Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.
Find the past “On This Day in History” here.
September 7 is the 250th day of the year (251st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 115 days remaining until the end of the year.
On this day in 1813, the United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam.
The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. Wilson (1766-1854) stamped the barrels with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as “Uncle Sam’s.” The local newspaper picked up on the story and Uncle Sam eventually gained widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S. federal government.
In the late 1860s and 1870s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902) began popularizing the image of Uncle Sam. Nast continued to evolve the image, eventually giving Sam the white beard and stars-and-stripes suit that are associated with the character today.
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On this day in 1813, the United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam. The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. Wilson (1766-1854) stamped the barrels with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as “Uncle Sam’s.” The local newspaper picked up on the story and Uncle Sam eventually gained widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S. federal government.
In the late 1860s and 1870s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902) began popularizing the image of Uncle Sam. Nast continued to evolve the image, eventually giving Sam the white beard and stars-and-stripes suit that are associated with the character today.
70 – A Roman army under Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem.
1191 – Third Crusade: Battle of Arsuf – Richard I of England defeats Saladin at Arsuf.
1652 – Around 15,000 Han farmers and militia rebells against Dutch rule on Taiwan.
1776 – World’s first submarine attack: the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Borodino – Napoleon defeats the Russian army of Alexander I near the village of Borodino.
1818 – Carl III of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.
1821 – The Republic of Gran Colombia (a federation covering much of present day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) is established, with Simon Bolivar as the founding President and Francisco de Paula Santander as vice president.
1822 – Dom Pedro I declares Brazil independent from Portugal on the shores of the Ipiranga creek in Sao Paulo.
1860 – Steamship Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 400 lives.
1864 – American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia, is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
1876 – In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town’s bank but are driven off by armed citizens.
1901 – The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.
1907 – Cunard Line’s RMS Lusitania sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
1909 – Eugene Lefebvre (1878-1909), while test piloting a new French-built Wright biplane, crashes at Juvisy France when his controls jam. Lefebvre dies, becoming the first ‘pilot’ in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.
1911 – French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum.
1916 – Federal employees win the right to Workers’ compensation by(Federal Employers Liability Act (39 Stat. 742; 5 U.S.C. 751)
1921 – In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant, a two-day event, is held.
1927 – The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Taylor Farnsworth.
1936 – The last surviving member of the thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in her cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
1940 – World War II: The Blitz – Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London. This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.
1942 – Holocaust: 8,700 Jews of Kolomyia (western Ukraine) sent by German Gestapo to death camp in Belzec.
1942 – First flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.
1943 – World War II: The German 17th Army begins its evacuation of the Kuban River bridgehead (Taman Peninsula) in southern Russia and moves across the Strait of Kerch to the Crimea.
1945 – Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December of 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1963 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
1965 – China announces that it will reinforce its troops on the Indian border.
1965 – Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August’s Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula.
1970 – An anti-war rally is held at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
1970 – Fighting between Arab guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.
1970 – Bill Shoemaker sets record for most lifetime wins as a jockey (passing Johnny Longden).
1977 – The Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
1978 – While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from in a specially-designed umbrella.
1978 – British Prime Minister James Callaghan announces that he will not call a general election for October, considered to be a major political blunder (see Winter of Discontent, United Kingdom general election, 1979)
1979 – The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, better known as ESPN, makes its debut.
1979 – The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for USD $1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
1986 – Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.
1986 – Gen. Augusto Pinochet, president of Chile, escapes attempted assassination.
1988 – Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after 9 days on the Mir space station.
1996 – American Hip-Hop star Tupac Shakur is fatally shot four times on the Las Vegas strip after leaving the Tyson-Seldon boxing match. Doctors removed a failing lung and Tupac showed signs of progress in his recovery before passing away six days later due to hemorrhaging that the doctors were unable to stop.
1999 – A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocks Athens, rupturing a previously unknown fault, killing 143, injuring more than 500, and leaving 50,000 people homeless.
2005 – First presidential election is held in Egypt.
2008 – The US Government takes control of the two largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
2010 – A Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats in disputed waters near the Senkaku Islands. The collisions occurred around 10am, after the Japanese Coast Guard ordered the trawler to leave the area. After the collisions, Japanese sailors boarded the Chinese vessel and arrested the captain, Zhan Qixiong.
2011 – A plane crash in Russia kills 43 people, including nearly the entire roster of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Kontinental Hockey League team.
2012 – A series of earthquakes in Yunnan, China, kills 89 people and injures 800 others.
2012 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran and ordered the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over support for Syria, nuclear plans and alleged rights abuses.