This Week in History

Monday 21
1789 – John Adams sworn in as 1st US VP (9 days before Washington)
1794 – NYC formally declares coast of Ellis Island publically owned, so they can build forts to protect NYC from British
1878 – NY installs 1st firehouse pole
1904 – Ty Cobb makes his pro debut for Augusta (South Atlantic League)
1941 – Greece surrenders to nazi-Germany
1954 – USAF flies French battalion to Vietnam
1956 – Elvis Presley’s 1st hit record, “Heartbreak Hotel,” becomes #1
1965 – New York World’s Fair reopens for 2nd & final season
1975 – Last South Vietnam president Nguyen Van Thieu resigns after 10 years
1987 – Dow Jones Avg soared 664.7; 2nd biggest one-day gain in history
1995 – FBI arrested Timothy McVeigh & charge him with Okla City bombing

Tuesday 22
1861 – Robert E Lee named commander of Virginia Confederate forces
1898 – US President McKinley orders blockade of Cuban harbors
1914 – Mexico ends diplomatic relations with US
1944 – Hitler & Mussolini meet at Salzburg
1955 – Congress orders all US coins bear motto “In God We Trust”
1970 – 1st Earth Day held internationally to conserve natural resources
1991 – Johnny Carson announces he will retire next year from Tonight Show
1994 – Ice skater Tonya Harding sues ex-husband Jeff Gillooly for $42,500

Wednesday 23
1789 – President-elect George Washington moves into Franklin House, NY
1864 – Battle of Cane River, LA (Red River Expedition, Monett’s Ferry)
1896 – Premier of motion pictures (Koster & Bial’s Music Hall, NYC)
1945 – US troops in Italy cross river Po
1956 – US Supreme court ends race segregation on buses
1962 – 1st US satellite to reach the moon launched
1984 – AIDS-virus identified (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)
1991 – USSR grants republics right to secede under certain conditions
1995 – Pres Clinton declares a national day of mourning for Okla City

Thursday 24
1800 – Library of Congress establishes with $5,000 allocation
1865 – Fire alarm & police telegraph system put into operation (SF)
1898 – Spain declares war on US rejecting ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba
1941 – British army begins evacuation of Greece
1962 – MIT sends TV signal by satellite for 1st time: CA to MA
1974 – NFL grants franchise to Tampa Bay Bucaneers
1981 – IBM-PC computer introduced
1990 – West & East Germany agree to merge currency & economies on July 1st

Friday 25
1859 – Ground broken for Suez Canal
1881 – 250,000 Germans petition to bar foreign Jews from entering Germany
1901 – New York becomes 1st state requiring auto license plates ($1 fee)
1945 – Red army completely surrounds Berlin
1950 – Chuck Cooper becomes 1st black to play in NBA
1971 – About 200,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters march on Washington
1990 – Hubble space telescope is placed into orbit by shuttle Discovery
1994 – 14″ of snow in Southern Calif

Saturday 26
1721 – Smallpox vaccination 1st administrated
1865 – Confederate Gen J E Johnston surrenders Army of Tenn, at Durham NC
1915 – Italy secretly signes Pact of London with Britain, France & Russia
1933 – Jewish students are barred from school in Germany
1957 – Jamestown, Va 350th Anniversary Festival opens
1980 – Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1981 – Largest US bank robbery (Tucson Ariz), more than $33 million stolen
1986 – Worst nuclear disaster, 4th reactor at Chernobyl USSR explodes, 31 die
1986 – Actor/body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger weds newscaster Maria Shriver
1995 – Baseball season begins after lengthy strike

Sunday 27
1860 – Thomas J Jackson is assigned to command Harpers Ferry
1861 – President Abe Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus
1861 – West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from US
1877 – President Hayes removes Federal troops from LA, Reconstruction ends
1937 – US Social Security system makes its 1st benefit payment
1956 – Heavyweight champ, Rocky Marciano, retires undefeated from boxing
1978 – Accident at nuclear reactor Willow Island, W Virginia, kills 51
1982 – Trial of John W Hinckley Jr attempted assassin of Reagan, begins
1994 – President Nixon buried in Nixon Library in Calif

