This Day In History

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 11-30-2008 09:12 PM

November 30, 1886

Folies Bergere stage first revue

Once a hall for operettas, pantomime, political meetings, and vaudeville, the Folies Bergère in Paris introduces an elaborate revue featur... MORE >
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hist ... le&id=7097

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Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-03-2008 11:30 AM

December 3: General Interest
1947 : A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway

On this day in 1947, Marlon Brando's famous cry of "STELLA!" first booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.

The 23-year-old Brando played the rough, working-class Polish-American Stanley Kowalski, whose violent clash with Blanche DuBois (played on Broadway by Jessica Tandy), a Southern belle with a dark past, is at the center of Williams' famous drama. Blanche comes to stay with her sister Stella (Kim Hunter), Stanley's wife, at their home in the French Quarter of New Orleans; she and Stanley immediately despise each other. In the climactic scene, Stanley rapes Blanche, causing her to lose her fragile grip on sanity; the play ends with her being led away in a straitjacket.

Streetcar, produced by Irene Mayer Selznick and directed by Elia Kazan, shocked mid-century audiences with its frank depiction of sexuality and brutality onstage. When the curtain went down on opening night, there was a moment of stunned silence before the crowd erupted into a round of applause that lasted 30 minutes. On December 17, the cast left New York to go on the road. The show would run for more than 800 performances, turning the charismatic Brando into an overnight star. Tandy won a Tony Award for her performance, and Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize
for Drama.

In 1951, Kazan made Streetcar into a movie. Brando, Hunter and Karl Malden (as Stanley's friend and Blanche's love interest) reprised their roles. The role of Blanche went to Vivien Leigh, the scenery-chewing star of Gone with the Wind. Controversy flared when the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened to condemn the film unless the explicitly sexual scenes--including the climactic rape--were removed. When Williams, who wrote the screenplay, refused to take out the rape, the Legion insisted that Stanley be punished onscreen. As a result, the movie (but not the play) ends with Stella leaving Stanley.

A Streetcar Named Desire earned 12 Oscar nominations, including acting nods for each of its four leads. The movie won for Best Art Direction, and Leigh, Hunter and Malden all took home awards; Brando lost to Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen.

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General Interest
1947 : A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52283
1912 : First Balkan War ends
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5570
1967 : First human heart transplant
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7100
1984 : The Bhopal-Union Carbide disaster
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5571

American Revolution
1776 : Washington arrives at the banks of the Delaware
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=32

Automotive
1917 : Quebec Bridge opens
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7833
1979 : Last Pacer is produced
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7832

Civil War
1826 : George McClellan born
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2406

Cold War
1989 : Bush and Gorbachev suggest Cold War is coming to an end
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2503

Crime
1989 : The clothes make the man . . . guilty
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1208

Disaster
1984 : Explosion kills 2,000 at pesticide plant
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52514

Entertainment
1907 : Mary Pickford and Cecil DeMille open in Broadway play
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3823
1979 : Tragedy at The Who concert
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3824

Literary
1857 : Joseph Conrad's birthday
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4171

Old West
1818 : Illinois becomes the 21st state
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4356

Presidential
1839 : Lincoln reaches legal milestone
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52456

Sports
1979 : Indian field hockey gold medalist Dhyan Chand dies
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=57286

Vietnam War
1962 : Report maintains that Viet Cong are prepared for a long war
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1528
1965 : Memorandum outlines terms for bombing halt
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1529

World War I
1916 : Nivelle replaces Joffre as French commander
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... egory&id=3

World War II
1944 : Civil war breaks out in Athens
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=6399

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racehorse · Post by **racehorse** » 12-03-2008 12:03 PM

Great idea for a thread, Shirleypal.

Thanks.

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-03-2008 04:43 PM

Thx racehorse, hope you will contribute along with others. It does seem like we are living in a Parallel Universe, the reason I started this thread here.

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-05-2008 11:08 AM

December 5: General Interest
1945 : Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle

At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m.

The disappearance of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of the Mariner led to one of the largest air and seas searches to that date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found.

Although naval officials maintained that the remains of the six aircraft and 27 men were not found because stormy weather destroyed the evidence, the story of the "Lost Squadron" helped cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.

