Category: Today In History

Today in History October 30 Orson Welles 758 – Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates. 1831 – Nat Turner is arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United States history. 1925 – John Logie Baird creates Britain’s first television transmitter. 1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells’s…

Today in History October 29 Sandy arrives on West Street                         photo: Alison Simko 539 BC –Cyrus the Great (founder of Persian Empire) entered the capital of Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their land. 312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome…

Today in History October 28 Elvis receiving the polio vaccine on national TV 312 – Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman emperor in the West. 969 – The Byzantine Empire recovers Antioch from Arab rule. 1492 – Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World. 1726 – The…

Today in History October 22 The derailment occurred at 4pm on October 22, 1895 when the Granville – Paris Express overran the buffer stop at its Gare Montparnasse terminus. Click here to hear how it happened 794 – Emperor Kanmu relocates the Japanese capital to Heian-kyō (now Kyoto). 1707 – Four British naval vessels run…

Today in History October 21 Jack Kerouac 1097 – First Crusade: Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, begin the Siege of Antioch. 1520 – Ferdinand Magellan discovers a strait now known as Strait of Magellan. 1600 – Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans…

Today in History October 18 A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Charles Babbage is best remembered for originating the concept of a programmable computer. 320 – Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest). 1009 – The Church of the Holy Sepulchre,…