Category Archives: History

History

On this day March 7

Today in History

  • 1971 A speech by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman helps spark the Bangladesh war of independence

    Bangladesh’s founding leader made his historical speech at a time of mounting tensions between East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh, and West Pakistan, which became present-day Pakistan.

  • 1965 Police brutally attack civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama

    Scores of demonstrators were injured, and the day entered history books as Bloody Sunday. The event helped to shift public opinion in favor of the Civil Rights movement.

  • 1945 U.S. troops capture the Ludendorff Bridge and cross the Rhine at Remagen

    The legendary capture yielded little strategic advantage but it elevated the morale of the U.S. troops in pursuit of retreating German fighters,

  • 1926 The first two-way transatlantic telephone takes place

    The conversation between the post office in London and Bell Laboratories in New York was established using a short-wave radio signal.

  • 1900 The SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse becomes the first ship to send wireless signals to shore

    The German transatlantic liner was fitted with wireless communication by its owner, Norddeutscher Lloyd, in order to outdo its rival Hamburg America Line.

History

On this day March 6

Today in History

  • 1987 193 people die when a ferry capsizes in the North Sea

    The Herald of Free Enterprise sank just minutes after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

  • 1967 Stalin’s daughter defects to the West

    The Soviet dictator’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, caused an international uproar when she approached the United States embassy in New Delhi and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

  • 1957 Ghana becomes the first African country to gain independence from colonial rule

    Ghana emerged as a sovereign state from the former British colonies Gold Coast and Togoland. Kwame Nkrumah was the country’s first leader.

  • 1899 The painkiller Asprin is registered as a trademark

    Acetylsalicylic acid was first isolated in 1897 by German chemist Felix Hoffmann. Today, the medication is sold by Bayer and is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.

  • 1869 The first periodic table of chemical elements is presented

    Dmitri Mendeleev presented the system to the Russian Chemical Society on that day.

History

On this day March 5

Today in History

  • 1981 The home computer ZX81 is launched

    The British ZX81 was one of the world’s first home computer and was sold over 1.5 million times.

  • 1970 The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty enters into force

    Nuclear powers China, Russia, U.S., U.K., and France initiated the treaty in 1968. It has since been ratified by 190 nations around the world.

  • 1960 Alberto Korda takes his famous picture of revolutionary Che Guevara

    The iconic photograph, called Guerrillero Heroico, was taken at a memorial service for the victims of the La Coubre explosion.

  • 1872 The air brake is patented

    George Westinghouse is credited with the design of the railway braking system that uses compressed air.

  • 1616 Nicolaus Copernicus’ revolutionary book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is banned by the Catholic Church

    In the book, Copernicus claimed that the Earth revolves around the sun. The Church maintained Ptolemy’s geocentric system. The book is considered a milestone in the history of astronomy.

History

On this day March 4

Today in History

  • 2007 The world’s first national internet election is held

    Estonia was the first country to allow its citizens to vote in a parliamentary election through the world wide web.

  • 1980 Robert Mugabe becomes Zimbabwe’s first black prime minister

    A hero of the black struggle against the white minority rule in his country, Mugabe won a landslide victory. More recently, his oppressive style of leadership has been condemned domestically and internationally.

  • 1977 The Vrancea earthquake claims over 1500 lives

    Most of the victims were residents of Romania’s capital Bucharest.

  • 1918 The first documented cases of the Spanish flu herald a deadly worldwide pandemic

    The disease quickly spread around the world, causing over 25 million deaths.

  • 1789 The U.S. Constitution is put into effect

    The law is one of the world’s oldest constitutions still in use. The oldest is the Constitution of San Marino, which was issued in 1600.