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1400 BCE On the sixth day of the ancient Greek month of Mounichion (Munychion), in the year 1400 BCE, which was just a guess by the Greeks, Theseus, legendary king of Athens, son of Aegeus (or of Poseidon), sailed from Athens  for Minos, Crete, with a ship load of Athenian hostages, and a fleet of ships he had secretly constructed. Theseus was soon to bring to an end the maritime dominance that the Cretans had long enjoyed over all nations and cities of the Mediterranean.

In those days, Athens was required to pay a horrible tax to Crete, the controlling power in the region to guarantee the good behaviour of the Athenians after a previous revolt. Each year, seven young men and seven young women were to be sent to Crete as sacrifices to the Minotaur, a monster in the Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus. Theseus volunteered to be one of the sacrifices, and the fourteen chosen sailed off to Crete on a ship with black sails, for mourning. Now, taking advantage of the absence of the Cretan navy from Cnossus, Theseus and his men sailed into the harbour and stormed the city.

Soon after the Athenians arrived in Crete, King Minos raped one of the young women. Theseus protested and boasted of his parentage, as a son of Poseidon (Neptune). Minos demanded he prove his claim by bringing up a golden ring he threw into the ocean, and in this Theseus was more than successful in that he not only recovered the ring, but also found a lost crown of a previous king as well.

King Minos's daughter, Ariadne, was engaged to Dionysus. However, she fell in love with Theseus and gave him a magic sword with which to kill the Minotaur, and a spool of thread. Theseus unwound the thread as he wandered through the Labyrinth searching for the Minotaur, so that he could find his way out of the maze again. Meanwhile the Athenian hostages, having killed the guards, freed themselves. In some versions, Thesus found and killed the monster while it slept, but later versions have him taking on the creature in battle. After killing the Minotaur with the magic sword, Theseus fled Crete with Ariadne, but Theseus abandoned her, at Athena's request, on the island of Dia, or possibly Naxos.

Afterwards, a treaty was signed and sealed by the marriage of Theseus and Ariadne. Athens commemorated this event by annual sending a procession of virgins to the temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Sources: Wikipedia et al

648 BCE The earliest solar eclipse to be recorded by the Ancient Greeks.

46 BCE Julius Caesar defeated the combined army of Pompey's followers and Numidians under Metellus Scipio and Juba at Thapsus.

30 CE Traditionally, the day on which Jesus of Nazareth was arrested by the Roman authorities in Jerusalem.

"Jesus of Nazareth was arrested by Roman authorities this day in 30 AD. As the so-called 'King of the Jews,' he was a revolutionary threat to Rome, whose Senate had given this title to Herod's family alone. Later Christians, bitterly at odds with the Jews who flatly rejected the suggestion that Jesus was the Messiah, would blame the Jews for his death, supposedly as the result of the charge of blasphemy. But the Jews had no death penalty, and the Romans had no conception of blasphemy as a crime. Besides, the Romans used crucifixion strictly as a means of intimidating revolutionaries, and for no other reason."   Source

402 Stilicho stymied the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia.

1199 King Richard I of England, called the Lionheart, died from an arrow wound at Chaluz Castle.

1320 The Scots reaffirmed their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.

1341 Petrarch (1304 - '74) was crowned a poet laureate in Rome.

1348 Today marks the death of Laura de Noves, the likely subject of Italian poet Petrarch's more than 300 love poems. By coincidence, Petrarch had first seen her on April 6, 21 years earlier, and could not get her out of his heart for twenty years, though she was married to another (Hugues de Sade, on January 16, 1325).

"Laura has traditionally been identified as Laura de Noves of Avignon (now in France), a married woman and a mother; but since Petrarch gives no clues as to who she was, several other Lauras have also been suggested, and some critics believe there was no actual Laura at all. Petrarch was supposed to have seen Laura for the first time in St. Claire Church in Avignon on April 6, 1327. In his poetry she appears to give him little encouragement, but his love for her became a lifelong obsession, even after her death on April 6, 1348.

