SillyDog701

[Antony]

11th March 1302 - Romeo and Juliet were married, according William Shakespeare.

No discussion about Romeo and Juliet from me, since I did not read it.

Let's talk about William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare had trouble signing his own name, left no books, and his daughters were illiterate. Conspiracy? Someone wrote some (or perhaps all) of Shakespeare's plays. Potential candidates are Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Edward de Vere. This theory has never been proved.

Shakespeare's precise birthdate is not known; he died on 23rd April 1616.

You can download a copy of William Shakespeare's will and see his handwriting (in PDF format) from The National Archives (UK). Free.

(Source: GuruNet, Who2)

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[Ron Williams]

A good book regarding the possibility of shakespeare not writing the plays the he is credited with it "was shakespeare a plagiarist?"

[i]Edited by Antony, corrected the spelling of “plagiaristâ€

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[Antony]

30th March 1981US President Reagan shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr.

Hinckley shot U.S. president Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981 as Reagan departed the Washington Hilton Hotel after making a speech. Reagan was severely wounded, as were his press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy. Hinckley was subdued and arrested on the spot. Investigators discovered that Hinckley was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and had been trying to impress her. Hinckley was tried for the crime in 1982 and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was placed in St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remains indefinitely.

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States, 1981-89. In 1994 Reagan announced that he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease. He spent the next ten years in seclusion and increasingly poor health until his death on 5 June, 2004.
(Source: Who2, GuruNet)

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[Antony]

4th April, 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr was shot to death in Memphis.

Martin Luther King Jr was bast known as a civil rights hero and the “I have a dreamâ€

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[Antony]

5th April, 1614: Pocahontas, a Native American, married John Rolfe, an Englishman, in Virginia.

Pocahontas, c.1595–1617, Native North American woman, daughter of Chief Powhatan. Pocahontas used to visit the English in Virginia at Jamestown. According to the famous story, she saved the life of the captured Capt. John Smith just as he was about to have his head smashed at the direction of Powhatan. In 1613, Pocahontas was captured by Capt. Samuel Argall, taken to Jamestown, and held as a hostage for English prisoners then in the hands of her father. At Jamestown she was converted to Christianity and baptized as Rebecca. John Rolfe, a settler, gained the permission of Powhatan and the governor, Sir Thomas Dale, and married her in 1614. The union brought peace with the Native Americans for eight years. With her husband and several other Native Americans, Pocahontas went to England in 1616. There she was received as a princess and presented to the king and queen. She started back to America in 1617 but was taken ill and died at Gravesend, where she was buried. Pocahontas bore one son, Thomas Rolfe, who was educated in England, went (1640) to Virginia, and gained considerable wealth.

(Source: GuruNet, The columbia electronic Encyclopedia.)

Interesting reading: The Real Pocahontas by David Morenus

Walt Disney released movie Pocahontas in 1995 and Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World on video in 1998.

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[DJGM]

I'm a day late with this one, but never mind . . .

5th August 1962: Marilyn Monroe found dead.

Screen icon Marilyn Monroe has been found dead in bed at her L.A. home.

The 36-year-old actress' body was discovered in the early hours of
this morning by two doctors who were called to her Brentwood
home by a concerned housekeeper.

The doctors were forced to break into Miss Monroe's bedroom after
being unable to open the door. She was found lying naked in her
bed with an empty bottle of Nembutal sleeping pills by her side.

Read the full article at BBC.co.uk. . .

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[Antony]

16 August 1888

English archaeologist, military strategist and author T.E. Lawrence was born on this date in 1888. Also known as Lawrence of Arabia, he wrote an autobiographical account called, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, about the Arab rebellion against the Turks during World War I, and his own part in that rebellion. Peter O'Toole starred as Lawrence in the eponymous film made in 1962.

Quote: "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." – T.E. Lawrence

(source: GuruNet)

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[Antony]

Also on this day (16th August) 1977, rock'n'roll king Elvis Presley dies. He was 42.