Find out why experts believe ships disappear in the Bermuda Triangle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

General Interest
1945 : Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5575
1933 : Prohibition ends
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7102

American Revolution
1776 : Phi Beta Kappa is founded while army flounders
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=34

Automotive
1932 : Ford Model C and V-8 introduced
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7837
1977 : Plymouth debuts front-wheel drive
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7838

Civil War
1839 : George Custer born
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2408

Cold War
1978 : USSR and Afghanistan sign "friendship treaty"
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2505

Crime
1873 : The Boston Belfry Murderer kills his first victim
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1210

Disaster
1876 : Hundreds die in Brooklyn theater fire
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52516

Entertainment
1906 : Otto Preminger born
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3827
1912 : The New York Hat released
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3828
1952 : The Abbott and Costello Show debuts
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3829

Literary
1941 : Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez is published
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4173

Old West
1871 : Rodeo star Bill Pickett born in Texas
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4358

Presidential
1782 : Van Buren is born
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52458

Sports
2002 : Roone Arledge dies
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=57288

Vietnam War
1964 : Army Captain awarded first Medal of Honor for action in Vietnam
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1532
1970 : North Vietnam announces it will not be intimidated by U.S. bombing
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1533

World War I
1915 : Siege of British-occupied Kut, Mesopotamia begins
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... egory&id=5

World War II
1941 : American carrier Lexington heads to Midway
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=6401

racehorse · Post by **racehorse** » 12-05-2008 11:31 AM

H Shirleypal

,

Some Pirates would probably enjoy the book, "The Bermuda Triangle" by Charles Berlitz. It is very interesting and informative. It was originally published in the 1970's. There is also a documentary movie from the same era titled "The Bermuda Triangle" (not to be confused with fiction films of a similar name) released by VidAmerica based on this book. It was released on VHS only and used copies can sometimes still be found on Amazon.com. I got one there a couple of years ago. I highly recommend it.

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-05-2008 11:35 AM

I still have my first edition of The Burmuda Triangle by Berlitz, it's funny because whenever I stop at my favorite used book store I see at least one beat up edition of that book. Think it has been around the Planet and back again many times.

ibme · Post by **ibme** » 12-05-2008 11:59 AM

. The "Place aux Jeunes," featuring scantily clad chorus girls, was a tremendous success. The Folies women gradually wore less and less as the 20th century approached, and the show's costumes and sets became more and more outrageous.

Isn't there a connection between this and the whoring of America's young women? Hey, I also believe they are feminizing young men.

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-05-2008 05:32 PM

I don't think so ibeme, it's just that everything is out there today, wasn't talked about openly a century ago.

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-06-2008 11:07 AM

December 6: General Interest
1884 : Washington Monument completed

On this day in 1884, in Washington, D.C., workers place a nine-inch aluminum pyramid atop a tower of white marble, completing the construction of an impressive monument to the city's namesake and the nation's first president, George Washington.

As early as 1783, the infant U.S. Congress decided that a statue of George Washington, the great Revolutionary War general, should be placed near the site of the new Congressional building, wherever it might be. After then-President Washington asked him to lay out a new federal capital on the Potomac River in 1791, architect Pierre L'Enfant left a place for the statue at the western end of the sweeping National Mall (near the monument's present location).

It wasn't until 1832, however--33 years after Washington's death--that anyone really did anything about the monument. That year, a private Washington National Monument Society was formed. After holding a design competition and choosing an elaborate Greek temple-like design by architect Robert Mills, the society began a fundraising drive to raise money for the statue's construction. These efforts--including appeals to the nation's schoolchildren--raised some $230,000, far short of the $1 million needed. Construction began anyway, on July 4, 1848, as representatives of the society laid the cornerstone of the monument: a 24,500-pound block of pure white marble.

Six years later, with funds running low, construction was halted. Around the time the Civil War began in 1861, author Mark Twain described the unfinished monument as looking like a "hollow, oversized chimney." No further progress was made until 1876--the centennial of American independence--when President Ulysses S. Grant authorized construction to be completed.

Made of some 36,000 blocks of marble and granite stacked 555 feet in the air, the monument was the tallest structure in the world at the time of its completion in December 1884. In the six months following the dedication ceremony, over 10,000 people climbed the nearly 900 steps to the top of the Washington Monument. Today, an elevator makes the trip far easier, and more than 800,000 people visit the monument each year. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.--a fitting tribute to the man known as the "Father of His Country."

