On this day in
1631,
Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her grief-stricken husband, Mughal emperor
Shah Jahan I, will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, a little building you and I know as… the
Taj Mahal.
***
On this day in
1856, the
Republican Party opens its first national convention in Philadelphia. Chaos ensues.
***
On this day in
1885, sculptor
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi’s colossal neoclassical statue, the
Statue of Liberty, arrives in New York Harbor in pieces aboard the French steamer ship Isere, a gift to the American people from the nation of France.
***
On this day in
1939, the final public execution in France takes place when convicted murderer
Eugen Weidmann is guillotined before an unruly crowd of gawkers in Versailles, France, just outside the Saint-Pierre prison. The execution was surreptitiously filmed from an apartment adjacent to the prison. That fact, combined with the crowd’s unruly behavior, caused French President
Albert Lebrun to pass legislation stipulating that all future executions were to take place behind closed doors. The guillotine would continue chopping off heads until September of 1977, when it was used to dispatch Tunisian immigrant
Hamida Djandoubi, who had been convicted of torturing, then murdering, his girlfriend.
***
Happy Birthday to the plucky, eccentric island nation of
ICELAND, which declared its independence from Denmark on this day in
1944!
***
Also celebrating a birthday today is the
WAR ON (some)
DRUGS, which was launched by President
Richard Nixon on this day in
1971!
***
On this day in
1994, the world watches on
CNN as
OJ Simpson leads the LAPD on the most infamous police chase in history. Yes, that's right... this is the 19th anniversary of Bloody Orenthal's abortive "excape" attempt! Can you believe it?! Quothe Uncle John's Band: "Where does the time go?"
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