengers, 21 crewmen, and 1 civilian member of the ground crew lost their lives, and most of the survivors suffered substantial injuries.
Radio announcer Herb Morrison, who came to Lakehurst to record a routine voice-over for an NBC newsreel, immortalized the Hindenberg disaster in a famous on-the-scene description in which he emotionally declared, "Oh, the humanity!" The recording of Morrison's commentary was immediately flown to New York, where it was aired as part of America's first coast-to-coast radio news broadcast. Lighter-than-air passenger travel rapidly fell out of favor after the Hindenberg disaster, and no rigid airships survived World War II.
May 6, 1992: Gorbachev reviews the Cold War
In an event steeped in symbolism, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev reviews the Cold War in a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri—the site of Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech 46 years before. Gorbachev mixed praise for the end of the Cold War with some pointed criticisms of U.S. policy.
In 1946, Winston Churchill, former prime minister of Britain, spoke at Westminster College and issued what many historians have come to consider the opening volley of the Cold War. Declaring that an "iron curtain" had fallen across Eastern Europe, Churchill challenged both Great Britain and the United States to contain Soviet aggression. Forty-six years later, the Soviet Union had collapsed and Mikhail Gorbachev, who had resigned as president of the Soviet Union in December 1991, stood on the very same campus and reflected on the Cold War.
Gorbachev declared that the end of the Cold War was the "shattering of the vicious circle into which we had driven ourselves" and a "victory for common sense, reason, democracy, and common human values." In addressing the issue of who began the Cold War, Gorbachev admitted that the Soviet Union had made some serious mistakes, but also suggested that the United States and Great Britain shouldered part of the blame. He decried the resulting nuclear arms race, though he made clear that he believed the United States had been the "initiator" of this folly. With the Cold War over, he cautioned the United States to realize the "intellectual, and consequently political error, of interpreting victory in the cold war narrowly as a victory for oneself."
Gorbachev's speech, and particularly the location at which he delivered it, offered a fitting closure to the Cold War, and demonstrated that scholarly debate about those years would continue though the animosity had come to an end.
May 6, 1940: John Steinbeck wins a Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath
On this day in 1940, John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
The book traces the fictional Joad family of Oklahoma as they lose their family farm and move to California in search of a better life. They encounter only more difficulties and a downward slide into poverty. The book combines simple, plain-spoken language and compelling plot with rich description. One of Steinbeck's most effective works of social commentary, the novel also won the National Book Award.
Like The Grapes of Wrath, much of Steinbeck's work dealt with his native state of California. He was born and raised in the Salinas Valley, where his father was a county official and his mother a former schoolteacher. Steinbeck was a good student and president of his senior class in high school. He attended Stanford intermittently between 1920 and 1925, then moved to New York City, where he worked as a manual laborer and a journalist while writing stories and novels. His first two novels were not successful.
He married and moved to Pacific Grove in 1930, where his father gave him a house and a small income while he continued to write. His third novel, Tortilla Flat (1935), was a critical and financial success, as were his subsequent novels In Dubious Battle (1935) and Of Mice and Men (1937), both of which offered social commentaries on injustices of various types. His work after World War II, including Cannery Row and The Pearl, continued to offer social criticism but became more sentimental. Steinbeck tried his hand at movie scripts in the 1940s, writing such successful films as Forgotten Village (1941) and Viva Zapata (1952). He also took up the serious study of marine biology and published a nonfiction book, The Sea of Cortez, in 1941. His book Travels with Charlie describes his trek across the U.S. in a camper truck with his poodle, Charlie, and his encounters with a fragmented America. Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962 and died in New York in 1968.
May 6, 1984: Spinal Tap stages a "comeback" at CBGB's in New York City
Almost 20 years and who knows how many drummers into their unique career in rock, the surviving members of one of England's loudest bands had reached yet another low point in the spring of 1984. Only two years removed from a disastrous 1982 world tour that not only failed to turn the album Smell The Glove into a comeback hit, but also led to the group's breakup, Spinal Tap now had to suffer the indignity of seeing the Marty DiBergi-helmed behind-the-scenes film of that tour gain widespread theatrical release. Would the numerous embarrassments catalogued in the hard-hitting rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap provoke public sympathy for and renewed interest in the band that Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls began back in 1964 as The Originals? Or would the group behind such familiar classic-rock hits as "Give Me Some Money" and "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" be consigned once and for all to obscurity? In this atmosphere of uncertainty, Spinal Tap elected to go back to their roots, kicking off a tour of small American rock clubs with an appearance at New York City's legendary CBGB's on May 6, 1984.
