Category Archives: State History

Tidbits of History, June 25

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June 25 is Log Cabin Day
Color TV Day
National Columnists Day
National Catfish Day
National Strawberry Parfait Day

June 25, 1630- The fork was introduced to American dining by Gov Winthrop of Massachusetts.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #81: The Judiciary and the Distribution of the Judicial Authority written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788.

Virginia header Virginia Ratification Day
On June 25, 1788 Virginia became the tenth state.

  • Capital: Richmond
  • Nickname: Old Dominion
  • Bird: Cardinal
  • Flower: Dogwood
  • Tree: Flowering Dogwood
  • Motto: Thus always to tyrants

See our page for Virginia for more interesting facts and trivia about Virginia.

Custer Day, Aniversary of “Custer’s Last Stand” at the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana in 1876. Lt. Col. Custer and the 210 men of U.S. 7th Cavalry were killed by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians

June 25, 1950 – North Korea invaded South Korea, initiating the Korean War.

The Cuban government seized 2.35 million acres under a new agrarian reform law in 1959.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in 1962) that the use of unofficial, non-denominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.

On June 25, 1968 – Barry BondsBobby Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit a grand-slam home run in his first game with the Giants. He was the first player to debut with a grand-slam.

1981 – The U.S. Supreme Court decided that male-only draft registration was constitutional.

1990 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual, whose wishes are clearly made, to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. “The right to die” decision was made in the Curzan vs. Missouri case.

In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decided (1998) that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 was unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (1998) that those infected with HIV are protected by the Americans With Disabilities Act.

2000 – U.S. and British researchers announced that they had completed a rough draft of a map of the genetic makeup of human beings. The project was 10 years old at the time of the announcement.

Tidbits of History, June 21

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June 21 is Go Skate Day
Summer Solstice
National Peaches and Cream Day
World Sauntering Day
World Handshake Day

First day of summer

1749 – Halifax, Nova Scotia, was founded.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #80: The Powers of the Judiciary written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788.

1788 – The U.S. Constitution went into effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

New Hampshire headerNew Hampshire Day, the ninth state

  • Capital: Concord
  • Nickname: Granite State
  • Bird: Purple finch
  • Flower: Purple lilac
  • Tree: White birch
  • Motto: Live free or die

See our page for New Hampshire for interesting facts and trivia about New Hampshire.

1834 – Cyrus McCormick patented the first practical mechanical reaper for farming. His invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size.

1877 – The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants convicted of murder, were hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.

June 21, 1838 – Wheatstone’s discovery of the stereoscopic viewer was described in a paper, On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved Phenomena of Binocular Vision, which he read to the Royal Society, London. This is the visual effect whereby pictures of an object drawn from slightly different viewpoints for individual eyes could be viewed with his stereoscope and give the perception of the object in three dimensions. He read a second part to this paper on 15 Jan 1852. This principle was later popularized with photographs to make stereo view cards.

June 21, 1893 – The Ferris Wheel was introduced at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL. It was invented by George Washington Ferris, a Pittsburgh bridge builder, for the purpose of creating an attraction like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Each of the 36 cars carried 60 passengers, making a full passenger load of 150 tons. Ferris didn’t use rigid spokes: instead, he used a web of taut cables, like a bicycle wheel. Supported by two 140 foot steel towers, its 45 foot axle was the largest single piece of forged steel at the time in the world. The highest point of the wheel was 264 feet. The wheel and cars weighed 2100 tons, with another 2200 tons of associated levers and machinery. Ferris died just four years later, at the age of only 38.

1948 – Columbia Records introduced the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, New York. Made of nonbreakable Vinilyte plastic, and designed for the new speed of 33-1/3 r.p.m., the records were developed by Dr. Peter Goldmark of Columbia Records. The 12 inch record could play 23 minutes per side, as compared to only 4 minutes per side on the earlier 78 rpm record. The LP was also an improvement by the quietness of its surfaces and its greatly increased fidelity. The first LP featured violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Columbia originated the term “LP” itself, which was copyrighted. Thus, although many other firms could make long-playing records, only Columbia could make an LP.

