02 September 2018 Interesting tidbits:

02 September 2018

Interesting tidbits:

1519 – Hernan Cortes defeated a Tlaxcalan force under Xicotencatl on his march to Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City).

1666 – The Great Fire of London broke out and burned for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St Paul's Cathedral.

1752 – Great Britain (and colonies) adopted the Gregorian calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.

1804 - Karl Harding discovered Asteroid 3 Juno.

1859 – A solar super storm known as the Carrington Event, was a powerful geomagnetic solar storm in 1859 that affected electrical telegraph service. Aurorae over the Rocky Mountains were so bright that their glow awoke miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. People who happened to be awake in the northeastern US could read a newspaper by the aurora's light. The aurora was visible as far from the poles as Cuba and Hawaii. Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases shocking telegraph operators. Some telegraph systems continued to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.

1867 – Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji of Japan, married Masako Ichijo. The Empress consort is thereafter known as Lady Haruko. Since her death in 1914, she is called by the posthumous name Empress Shoken.

1885 – Rock Springs massacre: In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners, who were struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attacked their Chinese fellow workers killing 28, wounding 15 and forcing several hundred more out of town.

1935 – Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: a large hurricane hit the Florida Keys killing 423. The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane was the strongest tropical cyclone of the 1935 Atlantic hurricane season, and the most intense hurricane to make landfall in the United States and the Atlantic Basin in recorded history up to that point.

1945 – World War II: Combat ends in the Pacific Theater: the Instrument of Surrender of Japan was signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

1963 – CBS Evening News became U.S. network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show was lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes. This began the tridition of more air time less news.

1970 – NASA announced the cancellation of two Apollo missions to the Moon, Apollo 15 (the designation is re-used by a later mission), and Apollo 19.

Today's birthday crew:

1810 – Lysander Button, American machinist and inventor of the Button Steamer Fire Engine. Button was also the inventor of many of the early improvements made on hand and steam fire engines.

1850 – Albert Spalding, American baseball player, manager, and businessman, co-founded the Spalding Sporting Goods Company.

1915 – Meinhardt Raabe, American actor. He was one of the last surviving Munchkin actors in The Wizard of Oz, and was also the last surviving cast member with any dialogue in the film. He portrayed the coroner who certified that the Wicked Witch of the East was most sincerely dead.

1919 – Marge Champion, American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She was hired by Walt Disney Studios as a dance model for their animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

1934 – Chuck McCann, American stage, film, television, voice actor, and television personality, who began his career hosting children's shows in New York City.

1937 – Derek Fowlds, English actor best known for playing Bernard Woolley in Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister.

1951 – Mark Harmon, American actor who stars as NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

1964 – Keanu Reeves, Canadian actor, producer, director, and musician known for his work in the Matrix movies (among others).

Happy birthday guys!