Wednesday, December 6, 2017

THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― DECEMBER 6

December 6 is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 25 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Friday or Saturday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Wednesday (56).  

NATIONAL MICROWAVE OVEN DAY  


1240 — Mongols under Batu Khan occupy and destroy Kiev.


1639 — The first predicted transit of Venus (by Johannes Kepler) is observed by the English astronomers Jeremiah Horrocks and his friend and correspondent William Crabtree.

1790 — The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


1825 — President John Quincey Adams suggests establishment of a national observatory.


1865 — On this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, officially ending the institution of slavery, is ratified with Republicans carrying the day.


1877 — The Washington Post publishes it's first edition.


1884 — On this day in 1884, in Washington, D.C., workers place a nine-inch aluminum pyramid atop a tower of white marble, completing the construction of an impressive monument to the city's namesake and the nation's first president, George Washington.


1917 — At 9:05 a.m., in the harbor of Halifax in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the most devastating man-made explosion in the pre-atomic age occurs when the Mont Blanc, a French munitions ship, explodes 20 minutes after colliding with another vessel.


1923 — The first U.S. Presidential address is broadcast on radio by President Calvin Coolidge.


1941 — President Roosevelt—convinced on the basis of intelligence reports that the Japanese fleet is headed for Thailand, not the United States—telegrams Emperor Hirohito with the request that "for the sake of humanity," the emperor intervene "to prevent further death and destruction in the world."


1956 — Nelson Mandela and 156 others arrested for political activities in South Africa.

1957 - AFL-CIO votes to expel the Teamsters Union (readmitted in October 1987).

1965 - Pakistan's Islamic Ideology Advisory Committee recommends that Islamic Studies be made a compulsory subject for Muslim students from primary to graduate level.


1969 — In August 1969, the massive, three-day Woodstock Music and Art Fair had proved that hundreds of thousands of young people could gather peacefully even in a seemingly chaotic environment rich with sex, drugs and rock and roll. Four months later, it would become clear that Woodstock owed its success not to the inherent peacefulness of the1960s youth culture, but to the organizational acumen of the event's producers. That idea was proven in the violent, uncontrolled chaos of the disastrous Altamont Speedway Free Festival, held on this day in 1969 in the northern California hills 60 miles east of San Francisco.

1972 — Fighting in South Vietnam intensifies as the secret Paris peace talks resume after a 24-hour break. 


1973 — U.S. Representative Gerald Ford is sworn-in as the first un-elected U.S. Vice President, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew who resigned. 


2006 — NASA reveals photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.


TODAY'S BIRTHS

1876 – Fred Duesenberg, German-American businessman, co-founded the Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Company (d. 1932)

1898 – Alfred Eisenstaedt, German-American photographer and journalist (d. 1995)

1941 – Richard Speck, American mass murderer (d. 1991)

From Wikipedia and Google, except as noted.

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