On This Day – 23 November 1859
Henry McCarty (17 Sept 1859 – 14 July 1881), better known under the pseudonyms of Billy the Kid and William H. Bonney, was a 19th-century gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier outlaw in the American Old West. Continue reading “1859 – Billy the Kid, American criminal, born (alternative date)”
4 September
After a year long publicity drive the Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.
4 September
The last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself “King of Italy”, thus ending the Western Roman Empire.
26 July
United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).
Continue reading “1908 – The ‘birth’of what would become the FBI”
22 July
Paris–Rouen, Le Petit Journal Horseless Carriages Contest, was a pioneering city-to-city motoring competition held on this day in 1894 which is sometimes described as the world’s first competitive motor race. Continue reading “1894 – The Paris-Rouen motor race”
4 July
On this day in 1927 the Lockheed Vega had its first flight.
20 June
Lizzie Andrew Borden (19 July, 1860 – 1 June, 1927) was an American woman who gained infamy for being tried and acquitted for the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts.
Continue reading “1893 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of murder”
17 June
Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I (reigned 1628-1658), will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
Continue reading “1631 – Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth”
1963 – Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech
26 June
“Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”) is a quotation from a speech given on this day in 1963, by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was saying, “I am a citizen of Berlin.” Continue reading “1963 – Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech” →