| This event remained above magnitude 0 for 10 weeks. The comet is named for Edmond Halley, who first observed the comet in 1682. |
| Close this window |
| An ancient city frozen in time by a volcanic eruption, offers the best insight into the daily life of the Romans. It was completely covered by a shower of ash when Mt Vesuvius erupted on 24 August AD 79. Thanks to the protection afforded by the ash layer, many of the buildings have survived, complete with grafiti and paintings on the walls of the villas, sculpture, and street pavement |  |
| Close this window |
|
| Oliver Pollock played a most vital role from the earliest days in the American Revolution in New Orleans where he obtained and sent critical military supplies to Washington's army which Pollock acquired through his friendship with Bernardo de Galvez, Governor of "New Spain," or the Spanish territories in America. |
| Close this window |
| F. Muhlenberg was elected 1st speaker. A Delegate and a Representative from Pennsylvania and a Lutheran pastor by trade, Muhlenberg was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania |  |
| Close this window |
|
| " Take a few feet of inch pipe; turn it at right angles every foot and fill the long part with 1/4 inch pipe. "If air is made to pass through this crooked tube, while it contains a single spoonful of high proof whiskey, and spirit of turpentine, with a proper temperature, it comes out highly explosive, if the current is forced through by a hand bellows, with ever so much velocity." Or, "A few drops of these liquors, on a board in the sun, with a tumbler inverted over them, will explode in a short time, if a flame is applied." Morey adds the comforting information: "As we now construct the engine and preparing vessel, it is impossible that an explosion can take place, that will injure anyone." |
| Close this window |
| The Fire Department became a paid department, the first full-time paid department in the United States, and the first in the world to use steam fire engines. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| The draft was controversial, especially among the working class, because the wealthy could "buy their way out" for $300 (less than the cost of hiring a substitute, also allowable). In 1863, a mob burned the New York City draft office, touching off a five-day riot that targeted anger at the city's black population as well as the wealthy. |
| Close this window |
| The Travelers Insurance Company (the company with the red umbrella as a logo, remember?) issued the policy to James Batterson, who also received the first general insurance policy issued by the firm in July, 1864. |
| Close this window |
| The first machine was designed over a number of years by Josephine Cockrane. She measured the dishes and constructed wire compartments to fit plates, cups and saucers, and placed these inside a wheel that lied flat within a copper boiler. The wheel turned, powered by a motor, and soapy water would squirt up over the dishes to clean them. The drying cycle consisted of raising the racks and pouring boiling water from a tea kettle onto the dishes, then allowing them to air dry. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| The first submarine telephone cable was laid by HMTS Monarch (No. 1) between England and France enabling telephone conversations to be made between London and Paris. Dry core paper insulated telephone cable was introduced. The first installation of this cable was between Pipewellgate and Deckham in Gateshead-on-Tyne. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| This included the formation of the Women's Royal Air Force |  |
| Close this window |
|
| Victor introduces the first totally automatic record changer, the VV 10-50. Selling for $600 ($5600 in today's money), it is powered by an electric motor, but uses acoustic reproduction. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| The origins of the yo-yo have been traced back to Greece in the year 500 B.C. but many believe its origins were even earlier, in China. Even then a toy, the yo-yo has had some more macabre applications including its use as a weapon in the Philippines. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| He caught the ball awkwardly, shattering his jawbone. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| It was the first film to put Marlene Dietrich in front of an international audience. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| Imagine the expressions on the Yankees' faces when the rookie southpaw
(in a custom-made baggy white uniform) stepped up on to the mound to face their team. Even worse,
imagine the pressure she endured, as the first batter of her baseball career was none other than
the "Sultan of Swat" Babe Ruth! Next up was non-other than "The Iron Horse" Lou Gehrig who followed the Babe's lead and swung at three in a row for "K" number two. In just seven pitches, Mitchell had sat down two of the greatest sluggers ever to don the pinstripes. |
 |
| Close this window |
| Ruth was one of nine players, and 12 living legends overall (Lou Gehrig did not make the opening), honored among the first 26 Hall of Fame members elected spanning the classes of 1936-'39. Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and Honus Wagner were the first class of inductees, elected three years before the Museum would open. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| The contract actually was signed on December 8, 1940, by the Longines Watch Company and provided for the broadcasting of Longines time signals by W2XOR, New York, for 26 weeks beginning January 1, 1941. On April 1, 1941, the experimental license was replaced with commercial license W71NY, and the station was operating from 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 p.m. on a frequency of 47,100 kilocycles. |
| Close this window |
| At Treasure Island, military structures soon took the place of exposition buildings as the island became the headquarters of the 12th Naval District, as well as a center for receiving, training and dispatching service personnel throughout the Pacific. Sailors from the island flooded the streets of San Francisco. The City was once again a Navy town, and Treasure Island came to be known by the sailors, and everyone else, as TI. Originally created in 1938 to host the Golden Gate International Exposition, the man-made isle |  |
| Close this window |
|