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General Interest
1884 : Washington Monument completed
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52285
1907 : The Monongah coal mine disaster
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5576
1917 : The Great Halifax Explosion
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5577
1921 : Irish Free State declared
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7103

American Revolution
1777 : Whitemarsh skirmishes turn in Americans' favor
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=35

Automotive
1955 : National standard established for license plates
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7839
1976 : O'Neil sets record
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7840

Civil War
1865 : 13th Amendment ratified
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2409

Cold War
1987 : Protests against Soviet treatment of Jews take place in Washington and Moscow
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2506

Crime
1868 : Train robbers reach the end of the line
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1211

Disaster
1917 : Ships explode in Canadian harbor
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52517

Entertainment
1948 : Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts debuts
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3831
1998 : Bill Cosby receives Kennedy Center Honors
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3830

Literary
1933 : Ulysses is ruled not obscene
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4174

Old West
1749 : French-Canadian explorer La Verendrye dies
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4359

Presidential
1884 : Monument to Washington completed
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52459

Sports
1992 : Jerry Rice scores record-breaking touchdown
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=57289

Vietnam War
1961 : Operation Farm Gate combat missions authorized
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1534
1972 : Fighting continues in South Vietnam while negotiators talk in Paris
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1535

World War I
1917 : Munitions ship explodes in Halifax
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... egory&id=6

World War II
1941 : Roosevelt to Japanese emperor: "Prevent further death and destruction"
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=6635

Visit the History.com video guide to watch videos of speeches, historical events, holidays and more.
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Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-07-2008 11:00 AM

General Interest
1941 : Pearl Harbor bombed
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7104
1787 : The First State
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5578
1975 : Indonesia invades East Timor
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5579
1982 : First execution by lethal injection
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5580
1988 : Earthquake devastates Armenia
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5581

American Revolution
1787 : Delaware ratifies the Constitution
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=36

Automotive
1931 : Model-A Ford discontinued
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7841
1965 : Chevrolet produces 3,000,000th car
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7842

Civil War
1862 : Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2410

Cold War
1987 : Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in United States for summit with Ronald Reagan
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2507

Crime
1993 : Commute of terror
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1212

Disaster
1988 : Earthquakes wreak havoc in Armenia
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52518

Entertainment
1925 : Johnny Weissmuller sets world record
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3833
1941 : Movie business down 50 percent due to Pearl Harbor
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3834
1990 : Joan Bennett dies
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3832

Literary
1873 : Willa Cather is born
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4175

Old West
1805 : Lewis and Clark temporarily settle in Fort Clatsop
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4360

Presidential
1941 : FDR reacts to news of Pearl Harbor bombing
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52460

Sports
1989 : Sugar Ray Leonard fights Roberto Duran for the third and final time
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=57290

Vietnam War
1964 : Situation deteriorates in South Vietnam
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1536
1965 : McNamara predicts that more U.S. troops will be needed
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1537

World War I
1916 : David Lloyd George becomes prime minister of Britain
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... egory&id=7

World War II
1941 : "A date which will live in infamy"
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=6636

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-09-2008 05:11 PM

December 9: General Interest
1992 : U.S Marines storm Mogadishu, Somalia

On this day in 1992, 1,800 United States Marines arrive in Mogadishu, Somalia, to spearhead a multinational force aimed at restoring order in the conflict-ridden country.

Following centuries of colonial rule by countries including Portugal, Britain and Italy, Mogadishu became the capital of an independent Somalia in 1960. Less than 10 years later, a military group led by Major General Muhammad Siad Barre seized power and declared Somalia a socialist state. A drought in the mid-1970s combined with an unsuccessful rebellion by ethnic Somalis in a neighboring province of Ethiopia to deprive many of food and shelter. By 1981, close to 2 million of the country's inhabitants were homeless. Though a peace accord was signed with Ethiopia in 1988, fighting increased between rival clans within Somalia, and in January 1991 Barre was forced to flee the capital. Over the next 23 months, Somalia's civil war killed some 50,000 people; another 300,000 died of starvation as United Nations peacekeeping forces struggled in vain to restore order and provide relief amid the chaos of war.

