| Along with Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress was read in virtually every Victorian home and remains a best seller for youth and adults alike. His works are considered devotional classics among Christian literature. Theologically, Bunyan was a Puritan in that he held a Calvinist view of grace, but he was a separatist in his view of baptism and the church. |  |
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| English opera had been performed on a regular basis in the American colonies as early as 1735 when the ballad opera “Flora” by John Hippesley received its American premiere at the Courtroom in Charleston, South Carolina. American productions for the remainder of the century predominantly consisted of English works. |
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| The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 called for educational institutions as part of the settlement and eventual statehood of the Northwest Territory. In 1797, settlers from Marietta traveled up the Hocking River to establish a location for the school, choosing Athens due to its location directly between Chillicothe (the original capital of Ohio) and Marietta. At first called American Western University, Ohio University was founded on February 18, 1804, a year after Ohio was admitted to the Union. |
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| The filibuster remained a solely theoretical option until 1841, when the Democratic minority tried to block a bank bill favored by the Whig majority by using the political tactic of a filibuster. Senator Henry Clay, a promoter of the bill, threatened to change Senate rules to allow the majority to close debate. Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton rebuked Clay for trying to stifle the Senate's right to unlimited debate and he was unsuccessful in eliminating the filibuster with a simple majority vote. |
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| In 1849 the "friends of a Rail Road to California" met in Boston to hear a proposal for a railroad from St. Louis to San Francisco. But the shorter transcontinental crossing at the Isthmus of Panama by a railroad would occur first in 1855. Meanwhile, the connection between San Francisco and Sacramento was improved by an expanding, fast, and efficient steamboat service. In 1856 the Sacramento Valley Railroad opened officially for service between Sacramento and Folsom. |
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| On February 18, 1879, the French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi earned a patent for a "Design for a Statue." This statue, "Liberty Enlightening the World," would become one of the most famous monuments of world history. |  |
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| Of all Twain's novels, it was also the one that sold best at its initial appearance. On the other hand, it was condemned by many reviewers in Twain's time as coarse and by many commentators in our time as racist. In 1885 it was banished from the shelves of the Concord Public Library, an act that attracted a lot of publicity and discussion in the press. It is still frequently in the news, as various schools and school systems across the country either ban it from or restore it to their classrooms. |
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| In 1901, a dust removing suction cleaner was patented by Hubert Cecil Booth, a bridge engineer. Prior machines using compressed air created clouds of dust, but with no means of removal, the dirt simply settled again. Once struck with the idea of using suction, started a mobile cleaning service. Built on a horse-drawn cart, his vacuum machine had an engine driving a pump provided with a long hose to extend into a house to be cleaned. An early task was to clean the great blue coronation carpet in Westminster Abbey for Edward VII's coronation. |
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| The Bureau had been experimenting in processing stamps into coil form. The first of this experimental work was issued on February 18, 1908. These coils were produced from regular sheets of 404 stamps perforated horizontally and cut into strips of 24. The strips were then pasted together to form coils of 500 or 1,000 stamps each. Soon thereafter the Bureau developed a machine for preparing the coils which materially reduced processing costs. |
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| While serving as a federal judge, Landis was selected to become the first Commissioner of Major League Baseball, serving from 1920 until his death in 1944. The position was created to restore public confidence in the integrity of baseball following the 1919 Black Sox scandal, only the worst of a number of incidents that jeopardized the integrity of the game. He achieved this by permanently banishing eight players from the sport for their Black Sox scandal involvement, including Buck Weaver and superstar Shoeless Joe Jackson, and by dealing harshly with others proven to have thrown individual games or consorted with gamblers. |
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| "Ollie" became the first cow to be flown and milked in an airplane. Ollie's cause celeb centers around the airplane flight she took in February, 1930 to the International Aircraft Exposition at St. Louis. Because she was such an unusually productive dairy cow--and required three daily milkings--she was put to work in-flight. As the story goes, she ate her usual feed and produced 24 quarts of milk. In what may very well be the first, if not only, case of fresh air delivery, these quarts were carefully bottled, sealed and dropped from the airplane as it flew over St. Louis. Small parachutes were attached to keep her skymilk from spilling. |
