| Tobacco was introduced by Francisco Fernandes, a physician who had been sent by Philip II of Spain to investigate the products of Mexico. While the plant was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards, the habit of pipe smoking was initiated and spread through the English example of Ralph Lane, the first governor of Virginia. |
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| In 1616, Copernican theory was declared "false and erroneous" in a decree written by Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, and issued by the Catholic Church in Rome. Further, no person was to be permitted to hold or teach the theory that the earth revolves around the sun. When Galileo subsequently violated the decree, he was put on trial and held under house arrest for the final eight years of his life. |
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| This was the very first successful magazine in America, preceded by just a few magazines which lasted but a couple of issues. This title lasted but a few short years. "Containing Accounts of the Propagation & Revival of Religion in Great Britain & America", this 8 page magazine is almost entirely taken up with religious content from the "Great Awakening" period in American history. |  |
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| By 1750, New York had over ten thousand citizens, more than 150 taverns -- and one formal performance space. The Theatre on Nassau Street was a two story wooden structure that held about 280 people, and it was here that New York's first recorded stage performances took place. Actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean set up a resident company that presented Shakespeare's Richard III on March 5, 1750. |
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| The Boston Massacre occured as a group of rowdy Americans harassed British soldiers who then opened fire, killing five and injuring six. The first man killed was Crispus Attucks, an African American. British Captain Thomas Preston and eight of his men were arrested and charged with murder. Their trial took place in October, with colonial lawyer John Adams defending the British. Captain Preston and six of his men were acquitted. Two others were found guilty of manslaughter, branded, then released. |
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| On March 5, day twelve of the siege, Santa Anna announced an assault for the following day. This sudden declaration stunned his officers. The enemy's walls were crumbling. No Texan relief column had appeared. When the provisions ran out, surrender would remain the rebels' only option. There was simply no valid military justification for the costly attack on a stronghold bristling with cannons. But ignoring these reasonable objections, Santa Anna stubbornly insisted on storming the Alamo. |
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| A .36 caliber, five-shot, percussion-cap revolver, the Colt Holster-Model Paterson Revolver No. 5, also known as the Texas Paterson, was the largest and most popular revolver of the Paterson handgun line. Its popularity was in part due to its verified use by the military and civilians on the American frontier, particularly its association with the Texas Rangers. |
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| The Senate resumed the consideration of the resolution submitted yesterday by Mr. Anthony, in relation to the admission of persons to the gallery of the Senate during the trial of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States; and sundry amendments having been proposed by Mr. Sherman. The Senate, pursuant to its resolution of yesterday, proceeded to consider the articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives against Andrew Johnson, President of the United States. |
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| A British patent for a stapler was issued in 1868. The first staples fastened the soles and uppers of shoes. Stapling of paper began in the printing industry in the 1890s, and spread to the office where staples slowly replaced pins and clips. |
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| Westinghouse was not satisfied with this system and in 1872 he developed the triple valve that, combined with an air reservoir on each carriage, inverted the behaviour of the direct air brake — now charging air into the pipe that charged the system and released the brakes and draining air from the brake pipe applied the brakes. Westinghouse now had a much more responsive system that was fail-safe — it worked far more efficiently and became the basis of the modern air brake. |
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| The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded two sides ("Livery Stable Blues" and "Dixie Jass Band One Step") on February 26, 1917 for the Victor Talking Machine Company. The record with these titles came out the following month. The ODJB's records, first marketed simply as a novelty, were a surprise hit, and gave many Americans their first taste of jazz.They were hardly the first band to play jazz, nor the best, but the all-white ensemble captured the imagination of millions, and helped to usher in the Jazz Age. It remains among the best-selling jazz recordings of all time. |
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| Oakley smashed 98 out of 100 clay targets thrown at 16 yards while at a match at the Pinehurst Gun Club in North Carolina. She hit the first fifty, missed the 51st, then the 67th. Annie Oakley, the internationally-famous sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, was the shooting instructor for the Pinehurst Gun Club from 1916 to 1924. |  |
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| In New York in 1911 when the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was created by a merger of The Tabulating Machine Company (Hollerith's punch card company in Washington, DC), International Time Recording Company (time clock maker in NY state), Computing Scale Company (maker of scales and food slicers in Dayton, Ohio), and Bundy Manufacturing (time clock maker in Auburn, NY). In 1914, Thomas J. Watson, Sr., became general manager. During the next 10 years, he dispensed with all non-tabulating business and turned it into an international enterprise renamed IBM in 1924. Watson instilled a strict, professional demeanor in his employees that set IBMers apart from the rest of the crowd. |
