Yes, it’s time for another “what happened on this date in history” post. Mostly because of some notable birthdays on today’s date.

Birthdays: Hongwu, Emperor of China (1328), Samuel Tayler Coleridge (1772), Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833), Sir Georg Solti (1912), Dizzy Gillespie (1917), Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921), Edward “Whitey” Ford (1928), Ursula K. Le Guin (1929), Manfred Mann (1940), Benjamin Netanyahu (1949), Rich Mullins (1955), Carrie Fisher (1956), Jade Jagger (1971).

Events:
2137 BC – First recorded total solar eclipse
310 – St. Eusebius ends his reign as Catholic Pope
686 – Pope Conon begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1492 – Columbus lands on the San Salvador islands
1512 – Martin Luther joins theological faculty of University of Wittenberg
1520 – Ferdinand Magellan enters the strait named after him
1692 – William Penn deposed as Governor of Pennsylvania
1774 – First display of the word “liberty” on a flag
1797 – U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) launched in Boston
1805 – Battle of Trafalgar (Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats French and Spanish fleet, but dies)
1837 – Seminole Chief Osceola captured as he carried a white flag of truce during second Seminole War
1854 – Florence Nightingale and staff of 38 nurses sent to Crimean War
1879 – Thomas Edison perfects the incandescent lightbulb
1915 – First transatlantic radiotelephone message (Arlington, VA, to Paris, France)
1917 – First Americans see action in WWI
1918 – Margaret Owen sets world typing speed record of 170 wpm for 1 min
1944 – U.S. troops capture Aachen in WWII (first large German city to fall)
1945 – Women allowed to vote in France for the first time
1957 – Premiere of the movie Jailhouse Rock
1959 – Guggenheim Museum (NYC) opens (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright)
1961 – Bob Dylan recorded “Bob Dylan,” his first album
1964 – Premiere of the movie musical My Fair Lady
1975 – Venera 9 launched (first craft to orbit Venus)
1975 – Elton John receives star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame
1976 – Saul Bellow wins Nobel Prize for Literature
1984 – Steve Jones runs Chicago Marathon in world record 2:08:05

Today is National Caramel Apple Day and National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day. With the weather and all, I think it’s a good day for a caramel apple. Or maybe some hot cider and a cake doughnut. Mmmm….

It’s also Sweetest Day and Reptile Awareness Day. Coincidence??

Current music: Incognito, by Spryo Gyra