On This Day In History July 8

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

Click on images to enlarge.

July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 176 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1951, Paris celebrates 2,000th birthday. In fact, a few more candles would’ve technically been required on the birthday cake, as the City of Lights was most likely founded around 250 B.C.

Origins

The earliest archaeological signs of permanent settlements in the Paris area date from around 4200 BC. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the area near the river Seine from around 250 BC. The Romans conquered the Paris basin in 52 BC, with a permanent settlement by the end of the same century on the Left Bank Sainte Geneviève Hill and the Île de la Cité. The Gallo-Roman town was originally called Lutetia, but later Gallicised to Lutèce. It expanded greatly over the following centuries, becoming a prosperous city with a forum, palaces, baths, temples, theatres, and an amphitheatre.

The collapse of the Roman empire and the 5th-century Germanic invasions sent the city into a period of decline. By 400 AD, Lutèce, largely abandoned by its inhabitants, was little more than a garrison town entrenched into a hastily fortified central island. The city reclaimed its original appellation of “Paris” towards the end of the Roman occupation.

The Paris region was under full control of the Germanic Franks by the late 5th century. The Frankish king Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. The late 8th century Carolingian dynasty displaced the Frankish capital to Aachen; this period coincided with the beginning of Viking invasions that had spread as far as Paris by the early 9th century. Repeated invasions forced Parisians to build a fortress on the Île de la Cité; one of the most remarkable Viking raids was on 28 March 845, when Paris was sacked and held ransom, probably by Ragnar Lodbrok, who left only after receiving a large bounty paid by the crown. The weakness of the late Carolingian kings of France led to the gradual rise in power of the Counts of Paris; Odo, Count of Paris was elected king of France by feudal lords, and the end of the Carolingian empire came in 987, when Hugh Capet, count of Paris, was elected king of France. Paris, under the Capetian kings, became a capital once more.

 1099 – First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in a religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on.

1283 – War of the Sicilian Vespers: the naval Battle of Malta between the Aragonese and the Neapolitan fleets is fought.

1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.

1579 – Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.

1663 – Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.

1709 – Great Northern War: Battle of Poltava – Peter I of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava thus effectively ending Sweden’s role as a major power in Europe.

1716 – Great Northern War: the naval Battle of Dynekilen takes place.

1758 – French forces hold Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York.

1760 – French and Indian War: Battle of Restigouche – British forces defeat French forces in last naval battle in New France.

1775 – The Olive Branch Petition is signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies.

1808 – Joseph Bonaparte approves the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter intended as the basis for his rule as king of Spain.

1822 – Chippewas turn over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.

1859 – King Charles XV & IV accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.

1864 – Ikedaya Jiken: the Choshu Han shishi’s planned Shinsengumi sabotage on Kyoto, Japan at Ikedaya.

1874 – The Mounties begin their March West.

1876 – White supremacists kill five Black Republicans in Hamburg, SC.

1879 – Sailing ship USS Jeannette (1878) departs San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole.

1889 – The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.

1892 – St. John’s, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.

1896 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetalism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1898 – The death of crime boss Soapy Smith (who is shot) releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.

1907 – Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.

1912 – Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro leads an unsuccessful royalist attack against the Portuguese First Republic in Chaves.

1932 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.

1937 – Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan sign the Treaty of Saadabad.

1947 – Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.

1948 – The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).

1956 – Fritz Moravec and two other Austrian mountaineers make the first ascent of Gasherbrum II (8,035 m).

1960 – Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.

1962 – Ne Win besieges and dynamites the Rangoon University Student Union building to crash the Student Movement.

1966 – King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi.

1970 – Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American Self-Determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination Act.

1982 – Assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Dujail.

1988 – The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari derails on the Peruman bridge and falls into Ashtamudi Lake, killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.

1994 – Kim Jong-il assumes office as Supreme Leader of North Korea after the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.

2007 – Boeing unveiled its first 787 in a roll-out ceremony at its Everett assembly factory.

Holidays and observances

   *Christian Feast Day:

       * Abda and Sabas

       * Auspicius of Trier

       * Grimbald

       * Kilian, Totnan, and Colman

       * Procopius of Scythopolis

       * Sunniva and companions

       * Theobald of Marly

       * July 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

2 comments

    • TMC on July 8, 2011 at 14:30
      Author

    Dalai Lama

    We are all part of the human community.

