POPnews - October 24th

[Chartres Cathedral was dedicated in the presence of France's King Louis IX on this day in 1260, having seen a number of its predecessors on the site go up in smoke; this incarnation nearly became rubble itself at the hands of a mob during the French Revolution, only to be saved by its more courageous townsfolk.]
69 CE - At the Second Battle of Bedriacum forces under Antonius Primus - the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to Vespasian - defeated the forces of Emperor Vitellius.

1147 - After a siege of 4 months crusader knights led by Afonso Henriques reconquered Lisbon.

1260 - The Mamluk sultan of Egypt, Saif ad-Din Qutuz, was assassinated by Baibars, who then seized power for himself.

1590 - John White, governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returned to England via Plymouth after an unsuccessful search for the 'lost' colonists.

1648 - The Peace of Westphalia was signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years' War.

1857 - Sheffield F.C. - the world's oldest football club - was formed.

1861 - America's first transcontinental telegraph line was completed, rendering the Pony Express obsolete.

1901 - Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1917 - The Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, marking what is now generally called the Russian Revolution.

1926 - Harry Houdini made his final public appearance, at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit.

1929 - Black Thursday marked the initial crash of the New York Stock Exchange; Black Tuesday, five days later, finished the job.

1930 - A bloodless coup d'état in Brazil ousted Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last President of the country's First Republic, and his heir apparent, Júlio Prestes; Getúlio Dornelles Vargas was then installed as 'provisional president' under a system known as Estado Novo. Vargas' steady drift to the right ensured that Brazil had become a fascist dictatorship by the time he left office for the first time in October 1945.

1931 - The George Washington Bridge, linking upper Manhattan to Fort Lee, New Jersey, was dedicated; it opened to traffic the following day.

1945 - The United Nations was founded once all five permanent members of the Security Council - the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China - had ratified its charter.

1980 - The government of Poland legalized the Solidarity trade union, which was a first within the Soviet bloc; the union was de-legalized two years later by Wojciech Jaruzelski.

1990 - Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti revealed to the Italian parliament the existence of Operation Gladio, a 'stay-behind' paramilitary force organized by NATO and the CIA in order to prevent the spread of Communism into Italy after World War II.

1998 - The Deep Space 1 mission was launched.

2002 - Washington, DC, area spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo - the infamous Beltway Snipers - were arrested.

2003 - British Airways' last Concorde made its final commercial flight.
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POPnews: September 4th

[Observe the hilarity ensuing all over the place in this episode of
Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey, and try not to hurt yourself laughing.]
476 CE - Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed and Odoacer was declared King of Italy; this event is generally regarded by historians as the fall of ancient Rome, the demise of the Western Roman Empire, and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Western Europe.

626 CE - Li Shimin, posthumously known as Emperor Taizong of Tang, assumed the throne of China's Tang Dynasty following the death of his father Li Yuan, who was himself posthumously known as Emperor Gaozu; together they are considered the co-founders of the dynasty.

1260 - The Sienese Ghibellines - supported by the forces of King Manfred of Sicily, his commander Farinata degli Uberti, and (nominally, at least) the Holy Roman Empire - defeated the Florentine Guelphs (supporting Pope Alexander IV) at the Battle of Montaperti, which was itself part of the larger ongoing conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy; the action gained a certain notoriety for an act of treachery that turned the tide of the battle, which was immortalized by Dante Alighieri in his poem Divine Comedy.

1725 - France's King Louis XV married Polish princess Maria Leszczyńska.

1781 - Los Angeles was founded by a group of forty-four settlers known as 'los Pobladores'; the city's original name was El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula.

1812 - The Battle of Fort Harrison began when the fort - near Terre Haute, Indiana - was set on fire by a combined force of Miami, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, and Winnebago raiders led by Joseph Lenar and Stone Eater; although the siege would last for nine days, it would also provide the US with its first victory on land in the War of 1812 and it's commander, Zachary Taylor, a lot of swell war stories to tell when he was later successfully campaigning to become the republic's 12th President.

