This Day in History

[GordMay]

December 20
1842 - First American Bathtub - Hoax

"The first American bathtub was installed on December 20, 1842" is FAKE NEWS.

This bit of fake trivia is often repeated, but is completely made up. It was part of a hoax article by H.L. Mencken, published in the New York Evening Mail, about the history of the bathtub, and has become known as The Great Bathtub Hoax.
Even though Mencken repeatedly stated the article was a joke, the fake facts continue to this day to be reprinted in articles and books about bathtubs and hygiene, and have even made their way into medical journals.
Other FAKE claims he made in the article include:
• The use of bathtubs was banned by the city of Boston in 1845.
• A bathtub was installed in the White House for Millard Fillmore (which is still cited as fact in many publications).
• In 1843, the Philadelphia Common Council tried to ban bathing between November 1 and March 15.

[GordMay]

January 15

2001: Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, turns 20 today (Jan 15/21)

Founded on January 15, 2001, by the American-British entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia is now the seventh-most popular website in the world, with its more than 55 million articles, being consulted 15 billion times every month. The website started in English, but within two months, had already launched in German and Swedish. It is now available in 309 languages (& growing).

[GordMay]

Belated commemoration:
January 10
1947 Stanford Scientists Isolate Polio Virus

Hubert Loring, associate professor at Stanford, and Carlton Schwerdt, chemistry research associate, were able to obtain an 80% pure form of the poliovirus, extracted from cotton rats infected with polio.

The discovery was a breakthrough at the time. In 1946, in the United States alone, more than 25,000 cases of poliomyelitis, a highly infectious disease that infected mainly children and often caused paralysis, were reported.
Dr Loring, however, cautioned that “the road to a successful vaccine remains long and hard”.

The first polio vaccine was developed in the 1950s by Jonas Salk. After the first year of large scale use of the vaccine, in 1954, the incidence of the disease dropped significantly.
There are two vaccines used to protect against polio disease, oral polio vaccine and inactivated poliovirus vaccine.
There are three wild types of poliovirus (WPV) – type 1, type 2, and type 3. People need to be protected against all three types of the virus in order to prevent polio disease and the polio vaccination is the best protection.

Type 2 wild poliovirus was declared eradicated in September 2015, with the last virus detected in India in 1999.
Type 3 wild poliovirus was declared eradicated in October 2019. It was last detected in November 2012.

Only type 1 wild poliovirus remains.
As of today, polio is yet to be eradicated, and remains endemic in three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

[GordMay]

January 25
2020 - Covid-19 come to Canada

Monday marks one year, since the first case of the virus that causes COVID-19 was confirmed in Canada, in a patient who came to Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, after returning from Wuhan, China.
To date, Canada has had (at least) 747,383 confirmed cases, and 19,094 deaths from Covid-19.

"Canada's 1st 'presumptive' case of coronavirus" ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...onto-1.5440760

[GordMay]

January 28

1965: Queen Elizabeth signs a Royal Proclamation permitting Canada's new Maple Leaf flag to be flown. It was flown for the first time on Feb. 15.

1986: The space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla., killing all seven crew members. It was later determined the explosion was caused by an escape of gases from a joint on a solid booster rocket.

[GordMay]

February 5

2007: NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak is arrested for attempted kidnapping after driving from Houston to Orlando and confronting another female astronaut who was dating her ex-boyfriend. Her travel supplies included adult diapers, a black wig, rubber tubing, gloves, BB-pistol, and plastic bags.

1974: First Close-Up Pictures of Venus, returned by NASA's Mariner 10.

1958: A nuclear bomb is lost by the U.S. Air Force, when a B-47 bomber carrying the bomb collides mid-air with an F-86 fighter. The Mk 15 nuclear bomb was jettisoned near the coast of Savannah, Georgia. Despite a massive search, the bomb was never found.

[GordMay]

February 6,

1933: Highest Wind-Driven Sea Wave
The highest recorded sea wave, 112 ft., heads from Manilla, Philippines to San Diego, Ca.
➥ https://divingalmanac.com/highest-waves/

1778: France recognizes the independence of the U.S. with the signing of the Treaty of Alliance.

[GordMay]

February 11

2020: COVID-19 Named
A few months after the first known case was detected in Wuhan, China, and approximately three weeks after the first U.S. case was reported, the World Health Organization officially named the illness that would go on to cause a pandemic "coronavirus disease 2019," shortened to the acronym COVID-19.

