779 – Walburgis, Anglo-Saxon abbess/saint (Walpurgis Night), dies
1570 – Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England, absolves her subjects from allegiance
1682 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian violist/composer, murdered at 37
1723 – Christopher Wren, England, astronomer/architect, dies at 90
1778 – Jose de San Martin, Yapeyú Corrientes, Argentine General, liberated Argentina, Chile and Peru from Spanish rule, Born
1791 – 1st (central) Bank of US chartered (See below: Greenbacks, and 16th amendment)
1793 – 1st cabinet meeting (At George Washington’s home)
1797 – Colonel William Tate and his force of 1000–1500 soldiers surrender after the Last invasion of Britain.
1799 – US Congress passes 1st federal (forced) quarantine legislation
1804 – Thomas Jefferson nominated for US President at Democratic-Republican caucus
1830 – Victor Hugo’s “Hernani” premieres in Paris
1836 – Samuel Colt patents 1st revolving barrel multishot firearm
1836 – US Showman Phineas Taylor Barnum exhibits African American slave Joice Heth.
1839 – Seminoles & black allies shipped from Tampa Bay Florida, to West
1841 – Pierre Auguste Renoir, Limoges France, Impressionist painter/sculptor, Born
1848 – Provisional government in revolutionary France, by Louis Blanc’s motion, guarantees workers’ rights.
1856 – A Peace conference opens in Paris after the Crimean War.
1859 – 1st use of “insanity plea” to prove innocence
1862 – Paper currency (greenbacks) introduced in US by Pres Abraham Lincoln (The term greenback refers to paper currency (printed in green on one side) issued by the United States during the American Civil War. They were in two forms: Demand Notes, issued in 1861–1862, and United States Notes issued in 1862–1865. They were legal tender by law, but were not backed by gold or silver, only the credibility of the U.S. government. / The Lincoln Administration sought loans from major banks, mostly in New York City. These banks quickly ran out of money to lend and, in turn, went to European banks for more. The European banks demanded very high interest rates of 24 to 36 percent. Lincoln refused to borrow on such terms and called for other solutions. / The solution came from Colonel “Dick” Taylor, an Illinois businessman serving as a volunteer officer. Taylor met with Lincoln in January 1862, and suggested issuing unbacked (debt free) paper money. Taylor said “Just get Congress to pass a bill authorizing the printing of full legal tender treasury notes… and pay your soldiers with them and go ahead and win your war with them also. If you make them full legal tender… they will have the full sanction of the government and be just as good as any money; as Congress is given the express right by the Constitution.”
Issuing unbacked paper money was not an idea Lincoln really liked, but soon there was mounting pressure in Congress to do something. The government could either print its own money or go into deep perpetual debt to foreign creditors. So the President was quick to endorse Taylor’s proposal. On February 25, 1862, Congress passed the first Legal Tender Act, which authorized the issuance of $150 million in United States Notes
“I have two great enemies,” Lincoln once said, “the southern army in front of me and the financial institutions in the rear. Of the two, the one in the rear is the greatest enemy.” (quoted from This Difficult Individual, Ezra Pound, by Eustace Mullins)
Assassin Booth is alleged to have said to banker-financier, Jay Cooke, and his brother, Henry Cooke, organizer of the First National Bank, “So much of the problem you gentlemen face has grown out of the new Treasury system.” This would seem to allude to the issue of greenbacks rather than the national banking acts of the period. Jay Cooke is alleged to have told Booth, “There are millions of dollars in profits to be made, and we’re being denied our share. We’ll be ruined if Lincoln’s policies are continued.”
1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress. (Interesting name huh / Hiram = Mason and Rhodes = Cecil Rhodes. Just sayin)
1875 – Kiowa Indians under Lone Wolf (Guipago) surrender at Ft Sill
1879 – Congress passed 1st Timberland “Protection racket” Act
1885 – US Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds
1888 – John Foster Dulles, US Secretary of State (1953-59) Birthed
1894 – Ernst Friedrich, Breslau Germany, pacifist (War Against War!) Born
1901 – J. P. Morgan incorporates the United States “Steal” Corporation.
1901 – Zeppo Marx, American actor and agent (d. 1979) was born.