Monday
1614 – Pocahontas, daughter of chief Powhatan, marries planter John Rolfe
1777 – NY adopts new constitution as an independent state
1828 – 1st edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary published
1860 – 1st Pony Express rider arrives in SF from St Joseph, Mo
1902 – Marie & Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive element radium
1944 – Gen Eisenhower becomes head commander of allied air fleet
1967 – In the Vietnam War, US planes bombed Haiphong for 1st time
1973 – Acting FBI director L Patrick Gray resigns after admitting he destroyed evidence in the Watergate scandal
1992 – Court throws out Apple’s lawsuit against Microsoft

Tuesday
1738 – Bottle opener invented
1850 – City of San Francisco incorporated
1877 – 1st telephone installed: Boston-Somerville, Mass
1912 – Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland
1952 – Franklin National Bank issues 1st bank credit card
1964 – Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens (world’s longest)
1992 – Jay Leno’s final appearance as permanent guest host of Tonight

Wednesday
1789 – George Washington heads for 1st presidential inauguration
1861 – US president Lincoln outlaws business with confederate states
1900 – US Post Office issues 1st books of postage stamps
1908 – Natural Bridges National Monument forms (Lake Powell Utah)
1945 – Red Army begins Battle of Berlin
1956 – 1st solar powered radios go on sale
1987 – Michael Jordon, becomes 2nd NBA to score 3000 points in a season

Thursday
1861 – Virginia is 8th state to secede
1864 – Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges
1907 – Ellis Island, NY-11,745 immigrants arrive
1933 – Chicago Bears win their 1st NFL Game beating NY Giants 23-21
1953 – Mickey Mantle hits a 565′ (172 m) HR in Wash DC’s Griffith Stadium
1964 – Ford Mustang formally introduced ($2368 base)
1993 – Police officers found guilty of violating Rodney Kings civil rights

Friday
1775 – Paul Revere & William Dawes warn “British are coming!”
1838 – Wilkes’ expedition to South Pole sails
865 – Confederate Gen Johnson surrendered to Gen Sherman in North Carolina
1906 – SF earthquake & fire kills nearly 4,000 & destroys 75% of city
1942 – “Stars & Stripes” paper for US armed forces starts
1966 – Bill Russell became 1st black coach in NBA history (Boston Celtics)
1984 – Challenger flies back to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB
1995 – Quarterback Joe Montana announces his retirement from football

Saturday
1775 – Revolution begins-Lexington Common, shot “heard round the world”
1861 – Lincoln orders blockade of Confederate ports (Civil War)
1897 – 1st Boston Marathon won by John McDermott of NY in 2:55:10
1910 – Halley’s comet seen by naked eye 1st time this trip (Curacao)
1932 – Pres Herbert Hoover suggests 5 day work week
1943 – Jews attack Nazi occupation forces at Warsaw Ghetto
1948 – ABC-TV network begins
1971 – Charles Manson sentenced to life (Sharon Tate murder)
1982 – Sally Ride announced as 1st woman astronaut
1995 – Truck bomb at Federal Building in Okla City, kills 168 & injures 500

Sunday
1836 – Territory of Wisconsin created
1861 – Colonel Robert E Lee resigns from Union army
1912 – Fenway Park officially opens, Red Sox beat NY Highlanders 7-6 in 11
1916 – Weeghman Park (Wrigley Field) in Chicago opens, Cubs beat Cin Reds 7-6
1939 – New York World’s Fair opens
1944 – NFL legalizes coaching from bench
1967 – US Surveyor 3 lands on Moon
1974 – Paul McCartney releases “Band on the Run”
1983 – Pres Reagan signs a $165B bail out for Social Security

Monday
0030 – Scholars’ reckon Jesus was crucified by Roman troops in Jerusalem
1798 – Mississippi Territory organized
1923 – 1st brain tumor operation under local anesthetic performed (Beth Israel Hospital in NYC) by Dr K Winfield Ney
1943 – Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini met for an Axis conference in Salzburg
1953 – 1st west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight
1966 – US recovers lost H-bomb from Mediterranean floor (whoops!)
1983 – Oldest human skeleton, aged 80,000 years, discovered in Egypt

