Monday, March 14, 2011

POPnews - March 14th

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[The final resting place of President John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery is adorned with this Eternal Flame, intended to represent both his undying spirit and the legacy of his presidency; Kennedy shares the grave site with his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and two of their children - Patrick Bouvier Kennedy and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. - while two of his brothers, slain New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy and long-serving Massachusetts senator Edward M. Kennedy, are buried nearby.]

1457 - China's Jingtai Emperor died, having ascended the throne in September 1449 after his older brother the Zhengtong Emperor was militarily defeated and taken prisoner by the Oirat Mongols of Esen Khan, and just three days after abdicating in favour of that same brother, who for some reason took the unprecedented step of changing his regnal name to the Tianshun emperor upon his ascension.

1590 - Henry of Navarre (the future Henri V) and his army of Huguenots defeated the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne at the Battle of Ivry during the French Wars of Religion.

1647 - Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden signed the Truce of Ulm, ending the Thirty Years' War.

1757 - On-board the HMS Monarch, Admiral John Byng of Britain's Royal Navy was executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty in failing to prevent Minorca falling to the French following the Battle of Minorca.

1794 - Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin.

1889 - German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patented his Navigable Balloon.

1903 - The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, was ratified by the US Senate, although it would later be rejected by the Colombian Senate.

1910 - The Lakeview Gusher, the largest oil well gusher in US history, vented to atmosphere near Bakersfield, California; in all an estimated 9 million barrels (1.4 billion liters/378 million gallons) of oil were spilled before the gusher was brought under control within 18 months, by about September 1911.

1915 - Cornered off the coast of Chile by the Royal Navy after fleeing the Battle of the Falkland Islands during World War I, the German light cruiser SMS Dresden was abandoned and scuttled by her crew.

1942 - John Bumstead and Orvan Hess became the first in the world to successfully treat a patient, Anne Miller, using penicillin.

1943 - The Kraków Ghetto was declared liquidated after less than 48 hours.

1958 - When Prince Albert (a male heir to the House of Grimaldi and therefore the throne of Monaco) was born to the reigning Prince Rainier III and his wife, the former Hollywood film star Grace Kelly, the populace of the tiny Mediterranean principality became very publicly overjoyed at the disinheritance of the couple's previous child - Princess Caroline, born in January 1957 - who ever since her brother's April 2005 ascension has nevertheless been heiress presumptive.

1960 - The Lovell Telescope at the UK's Jodrell Bank Observatory contacted the Pioneer 5 probe, which was then 655,000 km (407,000 miles) from the Earth.

1964 - A jury in Dallas found nightclub owner Jack Ruby guilty of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy, and sentenced him to death.

1967 - The body of President John F. Kennedy was moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.

1978 - The Israeli Defense Force invaded and occupied southern Lebanon during Operation Litani.

1984 - Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, was seriously wounded during an assassination attempt carried out by the Ulster Freedom Fighters in central Belfast.

1991 - The so-called Birmingham Six were freed after spending 16 years in jail for the Birmingham pub bombings; all were eventually awarded damages from £840,000 to £1.2 million.

1995 - Astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to ride into space on-board a Russian launch vehicle.
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