"Petrarch wrote more than 300 Italian sonnets to Laura, as well as other short lyrics and one long poem. Those included in his Canzoniere are divided into Rime in vita Laura (263 poems) and Rime in morte Laura (103 poems). The poems treat a variety of moods and subjects but particularly his intense psychological reactions to his beloved. Many of his similes, such as burning like fire and freezing like ice, beautifully stated in the sonnet beginning 'I find no peace, and all my war is done,' were to be frequently repeated by the sonneteers of Elizabethan England and later became poetic clichés. Some of the poems express the very simple, human wish to be with her and to be treated kindly. After Laura's death Petrarch's poems continued on the same themes, expressing his sorrow and describing her return to him in dreams."   Source

From some notes jotted down in Petrarch's own hand – a writing "even more obscure than hieroglyphics" – in his copy of Virgil, found in Milan, we discover:

"LAURA, illustrated by her virtues and well-celebrated in my verse, appeared to me for the first time during my youth in 1327, on April 6, in the Church of Saint Claire in Avignon, in the first hour of the day; and in the same city, in the same month, on the same sixth day at the same first hour in the year of 1348, the light itself lost its sparkling beauty, at which time I was in Verona, unaware, alas, of my misfortune. The so beautiful and so chaste body of LAURA was buried in the convent of the 'freres mineurs' the same day in the evening."   Source

Later in 'Letter to Posterity', Petrarch wrote: "In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair – my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did."

More 

1520 Death of Raphael, Italian painter and architect, on his 37^th birthday.

1528 Death of Albrecht Durer, artist.

1580 At 6pm, St Paul's Cathedral, London, was damaged in an earthquake. In Calais, France, just across the Channel, tremors continued for a quarter of an hour or so, and the town was flooded by the resulting tsunami.

Until May 1, there were tremors, and the people were afraid that God was working a judgement on them, so the Privy Council wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Grindal, asking him for spiritual guidance. His advice: people should forego one meal a day, spending the savings on alms for the poor. He sounds like an enterprising archbishop, because Grindal said he would compose a new prayer book, and he exhorted all parishes to purchase the same. They sold for fourpence each.

"A great sea swell arose in the Channel sinking 25 to 30 British, French and Flemish vessels. A passenger on a boat from Dover reported that his vessel had touched the sea bed five times and that the sea had risen into the air more than 15 m higher than his vessel."   Source

"April 6 1580 a large earth quake inflicted considerable damage was around the straits of Dover, causing part of the cliff at Dover to collapse, bringing a section of the castle wall crashing down. Again the shaking was particularly severe in London, especially close to the river, where two people were killed by falling masonry and people ran in terror from buildings 'fearful that the Day of Judgement had come'. Even for Shakespeare it was an event of national importance, noting in Romeo and Juliet that ''tis since the earthquake now 11 years'."   Source: The Guardian

On the previous Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old farm-boy William Withers of a village named Walsham le Willows had fallen into a coma, or trance, only to wake up ten days later uttering prophetic rants that continued for months. Later, reminding them of the earthquake, "when the Lord passed you by as it were but with one touche of his finger", he declareded that "if there was no change in their sinful way of life, there would be far greater earthquakes when the Lord would shake the houses on their heads and make the earth open and swallow them up".

The UK's most destructive earthquake hit Colchester, England, on April 22, 1884, killing just one person. See also May 21, 1382. The most devastating earthquake in world history was probably that which destroyed Shaanxi and Kansu, China, on January 23, 1556, with the loss of some 850,000 lives. (Another earthquake in the same area in the mid-1950s reportedly killed more than one million people, but the Chinese government has never confirmed the disaster.)

List of some major earthquakes of the world

1644 The British Parliament enacted a law to have all maypoles in the country removed.

1652 Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck established a resupply camp at the Cape of Good Hope, which eventually developed into Cape Town.  

