Today in History

I occasionally read these things. Some are interesting. Weird to think back about how different things were not too too long ago.


On this date in:

1882 Congress outlawed polygamy.

1895 In what is generally regarded as the first public display of a movie projected onto a screen, Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.

1933 During Prohibition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal.

1963 The Beatles' first album, "Please Please Me," was released in Great Britain.

1972 Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification.

1978 Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act, fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1987 A barge carrying 3,200 tons of garbage, left Islip, N.Y., on a six-month journey in search of a place to unload. The barge was turned away by several states and three countries before space was found back in Islip.