POPnews - February 15th

[The most indelible image from the funeral of George VI, on this day in 1952, was the sight of Three Queens - mother, widow, and heir - watching from the platform at Paddington Station in heavy mourning as the body of the King prepared to make its final journey to Windsor Castle.]
399 BCE - Socrates was sentenced to death, having been found guilty of corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens; interestingly, Socrates was the subject of history's first recorded impersonation, having been roundly lampooned in Aristophanes' comedy The Clouds - a tribute which would later contribute to his downfall. Socrates' chosen means of death was drinking a mix of the poisonous hemlock, a demise to which Seneca paid homage at his execution in 65 CE and which I can't help thinking of whenever I find myself walking along Vancouver's Hemlock Street.

1637 - Ferdinand III became Holy Roman Emperor, having already become King of Hungary-Croatia, King of Bohemia, and King of the Romans.

1764 - The city of St. Louis, Missouri, was established by Pierre Laclède de Liguest.

1898 - The USS Maine was sunk in Havana Harbour, killing more than 260, and prompting the Spanish-American War; the cause of the explosion which sank the vessel (and the identities of its perpetrators) remains unknown. Throughout the hostilities that followed 'Remember the Maine' became a well-known battle cry.

1903 - The first Teddy Bear was produced by Morris Michtom; sales of the stuffed animal were so brisk that Michtom (originally proprietor of a candy store in Brooklyn) founded the Ideal Toy Company in 1907.

1906 - The UK's Labour Representation Committee renamed itself the Labour Party after winning 29 seats in the House of Commons, with Keir Hardie among the first members of the new party to take his seat.

1933 - Giuseppe Zangara attempted to assassinate President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Bayfront Park in Miami; instead he shot Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who died 19 days later of his injuries.

1942 - The Fall of Singapore followed an invasion by Japanese forces, and when the British General Arthur Percival surrendered, about 80,000 Indian, British and Australian soldiers became prisoners of war; the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history also prompted the Sook Ching massacre.

1952 - King George VI was buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle following a lying-in-state at Westminster Hall and a State Funeral; currently he rests in the George VI Memorial Chapel, alongside the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.

1961 - Sabena Flight 548 crashed in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire US Figure Skating team, several coaches and family members.

1965 - The Canadian flag was adopted to replace the Red Ensign; the occasion is marked (or ought to be, anyway) as National Flag of Canada Day.

1971 - British currency was decimalized on Decimal Day.

1976 - The most recent Constitution of Cuba was adopted by a national referendum.

1980 - Television One and Television Two (formerly South Pacific Television) went to air for the first time as the newly created Television New Zealand.

1982 - The oil drilling rig Ocean Ranger sank during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 workers.

1989 - The Soviet Union officially announced that its attempted invasion of Afghanistan - begun in December 1979 - was over, with the last of its troops having left the country.

1991 - The Visegrád Agreement - establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems - was signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland at a summit in the Hungarian castle town of Visegrád.

2003 - Between 8 million and 30 million people demonstrated for peace in more than 600 cities around the world, marking the largest anti-war protest in history.

2005 - YouTube went online.
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POPnews - May 26th

[Currently housed in the cathedral at Monza, the Iron Crown of Lombardy was already ancient when it was used in the coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day 800 CE; not merely regalia but a reliquary as well, it is reputed to have been fashioned in part out of one of the nails from the cross upon which Christ was crucified.]
451 CE - The Battle of Avarayr took place near Vaspurakan between Armenian rebels led by Vartan Mamikonian against their overlords the Sassanid Empire of Yazdegerd II; while the Armenians were defeated militarily they were subsequently guaranteed the freedom to openly practice Christianity.

1637 - During the Pequot War a combined force of English colonists and Mohegan led by German Captain John Mason attacked the Pequot village of Misistuck in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.

1647 - Alse Young became the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies when she was hanged in Hartford, Connecticut.

1736 - At the Battle of Ackia British and Chickasaw soldiers repelled a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi; the French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had been seeking to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France.

1805 - Napoléon I assumed the title of King of Italy and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Duomo di Milano.

1828 - Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser was discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.

1857 - Dred Scott was emancipated by his owners, the Blow family.

1868 - The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended, with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote.

1879 - Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Gandamak, establishing an Afghan state.

1896 - James Dunham murdered six people in Campbell, California; following the slayings of his wife, her family and their servants Dunham disappeared, and was never seen again. Only his infant son and a farmhand survived the massacre.

1906 - London's Vauxhall Bridge was opened by The Prince of Wales, the future George V.

1913 - Emily Duncan became Britain's first woman magistrate.

1917 - A powerful F4 tornado blew through Mattoon, Illinois, killing 101 people and injuring 689; for the record books, it was the world's longest tornado, lasting for over 7 hours and traveling 293 miles, spreading death and destruction along its path.

1927 - The Ford Motor Company ceased manufacturing the Ford Model T and began to retool their plants to increase production of the Ford Model A.

1966 - British Guiana gained its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming Guyana; representing The Queen (who had visited the country the previous February aboard the HMY Britannia) at the ceremony were the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

1972 - Australia's Willandra National Park was established.

1977 - George Willig climbed the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Center.

1992 - Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc., was kidnapped at gunpoint from the company's parking lot in Mountain View, California, and held hostage for $650,000 at a rented house in Hollister, an hour's drive away; the FBI rescued him four days later.

2004 - US Army veteran Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.
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