And There Was Much Rejoicing

This Day In History!

0326 - Constantine refused to carry out the traditional pagan sacrifices.

1394 - Charles VI of France issued a decree for the general expulsion of Jews from France.

1564 - Maximillian II became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

1587 - Japanese strong-man Hideyoshi banned Christianity in Japan and ordered all Christians to leave.


1593 - France's King Henry IV converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

1759 - British forces defeated a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada.

1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt.

1805 - Aaron Burr visited New Orleans with plans to establish a new country, with New Orleans as the capital city.

1845 - China granted Belgium equal trading rights with Britain, France and the United States.

1850 - In Worcester, MA, Harvard and Yale University freshmen met in the first intercollegiate billiards match.

1850 - Gold was discovered in the Rogue River in Oregon.

1854 - The paper collar was patented by Walter Hunt.

1861 - The Crittenden Resolution, which called for the American Civil War to be fought to preserve the Union and not for slavery, was passed by the U.S. Congress.

1866 - Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army. He was the first American officer to hold the rank.

1868 - The U.S. Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory.

1871 - Seth Wheeler patented perforated wrapping paper.

1907 - Korea became a protectorate of Japan.

1909 - French aviator Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel in a monoplane. He traveled from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes. He was the first man to fly across the channel.

1914 - Russia declared that it would act to protect Serbian sovereignty.

1924 - Greece announced the deportation of 50,000 Armenians.

1934 - Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was shot and killed by Nazis.

1939 - W2XBS TV in New York City presented the first musical comedy seen on TV. The show was "Topsy and Eva".

1941 - The U.S. government froze all Japanese and Chinese assets.

1943 - Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in a coup.

1946 - The U.S. detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. It was the first underwater test of the device.

1946 - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis staged their first show as a team at Club 500 in Atlantic City, NJ.

1947 - Fortune Gordien of Oslo, Norway set a world record discus throw of 178.47 feet.

1952 - Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S.

1956 - The Italian liner Andrea Doria sank after colliding with the Swedish ship Stockholm off the New England coast. 51 people were killed.

1962 - The Elvis Presley film "Kid Galahad" premiered.

1965 - Bob Dylan appeared on stage at the Newport Jazz Festival with an electric guitar. It was his first non-acoustic set.

1966 - In San Francisco, CA, the Rolling Stones performed their last U.S. concert with Brian Jones.

1967 - The Beatles and other U.K. rock groups urged the British government to legalize marijuana. Their comments were made in a London Times advertisement signed by all four of the Beatles.

1969 - Neil Young made his first appearance with Crosby, Stills and Nash.

1970 - Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" was released.

1971 - The Beach Boys released their album "Surf's Up."

1975 - "A Chorus Line" debuted on Broadway. The show closed in 1990 after 6,137 performances.

1978 - Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England. She had been conceived through in-vitro fertilization.

1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds broke the National League record for consecutive base hits as he got a hit in 38 straight games.

1980 - KISS introduced their new drummer, Eric Carr, at a concert at the Paladium in New York City.

1980 - AC\DC released "Back In Black," their first album with Brian Johnson as lead singer.

1984 - Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She was aboard the orbiting space station Salyut 7.

1987 - The Salt Lake City Trappers set a professional baseball record as the team won its 29th game in a row.

1990 - Rosanne Barr sang the National Anthem in San Diego before a Padres baseball game. She was booed for her performance.

1994 - Israel and Jordan formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948.

1995 - Nina Simone fired a gun at a pair of noisy teenagers playing next door to her home in southern France. She was put on 18 months probation and ordered to seek psychological counseling.

1997 - K.R. Narayanan became India's president. He was the first member of the Dalits caste to do so.

1998 - The USS Harry S. Truman was commissioned and put into service by the U.S. Navy.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury regarding the Monica Lewinsky case. The subpoena was withdrawn when Clinton agreed to give videotaped testimony with his lawyers present.

1999 - Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France. He was only the second American to win the race. He won the race again in 2000.

2000 - A supersonic Concorde crashed outside Paris, France, killing all 109 people aboard and 5 on the ground.

2006 - Metallica put up four albums for sale on iTunes. The albums "Kill 'Em All", "Ride The Lightning", "Master of Puppets" and "...And Just For All" included previously unreleased tracks recorded in Seatle in 1989. Metallica had led the charge against the original Napster online file-sharing service.

Birthdays

Thomas Eakins 1844
Morris Raphel Cohen 1880
Walter Brennan 1894
Eric Hoffer 1902
Jack Gilford 1907
Estelle Getty 1924
Stanley Dancer 1927
Don Ellis 1934
Barbara Harris 1935
John Pennel 1940
Manuel Charlton (Nazareth) 1941
Janet Margolin 1943
Jim McCarty (Yardbirds) 1943
Donna Theodore 1945
Verdine White (Earth, Wind & Fire) 1951
Walter Payton (NFL) 1954
Iman 1955
Ray Billingsley 1957
Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) 1958
Marty Brown 1965
Illeana Douglas 1965
Matt LeBlanc 1967
Brad Renfro 1982