1633 ~ Birthday of Samuel Pepys, Diarist.

1685 ~ Birthday of Georg Friederich Händel, Composer.

1836 ~ The siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio , Texas.

1855 ~ Death of Carl Friedrich Gauss, Mathematician & Physicist.

1893 ~ Rudolf Diesel received a patent for the diesel engine.

1915 ~ Birthday of Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay.

1927 ~ President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.

1945 ~ The Stars and Stripes raised over Iwo Jima . The 28th Regiment of the 5th Marine Division took Mount Suribachi.

1954 ~ Lasting prevention of polio reported in vaccine tests.

1965 ~ Death of Stan Laurel, Actor & Comedian.

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303 ~ The Roman Emperor Galerius published his edict that began the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.

1786 ~ Birthday of Wilhelm Grimm, Philologist & Folklorist.

1803 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court, in Marbury v. Madison, established the principle of judicial review.

1856 ~ Death of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician.

1868 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson.

1903 ~ The U.S. signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

1942 ~ Birthday of Joseph Lieberman, U.S. Senator.

1949 ~ At White Sands NM, "Project Bumper” a WAC CORPORAL attached to a German built V-2 rocket, reached a height of 250 miles above sea level, the first rocket to reach outer space. The entire trip took 6-1/2 minutes from firing.

1955 ~ Birthday of Steve Jobs, Computer Pioneer.

1981 ~ Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

2001 ~ Death of Claude E. Shannon , "father of information theory".

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Eudaimonia

1949 ~ At White Sands NM, "Project Bumper” a WAC CORPORAL attached to a German built V-2 rocket, reached a height of 250 miles above sea level, the first rocket to reach outer space. The entire trip took 6-1/2 minutes from firing.

Still using Geman technology 4 1/2 years after the war. The Germans got some things so right, and some so wrong.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Amen to that!

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Eudaimonia

1723 ~ Death of Sir Christopher Wren, Architect.

1870 ~ Hiram R. Revels, R-Miss., became the first black member of the U.S. Senate.

1901 ~ Incorporation of the United States Steel Corporation.

1943 ~ Birthday of George Harrison, Beatle.

1970 ~ Death of Mark Rothko, American painter.

1981 ~ Birthday of Jamie Lynn, Porn actress.

1983 ~ Death of Tennessee Williams, playwright.

1986 ~ Corazon Aquino assumed the Philippine presidency after Ferdinand E. Marcos fled.

1994 ~ Baruch Goldstein opened fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death.

2004 ~ Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was released in the U.S., and became the highest-grossing R-rated film ever made.

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Eudaimonia

1797 ~ The Bank of England issued the first one pound note.

1802 ~ Birthday of Victor Hugo, Poet.

1848 ~ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published “The Communist Manifesto” in London.

1918 ~ Birthday of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

1935 ~ Robert Watson-Watt gave the first demonstration of RADAR.

1987 ~ Birthday of Julia Bond, Porn actress.

1991 ~ Tim Berners-Lee introduced WorldWideWeb, the first web browser.

1991 ~ On Baghdad Radio, Saddam Hussein announced that he had ordered his forces to withdraw from Kuwait.

1993 ~ A van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City exploded, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.

2001 ~ The Taliban destroyed two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan.

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Eudaimonia

"2001 ~ The Taliban destroyed two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan."

The Taliban version of book burning.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

1807 ~ Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet (The Song of Hiawatha, The Village Blacksmith, Paul Revere's Ride).

1827 ~ The first Mardi Gras was celebrated in New Orleans.

1873 ~ Birthday of Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor.

1887 ~ Death of Alexander Borodin, composer.

1900 ~ The British Labour Party was formed.

1902 ~ Birthday of John Steinbeck, Writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1962.

1912 ~ Birthday of Lawrence Durrell, Writer.

1933 ~ Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, caught fire. The Nazis, blaming the Communists, used the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.

1951 ~ In a victory for freedom lovers, the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, was ratified.

1991 ~ President Bush declared "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated", and announced a Gulf War ceasefire.

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Eudaimonia

"1991 ~ President Bush declared "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated", and announced a Gulf War ceasefire."

Peace in our time.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

1807 ~ Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet ("Paul Revere's Ride", "A Psalm of Life", "The Song of Hiawatha", etc.).

