This Day in History

[Amnorix]

Today...

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

December 21

2010. Amnorix flies out to wherever the hell Donger is and kills him.


Typo fixed, bastidge.

[Amnorix]

December 21

69. Vespasian is crowned Roman Emperor, ending the Roman Civil War that had erupted after the suicide of Nero a year earlier. He is the last of four men to have worn the crown of Emperor during the year, which has since been known as "The Year of Four Emperors". The death of Nero brought an end to the Judio-Claudian line and Vespasian's ascension begins the Flavian line which will only last for three Emperors, but will greatly strengthen an empire that had been brought to its knees by the last few rulers of the last dynasty.

1620. The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock.

1913. The first crossword puzzle is published in the New York World.



If you want to see the clues, etc.: http://www.crosswordtournament.com/more/wynne.html

1937. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the world's first feature length animated film, premiers.

[rockymtnchief]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

December 21


1620. The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock.

Damn illegal immigrants! I hope they plan on getting jobs!

[Amnorix]

Urf. I screwed up. All that stuff that I posted, originally as occurring on the 22nd, but then Donger pointed out my mistake, so I changed the date to the 20th? Yeah, that stuff did happen on the 22nd. I fat-fingered it or whatever. So I've now re-edited that date back to the 22nd, and will post what happened on the 20th today.

[Amnorix]

December 20

1192. After signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third Crusade, Richard the Lion Heart is imprisoned by Leopold V, Duke of Austria, who will hand him over to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI. He will famously (for the time) refuse to show deference to the Emperor, claiming to be born of a rank that recognizes no superior but God. The Emperor will demand, and receive, a ransom equal to 2-3 times the annual income of the British crown, forcing Eleanor of Aquitane to impose a tax of 1/4th of the wealth of the British population and clergy, and empty many churches of their gold and silver.

1860. South Carolina secedes from the United States, the first state to do so. Four years later she is looking down the barrel of Sherman's army, about to capture Savannah Georgia and then rampage northward through the Carolinas that had started it all.

1924. Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison. In retrospect, this wasn't the best move from anyone's point of view.

1989. The US invades Panama to overthrow the corrupt regime of Manuel Noreiga.

2007. Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in British history, surpassing Queen Victoria.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

2007. Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in British history, surpassing Queen Victoria.

One of their more frumpy queens. Well, they're all frumpy, aren't they?

[Amnorix]

December 23

1823. "A Visit from St. Nicholas", more commonly known by its opening line of "The Night Before Christmas" is published anonymously.

1913. The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Wilson.

1970. The North Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,368 feet, making it the tallest building in the world.

1979. Soviet forces occupy Kabul, Afghanistan.

[Amnorix]

December 24

1814. The Treaty of Ghent, ending the misbegotten War of 1812, is signed.

1851. The Library of Congress loses 2/3rds of its books to fire. This includes about 2/3rds of the contribution made by Thomas Jefferson.

1865. The Ku Klux Klan is formed in Pulaski, Tennessee by Confederate veterans. This "first" Klan incarnation never had any organization beyond the local level, but was widely copied throughout the South during the period of Reconstruction.

1943. Dwight David Eisenhower is named Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force (SCAEF). General Marshall and British Field Marshal Alanbrooke had hoped for the appointment, but Marshall could not be spared by President Roosevelt as Marshall's clout before Congress was tremendous, and Alanbrooke and the British had to give way to the eventual vast superiority of American numbers in Europe. IIRC, by December 1944, American forces on continental Europe would outnumber the British by 2:1.

1955. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)'s predecessor tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual holiday tradition. The tradition began when a Sears department store placed an advertisement in a Colorado newspaper, telling children they could call Santa and providing a phone number which was actually the number for the Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center. Colonel Shoup, commanding officer that night, told the phone operators to give the children who called a "current location" for Santa.

In 1958 CONAD was replaced with NORAD. NORAD continues the tradition to this day, using volunteers -- mostly at Peterson Air Base and Cheyenne Mountain -- to staff the effort. The volunteers handle approximately 12,000 emails and 70,000 telephone calls each year.

[Amnorix]

December 25.

