Did you know that it was on this day in 1793 that the first cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington? Or that it was on this day in 1809 the Royal Opera House in London opens?
It was also on this day in 1837 Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. The store is called a “stationery and fancy goods emporium”, in 1851 first publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times, in 1873 the (aptly named) Panic of 1873 begins and in 1919 the Netherlands gives women the right to vote. Furthermore it was on this day in 1961 U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1975 Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List, in 1997 United States media magnate Ted Turner donates USD 1 billion to the United Nations and in 2007 Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some called the Saffron Revolution.
Some birthdays to remember today are Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (1905-1990), James Gandolfini, American actor (1961), Lance Armstrong, American cyclist and Jada Pinkett Smith, American model and actress (both born in 1971), Sol Campbell, English footballer (1974) and Ronaldo, Brazilian footballer (1976).
If you need a reason to raise a glass of bubbly on this day, do so in celebration of World Water Monitoring Day (International) or National Day or Dieciocho, the date of the first Government Junta after the Chilean independence on February 12, 1818 (Chile).
For more information about historic events on this day, go here.
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