Did you know that it was on this day in 1789 the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the oldest public universities in the United States and the only one to award degrees in the 18th century, received its charter? Or that it was on this day in 1931 the British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster 1931, establishing legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, theDominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Dominion of Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa?
And on this day in 1934 Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time, in 1941 during World War II, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans’ declaration of war on Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on Germany and Italy and in 1946 the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.
It was also on this day in 1964 Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, in 1972 Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon, in 1997 the Kyoto Protocol opens for signature, in 2006 Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, the president of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacan. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War and one year ago, in 2010, two explosions occur in a busy shopping district of Stockholm, Sweden, killing one and injuring two others. Officials say the incident is being treated as a terrorist attack.
Some birthdays to remember on this day are Hector Berlioz, French composer (1803-1869), Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer (1912-2007), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Soviet dissident, Nobel laureate (1918-2008), Brenda Lee, American singer (1944), Nikki Sixx, American musician (Mötley Crüe) (1958) and Daniel Alfredsson, Swedish ice hockey player (1972).
Need a reason to raise a glass of bubbly on this day? Why not join in the celebration of International Mountain Day (International), Human Rights and Peace Day (Kiribati) or National Tango Day (Buenos Aires)?
For more information about historic events on this day, please go here.
A Glass of Bubbly 