Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
May 11, 1934: Dust storm sweeps from Great Plains across Eastern states
On this day in 1934, a massive storm sends millions of tons of topsoil flying from across the parched Great Plains region of the United States as far east as New York, Boston and Atlanta.
At the time the Great Plains were settled in the mid-1800s, the land was covered by prairie grass, which held moisture in the earth and kept most of the soil from blowing away even during dry spells. By the early 20th century, however, farmers had plowed under much of the grass to create fields. The U.S. entry into World War I in 1917 caused a great need for wheat, and farms began to push their fields to the limit, plowing under more and more grassland with the newly invented tractor. The plowing continued after the war, when the introduction of even more powerful gasoline tractors sped up the process. During the 1920s, wheat production increased by 300 percent, causing a glut in the market by 1931.
That year, a severe drought spread across the region. As crops died, wind began to carry dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed lands. The number of dust storms reported jumped from 14 in 1932 to 28 in 1933. The following year, the storms decreased in frequency but increased in intensity, culminating in the most severe storm yet in May 1934. Over a period of two days, high-level winds caught and carried some 350 million tons of silt all the way from the northern Great Plains to the eastern seaboard. According to The New York Times, dust "lodged itself in the eyes and throats of weeping and coughing New Yorkers," and even ships some 300 miles offshore saw dust collect on their decks.
The dust storms forced thousands of families from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico to uproot and migrate to California, where they were derisively known as "Okies"--no matter which state they were from. These transplants found life out West not much easier than what they had left, as work was scarce and pay meager during the worst years of the Great Depression.
Another massive storm on April 15, 1935--known as "Black Sunday"--brought even more attention to the desperate situation in the Great Plains region, which reporter Robert Geiger called the "Dust Bowl." That year, as part of its New Deal program, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration began to enforce federal regulation of farming methods, including crop rotation, grass-seeding and new plowing methods. This worked to a point, reducing dust storms by up to 65 percent, but only the end of the drought in the fall of 1939 would truly bring relief.
May 11, 1812: British prime minister assassinated
In London, Spencer Perceval, prime minister of Britain since 1809, is shot to death by demented businessman John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons. Bellingham, who was inflamed by his failure to obtain government compensation for war debts incurred in Russia, gave himself up immediately.
Spencer Perceval had a profitable law practice before entering the House of Commons as a Tory in 1796. Industrious and organized, he successively held the senior cabinet posts of solicitor general and attorney general beginning in 1801. In 1807, he became chancellor of the exchequer, a post he continued to hold after becoming prime minister in 1809. As prime minister, Perceval faced a financial crisis in Britain brought on by the country's extended involvement in the costly Napoleonic Wars. He also made political enemies through his opposition to the regency of the Prince of Wales, who later became King George IV. Nevertheless, the general situation was improving when he was assassinated on May 11, 1812. His assassin, though deemed insane, was executed one week later.
May 11, 1987: Butcher of Lyon on trial
Klaus Barbie, the former Nazi Gestapo chief of German-occupied Lyon, France, goes on trial in Lyon more than four decades after the end of World War II. He was charged with 177 crimes against humanity.
As chief of Nazi Germany's secret police in Lyon, Barbie sent 7,500 French Jews and French Resistance partisans to concentration camps, and executed some 4,000 others. Among other atrocities, Barbie personally tortured and executed many of his prisoners. In 1943, he captured Jean Moulin, the leader of the French Resistance, and had him slowly beaten to death. In 1944, Barbie rounded up 44 young Jewish children and their seven teachers hiding in a boarding house in Izieu and deported them to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Of the 51, only one teacher survived. In August 1944, as the Germans prepared to retreat from Lyon, he organized one last deportation train that took hundreds of people to the death camps.
Barbie returned to Germany, and at the end of the war burned off his SS identification tattoo and assumed a new identity. With former SS officers, he engaged in underground anti-communist activity and in June 1947 surrendered himself to the U.S. Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) after the Americans offered him money and protection in exchange for his intelligence services. Barbie worked as a U.S. agent in Germany for two years, and the Americans shielded him from French prosecutors trying to track him down. In 1949, Barbie and his family were smuggled by the Americans to South America.