1963 – France announced that they were withdrawing from the North Atlantic NATO fleet.

1973 – In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller Test for obscenity in U.S. law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards. The Miller Test has three parts:

  1. Whether “the average person, applying contemporary community standards”, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
  2. Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law,
  3. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.

2001 – KhobarTower indictment on June 21, 20012001-06-21 – A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.

Tidbits of History, June 20

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June 20 is Ice Cream Soda Day
National Vanilla Milkshake Day

In 451 Battle of the Catalaunian Plains: Roman and Visigoths forces defeated Attila the Hun in northeast France.

1782 – Great Seal approved June 20The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States in 1782.

1787-  Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention of 1787 to call the government the “United States”.

1789 – Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath on June 20, 1789.

1819 The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrived at Liverpool, England. It was the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail.

1837 Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne following the death of her uncle King William IV on this date in 1837. She was 18 years old. She ruled for 63 years till 1901.

Samuel Morse received the patent for the telegraph in 1840.

West Virginia headerWest Virginia Admission Day on June 20, 1863 as the thirty-fifth state.

  • Capital: Charleston
  • Nickname: Mountain State
  • Bird: Cardinal
  • Flower: Rhododendron
  • Tree: Sugar Maple
  • Motto: Mountaineers are always

See our page for West Virginia for other interesting facts and trivia about West Virginia.

1877 Alexander Graham Bell installed the world’s first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

1893 Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.

On June 20, 1945, the United States Secretary of State, Edward Reilly Stettinius, Jr., approved the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to America.

Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, made its television debut in 1948.

The so-called “red telephone” was established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963.

In 1975 the movie “Jaws”, based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider was released.

Tidbits of History, June 15

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June 15 is World Gin Day
Smile Power Day
Fly a Kite Day

Feast day of Saint Bernard, born about 1020 in France, died in June of 1081. Patron saint of mountaineers, skiers, skateboarding, backpacking and the Alps. Legend has it that he decided to devote himself to the service of the Church and refused an honorable marriage proposed by his father. It is said that he had to sneak out of the castle on the night before an arranged wedding, and that during his flight from the castle, he threw himself from his window, only to be captured by angels and lowered gently to the ground 40 feet below. As an archdeacon, Bernard set up a hospice at the highest point of a pass across the Pennine Alps, 8000 feet above sea level. The pass was used by French and German pilgrims on their way to Rome and was subject to avalanches, and snow drifts. It is because of this that the rescue St. Bernard dogs were named.

Magna Carta Day , anniversary of the day in 1215 that King John signed the Magna Carta.

In 1752, Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is electricity (traditional date, the exact date is unknown).

1775 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

1776 – Delaware Separation Day – Delaware voted to suspend government under the British Crown and separate officially from Pennsylvania.

1804 – New Hampshire approves the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying the document. The Twelfth Amendment refined the process whereby a President and a Vice President are elected by the electors of the Electoral College.

Arkansas headerArkansas admission day in 1836 as the twenty-fifth state

  • Capital: Little Rock
  • Nickname: The Natural State/Wonder State/Land of Opportunity
  • Bird: Mockingbird
  • Flower: Apple Blossom
  • Tree: Pine
  • Motto: The People Rule

See our page about Arkansas for more interesting facts and trivia about Arkansas.

1846 – The Oregon Treaty established the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

James K. Polk May 11 ,184614Death of ‎James K. Polk , eleventh President of the United States on June 15, 1849. He died in Nashville, Tennessee at age 53. He lived only 103 days after leaving the presidency.

Arlington National Cemetery was established. George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington, acquired the land that now is Arlington National Cemetery in 1802, and began construction of Arlington House. The estate passed to Custis’ daughter, Mary Anna, who had married United States Army officer Robert E. Lee. Upon her death, the Arlington estate passed to her eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee. On July 16, 1862, Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. federal government to purchase land for national cemeteries for military dead, and put the U.S. Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs in charge of this program. Within weeks, his staff reported that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property in the area. The property was high and free from floods (which might unearth graves), it had a view of the District of Columbia, and it was aesthetically pleasing. It was also the home of the leader of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America, and denying Robert E. Lee use of his home after the war was a valuable political consideration. Meigs formally authorized establishment of burials on June 15, 1864.

