Today In History
On The Way To Today... April 21st
753 BC - According to the historian Varro, Romulus founded Rome.
1809 - Napoleon's army defeated the Austrians at the Battle of
Landshut in Germany.
1828 - The American Dictionary of the English Language, compiled by
grammarian and editor Noah Webster, was published on this date. The
two-volume work, which contained some 38,000 entries and was the
result of 20 years' labor by Webster, was the first lexicon to treat
distinctly American usage and pronunciation.
1836 - The Mexicans were defeated by the Texans at the battle of San
Jacinto, thus ensuring Texan independence.
1856 - The first railroad bridge over the Mississippi River opened
with the first crossing of a locomotive. The train belonged to the
Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad Company, commonly known as
the Rock Island. The bridge ran between Rock Island, Illinois and
Davenport, Iowa.
1895 - In New York City, Woodville Latham demonstrated the first
moving picture projected on a screen.
1910 - Writer Mark Twain died at the age of 75 in Redding,
Connecticut. Several years earlier, when a premature notice of his
death had been published in a New York newspaper, he cabled from
London, "The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated".
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, Germany's top aviator in World War I,
was killed in action. Known as the Red Baron, he shot down 80 enemy
aircraft.
1945 - The last of the German troops pulled out of Bologna, Italy.
1945 - Russian troops reached the suburbs of Berlin.
1949 - The George Foster Peabody Award for Broadcasting was awarded to
"You Bet Your Life" star, Groucho Marx, makring the first time the
award was given to a comedian.
1956 - Ten-year-old Leonard Ross became the youngest winner on a big
time quiz show. The boy won $100,000 on "The Big Surprise" for knowing
about stocks.
1960 - Brasilia was inaugurated as the new capital of Brazil.
1961 - A French army revolt led by General Maurice Challe began in
Algeria.
1965 - The 114-nation United Nations Disarmament Commission resumed
talks in New York after a five-year interval.
1967 - A military coup in Athens established the regime of the "Greek
Colonels."
1968 - British Conservative politician Enoch Powell made his "rivers
of blood" speech, warning of the dangers of immigration.
1968 - Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson resigned and was
succeeded by Pierre Trudeau.
Detroit, Michigan, ending a tradition starting in 1916. A few years
later, Chrysler Corporation, headed by Lee Iacocca, began producing
soft-top cars again. Ford then brought back the convertible Mustang
and GM returned with the convertible Pontiac Sunbird and a smaller
Cadillac version.
1977 - Annie, a musical based on Harold Gray's comic strip Little
Orphan Annie, debuted on Broadway. The play received rave reviews, and
Dorothy Louden, who played the sinister orphanage matron, received a
Tony for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy for her performance.
1987 - For the first time, the United States Postal Service offered
1989 - Tens of thousands of students and workers poured into Peking's
Tiananmen Square in defiance of official warnings against
anti-government protests.
1992 - California carried out its first execution in 25 years when
double murderer Robert Alton Harris was put to death in the gas
chamber.
1993 - Bolivia's Supreme Court sentenced former military dictator Gen.
Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail for crimes ranging from mass
murder and torture to wholesale fraud against the state.
1994 - A Belfast court cleared Paul Hill of the 1974 murder of a
former British soldier, formally absolving him of IRA guerrilla links
for which he was wrongfully jailed for 13 years.
1997 - An advance contingent of Chinese troops entered Hong Kong to
prepare garrison facilities for the July 1st handover to Chinese rule.
1997 - The ashes of 1960s LSD guru Timothy Leary and "Star Trek"
creator Gene Roddenberry were blasted into space in the world's first
space funeral.
|
|