Of course, almost none of the above is true, strictly speaking. A group calling itself Spinal Tap did play CBGB's on this day in 1984, but that group was the fictitious invention of director Rob Reiner and the comic actors Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer—St. Hubbins, Tufnel and Smalls, respectively. Reiner's directorial debut was the aforementioned This Is Spinal Tap, a film that launched the mockumentary mini-genre as well as a thousand catchphrases, from "These go to 11" to "None more black." It was during the film's first week of release that McKean, Guest, Shearer and one of their many doomed drummers played their gig at CBGB's, which one attendee recalls as drawing "every professional musician in the city of New York."
This live appearance by Spinal Tap was the first, but certainly not the last step in an ongoing effort by the McKean et al. to blur the line between fiction and reality. In the years since their live debut, numerous bootleg recordings and early television appearances have "surfaced," and one full-length album—1992's Break Like The Wind—has been released. At last report, Nigel Tufnel was working on a pony farm, David St. Hubbins was producing hip-hop records out of a former colonic clinic and Derek Smalls was in rehab for an Internet addiction. But do not be surprised if one day you encounter a salesman resembling Christopher Guest on a visit to a hat shop, or if next year's lineup of Broadway openings includes the long-awaited St. Hubbins rock opera, Saucy Jack.
1312 - Pope Clement V closes Council of Vienna
1527 - Spanish and German Imperial troops sack Rome; ending Renaissance
1529 - Battle at Gogra or Ghagra in India: Mogol emperor Babur defeats Afghans and Bengals
1536 - King Henry VIII, orders bible be placed in every church
1542 - Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.
1576 - The peace treaty of Chastenoy ended the fifth war of religion.
1598 - Arch duke Albrecht & Isabella become monarch of Southern Netherlands
1604 - Leon VII Spanish poet's first poem is published: La Cocina.
1626 - Dutch colonist Peter Minuit buys Manhattan Island from local Indians for 60 guilders worth of trinkets
1642 - Ville Marie (Montreal) forms
1644 - Johan Mauritius resigns as governor of Brazil
1648 - Battle at Zolty Wody-Bohdan Chmielricki's Cossaks beat John II Casimir
1672 - Brandenburgs monarch Frederik Willem signs treaty with Netherlands
1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
1733 - First international boxing match: Bob Whittaker beats Tito di Carni
1753 - French King Louis XV observes transit of Mercury at Mendon Castle
1757 - Battle at Prague: Frederik II of Prussia beats emperor army
1787 - 1st Black Masonic Lodge (African # 459) forms Prince Hall, Boston
1794 - Haiti, under Toussaint L'Ouverture, revolts against France
1804 - Suriname sold to English (until Feb, 1816)
1833 - John Deere makes 1st steel plow
1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald (price 1 cent).
1840 - First adhesive postage stamps (Penny Black) were issued (Great Britain)
1844 - Johan Thorbecke argue general right to vote
1848 - Otto Tank ends slavery in Suriname colony
1851 - Dr John Gorrie patents a "refrigeration machine"
1851 - Linus Yale patents the Yale clock-type lock
1851 - New slave regulations go into effect in Suriname
1851 - San Francisco Chamber of Commerce starts
1853 - First major US rail disaster kills 46 (Norwalk, Connecticut)
1860 - San Francisco Olympic Club, first US athletic club forms
1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi's Mille sets sail from Genoa to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
1861 - Arkansas and Tennessee becomes 9th and 10th states to secede from US
1861 - Jefferson Davis approves a bill declaring War between US & Confederacy
1864 - Battle of Port Walthall Junction, VA
1864 - Battle of Wilderness-Gen Longstreet seriously injured
1864 - General Sherman begins advance to Atlanta Georgia
1877 - Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska.
1882 - Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act over President Chester A. Arthur's veto. It ceased Chinese immigration for ten years.
1882 - Epping Forest England dedicated by Queen Victoria
1882 - Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed and killed during the Phoenix Park Murders in Dublin.
1889 - The Universal Exposition opened in Paris, marking the completion and dedication of the Eiffel Tower. Also at the exposition was the first automobile in Paris, the Mercedes-Benz.