Tuesday
1766 – 1st fire escape patented, wicker basket on a pulley & chain
1865 – General Robert E Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House in Virginia
1879 – Milk was sold in glass bottles for 1st time
1913 – 17th amendment, requiring direct election of senators, ratified
1952 – Pres Truman seizes steel mills to avert a strike
1968 – Baseball’s Opening Day is postponed because of M L King assassination
1986 – Clint Eastwood elected mayor of Carmel California, Make his day
1991 – Oakland A’s stadium becomes 1st outdoor arena to ban smoking

Wednesday
1770 – Capt James Cook discovers Botany Bay (Australia)
1833 – 1st tax-supported public library (Peterborough, NH)
1869 – Hudson Bay Company cedes it’s territory to Canada
1912 – Titanic leaves Queenstown Ireland for NY
1940 – Germany invades Norway & Denmark during WW II (Denmark surrenders)
1959 – NASA names 1st 7 astronauts for Project Mercury
1963 – Winston Churchill becomes 1st honorary US citizen (posthumously)
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr, buried in Atlanta
1989 – Wash DC march supporting 1973 Roe vs Wade decision (allow abortions)
1991 – Date of Microsoft MS DOS 5.0

Thursday
1790 – Robert Gray is 1st American to circumnavigate the Earth
1841 – NY “Tribune” begins publishing under editor Horace Greeley
1872 – 1st National black convention meets in New Orleans
1887 – President Abraham Lincoln’s re-buried with his wife in Springfield Il
1923 – Hitler demands “hatred & more hatred” in Berlin
1945 – US troops liberate Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany
1955 – Ruth Ellis shoots jilting lover David Blakely
1971 – US table tennis team arrives in China PR
1989 – Intel corp announces shipment of 80-486 chip
1995 – NYC bans smoking in all restaurants that seat 35 or more

Friday
1890 – Ellis Island designated as an immigration station
1899 – Treaty of Paris ratifies ends war; Spain cedes Puerto Rico to US
1941 – Germany blitzes Conventry, England
1947 – Jackie Robinson becomes 1st black in modern major-league baseball
1956 – Singer Nat Cole attacked on stage of Birmingham theater by whites
1968 – Pres Johnson signs 1968 Civil Rights Act
1974 – WW II war criminal JP Philippa arrested
1981 – Ronald Reagan arrives home from hospital after Hinkley shot him
1984 – Challenger astronauts complete 1st in space satellite repair
1991 – UN Security Council issues formal cease fire with Iraq declaration

Saturday
1787 – Philadelphia’s Free African Society forms
1811 – 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, WA
1861 – Fort Sumter, SC is shelled by Confederacy, starting Civil War
1869 – North Carolina legislature passes anti-Klan Law
1908 – Fire makes 17,000 homeless in Chelsea Massachusetts
1933 – Moffatt Field commissioned
1938 – US began requiring medical tests for marriage licenses
1945 – Harry Truman sworn in as 33rd pres
1957 – USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1963 – Birmingham police use dogs & cattle prods on peaceful demonstrators
1983 – Harold Washington becomes Chicago’s 1st black mayor
1988 – Harvard U patents genetically engineered mouse (1st for animal life)
1990 – 1st meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for Nazi holocaust & asks for forgivenesss

Sunday
1742 – George Frederic Handel’s “Messiah” performed for 1st time (Dublin)
1860 – 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento Calif
1865 – Sherman’s march through Georgia begin
1904 – Congress authorizes Lewis & Clark Expo $1 gold coin
1933 – 1st flight over Mount Everest (Lord Clydesdale)
1934 – 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments
1945 – US marines conquer Minna Shima off Okinawa
1954 – Robert Oppenheimer accused of being a communist
1961 – UN General Assembly condemns South-Africa’s apartheid
1970 – Apollo 13 announces “Houston, we’ve got a problem!” as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon
1992 – Great Chicago Flood – Chicago’s underground tunnels flood

Monday March 31
1850 – US population hits 23,191,876 (Black population: 3,638,808 (15.7%))
1878 – Jack Johnson is 1st black to hold a heavyweight boxing title
1918 – 1st daylight savings time in US goes into effect
1933 – German Republic gives power to Hitler
1965 – US ordered the 1st combat troops to Vietnam
1979 – My wife Carrie was born… Happy Birthday!

