The Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences was created on this date in 1927, with no idea of the puns that might arise from the films it recognized as special. In 1959 the 1st annual Grammy Awards were presented. And in 1953 Ernest Hemingway won a Pulitzer Prize for his short story The Old Man and the Sea.
Religious control was evidenced on this date. Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jon Hus were condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance in 1415. The ruling against Wycliffe was posthumous action. The ruling against Hus led him to be burned at the stake. Both see the stage for the Protestant Reformation led principally by Martin Luther. In 1493 Pope Alexander VI divided the world between Spain and Portugal -the leading explorers of the day – along an arbitrary Line of Demarcation. The English, French, Dutch, and other nations would later contest this artificial division.
The National Association – the first major baseball league, opened its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1871. The US began the construction of the Panama Canal in 1904 and the Royal Canadian Navy was created in 1920.
And on this date in 1970 students protesting the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia were confronted by Ohio National Guard troops on the campus of Kent State University and four students, none of which were near the National Guard line, were killed.
This was the birthday of Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Christofori (1655, invented the piano); American educator, politician, and abolitionist Horace Mann (1796); Belgian- British actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn (1929); physician and medical thriller author Robin Cook (1940); and American conservative journalist George Will (1941).
Moe Howard of the Three Stooges stopped tormenting Curly and Larry in 1975. Josip Broz Tito lost his grip on Yugoslavia in 1980. Comedian, actor, director, and producer Dom DeLuise ceased to create new laughs for us in 2009. And successful Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula quit diagramming plays on the sidelines in 2020.
This is UN Anti-Bullying Day, US Bird Day, World Give Day, and of course Star Wars Day. May the Fourth (force) be with you.
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