  1. On July 8, 1776, the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence was held in Philadelphia’s Independence Square to the ringing of bells and band music.

    On This Day In 1839 a native New Yorker and son of a traveling salesman was born. John D. Rockefeller would become the richest man in the world. The Grand Monopolist and one of the founders of the American Super Economy would eventually become the grandest philanthropist, even giving away more than Andrew Carnegie.  Eventually from this fine example some descendants would register as Democrats.

    “I was early taught to work as well as play,

    My life has been one long, happy holiday;

    Full of work and full of play-

    I dropped the worry on the way-

    And God was good to me everyday.”

    A Sign of the Times. On July 8th in 1871, one day after The New York Times rejects a $5 million bribe from the “Boss” the newspaper exposes the massive corruption of Boss Tweed’s City Hall. On the same day in 1889 the first issue of The Wall Street Journal hits the stands at 2 cents a copy. Now The Washington Post know who the boss is, The Journal is owned by the King of Yellow Journalism and the Times is being forced to cut Boston loose.

    On July 8, 1967 Jimi Hendricks joins the tour of the Monkeys in Jacksonville, FL, as a warm up act! Neither the teenyboppers nor the chaperoning moms were amused.

    As Justice Goes. On July 8, 1976 former President Richard M. Nixon was disbarred by the New York Bar Association. Nixon attempted to resign voluntarily, as he had from the California and U.S. Supreme Court bars, but New York refused to accept his resignation unless he acknowledged that he had obstructed justice during the Watergate coverup.

    1986 was Fun as long as they could keep him away from the machine gun. Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.

    IN 1987 Lt. Col. Oliver North became a daytime TV star. More viewers watched than many game shows and soap operas. He captured center stageas the Iran-Contra hearings were televised throughout the U.S.

    In 1999 The Electric Chair Was Put To Bed. On July 8 when Allen Lee Davis was shocked to death by the state of Florida he was the last and the nation moved on to more  humane ways to kill Americans.  

    An Historic Double Humping. On this day in 2004 Enron’s founder Kenneth Lay pleaded innocent to charges related to the energy company’s collapse and Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas along with his son Timothy were convicted in New York of looting the cable company and deceiving investors. Eventually Ken Lay came up with a way to worm out of the charges but the Rigas did better.

    Back In 2005 Rock singer and campaigner Bob Geldof, to pressure global leaders put together the Live 8 concert, highlighting  the problem of poverty in the developing world. The concerts were staged in 10 cities around the world ahead of their G8 summit in Gleneagles and on this day G8 leaders agreed to a $50 billion aid boost. Also in the victory column, Progress American Style came when  Prime Minister Tony Blair said an agreement had always been unlikely, but that the US now accepted global warming was an issue.

    In 2007 David Vitter lost his moral high ground and said “I’m Sorry.” after the brothelmister’s name is found on a list associated with an escort agency operated by the so-called D.C. Madam. Jeanette Maier, the madam of a high-priced brothel that was shut down by federal authorities in 2002, came to his defense and called  him “one of the nicest and most honorable men I’ve ever met.”

    Three Year Ago Today the Senate finally found something to fast track. H.R 6304: The FISA Amendment Act of 2008 got a bullshit debate and the following day they gave away OUR rights, privileges and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution that they took an oath to protect from all enemies, foreign AND domestic…! It’s been downhill ever since.

    But always looking on the Bright Side.

    Without druggist Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin it wouldn’t even exist. It seems that on this day, back in 1881, a patron came into Edward Berner’s drug store and sat down at the soda-fountain counter. Since it was the Sabbath, the customer couldn’t have the desirable, but scandalous, flavored, soda water. Mr. Berner compromised and put ice cream in a dish and poured the syrup on top (chocolate syrup was only used for making flavored and ice-cream sodas, at the time). Voila! An ice cream Sunday (the spelling was later changed to ‘sundae’). The customer was happy; Mr. Berner was happy … he just invented a dessert that he could serve on Sundays and remain morally correct; and we are happy ’cause we like ice-cream sundaes no matter what day of the week it is.This is one time we can say, “Always on Sunday … or is that sundae?”

    Did you know that today is National Chocolate with Almonds Day? So where are you going to put those almonds?

    Six Degrees Of Seperation. Happy birthday Kevin Bacon.

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