On this day...................

On This Day:
Monday July 1, 2013

This is the 182nd day of the year, with 183 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: postage stamp

The first postage stamps were issued for sale by the United States Postal Service in 1847. The 5-cent stamp depicted Benjamin Franklin and the 10-cent stamp depicted George Washington. Prior to this date, stamps were issued by private postal services.

Holidays

Canada: Canada Day / Dominion Day / Independence Day.
Feast day of St. Gall of Clermont, Saints Aaron and Julius, St. Eparchius or Cybard, St. Oliver Plunket, St. Carilephus or Calais, St. Thierry or Theodoric of Mont d'Or, St. Servanus or Serf, St. Simeon Salus, and St. Shenute.
Burundi: Independence Day.
Rwanda: Independence Day.
Botswana: Sir Seretse Khama Day.
China: Half-Year Day.
Ghana: Republic Day.
Suriname: Liberation Day.

Events

1751 - The first volume of Denis Diderot's "Encyclopédie" was published in Paris.
1838 - Charles Darwin presented a paper on his theory of evolution to the Linnean Society in London.
1847 - The United States Post Office issued its first stamps, a five-cent stamp honoring Benjamin Franklin and a ten-cent stamp for George Washington.
1859 - The first intercollegiate baseball game was played, between Amherst and Williams College.
1862 - The Bureau of Internal Revenue was established by an act of Congress.
1863 - In the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg began.
1873 - The province of Prince Edward Island joined the confederation of Canada.
1874 - The first zoo in the United States opened, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1898 - In the Spanish-American War, Teddy Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" waged a victorious assault on San Juan Hill and El Caney in Cuba.
1916 - In World War I, the British launched a massive offensive against German forces in the Somme River region of France. 
1934 - The Federal Communications Commission, as mandated in the "Communications Act of 1934," replaced the Federal Radio Commission as the regulator of broadcasting in the United States.
1941 - Mammoth Cave National Park was established in Kentucky.
1943 - "Pay as you go" income-tax withholding started.
1963 - The U.S. Post Office began using the 5-digit ZIP Code system.
1966 - Medicare went into effect.
1968 - The United States, Britain, Soviet Union, and 58 other nations signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 
1969 - Britain's Prince Charles was dubbed the Prince of Wales.
1971 - The U.S. Post Office became the U.S. Postal Service.
1979 - The Sony Walkman was introduced.
1980 - "O Canada" was proclaimed the national anthem of Canada.
1991 - Court TV debuted.
1991 - The "Warsaw Pact," the last vestige of the Cold War-era Soviet bloc, was formally disbanded.
1994 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat drove from Egypt into Gaza, returning to Palestinian land after 27 years in exile.
1997 - Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony. 
2000 - Vermont's civil unions law went into effect, granting gay couples most of the rights, benefits, and responsibilities of marriage.
2000 - The Confederate flag was removed from South Carolina's Statehouse.
2005 - Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her intention to retire.
2006 - The Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the People's Republic of China begins operation.
2007 - England bans smoking in virtually all enclosed public places and workplaces.

Births

1872 - Louis Bleriot, French aviation pioneer.
1902 - Myron Cohen, American comedian, entertainer, actor.
1908 - Estee Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur.
1934 - Sydney Pollack, American film director.
1952 - Dan Aykroyd, Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, and musician.
1961 - Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales.
1961 - Carl Lewis, retired American track and field athlete.
1967 - Pamela Anderson, Canadian model.

Deaths

1896 - Harriet Beecher Stowe, American abolitionist and novelist.
1974 - Juan Perón, Argentinian politician.
1991 - Michael Landon (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz), American actor.
1995 - Wolfman Jack (born Robert Weston Smith), gravelly-voiced American radio personality.
2000 - Walter Matthau, American actor.
2004 - Marlon Brando, American Academy Award-winning actor.
2005 - Luther Vandross, American R&B and soul, singer and songwriter.

On This Day:
Tuesday July 2, 2013

This is the 183rd day of the year, with 182 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: Tour de France

The Tour de France, the most prestigious road bicycle race in the world, takes place for three weeks in July. The Tour de France was established in 1903 by Henri Desgrange and covers some 2,235 miles, usually in 20 stages of one day each.

Holidays

Feast day of Saints Processus and Martinian, St. Monegundis, and St. Otto of Bamberg.