Tidbits of History, June 1

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June 1 is
National Hazelnut Cake Day
Dare Day
Flip a Coin Day

Heimlich Maneuver Day (For instructions see Perform the Heimlich)
In 1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine. Named for Henry Judah Heimlich, the maneuver is a technique of abdominal thrusts. Dr. Heimlich is also recognized as the inventor of the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve and a system of portable oxygen for ambulatory patients. (Heimlich is the uncle of Anson Williams, who is known for his portrayal as Warren “Potsie” Weber on the 70s hit TV show Happy Days.)

Friar John Cor records the first known batch of Scotch Whisky on June 1, 1495.

June 1, 1533 – Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England.  She was executed in 1536.

On June 1, 1660, Mary Dyer was hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1774 – The British government ordered the Port of Boston closed.

Benedict Arnold, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, was court-martialed for malfeasance on June 1, 1779. He was cleared of all but two minor charges in 1780.

Kentucky header Kentucky Statehood Day; joined the Union in 1792 as the fifteenth state. It was originally a part of Virginia. Officially named the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

  • Capital: Frankfort
  • Nickname: Bluegrass State
  • Bird: Cardinal
  • Fruit: Blackberry
  • Gemstone: Freshwater Pearl
  • Flower: Goldenrod
  • Tree: Tulip Poplar
  • Motto: United we stand, divided we fall

See our page for Kentucky for more interesting facts and trivia about Kentucky.

Tennessee HeaderTennessee Statehood Day; joined the Union in 1796 as the sixteenth state. Initially part of North Carolina; then became known as the Southwest Territory from 1790-1796.

  • Capital: Nashville
  • Nickname: Volunteer State
  • Bird: Mockingbird
  • Fruit: Tomato
  • Flower: Iris
  • Tree: Tulip Poplar
  • Motto: Agriculture and commerce
  • Slogan: Tennessee: America at its Best

See our page for Tennessee for more interesting facts and trivia about Tennessee.

Birthday of Brigham Young (June 1, 1801), American Mormon leader; founder of Salt Lake City

June 1, 1812 – The U.S. President James Madison asked the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.

1813 – James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gives his final order: “Don’t give up the ship!”

In 1831 – James Clark Ross discovered the Magnetic North Pole.

15buchananDeath of James Buchanan, fifteenth President of the United States on June 1, 1868. He died at his home “Wheatland” in Lancaster, Pennsylvania at age 77 of respiratory failure.

In 1890 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine to count census returns. Hollerith developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards. He was the founder of the Tabulating Machine Company which later became IBM. Most of the 1890 Census materials were destroyed in a 1921 fire.

June 1, 1916, Louis Brandeis was appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson. It was written of him that “Brandeis was a militant crusader for social justice whoever his opponent might be. He was dangerous not only because of his brilliance, his arithmetic, his courage. He was dangerous because he was incorruptible.” Using his social conscience, Brandeis became a leader of the Progressive movement, and used the law as the instrument for social change. Starting in 1890, he helped develop the “right to privacy” concept.

1938 – Baseball helmets were worn for the first time.

On June 1,1943, British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing 17 including the actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that its shooting down was an attempt to kill the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Zimbabwe, formerly RhodesiaZimbabwe came into existence on June 1, 1970. It was formerly known as Rhodesia.

1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting. It was founded by Ted Turner and is part of the Turner Broadcasting System.

Tidbits of History, May 29

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Learn About Composting Day
End of Middle Ages Day
National Biscuit Day

Birthday of Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736), American Revolutionary statesman who said “Give me Liberty or give me Death”.
The famous speech was given to the Virginia Convention. Henry was attempting to convince the Virginia House of Burgesses to pass a resolution delivering the Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War effort.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace – but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

May 29, 1660 – Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland becomes King, restoring the monarchy there.