1890 - Mormon Church renounces polygamy [1006-Truth Restored (Morman pub)]
1891 - Conductors on London General Omnibus Company go on strike
1895 - 21st Kentucky Derby: Soup Perkins aboard Halma wins in 2:37.50
1896 - 22nd Kentucky Derby: Willie Simms aboard Ben Brush wins in 2:07.75
1902 - British SS Camorta sinks off Rangoon; 739 die
1902 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" (BG)
1902 - Zulu assault at Holkrantz South-Africa
1904 - American Lung Association holds its 1st meeting
1906 - "Temporary" permit to erect overhead wires on Market St SF
1907 - 33rd Kentucky Derby: Andy Minder aboard Pink Star wins in 2:12.6
1910 - King George V ascends to British throne
1910 - George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
1913 - King Nikita I of Montenegro vacates Skoetari, North-Albania
1914 - British House of Lords rejects women suffrage
1915 - Allies attack Cape Helles, Hellespont
1915 - German U-20 sinks Centurion SE of Ireland
1915 - Red Sox Babe Ruth pitching debut and hits first HR, loses to Yanks 4-3 in 15
1916 - Belgian troop march into Kigali, German East-Africa
1917 - St Louis Brown Bob Groom no-hits Chic White Sox, 3-0
1919 - Paris Peace Conference disposes of German colonies; Ger E Africa is assigned to Britain & France, German SW Africa to South Africa
1921 - American Soccer League forms
1925 - Ty Cobb hits his 5th HR in 2 games tying Cap Ansons record of 1884
1929 - AL announces it will discontinue MVP award
1929 - NY to SF footrace begins
1933 - 59th Kentucky Derby: Don Meade aboard Brokers Tip wins in 2:06.8
1933 - Italy & USSR sign trade agreement
1934 - Red Sox score 12 runs in 4th inning including record 4 consecutive triples hit by Carl Reynolds, Moose Solters, Rick Ferrell, & B Walters
1935 - British King George & Queen Mary celebrates silver jubilee
1935 - KTM-AM in Los Angeles California changes call letters to KEHE (now KABC)
1935 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Audrey Wurdemann (Bright Ambush)
1937 - The dirigible German airship Hindenburg blew up and burst into flames at Lakehurst, N.J., 36 of the 97 on board die as a result.
1938 - Dutch writer Maurits Dekker sentenced to 50 days for "offending a friendly head of state" (Hitler)
1939 - First performance of Honegger/Claudel's "Jeanne d'Arc Ouch B-cher"
1939 - 65th Kentucky Derby: James Stout aboard Johnstown wins in 2:03.4
1940 - Pulitzer prize awarded to John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath)
1941 - Dictator Joseph Stalin became the premier of Russia.
1941 - At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
1942 - During World War II, the Japanese seized control of the Philippines. About 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.
1943 - British first army opens assault on Tunis
1944 - 70th Kentucky Derby: Conn McCreary aboard Pensive wins in 2:04.2
1944 - KJR-AM in Seattle Wash swaps calls with KOMO
1945 - Gen J Blaskowitz surrenders German troops in Netherlands
1945 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
1946 - The New York Yankees became the first major league baseball team to travel by plane.
1946 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Arthur M Schlesinger (Age of Jackson)"
1948 - "Sally" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 36 performances
1950 - "Great to Be Alive" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 52 perfs
1950 - 76th Kentucky Derby: William Boland on Middleground wins in 2:01.6
1951 - Pitts Pirate Cliff Chambers no-hits Boston Brave, 3-0
1953 - Brown's Bobo Holloman 1st major league start, no-hits Phila A's, 6-0
1954 - 1954 British athlete Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes (3:59:4).
1955 - West Germany joins NATO
1956 - Gus Bell (Reds) homers off Bob Miller in both ends of a double header
1956 - WRCB TV channel 3 in Chattanooga, TN (NBC) begins broadcasting
1957 - Italian government of Segni resigns
1957 - Last broadcast of "I Love Lucy" on CBS-TV
1957 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Senator (and eventual President) John F Kennedy (Profiles in Courage)
1959 - The Pablo Picasso painting of a Dutch girl was sold for $154,000 in London. It was the highest price paid (at the time) for a painting by a living artist.