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| In 1930, the planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh, the only planet to be found by an American astronomer. This culminated three decades of work at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Before Tombaugh was born, Percival Lowell had launched a search for Pluto, a ninth planet whose gravity would explain deviations in the positions of Uranus and Neptune. Lowell was unsuccessful, and in his will he decreed that the hunt should continue. |
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| Sonja Henie made her Olympic debut at the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924. At the time, she was only 11 years old and she had to punctuate her free skating routine with frequent visits to the sidelines to ask her coach what she should do next. By 1926 she placed second in the world championships. At the 1928 St. Moritz Olympics, Henie won the gold medal. Henie repeated her victory in 1932, this time as the unanimous choice of the judges. Henie soon became so popular that, when she appeared, police had to be called out to control crowds in places as far apart as New York and Prague. |
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| Originally billed as "Four Boys and a Guitar," the group's early records came complete with a note assuring listeners that the only musical instrument they were hearing was a guitar. In 1943 with the release of "Paper Doll," a sweet, intimate ballad, they became one of the biggest hits of the decade -- twelve weeks on the top of the charts, and six million records sold (plus sheet music). The group made appearances in several movies during the early '40s, and hit number one again in 1944 with "You'll Always Hurt the One You Love." |
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| In 1943, this day marked the groundbreaking ceremony in Oak Ridge, TN for the first uranium 235 plant. (Uranium 235 was needed to build the A-bomb.) The uranium manufacturing facility cost $280,000,000 to build and was completed in the summer of 1944. |  |
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| The youngest player of the 20th century to reach the majors, Nuxhall was an exceptionally promising schoolboy pitcher, signed by the Reds with special permission from his school principal. He was 15 years, 10 months, and 11 days old on June 10, 1944, when manager Bill McKechnie sent him in to pitch the ninth inning of a game hopelessly lost to the Cardinals. He yielded five runs on two hits and five walks, while retiring only two batters. |
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| The Ames Brothers were swept into national top billing with their first hit record, "Rag Mop," in January, 1950. Doing radio shows for free at times just for the experience, they later became regulars on such shows as The Arthur Godfrey Hour. One of the first acts to appear on the original Ed Sullivan Show when it was known as Toast of the Town, they made their debut with him when the show was telecast live from Wanamaker's Department Store. |
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| In 1950, "All My Love" became her first number one hit and spent several weeks at the top. That same year produced the biggest hit of her career, "The Tennessee Waltz." Notched at number one for months, it eventually became one of the best-selling singles of all time and prompted no less than six Top 40 covers during the following year. |  |
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| When the major studios turned down Arch Oboler's idea to shoot a movie in 3-D, he did it himself... the result was "Bwana Devil", which was the first 3-D feature to be seen around the world, and was the cause of the golden era of 3-D. |  |
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| Kay again hit the American and British charts in January 1956 with her million selling gold
record “The Rock And Roll Waltz.” The single went on to become the number two top selling single of 1956 in the U.S.,
and the number one single of the year on the U.K. charts. "The Rock And Roll Waltz" also gave Kay the distinction of
being the first female vocalist with a top hit in the ‘Rock and Roll’ era.
"The Great Pretender" was the first ever Doo Wop #1 in the USA. The Platters also became the first R&B group to have a #1 on the Pop charts. This was used in the movie Rock Around The Clock. | |
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| Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley paid $494,000 to complete the purchase of Chavez Ravine. The property was valued at $92,000. Hey, What’s a few extra dollars among friends? |  |
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| After joining and forming several different bands for years, he hit the big time with the launch of "The Lawrence Welk Show" on ABC in 1955, and later in syndication where it remained until 1982. Welk's show was originaly entitled "The Dodge Dancing Party," after his first national sponsor. His longest-lasting sponsors were two over-the-counter medicines, Geritol and Serutan ("That's 'nature's,' spelled backwards!"). The Lawrence Welk orchestra scored a number one single and album with "Calcutta" in 1961. |
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| With a two minute recording "Kind of a Drag," five teenagers from Chicago's west side, found themselves propelled into the national spotlight. Neighborhood kids drawn together by music, they had landed a showcase on WGN TV's All Time Hits, and succeeded in recording their first original song on USA Records. In February of 1967, the single swiftly climbed to the #1 spot on the national music charts. |  |
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| As team founder and pitcher Eddie Feigner, whose windmill-style, fast pitches were once clocked at
104 mph, teamed up with a catcher and two infielders to shut down most batters. He could throw strikes from second
base and centerfield. He could throw strikes blindfolded. Behind his back. Through his legs.
