Hey! You Guys

You know what is awesome? History is awesome. Things happened today, only hundreds of years ago. Check it out!

I know we have all seen these lists before, but my issue with them is that they just about never expand on it.



May 1

It's the international work day, official in more than 80 countries in the world, and celebrated in many more.

408 - Theodosius II succeeds to the throne of Constantinople.

Here is what you need to know about Constantinople. Sometimes, it isn't called that.




1308 - King Albert is murdered by his nephew John, because he refused his share of the Habsburg lands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_I_of_Germany



1486 - Christopher Columbus convinces Queen Isabella to fund expedition to the West Indies.

The idea that people thought that the world was flat is ridiculous, but I can vouch that it is still taught, at least in Asia. Columbus thought that Asia was a lot closer than it was, and nobody wanted to give him money because they thought he would just starve to death. Plenty had been to North America first. The Vikings...probably the Chinese...maybe the Japanese.

1789 - Last "Assemblée Générale", or General Assembly between the clergy, the nobles and the third estate. It was King Louis XVI's last resort to try to avoid what would become the French Revolution.

1805 - The state of Virginia passes a law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state, or risk either imprisonment or deportation.

http://www.academicamerican.com/colonia ... tutes.html

1840 - 1st adhesive postage stamps ("Penny Blacks" from England) issued

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black

"Cockroaches discover their favorite meal." - Me. I hate cockroaches.

1863 - The Battle of Chancellorsville begins as Union Gen. Joe Hooker starts his three-pronged attack against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
1867 - Reconstruction in the South begins with black voter registration.
1877 - President Ruthoford B. Hayes withdraws all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.

1898 - The U.S. Navy under Dewey defeats the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_Bay

The Spanish-American War. Wow. The USS Maine probably blew itself up. Yellow journalism, racism, I took a whole class on this. Just make sure you don't forget about it. Lots of good political cartoons came from this, though.
http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.c ... toons.html


1915 - The luxury liner Lusitania leaves New York Harbor for a voyage to Europe.

Another very important event, the sinking of the Lusitania.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania


1916 - The term "Jazz" is recognized as the definitio of a music style.


1927 - Adolf Hitler holds his first Nazi meeting in Berlin.

1930 - Pluto is officially named.

1931 - The Empire State Building opens in New York.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building


1934 - The Philippine legislature accepts a U.S. proposal for independence.

1937 - President Franklin Roosevelt signs an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of World War II.

1939 - Batman comics hit street. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman

1941 - The film Citizen Kane–directed and starring Orson Welles–opens in New York.

Like it or not, one of the most important movies ever made. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Kane

1944 - The Messerschmitt Me 262, the first combat jet, makes its first flight.

1945 - Martin Bormann, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, escapes the Fuehrerbunker as the Red Army advances on Berlin.
1948 - North Korea is established.

1961 - Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba.

1964 - The first program, in BASIC language is executed in Darmouth college

1967 - Elvis Presley & Priscilla Beaulieu wed in Las Vegas

1970 - Students from Kent State University riot in downtown Kent, Ohio, in protest of the American invasion of Cambodia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State ... y.2C_May_1

1971 - Amtrak Railroad begins operation

1986 - The Tass News Agency reports the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.

1994 - Death of F1 champion Ayrton Senna

Recent History:

2009 - Legalization of gay marriage in Sweden

2011 - Osama Bin Laden is killed in Abbottabad Pakistan by US Navy SEALS in Operation Neptune Spear.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/osa ... YGWo7XvtZI

So, today was awesome! Anything I missed? Have something to say? Suggestions? I'm new.
LaChaise was here

Hit it up on the comments.

(Jacopo...don't hurt me.)