Assuming the name of Klaus Altmann, Barbie settled in Bolivia and continued his work as a U.S. agent. He became a successful businessman and advised the military regimes of Bolivia. In 1971, the oppressive dictator Hugo Banzer Suarez came to power, and Barbie helped him set up brutal internment camps for his many political opponents. During his 32 years in Bolivia, Barbie also served as an officer in the Bolivian secret police, participated in drug-running schemes, and founded a rightist death squad. He regularly traveled to Europe, and even visited France, where he had been tried in absentia in 1952 and 1954 for his war crimes and sentenced to death.
In 1972, the Nazi hunters Serge Klarsfeld and Beatte Kunzel discovered Barbie's whereabouts in Bolivia, but Banzer Suarez refused to extradite him to France. In the early 1980s, a liberal Bolivian regime came to power and agreed to extradite Barbie in exchange for French aid. On January 19, 1983, Barbie was arrested, and on February 7 he arrived in France. The statute of limitations had expired on his in-absentia convictions from the 1950s; he would have to be tried again. The U.S. government formally apologized to France for its conduct in the Barbie case later that year.
Legal wrangling, especially between the groups representing his victims, delayed his trial for four years. Finally, on May 11, 1987, the "Butcher of Lyon," as he was known in France, went on trial for his crimes against humanity. In a courtroom twist unimaginable four decades earlier, Barbie was defended by three minority lawyers--an Asian, an African, and an Arab--who made the dramatic case that the French and the Jews were as guilty of crimes against humanity as Barbie or any other Nazi. Barbie's lawyers seemed more intent on putting France and Israel on trial than in proving their client's innocence, and on July 4, 1987, he was found guilty. For his crimes, the 73-year-old Barbie was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, France's highest punishment. He died of cancer in a prison hospital in 1991.
May 11, 1919: Germans prepare to protest Versailles Treaty terms
During the second week of May 1919, the recently arrived German delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference, convened in Paris after the end of the First World War, pore over their copies of the Treaty of Versailles, drawn up in the months preceding by representatives of their victorious enemies, and prepare to lodge their objections to what they considered to be unfairly harsh treatment.
Presented with the treaty on May 7, 1919, the German delegation was given two weeks to examine the terms and submit their official comments in writing. The Germans, who had put great faith in U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's notion of a so-called peace without victory and had pointed to his famous Fourteen Points as the basis upon which they sought peace in November 1918, were greatly angered and disillusioned by the treaty. As Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, Germany's foreign minister, put it: This fat volume was quite unnecessary. They could have expressed the whole thing more simply in one clause—Germany renounces its existence.
Driven by French and British desires to make Germany pay for the role it had played in the most devastating conflict the world had yet seen, Wilson and the other Allied representatives at the peace conference had indeed moved away from a pure peace without victory. Germany was to lose 13 percent of its territory and 10 percent of its population. It was denied initial membership in the League of Nations, the international peace-keeping organization established by the treaty. The treaty also required Germany to pay reparations, though the actual amount ended up being less than what France had paid after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
The real German objection to the Treaty of Versailles, however, was to the infamous Article 231, which forced Germany to accept sole blame for the war in order to justify the reparations. Despite much debate among the Allies themselves and over strenuous German protests—including by Brockdorff-Rantzau, who wrote to the Allies on May 13 that The German people did not will the war and would never have undertaken a war of aggression—Article 231 remained in the treaty. The Germans were given a deadline of June 16 to accept their terms; this was later extended to June 23. Pressured by the Allies and thrown into confusion by crisis within the Weimar government at home, the Germans gave in and accepted the terms at 5:40 p.m. on May 23.
The Versailles Treaty was signed on June 28, 1919. Meanwhile, opposition to the treaty and its Article 231, seen as a symbol of the injustice and harshness of the whole document, festered within Germany. As the years passed, full-blown hatred slowly settled into a smoldering resentment of the treaty and its authors, a resentment that would, two decades later, be counted—to an arguable extent—among the causes of the Second World War.
May 11, 1961: President Kennedy orders more troops to South Vietnam
President Kennedy approves sending 400 Special Forces troops and 100 other U.S. military advisers to South Vietnam. On the same day, he orders the start of clandestine warfare against North Vietnam to be conducted by South Vietnamese agents under the direction and training of the CIA and U.S. Special Forces troops. Kennedy's orders also called for South Vietnamese forces to infiltrate Laos to locate and disrupt communist bases and supply lines there.