Feigner recorded more than 900 no-hitters during his career. Once, during a two-inning exhibition against major league baseball All-Stars in 1967, he struck out Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Brooks Robinson, Maury Wills, Harmon Killebrew and Roberto Clemente. |
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| In 1977, the first space shuttle orbiter, the Enterprise, was flight tested in "captive mode," attached to the top of a 747 jumbo jet. The flight was the first of five captive flights before the orbiter was released to land on its own. The nine-month-long Approach and Landing Test program was conducted through Nov 1977 at the Dryden Flight Research Facility and demonstrated that the orbiter could fly in the atmosphere and land like an airplane, except without power-gliding flight. |
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| "Stayin' Alive" plays over the opening credits of the 1977 movie ”Stayin' Alive” while John Travolta struts through the streets of New York City. The movie has come to represent the Disco era, and has made this the song most associated with Disco. The Bee Gees had been singing in a high-falsetto style since their 1975 hit "Jive Talkin'," which was also on the soundtrack, but they were very popular as a vocal harmony group in the late '60s and early '70s. Their contributions to “Saturday Night Fever” brought them huge success, but marked them as Disco singers. |
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| "Karma Chameleon" became a number one hit on both sides of the Atlantic, while the album reached number one in the U.K. and number two in the U.S. Throughout 1984, the group racked up hits, with "It's a Miracle" and "Miss Me Blind" reaching the Top Ten. |  |
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| Paula released 2 other singles before this came out. "Knocked Out" and "The Way You Love Me" established her as a dance singer, but this was her breakthrough hit. In the US, this was the best selling single of 1989. The album did not hit #1 in the US until 64th week on the charts, the longest ever journey to the top. |  |
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| During the 10-day Second Servicing Mission (STS-82), the seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery installed two technologically advanced instruments. The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) would be able to observe the universe in the infrared wavelengths. The second instrument—the versatile Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)—would be used to take detailed pictures of celestial objects and to hunt for black holes. |
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1678 John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's
Progress" is published
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1735 First opera performed in America, "Flora",
in Charleston SC
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1804 First US land-grant college, Ohio University,
Athens OH, chartered
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1841 First continuous filibuster in US Senate
began, lasting until March 11
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1849 First regular steamboat service to San Francisco
CA starts: gold rush prospectors from east coast
More ...
1879 Auguste Bartholdi was granted a design patent
for the Statue of Liberty
More ...
1885 Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn" published
More ...
1896 Cave of Winds at Niagara Falls goes almost
dry for first time in 50 years
1901 H Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction
cleaner
More ...
1908 First US postage stamps in coils issued
More ...
1922 Kenesaw Mountain Landis resigns his judgeship
to work for baseball
More ...
1930 Cow flown & milked, milk sealed in paper
containers & parachuted
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1930 US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto
More ...
1932 Sonja Henie won her 6th world women’s
figure skating title in Montreal, Canada
More ...
1942 The Mills Brothers recorded "Paper Doll"
on Decca records
More ...
1943 Groundbreaking ceremony in Oak Ridge, TN
for the first uranium 235 plant
More ...
1944 Cincinnati Reds sign youngest baseball player,
15 year old Joe Nuxhall
More ...
1950 "Rag Mop" by the Ames Brothers
topped the charts
More ...
1951 "Tennessee Waltz" by Patti Page
topped the charts
More ...
1953 Premiere of first 3-D feature film-"Bwana
Devil" (New York, NY)
More ...
1956 "Rock and Roll Waltz" by Kay Starr
and "The Great Pretender" by the Platters hit #1
More ...
1960 Walter O'Malley, Los Angeles Dodger owner,
purchases Chavez Ravine for $494,000
More ...
1961 "Calcutta" by Lawrence Welk topped
the charts.
More ...
1967 "Kind of a Drag" by the Buckinghams
topped the charts
More ...
1967 Softball pitcher Eddie Feigner strikes out
6 straight major leaguers
More ...
1973 54-kg (119 lbs) octopus measuring 7 meter
(23 feet) across captured in Hood Canal, Washington
1977 The space shuttle Enterprise flies on
top of a Boeing 747
More ...
1978 "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees
topped the charts
More ...
1979 Snow falls in the Sahara Desert
1979 State record low temperature of -52°
in Old Forge, NY
1984 "Karma Chameleon" by the Culture
Club topped the charts
More ...
1986 San Antonio's Alvin Robertson scores NBA
2nd quadruple double-20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists & 10 steals against
Phoenix
1989 "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul topped
the charts
More ...
1997 Shuttle Discovery Astronauts completed their
tuneup of the Hubble Space Telescope
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