| Henry married the pregnant Anne Boleyn in 1533; she gave him another daughter, Elizabeth, but was executed for infidelity (a treasonous charge in the king's consort) in May 1536. |
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| Henry married the pregnant Anne Boleyn in 1533; she gave him another daughter, Elizabeth, but was executed for infidelity (a treasonous charge in the king's consort) in May 1536. |
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| The critical battle of the rebellion was Shays' attack on the government arsenal at Springfield in January 1787, the only means of standing off troops who were advancing from Boston under General Benjamin Lincoln. At the arsenal, the defending militia commanded by General William Shepard unexpectedly fired their cannons into the ranks of the advancing rebels, killing four and wounding 20. Crying "murder" -- for the insurgent farmer-veterans never supposed their neighbors and fellow veterans would fire on them -- the Shays men retreated in disarray, pursued by Lincoln's government soldiers. |
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| In 1799, a seed-planting device was patented by Eliakim Spooner of Vermont. The seeds were fed by gravity. The machine was not practical, however. The first truly practical seeding machine to be patented in the U.S. was invented by Joseph Gibbons of Adrian Mich, who received patent No. 1,731 on August 25, 1840. His machine combined a grain drill with cavities to deliver seed and a device for regulating the volume. |
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| Tall, gaunt, and commanding, she lent her powerful talents as a speaker to the antislavery movement. When she happened upon a women's rights convention, she made that her cause as well. Illiterate all her life, she spoke more often among whites than her own people. Her homely eloquence and native wit disarmed hostile crowds. Sojourner Truth gave her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at the 1851 Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. |
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| The "Wedding March" by Felix Mendelssohn, which is taken from "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Mendelssohn`s "Wedding March" is often played as a recessional in many English speaking countries. It became popular at weddings when it was selected by Victoria, The Princess Royal, and oldest daughter of Queen Victoria, for her marriage to the Crown Prince of Prussia on 25. January 1858. |
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| In 1870, Gustavus Dows of Lowell, Mass. received his first patent for an "Improved Soda Fountain" being the vessel in which carbon dioxide was injected, both forming the soda-water beverage, and delivering the drink using the internal pressure. His improvement was to fit it with an internal perforated partition to improve aeration during oscillation. Earlier, he had had made the first ornamented soda fountain in the U.S. (1858), made from white Italian marble with spread eagles perched on the syrup cocks. He invented a double stream draft arm and cock, for a large or small stream (1862). From 1863, he made and sold soda fountains for $225 each. The first U.S. soda fountain patent was granted to Jacob Ebert and George Dulty in 1833. |
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| After coming up with the idea of trying to beat the travel time of the fictional Phileas Fogg, Bly asked her publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, to fund the journey, and she headed out on November 14, 1889. Her stories were wildly popular, and many people followed her journey closely on the map that was published every day. She returned to New York by train on Jan 25, 1890, a trip of 72 days. Nellie Bly was greeted by fireworks, gun salutes, brass bands and parade on Broadway having bested Phileas Fogg (a "record" of 72 days 6 hours 11 minutes 14 seconds). During her voyage she met with Jules Verne in Amiens when she travelled through France. Bly became so famous that dolls were made of her, songs were written about her, a race horse was named for her, and her image appeared everywhere from posters to soap ads to cartoons. |
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| The 1905 races confirmed the worldwide reputation of the Ormond-Daytona beaches as the top proving ground for auto racers and manufacturers. At least eight world land-speed records were set here in 1905, highlighted by the world record for the mile topping 100 mph and being shattered three times within 30 minutes on Jan. 25. The car was equipped with a 6 cylinder engine of about 848 cubic inches (6 x 5 inch), was rated 100hp. |
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| In 1915, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated transcontinental telephone service in the United States with a call made between New York City and San Francisco, Cal., which was answered by Dr. Watson, his longtime assistant. The previous long distance limit was New York to Denver, and only then with some shouting. Two metallic circuits made up the line; it used 2,500 tons of hard-drawn copper wire, 130,000 poles and countless loading coils. Three vacuum tube repeaters along the way boosted the signal. It was the world's longest telephone line. In a grand ceremony, 68 year old Alexander Graham Bell in New York City made the ceremonial first call to his old friend Thomas Watson in San Francisco. |
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| Games were actually called "The International Winter Sports Week" and went on for 11 days in the French Alps, 60 miles northeast of Grenoble. As expected, the Scandinavians dominated the 16-nation field. Norway and Finland won 27 of the 43 medals available, including all four Nordic events and four of the five speed skating races. |
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| "The Guiding Light" series was created by Irna Phillips, who based it on personal experiences. After giving birth to a still-born baby at age 19, she found spiritual comfort listening to sermons by a preacher of a church centered on the brotherhood of man. It was these sermons that formed the nucleus of the creation of The Guiding Light, which began as a radio show. |