May 11, 1977: President Carter puts in a long day at the office
On this day in history, President Carter spends a typically busy day meeting with congressional and cabinet leaders, conducting phone meetings, squeezing in a game of tennis and family time, and attending the opera. Carter's White House diary, posted on his presidential library's website reveals in great detail Carter's schedule. Although the content of Carter's White House discussions was not recorded in the diary, practically every move of Carter's was logged (by an unknown entity) to the exact minute.
Around 11 p.m. the night before, Carter arrived in Washington aboard Air Force One. He had just returned home from a trip to the United Kingdom, where he spent five days in intensive meetings with NATO leaders. He was in bed at the White House by 12:25 a.m. on May 11. Carter received a wake-up call from the White House switchboard operator at 7am. By 7:30 a.m. on May 11, an industrious Carter was in his office, fielding phone calls and conducting quick in-person meetings with Vice President Walter Mondale, cabinet members, congressional representatives and advisors. Carter found time to spend a quiet 45-minute lunch with his wife, Rosalynn, on the second floor of the president's residential quarters and then returned to the Oval Office for an afternoon of more meetings and phone calls. By 4:30 that afternoon, he had spoken with or met 16 different people, some for only one to two minutes. The day's longest work-related conversation clocked in at only 20 minutes.
Carter left his office at 4:34 p.m. and was on the White House tennis courts by 4:48 p.m., where he played a game or two of tennis with Office of Management and Budget Director Thomas "Bert" Lance. After a shower, and then another quiet meal with Rosalynn and two female guests at 7:05, Carter and the first lady dressed for a night out. That evening, the Carters attended a benefit performance of Mozart's The Barber of Seville by the New York City Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. After the performance, he and Rosalyn went backstage to meet and congratulate the opera company's conductor, as well as leading soprano Beverly Sills. At 11:20 p.m., the Carters returned to the White House via limousine motorcade. The president was in bed by 11:40 p.m. and up at 6 a.m. ready to face another busy day in the Oval Office.
May 11, 1942: Go Down, Moses, by William Faulkner, is published
One of William Faulkner's greatest collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published. The collection included The Bear, one of his most famous stories, which had previously appeared in the Saturday Evening Post.
The seven stories in Go Down, Moses all take place in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, and are based on Faulkner's observations of his own native state.
Faulkner was born near Oxford, Mississippi, where his father was the business manager of the University of Mississippi. His mother, a sensitive, literary woman, encouraged Faulkner and his three brothers to read. Faulkner was a good student but lost interest in studies during high school. He dropped out sophomore year and took a series of odd jobs while writing poetry.
In 1918, his high school girlfriend, Estelle Oldham, married another man, and Faulkner left Mississippi. He joined the British Royal Flying Corps, but World War I ended before he finished his training in Canada. He returned to Mississippi and continued writing poetry. A neighbor funded the publication of his first book of poems, The Marble Faun (1924). His first novel, Soldiers' Pay, was published two years later.
In 1929, he finally married Estelle, his high school sweetheart, who had divorced her first husband and now had two children. They bought a ruined mansion near Oxford and began restoring it while Faulkner finished The Sound and the Fury, published in October 1929. The book opens with the interior monologue of a developmentally disabled mute character. His next book, As I Lay Dying (1930), featured 59 different interior monologues. Light in August (1932) and Absalom, Absalom (1936) also challenged traditional forms of fiction.
Faulkner's difficult novels did not earn him enough money to support his family, so he supplemented his income by selling short stories to magazines and working as a Hollywood screenwriter. He wrote two critically acclaimed films, both starring Humphrey Bogart: To Have and Have Not was based on an Ernest Hemingway novel, and The Big Sleep was based on a mystery by Raymond Chandler.
Faulkner's reputation received a significant boost with the publication of The Portable Faulkner (1946), which included his many stories set in Yoknapatawpha County. Three years later, in 1949, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. His Collected Stories (1950) won the National Book Award. Throughout the rest of his life, he lectured frequently on university campuses. He died of a heart attack at age 55.
May 11, 1997: Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess match
On May 11, 1997, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov resigns after 19 moves in a game against Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer developed by scientists at IBM. This was the sixth and final game of their match, which Kasparov lost two games to one, with three draws.