1959 - Iceland gunboats shoot at British fishing ships
1960 - Pres Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960
1960 - Students attack Dutch embassy in Djakarta
1960 - Trotsky's murderer Jacques Mornard (Ramon Mercader), freed in Mexico
1961 - 87th Kentucky Derby: John Sellers aboard Carry Back wins in 2:04
1961 - Omer Vanaudenhove chosen chairman of Belgium Liberal Party
1962 - First nuclear warhead fired from Polaris submarine (Ethan Allen)
1962 - Antonio Segni elected president of Italy
1962 - Mary Lena Faulk wins LPGA Peach Blossom Golf Tournament
1962 - Pathet Lao breaks cease fire/conquerors Nam Tha Laos
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Pacific Ocean
1963 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Barbara Tuchman (Guns of August)
1964 - Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr Sloan," premieres in London
1965 - Lawry and Simpson complete opening stand of 382 against W Indies
1966 - Canadian Minister of Finance announces a $20 Centennial gold coin
1966 - Most runs scored in 11th inning (9) Phils score 5 to beat Pirates 8-7
1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England.
1967 - 400 students seize administration building at Cheyney State College
1967 - 93rd Kentucky Derby: Bobby Ussery on Proud Clarion wins in 2:00.6
1967 - Maureen Wilton runs female world record marathon (3:15:22)
1967 - Zakir Hussain elected first Moslem president of India
1968 - Battle between students & troops in Paris, 1000 injured
1968 - Giants reliever Lindy McDaniel sets NL record of 225th consecutive errorless game (108 chances consecutively since June 16, 1964)
1968 - Spain closes border to Gibraltar except to Spaniards
1970 - Yuchiro Miura of Japan skies down Mt Everest
1972 - 98th Kentucky Derby: Ron Turcotte aboard Riva Ridge wins in 2:01.8
1972 - Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara for attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.
1973 - First WHA championship, New England Whalers beat Win Jets, 4 games to 1
1973 - Judy Rankin wins LPGA American Defender-Raleigh Golf Classic \
1974 - A's pitcher Paul Lindblad makes an errant throw in 1st inning of 6-3 loss to Balt ends his record streak of 385 consecutive errorless games
1974 - Bundy victim Roberta Parks disappears from OSU, Corvallis, Ore
1974 - Smallest attendance at Phila's Veterans Stadium (4,149)
1974 - Stolen "Guitar Player" painting by Jan Vermeer found in London
1974 - W German chancellor W Brandt resigns
1975 - Bundy victim Lynette Culver disappears from Pocatello, Idaho
1975 - Early warnings provided by REACT (ham radio operators) means only
1975 - 3 people die in tornado that strikes Omaha, Nebraska
1976 - An earthquake strikes Friuli, causing 989 deaths and the destruction of entire villages.
1977 - "Beatles at Hollywood Bowl," released in UK
1978 - 104th Kentucky Derby: Steve Cauthen aboard Affirmed wins in 2:01.2
1978 - South Africa military goes into Angola
1979 - Fred Markham set a bicycle speed record of 818 kph over 200 m
1979 - Louis LaRusso II's "Knockout," premieres in NYC
1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1981 - "Inacent Black" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 14 performances
1981 - Mariners manager Maury Wills is fired & replaced by Rene Lachemann
1981 - US expels Libyan diplomats
1982 - Seattle Mariner Gaylord Perry becomes 15th pitcher to win 300 games
1984 - Balt Oriole Cal Ripken Jr hits for cycle
1984 - Jose Napoleon Duarte wins El Salvador presidential election
1985 - 17th Space Shuttle Mission (51-B)-Challenger 7 lands at Edwards AFB
1986 - Berlin: Real Madrid wins 15th UEFA Cup
1986 - Donald E Pelotte becomes 1st native American bishop
1986 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1987 - Gary Hart denies affair with model Donna Rice
1987 - Mario Andretti sets one-lap speed record at Indy at 218.204 MPH
1987 - Niroslav Milhailovic begins 54 hours of telling jokes
1987 - PTL's Jim Bakker & Rich Dortch dismissed from Assemblies of God
1987 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1988 - Graeme Hick scores 405 for Worcs v Somerset 35 fours 11 sixes
1988 - Doughnutgate incident: NJ Devils' coach Jim Schoenfeld tells referee Don Koharski to 'eat another doughnut you fat pig!,' he is suspended
1989 - 115th Kentucky Derby: Pat Valenzuela on Sunday Silence wins in 2:05
1990 - Former president PW Botha quit South Africa's ruling National Party
1991 - Phillie Lenny Dykstra slams his sports car into 2 trees
1991 - Seppo Raty of Finland sets javelin record to 301' 9"
1991 - Space Shuttle STS 39 (Discovery 12) lands
1992 - NY Met Anthony Young begins losing streak of at least 26 games
1992 - Werder Bremen wins 32nd Europe Cup II
1993 - STS-55 (Columbia) lands
1994 - The Chunnel linking England & France officially opens
1994 - Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait sets fire to the couch on Tonight Show
1994 - House passes the assault weapons ban
1994 - Lennox Lewis TKOs Phil Jackson in 8 for heavyweight boxing title
1994 - Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC), finally confirmed winners in South Africa, assuring black majority rule in the "new" South Africa.
