On This Day in History II

1944 - Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg - tries to execute Adolph Hitler by attempting to blow off his legs. fails

September 7

1870
US woman Louisa Ann Swain stepped out for a tin of yeast from her local grocer on September 6, 1870, but she ended up making history.

Swain, then a grandmother aged 69, was living in Laramie, Wyoming, which had recently passed a law allowing women to vote and hold public office. Swain's route to the shops took her past a local polling place, which was not open, but staff encouraged her to come inside anyway. Thus did Swain become the first woman in the US to legally cast a vote in a general election. September 6 was named Louisa Swain Day in the US in 2008.

1936
The last surviving thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, dies alone in its enclosure at Hobart Zoo on September 7, 1936. Zookeepers had no idea they had the last thylacine on Earth until they set out to replace it.

The Tasmanian government had announced a bounty on thylacines up until 1909, with hunters and farmers eagerly killing them. The marsupial was only proclaimed a protected species 59 days before the death of the last one.

1940
Germans Begin the Blitz over London.

1977
Treaty giving the Panama Canal to Panama is Signed. The Torrijos–Carter Treaties were two treaties signed between the heads of state of the US and Panama. The treaties gave control of the canal that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean to Panama. The canal was constructed by, and had been in the control of, the United States since 1904.

1978
Georgi Markov is murdered. The Bulgarian writer and dissenter had left Bulgaria in 1969 and was working at BBC in London during the time of his murder. His murder, which is popularly known as the Umbrella Murder took place while he was crossing the Waterloo Bridge in London. The assassin, nicknamed Piccadilly, used a modified umbrella to shot a pellet full of ricin in Markov’s leg. Markov died 4 days later, on September 11 of ricin poisoning.

1977 Panama canal ...jimmy freakin' carter.

September 8

2022
Queen Elizabeth ll passed away at the age of 96.

October 2

US President Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke on October 2, 1919, a year and a half before his term in office ended.

Bedridden and partially paralysed, his wife Edith and his doctors decided to keep his condition secret from the public.

For the remaining years of his presidency, she read all his correspondence and decided who could speak to him.

"The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband," she later said.

But her role was much more involved than filtering mail and setting meetings.

She successfully ousted the Secretary of State, and refused to allow the British ambassador to present his credentials unless he fired an aide who made a snide remark about her.

Edith Wilson was later described as the "first female president".

1977
Treaty giving the Panama Canal to Panama is Signed. The Torrijos–Carter Treaties were two treaties signed between the heads of state of the US and Panama. The treaties gave control of the canal that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean to Panama. The canal was constructed by, and had been in the control of, the United States since 1904.

I first traversed the Canal in 72. The concrete glistened the operators wore khaki uniforms. The donkey engines were all maintained and looked new. Again in 06. What a change!! The place looked like a 3rd world enterprise. Granted the Chinese were building a new canal, but even so.........

1950 Sept30 - Oct18. Battle of RC4. results allowed Giap uncontestd access to china.

I miss this daily thread , its a hassle keeping it going but maybe we could do it weekly ?

1537 - 1st Matthew Bible is printed.

January 29

The Rubik's cube makes its international debut at a toy fair in London on January 29, 1980.

The toy was the brainchild of Hungarian sculptor and architect Erno Rubik.

Rubik was trying to solve a structural problem of how to move parts of a cube around without it falling to pieces.

He only realised he had created a puzzle when he couldn't get it back the way it was.

In three years, 200 million Rubik's Cubes had been bought.