Kasparov, a chess prodigy from Azerbaijan, was a skillful chess player from childhood. At 21, Kasparov played Anatoly Karpov for the world title, but the 49-game match ended indecisively. The next year, Kasparov beat Karpov to become the youngest world champion in history. With a FIDE (Federation International des Echecs) score of 2800, and a streak of 12 world chess titles in a row, Kasparov was considered the greatest chess player in history going into his match with Deep Blue.
Chess-playing computers had existed since the 1950s, but they initially saw little success against accomplished human players. That changed in 1985, when Carnegie Mellon doctoral student Feng-hsing Hsu developed a chess-playing computer named "Chiptest" that was designed to play chess at a higher level than its predecessors. Hsu and a classmate went to work for IBM, and in 1989 they were part of a team led by developer C.J. Tan that was charged with creating a computer capable of competing against the best chess players in the world. The resulting supercomputer, dubbed Deep Blue, could calculate many as 100 billion to 200 billion moves in the three minutes traditionally allotted to a player per move in standard chess.
Kasparov first played Deep Blue in 1996. The grandmaster was known for his unpredictable play, and he was able to defeat the computer by switching strategies mid-game. In 1997, Kasparov abandoned his swashbuckling style, taking more of a wait-and-see approach; this played in the computer’s favor and is commonly pointed to as the reason for his defeat.
The last game of the 1997 Kasparov v. Deep Blue match lasted only an hour. Deep Blue traded its bishop and rook for Kasparov’s queen, after sacrificing a knight to gain position on the board. The position left Kasparov defensive, but not helpless, and though he still had a playable position, Kasparov resigned--the first time in his career that he had conceded defeat. Grandmaster John Fedorowicz later gave voice to the chess community’s shock at Kasparov’s loss: "Everybody was surprised that he resigned because it didn't seem lost. We've all played this position before. It's a known position." Kasparov said of his decision, "I lost my fighting spirit."
Okay, so, this was an important date for war crimes trials for Nazis. It was on this day in 1961 that Israeli agents captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and brought him to Israel to stand trial for his crimes against humanity. Also, more than a quarter of a century later, the "Butcher of Lyon, Klaus Barbie, was put on trial and charged with 177 counts of murder. He would be sentenced to death, although he actually would end up dying of cancer while incarcerated in 1991.
Also, dust blew in to the east from the Great Plains, exacerbating an already tough situation during the dark days of the Great Recession.
And years ago, Kasparov was defeated by an IBM supercomputer in chess, and this flustered him, robbing him of his normal drive to win.
On this day in 330, Constantinople, previously the town of Byzantium, was founded and became the new capital of the Roman Empire. In 1189 on this day, Emperor Frederik I Barbarossa & 100,000 Crusaders departed Regensburg. The fleet of French admiral Jean d'Estrees' ran aground on Aves Islands, Curacao, on this day in 1678. The Battle of Bantry Bay took place on this day in 1689 between the naval forces of the French and English. The Battle of Fontenoy (Doornik) during the Austrian War of Succession took place on this day in 1745. French forces defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army. On this day in 1812, British Prime Minster Spencer Perceval was shot by bankrupt banker John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons in London. The waltz method of dancing was introduced into English ballrooms on this day in 1812. Most observers at the time consider it disgusting & immoral. The launch of HMS Beagle, the ship which carried young Charles Darwin on his scientific expedition during which he would develop his theory of evolution and natural selection, occurred on this day in 1820. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state on this day in 1858. In 1860 on this day, Giuseppe Garibaldi landed at Marsala, Sicily. On this day in 1867, the Second Treaty of London was signed, establishing the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as a permanent neutral and unarmed nation. This treaty came after the Austro-Prussian War and the Luxembourg Crisis, and was designed aimed to clarify the independent status of Luxembourg, largely to avoid potential conflicts between France and Prussia. In 1916 on this day, Albert Einstein published his Theory of General Theory of Relativity, which would soon elevate him to the status of the most famous scientist in the world. Tel Aviv became the first all-Jewish municipality on this day in 1921. The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Robert Frost in New Hampshire on this day in 1924. Mercedes-Benz was formed on this day in 1924 after Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merged their the two companies. On this day in 1934 during the Great Depression, a severe two-day dust storm stripped the topsoil from the Great Plains of the United States and created a "Dust Bowl." The storm was one of many, which exacerbated the economic hard times. William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, was published on this day in 1942. Hermann Goering's division in Tunisia surrendered on this day in 1943 during World War II. On this day in 1949, Israel was approved to become the 59th member of the United Nations by a vote of 37-12. Siam changed its name to Thailand on this day in 1949. On this day in 1953, Winston Churchill criticized American Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' "domino theory." In 1960 on this day, Israeli operatives captured Adolf Eichmann, the architect of Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" during the Holocaust, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1965 on this day, a massive windstorm in Bangladesh killed 17,000 people. Ellis Island was added to the Statue of Liberty National Monument on this day in 1965. Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has the charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times dismissed on this day in 1973. On this day in 1989, Kenya announced a worldwide ban on ivory in an effort to preserve and protect it's elephant herds. In 1989 on this day, American President Bush ordered nearly 2,000 US troops to Panama. Six white supremacists were sentenced to death in South Africa on this day in 1994, one day after Nelson Mandela's inauguration.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
• On this day in 330, Constantinople, previously the town of Byzantium, was founded and became the new capital of the Roman Empire.