Events

1776 - The Continental Congress passed a resolution saying that "these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States." 
1777 - Vermont became the first American colony to abolish slavery.
1788 - The Constitution of the United States of America went into effect after nine states ratified it.
1839 - Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rose up against their captors, killing two crewmembers and seizing control of the ship, which had been transporting them to a life of slavery on a sugar plantation at Puerto Príncipe, Cuba.
1850 - The gas mask was patented by B.J. Lane of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1857 - New York City's first elevated railroad opened for business.
1881 - Only four months into his administration, President James A. Garfield was shot at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot inWashington, D.C.; he died in September from his wounds.
1890 - Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. 
1900 - Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin successfully demonstrated the world's first rigid airship.
1900 - The second modern Olympic Games opened in Paris.
1926 - The United States Army Air Corps was created. 
1937 - Aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator.
1947 - A purported Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. This report has been the subject of controversy ever since.
1955 - "The Lawrence Welk Show" premiered on television.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964; it was sweeping legislation prohibiting racial discrimination in employment and education, and outlawing racial segregation in public facilities.
1976 - The Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual. 
2000 - Vicente Fox Quesada is the first President of México elected from an opposition party since 1920.
2002 - American Steve Fossett became the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world.

Births

1855 - Clarence Barron, American financial editor and publisher.
1877 - Hermann Hesse, German poet and novelist.
1905 - Jean Rene Lacoste, French tennis player, founder of Lacoste tennis clothing.
1908 - Thurgood Marshall, first black U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
1937 - Richard Petty, American race car driver.
1942 - Vicente Fox Quesada, President of México from 2000 to 2006.
1964 - José Canseco, Cuban baseball player.

Deaths

1566 - Nostradamus, French physician and astrologer.
1937 - Amelia Earhart, American aviator.
1961 - Ernest Hemingway, American novelist and short-story writer.
1973 - Betty Grable (born Ruth Elizabeth Grable), American actress.
1997 - Jimmy Stewart, American actor.
2000 - Joey Dunlop, Irish motorcycle racer.

On This Day:
Wednesday July 3, 2013

This is the 184th day of the year, with 181 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: fireworks

Fireworks originated with the ancient Chinese, from military rockets and explosive missiles. During the Middle Ages in Europe, fireworks spread as a type of military explosive. Later, pyrotechnics came to be used in celebrations of victory and peace.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Anatolius of Constantinople, Saints Irenaeus and Mustiola, St. Leo II, pope, St. Anatolius of Laodicea, St. Rumold or Rombaut, St. Bernardino Realino, and St. Helidorus of Altino.
Belarus: Independent Day.
U.S. Virgin Islands: Danish West Indies Emancipation Day.

Events

321 - Sunday was designated a day of rest by Roman Emperor Constantine I.
1775 - General George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
1863 - The three-day Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, ended in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated. 
1890 - Idaho became the 43rd state of the Union. 
1922 - "Fruit Garden and Home" magazine went on sale; two years later it was renamed "Better Homes and Gardens".
1930 - Congress created the U.S. Veterans Administration. 
1954 - Nearly nine years after the end of the World War II, food rationing in Britain finally ended.
1962 - Algeria became independent after 132 years of French rule. 
1988 - USS Vincennes mistook an Iran Air jetliner to be a fighter aircraft during the Iran-Iraq conflict and shot it down over thePersian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. 
2005 - A NASA space probe, Deep Impact, hit Tempel 1 as planned, its comet target.
2006 - A near-earth asteroid labeled 2004 XP14 passes within 432,308 km of Earth.

Births

1878 - George M. Cohan, American playwright, songwriter, producer for Broadway.
1908 - M.F.K. Fisher, American food writer.
1937 - Tom Stoppard (Straussler), Czech-born British playwright.
1947 - Dave Barry, American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist.
1962 - Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV), American actor.
1964 - Yeardley Smith, French-born American actress.
1969 - Kevin Hearn, Canadian musician.

Deaths

1969 - Brian Jones, English rock guitarist and founding member of the Rolling Stones.
1971 - Jim Morrison, American singer and founding member of the rock band The Doors.
1986 - Rudy Vallee (Hubert Prior Vallée), American singer.
1989 - Jim Backus (born James Gilmore Backus), American radio, television, film actor, character actor, and voice actor.
1993 - Don Drysdale, major league baseball player.