On This Day: Thursday, December 29, 2005....

Events....

1607 - Indian chief Powhatan spared John Smith's life because of the pleas of Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas.

1813 - The British burned Buffalo, New York, during the War of 1812.

1837 - Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, New York.

1845 - Texas (comprised of the present state of Texas and part of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) was admitted as the 28th state of the Union, with the provision that the area should be divided into no more than five states.

1851 - The first U.S. branch Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was established, in Boston. The organization started in London in 1844.

1890 - The Wounded Knee massacre took place in South Dakota as some 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops. It was the last major battle between Native Americans and U.S. troops.

1940 - London suffered its most devastating air raid, and approximately 1,500 fires were started, when Germany started dropping incendiary bombs on it during World War II.

1996 - The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a war that lasted 36 years.

1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed one million lives.

Births......

1800 - Charles Goodyear, American inventor of vulcanization process for rubber.

1808 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States of America (1865-1869).

1809 - William Gladstone, English statesman and four-time Prime Minister.

1876 - Pablo Casals, Spanish cellist.

1907 - Robert C. Weaver, the first African-American to serve on a President's cabinet (Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development).

1917 - Thomas Bradley, American, mayor of Los Angeles.

Deaths.......

1170 - Archbishop Thomas Becket (Thomas á Becket), murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in England by four knights of King Henry II, apparently on orders of the king.


Have fun reading these.....I will post more everyday..It will be done by me only....Thanks

On This Day: Friday, December 30, 2005

Holidays

Feast day of St. Sabinus of Spoleto, St. Anysia, St. Anysius, and St. Egwin.

Philippines: Rizal Day.

Events

1853 - The United States bought 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. The treaty established the final boundaries of the southern United States.

1862 - The Union ironclad ship USS Monitor (famous for her battle with the Merrimac) sank off Cape Hatteras during a storm.

1879 - Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" was first performed, in England.

1880 - In British South Africa, the Transvaal province was declared an independent Boer republic, which set off an armed conflict with Britain.

1911 - Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.

1922 - Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, comprising a confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, the Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation.

1940 - California's first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened.

1948 - "Kiss Me Kate" opened on Broadway, New York City.

1951 - "The Roy Rogers Show" premiered on TV.

1963 - "Let's Make a Deal" premiered on television.

1965 - Ferdinand E. Marcos was sworn in as the Philippine Republic's sixth president.

1972 - The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

Births

1865 - Rudyard Kipling, English novelist, short story author, poet, Nobel Prize for Literature winner.

1867 - Simon Guggenheim, American philanthropist.

1928 - Bo Diddley (Ellas Bates, Ellas McDaniel), American rhythm and blues singer.

1975 - Tiger Woods, American pro golfer.

Deaths

1916 - Grigory Rasputin, a Russian holy man and mystic and a favorite of Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, murdered at Yusupovsky Palace by a group of nobles who didn't like his influence in the Russian court.

1933 - Ion Duca, the liberal premier of Romania, assassinated by a member of the Iron Guard, an extreme rightist movement.

1979 - Richard Rodgers, American composer of musical comedies and collaborator with Oscar Hammerstein.

On This Day: Saturday, December 31, 2005



Holidays

First Night.

New Year's Eve.

Japan: Omisoka or Grand Last Day; also Namahage.

Feast day of St. Sylvester I, pope, St. Melania the Younger, and St. Columba of Sens.

Events

1600 - Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a formal charter to the London merchants trading to the East Indies, hoping to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade.

1775 - The British fought off an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; general Richard Montgomery was killed.

1781 - The first modern bank in the U.S., the Bank of North America, was organized by Robert Morris and received its charter from the Confederation Congress. It began operating in Philadelphia.

1805 - The French Revolutionary calendar (Republican calendar) in use since 1793, was last used officially.

1879 - Thomas Edison first demonstrated his electric incandescent light bulb to the public, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1890 - New York's Ellis Island opened its doors to what would be millions of immigrants to the United States.

1897 - Brooklyn, New York, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.

1911 - Marie Sklodowska Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her isolation of the element of metallic radium and other earlier discoveries in the field of chemistry. She was the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize, eight years after she became the first woman ever to be honored with a Nobel Prize.

1946 - President Harry S. Truman officially proclaimed an end to World War II.

1960 - The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.

1965 - California became the largest state in population.

1974 - Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.

1990 - Titleholder Gary Kasparov of the USSR won the world chess championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1999 - Panama assumed control of the Panama Canal, according to the treaty of 1979.

Births

1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender" to the British throne.

1815 - George Gordon Meade, Union general who defeated Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg.

1869 - Henri Matisse, French painter, designer.

1880 - George Marshall, U.S. Secretary of State, designer of Marshall Plan, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II.

1884 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian-born American cosmetic executive.

Deaths

1985 - Rick Nelson (Ricky Nelson), American actor and singer, in an airplane crash. He was a star of the television show "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" with his family and then became one of rock and roll's first teen idols.