SillyDog701

[Antony]

29th December 1916 Grigori Rasputin assassinated but did not die
Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian peasant and self-proclaimed holy man, was assassinated in St. Petersburg. Note: he was assassinated but did not die on this day.

Known as the "mad monk," Grigori Yefimovitch Rasputin was an outlandish figure in the court of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. A wandering peasant and self-styled holy man, Rasputin became a favorite of Nicholas and the Empress Alexandra in 1905 after he laid hands on their son Alexis, apparently healing the boy of hemophilia. Rasputin was soon a fixture in the royal household and a particular confidante to Alexandra. Wild-eyed and unkempt, Rasputin was strangely charismatic and his personal magnetism was legendary; at the same time his bouts of drinking, womanizing, and wild behavior created a scandal in Russian society. He was finally killed in 1917 by a cabal of aristocrats who feared Rasputin's influence had grown too great. Rasputin's death became the stuff of legend: assassins fed him poisoned cakes and wine, and when the poison failed to kill Rasputin they shot him and beat him. Still Rasputin didn't die, until finally the men bound him and tossed him into the Neva River, where he drowned.

About his death, other source said:
In Dec., 1916, a group of right-wing patriots, including Prince Felix Yussupov and the czar's cousin, Grand Duke Dmitri, conspired to assassinate Rasputin. A generous dose of poison failed to produce any visible effect, and the terrified conspirators riddled him with bullets and threw his body into the frozen Neva River. Later buried, Rasputin's corpse was exhumed and burned by the mob during the February Revolution of 1917.

Also,
There has been a lot of news with regards to Rasputin in recent weeks. An article by Doctor Thomas Stuttaford in The London Times on Thursday March 9th suggested that the reason Rasputin did not die from eating the poisoned food given to him was 'possibly because of his legendary drinking, which can reduce the acidity of gastric juices, so that the cyanide is not rendered volatile'.

However, a newly found book bought at auction by a Russian cellist suggests otherwise. It is a file on Rasputin put together by his opponents from his personnel files and testemonies of his 'groupies' [for want of a better word] suggest that the cyanide used in the attemted murder was diluted to a non fatal dose by one of the opponents who had a sexual emphatuation with him. This fascinating document also gives credence to the theory that Rasputin had a sexual relationship with the Czarina as in letters to him she constantly calls him 'darling'.

Sources: GuruNet, Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia 6th Ed, The Home of Rasputin

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[Antony]

4th January 1932 - Indian National Congress was declared illegal by the Indian government; nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi was arrested.

Mohanda K. Gandhi studies law in England, then spent 20 years defending the rights of immigrants in South Africa. In 1914 he returned to India and became the leader of the Indian National Congress. Gandhi urged non-violence and civil disobedience as a means to independence from Great Britain, with public acts of defiance that landed him in jail several times. In 1947 he participated in the postwar negotiations that led to Indian independence. He was shot to death by a Hindu fanatic in 30th January 1948.

(Source: GuruNet)

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[Antony]

7th January 1610
Galileo Galilei sighted four of Jupiter's moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Galileo Galilei, 1564 - 1642, a great Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist. His achievements include:
demonstrating that the velocities of falling bodies are not proportional to their weights;
showing that the path of a projectile is a parabola;
building the first astronomical telescope;
coming up with the ideas behind Newton's laws of motion;
and confirming the Copernican theory of the solar system.
He was denounced for heretical views by the church in Rome, tried by the Inquisition, and forced to renounce his belief that the planets revolved around the sun.

(source: GuruNet, Who2, Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia)

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[Antony]

10th January 1928 - Leon Trotsky was ordered into exile by the Soviet Union.

Leon Trotsky was born in 26th Oct 1879, and assassination by ice axe in 21st Aug 1940. He is best known as V. I. Lenin's right-hand man.

He was a key figure in the creation of the soviet Union, he was Lenin's right-hand man in the Russian Revolution of 1917. After thye formation of the Soviet Union and then Lenin's death in 1924, Trotsky lost out in a power stuggle with Stalin. He was assassinated at his villa in 1940 by a probable agent of Stalin, Ramon Mercader, who posed as a friend of Trotsky's and then killed him with the blow of an ice axe to his head.

He was born as Lev Davidovich Bronstein, he used the name Leon Trotsky while escaping from Russian prison in Sibera in 1902, and kept the name for the rest of his life.

