[The opulent, neo-Classical Groote Schuur Hospital adorns the lower slopes of Devil's Peak, near Cape Town, in South Africa; a teaching hospital founded in 1938, its name - meaning 'Great Barn' - hearkens back to the Groote Schuur estate founded by Dutch settlers to the region in the 17th Century.]
1154 - Pope
Anastasius IV died, clearing the way for the election of his successor,
Adrian IV - who remains to this day the only Englishman to have served as Bishop of Rome.
1775 - The
USS Alfred became the first vessel to fly the
Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the
Stars and Stripes) when it was hoisted by
John Paul Jones in the presence of the ship's captain,
Dudley Saltonstall.
1800 - During the
War of the Second Coalition, at the
Battle of Hohenlinden, French
General Jean Victor Marie Moreau decisively defeated
Austria's Archduke John (son of the Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold II) near Munich; coupled with
First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte's earlier victory at
Marengo, the rout effectively forced Austria to sign an armistice and end the war.
1818 -
Illinois became the 21st US state.
1854 - In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 gold miners at
Ballarat were killed by state troopers at
Eureka Stockade in an uprising over mining licences.
1887 -
Edmund E. Sheppard founded Saturday Night magazine in Toronto.
1904 - The
Jovian moon Himalia was discovered by
Charles Dillon Perrine at California's
Lick Observatory.
1917 - The
Quebec Bridge - connecting
Lévis on the south shore of the
Saint Lawrence River to
Quebec City on the north - finally opened to traffic, after nearly 20 years of planning and construction.
1965 -
An all-white jury in Alabama convicted three Ku Klux Klansmen - Collie Wilkins, William Eaton, and Eugene Thomas - for
the murder of white civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo. In the car with the men at the time of their drive-by shooting had been FBI informant Gary Rowe, whose testimony was crucial in the implication of the others.
1967 - Louis Washkansky became the first recipient of a heart transplant; his team of surgeons at Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital was led by the legendary Dr. Christiaan Barnard.
1970 - British trade commissioner
James Cross was released by the
FLQ after 60 days in captivity; his
abduction was a motivating factor in Canada's
October Crisis.
1971 -
India invaded East Pakistan, and assisted in the
liberation of
Bangladesh from
West Pakistan, a feat which took only 13 days.
1973 -
Pioneer 10 sent back
close-up pictures of the planet
Jupiter.
1979 - Eleven fans were killed in a stampede for tickets to see
The Who at
Cincinnatti's
Riverfront Coliseum; the event was later incorporated into an episode of
WKRP in Cincinnati.
1984 - A
pesticide leak from a
Union Carbide plant in
Bhopal, India,
killed 3800 and injured untold numbers of others; in all 43 tonnes of the heavier-than-air gas mixture
MIC were spilled.
1988 - Britain's Junior Health Minister,
Edwina Currie,
shot her damn fool mouth off about salmonella being rife in the country's egg supply - an indiscretion which would later force her resignation from Cabinet.
1989 - In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President
George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev released statements indicating that the
Cold War between their nations was coming to an end; their statements over-excited some leading commentators from both nations, who exaggerated their wording and independently
declared the Cold War over.
1992 - The Greek oil tanker
Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of
crude oil, ran aground in a storm off Spain's
La Coruña province,
spilling much of its cargo.
2007 -
Kevin Rudd was sworn in as the
Commonwealth of Australia's 26th
Prime Minister since 1900.
*
Huh? you might ask, or Say what? if you're feeling ethnic and/or old school. Or you could just ask me; I'm always open to filling naive or empty vessels with my abundant wisdom. Among other things...