| While weight watchers is a common name for dietary programs, I don't believe it is the weight loss program we know today. Weight Watchers, Inc. was started in 1961 by NYC resident Jean Neditch and incorporated in May, 1963. |
| Close this window |
| In late 1949 Eileen cut an up-tempo novelty tune introduced on the "Breakfast Club" radio show called "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked A Cake." The record was an instant sensation and became one of the highest selling records on an independent label in history. It remained on the best seller charts for more than four months and held the number one spot in the country for as astounding twelve consecutive weeks! |  |
| Close this window |
|
| According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe originated in an extremely dense and hot state about 13.7 billion years ago.Since then, space itself has expanded with the passage of time, carrying the galaxies with it. |
| Close this window |
| Congress authorized creation of the Air Force Academy in 1954. Harold E. Talbott, then secretary of the Air Force, appointed a commission to assist him in selecting the permanent site. After traveling 21,000 miles and considering 580 proposed sites in 45 states, the commission recommended three locations. From those, Secretary Talbott selected the site near Colorado Springs. On April 1, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill establishing the U.S. Air Force Academy. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| The earthquake created a giant wave which swept down the bay clearing all soil and timber off the hill sides to an elevation in excess of 1700 feet. There were a number of fishing boats in the bay at the time. One of the boats survived after being carried over a peninsula covered with forest, and was deposited in the sea. The local Indians had long told stories of great waves in the bay, but no one believed it until this happened. Now we know that it is a regular occurrence in Lituya Bay caused by the Fairweather Fault that cuts through the upper bay. |
| Close this window |
| The Huntley-Brinkley Report was a 15 minute nightly news program. It expanded to 30 minutes in 1963. It was the top rated news program for most of its 14 year life. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| The TIROS I was the world's first weather satellite. TIROS imaged large swaths of the Earth's surface, allowing forecasters and scientists to see directly for the first time the massive scale of our planet's weather systems. The satellite transmitted thousands of images of cloud patterns and other phenomena to ground stations during the three-month life of the satellite. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| By the time Surrender hit #1 in February 1961, Elvis already had a dozen chart-toppers under his belt but he was concentrating all his activities in the recording and film studios, making no personal appearances. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| Printers and engravers strike New York City’s newspapers. The costliest newspaper strike in New York’s history, it lasts until April 1, 1963. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| Since most soap operas had some overtone or sub-plot involving illness or injury, it was only a matter of time before an entire soap opera would be set in a hospital. And what was even more astonishing was that TWO networks premiered such a soap on the same date - ABC's "General Hospital" and NBC's "The Doctors". "The Doctor's" ended after a long 19 season run, in 1982; "General Hospital" is still going. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| A vast right field compensated for a short left-field line and combined with
injuries to end Snider's days as a dominant home run hitter for the Dodgers in 1962.
He collected the first hit in Dodger Stadium, which opened that year. The Mets acquired Snider for sentimental reasons in 1963 where he hit 0.243, with 8 doubles, 14 home runs, and 45 RBIs. |
 |
| Close this window |
|
| The Turtles were formed by Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman in Westchester,
California in 1965, as a surf rock group called "The Crossfires". "Happy Together" seemed almost a parody of itself, and had already been rejected by countless performers. Considered 1960s pop at its best, Happy Together provided a turning point for the Turtles. With its tongue-in-cheek atmosphere, incessant background guitar riff, addictive chorus and backing vocals, simple drum and organ lines, and even an oboe playing along during the second chorus, it spent three weeks at #1 on the American charts in 1967, the only Turtles record to do so replacing the Beatles' single "Penny Lane" in the #1 spot. |
 |
| Close this window |
| At issue was the players' demand for greater pensions. Under the last contract, signed in 1969, they get basically $60 a month for each year of service in the major leagues, paid beginning at age 50. The pension is paid only to players with at least four years service. The players sought a 17% rise in pension benefits to cover cost of living increases. What was really at stake was not so much money as ego and the traditional order of things with the owners used to having their own way. |
| Close this window |
| The group members were all sons of American military
personnel based in England when they met at London's Central High School. They were all interested
in music and had played in various other bands before forming a
five-man unit called the Daze. Legend says the trio picked their name from an Americana-brand jukebox in a London pub. But the name America meant more than the logo on a jukebox to them, it was their homeland -- even if it was a place they hadn't lived in for very long. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 on February 19, 1972, at number 84. As it moved up the chart, the group came home to America for the first time in many years and toured as the opening act for the Everly Brothers. They finished the tour in Los Angeles and returned to Britain before "A Horse With No Name" went to number one on March 25, 1972. |
 |
| Close this window |
| In 1975, Steve Wozniak was working for Hewlett Packard (calculator manufacturers) by day and playing computer hobbyist by night, tinkering with the early computer kits like the Altair. He realized that the prices of some computer parts (e.g. microprocessors and memory chips) had gotten so low that he could buy them with maybe a month's salary. Wozniak decided that, with some help from fellow hobbyist Steve Jobs, they could build their own computer. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| A seventh official, the Side Judge, is added to the officiating crew to help rule on legalities downfield. |
