# Today in History **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530 "2016-07-10T04:53:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 90
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1785 "2020-08-04T15:17:06Z")
**August 4, 2010: Idle Thoughts** began the Baker’s Dozen thread here on the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Bicycle\_Bill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bicycle_bill/32/6208_2.png) [@Bicycle\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bicycle_Bill)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1786 "2020-08-07T04:26:41Z")
August 6, 1926 : American gold-medalist swimmer Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel from Cap Griz-Nez, France to Dover, England. Her time of 14 hours and 39 minutes broke the previous record of 21 hours and 45 minutes, set by British Navy Captain Matthew Webb in 1875. Due to the extreme cold water she had covered her body in lard and petroleum jelly to insulate her from the cold waters of the Channel. _ **-“BB”-** _ ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1787 "2020-08-28T05:30:37Z")
> **[First-ever tornado photograph was taken 135 years ago](https://www.inforum.com/weather/first-ever-tornado-photograph-was-taken-135-years-ago)** > > When an EF-4 tornado ravaged Northwood, N.D., 12 years ago this week, the event was recorded not only by the media, but by hundreds of people snapping photos on their own. August 28, 1880: Oldest known photograph of a tornado is taken. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1788 "2020-08-30T17:40:54Z")
> **[Aug. 30, 1956 | White Mobs Block School Integration in Mansfield, Texas](https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/aug/30)** > > Learn more about our history of racial injustice. August 30, 1956: A white mob prevents school integration in Mansfield, Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1789 "2020-08-31T13:59:32Z")
**Aug. 31, 1740:** J.F. Oberlin, namesake of Oberlin College, was born. > **[J. F. Oberlin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._F._Oberlin)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > J. F. Oberlin (31 August 1740 – 1 June 1826) was an Alsatian pastor and a philanthropist. He has been known as John Frederic(k) Oberlin in English, Jean-Frédéric Oberlin in French, and Johann Friedrich Oberlin in German. > Oberlin was born the son of Johann Georg Oberlin (1701–1770), a teacher, and Maria Magdalena (1718–1787), daughter of lawyer Johann Heinrich Feltz, on 31 August 1740 in the German-speaking city of Strasbourg, where he studied the... ---
**Author:** ![Bicycle\_Bill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bicycle_bill/32/6208_2.png) [@Bicycle\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bicycle_Bill)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1790 "2020-09-03T04:54:25Z")
Almost missed it! Seventy-five years ago, on Sept 2, 1945, representatives of Japan came onboard the _USS Missouri_ anchored in Tokyo Bay and signed the surrender instruments that effectively ended the Second World War. General Douglas MacArthur, US Army, accepted the surrender on behalf of the Allied forces. _ **-“BB”-** _ ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1791 "2020-09-03T05:53:17Z")
September 3, 1878: The passenger ship Princess Alice collides with another ship on the Thames. 700+ die > **[Sinking of The Princess Alice, River Thames History](https://www.eastlondonhistory.co.uk/sinking-princess-alice/)** > > In September 1878 the Princess Alice, a pleasure steamer sank on the River Thames at North Woolwich East London. Over 700 people died in the foul Thames. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1792 "2020-09-03T13:48:26Z")
Bad enough to have your pleasure liner rammed by another ship, but then to be plunged into a sewage-laden river… blecccchh. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1793 "2020-10-16T21:12:30Z")
John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry (also spelled Harper’s Ferry) was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16 to 18, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2020, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1794 "2020-10-19T16:04:46Z")
On this day in 1781, Lord Cornwallis’s besieged British army at Yorktown surrendered to a combined American and French force led by Gen. George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau. It was the last major land battle of the American Revolution. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1795 "2020-10-27T15:16:36Z")
October 27, 1962: Russian submarine officer Vasily Arkhipov refuses to agree to fire nuclear weapons at a US flotilla of ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Three officers had to agree to firing the weapons, and he was the only one that refused. His actions most certainly prevented large-scale nuclear war. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. has called this “the most dangerous moment in human history.” > **[Vasily Arkhipov](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov_(vice_admiral))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov (Russian: Василий Александрович Архипов, IPA: \[vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ arˈxʲipəf\], 30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998) was a Soviet Naval officer who prevented a Soviet nuclear torpedo launch during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Such an attack likely would have caused a major global thermonuclear response, destroying large parts of the Northern Hemisphere. > As flotilla Commodore as well as executive officer of the ... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1796 "2020-11-04T19:15:40Z")
It’s the birthday (some years apart) of two notable Americans named William. > **[William B. Cushing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Cushing)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > William Barker Cushing (4 November 1842 – 17 December 1874) was an officer in the United States Navy, best known for sinking the CSS Albemarle during a daring nighttime raid on 27 October 1864, for which he received the Thanks of Congress. Cushing was the younger brother of Medal of Honor recipient Alonzo Cushing. As a result, the Cushing family is the only family in American history to have a member buried at more than one of the United States ... > **[Will Rogers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Rogers)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma), and is known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son". As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndic... ---
**Author:** ![Bicycle\_Bill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bicycle_bill/32/6208_2.png) [@Bicycle\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bicycle_Bill)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1797 "2020-11-10T21:52:47Z")
**November 10, 1975** _The legend lives on, from the Chippewa on down,_ _Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee._ _The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead_ _When the skies of November turn gloomy._ Forty-five years ago tonight _…when his lights went outta sight,_ _Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald…_ Incidentally, the dock from which she loaded her final cargo still stands just south of Superior, WI. _ **-“BB”-** _ ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1798 "2020-11-11T16:04:14Z")
11:00 A.M. 11/11/11918 At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1799 "2020-11-12T15:23:42Z")
**BB** , _National Geographic_ had an article a few years back with underwater photographs of the _Edmund Fitzgerald_’s wreck. I was amazed to see that several of the lightbulbs on her superstructure were still intact. **November 12, 1866** The still-revered Chinese political leader and philosopher Sun Yat-sen was born in Cuiheng. ---
**Author:** ![Bicycle\_Bill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bicycle_bill/32/6208_2.png) [@Bicycle\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bicycle_Bill)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1800 "2020-11-13T02:10:30Z")
Also on the 12th of November — On this date in 1970, [officials in Oregon tried to dispose of the 45-foot-long, eight-ton carcass of a dead, beached sperm whale with roughly one half-ton of explosives.](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/625499/florence-oregon-exploding-whale-1970) Let’s just say things didn’t go as planned, OK? _ **-“BB”-** _ ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2020, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1801 "2020-11-14T17:38:17Z")
November 14, 1840: Claude Monet is born. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2020, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1802 "2020-11-14T21:17:29Z")
**November 14, 1948:** HRH the Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, was born. 72 years is a long time to wait to become king. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1803 "2020-11-17T07:45:27Z")
November 17, 1796: Catherine the Great dies. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2020, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1804 "2020-11-22T06:32:17Z")
Today is the centennial of the birth of Stan Musial. He never played for the Yankees, so you probably never heard of him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=89) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=91)