1781 Native Peruvian rebel Túpac Amaru II was captured after being denounced by a traitor.

"Of dust and pain – these are the ways of Peru. Túpac Amaru is brought into Cuzco on the back of mule, covered with chains that drag on the pavement. The traitor does not look for a rope to hang himself, but instead receives his reward of 2,000 pesos and a title of 'nobility'."   Source

"Amnesty International reports that the Tupac Amaru organisation was responsible for 1% (262 deaths) of the 26,149 political assassinations committed from 1980-1992. For comparison, the Shining Path was responsible for 45% (11,767 deaths), and the Peruvian government itself was responsible for 53% (13,859 deaths). These numbers were reported in Amnesty International's 1993 report Peru: Human Rights since the Suspension of Constitutional Government (AI Index AMR 46/13/93)."

Source: Human Rights Abuses by today's 'Tupac Amaru' guerrillas

1782 Rama I succeeded King Taksin of Thailand, who was overthrown in a coup d'etat.

1808 John Jacob Astor incorporated the American Fur Company.

1814 Napoleon was forced to abdicate and sent to Elba.

1830 Self-styled prophet Joseph Smith, Jr founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, at Fayette, New York, USA.

1830 William Hamilton became Australia's first full-time paid bank manager.

1832 Indian Wars: Black Hawk War began – The Sauk warrior Black Hawk entered into war with the United States.

1841 John Tyler was inaugurated as the 10th President of the United States.

1843 William Wordsworth, Romantic Movement poet, was appointed Poet Laureate of Britain.

1850 The famous Koh-i-Noor Diamond left India to go into Queen Victoria's collection.

1862 American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh began – In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S Grant met Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh.

1865 American Civil War: Battle of Sayler's Creek – Confederate General Robert E Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fought its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.

1895 AB 'Banjo' Paterson's song 'Waltzing Matilda' (with traditional tune first notated by Christina Macpherson) was first sung in public, at a Winton, Queensland, hotel. It is considered Australia's unofficial national anthem and is certainly its favourite song.

It relates the story of a swagman who steals a sheep and drowns himself when law enforcement arrives. The swaggie was a radical union organizer named Samuel 'Frenchy' Hoffmeister who had burned down a shearing shed (that's not Frenchy pictured, but he is a fair dinkum swaggie). There had been other arson attacks around this time, including the bombing of the SS Aramac (1893) by anarchist Larry Petrie, the burning of the Paddle Steamer Rodney* and the shooting of Billy McLean, both in August, 1894.

Banjo probably wrote it in January at Dagworth Station (a station is a ranch in Australia, as well as the usual meanings), which had been destroyed by arson on September 1, 1894, during the 1890s Depression when many pastoral labourers were 'on the wallaby', that is, tramping the outback roads looking for work, thus becoming 'swaggies' who carried their blankets and goods rolled in a 'swag' or 'bluey'. It was the same year that the Pullman Strike took place in Chicago, Jack London arrived with Coxey's Army in Washington, DC, and the Dreyfus Affair began in France. It was the year that the Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australia and the General Labourers' Union amalgamated to form the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), and pastoralists were also organized against them. As in the case of the Shearers' Strike of 1891, Australia (which relied heavily on the wool clip until the 1960s) was in immense turmoil economically, politically and socially, giving rise to such organisations as the Active Service Brigade. Following the crushing of the shearers' strikes, and also of the Maritime Strike of 1890, arose the formation of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), which formed the first Labor government in the world (criticised by Lenin as a bourgeois party).

The AWU was a firm opponent of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies), the Communist Party of Australia, NSW Labor Premier Jack Lang and other radical forces in the Australian labor movement.

Hoffmeister went into hiding after his arson, and might or might not have stolen a sheep to survive his flight from the Queensland police. Christina Macpherson, who provided the tune of 'Waltzing Matilda', was the sister of Bob Macpherson, the Dagworth squatter mentioned in the song along with "troopers 1-2-3", Constables Austin Cafferty, Michael Daly and Robert Dyer.

