Today in History
Important Events
- 1479 Treaty of Alcaçovas: Portugal gives the Canary Islands to Castile in exchange for claims in West Africa
- 1836 Battle of the Alamo: After 13 days of fighting 1,500-3,000 Mexican soldiers overwhelm the Texan defenders, killing 182-257 Texans including William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett
- 1857 Dred Scott Decision: US Supreme Court rules Africans cannot be US citizens
- 1869 Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table of the elements to the Russian Chemical Society
- 1899 "Aspirin" (acetylsalicylic acid) patented by Felix Hoffmann at German company Bayer
Today in Film & TV
- 1981 Walter Cronkite signs off as anchorman of "CBS Evening News"
Today in Music
- 1853 Giuseppe Verdi's Opera "La Traviata" premieres in Venice
Today in Sport
- 1964 Boxing legend Cassius Clay joins the Nation of Islam and changes his name to "Muhammad Ali", calling his former title a "slave name"
Did You Know?
Did You Know?World's oldest message in a bottle found in Western Australia, thrown from German ship Paula 132 years ago (12 June 1886)
On this day in 2018
Michelangelo
Molla Mallory
Lou Costello
Rob Roy
Reinhard Heydrich
Rachel WeiszWould You Believe?
Police in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, issue an edict requiring Women to wear skirts at least 4 inches below the knee
On this day in 1921
Famous Weddings
- 1898 Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (25) weds political activist Alice Dunbar (22) in New York
- 1928 Industrialist Oskar Schindler (19) weds Emilie Schindler (20) in Svitavy, Czech Republic
Famous Divorces
- 1964 Actress Elizabeth Taylor's 4th divorce from entertainer Eddie Fisher
Gottlieb Daimler
John Philip Sousa
Georgia O’Keeffe
Antoninus Pius
Thomas Aquinas
Stanley KubrickThis Month in History
Mass Murderer Stalin Goes to His Grave
Countless millions of Russians were killed by the hand of Joseph Stalin, one of the most feared and brutal dictators of all time. He himself died on this day.
March 5, 1953Birdseye – the Father of Frozen Food
Indigenous Canadians showed Clarence Birdseye how they preserved fish they had caught. Intrigued, he saw the possibilities and the frozen food industry was born.
March 6, 1930Telephone Invention Dispute? That Rings a Bell
There was fierce competition among 19th Century inventors to come up with a working telephone. Alexander Graham Bell won and was granted a patent on this day.
March 7, 1876Sinatra Snaps the Fight of the Century
Sinatra does it his way and secures a ringside seat as a photographer for the "Fight of the Century" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
March 8, 1971
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