28 June 2017
Interesting tidbits:
This date is the only date each year where both the month and day are different perfect numbers, June 6 being the only date where the month and day are the same perfect number.
1762 - The first reported counterfeiting attempt in the future US took place in Boston.
1820 - The tomato is proven to be non-poisonous. Despite its long history of use in the New World, Europeans believed that as a member of the nightshade family the tomato must be poisonous.
1838 – Coronation of Queen Victoria. Her coronation was held at Westminster Abbey on 28 June 1838, a year after she became queen. The coronation was a huge occasion and four hundred thousand visitors went to London to see the new Queen being crowned. The ceremony cost £79,000. Her predecessor William IV's coronation had established much of what remains today of the pageantry of the event, which had previously involved ceremonies in Westminster Hall before a procession on foot across the road to the Abbey. This form was replaced with a procession through the streets with the new monarch in the Gold State Coach or Coronation Coach, dating to 1762 and still used in coronations, with many other coaches and a cavalry escort. The procession by coach of 1831 was again adopted in 1838, and has been followed in all subsequent coronations. The road route was extended to allow for more spectators, taking a nearly circular route from the Queen's new home at the just-completed Buckingham Palace via Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly, St James's Street, Pall Mall, Charing Cross and Whitehall. The budget stressed the procession and there was no coronation banquet. It was the longest coronation procession since that of Charles II in 1660. The weather was fine and the day was generally considered a great success by the press and wider public, though those inside the Abbey witnessed a good deal of mishaps and confusion, and there was Radical opposition, especially in northern England. According to Sir Roy Strong, "the ceremony of 1838 was the last of the botched coronations", before Victorian historians put together a form more typical of the medieval coronations, which has been used since that of Edward VII in 1902.
1841 – The Paris Opera Ballet premieres Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier.
1846 - The saxophone was patented by Antoine Joseph Sax.
1865 – The Army of the Potomac is disbanded.
1894 – Labor Day becomes an official US holiday.
1895 – Court of Private Land Claims rules James Reavis' claim to Barony of Arizona is "wholly fictitious and fraudulent." Reavis, or Peralta-Reavis as he called himself for a time, is best remembered in association with the Peralta land grant, also known as the Barony of Arizona, a pair of fraudulent land claims that if certified would have granted him ownership over 18,600 square miles / 48,200 km2 of land in central Arizona Territory and western New Mexico Territory. During the course of the fraud, Reavis collected an estimated $5.3 million in cash and promissory notes ($146 million in present-day terms) through the sale of quitclaims and proposed investment plans. Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase, the United States was required to recognize and honor existing land grants made by either the Spanish or Mexican governments. Reavis utilized this provision by manufacturing a fictional claim and then generating a collection of documents demonstrating how the claim came into his possession. The documents were then covertly inserted into various records archives. In his initial claim, Reavis claimed title to the grant via a series of conveyances. When serious challenges to this claim developed, Reavis developed a second claim by marrying the purported last surviving lineal descendant of the original claim recipient. During the course of his deception, Reavis managed to convince a number of prominent persons to support his efforts. Business leaders such as Charles Crocker and John W. Mackay in turn provided financial support. Initial exposure of the fraud occurred when an unfavorable Surveyor General report caused the claim to be summarily dismissed. In response to this action, Reavis sued the U.S. government for $11 million in damages ($304 million in present-day terms). The suit in turn prompted the US government to perform a detailed investigation that fully exposed the forgeries.
1914 – Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife are assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, the casus belli of World War I.
Today's birthday crew:
1712 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and polymath.
1824 – Paul Broca, French physician, surgeon, anatomist, and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that has been named after him. Broca’s Area is responsible for articulated language. His work revealed that the brains of patients suffering from aphasia contained lesions in the left frontal region of the cortex. This was the first anatomical proof of the localization of brain function. Broca's work also contributed to the development of physical anthropology, advancing the science of anthropometry. The discovery of Broca's area revolutionized the understanding of language processing, speech production, and comprehension, as well as what effects damage to this area may cause. Broca played a major role in the localization of function debate, by resolving the issue scientifically.
1902 – Richard Rodgers, American composer.
1912 – Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher (Star and planet formation).
1922 – Michael Vale, American actor (Time to make the doughnuts).
1926 – Mel Brooks, American actor, director, producer, and writer.
1932 – Pat Morita, American actor (Mr Miyagi).
1935 – John Inman, English actor (Mr Humphries).
1943 – Donald Johanson, American paleontologist (Lucy).
1951 – Lalla Ward, English actress and the second actress to play the Time Lady Romana (Romanadvoratrelundar) in Doctor Who. After a guest appearance as Princess Astra in the Doctor Who story The Armageddon Factor in 1979, Ward was chosen to replace Mary Tamm, who had decided against continuing in the role. She appeared in all of Season 17's stories and then her character was written out in the third to last story of Season 18 in the story entitled Warriors' Gate.
1954 – Alice Krige, South African actress who played the role of the Borg Queen in the motion picture Star Trek: First Contact and reprised the role for the final episode of the television series Star Trek: Voyager. A year after the series ended, she reprised the role in "Borg Invasion 4-D" at Star Trek: The Experience.
1955 – Steven M. Greer, American medical doctor and ufologist who founded the Centre for the Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence in 1990 to create a diplomatic and research-based initiative to contact extraterrestrial civilizations. In 1993 Greer founded The Disclosure Project, a nonprofit research project, whose goal is to disclose to the public the government’s alleged knowledge of UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and advanced energy and propulsion systems. The Disclosure Project was allegedly founded in an effort to grant amnesty to government whistle-blowers willing to violate their security oaths by sharing insider knowledge about UFOs. In 2013 the documentary Sirius was produced, inspired by Greer's work. It prominently features images of the Atacama humanoid, a 6 inch / 150 mm long humanoid shaped object, which Greer alleges is a deceased lifeform found in the Atacama desert in Chile.
1965 – Sonny Strait, American voice actor at Funimation Entertainment/OkraTron 5000 who provided voices for a number of English versions of Japanese anime series, as well as video games. Besides his voice acting career, Strait has also penciled several comic strips as well as two stories for the Elfquest series. Strait was formerly under contract to publish a manga titled We Shadows with Tokyopop. The first volume debuted in August 2007 and was nominated shortly after for YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens list in 2008. His most recent work is an online comic, Car Bombs. He and his wife also sing in a cover band called White Girl. He was also the original voice of TOM on Cartoon Network's Toonami.
1979 – Felicia Day, American actress, singer, and writer who played the character "Vi" on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also acted in the Internet musical, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and currently has a recurring role as Charlie on Supernatural. She is the star, writer, and producer of the original web series The Guild, a show loosely based on her life as a gamer, She wrote and starred in the Dragon Age web series Dragon Age: Redemption, and appears regularly on Geek & Sundry. Day was a member of the board of directors of the International Academy of Web Television beginning December 2009 until the end of July 2012.
Happy birthday guys!