In early December 1992, outgoing U.S. President George H.W. Bush sent the contingent of Marines to Mogadishu as part of a mission dubbed Operation Restore Hope. Backed by the U.S. troops, international aid workers were soon able to restore food distribution and other humanitarian aid operations. Sporadic violence continued, including the murder of 24 U.N. soldiers from Pakistan in 1993. As a result, the U.N. authorized the arrest of General Mohammed Farah Aidid, leader of one of the rebel clans. On October 3, 1993, during an unsuccessful attempt to make the arrest, rebels shot down two of the Marines' Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 U.S. soldiers.

As horrified TV viewers watched images of the bloodshed -including footage of Aidid's supporters dragging the body of one dead soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, cheering President Bill Clinton immediately gave the order for all American soldiers to withdraw from Somalia by March 31, 1994. Other Western nations followed suit. When the last U.N. peacekeepers left in 1995, ending a mission that had cost more than $2 billion, Mogadishu still lacked a functioning government. A ceasefire accord signed in Kenya in 2002 failed to put a stop to the violence, and though a new parliament was convened in 2004, rival factions in various regions of Somalia continue to struggle for control of the troubled nation.

Watch video clips on The True Story of Blackhawk Down.
Warning: This program contains vivid scenes of military combat that may be disturbing for some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

General Interest
1992 : U.S Marines storm Mogadishu, Somalia
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52286 1958 : John Birch Society founded
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5585 1987 : Intifada begins on Gaza Strip
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7106 1990 : Walesa elected president of Poland
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5586 1992 : Separation of Charles and Diana announced
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5587

American Revolution
1775 : Patriots gain control of Virginia
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=38

Automotive
1941 : Auto Racing Drivers Club closed for the war
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7847 1963 : Studebaker winds down
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7846

Civil War
1861 : Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
created
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2412

Cold War
1950 : Harry Gold sent to prison for his role in atomic espionage
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2509

Crime
1981 : Policeman Daniel Faulkner found dead
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52687

Disaster
2003 : Cold spell leads to tragedy in Iran
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52520

Entertainment
1926 : Benny Goodman records his first solo
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3838 1929 : Ginger Rogers makes Broadway debut
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3837 1972 : Louella Parsons dies
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3839

Literary
1854 : "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson is published
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4177

Old West
1835 : The Texan Army captures San Antonio
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4362

Presidential
1967 : Johnson discusses daughters
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52462

Sports
1965 : Reds trade Frank Robinson to Orioles
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=57292

Vietnam War
1965 : Newspaper reports on bombing over North Vietnam
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1541 1971 : Paris peace talks break down
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1542

World War I
1917 : Jerusalem surrenders to British troops
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... egory&id=8

World War II
1940 : Brits launch offensive against Italians in North Africa
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=6638

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-10-2008 05:03 PM

December 10: General Interest
1901 : First Nobel Prizes awarded

The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be "annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." Although Nobel offered no public reason for his creation of the prizes, it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm in 1833, and four years later his family moved to Russia. His father ran a successful St. Petersburg factory that built explosive mines and other military equipment. Educated in Russia, Paris, and the United States, Alfred Nobel proved a brilliant chemist. When his father's business faltered after the end of the Crimean War, Nobel returned to Sweden and set up a laboratory to experiment with explosives. In 1863, he invented a way to control the detonation of nitroglycerin, a highly volatile liquid that had been recently discovered but was previously regarded as too dangerous for use. Two years later, Nobel invented the blasting cap, an improved detonator that inaugurated the modern use of high explosives. Previously, the most dependable explosive was black powder, a form of gunpowder.

Nitroglycerin remained dangerous, however, and in 1864 Nobel's nitroglycerin factory blew up, killing his younger brother and several other people. Searching for a safer explosive, Nobel discovered in 1867 that the combination of nitroglycerin and a porous substance called kieselguhr produced a highly explosive mixture that was much safer to handle and use. Nobel christened his invention "dynamite," for the Greek word dynamis, meaning "power." Securing patents on dynamite, Nobel acquired a fortune as humanity put his invention to use in construction and warfare.

