Just Plain Fun
This Day in History – August 6, 2011
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1181 Supernova observed by Chinese & Japanese astronomers 1661 The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic. 1787 Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. 1806 Holy Roman Empire ends; it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire 1854 Congress passes Confiscation Act 1890 Cy Young pitches & wins 1st game 1890 At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair. 1926 Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel. 1926 In New York City, the Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore. 1926 Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping. 1930 Judge Joseph Force Crater steps into a taxi in New York and disappears to be never seen again. 1942 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress. 1944 Deportation of 70,000 jews from Lodz Poland to Auschwitz begins 1945 World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when the atomic bomb “Little Boy” is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning. 1946 US officially submits to jurisdiction of World Court 1960 Cuban Revolution: in response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation. 1962 Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom. 1964 Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world’s oldest tree, is cut down. 1965 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. 1980 University adm declares 5 Pac-10 schools ineligible for conference titles & post-season play due to transcript &curriculum abuses 1981 NASA launches Fltsatcom-5, it failed 1985 19th space shuttle mission (51-F), Challenger 8, lands at Edwards AFB 1985 STS 51-I vehicle moves to the launch pad 1988 The Tompkins Square Park Police Riot in New York City spurs a reform of the NYPD, held responsible for the event. 1989 Pilot Union tells pilots okay to cross Eastern picket lines 1990 Gulf War: the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. 1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet. 1996 NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms. 1997 Korean Air Flight 801, a Boeing 747-300, crashes into the jungle on Guam on approach to airport, killing 228. 2010 The incoming coalition government of the United Kingdom discontinues the use of the controversial ContactPoint database of children.]]]]> ]]>
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