"Paterson was country-born and a horse-lover; in fact, his name 'Banjo' came from one of his father's favourite horses. He enjoyed riding around Dagworth Station with Christina's brother Bob Macpherson. During their rides, Banjo and Bob visited the scenes of a recent dispute between the shearers and their employer. The shearing shed on the property had been burned in protest at a wage agreement proposed by Queensland squatters and later a swagmen-shearer who had taken part in the disturbance, 'Frenchy' Hoffmeister, was found dead at a nearby camp."   Source

The song did in fact enjoy a brief period of official recognition as the Australian national song (coexisting with 'Advance Australia Fair' as the National Anthem). Still, it is generally acknowledged as Australia's national song and enjoyed worldwide ... perhaps especially by homesick Aussies abroad, even if sometimes they kinda mangle the lyrics:

Aussies from the sunburnt country, deep in a Canadian Winter,
sing along to 'Waltzing Matilda' sung by John Williamson (from Youtube)

"On a cool, damp night in September 1894, a group of striking shearers attacked the shearing shed at Dagworth Station, Winton. This was the final act of aggression during the strike of 1894 that had commenced on 2 July in Winton and spread throughout the eastern states of Australia. Banjo Paterson visited Dagworth Station in early 1895. Christina MacPherson, whose brothers owned Dagworth, entertained Banjo playing a tune she had heard at the Warrnambool Races and Banjo put words to the music thus creating Waltzing Matilda. The plight of the shearers was put to words and music. The song was performed at a banquet for the visit of the Premier of Queensland on 6 April 1895 at the North Gregory Hotel, Winton."   Source

"On 1 September 1894, a mere four months earlier [than when Paterson heard the story that he wrote about in the song], shearers had set the Dagworth woolshed ablaze, cremating a hundred sheep. Macpherson and three police troopers had pursued them. One had shot himself (out of remorse at killing sheep?? More likely, to avoid capture). The man's name was Hoffmeister."   Source

"The last part of the story introduces a character named Samuel 'Frenchy' Hoffmeister. Hoffmeister was a union organizer. Just a week after the burning of the P.S. Rodney, a gunfight broke out at a woolshed at Dagworth Station. During the battle, the shed caught fire and burned to the ground. 140 sheep were trapped inside. All of them died.

"The next morning, the owner of the Dagworth shed, Bob Macpherson, and the local constable put together a posse and set out after the unionists. Along the trail, they found a bag near a waterhole (billabong). In this food bag was found a few pounds of sheep meat, which Hoffmeister had apparently stolen to live on (a not-uncommon practice). Macpherson and the police gave chase. Rather than be captured, Hoffmeister tragically decided to end his own life.

"The death of Hoffmeister would mark the last significant event to the strike of 1894, and would serve as the inspiration for the story told in A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson's now immortalized song, "Waltzing Matilda.'"   Source

"In the early hours of a Sunday morning just seven days after the burning of the Rodney and the shooting of Billy McLean, the shearing shed at Dagworth Station was burnt down during a furious gun battle, resulting not only in the destruction of the shed but the loss of 140 sheep (jumbucks).

"Despite rain during the night, dawn on Sunday brought fine weather. At first light Bob Macpherson, the owner of Dagworth, and Constable Daly attempted to track the raiders without success, for the rain had been sufficient to obliterate all tracks. However, they were at least able to ascertain that the unionists had traveled upstream towards Kynuna, because they had left several gates open.

"The morning after the shed was burnt Bob Macpherson (The Squatter) and three policemen, Senior Constable Austin Cafferty (Badge no. 420), Constable Michael Daly (Badge no. 89) and Constable Robert Dyer (Badge No. 175) rode down to the four-mile billabong to arrest the unionists camped there, but instead found the body of Samuel Hoffmeister."   Source

"Paterson was in Western Queensland at least six times in two years, twice during the turmoil of 1894. He has told us that most of his visits were 'on business' – legal business. He returned to Sydney on September 1, and in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' of the 4^th, he read the headline: 'Dagworth woolshed burnt down during rifle battle. One man shot dead.' 

"Unfortunately, 143 lambs, 'jumbucks', were incinerated, although nobody was actually shot during the rifle battle, which went for nearly an hour. Had this been the case, there would have been civil war. 

