Interesting Facts

21st July 365 – A tsunami devestated the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by an earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter Scale. 5,000 people perished in the Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside of the city. 1403 – King Henry IV of England defeated rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England. 1545 – French troops landed on the coast of the Isle of Wight. 1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, became the first man to break the 100mph barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium. 1925 – In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100. 1925 – Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first man to break the 150mph land barrier at Pendine Sands in Wales. He drove a Sunbeam to a two-way average of 150.33mph. 1969 – Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission. 1972 – Th...

2nd June 455 – The Vandals entered Rome, and plundered the city for two weeks. 1692 – Bridget Bishop was the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. 1793 – Jean-Paul Marat recited the names of 29 people to the French National Convention. Almost all of these people were guillotined, followed by 17,000 more over the course of the next year during the Reign of Terror. 1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States. 1946 – Italians voted to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled. 1953 - Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. 1966 - The United States landed a spacecraft on the Moon on its first try (four months behind the Soviet Union). 1985 - English clubs were banned from playing in Europe indefinitely, after the riot at Brussels...

5th May 1215 – Rebel barons in England renounced their allegiance to King John — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta. 1494 – Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Jamaica and claimed it for Spain. I think I'll try that next time I'm in Spain. 1821 – Emperor Napoleon I died in exile on the island of Saint Helena. 1921 - Coco Chanel introduced their famous perfume Chanel No. 5. 1925 – John T. Scopes was served with an arrest warrant for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act. 1949 – The Treaty of London established the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. 1955 – West Germany regained full sovereignty. 1964 – The Council of Europe declared May 5 as Europe Day. 1980 - The siege of the Iranian embassy in London came to an end after a raid by SAS commandos. 1981 - Bobby Sands died in the Maze prison 66 days after first refusing to eat. 2005 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected to a third term.

10th April 837 – Halley's Comet made its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles). 1512 – James V of Scotland was born. 1606 – The Virginia Company of London was established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. 1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, came into force in Great Britain. 1829 – William Booth, the English minister who founded The Salvation Army was born. 1858 – The original Big Ben, a 14.5 ton bell for the Palace of Westminster cracked during testing and was recast into the current 13.76 tonnes (30,300 lb) bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry. 1912 – RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage. 1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published. 1932 – Omar Sharif was born. 1953 – Warner Bros. premiered the first 3D film from a major American studio...

9th March 1009 – Lithuania was mentioned for the first time (in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg). 1566 – David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland. 1831 – The French Foreign Legion was established by King Louis Philippe to support his war in Algeria. 1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them to captivity had been taken into slavery illegally. 1925 – The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy began. It was called Pink's War. 1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, killed 33 and left hundreds more injured. The disaster led to Moelwyn Hughes's official report, which recommended more rigorous control of crowd sizes. 1959 – The Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy F...