(Source: GuruNet, Who2)

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[Antony]

11th January, 1569
England's first recorded lottery was drawn in St. Paul's Cathedral.

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[Antony]

15th January 1929
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born 75 years ago on this day. The US celebrates Martin Luther King Day this coming Monday.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Christian clergyman who advocated social change through non-violent means. His writings and public appearances shaped the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s. In 1963, King organized a march on Washington, D.C. that drew 200,000 people demanding equal rights for minorities. In 1964 King won the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming at the time the youngest recipient ever. He was shot to death by James Earl Ray in 1968 while visiting Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King Day:
The third Monday in January, observed in the United States in commemoration of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

(Source: GuruNet)

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[Antony]

6th Feb 1935 - Monopoly®, today's the best-selling board game in the world, went on sale for the first time.

Monopoly was designed by Charles B. Darrow in 1934 (during the depression). Ths story says...
In 1934, his wife and him were expecting their second child, so he needed to do something to increase the income of the family. So Mr. Darrow sat down and remembered when his wife and him took a trip to Atlantic City, a few years before the loss of his job. Remembering the city, the street names, and the whole image of Atlantic City so clearly in his mind, he decided to design a game after this city that he remembered so well.

He began drawing squares on a piece of tile, and adding colors to those squares with what ever paint he could find at the local hardware store. He then decided that he would let the players of this game be able to buy these streets, and own them. And in a sense own part of Atlantic City. He eventually came up with the game we all know as Monopoly®.

When Charles Darrow brought his game to Parker Brothers, they played the game, and after two weeks, Parker Brothers wrote Darrow, and told him that his board game is being rejected, for breaking the ground rules set up for "family games" by Parker Brothers. But more important then that, for having 52 fundamental errors.

What were the errors? For example, a family game should last about 45 minutes, and should be simple and easy to understand instructions. (Well, according to Parker Brothers in 1934.)

However Mr. Darrow was selling his game to friends, and family around the state at a very rapid rate. So Darrow decided to get a local printer to make 5,000 sets of this game, and he managed to sell them to a store in Philadelphia called Wanamakers, in late 1934.

After hearing wind of the deal struck with Darrow and Wanamakers, Parker Brothers re-thought there decision, and quickly signed an agreement in early 1935, and by mid February where selling 20,000 sets of this game per week.

Despite those 52 fundamental errors, Monopoly became Parker Brothers most popular game, and it rescued Parker Brothers during the Great Depression.

Well, the other story...
Some feel that he was not the original inventor of this game. Some people point to a game made in 1904 by a lady named Lizzie J. Magie, called "The Landlords Game"

The Landlords Game was very similar to Monopoly®, with the purchase of properties, utilities, a public park square, and a "Go to jail" square. Many feel Darrow just added items to this game and improved some features.

For more information, please see this website, particularly evolution page.

(Source: GuruNet, Monopoly Collector)

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[Edward]

The Parker Brothers factory was in my hometown, before it merged with Hasbro and production was eventually moved to the Milton Bradley factory in Springfield.

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[Lorraine]

On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. He attended high school in nearby Dixon and then worked his way through Eureka College. There, he studied economics and sociology, played on the football team, and acted in school plays. Upon graduation, he became a radio sports announcer. A screen test in 1937 won him a contract in Hollywood. During the next two decades he appeared in 53 films.

From his first marriage to actress Jane Wyman, he had two children, Maureen and Michael. Maureen passed away in 2001. In 1952 he married Nancy Davis, who was also an actress, and they had two children, Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott.

Ronald Reagan won the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate former Texas Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush. Voters troubled by inflation and by the year-long confinement of Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter.

On January 20, 1981, Reagan took office. Only 69 days later he was shot by a would-be assassin, but quickly recovered and returned to duty. His grace and wit during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to soar.

He became the 40th President of the United States of America in 1981 until 1989.

source: White House Government Links

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[Antony]

11th February, 1990 Nelson Mandela was freed.

Nelson Mandela was the first black president of South Africa and a legendary figure of the African National Congress, or ANC. From 1964 to 1990, Mandela was imprisoned for opposing South Africa's white minority government and its policy of racial separation, known as apartheid. Instead of disappearing from view, Mandela became a martyr and worldwide symbol of resistance to racism. In 1993 Mandela and the president who released him, F.W. de Klerk, shared the Nobel Peace Prize. Mandela was elected the country's president in 1994. He served until 1999, when he was succeeded by his deputy Thabo Mbeki.