"In fact, Frenchy Hoffmeister, one of the sixteen raiders, shot himself at a true billabong 22 kilometres from Dagworth, 6k from Kynuna. This happened later the same day, after the billy had been boiled for lunch. Later, in the afternoon, Bob Macpherson, the 'Squatter' of Dagworth and three Senior Constables: Michael Daly, Robert Dyer, and Austin Cafferty, recovered Hoffmeister's body from the billabong and detained his seven mates. One of them, Louis Murray, a 'footman' – meaning he walked – said in evidence at the inquest at Kynuna, 5 Sept., 1894, 'I saw the police going down', i.e., to the billabong. These are almost precisely Paterson's words just weeks later, when he came in January and wrote, 'Down came policemen, one, two, and three.'"   Source

* August 27, 1894, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on August 29, 1894): The Darling River paddle steamer, the PS Rodney, was carrying non-union shearers north to Tolarno Station and was burnt near Pooncarie (between the stations of Moorara and Polia) on the Darling River, New South Wales, by about 300 unionist shearers in protest at it being used as a strike breaker during an industrial dispute. The Pride of the Murray and the Trafalgar also carried non-union shearers. A re-enactment was conducted in 1994 when more than 700 people witnessed the burning of a replica. "In early 1895 the steamer Nile was involved in salvaging material from the wreck. The boiler, and most of the machinery was removed and a quantity of tools and ironwork were also recovered. The hull was broken up and the debris was drawn out of the river." Source

More Australian 'terrorism'-related items in Wilson's Almanac 

Lies, spies and the Sydney Hilton bombing     Republican Riot, 1887, Sydney

William 'Machine Gun' McMillan    Circular Quay Riot, 1890, Sydney

Eureka Stockade    Active Service Brigade    Maritime Strike of 1890

Shearers' Strike of 1891    Wobblies outlawed    Billy McLean shooting

 

History of the song    AWU timeline    More    More    More    And more

The poems of Banjo Paterson, by publication date

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

1895 Following the acquittal of John Sholto Douglas, 9^th Marquess of Queensberry on libel charges brought against him by Oscar Wilde, the hapless playwright was arrested for buggery and held in custody. During the trial, Wilde had denied he had written The Priest and the Acolyte. "Was that story immoral?" asked the barrister. "It was much worse than immoral," Wilde replied. "It was badly written."

1896 In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games since having been banned about 1,500 years earlier by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.

The Origin of the Olympics: Ancient Calendars and the Race Against Time

1909 Robert Peary (1856 - 1920) became the first person credited with reaching the North Pole. He was accompanied in this sixth attempt by Matthew Henson (a black guide) and four Inuit people (aka Eskimos).

1917 World War I: United States Congress declared war on Germany.

1930 Hostess Twinkies were invented.

1930 Will Rogers started broadcasting The Gulf Headliners on radio.

1930 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, broke the Salt Law at Dandi by picking up a handful of salt at seashore as whole world watched.

The Scottsboro Boys

1931 USA: The first of the trials of the nine 'Scottsboro Boys' began at Scottsboro, Alabama, before Judge EG Hawkins. After a lynch mob gathered, the Alabama Governor, Benjamin Meeks Mille, was forced to call the National Guard to protect the jail. Milo Moody was appointed by the court to serve as defence counsel. Charlie Weems and Clarence Norris were declared 'guilty' by the jury. The great crowd assembled before the courthouse, surrounded by state troopers, staged a demonstration of approval with the band playing, 'There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight'. The others were found guilty over the next two days.

The nine African-American teenagers had been charged with the rape of two Caucasian girls, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, on the Southern Railroad freight run from Chattanooga to Memphis on March 25, 1931. It was a crime that never happened. In the words of writer Douglas O Linder, "Over the course of the two decades that followed, the struggle for justice of the 'Scottsboro Boys,' as the black teens were called, made celebrities out of anonymities, launched and ended careers, wasted lives, produced heroes, opened southern juries to blacks, exacerbated sectional strife, and divided America's political left."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the International Labor Defense both took up the case, but the NAACP dropped the case in January, 1932. Despite the fact that a letter surfaced in which Ruby Bates denied that she was raped, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the convictions of seven of the Boys in March, 1932.

