On This Day (March 4)

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1461 – Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV.
1519 - Hernan Cortes arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and their wealth.
1678 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer born. (d. 1741)

The Four Seasons (excerpts) – Anne-Sophie Mutter

1681 – King Charles II of England granted Quaker William Penn a charter for the Pennsylvania Colony.
1804 – Irish convicts who were involved at the Battle of Vinegar Hill during the 1798 Irish Rebellion began an uprising against British colonial authorities in New South Wales, Australia.
1849 – According to urban legend, President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate David Rice Atchison became the de jure U.S. President for one day after Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn into office on a Sunday when his predecessor James Polk's term expired.
1877 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake premiers at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
1980 – Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union was elected to head the first government in Zimbabwe.


Picture of the Day



These two Glaucus atlanticus, a species of nudibranch, were washed up on Surfers Paradise Beach in Queensland, Australia. The larger one is about 35 mm (1.4 in) in length. G. atlanticus preys on the Portuguese Man o' War and other surface-dwelling sea animals. Occasionally Glaucus will feed on others of its kind.