In 1875, Nobel created a more powerful form of dynamite, blasting gelatin, and in 1887 introduced ballistite, a smokeless nitroglycerin powder. Around that time, one of Nobel's brothers died in France, and French newspapers printed obituaries in which they mistook him for Alfred. One headline read, "The merchant of death is dead." Alfred Nobel in fact had pacifist tendencies and in his later years apparently developed strong misgivings about the impact of his inventions on the world. After he died in San Remo, Italy, on December 10, 1896, the majority of his estate went toward the creation of prizes to be given annually in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The portion of his will establishing the Nobel Peace Prize read, "[one award shall be given] to the person who has done the most or best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Exactly five years after his death, the first Nobel awards were presented.

Today, the Nobel Prizes are regarded as the most prestigious awards in the world in their various fields. Notable winners have included Marie Curie, Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela. Multiple leaders and organizations sometimes receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and multiple researchers often share the scientific awards for their joint discoveries. In 1968, a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was established by the Swedish national bank, Sveriges Riksbank, and first awarded in 1969.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides the prizes in physics, chemistry, and economic science; the Swedish Royal Caroline Medico-Surgical Institute determines the physiology or medicine award; the Swedish Academy chooses literature; and a committee elected by the Norwegian parliament awards the peace prize. The Nobel Prizes are still presented annually on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. In 2006, each Nobel Prize carried a cash prize of nearly $1,400,000 and recipients also received a gold medal, as is the tradition.

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General Interest
1901 : First Nobel Prizes awarded
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7107
1898 : Treaty of Paris ends Spanish-American War
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5588
1950 : Bunche receives Nobel Peace Prize
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5589
1974 : Sex scandal involving Arkansas politician
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5590

American Revolution
1778 : John Jay is elected president of the Continental Congress
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=39

Automotive
1845 : First pneumatic tires receive patent
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7849
1915 : Model T reaches milestone
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7850
1970 : Lee Iacocca gets a promotion
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7848

Civil War
1864 : Sherman arrives in front of Savannah
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2413

Cold War
1977 : Soviets arrest dissidents on United Nations Human Rights Day
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2510

Crime
1963 : Frank Sinatra Jr. endures a frightening ordeal
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1214

Disaster
1967 : Music star dies in Wisconsin plane crash
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52521

Entertainment
1938 : Filming of Gone with The Wind begins
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3841
1957 : Sidney Poitier signs for Porgy and Bess
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3840
1982 : Freeman Gosden dies
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3842

Literary
1830 : Emily Dickinson is born
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4178

Old West
1869 : Wyoming grants women the vote
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4363

Presidential
1920 : Wilson awarded Nobel Peace Prize
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52463

Sports
2006 : LaDainian Tomlinson breaks single-season touchdown record
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=57293

Vietnam War
1970 : Calley trial defense begins
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1543
1972 : Breakthrough appears near in Paris peace talks
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1544

World War I
1917 : Red Cross is awarded Nobel Peace Prize
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... egory&id=9

World War II
1941 : Japan becomes master of the Pacific and South China Sea
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=6639

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-21-2008 05:49 PM

December 21: General Interest
1988 : Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland

On this day in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. The disaster, which became the subject of Britain's largest criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack against the United States. One hundred eighty nine of the victims were American.

Islamic terrorists were accused of planting the bomb on the plane while it was at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Authorities suspected the attack was in retaliation for either the 1986 U.S. air strikes against Libya, in which leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's young daughter was killed along with dozens of other people, or a 1988 incident, in which the U.S. mistakenly shot down an Iran Air commercial flight over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people.

Sixteen days before the explosion over Lockerbie, the U.S. embassy in Helsinki, Finland, received a call warning that a bomb would be placed on a Pan Am flight out of Frankfurt. There is controversy over how seriously the U.S. took the threat and whether travelers should have been alerted, but officials later said that the connection between the call and the bomb was coincidental.

In 1991, following a joint investigation by the British authorities and the F.B.I., Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were indicted for murder; however, Libya refused to hand over the suspects to the U.S. Finally, in 1999, in an effort to ease United Nations sanctions against his country, Qaddafi agreed to turn over the two men to Scotland for trial in the Netherlands using Scottish law and prosecutors. In early 2001, al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison and Fhimah was acquitted.

