Interesting Facts

21st August 1770 – James Cook formally claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales. 1831 – Nat Turner led black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. 1879 – The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appeared to the people of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland. Paving the way for lots of little plastic figurines. 1911 – The Mona Lisa was stolen by an employee at the Louvre in Paris. 1968 - Dozens of people were killed in a massive military clampdown in Czechoslovakia. 1983 - Benigno Aquino, the Philippines opposition leader, was murdered just minutes after returning home from exile. 1986 - 1,700 people died when a cloud of lethal gas escaped from a volcanic lake, Lake Nyos, in Cameroon.

16th May 1770 – 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later became king of France. 1836 – Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia. 1920 – Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan of Arc as a saint. 1960 - The first working laser was demonstrated by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories. (But we still don't have proper light sabers.) 1966 – The Communist Party of China issued the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1975 – Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 1990 – Jim Henson died.

5th March 1770 - British troops killed five people in Boston USA. One of the events that led to the American Revolution.