1635 – Religious dissident Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court of Massachusetts. Williams had spoken out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Indian land.
After leaving Massachusetts, Williams, with the assistance of the Narragansett tribe, established a settlement at the junction of two rivers near Narragansett Bay, located in present-day Rhode Island. He declared the settlement open to all those seeking freedom of conscience and the removal of the church from civil matters, and many dissatisfied Puritans came. Taking the success of the venture as a sign from God, Williams named the community “Providence.”
1701 – “An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School,” was passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut in an effort to create an institution to train ministers and lay leadership for Connecticut.
Originally known as the “Collegiate School,” the institution moved from Old Saybrook to New Haven in 1718 and its name was changed to Yale College (and later, Yale University).
It is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States.
1888 – The Washington Monument was officially opened to the public. Its height of 555 feet, 5-1/8 inches made it – at the time – the tallest building in the world.
1940 – During the Battle of Britain, the German Luftwaffe launched a heavy nighttime air raid on London. The dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral was pierced by a Nazi bomb, leaving the high altar in ruin.
1953 – Topper premiered on CBS. In the show – based on the 1937 film of the same name – Marion and George Kerby had died along with their dog Neil (a St. Bernard) in an avalanche while on a skiing vacation. The three characters returned to their home – now occupied by Cosmo Topper.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco’s Camel cigarettes was the show’s sponsor; the Kerbys were seen smoking in every episode, as required by Reynolds; the actors also appeared in integrated commercials promoting the product at the end of the show, as well as announcing where free cartons of Camels were being sent to various military bases and veterans hospitals each week.
1963 – A landslide in Italy caused the deaths of more than 2,000 people when a sudden and massive wave of water overwhelmed the Diga del Vajont dam in the Vaiont Gorge built to supply hydroelectric power to Northern Italy.
1974 – German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust, died at the age of 66.
A member of the Nazi Party, he ran an enamel-works factory in Krakow during the German occupation of Poland, employing workers from the nearby Jewish ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated, he persuaded Nazi officials to allow the transfer of his workers to the Plaszow labor camp, thus saving them from deportation to the death camps. In 1944, all Jews at Plaszow were sent to Auschwitz, but Schindler, at great risk to himself, bribed officials into allowing him to keep his workers and set up a factory in a safer location in occupied Czechoslovakia. By the war’s end, he was penniless, but he had saved 1,200 Jews.
His story was the subject of a 1993 film, Schindler’s List , which won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director to Steven Spielberg). The fact that Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes – nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively – failed to win still baffles me, and Ben Kingsley failing to even get an acting nomination was positively stunning.
While the film was shot primarily in black and white, a red coat was used to distinguish a little girl in the scene depicting the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto. Spielberg said the scene was intended to symbolize how members of the highest levels of government in the United States knew the Holocaust was occurring, yet did nothing to stop it.
“It was as obvious as a little girl wearing a red coat, walking down the street, and yet nothing was done to bomb the German rail lines. Nothing was being done to slow down … the annihilation of European Jewry.”
1985 – Strawberry Fields, a 2.5-acre landscaped section in New York City’s Central Park, was dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. The land had been donated by the city of New York and the landscaping was completed through a $1 million donation from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono.
The iconic black and white Imagine mosaic, designed by a team of artists from the Italian city of Naples, lies in the center of Strawberry Fields. Named after Lennon’s peace anthem, Imagine evokes a vision and hope for a world without strife, war and conflict. Additionally, there is a bronze plaque that lists the more than 120 countries that planted flowers and donated money for the maintenance of the area; they have also endorsed Strawberry Fields as a Garden of Peace.
1986 – U.S. District Judge Harry E Claiborne – convicted of bribery, fraud, and tax evasion, making him the first federal judge ever convicted of crimes while on the bench – was removed from office through impeachment by the U.S. Congress making him the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment.
It probably made sense. He was in prison at the time.
1994 – Fred Lebow, founder of the New York City Marathon, died of brain cancer at the age of 62.
1997 – After 36 seasons, Dean Smith announced his retirement as basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. Smith left with a record of 879-255, including two national championships and 13 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament titles.
2002 – Aileen Carol Wuornos, a convicted serial killer (she killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990) was executed by the State of Florida by lethal injection.
2005 – Louis Nye (comedian and actor best known for his man on the street skits on The Steve Allen Show) died of lung cancer at the age of 92.
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