#tidbits

09 July 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1811 – The explorer David Thompson posts a sign at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rivers (in modern Washington state, US), claiming the land for the United Kingdom.

06 July 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1699 - Pirate Captain William Kidd is captured in Boston. 1785 – The dollar was unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States. 1858 - Lyman Blake patents

05 July 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1054 - The brightest supernova ever recorded (Crab Nebula) was first reported. 1643 - The first recorded tornado in the future US (Essex County, Massachusetts). 1687 -

03 July 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1767 – Pitcairn Island was discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret. The island is inhabited by the descendants

01 July 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1770 – Lexell's Comet, discovered by astronomer Charles Messier, passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history. On July 1, 1770, the comet passed

30 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope, 1,100 ft / 340 m long and 160 ft / 49 m above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow

29 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 512 - A solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland. 1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, England burns to the ground. 1888 – George Edward Gouraud recorded

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

27 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1743 - During the Battle of Dettingen in Bavaria, King George II of Britain personally leads troops into battle. The last time a British monarch would command troops in

26 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1498 - The Toothbrush was invented. Before this date people used twigs with smashed ends, sections of wool cloth, wine with salt in it, or similar stuff 1740 – A combined

25 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1630 - The fork was introduced to American dining by Gov Winthrop. 1638 - A lunar eclipse is the first astronomical event recorded in the American Colonies. 1678 – Venetian

24 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1374 - A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably

23 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1565 – Turgut Reis (Dragut), commander of the Ottoman navy, dies during the Siege of Malta. 1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son

21 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1633 - Galileo Galilei is forced by the Inquisition to "abjure, curse, & detest" his Copernican heliocentric views. 1834 - Cyrus Hall McCormick patents the

20 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta. The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small dungeon in Fort William at Calcutta, India, where troops

19 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1586 – English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in North America. Tidbits has posted about the Roanoke

18 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1178 – Five monks from Canterbury reported to the abbey's chronicler, Gervase, that shortly after sunset on June 18, 1178, they saw "the upper horn of the moon split

17 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1462 – Vlad III attempted to assassinate Ottoman sultan Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia. Vlad III, also known as Dracula (the little

16 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 1816 – Lord Byron reads Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests at the Villa Diodati, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori, and challenges

15 June 2017 Interesting tidbits: 763 BC – Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history. 1648 – Margaret Jones was the first person to be executed for