1907 – US proclaims protectorate over Dominican Republic
1908 – 1st tunnel under Hudson River (railway tunnel) opens
1909 – Geoffrey Dummer, electronics engineer, first to build integrated circuit / microchip, born in Hull England (d.2002) Born
1910 – Dalai Lama flees Tibet from Chinese troops to British India
1913 – Jim Backus, Cleve, actor (Mr Magoo, Thurston Howell III-Gilligan Is) Born
1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment, which paved the way for the United States adoption of income tax, was NOT ratified
HOW SOME STATES DID NOT LEGALLY RATIFY THE 16TH AMENDMENT
Bill Benson’s findings, published in “The Law That Never Was,” make a convincing case that the 16th amendment was not legally ratified and that Secretary of State Philander Knox was not merely in error, but committed fraud when he declared it ratified in February 1913
1917 – Anthony Burgess, essayist/novelist (Clockwork Orange) Born
1918 – Robert Lorimer “Bobby” Riggs, US tennis star (US Open 1939, 41), born in Los Angeles, California
1919 – League of Nations set up by Paris Treaty
1919 – Oregon places a one cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.
1921 – The Living Buddha, Hutuktu, is crowned king of Mongolia as the country declares independence from China
1923 – Bread in Berlin rises to 2,000 marks
1927 – Ralph Stanley, American singer and banjo player (Stanley Brothers) was born.
1928 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a broadcast license for television from the Federal Radio Commission.
1930 – With the continuing debate in congress between wets and drys over the prohibition laws , the enforcement in each state also continues to be dependent on the position of the politicians in that state. In states where the wets are in control the boats used to enforce prohibition could not catch a cold let alone a fast rum runners boat , and speakeasies are very rarely raided by law enforcement. In other states where the dry’s are in control fast patrol boats and many raids occur.
1932 – Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, which allows him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident.
1933 – 1st genuine US aircraft carrier named, USS Ranger
1933 – Thomas Yawkey purchases Boston Red Sox
1937 – Bob Schieffer, Austin Tx, newscaster (CBS Weekend News) Born
1941 – February strike: In occupied Amsterdam, a general strike is declared in response to increasing anti-Jewish measures instituted by the Nazis.
1943 – George Harrison, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (The Beatles, The Quarrymen, Traveling Wilburys, and Plastic Ono Band) (d. 2001) was born.
1945 – World War II: Turkey declares war on Germany.
1945 – Mário de Andrade, Brazilian writer and photographer (b. 1893) Dies
1947 – Doug Yule, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Velvet Underground and American Flyer) was born.
1948 – The president (Eduard Benes) of Czechoslovakia allowed communist rule to be established in this country on this date. Eduard Benes was reported to have been under quit a bit of pressure at this time. During this year, the communist party had forced other parties out of political office, and the communists were the only party that existed in this country at this time. This newly-formed totalitarian government was very much supported by the Soviet government, until the year 1989.
1949 – Ric Flair, American wrestler was born.
1950 – “Your Show of Shows” with Sid Caesar & Imogene Coca premieres on NBC Writers include Mel Brooks, Neil Simon & Woody Allen
1950 – Neil Jordan, Irish director, writer (Crying Game, Michael Collins) Born
1951 – The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1954 – John Doe , American musician (X) Actor (Great Balls of Fire, Boogie nights) Born
1956 – In his speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union denounces the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin.
1957 – Bugs Moran, American gangster, dies of lung cancer in prison at 65
1957 – Stuart “Woody” Wood, Scot, guitarist (Bay City Rollers-Saturday Night) Born
1957 – Buddy Holly & Crickets record “That’ll Be the Day”
1957 – Supreme Court decides 6-3, baseball is only antitrust exempt pro sport
1960 – John Cage’s “Music for Amplified Toy Pianos” premieres
1964 – North Korean Prime Minister Kim Il-sung calls for the removal of feudalistic land ownership aimed at turning all cooperative farms into state-run ones.
1964 – Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) TKOs Sonny Liston in 7 for his first world heavyweight championship title
1965 – Carrot Top, American comedian and actor was born.
1965 – Brian Baker, American guitarist and songwriter (Bad Religion, Minor Threat, Junkyard, and Dag Nasty) was born.