• In 1189 on this day, Emperor Frederik I Barbarossa & 100,000 Crusaders departed Regensburg.
1310 - Fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics.
1421 - Jews are expelled from Styria Austria
1502 - Columbus begins and last trip to "Indies"
1548 - Start of great fire in Brielle
1573 - Henry of Anjou became the first elected king of Poland.
1625 - Boers besiege Frankenburg estate in Upper-Austria
1647 - Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam and became governor
1674 - Netherlands and Cologne sign peace treaty
• The fleet of French admiral Jean d'Estrees' ran aground on Aves Islands, Curacao, on this day in 1678.
• The Battle of Bantry Bay took place on this day in 1689 between the naval forces of the French and English.
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1690 - English troops of W Phips conquer Port Royal Nova Scotia
• The Battle of Fontenoy (Doornik) during the Austrian War of Succession took place on this day in 1745. French forces defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.
1749 - British parliament accept Consolidation Act: fleet reorganization
1751 - 1st hospital founded (Pennsylvania Hospital) in the 13 Colonies in America
1752 - First US fire insurance policy issued (Philadelphia)
1772 - Amsterdam theater destroyed by fire, 18 killed
1784 - England and Tippu Sahib van Mysore sign peace treaty
1792 - Columbia River was discovered and named by US Capt Robert Gray
• On this day in 1812, British Prime Minster Spencer Perceval was shot by bankrupt banker John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons in London.
• The waltz method of dancing was introduced into English ballrooms on this day in 1812. Most observers at the time consider it disgusting & immoral.
1813 -
• In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth, lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.
1814 - • Americans defeat British at Battle of Plattsburgh
1816 - The American Bible Society was formed in New York City.
British Botanist Charles Darwi
• The launch of HMS Beagle, the ship which carried young Charles Darwin on his scientific expedition during which he would develop his theory of evolution and natural selection, occurred on this day in 1820.
1833 - "Lady-of-the-Lake" strikes iceberg & sinks in N Atlantic; kills 215
1841 - Lt. Charles Wilkes lands at Fort Nisqually in Puget Sound.
1850 - Work starts on 1st brick building in SF
1857 - Revolt in Sepoy - Indian mutineers seized Delhi from the British.
• Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state on this day in 1858.
• In 1860 on this day, Giuseppe Garibaldi landed at Marsala, Sicily.
1862 - Confederates scuttle CSS Virginia off Norfolk, VA
1864 - Battle of Yellow Tavern, VA (Sheridan's Raid, South Anna Bridge)
1864 - Gen J E B Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern
1865 - Jeff Thompson surrenders
1867 - • Treaty of London drawn, concerning Luxembourg
• On this day in 1867, the Second Treaty of London was signed, establishing the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as a permanent neutral and unarmed nation. This treaty came after the Austro-Prussian War and the Luxembourg Crisis, and was designed aimed to clarify the independent status of Luxembourg, largely to avoid potential conflicts between France and Prussia.
