Post a Historical Date!

[웃 910]

Rules: Post a historical date.

September 13, 1993

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy.

Edited June 26, 2012 by ☠

[웃 910]

January 8th, 1835: The public debt of the United States contracted to zero for the first and only time in our nation's history.

President Andrew Jackson was in office at the time. The contracting of the debt seems to have had more to do with the financial markets of the time than with Jackson's leadership, but it's still a distinction any president would be proud to have, regardless of the circumstances.

The United States has carried a public debt since its inception. The colonies didn't have enough funds of their own to wage a successful war for independence against Great Britain, so our Founding Fathers issued loan certificates (similar to modern-day bonds) that enabled them to borrow money from France, the Netherlands, and private soon-to-be U.S citizens.

By Jan. 1, 1791, the U.S. had racked up $75,463,476.52 in debt in order to fund the American Revolution and set up its own government. The next time someone speaks philosophically about the price of freedom, you can give them the exact number down to the penny.

The debt shrank steadily, disappearing completely for that one momentous day in 1835, but it began to mount once again when the Civil War erupted in 1861.

Edited June 26, 2012 by ☠

[웃 910]

I have a feeling this thread is too complex for OT

I think it will shortly be dead

April 11, 1976

The Apple I is created.

Edited June 26, 2012 by ☠

[rade2rising 205]

14th August 1945 - end of world war II

[Penguin_ie 5,985]

14th December 1911

- Amundsen arrives at the South Pole as the first human.

[Shoot Em Straight 385]

April 14th 1865 President Lincoln shot

April 15th 1865 President Lincoln died

[mounir412 101]

Jun 26, 1948

U.S. begins Berlin Airlift

On this day in 1948, U.S. and British pilots begin delivering food and supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a Soviet Union blockade.

When World War II ended in 1945, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though located within the Soviet zone of occupation, was also split into four sectors, with the Allies taking the western part of the city and the Soviets the eastern. In June 1948, Josef Stalin's government attempted to consolidate control of the city by cutting off all land and sea routes to West Berlin in order to pressure the Allies to evacuate. As a result, beginning on June 24 the western section of Berlin and its 2 million people were deprived of food, heating fuel and other crucial supplies.

Though some in U.S. President Harry S. Truman's administration called for a direct military response to this aggressive Soviet move, Truman worried such a response would trigger another world war. Instead, he authorized a massive airlift operation under the control of General Lucius D. Clay, the American-appointed military governor of Germany. The first planes took off from England and western Germany on June 26, loaded with food, clothing, water, medicine and fuel.

By July 15, an average of 2,500 tons of supplies was being flown into the city every day. The massive scale of the airlift made it a huge logistical challenge and at times a great risk. With planes landing at Tempelhof Airport every four minutes, round the clock, pilots were being asked to fly two or more round-trip flights every day, in World War II planes that were sometimes in need of repair.

The Soviets lifted the blockade in May 1949, having earned the scorn of the international community for subjecting innocent men, women and children to hardship and starvation. The airlift--called die Luftbrucke or "the air bridge" in German--continued until September 1949, for a total delivery of more than 1.5 million tons of supplies and a total cost of over $224 million. When it ended, the eastern section of Berlin was absorbed into Soviet East Germany, while West Berlin remained a separate territory with its own government and close ties to West Germany. The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, formed a dividing line between East and West Berlin. Its destruction in 1989 presaged the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and marked the end of an era and the reemergence of Berlin as the capital of a new, unified German nation.

[rade2rising 205]

DEC 25TH 1975 - I was born

[X Factor 1,110]

March 6, 1899

Aspirin is patented following Felix Hoffman's discoveries about the properties of acetylsalicylic acid.

[Pooky 3,348]

On December 17^th, 1903, Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina. The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Three more flights were made that day with Orville's brother Wilbur piloting the record flight lasting 59 seconds over a distance of 852 feet.

Eyewitnesstohistory.com link

[Shoot Em Straight 385]

8:15 A.M. on August 6, 1945 U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima

[X Factor 1,110]

October 14

1066 The Battle of Hastings

King Harold II of England is defeated by the Norman forces of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, fought on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, England. At the end of the bloody, all-day battle, Harold was killed--shot in the eye with an arrow, according to legend--and his forces were destroyed. He was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.

[Andy-n-Maricar 6]

28 June 1922

Bombardment by Michael Collins of Anti-Treaty forces occupying the Four Courts marks the start of the Irish Civil War

Edited July 2, 2012 by Andy-n-Maricar

[Operator 1,925]

July 28, 1976 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed approximately 250,000 in Tangshan China

[natty bumppo 289]

November 5, 1955

Emmett Brown came up with the idea of the flux capacitor after slipping and bumping his head while standing on his toilet to hang a clock