Friday! History, Music, Tech, Space, Sports, Quotes, More!
On This Date In 630 The
Battle of Hunain was fought between Muhammad and his followers against
the Bedouin tribe of Hawazin and its subsection the Thaqif in a valley
on one of the roads leading from Mecca to al-Ta'if. The battle ended in a
decisive victory for the Muslims, who captured enormous spoils. The
Battle of Hunayn is one of only two battles mentioned in the Qur'an by
name, in Sura. On This Date In 1302 Poet
and politician Dante Alighieri was exiled from Florence, where he
served as one of six priors governing the city. Dante's political
activities, including the banishing of several rivals, led to his own
banishment, and he wrote his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, as a virtual wanderer, seeking protection for his family in town after town. On This Date In 1756 Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791), prolific and
influential composer of the Classical era, was born. He composed over
600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante,
chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most
enduringly popular of classical composers. On This Date In 1785 The
Georgia General Assembly incorporated the University of Georgia, the
first state-funded institution of higher learning in the new republic. On This Date In 1851 John
James Audubon (April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851), French-American
ornithologist, naturalist, and painter, died of natural causes. He was
notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American
birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in
their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of North America (1827–1839),
is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed.
Audubon identified 25 new species and a number of new sub-species. On This Date In 1862 During
the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued General War
Order No. 1, ordering all land and sea forces to advance on February 22,
1862. This bold move sent a message to his commanders that the
president was tired of excuses and delays in seizing the offensive
against Confederate forces. On This Date In 1888 The
National Geographic Society was incorporated. Headquartered in
Washington, D.C. in the United States, it is one of the largest
non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its
interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the
promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of
world culture and history. On This Date In 1903 The
Battle of Dilam, a major battle of the Unification War between Rashidi
and Saudi rebels, was fought in the town of Dilam, south of Riyadh, the
capital of present day Saudi Arabia. After one year of conquest of
Riyadh, Ibn Saud planned to grap Rashidis away from Riyadh by fake news.
Ibn Saud has deployed 1,000 fighters in Riyadh and left the city with
another 3,500 and captured Dilam. Rashidis followed Ibn Saud to Dilam in
order to finish him and regain control of Dilam. During the battle
Rashidis lost 250 men, and totally lost control of southern Nejd. On This Date In 1908 Harry
Houdini, Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt
performer, actor and film producer, introduced his own original act, the
Milk Can Escape. In this act, Houdini would be handcuffed and sealed
inside an over-sized milk can filled with water and make his escape
behind a curtain. As part of the effect, Houdini would invite members of
the audience to hold their breath along with him while he was inside
the can. Advertised with dramatic posters that proclaimed “Failure Means
A Drowning Death,” the escape proved to be a sensation. On This Date In 1926 John
Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor, gave the first public demonstration
of a true television system in London, launching a revolution in
communication and entertainment. Baird's invention, a
pictorial-transmission machine he called a “televisor,” used mechanical
rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses. This
information was then transmitted by cable to a screen where it showed up
as a low-resolution pattern of light and dark. Baird's first television
program showed the heads of two ventriloquist dummies, which he
operated in front of the camera apparatus out of view of the audience. On This Date In 1927 “The
Big Four,” a work of detective fiction by author Agatha Christie, was
first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on January 27,
1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It
features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp. The
UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US
edition at $2.00. On This Date In 1939 Adolph
Hitler ordered “Plan Z”, the name given to the planned re-equipment and
expansion of the Nazi German Navy (Kriegsmarine). The plan called for a
Kriegsmarine of ten battleships, four aircraft carriers, three
battlecruisers, eight heavy cruisers, 44 light cruisers, 68 destroyers
and 249 U-boats by 1944 that was meant to challenge the naval power of
the United Kingdom. On This Date In 1943 During
World War II, 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in
England, flew the first American bombing raid against the Germans,
targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. Of 64 planes participating in the
raid, 53 reached their target and managed to shoot down 22 German
planes—and lost only three planes in return. On This Date In 1944 During
World War II, Soviet forces permanently broke the Leningrad siege line,
ending the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city,
which cost hundreds of thousands of Russian lives. On This Date In 1945 During
World War II, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz
and liberated around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying.