Mandela's wife Winnie became a powerful figure in her own right while Mandela was imprisoned; her entanglement in a series of scandals led to the couple's estrangement in 1992 and her dismissal from his cabinet in 1995... Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, was published in 1994.

(Source: GuruNet, Who2)

apartheid: The racist policy of South Africa that long denied blacks and other nonwhites civic, social, and economic equality with whites. It was dismantled during the 1990s.

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[Antony]

12th February 1554 Lady Jane Grey beheaded for treason.

Lady Jane Grey
Born: October 1537
Birthplace: Bradgate, England
Death: 12 February 1554 (execution by beheading)

Lady Jane Grey is a famous sidelight to British royal history. At age 15 she was married to Lord Guilford Dudley as part of a plot to control the English throne after the death of her cousin, the boy king Edward VI (son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour). On 10 July 1553, four days after Edward's death, Lady Jane's supporters proclaimed her to be Queen. It soon became clear that Edward's half-sister Mary Tudor had far greater support, and after a "reign" of nine days Lady Jane Grey relinquished the crown. Lady Jane, her husband, and her father were charged with high treason, and were beheaded.

Lady Jane Grey was succeeded by Queen Mary (daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon) and then by Elizabeth I (daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn).

She was the Queen of England for nine days.

(Source: GuruNet, Who2)

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[Antony]

23rd February 1898
Emile Zola imprisoned by France for writing "J'accuse" in defense of Alfred Dreyfus.
Emile Zola was a French journalist turned novelist. His novels were attacked and even banned for their frankness and sordid detail, causing quite a bit of controversy in their day. In 1898 he incurred the wrath of officials when he published the open letter "J'Accuse," in defense of Alfred Dreyfus, an Army officer who had been convicted of treason. Zola was sentenced to prison for libel, fled to England, and was granted amnesty a few months later. He died from carbon monoxide poisoning before Dreyfus was officially exonerated.

In 1884 Captain Alfred Dreyfus of France was accused of selling military secrets to Germany. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but in 1886 new evidenced surfaced that seemed to exonerate Dreyfus. The military tried to suppress the information and failed, and the case became a political firestorm. One the anti-Dreyfus side were royalists, militarists and Roman Catholics. Those defending Dreyfus were republicans, socialists and anti-clerics, including famed author Emile Zola, who was sentenced to jail for criticizing the government's role. The military would not acknowledge any injustice, and the case dragged on until Dreyfus was finally pardoned in 1906. After 101 years, the French army officially said they had been wrong. The affair revealed an institutionalized anti-Semitism in the army and helped unite the French left, eventually leading to the separation of church and state.

(Source: GuruNet)

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[djv1]

Feb. 25

1961 - In Memphis, TN, Elvis Presley made his first concert appearance since 1958. During the show he was presented with a plaque by RCA to mark record sales of 76 million worldwide
(source: on-this-day.com)


In 1838 A London pedestrian walks 20 miles backward and 20 miles forward in 8 hours.
In 1933 First aircraft carrier Ranger launched.
In 1943 George Harrison, singer (Beatles), born.
In 1972 Paul McCartney releases Give Ireland back to the Irish single.
In 1977 Soyuz 24 returns to Earth.
In 1979 Soyuz 32 is launched.
(source:www.yarranet.net.au)

