I haven’t heard recently from our friend, Pattern Puzzler, and I hope she is doing well. In the meantime …

1498 Christopher Columbus lands on “Isla Santa” (Venezuela)

1714 Monarch Georg Ludwig becomes King George I of England. The Germans have ruled Britain ever since.

1781 British army under general Cornwallis occupies Yorktown, Virginia

1789 US Customs begins enforcing Tariff Act (how soon it began)

1794 Whiskey Rebellion begins in western Pennsylvania

1834 Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire – Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect

1855 Castle Clinton in NYC opens as 1st US receiving station for immigrants

1863 Battle of Little Rock, Arkansas; start of Chattanooga campaign

1863 Cavalry action near Brandy Station-End of Gettysburg Campaign

1869 1st voyage down Colorado River

1881 US Quarantine Station authorized for Angel Island, SF Bay

1893 Henry Perky & William Ford patent shredded wheat

1907 The start of the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island, the origin of the worldwide Scouting movement.

1907 U.S. Army Signal Corps establish a small Aeronautical Division

1914 France & Germany mobilize their troops at outbreak of WWI

1933 Death penalty for anti-fascists in Germany

1936 Adolf Hitler opens 11th Olympic Games in Berlin

1941 The first Jeep is produced.

1944 Anne Frank’s last diary entry; 3 days later she is arrested

1944 General Montgomery takes command of 12th & 21st army

1944 US 90th division occupies St Hilaire-du-Harcouet

1944 US troops enter Tessy-sur-Vir

1944 Uprising in Warsaw by the Polish resistance Home Army begins

1945 Japanese city Toyama destroyed by B-29’s

1946 US President Harry Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)

1953 California introduces sales tax (for education)

1953 Fidel Castro arrested in Cuba

1957 US & Canada create North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)

1958 US atomic submarine USS Nautilus begins 1st transit of North Pole “operation Sunshine”

1959 Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical Sacerdotii nostri primordia

1960 Chubby Checker releases “The Twist”

1964 Beatles’ single “A Hard Day’s Night” goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks

1968 Canada begins replacing silver with nickel in coins

1969 Mariner 6 sends close-up photos of Mars

1972 1st article exposing Watergate scandal (Bernstein-Woodward)

1976 Flash flood in Big Thompson Canyon Colo on Route 34, kills 139

1981 MTV premieres at 12:01 AM

1988 Rush Limbaugh begins his national radio show.

2000 First patient to receive the Jarvik 2000, the first total artificial heart that can maintain blood flow in addition to generating a pulse

2007 The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses during the evening rush hour.