Did you know that on this day in 1216 King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge? Or that on this day in 1492 Christopher Columbus‘s expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas? The explorer believes he has reached South Asia.
Also on this day in 1773 America’s first insane asylum opens for ‘Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds’ in Virginia, in 1810 the first Oktoberfest was held as the Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, in 1832 Charles Macintosh, of Scotland, sells the first raincoat and in 1892 the Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools, as part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage.
On this day in 1960 during the Cold War Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe, in 1972 En route to the Gulf of Tonkin, a racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors breaks out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, in 1979 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published and in 1999 we celebrated The Day of Six Billion: The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born.
Some birthdays you may (or may not) want to be reminded of on this day are Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor (1935-2007), Rick Parfitt, British musician (Status Quo) (1948), Marion Jones, American track and field athlete (1975) and Bode Miller, American alpine ski-racer (1977). It was also on this day in 1997 that John Denver, American singer (b. 1943) and in 2010 Belva Plain, American novelist (b. 1919) passed away.
If you need a reason to raise a glass of bubbly on this day, perhaps Freethought Day (United States), Children’s Day or Feast of Our Lady of Aparecida (Brazil) or any of a number of Discovery of America by Columbus-related observances may be your thing?
For more information about historic events on this day, please go here.