1966 – Syrian military coup under Hafiz al-Assad
1966 – Tea Leoni, actress (Flying Blind, Naked Truth), born in NYC, New York Born
1968 – 430 Unification Church couples wed in Korea
1968 – Vietnam War: 135 unarmed citizens of Hà My village in South Vietnam’s Quảng Nam Province are killed and buried en masse by South Korean troops in what would come to be known as the Hà My massacre.
1969 – West Germany gives $5 million to an Arab terrorist as ransom for the passengers and crew of a hijacked jumbo jet.
1970 – Mark Rothko, abstract expressionist (Green on Blue), dies at 66
1971 – “Oh! Calcutta!” opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 1,316 performances
1971 – The first unit of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, goes online.
1971 – Sean Astin, actor (Goonies, Toy Soldiers, RUDY), born in Los Angeles, California
1972 – Paul McCartney releases “Give Ireland back to the Irish” single
1973 – Julio José Iglesias, Spanish singer Born
1975 – Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam, (Help murder Malcolm X) dies in Chicago at 78
1976 – Chris Pitman, rocker (Zaum, Tool) Born
1977 – Oil tanker explosion west of Honolulu spills 31 million gallons
1980 – The government of Suriname is overthrown by a military coup which is initiated by the bombing of the police station from an army ship off the coast of the nation’s capital, Paramaribo
1981 – Rita Jenrette (wife of Abscam congressman) appears on Donahue
1983 – Tennessee Williams, US playwright and writer (Streetcar Named Desire), dies at 71
1987 – US Supreme Court upholds (5-4) affirmative action
1990 – On a BBC taped interview, rock star Stevie Nicks breaks down, saying that she will never have children & no man can stand her for long
1991 – Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky & John Candy buy CFL’s Toronto Argonauts
1991 – Gulf War: An Iraqi scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Army Reservists from Pennsylvania.
1991 – The Warsaw Pact is declared disbanded.
1992 – Muddy Waters wins Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards
1994 – Jersey Joe Walcott, boxer, dies at 80
1994 – Israeli extremist Baruch Goldstein massacres 30 Palestinians in Hebron Mosque of Abraham massacre: In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more before being subdued and beaten to death by survivors.
1994 – Mosque of Abraham massacre: In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more before being subdued and beaten to death by survivors.
1998 – Pamela Lee has husband Tommy Lee arrested on battery charges
1998 – Switzerland’s 1st legal brothel opens in Zurich
1999 – Glenn T. Seaborg, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1912) Dies
2004 – Donald Hings, English-Canadian inventor, invented the Walkie-talkie (b. 1907) died.
2005 – Peter Benenson, English lawyer, founded Amnesty International (b. 1921) died.
2009 – Attorney-General Eric Holder has announced the arrest of more than seven hundred and fifty people on narcotics-related charges, and the seizure of more than twenty-tree tons of narcotics. This is part of the twenty-one month multi-agency law enforcement investigation known as ‘Operation Xcellerator.’ This number has included the fifty-two people detained in California, Minnesota and Maryland in raids targeting the powerful Sinaloa cartel. The twenty-one month operation involved U.S, Mexican and Canadian authorities. A 2008 justice department report found that Mexican traffickers were the biggest organised crime threat to the United States..
2009 – BDR massacre in Pilkhana, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 74 People are being killed, including more than 50 Army officials, by Bangladeshi Boarder Guards inside its headquarter.
2011 – French fashion house Christian Dior suspends its chief designer John Galliano after he is arrested for an anti-semitic verbal attack in Paris
2012 – World Health Organization removes India from the list of polio endemic countries
2012 – Louisiana Red, American blues musician, dies from stroke at 79
2013 – Italy Common Good, a centre left alliance, wins the Italian general election
2013 – Cuban President Raul Castro announces he will not seek another term in 2018
2013 – C. Everett Koop, American surgeon and admiral, 13th Surgeon General of the United States (b. 1916) died.
2013 – Dan Toler, American guitarist (The Allman Brothers Band and Gregg Allman Band) (b. 1948) died.
2014 – Hundreds of pro-Russian protesters block the Crimean parliament and demand a referendum on Crimea’s independence