1994 - Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against U.S. President Clinton. The case alleged that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.
1995 - 121st Kentucky Derby: Gary Stevens on Thunder Gulch wins in 2:01.2
1995 - Classic Sports Network begins on cable TV
1996 - Guatemala's leftist guerrillas sign key accord with government of President Alvaro Arzu aimed at ending 35 years of civil war
1996 - The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
1997 - Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping six trainees at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
1997 - Four health-care companies agreed to a settlement of $600 million to hemophiliacs who had contracted AIDS from tainted blood between 1978-1985.
1997 - Michael Jackson and the Bee Gees inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
1997 - NHL Hartford Whalers become Carolina Hurricanes
1997 - Rick Pitino becomes coach of Boston Celtics
1997 - The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank's 300-year history.
1998 - Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his 5th career start.
1999 - Scotland elected its first separate parliament in three centuries. Britain's Labour Party won the largest number of seats in the first elections for Scotland's new Parliament and Wales' new Assembly.
1999 - A parole board in New York voted to release Amy Fisher. She had been in jail for 7 years for shooting her lover's wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face.
2001 - During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
2001 - Chandra Levy's parents reported her missing to police in Washington, DC. Levy's body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.
2002 - Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is shot and killed by an animal rights activist.
2004 - The season finale of the sitcom Friends airs
2008 - Chaiten Volcano erupts in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.
2010 - The second largest intraday point swing in Dow Jones Industrial Average history occurs.
2012 - Francois Hollande was elected President of France
2012 - Greece parliamentary election results in 60% support for parties opposed to austerity measures
As a stamp collector myself, I thought I would delve a little further into the history of the first adhesive postage stamp ever issued, on this date in 1840. Here is a bit of history from: http://www.pennyblackstamp.com/History.htm
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PENNY BLACK STAMP COMPANY
The Penny Black Stamp Company specializes exclusively in Vatican City philatelic material. For almost 90 years the Penny Black Stamp Company has been synonymous with quality in the philatelic world. We specialize in Vatican City, past as well as new issues. Our new issue service is complete. We offer fast friendly service at prices that are competitive or better. Shipments are sent as soon as the material is received. Material is sent approximately 5 times a year except year sets or when previously instructed by you.
The Penny Black Stamp Company was founded in 1912 by my father, Sam L. Bayer in Europe. During his life in Europe my father created early airmail and zeppelin flight covers. Today these covers are sought by philatelic collectors all over the world. In the 1940's my father moved Penny Black Stamp Company to Nassau Street in New York, which later became the stamp dealer center in New York. In the 1950's Penny Black Stamp Company moved to Dumont, New Jersey. After my father died in 1973, my mother Madeline S. Bayer ran the company until passing the company to me in 1985. In 1985, Penny Black Stamp Company and I have moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1996 we settled in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Finally in 2002 we moved to our current residence in Dexter, Michigan. The moves are a result of my full-time Research and Development job in the pharmaceutical industry.
Here is another short history of the Penny Black, the first ever modern postage stamp: http://www.pennyblackstamp.co.uk/history_of_penny_black_stamps.html
HISTORY OF PENNY BLACK STAMPS
Pre 1840
In the year 1840, the United Kingdom introduced the Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp. It was followed one day later by the 2d blue and at the beginning of 1841 the 1d red appeared.
But before 1840, the post service was prohibitively expensive for most people to use. In fact the cost of sending a single letter could cost of much as a working man’s daily wage. Postage was charged by the sheet and the distance travelled. (This led to the habit of writing a letter, then turning the page upside down and writing the second page of the letter between the lines of the original – thus saving sheets as four pages of letter could be written on one piece of paper.)
But cost was not the only issue. There were many oddities. Certain items of post went free of charge, newspapers could be sent very cheaply and most mail was paid for by the person receiving the mail, not the sender.
