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From: Asa Daniel <>
Subject: [FOLKLORE-L] Today in History
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 11:10:37 -0500


Today in History

- 1498: Christopher Columbus discovered Trinidad on his third voyage
to the New World.
- 1588: The English defeated the Spanish Armada.
- 1774: Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen.
- 1777: French nobleman Marquis de Lafayette was made a major-general
in the Continental Army.
- 1792: The cornerstone was laid for the first U.S. government
building -- the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
- 1813: The British invaded Plattsburgh, N.Y.
- 1849: Benjamin Chambers patented the breech loading cannon.
- 1864: Ulysses S. Grant was named General of Volunteers.
- 1876: The Coast Guard officers' training school was established in
New Bedford, Mass.
- 1932: The George Washington quarter went into circulation.
- 1953: The federal government created the Department of Health,
Education & Welfare.
- 1971: Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin went for the first
moon drive in their Lunar Roving Vehicle.
- 1991: President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev
signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty; the Senate voted to
allow women to fly combat aircraft.

*Happy Birthday*
----------------
- Bill Berry, 40, drummer, R.E.M.
- Michael Biehn, 42, actor, "Terminator," "The Abyss"
- Dean Cain, 32, actor, "Lois & Clark"
- Geraldine Chaplin, 54, actress, "Dr. Zhivago," "Chaplin"
- Susan Flannery, 55, actress, "Dallas," "Bold & the Beautiful"
- Curt Gowdy, 79, sportscaster
- France Nuyen, 59, actress, "St. Elsewhere"
- Wesley Snipes, 36, actor, "Passenger 57," "U.S. Marshals"

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