News & Politics - On This Day (March 31) 
MSFixR says: 1596 - René Descartes , French mathematician born. (d. 1650) (Decartes was also known as Renatus Cartesius (latinized form), was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy," and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely. His influence in mathematics is also apparent, the Cartesian coordinate system that is used in plane geometry and algebra being named for him, and he was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.) 1727 - Sir Isaac Newton , English mathematician and physicist died. (b. 1643) (Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is said to be the greatest single work in the history of science. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries and is the basis for modern engineering. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution.) 1732 - Joseph Haydn , Austrian composer born. (d. 1809) (Haydn was one of the most prominent composers of the classical period, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet".) c-Jkktpp9QI
The Creation H. 21/2 (The Heavens Are Telling) 1778 – English explorer James Cook landed on Vancouver Island and claimed it for Great Britain. 1811 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen , German chemist and inventor born. (d. 1899) (Invented the Bunsen burner so he would have something to cook his wienie over.) 1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, forcing the opening of Japanese ports to American trade. 1855 - Charlotte Brontë , English author died. (b. 1816) (“Jane Eyre”) 1889 – The Eiffel Tower (pictured) was inaugurated in Paris, becoming a global icon of France and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world.
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France 1903 – New Zealand inventor Richard Pearse reportedly flew in one of the first powered flying machines for a distance of several hundred metres, about nine months before the Wright brothers flew their Wright Flyer. 1917 – The Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands after the United States paid Denmark US$25 million for the Caribbean islands. 1945 - Anne Frank , German-born diarist died. (b. 1929) (Frank was a German-born Jewish girl from the city of Frankfurt, who wrote a diary while in hiding with her family, the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.)
Anne Frank, May, 1942 1990 - 200,000 protestors took to the streets of London to show their displeasure at the newly introduced Poll Tax. 1992 - USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active US Navy Battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California. (A U.S. Navy battleship, and was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Missouri. Missouri is the final battleship to be built by the United States, and among the Iowa-class battleships is notable for being the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of World War II.)
USS Missouri (BB-63) On This Day (March 30) 240 BCE - 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 1135 - Maimonedes , philosopher born. (d. 1204) (He was a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Andalusia, Morocco and Egypt during the Middle Ages. He was one of the various medieval Jewish philosophers who also influenced the non-Jewish world. Although his copious works on Jewish law and ethics were initially met with opposition during his lifetime, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history. Today, his works and his views are considered a cornerstone of Jewish thought and study.) 1282 – Sicilians began to rebel against the rule of the Angevin King Charles I of Naples, starting the War of the Sicilian Vespers. 1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella sign the Alhambra decree aimed at expelling all Jews from Spain unless they convert to Roman Catholicism. 1746 - Francisco Goya , Spanish painter born. (d. 1828) (He was an Aragonese Spanish painter and printmaker. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown and a chronicler of history. He has been regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and as the first of the moderns. The subversive and subjective element in his art, as well as his bold handling of paint, provided a model for the work of later generations of artists, notably Manet and Picasso.)
The Third of May 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid, 1814. Oil on canvas 1842 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long. 1853 - Vincent van Gogh , Dutch painter born. (d. 1890) (Van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces.)
Self-portrait (1887) 1858 - Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser. 1867 – U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska for US$7.2 million (about 2 cents/acre) from Russia. The news media call this Seward's Folly. 1912 – Sultan Abdelhafid signed the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate. 1940 – World War II: Wang Jingwei was installed by Japan as head of the puppet government in China. 1951 - Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau. 1964 – Jeopardy!, the popular international game show created by Merv Griffin, made its debut on the NBC television network. 1981 – Trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, obsessed fan John Hinckley, Jr. shot and wounded U.S. President Ronald Reagan and three others outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. On This Day (March 29) 1461 – Yorkist troops defeated Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Towton in Yorkshire, England, the largest battle in the Wars of the Roses up until that time with approximately over 20,000 casualties. 1638 – Swedish settlers founded New Sweden near Delaware Bay, the first Swedish colony in America. 1807 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovered 4 Vesta, the brightest known asteroid and the second-most massive body in the asteroid belt. 1831 – Bosniak general Husein Gradaščević began an uprising against Sultan Mahmud II and the Ottoman Empire. 1848 - John Jacob Astor , American businessman died. (b. 1763) (He was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in America, from which he made his fortune in fur trading, real estate, and opium.) 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Appomattox Court House begins. 1911 – The M1911 single-action, semi-automatic pistol developed by American firearms designer John Browning became the standard-issue side arm in the United States Army. 1917 - Man o' War , American thoroughbred racehorse born. (d. 1947) (Considered by most to be the greatest thoroughbred racehorse of all time. During his career just after World War I, he won 20 of 21 races and $249,465 in purses.)
Man o' War 1982 - Carl Orff , German composer died. (b. 1895) 3O7SpmZ2FNs
Carmina Burana, Finale (Check out the timpanist.) 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 – above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever. Original post: On This Day (March 31) |