Tuesday April 1
1853 - Cincinnati became 1st US city to pay fire fighters a regular salary
1863 – 1st wartime conscription law in US goes into effect
1933 – Nazi Germany begins persecution of Jews boycotting Jewish businesses
1938 – Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, NY
1945 – US forces invade Okinawa during WW II
1952 – Big Bang theory proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow
1963 – Soap operas “General Hospital” & “Doctors” premier on TV
1980 – Wayne Gretzky breaks Bobby Orr’s record with 103rd assist
1986 – World oil prices dip below $10 a barrel
1996 – Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Boston MA on WBCN 104.1 FM (morn)

Wednesday April 2
1827 – Joseph Dixon begins manufacturing lead pencils
1866 – Pres Johnson ends war in Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Tn & Va
1872 – George B Brayton patents gasoline powered engine
1912 – Titanic undergoes sea trials under its own power
1932 – Charles Lindbergh turns over $50,000 as ransom for kidnapped son
1954 – Plans to build Disneyland 1st announced
1970 – 2 men begin ascent of south face of Annapurna I, highest final stage in a wall climb in world
1977 – Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors,” album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 31 weeks
1987 – IBM introduces PS/2 & OS/2
1992 – John Gotti found guilty in death of Paul Castallanos

Thursday April 3
1922 – Stalin appointed General Secretary of Communist Party
1933 – 1st airplane flight over Mt Everest
1941 – Churchill warns Stalin of German invasion
1945 – Nazi’s begin evacuation of camp Buchenwald
1949 – North Atlantic Treaty, pact signed by US, Britain, France & Canada
1968 – N Vietnam agrees to meet US reps to set up preliminary peace talks
1995 – Howard Stern gets in trouble for disparaging remarks about Selena

Friday April 4
1862 – Battle of Yorktown begins
1932 – Vitamin C 1st isolated, CC King, Univ of Pittsburgh
1945 – US forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany
1966 – Pirate Radio Scotland changes name to Radio Ireland
1983 – 6th space shuttle mission, Challenger 1 launched
1992 – Jury deliberations begin in Noriega case
1994 – Netscape Communications founded as Mosaic Communications

Saturday April 5
1893 – Cleveland passes Park Act (forerunner of Metroparks)
1896 – 1st modern Olympic Games officially opens in Athens
1941 – In SF, Castro & Fillmore streetcars replaced by buses
1954 – Elvis Presley records his debut single, “That’s All Right”
1962 – NASA civilian pilot Neil A Armstrong takes X-15 to 54,600 m
1974 – Then tallest building, World Trade Center opens in NYC (110 stories)
1988 – Democratic convention picks Michael Dukakis as their pres candidate

Sunday April 6
1830 – Joseph Smith & 5 others organizes Mormon church in Seneca Co, NY
1869 – 1st plastic, Celluloid, patented
1893 – Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City dedicated
1909 – North Pole reached by Americans Robert Peary & Matthew Henson
1925 – 1st film shown on an airplane (British Air)
1930 – Hostess Twinkies invented by bakery executive James Dewar
1943 – British & US army link up in Africa during WW II
1945 – Japanese giant battleship Yamato heads to Okinawa
1954 – TV Dinner was 1st put on sale by Swanson & Sons
1976 – 1st quadrophonic movie track: “Ladies & Gentlemen the Rolling Stones”
1980 – Post It Notes, introduced
1987 – Sugar Ray Leonard upsets Marvelous Marvin Hagler
1992 – Microsoft announced Windows 3.1, upgrading Windows 3.0