1870 - France's Emperor Napoleon III was deposed and the Third Republic was declared, just two days after he'd been captured by German forces at the Battle of Sedan during the Franco-Prussian War. The last Emperor of France, Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte had also been that country's first president (between December 1848 and December 1852, at which time he was promoted to Emperor).

1886 - After almost 30 years of fighting in the Indian Wars, Apache leader Geronimo and his remaining warriors surrendered to General Nelson Miles at Arizona's Skeleton Canyon; today there is a monument at the site where the surrender took place.

1888 - George Eastman's Kodak camera was patented; Eastman's innovation would bring photography to the masses, and his other invention - roll film - would be the single greatest innovation in photography until the advent of digital technology rendered it obsolete more than a hundred years later.

1919 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, gathered a congress in Sivas comprising members of the Turkish National Movement to make decisions as to the future of Anatolia and Thrace.

1923 - The first US airship, the USS Shenandoah - which famously crashed and burned one day shy of two years later - had its maiden flight.

1948 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicated.

1949 - The so-called Peekskill Riots erupted in Van Cordtlandville, New York, following a concert by Paul Robeson. The only other thing that's ever ever happened in Peekskill was that one time on The Facts of Life when Tootie bought a bong. Remember, and Mrs. Garrett got so mad? Good times*...

*Not to be confused with Good Times, which was an entirely different sitcom.

1950 - Mort Walker's comic strip Beetle Bailey made its newspaper debut; Walker's other offering, Hi and Lois, appeared in 1954.

1957 - The Wolfenden Report was released, advocating the decriminalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults in the United Kingdom; the report had been prompted by several high-profile court cases involving gay men, such as that of Peter Wildeblood.

1964 - Scotland's Forth Road Bridge - near Edinburgh - officially opened.

1970 - Salvador Allende was elected President of Chile.

1984 - (Neo)Conservative Brian Mulroney was elected Prime Minister of Canada for the first time.

1998 - Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University. All hail the Great Google!
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POPnews - May 5th

[Originally known as the Music Hall, Carnegie Hall is today one of the most famous concert venues in the world; it was once said that the best way to get there was to 'practice, man, practice' but in reality the N, Q, R, and W trains stop at the 57th Street Station right outside the door. Practicing really only works for talented people...]
1260 - Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, became ruler of the Mongol Empire.

1494 - Christopher Columbus 'discovered' Jamaica (which he claimed for Spain) during his Second Voyage.

1640 - England's King Charles I dissolved the Short Parliament.

1762 - Russia and Prussia signed the Treaty of St. Petersburg, ending the Seven Years War.

1789 - France's Estates-General convened for the first time since 1614.

1809 - Mary Kies became the first woman awarded a US patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.

1821 - Emperor Napoleon I died in exile on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena; his last words were 'France, armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine.'

1862 - At an event commemorated today in Mexico as Cinco de Mayo, troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halted a French invasion of their country at the Battle of Puebla.

1877 - Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrendered to US troops in Nebraska.

1886 - The Bay View Tragedy occurred when militia fired upon a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing seven.

1890 - At the opening night of Carnegie Hall, Walter Damrosch and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky conducted a concert.

1920 - Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested, accused of robbery and murder.

1941 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia returned to Addis Ababa following an exile occasioned by Italy's 1936 invasion; the event is remembered as Liberation Day.

1944 - Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison, where he (along with the leaders of the Congress Party) had been serving time for his part in the Quit India movement.

1945 - Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria was liberated by the 11th Armored Division of the US Army.

1950 - Bhumibol Adulyadej was crowned King Rama IX of Thailand, having ascended to the throne in June 1946 following the mysterious death of his brother Ananda Mahidol.

1954 - Alfredo Stroessner seized power in Paraguay at the head of a junta.

1981 - Bobby Sands died in HM Prison Maze as a result of a 66-day hunger strike.

2005 - Tony Blair became the first Labour leader in British history to secure a third consecutive term for his government.
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