In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing, but didn't express remorse. The U.N. and U.S. lifted sanctions against Libya and Libya agreed to pay each victim's family approximately $8 million in restitution. In 2004, Libya's prime minister said that the deal was the "price for peace," implying that his country only took responsibility to get the sanctions lifted, a statement that infuriated the victims' families. Pan Am Airlines, which went bankrupt three years after the bombing, sued Libya and later received a $30 million settlement.

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General Interest
1988 : Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52293
1958 : De Gaulle elected
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7118
1968 : Apollo 8 departs for moon's orbit
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5619
1975 : Carlos the Jackal attacks OPEC headquarters
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5620

American Revolution
1761 : Patriot Robert Barnwell is born
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=62

Automotive
1937 : Lincoln Tunnel opens
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7874
1979 : U.S. government rescues Chrysler
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7873

Civil War
1861 : Trent crisis escalates
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2426

Cold War
1991 : Soviet republics proclaim the Commonwealth of Independent States
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2521

Crime
1980 : Sunny von Bulow is found comatose
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1224
1988 : Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1225

Disaster
1946 : Earthquake sends tsunami toward Japan
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52532

Entertainment
1937 : Jane Fonda born
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3867
1937 : Snow White opens
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3868
1967 : Rolling Stones release a new album
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=3866

Literary
1799 : William Wordsworth moves into Dove Cottage
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4189

Old West
1866 : Indians massacre Fetterman and eighty soldiers
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=4374

Presidential
1970 : Nixon meets Elvis Presley
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52474

Sports
1918 : Hobey Baker killed in plane crash
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=57306

Vietnam War
1969 : Thailand announces plans to withdraw troops
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1563
1972 : Defense Department reports eight B-52s lost during Linebacker II
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1564

World War I
1915 : Sir William Robertson is appointed chief of the Imperial General Staff
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=20

World War II
1945 : "Old Blood and Guts" dies
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=6650

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-27-2008 12:40 PM

December 27: General Interest
1932 : Radio City Music Hall opens

At the height of the Great Depression, thousands turn out for the opening of Radio City Music Hall, a magnificent Art Deco theater in New York City. Radio City Music Hall was designed as a palace for the people, a place of beauty where ordinary people could see high-quality entertainment. Since its 1932 opening, more than 300 million people have gone to Radio City to enjoy movies, stage shows, concerts, and special events.

Radio City Music Hall was the brainchild of the billionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who decided to make the theater the cornerstone of the Rockefeller Complex he was building in a formerly derelict neighborhood in midtown Manhattan. The theater was built in partnership with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and designed by Donald Deskey. The result was an Art Deco masterpiece of elegance and grace constructed out of a diverse variety of materials, including aluminum, gold foil, marble, permatex, glass, and cork. Geometric ornamentation is found throughout the theater, as is Deskey's central theme of the "Progress of Man." The famous Great Stage, measuring 60 feet wide and 100 feet long, resembles a setting sun. Its sophisticated system of hydraulic-powered elevators allowed spectacular effects in staging, and many of its original mechanisms are still in use today.

In its first four decades, Radio City Music Hall alternated as a first-run movie theater and a site for gala stage shows. More than 700 films have premiered at Radio City Music Hall since 1933. In the late 1970s, the theater changed its format and began staging concerts by popular music artists. The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, which debuted in 1933, draws more than a million people annually. The show features the high-kicking Rockettes, a precision dance troupe that has been a staple at Radio City since the 1930s.

In 1999, the Hall underwent a seven-month, $70 million restoration. Today, Radio City Music Hall remains the largest indoor theater in the world.

General Interest
1932 : Radio City Music Hall opens
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7124
1831 : HMS Beagle departs England
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5633
1968 : Apollo 8 returns to Earth
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5634
1978 : Spanish king ratifies democratic constitution
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=5635

American Revolution
1780 : Americans raid Hammonds Store
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... gory&id=55

Automotive
1941 : U.S. begins rubber rationing
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7889
1943 : Auto engineer and inventor dies
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7890
1951 : Postal Service puts Crosley into action
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=7888

Civil War
1864 : Hood's army crosses the Tennessee River
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2432

Cold War
1979 : Soviets take over in Afghanistan
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=2527

Crime
1900 : Carry Nation smashes bar
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... ry&id=1231

Disaster
1975 : Coal mine explodes in India
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=t ... y&id=52538