Tobacco is todays theme from Sir walter Raleigh to “smoking is hazardous to your health”. Robespierre is over thrown and the Atlantic Telegraph is layed. The Korean War armistice is signed and the first Legionaries disease breaks out. Birthdays include Alexandre Dumas, Gracie Allen and Norman Lear.
1586 Sir Walter Raleigh brings 1st tobacco to England from Virginia
1794 Robespierre (1758-1794) is overthrown in France. No pension, or golden parachute. Gallows humor.
1866 Atlantic telegraph cable successfully laid (1,686 miles long)
1940 Billboard magazine starts publishing bestseller charts
1946 Gertrude Stein dies She was a writer, poet, patron of the arts
1953 the Korean War armistice is signed at Panmunjom . The BBC has the information.
1954 Armistice divides Vietnam into North and South.
1955 Chuck Berry’s Maybelline hits the R & B charts.
1955 Austria regains full independence after 4-power occupation
1965 President Johnson signed a bill requiring that cigarette manufacturers display the surgeon general warning that “Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health.” Here’s a chronology of the tobacco wars from days of yore thru today.
1974 on this date a house committee recommended Nixon be impeached. Here’s Representative Barbara Jordan’s statement.
1976 In Philadelphia , Air Force veteran Ray Brennan becomes the first person to die of Legionnaires disease.
1976 8.2 Tangshan earthquake kills estimated 240,000 Chinese
1980 The Shah of Iran dies in Exile in Egypt . But that’s only the beginning of the story.
1991 TV Guide publishes its 2000th edition. First edition was April 1953.
Notable Birthdays
1822: Mary Wormeley Latimer born (historian)
1824 – 1895 Alexandre Dumas French playwright/novelist (Camille, count of Monte Christo)
1858: Ella Boole born (temperance reformer)
1869: Donaldina Mackenzie Cameron (missionary, reformer)
1895: Gracie Allen born (actress, comedian)
1922 Norman Lear. TV producer. Did you know that All In The Family was inspired by an English comedy “Till Death Us Do Part?”
1932 Jerry Van Dyke was dropped by the comedy stork. Aside from being Dick’s brother, Jerry starred in that famously failed sitcom, My Mother the Car. Named by TV Guide the second worst show of all time. Want to know the worst show? Click here.
1956: Dorothy Hamill Olympic and professional ice skater
