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On this day…in 1886
On this day, 9th January 1868, the last convict ship to transport prisoners to Australia (the Hougoumont) arrived at Fremantle, Western Australia.
The prisoners would have been excited but...
On this day…in 1987
In 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its first group of inductees: Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, James...
On this day…in 1895
On this day in 1895, the world's first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris.
The film was made by ...
On this day…in 1900
On this day in 1900, the first car to be produced under the "Mercedes" name is delivered to its buyer: Emil Jellinek, the Austrian...
On this day…in 1718
Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard the Pirate, was killed on this day off North Carolina during a bloody battle with the British Navy.
Blackbeard, from England,...
On this day…in 1799
American Astronomer, Andrew Elliott Douglass, witnesses the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys.
Douglass wrote in his journal that the '...
On this day…in 1980
On this day in 1980, the actor Steve McQueen, one of Hollywood’s leading men of the 1960's and 1970's and the star of such...
On this day…in 1960
On this day in 1960, a landmark obscenity case over Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence, ends in the acquittal of Penguin Books.
The publisher...
On this day…in 42BC
Marcus Junius Brutus, a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar, commits suicide after his defeat at the second battle of Philippi.
Two years...
On this day…in 1883
The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau (also called Krakatoa), a small, uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in...
On this day…in 2005
On the morning of July 7, 2005, bombs are detonated in three crowded London Underground stations and one bus during the peak of the...
On the 20th of June…
1627 – Ottoman pirates begin raids on Icelandic villages, eventually capturing over 400 people to sell to slavery.
1756 – Black Hole of Calcutta: 146...