On this date in history two revolutions failed and one got a boost. In 73 AD the Jewish revolt against their Roman occupiers came to an end with the fall of Masada, the mountainous Jewish fortress, after several months of siege. In 1745 the Scottish rising of ’45 against the English invaders came to a sudden end on the bloody fields of Culloden. And in 1917 Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd, Russia, after exile in Switzerland, which would lead months later in the Bolshevik Revolution which would change Russia forever. Interestingly American businessman Bernard Baruch would first apply the term Cold War, to define the relationship between the US and Russia, on this date in 1947.
In 1818 the Rush-Bagot Treaty was ratified by the US Senate, limiting naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain and contributing to one of the longest non-militarized boundaries in the world, between the US and Canada. In 1853 the Great Indian Peninsula Railway opens the first passenger rail service in India. And in 1963 Martin Luther King Jr pens his “Letter from the Birmigham Jail” while in prison for protesting racial segregation.
Those entering our world on this date in history include American aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright (1867), award winning actor and producer Charlie Chaplin (1889), American composer Henry Mancini (1924) , future recent Pope Benedict XVI (1927), and the Skyhook maker himself, basketball legend Kareem Abul-Jabbar (1947).
French astronomer Jacques Cassini took his last look at the stars in 1756. Spanish-French painter and illustrator Francisco Goya, laid down his brush in 1828. The historical ended for Alexis de Tocqueville in 1859 and David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago) left his director’s chair in 1991. and American author and civil rights advocate Ralph Ellison(The Invisible Man) faded from view in 1994.
Today is also World Voice Day, so make sure to use yours for good.
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