Category Archives: History

History

On this day February 9

Today in History

  • 1996 The Irish paramilitary organization IRA ends an 18-month ceasefire by exploding a large bomb in London

    The explosion in London’s Canary Wharf left 2 people dead and 39 injured.

  • 1969 The Boeing 747 flies for the first time

    The “Jumbo Jet” was the world’s largest passenger aircraft at the time.

  • 1964 The Beatles embark on their first tour in the United States

    Their appearance in the Ed Sullivan Sow marked the beginning of the “British Invasion”

  • 1959 The world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile becomes operational in the USSR

    The Soviet R-7 Semyorka missile had a range of 8800 km (5500 mi).

  • 1950 U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy launches his anti-communist campaign

    On this day, McCarthy accused the U.S. State Department of being infiltrated by communists.

 

History

On this day February 8

 

Today in History

  • 1971 The NASDAQ holds its first trading day

    The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations was the world’s first electronic stock exchange.

  • 1960 The first 8 stars are added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame

    More than 2400 five-pointed stars have since been embedded in the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street to honor stars of the entertainment industry.

  • 1950 The Stasi, East Germany’s notorious secret police, is established

    The “Staatssicherheit”, which was dissolved in 1990, is considered one of the most repressive intelligence agencies in the world.

  • 1910 The Boy Souts of America is founded

    3 years earlier, British General Robert Baden-Powell had founded the Scout movement in England.

  • 1879 Sandford Fleming proposes the use of time zones

    The later introduction of Universal Standard Time, which is based on time zones, revolutionized time keeping.

 

History

On this day February 7

Today in History

  • 2009 The Black Saturday bushfires in Australia kill 173 people

    The fires were the worst natural disaster in Australian history.

  • 2005 Ellen MacArthur breaks the speed record for sailing solo around the world

    The journey took her 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds.

  • 1992 The European Union is established as the Maastricht Treaty is signed

    The treaty also defined a single European currency: the Euro.

  • 1986 Haiti’s president, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, flees the country, ending 28 years of family rule

    On the same day 5 years later, the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was sworn in.

  • 1984 NASA astronauts take the first untethered spacewalk

    The photographs of Bruce McCandless and Robert L. Stewart hovering freely in space became some of the most iconic images of the 1980s.

History

On this day February 5

Today in History

  • 1924 The Greenwich Time Signal is broadcast for the first time

    The “BBC pips” are 5 short and 1 long tones that are broadcast by many BBC radio stations to mark the precise start of the hour.

  • 1919 United Artists is founded

    Charlie Chaplin was one of the film studio’s founders.

  • 1909 The world’s first synthetic plastic is developed

    Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite at a meeting of the American Chemical Society that day.

  • 1869 The biggest gold nugget in history is found

    The “Welcome Stranger” was found at Moliagul in Australia and had a calculated refined weight of 71.081 kg.

  • 1852 The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg opens to the public

    It is one of the world’s largest and oldest museums and was originally founded in 1764.