1570 Pope Pius V issues the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicates Queen Elizabeth of England.
1601 Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex and former favorite of Elizabeth I, is beheaded in the Tower of London for high treason.
1642 Dutch settlers slaughter lower Hudson Valley Indians in New Netherland, North America, who sought refuge from Mohawk attackers.
1779 The British surrender the Illinois country to George Rogers Clark at Vincennes.
1781 American General Nathaniel Greene crosses the Dan River on his way to attack Cornwallis.
1791 President George Washington sign a bill creating the Bank of the United States.
1804 Thomas Jefferson is nominated for president at the Democratic-Republican caucus.
1815 Napoleon leaves his exile on the island of Elba, returning to France.
1831 The Polish army halts the Russian advance into their country at the Battle of Grochow.
1836 Samuel Colt patents the first revolving cylinder multi-shot firearm.
1862 Confederate troops abandon Nashville, Tennessee, in the face of Grant's advance. The ironclad Monitor is commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
1865 General Joseph E. Johnston replaces John Bell Hood as Commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
1904 J.M. Synge's play Riders to the Sea opens in Dublin.
1910 The Dalai Lama flees from the Chinese and takes refuge in India.
1919 Oregon introduces the first state tax on gasoline at one cent per gallon, to be used for road construction.
1913 The 16th Amendment to the constitution is adopted, setting the legal basis for the income tax.
1926 Poland demands a permanent seat on the League of Nations council.
1928 Bell Labs introduces a new device to end the fluttering of the television image.
1943 U.S. troops retake the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, where they had been defeated five days before.
1944 U.S. forces destroy 135 Japanese planes in Marianas and Guam.
1952 French colonial forces evacuate Hoa Binh in Indochina.
1956 Stalin is secretly disavowed by Khrushchev at a party congress for promoting the "cult of the individual."
1961 John F. Kennedy names Henry Kissinger national security adviser.
1976 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may ban the hiring of illegal aliens.
(source:www.history.net)

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[Antony]

27 February 1682
First Earl of Shaftesbury freed from Tower of London (to Holland).

Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury, 1621-83, English statesman, born in Wimborne St Giles, Dorset, S England, UK. He studied at Oxford, became a member of the Short Parliament (1640). In the English civil war he supported the crown until 1644 but then joined the parliamentarians. He was made a member of the Commonwealth council of state and supported Oliver Cromwell until 1654, when he turned against the Protectorate because of his distrust of autocratic rule. He supported the Rump Parliament against John Lambert and then participated in the Restoration (1660) of Charles II. Made a privy councilor and Baron Ashley (1661), he assisted in the trial of the regicides but otherwise worked for a lenient settlement. The same year he became chancellor of the exchequer and gained royal favor by his support of religious toleration. Named one of the proprietors of Carolina, he took considerable interest in plans for the colony, commissioning his friend John Locke to draw up a constitution for it. He joined the opposition to the 1st earl of Clarendon and, when the latter fell (1667), became a member of the Cabal administration. Created earl of Shaftesbury, he became lord chancellor in 1672. Shaftesbury had not been party to the secret Treaty of Dover (1670), and he gradually became suspicious of the king's efforts to improve the position of Roman Catholics. Renouncing his earlier belief in toleration, he supported the Test Act (1673). He was dismissed from office in the same year. Out of favor at court and embittered by his imprisonment in 1677 for opposing the prorogation of Parliament, he made use of the Popish Plot (see Oates, Titus) to promote opposition to the earl of Danby and to encourage anti-Catholic feeling. Using the Green Ribbon Club as his headquarters, Shaftesbury built up a party organization, and his followers, soon to be designated Whig, dominated the three Parliaments of 1679 to 1681. On Danby's fall (1679) Shaftesbury became president of the privy council and began to press for the exclusion bill to keep the Roman Catholic James, duke of York (later James II), from the throne. He supported instead the claims of the duke of Monmouth. Again dismissed (1679), he continued the fight for exclusion until Charles dissolved the 1681 Parliament. Shaftesbury's position was now precarious, since his party was discredited and the king in complete control of the government. An indictment for treason failed, but he fled (1682) to Holland and soon died. Aided by his wealth and an exceptional mind, Shaftesbury has been called the most skillful politician of his day. He was bitterly satirized in John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.

(Source: GuruNet, The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia)

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[Antony]

leap day!
29 February 1940
Gone With the Wind won eight Academy Awards, including the first Oscar for an African American woman, Best Supporting Actress Hattie McDaniel.

Gone with the Wind (1936, novel): A phenomenally popular novel by the American author Margaret Mitchell. Set in Georgia in the period of the Civil War, it tells of the three marriages of the central character, Scarlett O'Hara, and of the devastation caused by the war.

The film version of Gone With the Wind, which premiered in 1939, is one of the most successful films ever made.


29 February 1692 - Salem witch trials began

Trials held in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 that led to the execution of twenty people for allegedly practicing witchcraft. The trials are noted for the hysterical atmosphere in which they were conducted; many townspeople were widely suspected of witchcraft on flimsy evidence.

When people are quick to accuse one another of serious misdeeds on inadequate evidence, the situation is often compared to the Salem witch trials.

(source: GuruNet, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy)
Edit
Edward sent me this Salem Massachusetts Witch Trials link, a nice short introduction about the Salem witch trials.

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