It is estimated that the German SS and police deported at a minimum 1.3
million people to Auschwitz complex between 1940 and 1945. Of these, the
camp authorities murdered 1.1 million. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189 On This Date In 1951 Forcefully
marking the continued importance of the West in the development of
nuclear weaponry, the United States government detonated the first of a
series of nuclear bombs at its new Nevada Test Site, today known as the
Nevada National Security Site. Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site
began with a 1-kiloton-of-TNT bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on January
27th. Many of the iconic images of the nuclear era come from NTS. On This Date In 1965 The
Shelby GT 350, a version of a Ford Mustang sports car developed by the
American auto racer and car designer Carroll Shelby, is launched. The
Shelby GT 350, which featured a 306 horsepower V-8 engine, remained in
production through the end of the 1960s and today is a valuable
collector's item. On This Date In 1967 During
the Vietnam War, Specialist Four Donald W. Evans, Jr. from Company A,
2d Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, fought and
died. During a firefight on that day, in Tri Tam, in the Kontum
Province.of the Republic of Vietnam, Evans repeatedly exposed himself to
enemy fire in order to treat and evacuate wounded soldiers, even after
being seriously wounded himself. He was killed during the battle and
posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. He was also
awarded the Purple Heart. The United States Army hospital at Fort Carson
in Colorado Springs, Colorado is named in his honor as Evans Army
Community Hospital. On This Date In 1967 Apollo
1 is the official name that was later given to the never-flown
Apollo/Saturn 204 (AS-204) mission. Its command module (CM-012) was
destroyed by fire during a test and training exercise on January 27,
1967 at Pad 34 (Launch Complex 34, Cape Canaveral, then known as Cape
Kennedy) atop a Saturn IB rocket. The crew aboard were the astronauts
selected for the first manned Apollo program mission: Command Pilot
Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White and Pilot Roger B.
Chaffee. All three died in the fire. On This Date In 1970 John
Lennon wrote and recorded “Instant Karma” in a single day. It ranks as
one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded at
London's Abbey Road Studios the same day it was written, and arriving in
stores only ten days later. Lennon remarked to the press, he “wrote it
for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we're putting it out for
dinner.” The record was produced by Phil Spector, the first of many
recordings by the Beatles that Spector worked on that year. On This Date In 1973 The
Paris Peace Accords of 1973, intended to establish peace in Vietnam and
an end to the Vietnam Conflict, ended direct U.S. military involvement
and temporarily stopped the fighting between north and south. The
governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the
Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as
the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented
indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries signed the Agreement on
Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973. On This Date In 1975 A
bipartisan Senate investigation of activities by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was
launched by a special congressional committee headed by Senator Frank
Church of Idaho. A precursor to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, the committee investigated intelligence gathering for
illegality by the FBI and the CIA after certain activities had been
revealed by the Watergate affair. On This Date In 1980 The
“Canadian Caper” was the popular name given to the covert rescue by the
Government of Canada of six American diplomats who evaded capture
during the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran and
taking of embassy personnel as hostages by the Iranians on November 4,
1979. On January 27, 1980, the American diplomats were smuggled out of
Iran, traveling with Canadian passports, boarded a flight for Zürich,
Switzerland, at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport. They arrived in the friendly
nation safely. The Canadian embassy was then closed that day, with
Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and remaining staff returning to Canada. On This Date In 1984 Michael
Jackson and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi Cola
commercial, overseen by executive Phil Dusenberry, from ad agency BBDO
and Pepsi's Worldwide Creative Director, Alan Pottasch at the Shrine
Auditorium in Los Angeles. In front of a full house of fans during a
simulated concert, pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson's hair on fire.