Postal reform ideas – James Chalmers
It’s not surprising then that for many years prior to 1940, there were calls for reform of the postal system. As early as 1822, James Chalmers, a bookseller and printer from Dundee, was interested in postal reform. Some say that he was the actual inventor of the adhesive postage stamp. He also advocated the introduction of standard prepaid letter folders, letter sheets or envelopes which were eventually introduced in 1840 using a design by William Mulready. He printed samples of his idea for printed gummed labels in August 1834.
James Chalmers Inventor of the Adhesive Postage Stamp edited by W.J. Smith, and published in Dundee in 1970 gives an account of James Chalmers’ activities in the area of postal reform.
Later reformers - Rowland Hill and Robert Wallace
Rowland Hill and Robert Wallace (Member of Parliament for Greenock) were notable campaigners. In 1837, Rowland Hill proposed the radical reform of wapping a letter in an additional piece of paper (now known as the envelope) and attaching a ‘label’ (now known as a stamp) to indicate prepayment of the postage charge.
1839 Penny Postage Bill
Eventually, on 17 August 1839, Penny Postage Bill was passed by Parliament. The act required that the basic postal rate for simple letters should be set at one penny. It also required that prepayment should become the standard for sending letters and that prepayment should be indicated by ‘labels’. There labels were the Penny Black and the Twopence Blue. Like today, the stamps were cancelled by a cancellation stamp, although this mark was red rather than the black used today.
Competition for design of new stamps
In 1839, the British Treasury announced a competition to design the new stamps, but none of the submissions was considered suitable. Instead, Rowland Hill launched the service in 1840 with an envelope bearing a reproduction of a design created by the artist William Mulready and a predominetly black stamp bearing a reproduction of the profile of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria facing to the left. Hill believed this would be difficult to forge. The head of the reigning monanarch has featured on postage stamps eversince. Because Penny Blacks and Twopenny Blues were the world's first postage stamps, they did not show a country of origin. Brisitsh stamps today are still the only stamps in the world that do not name their country of origin.
Design of Penny Blacks
Queen Victoira’s head was engraved and based on a sketch done by Henry Corbould. who was influenced by the work of William Wyon. Wyon orignially drew a caneo-like head of Queen Victoira for a medal that commemorated her visit to London in 1837, the year that she was crowed queen at the age of 15. Penny Black stamps were printed by Perkins, Bacon & Petch..
The top of the stamp featured word "POSTAGE" intended to distinguish it from ‘revenue’ stamps that had long been used in the United Kindgom. The words "ONE PENNY" appeared at the bottom of the stamp, indicating the amount that had been pre-paid for the delivery of the letter to which it had been fixed. The background of the stamp featured finely engraved engine turnings. Positioned in the two upper corners were star-like designs. Positioned in the lower corners were letters indicating the position of the stamp in a sheet of 240 stamps. For example, "A A" indicates the stamp located on the top left position, and "T L" indicates the stamp on the bottom right position.. Penny Blacks were printed by Perkins Bacon.
Date of release
The new Penny Black stamps first went on sale 1st May 1840 although they were only valid for postage from 6th May 1840 (some were used between the date of introduction and the official launch day on the 6th). All London post offices received ample supplies of the new Penny Black stamp, but provincial post offices throughout the United Kingdom did not. As result, post offices outside London continued to accept postage payments in cash only for some time.
The Mulreadies (letter sheets) were issued at the same time as Penny Blacks. Public reaction to these new items not what Rowland Hill's expected. The Penny Black stamps were well-received and admired whereas the the Mulready letter sheet design was intensely disliked.
Printing and perforations
Eleven different plates were used during the short lived, one year long, production period of the Penny Black stamps. Unlike stamps of today, Penny Blacks were not perforated and the postmaster or mistress of the time had to use scissors to cut out the stamps. Between 1848 and 1854 trials were carried out in order to find a better and more acceptable way of separating stamps than the scissors and in early 1854 the first ‘perforated’ penny red was issued.
Demise of the Penny Black stamp
Penny Black postage stamps were only in circulation for one year because the red cancellation mark was hard to see on the black background colour of the stamp and easily removed, making it possible to re-use stamps, even after they had been cancelled.
In response, the Treasury decided to reprint the stamp as a red stamp. The cancellation mark was changed to black as they were easier to see and harder to remove.
http://www.pennyblackstamp.co.uk/history_of_penny_black_stamps.html
Here are the links to the websites that I used to get most of the information used in this blog entry.
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may06.htm
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