July 9th

On this day - July 9th 1981 - Donkey Kong is released 

The first Donkey Kong is an arcade game by Nintendo where you play as Mario. Mario Bros is actually a spin-off of this game. It also spawned a Donkey Kong series and both it and Mario is one of the most recognised characters from Nintendo. The arcade was a hit and after the initial 2000 units were sold in the US Nintendo started manufacturing in the US. In June 1982 Nintendo had sold 60,000 units and earned 180 million USD. It made Ron Judy and Al Stone millionaires as they worked on straight commission. The current world record is held by Wes Copland and was set on May 5th 2016 with the score 1,218,000. 

July 7th

On this day - July 7th 1928 - The first sliced bread is sold

The first bread to be sliced by a machine and sold that way was in 1928. It was advertised as the greatest forwards step in baking industry since bread was wrapped. The inventor of the bread slicing machine was the american Otto Rohwedder. He built a prototype in 1912, but this was destroyed by fire, but by 1928 had he managed to build a fully working machine. The first commercial use of this machine was on July 7th the same year when a bakery sold sliced bread and had a huge success with it.

July 2

On this day - July 2 1976 - The inauguration of the Unified Vietnam 

The republic of Vietnam, also known as South Vietnam was established in 1955 and for the next years was the country divided into South and North Vietnam. The South Vietnam city of Saigon fell to North Vietnam in 1975, which led to a brief period of a provisional government in South. On this day in 1976 was the South and North Vietnam merged into one country as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The country has since implemented economical reforms and has in the last few years been one of the countries in the world with highest growth rates.

June 8th

On this day - June 8th 1949 - George Orwell's "1984" was published

1984 is a novel written by George Orwell. The novel is set in Airstrip One (former Great Britain) that is a province of Oceania. Oceania controls its citizens trough surveillance, public manipulations and an its all dictated by the political system English Socialism. The Inner Party that controls the political system persecutes individualism and independent thinking as thoughtcrime. The novel is categorised as political fiction and dystopian science fiction. Many of the concepts and terms used in the book has been adopted into the english language. The most known terms and concepts are "big brother", "double think", and "thought crime". The adjective Orwellian spawned from the book as a way to describe; official deception, secret surveillance and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. 

June 3

On this day - June 3 1965 - The first american to do a Space Walk 

The first spacewalk ever was done in march 1965 by Alexey Leonov. Americans was not far behind, and Edward Higgins White became the first american to do a space walk on June 3 (Also known as Extravehicular activity). He was the pilot on the Germini 4 launch, and it was during this trip he did his first space walk. The space walk lasted for 21 minutts on a 7.6m tether. Edward Higgins White died only two years after his space walk in a pre-launch testing who failed for Apollo 1.

"I'm coming back in... and it's the saddest moment of my life." - E. H. White

June 2nd

On this day - June 2 2004 - Ken Jennings starts his Jeopardy run

Ken Jennings or Kenneth Wayne Jennings III is a American game show contestant and author. In his run he won 74 Jeopardy shows for a that won him over 2,500 000 USD. Jennings is the second all time money winner in tv gameshows with over 4,000 000 USD in winnings. The person who has earned most is Brad Rutter who beat Jennings in Jeopardy Battle of the Decades. In the battle of the Decades Brad won 1000 000 and Jennings won 100 000. Both contestants was part of the IBM Challenge where IBMs supercomputer Watson played against the Brad and Jennings. Watson was the next big challenge project for IBM after Deep Blue. Watson won that challenge and Jennings came 2nd. Jennings has published the book Brainiac: "Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs" 

May 11

On this day - May 11th 1997 - Deep Blue beats Garry Kasparov

On this day Deep Blue won the deciding rematch against Garry Kasparov in chess. This was not the first match Kasparov had against Deep Blue, he won the match 4-2 in 1996. Earlier in 1997 Kasparov won one then lost one and played a draw three times. The draw games Kasparov had an advantage but was not able to take advantage. With the win Deep Blue marked the start of Artificial Intelligence being taken serious since it had "mastered" chess. Some would argue that Kasparov did not play up to his usual standard and others argued that chess was not complex enough. It started the Go challenge for AI to beat the best Go players. Googles AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol 4-1 in March 2016. We congratulate all the researchers in their effort to make better artificial intelligences and hope they don't end up making Skynet. 