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| Martin became an overnight sensation in the 1938 Cole Porter Broadway musical "Leave It to Me," stopping the show with her sly striptease number "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" (she would revise this piece in two Hollywood films, 1941's "Love Thy Neighbor" and the 1946 Cole Porter biopic "Night and Day"). The song was her signature song until she starred in "South Pacific" in 1949. |
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| Beulah started in 1939 when Marlin Hurt introduced the broad character on "Hometown Incorporated." In 1943, Beulah moved over to "That's Life," before finally settling in at 79 Wistful Vista, the home of "Fibber McGee and Molly," one of network radio's most popular (and longest-running) programs. The reaction to Beulah was overwhelming. Marlin Hurt had a unique way to jump start his appearances when Fibber McGee would call for Beulah. Hurt, with his back to the audience, would whirl around quickly and shout, "Somebody bawl fo' Beulah?" The audience would collapse in laughter. "Somebody bawl fo' Beulah" became a popular catch phrase, as did another Beulah-ism, "Love dat man!" |
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| In 1945, Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first U.S. city to begin fluoridating the drinking water. With the intention of reducing tooth decay, one part per million of fluoride was added to the water supply. Fluoride is present in small yet varying amounts in almost all soil, water supplies, plants, and animals and, therefore, is a normal constituent of all diets. In mammals, the highest concentrations are found in the bones and teeth. Decades after the conclusion of the Grand Rapids fluoridation study, fluoride continues to be dental science's main weapon in the battle against tooth decay. |
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| Only shows that have been produced in Los Angeles County, California and broadcast on the four TV stations in Los Angeles are eligible for the awards. Rudy Vallee is scheduled to emcee the show but he is called out of town and Walter O'Keefe substitutes. * Louis McManus was given a special award for his original design of the Emmy. Ironically he was presented with a plaque as an award instead of a copy of the very statue for which he was being honored. |
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| In 1952, the Autronic Eye, an automatic car headlamp beam control was introduced to the public by General Motors. A phototube atop the left end of the dashboard, just inside the windshield, dimmed the lights upon the approach of an oncoming car, and back to bright when the traffic had passed. It was offered on Oldsmobile and Cadillac cars. But automatic headlights tended to flicker erratically in response to minute fluctuations of light. In 1959, the name became the "Guide-Matic Power Headlight Control." General Motors had solved the problem with a new gadget: "With a twist of the dial autronic-eye lets you control the automatic dimming of your lights." Thus the driver could manually control an automatic device designed to eliminate the need for manual control. |
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| This was the first atomic clock and when it was developed in 1955, it was the most accurate timekeeper in the world. The timekeeping depends on the vibration of caesium stones - a natural phenomenon. It consists of an airless tube, which allows caesium atoms to pass along it while simultaneously exposing them to very high frequency radio waves. |
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| "At the Hop" was originally titled "Do The Bop." Dick Clark suggested renaming it "At The Hop" after "Do The Bop" flopped. Changing from "Bop" to "Hop" gave it the pop to put it over the top, and the band later signed with Clark's Swan Records. Danny And The Juniors were the Philadelphia group of Danny Rapp, Dave White, Frank Maffei and Joe Terranova. At the time, they were known as The Juvenairs. They were on a street corner singing when a someone who worked at a recording studio heard them and brought them in to sing. |
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| American Airlines offered the first domestic jet service using its own aircraft on January 25, 1959 with a flight from New York to Los Angeles. With this coast-to-coast service, American had a big competitive coup; the two other major domestic U.S. airlines, Trans World Airlines (TWA) and United Airlines, had not anticipated the imminent use of jets for domestic service. TWA quickly scrambled to catch up, and using a single Boeing 707, it joined the coast-to-coast flight market in March 1959. |
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| When a litter of dalmation puppies are abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the parents must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement. Art director Ken Anderson came up with the idea of overlaying cels of line drawings over the painted backgrounds to match the Xeroxed cels of the characters. For the next twenty years, all Disney features - with the exception of The Jungle Book (1967/I) and the animated segments in Mary Poppins (1964) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) - would use this technique for their backgrounds. |
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| "I Want to Hold your Hand" was the first Beatles song to catch on in America. In 1963, the Beatles became stars in England, but couldn't break through in the US. They couldn't get a major label to distribute their singles in America, so songs like "Love Me Do" and "She Loves You" were issued on small labels and flopped, even though they were hits in England. By February 1964, America finally took notice of The Beatles and bought this single in droves, giving them their first US hit. It sold better in first 10 days of release in the US than any other British single. |