1875 - George "Charmer" Zettlein pitches the 1st 9 inning shutout
1881 - Bedrich Smetana's opera "Libusa," premieres in Prague
1887 - 13th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Lewis aboard Montrose wins in 2:39.25
1888 - 16th Preakness: F Littlefield aboard Refund wins in 2:49
1889 - Major Joseph Washington Wham takes charge of $28,000 in gold and silver to pay troops at various points in the Arizona Territory. The money was stolen in a train robbery.
1891 - The Otsu Scandal takes place.
1892 - 18th Kentucky Derby: Lonnie Clayton aboard Azra wins in 2:41½
1893 - Henri Desgrange establishes first bicycle-world record (35.325 km)
1894 - The Pullman Strike began, as workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in Illinois went on strike.
1897 - Wash Senator catcher Charlie Farrell throws out 8 attempted stealers
1900 - James J Jeffries KOs James J Corbett in 23 for heavyweight boxing title
1904 - Andrew Carnegie donates $1.5M to build a peace palace
1907 - Bank of SF incorporated
1907 - A derailment outside Lompoc, California kills 32 Shriners when their chartered train jumps off the tracks at a switch near Surf Depot.
1910 - Glacier National Park in Montana was established.
1911 - The United States becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1912 - 38th Kentucky Derby: Carol H Shilling aboard Worth wins in 2:09.4
Bust of Albert Einstein in Princeton, New Jersey, where he lived his final years.
• In 1916 on this day, Albert Einstein published his Theory of General Theory of Relativity, which would soon elevate him to the status of the most famous scientist in the world.
1917 - Britain grants Royal Letters Patent to New Zealand
1918 - 44th Kentucky Derby: William Knapp on Exterminator wins in 2:10.8
1919 - Cincinnati Reds Hod Eller no-hits St Louis Cards, 6-0
1919 - Yanks' Jack Quinn and Senators' Walter Johnson, 12 inning 0-0 tie
• Tel Aviv became the first all-Jewish municipality on this day in 1921.
1923 - 10 HRs hit in Phillies 20-14 victory over St Louis Cards
1924 - Cartel des Gauches wins French parliamentary election
• The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Robert Frost in New Hampshire on this day in 1924.
• Mercedes-Benz was formed on this day in 1924 after Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merged their the two companies.
1925 - Communist Party of Holland splits
1925 - Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Region constituted in RSFSR
1926 - Airship Norge leaves Spitsbergen for 1st air crossing of Arctic O
1927 - Belgium beats England 9-1 in soccer
1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded.
1927 - Louis B Mayer forms Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
1928 - 54th Kentucky Derby: Chick Lang aboard Reigh Count wins in 2:10.4
1928 - 54th Preakness: Raymond Sonny Workman aboard Victorian wins in 2:00.2
1928 - 63rd British Golf Open: Walter Hagen shoots a 292 at Royal St George's
1928 - General Electric opens first TV-station (Schenectady, NY)
1929 - First regularly scheduled TV broadcasts (3 nights per week)
1929 - Dr Annie Webb Blanton forms Delta Kappa Gamma Society in Austin Tx
1931 - Credit-Anstalt, Austria's largest bank, fails beginning financial collapse of Central Europe
• On this day in 1934 during the Great Depression, a severe two-day dust storm stripped the topsoil from the Great Plains of the United States and created a "Dust Bowl." The storm was one of many, which exacerbated the economic hard times.
1935 - 61st Preakness: Willie Saunders aboard Omaha wins in 1:58.4
1940 - 66th Preakness: Fred A Smith aboard Bimelech wins in 1:58.6
1940 - NY World's Fair reopens
1941 - First Messerschmidt 109F shot down above England
1942 - Japanese troops conquer Kalewa
• William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, was published on this day in 1942.
• Hermann Goering's division in Tunisia surrendered on this day in 1943 during World War II.
1943 - US 7th div lands on Attu, Aleutian, (1st US territory recaptured)
1944 - Opposition group surprise attack post office Washer
1944 - A major offensive was launched by the allied forces in central Italy.
1944 - Slomp Resistance fighter (Frits de Zwerver) freed from Arnhem prison
1945 - US marines conquer Awatsha Draw Okinawa
1946 - First night game at Boston Braves Field (Giants 5, Braves 1)
1946 - 72nd Preakness: Warren Mehrtens aboard Assault wins in 2:01.4
1946 - UMNO is created.
