Did you know that it was on this day in 1720 Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured by the Royal Navy? Or that it was on this day in 1803 the United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase?
And on this day in 1818 The Convention of 1818 was signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length, in 1910 the hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1935 the Long March ends, in 1944 liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130 and in 1947 the House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
It was also on this day in 1967 a purported bigfoot is filmed by Patterson and Gimlin, in 1971 the Nepal Stock Exchange collapses, in 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre” takes place as President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fireWatergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox (who is finally fired by Robert Bork) on the same day as the Sydney Opera House opens and in 1982, during the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
Some birthdays to remember on this day are Sir Christopher Wren, English architect (1632-1723), Arthur Rimbaud, French poet (1854-1891), Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born American actor (1882-1956), Robert Pinsky, American poet and Poet Laureate of the United States (1940), Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (1946), Tom Petty, American musician (1950), Danny Boyle, English film director (1956), Viggo Mortensen, American actor (1958) and Dannii Minogue, Australian singer and Snoop Dogg, American Rapper (both born in 1971).
If you need a reason to raise a glass of bubbly on this day, why not do so while sparing a thought for World Osteoporosis Day, Revolution Day, one of the two Patriotic Days (Guatemala) or Kenyatta Day (Kenya)?
For more information about historic events on this day, please go here.
A Glass of Bubbly 