 

Rhode Island header, May 29, 1790Rhode Island Admission Day Admitted to the Union in 1790 as the thirteenth state.

  • Capital: Providence
  • Nickname: The Ocean State/Little Rhody
  • Bird: Rhode Island Red
  • Flower: Violet
  • Tree: Red Maple
  • Motto: Hope

See our page for Rhode Island for more interesting facts and trivia about Rhode Island.

Wisconsin header, May 29, 1848Wisconsin Day Admitted May 29, 1848 as the thirtieth state.

  • Capital: Madison
  • Nickname: Badger State
  • Bird: Robin
  • Flower: Wood violet
  • Tree: Sugar Maple
  • Motto: Forward

See our page for Wisconsin for more interesting facts and trivia about Wisconsin.

1849 – Abraham Lincoln said:

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

1886 – The Pharmacist John Pemberton placed his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in The Atlanta Journal.

Kennedy assassinated 1963Birthday of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917), thirty-fifth president of the United States.

On May 29, 1922 the US Supreme Court ruled that organized baseball is a sport and not a business and thus is not subject to antitrust laws.

1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”, the best-selling Christmas single in history.

May 29, 1953 – Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first people known to have reached the top of Mount Everest from the Nepalese side.

1978 – First class postage increased to 15 cents. It was increased another 3 cents to 18 cents in 1981.

Tidbits of History, May 23

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May 23 is
Lucky Penny Day – “See a penny, pick it up… All day long you’ll have good luck.”
Superstitions related to Lucky Penny

World Turtle Day
National Taffy Day

South Carolina HeaderSouth Carolina Admission Day 1788 as the eighth state

  • Capital: Columbia
  • Nickname: Palmetto State
  • Bird: Carolina Wren
  • Flower: Yellow Jessamine
  • Tree: Palmetto
  • Motto: Prepared in mind and resources/While I breathe, I hope

See our page on South Carolina for more interesting facts and trivia about South Carolina.

May 23, 1568 – The Netherlands declared independence from Spain.

1701 – After being convicted of piracy and of the murder of gunner, William Moore, Captain William Kidd was hanged in London, England.

1829 – Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire. Demian’s instrument bore little resemblance to modern instruments. It only had a left hand buttonboard, with the right hand simply operating the bellows.

1873 – The Canadian Parliament established the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Bonnie and Clyde captured May 23, 1934 1934 – The American bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.

1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel, (Nazi SS) committed suicide while in Allied custody. On Hitler’s behalf, Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps. As facilitator and overseer of the concentration camps, Himmler directed the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Romani people, and other victims; the total number of civilians killed by the regime is estimated at eleven to fourteen million people. Most of them were Polish and Soviet citizens.

May 23, 1949 – The Federal Republic of Germany was founded. Commonly called West Germany, it reunited with East Germany in 1990.

Tidbits of History, May 11

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May 11 is National Twilight Zone Day in the USA.
National Technology Day (India)

Eat What You Want Day

May 11, 1647 Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present-day New York City.

May 11, 1812 – Spencer Perceval became the only Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be assassinated. The assassin, John Bellingham, was a merchant who believed he had been unjustly imprisoned in Russia and was entitled to compensation from the Government, but all his petitions had been rejected.

James K. Polk May 11 ,184614President James K. Polk asked for and received a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican–American War on May 11, 1846.

Birthday of Ottmar Mergenthaler (May 11, 1854), American inventor who developed the first Linotype Machine in 1884. Before Mergenthaler’s invention, no daily newspaper in the world had more than eight pages

Minnesota headerMinnesota Admission Day, 1858 as the thirty-second state

  • Capital: St. Paul
  • Nickname: North Star State/Gopher State/Bread and Butter State
  • Bird: Common Loon
  • Flower: Pink & White Lady’s slipper
  • Tree: Norway Pine
  • Motto: The star of the north

See our page for more interesting facts and trivia about Minnesota.