BBC on this day has an interesting chart...

Richest Deceased Celebrities

1. Elvis Presley: $35 million
2. Charles Schulz: $20 million
3. John Lennon: $20 million
4. Theodor Geisel: $17 million
5. Jimi Hendrix: $10 million
6. Bob Marley: $10 million
7. Andy Warhol: $8 million
8. J.R.R. Tolkien: $7 million
9. Frank Sinatra $6 million
10. Jerry Garcia : $5 million

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[Andrew T.]

August 24, 1995

Microsoft Windows 95 is released, to record sales.



(Original image of display found here)

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[Antony]

31st August, 1997: Princess Diana dies in Paris crash

Diana, Princess of Wales, has died after a car crash in Paris.
She was taken to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning where surgeons tried for two hours to save her life but she died at 0300 BST.

Also,
Only Princess Diana's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, survived the crash.
Blood tests showed the driver, Henri Paul, had taken both drugs and a large amount of alcohol before the accident.

The royal family was criticised for its reserve during a time when there was an unprecedented national outpouring of grief.

Around one million people lined the streets to see the princess' funeral cortege as it made its way to Westminster Abbey in early September.

No charges were ever brought against the paparazzi who had been pursuing the princess' car.

But the behaviour of the press came under close scrutiny and the code governing the British media was tightened in December 1997.

from BBC ON THIS DAY

Princess Diana's funeral was held on 7th Sept 1997, and it was the most watched funeral worldwide. (Perhaps Pope John Paul II's funeral be the most watched funeral telecast.)

Princess Diana's wedding was the most watched royal wedding telecasting worldwide.

off-topic, but far more interesting
Interesting TV ratings:
On the broadcasting of Pope John Paul's funeral, only 750,000 Australian watched it, while 889,000 who watched Seven's quiz show Deal or No Deal.
Network Ten did not televise the funeral, and instead went ahead with its regular programs, The Simpsons, which drew 714,000 viewers and Neighbours, which attracted 872,000.

And the most watched TV program of the week?
Desperate Housewives with 2.36 million viewers.
Everybody wants to know the lives of the Wisteria Lane housewives.

(from Funeral not a Deal-breaker, The Age, 11th April 2005)

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[Antony]

September 11 2001

9/11 took on a different meaning on this date four years ago when terrorists crashed airplanes into NY's World Trade Center and brought the world to a stand-still. Osama Bin-Laden's Al Qaeda organization claimed responsibility for crashing three airplanes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, killing some 3,000 innocent civilians. Passengers on a fourth hijacked plane forced it down in a field in PA, all dying as they prevented the plane from hitting its intended target.

(source: GuruNet)
(picture taken from AllPosters.com)

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[Pu7o]

November 23, 1991

In November 23, 1991, Queen's lead singer Freddy Mercury announced that he was infected with HIV. The next day, he peacefully died at his home in London. Freddie had kept his illness very private, and only those closest to him had been aware of just how close to the end he was. Mercury's death was a complete shock to Queen. Only now, in 2005, 14 years after Mercury's death, did Queen join again with the singer Paul Rodgers...

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[Antony]

18 December 1865 (140 years ago)

Slavery was abolished in the United States with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution being ratified.

This amendment completed the abolition of slavery, which had begun with President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had only applied to slaves being held within states that were part of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Slaves in states that did not attempt to leave the Union were not freed until this amendment was enacted. (However, some states where slavery was formerly legal, changed their constitution in the meantime.)

(from Answers.com)

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[Antony]

28th January 1986 space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after its takeoff, killing all seven crews on board.



The Challenger disaster was a severe blow to the American space programme. There were no further manned flights until September 1988.



The most notable astronaut was Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher, she said following before launching: “One of the things I hope to bring back into the classroom is to make that connection with the students that they too are part of history, the space programme belongs to them and to try to bring them up with the space age.â€

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[Antony]

24th March 2001: Mac OS X 10.0 released.

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