2012: Whitney Houston Drowns In Bathtub

2006: U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots his hunting partner (Harry Whittington), while on a quail hunting trip in Texas.

1990: South African political leader Nelson Mandela is released from prison in Paarl, South Africa, after serving more than 27 years of a life sentence.

1809: Robert Fulton patents the steamboat.

1650: Rene Descartes dies ("I think, therefore I am").

[GordMay]

February 13


2021: The January 2021 global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.80°C (1.44°F) above the 20th century average and ranked as the seventh warmest January in the 142-year global records. January 2021 also marked the 45th consecutive January and the 433rd consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th-century average.
➥ https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/202101

2020: January 2020 was the hottest January in recorded history according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ➥ https://www.noaa.gov/news/january-20...uary-on-record

2004: The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093.

1945: Allied planes begin bombing Dresden, Germany; a firestorm results and over 22,000 die.

1934: The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.

1866: Jesse James holds up his first bank, stealing $15,000 from the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri.

1861: Abraham Lincoln declared US President.

1689: British Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights, which establishes the rights of parliament, and places limits on the crown.

1633: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before Inquisition for professing belief that earth revolves around the Sun.

1578: Tycho Brahe first sketches "Tychonic system" of solar system.
Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), who was born three years after Copernicus’ death and three years after the publication of the latter’s heliocentric model of the solar system, still embraced a geocentric model, but he had only the Sun and the Moon orbiting Earth and all the other planets orbiting the Sun. Although this model is mathematically equivalent to the heliocentric model of Copernicus, it represents an unnecessary complication and is physically incorrect. Tycho’s greatest contribution was the more than 20 years of celestial observations he collected; his measurements of the positions of the planets and stars had an unprecedented accuracy of approximately 2 arc minutes. (An arc minute is 1/60 of a degree.)

[GordMay]

February 14

± 270 A.D.: St. Valentine beheaded
The exact origins and identity of St. Valentine are unclear. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under the date of 14 February.” One was a priest in Rome, the second one was a bishop of Interamna (now Terni, Italy), and the third St. Valentine was a martyr in the Roman province of Africa.
In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius decided to put an end to the Feast of Lupercalia, and he declared that February 14 be celebrated as St. Valentine’s Day.
The custom of sending handmade 'valentines' to one's beloved became popular during the 17th century, and was first commercialized in the United States in the 1840s.

1349: 2,000 Jews are burned at the stake in Strasbourg, Germany.

1779: Captain Cook killed in Hawaii.

1797: The Spanish fleet is destroyed by the British under Admiral Jervis (with Nelson in support) at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, off Portugal.

1876: Rival inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both apply for patents for the telephone.

1939: Germany launches the battleship Bismarck.

1990: "Pale Blue Dot" photo of Earth is taken [part of Voyager’s "Family Portrait of the Solar System”].
➥ https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resourc...pale-blue-dot/

[GordMay]

February 15

399 BC: Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death, by the city of Athens, for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city, and for impiety.

1676: Isaac Newton writes to Robert Hooke “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”.

1898: USS Maine sinks in Havana harbor, cause unknown, 258 sailors die, prompting cries for “War!” from William Randolph Hearst, and others, with dubious agendas.

1912: Schooner 'Fram' reaches latitude 78° 41' S, farthest south ever by ship.
➥ https://frammuseum.no/polar-history/...lar-ship-fram/


1939: German battleship 'Bismarck' was launched.

1965: Red Maple Leaf Flag becomes the official flag of Canada.

1971: After 1,200 years, Great Britain abandons pence & shilling system, for decimal currency.

1982: 'Ocean Ranger', world's largest oil-drilling platform, lost off Newfoundland, 84 die.

2001: First draft of the complete human genome is published, in the journal "Nature"
“Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome” ~ International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/35057062

2005: 'YouTube', Internet site on which videos may be shared and viewed by others, is launched in the United States.

2013: Chelyabinsk meteor breaks up over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring over 1,200 people, with 26 to 33 times energy of Hiroshima bomb. 012 DA14, an asteroid with a 50m diameter, comes within 27,700km of Earth the same day as the Chelyabinsk meteor hits Siberia.

2020: Beijing orders people returning to the city, after Lunar New Year holiday. to self-quarantine for 14 days, to prevent spread of Covid-19.

[GordMay]

February 16

2020: 'Ghost ship' cargo vessel “MV Alta” washed up on the Irish coast near Ballycotton by Storm Dennis, after drifting across the Atlantic from Bermuda.

2005: The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted on December 11, 1997. Owing to a complex ratification process, it entered into force on February 16, 2005. Currently, there are 192 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.