800. Charlesmagne is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in Rome.

1066. William the Conqueror is crowned King of England.

1130. Count Roger II is crowned first King of Sicily.

1261. On his eleventh birthday, John IV Laskaris, co-Emperor of the Byzantine Empire is blinded and deposes on the orders of his co-Emperor, Michael VIII Palaiologis. His blinding made John IV ineligible for the throne. His actions, however, will cause Michael VIII's excommunication and a revolt against his rule. John IV will spend the remainder of his life as a monk, and is visited 30 years later by Andronikos II Palaiologis, who will seek forgiveness for his father's actions. John IV will later be consecrated as a saint.

1776. George Washington and his men cross the Delaware River to assault the Hessian mercenaries of the British crown camped at Trenton, New Jersey.

1818. First performance of "Silent Night", in Austria.

1868. President Johnson grants an executive pardon of all Confederate Civil War veterans.

1941. Admiral Nimitz arrives in Hawaii and assumes command of the Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) (prounounced "sink-pack").

1991. Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union, which will dissolve the next day.

[Rain Man]

Rumor has it that a major religious leader was also born on this date.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

December 24

1851. The Library of Congress loses 2/3rds of its books to fire. This includes about 2/3rds of the contribution made by Thomas Jefferson.

This is why you should always do backups.

[stevieray]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

December 23

1913. The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Wilson.

...over Christmas vacation, put forth by one Congressman.

[Aries Walker]

Also today, in various years: Christmas Island was discovered, Ceaucescu and his wife were unceremoniously killed by special forces, Jon-Benet Ramsey was murdered, and Jimmy Buffett was born.

Washington taking Trenton was one of the greatest ass-kickings in military history, and ol' George was literally leading the charge from the front. We took almost 900 prisoners, and lost 2. To exposure.

Also, Charlemagne was crowned by surprise; he knelt to pray in St. Peter's and boom Leo III dropped the crown on his head. William the Conqueror, on the other hand, had shouting inside and riots outside, and his men started torching houses in response. Then came the mass looting. Good times.

There are some good Christmas-day stories.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by stevieray

...over Christmas vacation, put forth by one Congressman.

Don't ty to posture this as some kind of midnight sneak through Congress. The plan had been in play for years, and the final acts were pretty overwhelmingly approved.

Originally Posted by Wiki

The banking and currency reform plan advocated by President Wilson in 1913 was sponsored by the chairmen of the House and Senate Banking and Currency committees, Representative Carter Glass, a Democrat of Virginia and Senator Robert Latham Owen, a Democrat of Oklahoma. According to the House committee report accompanying the Currency bill (H.R. 7837) or the Glass-Owen bill, as it was often called during the time, the legislation was drafted from ideas taken from various proposals, including Aldrich bill.^[6] However, unlike the Aldrich plan which gave controlling interest to private bankers with only a small public presence, the new plan gave controlling interest to a public entity, the Federal Reserve Board, with a measure of autonomy to Reserve Banks which, for a period of time, were allowed to set their districts' own discount rates. Also, instead of the proposed currency being an obligation of the private banks, the new Federal Reserve note was to be an obligation of the U.S. Treasury. In addition, unlike the Aldrich plan, membership by nationally chartered banks was mandatory, not optional. The changes were significant enough that the opposition to the proposed reserve system reversed itself, and came largely from the more business-friendly Republicans instead of from the more populist leaning Democrats.

After months of hearings, debates, votes and amendments, the proposed legislation, with 30 sections, was enacted as the Federal Reserve Act. The House, on December 22, 1913, agreed to the conference report on the Federal Reserve Act by a vote of 298 yeas to 60 nays with 76 not voting. The Senate, on December 23, 1913, agreed to it by a vote of 43 yeas to 25 nays with 27 not voting. The record shows that there were no Democrats voting "nay" in the Senate and only two in the House. The record also shows that almost all of those not voting for the bill had previously declared their intentions and were paired with members of opposite intentions.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

Also, Charlemagne was crowned by surprise; he knelt to pray in St. Peter's and boom Leo III dropped the crown on his head.

I'm not particularly familiar with Charlesmagne, but BOY do I not believe that one. Sounds more like Chuck had some great PR people. The reluctant king always plays better with the masses....