1947 - The creation of the tubeless tire was announced by the B.F. Goodrich Company in Akron, Ohio
1947 - Laos accepts constitution for parliamentary democracy
1948 - Haganah takes control of Safed & port of Haifa
1948 - Luigi Einaudi elected president of Italy
1949 - First Polaroid camera sold $89.95 (NYC)
• On this day in 1949, Israel was approved to become the 59th member of the United Nations by a vote of 37-12
• Siam changed its name to Thailand on this day in 1949.
1950 - Belgium mine disaster at Borinage, 39 die
1950 - Eugene Ionesco's "La Cantatrice Chauve," premieres in Paris
1951 - Jay Forrester patents computer core memory
1953 - Tornado kills 114 in Waco Texas ($39M damage)
Statue of soldier, author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London
• On this day in 1953, Winston Churchill criticized American Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' "domino theory."
1955 - Israel attacks Gaza
1956 - Pinky Lee Show, last airs on NBC-TV
1957 - Gabriel Paris forms government of Colombia
1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
1959 - "Kookie, Kookie Lend Me Your Comb" by Byrnes and Connie Stevens hits #4
1959 - Elvis Presley's 1st entry on UK charts with "Heartbreak Hotel"
1959 - Rodgers and; Barer's musical "Once upon a mattress," premieres in NYC
1959 - Yankee catcher Yogi Berra's errorless streak of 148 games ends
1960 - French liner "France" launched
• In 1960 on this day, Israeli operatives captured Adolf Eichmann, the architect of Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" during the Holocaust, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1960 - The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market.
1962 - Antonio Segni becomes president of Italy
1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
1962 - US sends troops to Thailand
1963 - "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" by Peter, Paul & Mary hits #2
1963 - LA Dodger Sandy Koufax 2nd no-hitter beats NY Giants, 8-0
1963 - • Racial bomb attacks in Birmingham Alabama
1965 - "Flora, the Red Menace" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 87 performances
1965 - 1st of 2 cyclones in less than a month kills 35,000 (India)
• In 1965 on this day, a massive windstorm in Bangladesh killed 17,000 people.
A picture of Ellis Island (above) taken from the Jersey side. On the bottom is the same picture, but altered to lend it (hopefully) a vintage look and feel.
• Ellis Island was added to the Statue of Liberty National Monument on this day in 1965.
1965 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1965 - West Indies becomes 1st holders of the Frank Worrell Cricket Trophy
1966 - Real Madrid wins 11th Europe Cup I
1967 - "Sing, Israel Sing" opens at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC for 14 perfs
1967 - 100,000,000th US phone connected
1967 - Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark apply for EG membership
1967 - The siege of Khe Sanh ended.
1968 - Richard Harris releases "MacArthur Park"
1968 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens sweep St Louis Blues in 4 games
1968 - Students and police battle in Paris, 100s injured
1968 - The Toronto Transit Commission opens the largest expansion of its Bloor-Danforth Line, going to Scarborough in the east, and Etobicoke in the west.
1969 - Monty Python comedy troupe forms
1970 - Henry Marrow is murdered in a violent racially-motivated crime in Oxford, North Carolina.
1971 - Cleveland's Steve Dunning becomes last AL pitcher to hit grand slam
1972 - Giants trade Willie Mays to Mets for pitcher Charlie Williams and cash
1972 - John Lennon says his phone is tapped by FBI on Dick Cavett Show
1972 - Stanley Cup: Boston Bruins beat NY Rangers, 4 games to 2
1972 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1973 - Dutch government of Uyl forms
• Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has the charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times dismissed on this day in 1973.
1974 - "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" by Frank Sinatra hits #83
1974 - "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield hits #7
1974 - Steely Dan releases "Rikki Don't Lose that Number"
1975 - Israel signs an agreement with European Economic Market
1976 - Emmy 3rd Daytime Award presentation
1976 - Last broadcast of "Marcus Welby, MD" on ABC-TV
1977 - Hamburger SV wins 17th soccer Europe Cup II
1977 - Ted Turner manages an Atlanta Braves game
1978 - Margaret A Brewer is 1st female general in the US Marine Corps
1980 - Pete Rose, 39, steals second, third, and home in one inning for Phillies
1981 - Reggae performer Bob Marley died of cancer in Miami at the age of 36.
