Hello Europe, this is what happened today: 1529 Ottoman armies under Suleiman end their siege of Vienna and head back to Belgrade. 1582 The Gregorian (or New World) calendar is adopted in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal; and the preceding ten days are lost to history. 1783 Francois Pilatre de Rozier makes the first manned flight in a hot air balloon. The first flight was let out to 82 feet, but over the next few days the altitude increased up to 6,500 feet. 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, is arrested for betraying military secrets to Germany. 1924 German ZR-3 flies 5000 miles, the furthest Zeppelin flight to date. 1941 Odessa, a Russian port on the Black Sea which has been surrounded by German troops for several weeks, is evacuated by Russian troops. 1945 Vichy French Premier Pierre Laval is executed by a firing squad for his wartime collaboration with the Germans. 1964 Nikita Khrushchev is replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as leader of the Soviet Union. 1987 The Great Storm of 1987 strikes the UK and Europe during the night of Oct 15-16, killing over 20 people and causing widespread damage. 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the USSR, receives Nobel Peace Prize for his work in making his country more open and reducing Cold War tensions. 1997 Andy Green of the UK becomes the first person to break the sound barrier in the Earths atmosphere, driving the ThrustSSC supersonic car to a record 763 mph (1,228 km/h). Today is also the birthday of: 70 BC Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), Roman poet. 1830 Helen Hunt Jackson, writer and poet. 1844 Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher and writer. 1910 Torbjorn Oskar Caspersson, Swedish cytologist and geneticist. 1923 Italo Calvino, Italian novelist. 1944 William David Trimble, Baron Trimble; British politician who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland (1998–2002); shared 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement. 1954 Princess Friederike of Hanover. 2005 Prince Christian of Denmark, Count of Monpezat.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 11:00:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015