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| On a cold Buffalo night, Frank came out of the box striking, and put 12 in a row on the sheet for 300. That set off a major celebration - which Frank quickly squelched. He was in a groove, and didn't want to lose his edge. So everyone calmed down, and Frank went back to work - and rolled another 300. Perfect games were rare in 1924. During the entire year in the entire country, there were only eleven. Nobody had ever posted back-to-back 300s in sanctioned competition. Frank Caruana had become an instant bowling immortal. From that time on, he was the Double-300 Man. |
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| In 1933 incoming president Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the severe problems of the depression as requiring immediate and direct relief. The most immediate need lay in the on-going banking crisis. As people panicked and withdrew all their money from the nation's banks, many banks began to fail and were forced to close their doors. In an effort to stop these runs on the banks, FDR declared a bank holiday which temporarily closed all US banks while the government addressed the problems. Congress passed FDR's Emergency Banking Relief Bill and stable banks were allowed to reopen. Unstable banks were either given government assistance to insure their stability or were closed down and absorbed by larger banks. |
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| The Amarillo newspaper editor had come up with the idea of a "Mother-in-Law's Day" with a big parade, and for the celebrity of the day, none other than the First Lady, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Eleanor" herself. Wonder why it never caught on? |
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| The unpainted Supermarine Type F37/34 did not fly until March 1936. On March 5 the aircraft, built at Woolston and assembled at Eastleigh Airport, took to the air under the watchful eye of the designer, Supermarine staff, and an interested group of civil flying school pupils. The pilot, Mutt Summers, flew the aircraft, still unnamed but now registered as K5054, around the airfield checking the flaps and flying characteristics of the plane. The undercarriage was not retracted during this maiden flight. After only a few minutes K5054 landed and Summers announced to the anxious spectators that all was fine and that he did not want anything touched. |
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| On March 5, 1946, at the request of Westminster College in the small Missouri town of Fulton (population of 7,000), Churchill gave his now famous "Iron Curtain" speech to a crowd of 40,000. In addition to accepting an honorary degree from the college, Churchill made one of his most famous post-war speeches. In this speech, Churchill gave the very descriptive phrase that surprised the United States and Britain, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." |
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| Following the success of its 1938 RCA hit "At a Perfume Counter," the Barron band became a New York ballroom mainstay and spent much of the 1940s headlining the Edison Hotel, headquarters of its coast-to-coast radio broadcasts. Soon after, Barron was drafted to serve with the U.S. Army Airborne Division during World War II, naming singer Tommy Ryan to assume bandleader duties until his return. Following Barron's return from duty, in 1949 he scored his biggest hit with the chart-topping "Cruisin' Down the River." However, the big-band era was by now drawing to a close, although he kept the orchestra afloat until 1956. |
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| Signed to the Coral label, they had their first minor hit in 1954 with "Pine Tree, Pine Over Me," in collaboration with Johnny Desmond and Eileen Barton. During the rest of that year they had further successes with their version of the Spaniels' R&B hit "Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight", followed by "Muskrat Ramble", "Lonesome Polecat" and "Christmas Alphabet". In 1955 the sisters had their first million-seller with another cover version, "Sincerely', originally recorded by the Moonglows. The McGuires" version stayed at number 1 in the USA for 10 weeks, and accelerated their breakthrough into the big time in clubs, theatres and on television. |
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| The program's 138 episodes trace the minor victories and misfortunes of the scheming, fast-talking Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko (Phil Silvers), head of the motor pool at the mythical U.S. army station of Fort Baxter in Roseville, Kansas. In his relentless pursuit of personal gain and physical comfort, Bilko attempts to manipulate those around him through the selective use of flattery, false naïveté, pulling rank, and a canny ability to identify and stimulate desires, weaknesses and emotions in others. In this episode singer Elvin Pelvin joins the platoon, Bilko sees a way to make money but he can't get him to sing. |
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| This was part of the score for the 1959 movie "A Summer Place," which stared Troy Donahue and was set on an island in Maine. It was written by Austrian film composer Max Steiner, who also wrote the score for Casablanca. In the US, this was the top selling single of 1960. It won the 1960 Grammy for Record Of The Year. |  |
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| Sadler wrote this song to idolize the troops in Vietnam when public opinion was low. He was injured by a punji stick (a type of booby trap) and while laid up in the hospital released the rights to this song so it could be heard. Sadler was a member of the Green Berets, the US Army's elite Special Forces unit. He was serving as a medic and he nearly had to have his leg amputated after he was injured. While he was recuperating, he wrote songs for other wounded soldiers. A TV news crew filmed him singing this at the hospital, and when the footage aired in the US, it became a huge hit very quickly. |
