Your morning Open Thread
On this day in 1930, construction of the Hoover Dam begins. Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest manmade structures in the world.
Although the dam would take only five years to build, its construction was nearly 30 years in the making. Arthur Powell Davis, an engineer from the Bureau of Reclamation, originally had his vision for the Hoover Dam back in 1902, and his engineering report on the topic became the guiding document when plans were finally made to begin the dam in 1922.
Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States and a committed conservationist, played a crucial role in making Davis’ vision a reality. As secretary of commerce in 1921, Hoover devoted himself to the erection of a high dam in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. The dam would provide essential flood control, which would prevent damage to downstream farming communities that suffered each year when snow from the Rocky Mountains melted and joined the Colorado River. Further, the dam would allow the expansion of irrigated farming in the desert, and would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and other southern California communities.
1456 – A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.
1534 – European colonization of the Americas: first known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick.
1543 – French troops invade Luxembourg.
1575 – Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland
1585 – Treaty of Nemours abolishes tolerance to Protestants in France.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Hubbardton
1798 – Quasi-War: the U.S. Congress rescinds treaties with France sparking the “war”.
1807 – Napoleonic Wars: Peace of Tilsit between France, Prussia and Russia ends the Fourth Coalition.
1846 – Mexican-American War: American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States conquest of California.
1863 – United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $300.
1865 – American Civil War: four conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln are hanged.
1898 – President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
1915 – World War I: end of First Battle of the Isonzo.
1915 – A International Railway (New York – Ontario) trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15.
1917 – Russian Revolution: Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov forms Provisional Government in Russia after the deposing of the Tsar Nicholas II.
1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri. It is described as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”.
1930 – Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam).
1937 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge – Japanese forces invade Beijing, China.
1941 – World War II: U.S. forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by Germany.
1941 – World War II: Beirut is occupied by Free France and British troops.
1946 – Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized.
1946 – Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 spy plane prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.
1947 – Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident.
1953 – Che Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
1958 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law.
1959 – 14:28 UT Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.
1967 – Beginning of the civil war in Biafra.
1969 – In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government.
1974 – West Germany win the FIFA World Cup, beating Netherlands 2-1 in the Final.
1978 – The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
1980 – Institution of sharia in Iran.
1991 – Yugoslav Wars: the Brioni Agreement ends the ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
2002 – A scandal breaks out in the United Kingdom when news reports accuse MI6 of sheltering Abu Qatada, the supposed European Al Qaeda leader.
2005 – A series of four explosions occurs on London’s transport system killing 56 people, including four alleged suicide bombers and injuring over 700 others.
2005 – Influenced by Live 8, the G8 leaders pledge to double 2004 levels of aid to Africa from US$25 to US$50 billion by the year 2010.
2006 – The Western Black Rhinoceros is declared extinct due to poaching.
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