Fact of the Day: aborigines

On This Day:
Sunday July 7, 2013

This is the 188th day of the year, with 177 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: aborigines

Aborigines are those believed to have been the first inhabitants of a country ab origine, i.e., "from the beginning." The nomadic natives of Australia have been called Aborigines, which means "first people," but it was the original possessors of Greece and Italy who were first referred to by that name; the term was later extended to the original occupants of other countries such as Australia. The Australian aborigines arrived from Asia thousands of years before the Europeans discovered Australia at the end of the 18th century. They were expert hunters, even in the desert, and used the boomerang and the throwing spear as weapons.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Hedda of Winchester, Saints Ethelburga, Ercongota and Sethrida, St. Palladius, Saints Cyril and Methodius (some accounts say February 14), St. Pantaenus, and St. Felix of Nantes.
Solomon Islands: Independence Day.

Events

1802 - The first comic book was published, in New York "The Wasp" created by Robert Rusticoat.
1846 - The U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.
1865 - Four people were hanged in Washington, D.C., after being convicted of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.
1898 - The United States annexed Hawaii.
1930 - Construction began on Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam). 
1941 - The neutral United States moved closer to war with Germany when U.S. forces landed on Iceland to protect sea routes from German submarine attack.
1949 - The police drama "Dragnet" premiered on the radio.
1969 - Canada's House of Commons approved making the French language equal to English throughout the national government. 
1978 - Solomon Islands became an independent nation, ending 80 years of British rule.
1981 - President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to be the first woman Supreme Court justice in U.S.
2003 - The United Communist Party of Armenia was formed.
2005 - Terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 victims in the worst attack on Londonsince World War II.

Births

1839 - John D. Rockefeller, American oil company magnate, philanthropist.
1860 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian musician, composer.
1887 - Marc Chagall, Russian-born French artist.
1906 - Satchel (Leroy) Paige, American baseball Hall of Famer.
1907 - Robert Heinlein, American science-fiction writer.
1922 - Pierre Cardin, French fashion designer.
1937 - Doc Severinsen (born Carl Hilding Severinsen), American pop and jazz trumpeter.
1940 - Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), British musician, drummer of British rock group The Beatles.
1949 - Shelley Duvall, American television and film actress.

Deaths

1307 - Edward I, King of England.
1890 - Henri Nestlé, founder of Nestlé S.A., the world's biggest food and beverage company.
2000 - Kenny Irwin, Jr., American race car driver.