1851 – Yosemite Valley discovered in California
1865 – Battle of Bentonville ends, last Confederate effort to stop Sherman
1907 – US invades Honduras
1927 – Guomindang Army conquerors Shanghai as British marines flee
1939 – Nazi-Germany demands Gdansk (Danzig) from Poland
1944 – Gen Eisenhower postpones S France invasion until after Normandy
1945 – During WW II Allied bombers begin 4-day raid over Germany
1947 – Pres Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to have allegiance to the United States
1961 – Beatles’ 1st appearance at the Cavern Club
1963 – Alcatraz federal penitentiary in SF Bay closed
1965 – Martin Luther King Jr begins march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama
1971 – Vermont seasonal snowfall totals 132.2″
1980 – On TV show Dallas, J.R. is shot
1991 – 27 lost at sea when 2 US Navy anti-submarine planes collide
1994 – Watne Gretzky ties Gordie Howe’s NHL record of 801 goals

1760 – Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings
1816 – US Supreme Court affirms its right to review state court decisions
1868 – Jesse James Gang robs bank in Russelville Kentucky of $14,000
1886 – 1st AC power plant in US begins commercial operation, Mass
1896 – Marines land in Nicaragua to protect US citizens
1931 – Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin
1942 – Gen MacArthur vows, “I shall return”
1947 – 180-metric ton blue whale (record) caught in South Atlantic
1952 – US senate ratifies peace treaty with Japan
1968 – LBJ signs a bill removing gold backing from US paper money
1969 – US president Nixon proclaims he will end Vietnam war in 1970
1982 – Joan Jett & Blackhearts’ “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” goes #1 for 7 wks
1990 – LA Lakers retires Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s #33

1753 – 1st official St Patrick’s Day
1762 – 1st St Patrick’s Day parade in NYC
1845 – Rubber band patented by Stephen Perry of London
1921 – Lenin proclaims New Economic Politics
1932 – German police raid Hitler’s nazi-headquarter
1945 – Allied ships bomb North-Sumatra
1959 – Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India
1973 – St Patrick Day marchers carry 14 coffins commemorating Bloody Sunday

1802 – Law signed to establish US Milt Academy (West Point, NY)
1830 – New York Stock Exchange slowest day ever (31 shares traded)
1861 – Arizona Territory votes to leave the Union
1897 – Start of Sherlock Holmes “The Adventure of The Devil’s Foot” (BG)
1915 – Federal Trade Commission organizes
1935 – Hitler orders German rearmament, violating Versailles Treaty
1939 – Germany occupies Czechoslovakia
1955 – President Eisenhower upheld the use of atomic weapons in case of war
1972 – John & Yoko are served with deportation papers
1978 – US Senate accepts Panama Canal treaty
1988 – Federal grand jury indicts North & Poindexter in Iran-Contra affair
1994 – Tonya Harding pleads guilty to felony attack on Nancy Kerrigan
1995 – Mississippi formally abolishes slavery & ratifies 13th Amendment

1778 – Nootka Sound, Vancouver Is discovered by Capt Cook
1867 – Michigan becomes 1st state to tax property to support a university
1892 – NY State unveils automatic ballot booth (voting machine)
1913 – Cleveland establishes 1st small claims court
1930 – 1st streamlined submarine of US navy, USS Nautilus, launched
1939 – Hitler occupies Bohemia & Moravia (Czechoslovakia); Slovakia independ
1947 – John Lee appointed 1st black commissioned officer in US Navy
1962 – Wilt Chamberlain is 1st to score 4,000 pts in an NBA season
1971 – Chatrooms make their debut on the Internet
1977 – “Eight is Enough” premiers on ABC-TV
1985 – Larry Holmes TKOs David Bey in 10 for heavyweight boxing title
1988 – NASA reports accelerated breakdown of ozone layer by CFK

1794 – Eli Whitney patents cotton gin
1843 – Boston conducts its 1st town meeting (Faneuil Hall)
1888 – 2nd largest snowfall in NYC history (21″)
1913 – John D Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation
1923 – Pres Warren G Harding becomes 1st pres to pay taxes
1950 – FBI’s “10 Most Wanted Fugitives” program begins
1962 – Gordie Howe (Det Red Wings) is 2nd NHLer to score 500 goals
1967 – JFK’s body moved from temporary grave to a permanent memorial
1983 – OPEC cut oil prices for 1st time in 23 years
1997 – Pres Clinton trips & tears up his knee requiring surgery