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| The Treaty was opened for signature on July 1, 1968, and signed on that date by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and 59 other countries. The Treaty entered into force with the deposit of US ratification on March 5, 1970. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also referred to as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), obligates the five acknowledged nuclear-weapon states (the United States, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, France, and China) not to transfer nuclear weapons, other nuclear explosive devices, or their technology to any non-nuclear-weapon state. Non-nuclear-weapon States Parties undertake not to acquire or produce nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices. They are required also to accept safeguards to detect diversions of nuclear materials from peaceful activities, such as power generation, to the production of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. |
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| "Killing Me Softly with His Song" is about Don McLean, a singer/songwriter famous for his hit "American Pie." Flack worked on this in the studio for 3 months, playing around with various chord structures until she got it just right. It won Grammys in 1974 for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal. |  |
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| President Jimmy Carter participated in the first-ever "Dial-a-President" radio broadcast in which he answered questions called in from listeners across the United States. The CBS special radio program was hosted by Walter Cronkite. |
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| The film cost around six million dollars to produce, and was a substantial hit, ultimately grossing more than 70 million dollars worldwide. Its soundtrack album was also an international success. It featured the ballad "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star is Born)", which became one of the biggest hits of Streisand's career, spending three weeks at number one in the United States, and peaking at number three in the United Kingdom. |
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| Detection by 9 satellites carrying gamma-ray burst detectors of an intense and very rapid gamma-ray `spike' from the direction of the supernova remnant N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This spike was followed by a slowly declining flux which was modulated by 8-second pulsations for several minutes afterwards. |
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| "Billie Jean" was the second of 7 US top 10 hits from the Thriller album. "The Girl Is Mine" was released before this. Quincy Jones produced this. He wanted to change the title to "Not My Lover" because he thought it would be confused with tennis star Billie Jean King. |  |
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| George Michael was the bridge between 1970s glam rock and the sex-pop of the 1990s. With Andrew Ridgeley he formed the pop group Wham!, and they leapt to stardom in Britain with the 1982 single "Young Guns (Go For It!). A string of hits followed while Michael also began a successful solo career with the 1984 single "Careless Whisper." Wham! disbanded after a farewell concert at Wembley Stadium in 1986. Michael quickly remade his image, shifting from clean-cut pop star to leather-clad, stubble-chinned hunk. His best-selling solo album Faith (1987) topped the charts in the UK and US spawning four US No 1 singles (Faith, Father Figure, One More Try, Monkey) and won a Grammy for Best Album. |
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1558 Smoking tobacco introduced in Europe by Francisco
Fernandes
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1616 Corpernicus' DE REVOLUTIONIBUS placed on
Catholic Forbidden index
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1623 First American temperance law enacted, Virginia
1743 First US religious journal, The Christian
History, published, Boston
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1750 First American Shakespearean production-"altered"
Richard III, New York NY
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1770 The Boston Massacre occured as harassed British
soldiers opened fire
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1836 Mexico prepared to attack
Alamo
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1836 Samuel Colt manufactures first pistol, 36-caliber
"Texas" model
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1868 The US Senate convened to consider the Articles
of Impeachment of President Johnson
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1868 Stapler patented in England by C H Gould
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1872 George Westinghouse Jr patents triple air
brake for trains
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1917 The first jazz recording for Victor Records
was released
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1922 Annie Oakley breaks existing records for
women’s trap shooting
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1924 Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corp becomes
IBM
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1924 Frank Carauna, bowls 2 successive
perfect 300 games
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1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimes a
four day "Bank Holiday"
More ...
1934 Mother-in-law's day first celebrated (Amarillo
TX)
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1936 Spitfire makes its first flight (Eastleigh
Aerodrome in Southampton)
More ...
1946 Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain"
speech (Fulton, MO)
More ...
1949 "Cruising Down the River" by Blue
Barron topped the charts
More ...
1955 "Sincerely" by the McGuire Sisters
topped the charts
More ...
1956 "King Kong" first televised
1957 Sergeant Bilko satirizes Elvis Presley (Elvin
Pelvin)
More ...
1960 Theme from "A Summer Place" by
Percy Faith topped the charts
More ...
1966 "The Ballad of the Green Berets"
by SSgt Barry Sadler topped the charts
More ...
1970 A nuclear nonproliferation treaty went into
effect
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1973 Roberta Flack, tops the pop music
charts with, "Killing Me Softly with His Song"
More ...
1977 The"Dial-a-President" Radio show
premieres
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1977 "Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)"
by Barbra Streisand topped the charts
More ...
1979 Earth satellites record gamma rays from remnants
of supernova N-49
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1983 "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson
topped the charts
More ...
1988 "Father Figure" by George Michael
topped the charts
More ...
1994 Largest milkshake (1,955 gallons of chocolate-Nelspruit
South Africa)