The US expanded a little bit today – during the Spanish-American War, the US captured the Spanish possession of Guam, without the island defenders firing back. The garrison didn’t know there was a war going on so they thought the warning shots from the US ships were welcoming salutes. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice debuted their musical Evita in 1978 in London. And in 2004 SpaceShipOne became the first commercially funded (Paul Allen and others) spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
Birthdays on this date include: American colonial minister and author Increase Mather (1639), 6th US VP Daniel T Thompkins (1714, , under James Monroe), co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America Daniel Carter Beard (1850), British novelist and screenwriter Ian McEwan (1948) and Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto (1953).
Italian historian and author Niccolo Machiavelli wrote his last words in 1527. Mexican general and often times ruler of Mexico Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana breathed his last in 1876. California governor, senator, and founder of a standout university named for his son, Leland Stanford passed on in 1893. And legendary Russian pianist and composer Nikolai Rimsy-Korsikov played his last note in 1908.
This day is Go Skateboarding Day and World Humanism Day – make of that mix what you will.
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