On this day in
1192, English regent
Richard the Lionheart lands on Jaffa and defeats the army of Islamic leader
Saladin.
***
On this day in the year
1619, a few weeks after having been traded for a shipload of food by a desperate Dutch slave-trader, the very first Africans to ever touch American soil land in Jamestown, Virginia. Unfortunately, they were such a hit with the slave-owning classes (who previously had been content to own native Americans and English paupers), rush orders were soon being placed for millions more. The rest, as they say, is history.
***
On this day in
1914, Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of
World War I. The Swiss Army mobilizes because of World War I.
***
On this day in
1944, the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
***
On this day in
1957, the United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command, better known as
NORAD.
***
On this day in
1966, some crazy emmeffer by the name of
Charles Whitman climbs a bell tower and kills 16 people at the University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police.
***
On this day in
1966, purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
***
On this day in
1972, the
Washington Post reports that a $25,000 cashier's check earmarked for the Comittee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) was discovered in the bank account of one of the men caught burglarizing a Democratic office in the Watergate building. It's the Post's first Watergate story, and it's also the beginning of
the end for
President Nixon.
***
On this day in
1980, a politician by the name of
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected President of Iceland, becoming the world's first democratically elected female head of state!
***
On this day in
1981, MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by
The Buggles.
***
The combined efforts of
Captain J. T. Kirk and
T.J. Hooker weren't enough to save
William Shatner's wife when he found her, face down in the bottom of the family pool on this day in 1999. And yes, he DID call 911, or, as he calls it: "Nine..... one-one!"
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