Today in History

March 2nd:

• 1882 Queen Victoria narrowly escapes assassination

Roderick Edward Maclean ( c. 1854 – 8 June 1921) was a Scotsman who attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria on 2 March 1882, at Windsor, England, with a pistol.

 

March 2nd:

1933 "King Kong"



Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Fay Wray premieres at Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy in NYC

King Kong (1933 film) - Wikipedia

 

March 4th:

• 1797 John Adams inaugurated as 2nd President of The United States, Thomas Jefferson 2nd Vice President
• 1801 Thomas Jefferson is the first US President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

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2nd US PresidentJohn Adams / 3rd US PresidentThomas Jefferson

 

March 4th:
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• 1809 James Madison becomes 1st US President inaugurated in American-made clothes

4th US PresidentJames Madison
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• 1817 James Monroe is inaugurated as the 5th President of the United States

5th US PresidentJames Monroe
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March 4th:
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• 1825 John Quincy Adams inaugurated as the 6th US President

6th US PresidentJohn Quincy Adams
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• 1829 Andrew Jackson inaugurated as 7th US President

US President & GeneralAndrew Jackson

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March 4th:

• 1861 Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th US President

16th US PresidentAbraham Lincoln,
(In this year he also opened Government Printing Office)
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• 1865 Abraham Lincoln inaugurated for his 2nd term as US President.

The man who would assassinate him weeks later, John Wilkes Booth, is photographed attending the inauguration.

A photo of Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration in 1865, highlighting the location of his eventual assassin John Wilkes Booth as Lincoln makes his speech
Historical Context
John Wilkes Booth, the actor-turned-assassin who shot and killed US President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, had been in the presence of his target before: at his inauguration. Lincoln, in the midst of the American Civil War, had won re-election handily on November 8, 1864.

He began his second term on March 4, 1865, delivering his inaugural address on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Booth stood watching in the stands above the president. Lincoln admired Booth for his acting talents, and the actor had been invited to the White House several times, without success. Lincoln had also watched Booth in a play in 1863 at Ford's Theatre, the same location where Booth would later assassinate him.

Writing in his diary after observing Lincoln's speech, Booth wrote "what an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day!"

Booth first planned to kidnap Lincoln, before he and his co-conspirators decided to kill him. He would do so just 42 days into Lincoln's second term and mere days from the end of the Civil War.

 

March 4th:

• 1922 1st vampire film "Nosferatu",

--- an un-authorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, premieres at the Berlin Zoological Garden, Germany


Nosferatu - Wikipedia

 

March 4th:

1936 1st flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany



LZ 129 Hindenburg - Wikipedia

 

March 4th:

• 1989 The Louvre Pyramid

Designed by I. M. Pei is inaugurated by French President François Mitterrand in Paris
The large glass and metal structure is in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace in Paris, surrounded by three smaller pyramids.
The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum. Completed in 1988 as part of the broader Grand Louvre project,[
it has become a landmark of the city of Paris.

 

Today in History March 5th

On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers who'd been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened fire, killing five people

 

March 8th:

• 1945 International Women's Day is 1st observed

International Women's Day (unesco.org)

 

March 8th:

• 1950 1st woman medical officer assigned to naval vessel (BR Walters)

Dr. Bernice Walters ’32 was the US Navy’s first female doctor to serve at sea when she was assigned to the USS Consolation in 1950.



The Maritime Executive recently honored her decorated career as the ship’s only anesthesiologist and recipient of the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for her service, bravery and intelligence. Walters passed in 1975.

 

On This Day - 8th March
1702Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regent of England, Scotland, and Ireland after William III died in a riding accident. This gilded statue of William III is in Hull as Hull was the first large city in Britain to swear its allegiance to the new King when he deposed James II in 1685. Despite seventeen pregnancies, Anne died without surviving children and was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. She was succeeded by her second cousin George I of the House of Hanover.


1765Britain's House of Lords passed the Stamp Act to tax the American colonies.


1775An anonymous writer, thought by some to be the Norfolk-born author Thomas Paine, published 'African Slavery in America', the first article in the American colonies calling for the equality of slaves and the abolition of slavery.

1813The London Royal Philharmonic Society staged its first concert.


