Friday, October 21, 2011

21st of October

Today is the 294th day of the year, with only 71 days remaining.

1512 - Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.

1520 - Ferdinand Magellan discovers a narrow, navigable channel of water, known as the Strait of Magellan.

1774 - The first display of the word, "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.

1797 - The 44-gun navy frigate, USS Constitution, is launched in Boston Harbor.

1805 - The Battle of Trafalgar, where a British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson, defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of the latter.  it signals the end of French maritime power and leaves Britain's navy unchallenged until the 20th century.

1854 - Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.

1861 - Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war, the Battle of Ball's Bluff.  Baker, who is a close friend of Abraham Lincoln is killed.

1879 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison test the first practical electric incandescent light bulb.  It lasted a total of 13.5 hours before burning out.

1921 - President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting official against lynching in the deep South.

1944 - A Japanese plane carrying a 440 lb bomb, attacks HMAS Australia off of Leyte Gulf.  It is known as the first kamikaze attack.

1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.

1967 - More than 100,000 protesters gather in Washington, D.C.  A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to the Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility.

1973 - Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in National Football League history to score two safeties in the same game.

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