1854 ~ The U.S. Republican Party was organized in Ripon, Wisconsin as a party opposed to the expansion of slavery.

1887 ~ Death of Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist.

1901 ~ Birthday of Linus Pauling, double Nobel Prize winner: Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962.

1953 ~ James Watson and Francis Crick announced that they had determined the chemical structure of DNA. The formal announcement followed in the April 25 publication of Nature. For those who would like to learn more about this interesting development. In Crick’s own words.

1967 ~ Death of Henry Luce, Publisher (Time, Fortune, Life, Sports Illustrated).

1979 ~ Death of "Mr. Ed", the talking horse.

1983 ~ The final episode of M*A*S*H was broadcast in the U.S.

1986 ~ Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm.

1993 ~ Four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) agents and six Branch Davidians were killed when the agents tried to serve warrants on the Davidians.

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Eudaimonia

1810 ~ Birthday of Frédéric Chopin, Composer & Pianist.

1872 ~ U.S. Congress authorized creation of Yellowstone National Park.

1910 ~ Birthday of David Niven, English actor.

1927 ~ Birthday of Harry Belafonte, Musician & Actor.

1932 ~ The infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped.

1950 ~ Klaus Fuchs was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.

1954 ~ The Castle Bravo 15-megaton hydrogen bomb was detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It produced the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the U.S.

1961 ~ The Peace Corps was established.

1975 ~ Birthday of Kami Andrews, Porn actress.

1992 ~ Sen. Brock Adams, D-Wash., abandoned his re-election campaign after eight women accused him in a Seattle Times report of sexual abuse and harassment.

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Eudaimonia

1836 ~ The Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico.

1877 ~ Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote.

1904 ~ Birthday of Dr. Seuss, Author.

1931 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and last leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

1939 ~ Death of Howard Carter, British archaeologist.

1963 ~ Release of Please Please Me in the U.K., the first LP from The Beatles.

1969 ~ The maiden flight of the Concorde.

1980 ~ Birthday of Sunny Lane, Porn actress.

1982 ~ Death of Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction author.

2004 ~ Al Qaeda carried out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.

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Eudaimonia

1706 ~ Death of Johann Pachelbel, Composer.

1847 ~ Birthday of Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish inventor.

1923 ~ Birthday of James Doohan, Actor.

1931 ~ ”The Star-Spangled Banner” officially became the national anthem of the U.S.

1939 ~ In Bombay, Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast to protest the British rule in India.

1983 ~ Death of Hergé, Belgian comics creator.

1985 ~ England’s coal miners accept defeat and vote to return to work after a year long strike.

1987 ~ Death of Danny Kaye, American Actor, Singer, & Comedian.

1991 ~ An amateur video captured the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.

2002 ~ Switzerland voted to become a member of the United Nations.

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Eudaimonia

1678 ~ Birthday of Antonio Vivaldi, Italian Composer.

1804 ~ The Battle of Vinegar Hill, New South Wales.

1861 ~ The "Stars and Bars" was adopted as the flag of the Confederate States of America.

1877 ~ Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet “Swan Lake” first performed.

1936 ~ First flight of airship Hindenburg (LZ-129), in Germany.

1973 ~ Birthday of Summer Cummings, Porn actress.

1975 ~ Charlie Chaplin was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

1994 ~ Four terrorists were convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.

1997 ~ U.S. President Clinton prohibited federal funding for any research on human cloning.

2005 ~ Death of Nicola Calipari, Italian secret service agent.

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Eudaimonia

1512 ~ Birthday of Gerardus Mercator, Flemish Geographer & Cartographer.

1658 ~ Birthday of Antoine Cadillac, founder of Detroit.

1908 ~ Birthday of Rex Harrison, English actor.

1946 ~ Winston Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent…”.

1953 ~ Death of Josef Stalin, Soviet dictator.

1970 ~ The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty came into effect.

1993 ~ Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was banned from athletics for life after failing a drug test for a second time.

1953 ~ North and South Korean representatives met for the first time in 25 years for peace talks.

2000 ~ Death of Lolo Ferrari, French Porn actress.

2004 ~ Martha Stewart was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she dumped her Imclone Systems Inc. stock just before the price dropped.

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Eudaimonia