1859The birth, in Edinburgh, of author Kenneth Grahame, most famous for The Reluctant Dragon and The Wind in the Willows, an enchanting story involving the characters Toad, Badger, Mole, and Ratty.


1908The House of Commons turned down the women's suffrage bill, thus denying the right for women to vote.


1910The first pilots' licenses were issued, to an Englishman - J T C Moore Brabazon, and a Frenchwoman - Elise Deroche.


1930Mahatma Gandhi began the campaign of civil disobedience against British rule in India.


1937The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell's book depicting life during 'The Depression' in the north of England, was published. Wigan pier was simply a place for loading coal onto canal boats on the Leeds - Liverpool canal.


1950Rover unveiled the world's first car to be powered by a gas turbine engine. Codenamed JET1 the two-seater model would be powered by the same kind of engine used in a jet airplane, with fuel consumption of 5 to 7 miles per gallon.

 

March 9th:
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1562 Kissing in public banned in Naples (punishable by death)
. . . . .
However this law was part of legilation to curb the spread of a plague that was rampageing across Europe.
Rather than a ban on public kissing, as public health was of great concern to the authorities.

Throughout history, controlling sex and obscenity, and occasionally containing disease, have made for some eyebrow-raising laws.
- On 16 July 1439, King Henry VI banned kissing in England. In this case, King Henry was trying to curtail the spread of disease in his kingdom. His subjects, however, would not have it, and his ban failed.

On 9 March 1562, kissing in public was banned in Naples, Italy. If authorities caught philandering couples kissing in public, the act was punishable by death. In this case, again, authorities were more concerned about public health than morality. A second plague was spreading through Europe like wildfire, and leaders were doing anything in their power to blunt the epidemic—including killing those who kissed. Unfortunately, the law seemed to do little to prevent the spread of the plague, which ultimately claimed the lives of large swaths of Europe.

That was just the beginning of the curious kissing laws.
- In 1910, France banned kissing on French railways because it could cause delays. In 1982, the Iranian Parliament listed “kissing for pleasure” as a list of outlawed moral offenses.
- In 1991, students at Peking University, China, were banned from kissing, holding hands, hugging, whispering, or holding unauthorised gatherings. And in 2003, Moscow considered a ban on kissing in public places, a ban that would have included even legally married couples and punished the act with fines and jail time.
This time, citizens fought back, protesting the proposed law by kissing perfect strangers on the street in a show of defiance. The proposed law was eventually abandoned."

 

March 9th:
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1961 Soviet flight Sputnik 9 carries and returns from orbit



Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9 was launched on March 9, 1961 and carried the black dog Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission.
Also onboard the spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.

 

March 9th:
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1986 Soviet probe Vega 2 flies by Halley's Comet at 8,030 km

• 1991 US 70th manned space mission STS 39 (Discovery 12) launches into orbit

• 2006 Liquid water is discovered on Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn

• 2013 Asteroid 2013 ET comes within 960,000 km from the Earth’s surface

 

March 9th:
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1986 NASA announces searchers found remains of Challenger astronauts


The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said today that it had recovered remains of each of the seven Challenger astronauts and had finished its operations to retrieve the wreckage of the space shuttle's crew compartment from the ocean floor.

ALL SHUTTLE CREW REMAINS RECOVERED, NASA SAYS - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

 

March 9th:
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1996 NASA space shuttle STS-75 (Columbia 19) lands

• 2011 Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights

Space shuttle Discovery came down from a blue Florida sky, turned gracefully and made its last-ever landing today at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It was a quiet end to an almost flawless 13-day mission, and a storied career for NASA's most-flown shuttle.
"To the ship that has led the way time and time again, we say, 'Farewell Discovery,"' said Josh Byerly, the voice of Mission Control, as the ship slowed on the runway.
"For the final time, wheels stop," Discovery's commander, Steven Lindsey, called by radio.

 

March 10th:
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1952 Military coup led by General Fulgencio Batista in Cuba



The coup d'état took place when the Cuban Constitutional Army, led by Fulgencio Batista, intervened in the election that was scheduled to be held on June 1st the coup establishied a de facto military dictatorship in the country.

1952 Cuban coup d'état - Wikipedia