 

May 2

On this day - May 2nd 2011 - Osama Bin Laden was killed

Osama Bin Laden was the founder of the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is most known for taking responsibility for the September 11 attacks against the United States of America in 2001. Bin Laden founded al-Qaeda in 1988 in Saudi Arabia, the group was forced out in 1992 and settled in Sudan. The US pressured Sudan to forcing Bin Laden out of Sudan and in 1996 he left for Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan he declared war against the United States. In 1998 his involvement in the 1998 embassy bombing in Kenya, landed Bin Laden a spot on the FBI's ten most wanted list. After 9-11 the FBI upped the bounty on his head to 25 million USD. Bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan by SEAL team Six under the orders of president Barrack Obama 

May 1

On this day - May 1 1999 - George Mallory is found on mount Everest 

British mountaineer George Mallory was part of an English expedition to mount Everest in the early 1920s. In the expedition in 1924 both Mallory and his partner Andrew Irvine both disappeared from the North-East ridge. The pair were attempting the first ascent of Everest, they were last seen 245 vertical meters from the summit. The bodies were not found on that expedition and their fate were unknown until Mallory's body were found in 1999. The 1999 expedition was called the Mallory and Irvine research expedition, and led by Eric Simmons. Conrad Anker was the one to find Mallory's body and it was first believed to be Irvine's body but the name tag read G. Leigh Mallory. Irvine was supposed to have a camera and experts from Kodak believes that there is a chance to develop the film if it is found. There have been a few expeditions after the one in 1999 to find Irvine's body but it remains lost. It is not known if the climbers reached the top and the camera could resolve that. 

April 22

On this day - 22nd April  1970 - The first Earth Day

Earth day is celebrated on 22nd of April to support environmental protection. Now Earth Day is organized by the Earth Day Network and 193 nations participate. In 1969 John McConnell proposed a day to honour Earth and the concept of peace. However the proposed date March 21 did not stick. It was celebrated in 1970 but a month later a separate Earth Day was started by US senator Gaylord Nelson. The event for 22nd of April focused on the United States of America but one of the original coordinators of the 1970 event turned the event international in 1990. In the 1990 celebration 141 nations participated. There are several groups that celebrates Earth Week that takes the Earth Day message over en entire week instead of a single day. 

April 11th

On this day - April 11th 1979 - Idi Amin is deposed in Uganda

Idi Amin was the third president of Uganda in the years from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment in 1946 and served in both Kenya and Uganda. He climbed to rank of major general in the Ugandan army before he took over as commander. In 1971 he led the military coup deposing Milton Obote. Under his regime the population suppressed and breaches of human rights were common. His political adversaries were being killed, people were prosecuted for their ethnicity and the officials were corrupt. The number of people who disappeared or were killed is reported from 100,000 to 500,000 by different observeres. In the end disagreements within Uganda and the failed attempt to annex Kagera (province of Tanzania) led to Amins fall and his escape to Libya. Eventually he settled in Saudi-Arabia where i died in 2003.  The story has been depicted in several books, documentaries, songs, and movies. The most recent was "The Last King of Scotland"

April 6

On this day - April 6th 1974 - ABBA wins Eurovision Song Contest 

ABBA were a Swedish pop group from Stockholm and they won the competition with their song "Waterloo". Their win in Eurovision was the first time a Swedish act won the competition. The name came from the member names Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. From their success in Eurovision Song Contest they became one of the biggest commercial acts. Their act and songs top charts all over the world from 1974 to 1982. All inn all ABBA has sold 380 million albums and singles all over the world. ABBA was one of the first groups that had success coming from a country that does not speak English. 

Image by Beeld en Geluidwiki

April 2nd

On this day - April 2nd 1992 - John Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering 

John Joseph Gotti Jr. was an Italian-American gangster that used to be the boss of the Gambino crime family in New York. Gotti was the fifth of thirteen children growing up in South Bronx. Five of the brothers became fully initiated members (made men) in the Gambino family. Gotti grew up in poverty and sought a life of crime from an early age. He quickly became one of the biggest earners in the crime family. Gotti rose to power after the FBI indicted other members of the Gambino family for selling narcotics. Fearing that he would be killed he arranged for the murder of the head of the family, which made Gotti the main boss of the family. Gotti attracted a lot of attention for his outspoken personality and his expensive taste. This lead to the nickname The Dapper Don. He later gained the nickname The Teflon Don for being acquittal three times in high-profile cases in the 1980s. In the end Gotti was betrayed by his underboss Salvatore Gravano who turned state's evidence and testified against Gotti. On this day Gotti was convicted to life in prison and in 2002 he died of throat cancer.  

March 29th

On this day - March 29th 1974 - Farmers discovered the "Terracotta Army" 

The Terracotta Army is a collection of statues in found buried in China. The statures depicts the armies of Qin Shi Huang who was the first emperor of China. The statues was created for the emperors funeral in 210 or 209 bce. It is estimated that the collection consists of over 8000 soldiers and 500 horses. The Statues was discovered in 1974 when some local farmers were digging a water well. There had been reports of Terracotta pieces found in the area for centuries before the farmers discovery, but it was their discovery on this day in 1974 that prompted an investigation from archaeologists.