The men were sentenced to death, despite the fact that one of the women later denied having been raped.

The US Supreme Court

On November 7, 1932, in Patterson v. Alabama, the US Supreme Court ruled that the defendants were denied the right to counsel, which violated their right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. On April 1, 1935, in Norris v. Alabama, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion of black jurors violated the Boys' Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The end of the case

In July, 1937, Clarence Norris was convicted of rape and sentenced to death, Andy Wright was convicted of rape and sentenced to 99 years, and Charlie Weems was convicted and sentenced to 75 years in prison. Ozzie Powell pleaded guilty to assaulting the sheriff and was sentenced to 20 years. In addition, four of the boys, Roy Wright, Eugene Williams, Olen Montgomery and Willie Roberson, were released after all charges against them were dropped. Later, Alabama Governor Bibb Graves reduced Clarence Norris' death sentence to life in prison. Norris was later pardoned. All of the Scottsboro Boys were eventually paroled, freed or pardoned.

Clarence Norris published his book, The Last of the Scottsboro Boys, in 1979. Ten years later, on January 23, 1989, the last of the Scottsboro Boys was dead. Many artists had supported the 'Boys' through their ordeal; Leadbelly recorded a song, 'Scottsboro Boys'.

Source: The Daily Bleed and Wikipedia

Scottsboro case teaching resources

1931 USA: Little Orphan Annie debuted on the Blue Network of NBC.

1932 Captain Francis Edward de Groot was fined in a Sydney court for having caused a public nuisance by slashing the ribbon on the Sydney Harbour Bridge at its opening by Premier Jack Lang. [See March 19, 1932.]

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

1939 The United Kingdom, France and Poland signed a Polish defence pact.

1941 World War II: Operation Castigo began – Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece.

1944 Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) income tax was introduced in Britain. PAYE is, in effect, a withholding tax administered separately by the tax authority.

1965 Early Bird (Intelsat I), the first commercial communications satellite, was launched by the USA.

1965 Gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray (the Kray Twins) were cleared in the Old Bailey of all charges related to running a protection racket in London.

1965 Julie Andrews was awarded the Oscar for Best Actress for her starring role in Walt Disney's movie Mary Poppins.

1968 USA: In the wake of a riot following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, Oakland, California police raided the Black Panther Party headquarters, killing Bobby Hutton and wounding three others, including Eldridge Cleaver.

Police opened fire on a car of Black Panthers who were returning from a meeting. The Panthers escaped their vehicle and ran into a house. Police threw tear gas and riddled the house with machine-gun bullets. After police set the building on fire, the Panthers tried to surrender. Seventeen-year-old Bobby Hutton came out of the house with his hands in the air, but a police officer shouted, "He's got a gun". This prompted a barrage of police gunfire that left Hutton dead. The police later admitted Hutton was not carrying a gun.

Source: The Daily Bleed    Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1968 Pierre Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada.

1972 Vietnam War: Easter Offensive – The first day of clear weather in three days allowed American forces to start sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.

1973 USA: Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.

1974 USA: The California Jam Rock concert began.

1982 USA: Jim Princeton, 44, found $37.1 million in negotiable bearer certificates outside 110 Wall Street, New York, and handed them in.

1984 Teenage runner, Zola Budd, from South Africa, was granted British citizenship only 13 days after applying, and was able to compete for Britain in the Los Angeles Olympics.

1993 Russian nuclear accident at Tomsk 7.

1994 The genocide in Rwanda officially began when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down by extremists.

If Hutus And Tutsis Were Muslim Media Would Say So

1998 The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 49.82 to close at 9,033.23 – its first ever close above 9,000.

2004 Rolandas Paksas became the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from the post by impeachment.

2006 The discovery of Tiktaalik was reported in the journal Nature. Tiktaalik (IPA pronunciation: [tikta:lik]) is a genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fishes from the late Devonian period, with many tetrapod-like features. Tiktaalik is a transitional fossil on par with Archaeopteryx.   Source: Wikipedia

Tomorrow: François Fourier, you may say he's a dreamer

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