He suffered second-degree burns to his scalp. Jackson underwent
treatment to hide the scars on his scalp, and he also had his third
rhinoplasty shortly thereafter. Jackson never recovered from this
injury. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million
settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California,
which now has a “Michael Jackson Burn Center” in honor of his donation On This Date In 1986 “Does
Humor Belong in Music?,” a live album by Frank Zappa, was released. It
features concert recordings from October–December 1984. It was the first
album by Zappa to be released on CD only (although it was bootlegged on
vinyl for listeners who did not own CD players). On This Date In 1991 Muhammad
Siyad Barre, the dictator of the Somali Democratic Republic since 1969,
fled Mogadishu as rebels overran his palace and captured the Somali
capital. On This Date In 1991 Super
Bowl XXV was played at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida to decide the
National Football League (NFL) champion following the 1990 regular
season. The National Football Conference (NFC) Champion New York Giants
(16-3) defeated the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Buffalo
Bills (15-4), 20–19, the smallest margin of victory in Super Bowl
history. On This Date In 1996 Serbian-born
tennis player Monica Seles, the former No. 1 women’s player in the
world, defeated Anke Huber of Germany to win the Australian Open. On This Date In 1998 Paul
E. Tsongas Arena (usually referred to as just Tsongas Arena), a
multi-use indoor sport and concert venue in Lowell, Massachusetts, was
opened and dedicated to the memory of prominent local and national
politician Paul Tsongas. On This Date In 2002 The
Lagos armory explosion, the accidental detonation of a large stock of
military high explosives at a storage facility in the city of Lagos,
Nigeria, took place. The fires created by the debris from this explosion
burnt down a large section of Northern Lagos, and created a panic that
spread to other areas. As people fled the flames, many stumbled into a
concealed canal and were drowned. The explosion and its aftermath are
believed to have killed at least 1,100 people and displaced over 20,000,
with many thousands injured or homeless. The government of Nigeria
launched an inquiry, which blamed the Nigerian Army for failing to
properly maintain the base, or to decommission it when instructed to do
so in 2001. On This Date In 2004 “Live
at the House of Blues,” a live album and video by the southern
California punk rock band The Vandals, was released by Kung Fu Records
and Kung Fu Films. It was the band's second official live album and
video, the first being 1991's Sweatin' to the Oldies. - On This Date In 2009 John
Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009), American novelist,
poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic, died of lung
cancer at a hospice in Danvers, Massachusetts at the age of 76. On This Date In 2010 The
2010 State of the Union Address was given by United States President
Barack Obama to a joint session of Congress. It was Obama's first State
of the Union Address, though he did give a non-State of the Union
address to a joint session of Congress a month after taking office in
2009. On This Date In 2010 The
iPad, a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by
Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including
books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content, was
introduced by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and weight fall
between those of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers. The iPad
runs the same operating system as the iPod Touch and iPhone—and can run
its own applications as well as iPhone applications. Without
modification, the iPad will only run programs approved by Apple and
distributed via the Apple App Store (with the exception of programs that
run inside the iPad's web browser). On This Date In 2010 Howard
Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010), American historian,
academic, author, playwright, and social activist, died while swimming
in a hotel pool of an apparent heart attack in Santa Monica, California. On This Date In 2010 Jerome David “J.D.” Salinger (January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010), an American author best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature, died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. On This Date In 2010 Zelda
Rubinstein (May 28, 1933 – January 27, 2010), an American actress and
human rights activist, best known as eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in
the movie Poltergeist (1982) and its sequels, Poltergeist II: The Other
Side (1986), and Poltergeist III (1988), died. On December 29, 2009, it
was reported that, after a month-long stay at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center after mild heart attack, her close companion and her family made
the decision to take Rubinstein off life support due to both kidney and
lung failure. On January 27, 2010, Rubinstein died of natural causes at
Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 76. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-zelda-rubinstein28-2010jan28,0,7108032,full.story
Hat tip to any included contributing sources, along with: , , ,
Happy Birthday Steve Wynn (1942), Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948), Mimi Rogers (1956), Cris Collinsworth (1959), Buster Rhymes (1962), Bridget Fonda (1964), Tamlyn Tomita (1966), Tracy Lawrence (1968), Heather Nauert (1970), and Alicia Molik (1981).
RIP Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775 – 1854), Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898), Jerome Kern (1885 – 1945), Skitch Henderson (1918 – 2005), Charles E. Scripps (1920 – 2007), Donna Reed (1921 – 1986), Dolores Moran (1924 – 1982), and Troy Donahue (1936 – 2001).
Hat tip to any included contributing sources, along with: , , ,
Happy Birthday Steve Wynn (1942), Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948), Mimi Rogers (1956), Cris Collinsworth (1959), Buster Rhymes (1962), Bridget Fonda (1964), Tamlyn Tomita (1966), Tracy Lawrence (1968), Heather Nauert (1970), and Alicia Molik (1981).
RIP Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775 – 1854), Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898), Jerome Kern (1885 – 1945), Skitch Henderson (1918 – 2005), Charles E. Scripps (1920 – 2007), Donna Reed (1921 – 1986), Dolores Moran (1924 – 1982), and Troy Donahue (1936 – 2001).
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