CC Ingo 

March 28th

On this day - March 28th 2006 - Student Protest in France

The youth protest in France started earlier in February 2006 and was against the bill to deregulate labour laws regarding first time hires and workers under the age of 26. The proposed changes would make it easier for employers to fire employees during first two years of their hire. The main part was that employers would not need to site a reason for their decision to fire the employee for the first two years. This proposed change was so unpopular that on February 7th between 200 000 and 400 000 people took part in 187 protests in France. The protest gained traction and over a million took part in protests on the 7th and 9th of March, 38 universities were even on strike. The protest escalated trough March and on the 28th 1.055 million (according to the police, 2.71 million according to the union) people marched against the proposed change in law. On April 11th the legislation was scraped and by April 18th all the universities were reopened. 

Protest at Paris Jessieu Campus, Origin 

   

March 21st

On this day - March 21st 2006 - Twitter is founded 

Twitter is the social media service where you share your 140 character messages called tweets. Tweets are then sorted by the hashtags used for example #TwitterHistory. Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass the service launched in July 2006 but was founded on this day. In 2013 Twitter was one of the ten most visited sites on the internet and it is described as the sms of the internet. There are more than 500 million registered users where 332 million are considered active as of May 2015. Twitter has attracted users from all walks of life from world leaders such as Barack Obama to Queen Elizabeth II to the normal person in the street. The oldest Twitter accounts all belong to Twitter employees they were created on this day. 

March 17th

On this day - March 17th 1992 - South Africa referendum on apartheid 

In 1992 held South Africa a referendum on whether or not they should continue with the reforms for ending apartheid. The reforms was begun by President F.W. de Klerk in 1990 and their ultimate goal was to end the apartheid system which was implemented in 1948. The referendum was open only to the white voters and they were asked "Do you support continuation of the reform process which the State President began on 2 February 1990 and which is aimed at a new Constitution through negotiation?" 2.800 000 people turned up to vote which equal 85 percent of the voters. 68.73% voted to continue the work to end apartheid which gave F. W. de Klerk the legitimacy to continue with the reforms. In 1993 received F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela the Nobels Peace Prize.  In 1994 held South Africa their first multi-racial election and Nelson Mandela was elected the first black president of South Africa. 

March 16th

On this day - March 16th 1988 - The largest chemical attack against a civil population in history

The Halabja chemical attack, or Halabja massacre, was an genocidal attack against the Kurdish people in the last days of the Iran-Iraq War. Between 3200 and 5000 people were killed instantly, while many more died of complications from the chemicals in the years that followed. Most of the injured and killed in this attack were civilians, and the attack is the largest chemical attack against a civil population ever. The attack started in the evening of March 16th when Iraq's army started dropping chemical bombs on the residential area of Halabja city in Kurdistan. It is believed that the chemical dropped were of different types, including Mustard gass and nerve agents and the attack lasted for five hours. Saddam Hussein blamed Iran for the attack, but it has later been proved that it most likely was Saddam Hussein who was behind the attack.

March 15th

On this day - March 15th 1892 - Liverpool FC is formed 

Liverpool FC was formed by following a disagreement in Everton where John Houlding the owner of Anfield wanted Everton to buy Anfield. Houlding had lent the ground to Everton for free until Everton stated to make a profit. The official split happened in a meeting on the 12th of March 1892 where Houlding uttered the famous words "I'm here on a trial, and a criminal never takes the chair". He then left the meeting with 18-19 other members. With his closest friends from Everton, Liverpool was formed in Houldings house. William E. Barclay was the one to suggest the name Liverpool.
It was not until June 3rd that the Board of Trade recognized Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds Ltd. Liverpool is now one of the most popular clubs in the world and not without merits. Liverpool FC holds 18 first division series wins, 4 second division and 1 for Lancashire League, 7 FA Cups, 8 League Cups, 15 Charity Shield, 1 Super Cup , 5 European Cup (Champions League), 3 UEFA Cups and 3 UEFA Super Cups. Happy birthday Liverpool 

John Houlding

March 11th

On this day - March 11th 2004 - The Madrid Train bombings

The Madrid train bombings (known in Spain as 11-M) was a coordinated near simultaneous bombing against the morning commuter trains. The four trains attacked had thirteen bombs inn all, but three failed to go off. The attack took place three days before Spain's general election. The bombings killed 191 people and injured over 1800. The official investigation found that the attacks were directed by an al-Qaeda inspired terrorist cell, with no direct connections to al_Qaeda. The miners who sold the explosives to the terrorist were also arrested. The attack was the deadliest terrorist attack in Spanish history and its among the worst in European history. It was the worst attack in Europe since the Lockerbie bombing. On April 3rd four of the suspects from the March attack died in a suicide explosion in Leganés, this suicide attack also killed a police officer. The trail against the 29 accused started on February 15th 2007 and in the end 21 were found guilty and two were sentenced to more than 40,000 years in prison. 

Atocha Station - Photo by Roberto_Garcia