Interesting Facts

16th August 1819 – Seventeen people die and over 600 were injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England, which was held to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. This became known as The Peterloo Massacre. 1902 – Georgette Heyer, English author was born. 1906 – An estimated 8.2 MW earthquake hit Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,886 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata began, in which more than 4,000 people were murdered over the next 72 hours. 1960 – Cyprus gained its independence from the United Kingdom. 1974 – Punk Rock pioneers The Ramones played their first show in a local New York club called CBGB. 1977 - Elvis Presley died. 2012 – South African police fatally shot 34 miners and wounded 78 more during an industrial dispute near Rustenburg.

9th August 1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) began. It took two centuries to complete. 1483 – The Sistine Chapel opened in Rome with the celebration of a mass. 1842 – The Webster–Ashburton Treaty was signed, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains. 1892 – Thomas Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. 1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet and author was born. 1936 – The Summer Olympic Games aka Games of the XI Olympiad were held in Berlin. Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the games becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympiad. 1942 – Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement. 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki, Japan was devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat...

20th May 1506 - Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Spain. 1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issued the first modern atlas. 1609 – Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe. 1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany was seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War. 1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. 1902 – Cuba gained independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma became the first President of Cuba. 1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. 1932 – Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot. She landed in Irel...

27th February 1902 - John Steinbeck was born.