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Archiver > FOLKLORE > 1998-07 > 0901636104


From: Asa Daniel <>
Subject: [FOLKLORE-L] Today in History
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 09:28:24 -0500


Today in History

- 1540: King Henry VIII married Catherine Howard, his fifth wife.
- 1586: The first potatoes arrived in England from Colombia, brought
by Sir Thomas Harriot.
- 1588: The Spanish Armada set sail to overthrow England's Queen
Elizabeth I.
- 1717: Prussian king Frederik Willem I made education compulsory
from 5 to 12 years of age.
- 1794: Maximilien Robespierre was guillotined. Known as "The
Incorruptible," he launched the "Reign of Terror" that began the
French Revolution.
- 1821: Peru declared itself independent of Spain.
- 1858: The first use of fingerprints as a means of identification
was made by William Herschel of the Indian Civil Service in India.
- 1868: The 14th amendment to the Constitution was ratified, granting
citizenship to blacks.
- 1914: World War I began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
after the June 28 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at
Sarajevo.
- 1938: The 34,000-ton Cunard-White Star liner Mauritania was
launched at Birkenhead, England.
- 1945: The Senate ratified the United Nations Charter.
- 1945: A B-25 bomber lost in clouds and fog slammed into the Empire
State building, killing 14 people.
- 1965: President Johnson increased the number of American troops in
South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
- 1976: An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale Tangshan,
China, causing the highest quake death toll in modern times of
242,000.
- 1977: The first oil through the TransAlaska Pipeline System reached
Valdez, Alaska.

*Happy Birthday*
----------------
- Vida Blue, 49, MLB pitcher, Cy Young Award winner and MVP in 1971
- Bill Bradley, 55, former senator/NBA forward
- Jim Davis, 53, cartoonist, "Garfield"
- Alberto Fujimori, 60, Peru president
- Darryl Hickman, 67, actor/producer, "Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"
- Lori Loughlin, 33, actress, "Full House"
- Jacques Piccard, 76, explorer/inventor, made deepest ocean dive
ever at 35,800 feet in 1960
- Sally Struthers, 50, actress/hunger activist, "All in the Family"
- Rick Wright, 53, keyboardist of Pink Floyd

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