11 September 2018 Interesting tidbits:

11 September 2018

Interesting tidbits:

1297 – Battle of Stirling Bridge: Scots jointly-led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeated the English.

1565 – Ottoman forces retreated from Malta, End of the Great Siege of Malta.

1609 – Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan Island and the indigenous people living there.

1792 – The Hope Diamond was stolen along with other French crown jewels when six men broke into the house used to store them. The Hope Diamond, also known as the King's Jewel, the Blue of France, and the Tavernier Blue, is a large, 45.52-carat / 9.10 g diamond. It is blue to the naked eye but exhibits red phosphorescence after exposure to ultraviolet light. It is notorious for supposedly being cursed.

1826 – Captain William Morgan, an ex-freemason was arrested in Batavia, New York for debt after declaring that he would publish The Mysteries of Free Masonry, a book against Freemasonry. This set into motion the events that lead to his mysterious disappearance.

1829 – Surrender of the expedition led by Isidro Barradas at Tampico, sent by the Spanish crown in order to retake Mexico. This was the final consummation of Mexican independence.

1830 – Anti-Masonic Party convention; one of the first American political party conventions.

1850 - The "Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind gave her first US concert.

1851 – Christiana Resistance: Escaped slaves stand against their former owner in armed resistance in Christiana, Pennsylvania, creating a rallying cry for the abolitionist movement.

1853 - The first electric telegraph was used at the Merchant's Exchange to Pt Lobos.

1857 – The Mountain Meadows massacre: Mormon settlers and Paiutes massacred 120 pioneers at Mountain Meadows, Utah.

1883 - James Cutler patents the postal mail chute.

1893 – Parliament of the World's Religions opened in Chicago.

1903 - The first race at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisconsin was held. It is the oldest major speedway in the world.

1910 - The first commercially successful electric bus line opened in Hollywood.

1923 - ZR-1 (the biggest active dirigible at the time) flew over NY's tallest skyscraper (at the time), Woolworth Tower.

1954 – Hurricane Edna hit New England as a Category 3 hurricane, causing significant damage and 29 deaths.

1997 – NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.

Today's birthday crew:

1771 – Mungo Park, Scottish explorer of the African continent. He was the first Westerner known to have travelled to the central portion of the Niger River.

1816 – Carl Zeiss, German lens maker, created the Optical instruments including the planetarium projector.

1862 – O. Henry, American author (Bagdad-on-the-Subway).

1885 – D.H. Lawrence, English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic (Lady Chatterley's Lover).

1892 – Pinto Colvig, American actor and cartoonist best known by his stage persona Bozo The Clown, as well as the original voice of the famed Disney character Goofy.

1921 – Edwin Richfield, English actor (X the Unknown, Quatermass 2, The Camp on Blood Island, The Face of Fu Manchu, and Quatermass and the Pit).

1936 – Ian Abercrombie, English actor (Palpatine from Star Wars: The Clone Wars).

1958 – Roxann Dawson, American actress, producer, and director, best known as B'Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager.

Happy birthday guys!