| Close this window |
| Night Fever reached number one in the UK and was taken from the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, which itself went on to sell more than 30 million copies worldwide. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| In one week (March 30 to April 1st) in 1981, he broke Phil Esposito's
single-season points total record (152) and Bobby Orr's single-season assist record (102). In 1999, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. The NHL retired the number 99. Currently he is a part owner and coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. |
 |
| Close this window |
|
| By comparison, in February 1997 a 10-man Danish rowing club covered 272.6 miles in 24 hours. |
| Close this window |
| Sports Illustrated published an article by George Plimpton that described an incredible
rookie baseball player who was training at the Mets camp in St. Petersburg, Florida and he could
pitch a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. The fastest previous recorded speed for a pitch
was 103 mph. Finch had actually never played baseball before. Finch briefly attended Harvard before he headed to Tibet. Through his Tibetan mind-body mastery, Finch had "learned the art of the pitch." Finch showed up at the Mets camp in Florida, and so impressed their manager that he was invited to attend training camp. His speed and power were so great that the catcher would only hear a small sound before the ball would land in his glove, knocking him two or three feet back. One of the players declared that it was not "humanly possible" to hit Finch's pitches. Unfortunately for the Mets, Finch had not yet decided whether to commit himself to a career as a baseball player, or to pursue a career as a French Horn player. He told the Mets management that he would let them know his decision on April 1. Sports Illustrated received almost 2000 letters in response to the article, and it became one of their most famous stories ever. On April 8 they declared that Finch had held a press conference in which he said that he had lost the accuracy needed to throw his fastball and would therefore not be pursuing a career with the Mets. On April 15 they admitted that the story was a hoax. George Plimpton actually left an obscure hint that the story was a hoax within the article itself (the non-obscure hint being that the story was absurd). The sub-heading of the article read: "He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga —and his future in baseball." The first letter of each of these words, taken together, spells "H-a-p-p-y A-p-r-i-l F-o-o-l-s D-a-y." |
| Close this window |
| The Look". Roxette. Music & Lyrics by Per Gessle. "The Look" was a #1 song in 33 countries. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| The Tradition is one of the five major championships recognised by the U.S. based Champions Tour, the world's leading tour for male professional golfers aged fifty and up. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| The minimum wage was raised to $3.80 an hour beginning April 1, 1990, and to $4.25 an hour beginning April 1, 1991. The amendments also established a training wage provision (at 85% of the minimum wage, but not less than $3.35 an hour) for employees under the age of twenty, a provision that expired in 1993. Finally, the amendments established an overtime exception for time spent by employees in remedial education and civil money penalties for willful or repeated violations of the minimum wage or overtime pay requirements of the law. |
| Close this window |
| During jury selection at his state-court trial for aggravated murder and related offenses, petitioner Powers, a white man, objected to the State's use of peremptory challenges to remove seven black persons from the jury. |
| Close this window |
| USS Missouri, a 45,000 ton Iowa class battleship built by the New York Navy Yard,
was commissioned on 11 June 1944. Arriving in the war zone in January 1945, Missouri supported the Iwo
Jima invasion, the Ryukyus campaign and raids on Japan's home islands during the following months.
In May, she became Third Fleet flagship and was the site of the 2 September 1945 Japanese surrender
ceremony that ended World War II. Missouri was the only U.S. battleship on active duty in June 1950, when the Korean War began, and made two combat deployments to the Western Pacific. She decommissioned in February 1955. For the next three decades, she was in reserve at Bremerton, Washington, and became an important tourist attraction. |
 |
| Close this window |
| NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow, in just his first year on the job, led the players on a 10-day strike. It was the first-ever strike in league history. Players walked off the job on April 1. They returned April 11 after the two sides agreed on a two-year contract. At the crux of the conflict was the players' demand to have full control of the marketing rights to their images. This included the use of player pictures on trading cards, posters and other merchandise. The 30 games that were supposed to be played during the strike were re-scheduled. |
| Close this window |
| The second all-time leading scorer in the National Hockey League, Gordie Howe, made yet another comeback at the age of 69. The former Red Wing, Aero and Whaler played for 32 years, 2,186 games, scored 975 goals, 2,358 points and was assessed 2,084 penalty minutes. |  |
| Close this window |
|
| Comet Hale-Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) was probably the most widely observed
comet of the 20th century, and one of the brightest seen for many decades. It was visible to the naked eye
for a record 18 months, twice as long as the previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811. Hale-Bopp was discovered on 23 July 1995 at a very large distance from the Sun, raising expectations that the comet could become very bright when it passed close to the Sun. Although comet brightnesses are very difficult to predict with any degree of accuracy, Hale-Bopp met or exceeded most predictions for its brightness when it passed perihelion on April 1, 1997. The comet was dubbed the Great Comet of 1997. |
 |
| Close this window |
 |
|||
