Monday, October 31, 2011

Week of October 31 in History

I fell in love with history in the ninth grade in a World History class when the teacher taught Egyptian history (thank you, Miss Fischer!). I have been collecting historical bits of information for years. A year ago, I began tweeting historical facts every day. This blog entry is like the “best of” the events, births, and deaths that occurred during this week. If you want to read even more of these events on a daily basis. Follow me on Twitter at @kay_bigelow

October 31 is the 304th day of the year. There are 61 days remaining until the end of the year.

  • 1711 – Laura Bassi,Italian anatomist  and college professor, was born. She was the first woman to officially teach at a university in Europe. She died in 1778. 
  • 1860 – Juliette Low, American founder of the Girl Scouts, was born. She died in 1927.
  • 1913 – The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the US, was dedicated.
  • 1941 – Mount Rushmore was completed after 14 years of work. 

November 1 is the 305th day of the year. There are 60 days remaining until the end of the year.

  • 1512 – The ceiling of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel was viewed by the public for the first time.
  • 1604 - William Shakespeare’s Othello premiered, at Whitehall Palace in London. 
  • 1611 – William Shakespeare's The Tempest premiered at Whitehall Palace in London. 
  • 1765 – The British Parliament enacted the Stamp Act on the 13 colonies in order to help pay for the British military operations in America. 
  • 1800 – US President John Adams became the first President to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
  • 1848 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School, opened.
  • 1870 – The US Weather Bureau made its first official forecast.
  • 1896 – A photo showing the unclad breasts of a woman appeared in “National Geographic” magazine for the first time.
  • 1897 – The first Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public. 
  • 1982 – Honda became the first Asian auto company to produce cars in the US.

November 2 is the 306th day of the year. There are 59 days remaining until the end of the year

  • 1895 – The first gasoline-powered car race in the US was held. First prize was $2,000.
  • 1898 – Organized cheerleading began at the University of Minnesota.
  • 1917 – The Balfour Declaration stated British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
  • 1920 – KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA begins broadcasting as the first commercial radio station
  • 1936 – Rose Bird, American jurist & Chief Justice of CA Supreme Court, was born. She was the first woman Justice and first woman Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. She died in 1999.
  • 1936 – The BBC Television Service was inaugurated.
  • 1960 – Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
  • 1988 – The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.

November 3 is the 307th day of the year. There are 58 days remaining until the end of the year.

  • 1817 – The Bank of Montreal, Canada’s oldest chartered bank, opened in Montreal, Quebec.
  • 1838 – The Times of India, the world's largest circulated  English-language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.
  • 1911 – Chevrolet officially entered the auto market in competition with the Ford Model T.
  • 1913 – The US introduced an income tax.
  • 1918 – Elizabeth P. Hoisington, American Brigadier General, was born. She died in 2007.
  • 1926 – Annie Oakley, American sharpshooter, died. She was born in 1860.
  • 1964 – Washington, D.C. residents were able to vote in a Presidential election for the first time
  • 1998 – Bob Kane, comic artist and Batman co-creator, died. He was born in 1915.

November 4 is the 308th day of the year. There are 57 days remaining until the end of the year.

  • 1737 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest continuously used opera house in Europe, opened.
  • 1922 – British archaeologist Howard Carter and his team found the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
  • 1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming was elected the first female governor in the US.
  • 1960 – At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community in Tanzania, Dr. Jane Goodall observed chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever observation in non-human animals.
  • 1980 – Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer and the world's first woman aircraft designer, died. She was born in 1905.
  • 2008 – Barack Obama became the first African-American to be elected US President.

November 5 is the 309th day of the year. There are 56 days remaining until the end of the year.

  • 1857 – Ida Tarbell, American muckraking journalist, was born. She died in 1944.
  • 1872 – In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted for the first time, and was fined $100 for doing so.
  • 1895 – George B. Selden was granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
  • 1942 – George M. Cohan, American musician, actor, writer, and composer, died. He was born in 1878.
  • 1986 – USS Rentz, USS Reeves, and USS Oldendorf visited Qingdao (Tsing Tao), China – the first US Naval visit to China since 1949.
November 6 is the 310th day of the year. There are 55 days remaining until the end of the year.

  • 1913 – Mohandas Gandhi was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa. 
  • 1935 – Parker Brothers acquired the forerunner patents for Monopoly from Elizabeth Magie.
  • 1947 – Meet the Press made its TV debut.
  • 1985 – The American press revealed that President Ronald Reagan had authorized the shipment of arms to Iran.

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