Birthday of Irving Berlin [Isadore Balin]( May 11, 1888), composer and lyricist. Some of his most popular songs are:

  • Alexander’s Ragtime Band (called “the first real American musical work”
  • A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody (in 1919),
  • Blue Skies
  • Cheek to Cheek,
  • Easter Parade,
  • The Girl That I Marry,
  • God Bless America,
  • I’ve Got My Love to Keep me Warm,
  • There’s No Business Like Show Business, and
  • White Christmas.

Pullman Strike of 1894: Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on a wildcat strike in Illinois.

1904 Birthday of Salvador Dali (May 11, 1904), painter, surrealist artist. His works can be viewed at Wikiart

An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana on May 11, 1910.

Tidbits of History, March 25

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International Waffle Day; not to be confused with National Waffle Day, celebrated on August 24th. International Waffle Day began in Sweden and Norway. March 25, is also the Feast of the Annunciation, upon which waffles are typically eaten. The shift from the religious celebration to Waffle Day occurred because the Swedish Vårfrudagen, meaning “Our Lady’s Day” (the Feast of the Annunciation), sounds similar to Våffeldagen (“waffle day”) in faster speech, and so over time Swedes began calling it Waffle Day and celebrating by eating waffles.

Day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, celebrating the visit of the Angel Gabriel to announce to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus.

According to legend, Venice was founded at twelve o’clock noon on March 25, 421.

Sir Walter Raleigh was granted a patent to colonize Virginia in 1584.

The first settlers arrived in Maryland. Maryland Day, a legal holiday in Maryland celebrating the landing of the colonists sent to the New World in 1634 by Lord Baltimore under the leadership of his brother, Leonard Calvert.

Mount Etna in Sicily erupted on March 25, 1669, destroying Nicolosi, killing 20,000.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #74:The Command of the Military and Naval Forces, and the Pardoning Power of the Executive written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. This shortest of all the papers continues the discussion of presidential powers beginning with a short mention of being Commander in Chief of the armed forces and then with the rest of the paper on the power to pardon.

1811 – Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.
Shelley’s definition of atheism:”

“There Is No God. This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken.”

Burnside CarbineA. E. Burnside patents Burnside carbine in 1856.

Mount RushmoreBirthday of Gutzon Borglum (1867), American sculptor and painter. Best known for the figures of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore.

Birthday of Arturo Toscanini (1867), Italian musician and conductor

1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully completed their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. The route is memorialized as the “Selma To Montgomery Voting Rights Trail,” and is designated as a U.S. National Historic Trail.

Tidbits of History, March 21

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March 21 is National Crunchy Taco Day

J. S. Bach, born Mar 21, 1685Birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), German composer and instrumentalist of the Baroque period. His music is revered for its depth, technique, and beauty.

1788 – A fire in New Orleans left most of the town in ruins. It destroyed 856 of the 1100 structures. Because the fire was on Good Friday, priests refused to allow church bells to be rung as a fire alarm. After six years of rebuilding, on December 8, 1794, another 212 buildings were destroyed in another fire.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #73: The Provision For The Support of the Executive, and the Veto Power written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788.

From www.gradesaver.com

This paper illustrates the principle of checks and balances on which much of the Constitution is based. The founders believed it was necessary to distribute power among multiple branches of government and ensure that none of these branches became too powerful. This paper focuses in particular on limiting the power of the legislature. Hamilton claims that, in republican societies, the legislative branch of government is always the most powerful since it directly represents the voice of the people. In order to prevent this branch from completely monopolizing the government, the other branches must have means of constitutional “self-defense.”

The Butler Act passed on March 21, 1925. It prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee public schools. The law was subsequently challenged in 1925 in the famous Scopes trial.

1933 – Construction of Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, was completed. It was built about 10 miles northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria in southern Germany to house political prisoners, Jews, and foreign nationals. There were 32,000 documented deaths at Dachau and thousands that were undocumented. Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and emigrants were sent to Dachau after the 1935 passage of the Nuremberg Laws which institutionalized racial discrimination. Dachau was officially liberated by the U.S. Army on 29 April, 1945.

March 21, 1947, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to have allegiance to the United States

Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, closed in 1963.

1965 – More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL.

March 21, 2006 – Twitter was founded.