1960: US nuclear submarine “USS Triton” sets off on maiden voyage. It became the first vessel to execute a submerged circumnavigation of the Earth in Operation ‘Sandblast’. She was decommissioned in 1969, the first U.S. nuclear submarine to be taken out of service.

1948: ‘Miranda’, smallest and innermost moon of Uranus (aka Uranus V), discovered by Gerard Kuiper.

1937: Dupont patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace Carothers, which will replace silk, in a number of products, and reduce costs.

1923: English archaeologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen, in Thebes, Egypt.

1840: American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica.

1804: US Navy Lt. Stephen Decatur raids Tripoli Harbor, & burns US Navy frigate "Philadelphia" after pirates seized it.

374: The 9th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

[GordMay]

February 17

1801: US House of Representatives breaks electoral college tie by electing Thomas Jefferson as President over Aaron Burr.

1815: Treaty of Ghent ratified by the US Senate and signed by President James Madison ending War of 1812, over a month after it was signed in Europe.

1864: Confederate submarine HL Hunley sinks Union ship Housatonic - world' first successful submarine attack.

1913: 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon).

1933: US Senate accepts Blaine Act: ending prohibition.

1959: 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard II (9.8 kg).

1972: British Parliament votes (309 to 301) to join the European Common Market.

1993: Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die.

1998: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft overtakes Pioneer 10 to become the farthest object from earth in space.

2016: Oldest known case of human-Neanderthal sex (100,000 yrs ago) revealed by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig), 50,000 yr old Neanderthal woman's remains from Altai mountains show traces of Homo Sapiens DNA.

2017: Discovery of a new mostly underwater continent Zealandia in the South Pacific announced in research journal "GSA Today".

[GordMay]

February 18

1839: Detroit Boat Club forms (& still exists).

1849: With the arrival of the SS California, in San Francisco, after a four month twenty-one day journey around the Cape Horn from New York City, regular steamboat service is inaugurated between the east and west coasts. Her maiden voyage to California began on October 6, 1848.

1930: US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

1970: Chicago 7 defendants found innocent of inciting to riot.
Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner were charged, by the United States federal government, with conspiracy, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot, and other charges related to anti–Vietnam War and countercultural protests in Chicago, Illinois, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The Chicago Eight became the Chicago Seven after the case against co-defendant Bobby Seale was declared a mistrial during the trial.
All of the defendants were charged with and acquitted of conspiracy.
Hoffman, Rubin, Dellinger, Hayden, and Davis were charged with, and convicted of, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot,
Froines and Weiner were charged with teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices, and acquitted of those charges.
All of the convictions were later reversed on appeal.

1986: Anti-smoking ad airs for 1st time on TV, featuring Yul Brynner. He died of smoking-induced lung cancer on 10th October 1985.

2003: Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) makes perihelion, seen by SOHO.

[GordMay]

February 19:

1600: Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes, in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history.

1807: US Vice President Aaron Burr arrested in Alabama for treason; later acquitted.

1878: Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his gramophone (phonograph).

1906: Will Keith Kellogg and Charles D. Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, now the multinational food manufacturer Kellogg's.

1910: Typhoid Mary [Mary Mallon] is freed from her first periods of forced isolation, and goes on to cause several further outbreaks of typhoid, in the New York area.

1942: About 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin.

1942: FDR orders detention & internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans (Executive Order 9066).

1953: Georgia approves US 1st literature censorship board.

1986: USSR launches the core module of the Mir space station into Earth orbit.

2004: Former Enron Corp. chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling, is charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes, in connection with the energy trader's collapse. He was convicted, in 2006, of multiple federal felony charges, relating to Enron's financial collapse.

2007: Blogging website Tumblr is founded, by David Karp, in New York.
2008: Fidel Castro (81) formally resigned as president of Cuba; he was succeeded by his brother Raúl.

2011: Somali pirates took four Americans hostage, after hijacking their yacht “Quest”, traveling from India to Oman. Since 2004, Jean and Scott Adam lived on their yacht in Marina Del Rey, for about half the year and the rest of the year they sailed around the world, often distributing Bibles in remote parts of the Fiji Islands, Alaska, New Zealand, Central America and French Polynesia, The Adams were killed during a US Navy storming of the vessell. Two other Americans on board were also killed, Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle.

2018: Nigeria says 110 girls missing, presumed kidnapped by Boko Haram, after attack on school in Dapchi, Yobe state.