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| Vinton did this in one take. He dismissed everybody from the studio, saying, "That's it. I could sing this all night, but it's not going to get any better. It's a hit just the way it is. Goodnight, everybody!" This was the last US #1 hit before the Beatles took over the charts. |
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| The Echo 2 spacecraft was a 41-m balloon of aluminum foil-mylar laminate. Echo 2 was designed as a rigidized passive communications spacecraft for testing propagation, tracking, and communication techniques. In addition to fulfilling its communications mission, the spacecraft was used for global geometric geodesy. The spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere on June 7, 1969. |
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| Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong recorded this with Gaye in 1967, but could not convince Motown head Berry Gordy to release it. This is the longest running Motown #1 hit. It topped the US chart for 7 weeks. This was Gaye's first #1 hit. He had another 5 years later with "Let's Get It On." |
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| The Eisenhower Dollar was minted from 1971 to 1978. The obverse honors President Dwight D. Eisenhower, while the reverse pays tribute to the first moon landing depicting the official Apollo 11 insignia. The design was the work of Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro. For such a short series, there are numerous varieties and types. |
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| "Close to You" became an international hit, beginning a five-year period where the duo was one of the most popular recording acts in the world. During that period the Carpenters won two Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist of 1970, and had an impressive string of Top Ten hits, including "Rainy Days and Mondays," "Superstar," "Hurting Each Other," "Goodbye to Love," "Yesterday Once More," and "Top of the World," and "Please Mr. Postman." |
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| Operating for 10 months, two its most significant findings are the discoveries of solid material around the stars Vega and Fomalhaut, located some 26 and 22 light-years from Earth, respectively. This strongly suggests the existence of planetary systems around other stars (later confirmed by future telescope observations). IRAS mapped 96% of the sky four times, at 12, 25, 60 and 100 micrometre wavelengths, with resolutions ranging from 0.5' at 12 micrometers to 2' at 100 micrometers. |
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| Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager wrote this for the 1982 movie "Night Shift," where it was recorded by Rod Stewart. "Dionne And Friends" is Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight. They recorded this as a single to raise money for the American Foundation For AIDS Research (AmFAR). |
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| "Don't Let the Sun Go Down" was released as a live duet with George Michael in 1991. That version was taken from a George Michael concert in London on March 25, 1991, where Elton appeared as a surprise guest. The duet was a #1 hit in both the US and UK. Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys sang backup. Elton was a big fan of The Beach Boys. Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon also performed on this. They would later have several hits and their own TV show as The Captain and Tennille. |
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1533 England's King Henry VIII marries
Anne Boleyn (approximate date)
More ...
1787 Shays' Rebellion suffers a setback
More ...
1799 First US patent for a seeding machine, Eliakim
Spooner, Vermont
More ...
1851 Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women's
Rights Convention (Akron)
More ...
1858 Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" first
played
More ...
1870 G.D. Dows patented the ornamental soda
fountain
More ...
1881 Michael Brassill obtained a patent for a
candlestick
1890 Nellie Bly beats Phileas Fogg's time around
world by 8 days (72 days)
More ...
1905 First auto to exceed 100 mph (161 kph), A
G MacDonald, Daytona Beach
More ...
1915 Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated U.S. transcontinental
telephone service
More ...
1924 First Winter Olympic games open in Chamonix,
France
More ...
1937 NBC radio presented the first broadcast of
"The Guiding Light"
More ...
1940 Mary Martin recorded "My Heart Belongs
to Daddy"
More ...
1944 The character, a Black maid named Beulah
aired on "Fibber McGee and Molly"
More ...
1945 Grand Rapids MI becomes first US city to
fluoridate its water
More ...
1945 Dan Topping, Del Webb & Larry MacPhail
purchase New York Yankees for $2.8 million
1949 First Emmy Awards
More ...
1952 Automatic car headlamp beam control
introduced
More ...
1955 Columbia University scientists develop an
atomic clock
More ...
1958 "At the Hop" by Danny and the Juniors
topped the charts
More ...
1959 First transcontinental commercial jet flight
(American Airlines Boeing 707)
More ...
1961 Walt Disney's "101 Dalmations"
released
More ...
1964 Beatles first US #1, "I Want to Hold
your Hand" (Cashbox)
More ...
1964 "There! I've Said it Again" by
Bobby Vinton
More ...
1964 Echo 2, US communications satellite launched
More ...
1969 "I Heard it Through the Grapevine"
by Marvin Gaye topped the charts
More ...
1971 Philadelphia mint's first trial strike of
the Eisenhower dollar
More ...
1974 Ray Kroc, CEO (McDonald's), buys San Diego
Padres for $12 million
1975 "Please Mr. Postman" by the Carpenters
topped the charts
More ...
1980 Highest speed attained by a warship, 104
mph, USN hovercraft
1983 Infrared telescope satellite launched into
polar orbit
More ...
1986 "That's What Friends Are For" by
Dionne Warwick topped the charts
More ...
1989 Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point
in his 5th season
1992 "Don't Let the Sun Go Down" by
George Michael & Elton John topped the charts
More ...
1993 Sears announces it is closing its catalog
sales department after 97 years