1981 - Andrew Lloyd Webber/TS Eliot's musical "Cats," premieres in London
1981 - Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" hits #1, stay there 9 weeks
1983 - "Dance a Little Closer" opens & closes at Minskoff Theater NYC
1983 - Comet C/1983 H1 (IRAS-Araki-Alcock) approaches 0.0312 AUs of Earth
1984 - Johan Cruijff quits soccer
1984 - Detroit Tigers set best 30 game start record (26-4)
1984 - Transit of Earth as seen on Mars
1985 - 40 die and 150 injured in fire at Bradford City football ground, England
1985 - Booby trap bomb kills 86 people in India
1985 - Madonna's "Crazy For You," single goes #1
1985 - Pope John Paul II arrives in Netherlands
1985 - Dave Concepcion becomes 4th Cin Red teammate to get 2,000 hits, others include Pete Rose, Tony Perez and Cesar Cedeno
1985 - More than 50 people died when a flash fire swept a soccer stadium in Bradford, England.
1987 - First heart-lung transplant take place (Baltimore)
1987 - Corazon Aquino is elected president in the Philippines
1988 - France performs nuclear test
1988 - KV Mechelen wins 28th Europe Cup II
1988 - Mario Andretti records fastest Indianapolis 500 lap (221.565 mph)
1989 - 217th and final episode of "Dynasty" is aired
1989 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
• On this day in 1989, Kenya announced a worldwide ban on ivory in an effort to preserve and protect it's elephant herds.
• In 1989 on this day, American President Bush ordered nearly 2,000 US troops to Panama.
1990 - NY Yankees trade Dave Winfield to Angels for Mike Witt
1993 - 28th Academy of Country Music Awards: Garth Brooks wins
1993 - Paramaribo Suriname TV studio destroyed by fire
1994 - "Grease," opens at Eugene O' Neill Theater NYC for 1,503 performances
1994 - "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult," released in France
This was a picture (which I have since cropped) of the new South Africa flag of the post-apartheid era. I actually took this one at the apartheid museum, as this was the final display, if you will, of the museum, the symbol of the emergence of a "new South Africa."
Statue of Nelson Mandela in the gardens in front of the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa
• Six white supremacists were sentenced to death in South Africa on this day in 1994, one day after Nelson Mandela's inauguration.
1994 - Inter Milan wins 23rd UEFA Cup
1995 -• In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
1995 - The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was extended indefinitely. The treaty limited the spread of nuclear material for military purposes.
1996 - An Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades. All 110 people on board were killed.
1997 - • Garry Kasparov, world chess champion, lost his first ever multi-game match. He lost to IBM's chess computer Deep Blue. It was the first time a computer had beat a world-champion player.
1997 - "Play On!" closes at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC after 61 performances
1997 - NY Mets C Everett & Butch Huskey are 9th to hit consecutive pinch HRs
1997 - IBM's supercomputer, Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov, the reigning world champion, in a six game chess match (2 for blue, 1 for Kasparov, and 3 ties).
1998 - India conducted its first underground nuclear tests, three of them, in 24 years in Pokhran, including a thermonuclear device. The tests were in violation of a global ban on nuclear testing.
1998 - A French mint produced the first coins of Europe's single currency. The coin is known as the euro.
2001 - • U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his decision to approve a 30-day delay of the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh had been scheduled to be executed on May 16, 2001. The delay was because the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had failed to disclose thousands of documents to McVeigh's defense team. (Oklahoma)
2002 - Last performance of the musical Cats in London's West End.
2002 - Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveils the Man With Two Hats monument in Ottawa and Apeldoorn (May 2), 2000, symbolically linking both the Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout the Second World War.
2003 - • 91% of Lithuanian voters opted to join the European Union—the first former Soviet nation to do so.
2007 - • Pope Benedict XVI canonizes the first Brazilian-born saint, Frei Galvão.
2009 - An American soldier in Iraq opened fire on a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Bagdhad, leaving 5 other US soldiers dead and 3 soldiers wounded.
2012 - • Chinese scientists break world record by transferring photons over 97 kilometers using quantum teleportation
