TODAY ON HISTORY...

[mindy]

September 18

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In a 131-acre (53 hectare) park in Washington, DC, about one mile from the White House, stands one of the best-known symbols of the United States — the US Capitol. The edifice has been through many versions, starting with a much more modest building designed by William Thornton, E.S. Hallet, Benjamin H. Latrobe and others. Today, some 540 rooms join the House and Senate chambers in housing US Congress members and their staffs. New US presidents take their oath of office on the Capitol grounds, and the annual State of the Union address is made inside. On this date in 1793, President George Washington laid the cornerstone for the new building.

[jAnEz]

September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 104 days remaining until the end of the year.


# 1879 - Blackpool Illuminations were switched on for the first time.

Blackpool Illuminations is an annual Lights Festival, founded in 1879 and first switched on 18 September that year, held each autumn in the English seaside resort of Blackpool on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire.

Also known locally as The Lights or The Illuminations, they run each year for sixty six days,[1][2] from late August until early November at a time when every other English seaside resorts seasons are coming to an end. Dubbed as The greatest free light show on earth,[3] they are six miles (9.65 kilometres) long and use over one million bulbs. The display stretches along the Promenade from Starr Gate at the south end of the town to Bispham in the north. In 2008 the Illuminations will run from 29 August to 2 November.

Illuminated trawler tram at Blackpool


Illuminations on Blackpool promenade


The Tower and Illuminations

[jAnEz]

September 22 is the 265th day of the year (266th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 100 days remaining until the end of the year.

It is frequently the day of the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Vernal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.


# 2006 - The F-14 Tomcat retires from the United States Navy.

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable geometry wing aircraft. The F-14 was the United States Navy's primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical reconnaissance platform from 1974 to 2006. It later performed precision strike missions once it was integrated with the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night LANTIRN system.[1] The F-14 was developed after the collapse of the F-111B project, and was the first of the American teen-series fighters which were designed incorporating the experience of air combat in Vietnam against MiGs.

It entered service in 1974 with the U.S. Navy, replacing the F-4 Phantom II. It was later exported to the former Imperial Iranian Air Force in 1976, during a time when the US still had good relations with Iran. It was retired from the active U.S. Navy fleet on 22 September 2006, having been replaced by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.[2] As of 2008, it remains in service only with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force.

An F-14A Tomcat from the USS Nimitz during Operation Southern Watch


An F-14D from VF-213 over Iraq on last Tomcat deployment with LANTIRN pod on starboard glovevane station and LGB underneath fuselage.


An F-14D from VF-31, makes a transonic, low-level fly-by with LANTIRN pod on starboard glovevane station.

[mindy]

September 22

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"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Tradition has it that, with these words, patriot Nathan Hale was hanged by the British as a spy during the Revolutionary War. Hale had volunteered to go undercover on an intelligence-gathering mission in Long Island, behind enemy lines. After gathering the information, Hale was captured by the British as he attempted to return to his regiment. British General Sir William Howe ordered him hanged the following day, September 22, 1776.

[jAnEz]

# 1991 - The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time, by the Huntington Library.

The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of roughly 1,000 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1979 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in the West Bank. The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include practically the only known surviving copies of Biblical documents made before 100 AD, and preserve evidence of considerable diversity of belief and practice within late Second Temple Judaism. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus. [1]

Publication of the scrolls has taken many decades, and the delay has been a source of academic controversy. As of 2007 two volumes remain to be completed, with the whole series, Discoveries in the Judean Desert, running to thirty nine volumes in total. Many of the scrolls are now housed in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.

[~..viej..~]

September 22, 1893

Duryea brothers build first automobile

America's first automobile was not built by a Henry Ford or Walter Chrysler, but by Charles and Frank Duryea, two bicycle makers. Charles spotted a gasoline engine at the 1886 Ohio State Fair and became convinced that an engine-driven carriage could be built. The two brothers designed and built the car together, working in a rented loft in Springfield, Massachusetts. After two years of tinkering, Charles and Frank Duryea showed off their home invention on the streets of Springfield, the first successful run of an automobile in the U.S.

[jAnEz]

September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 99 days remaining until the end of the year.

It is frequently the day of the autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and the day of the Vernal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.

# 1972 - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos announces over television and radio the implementation of martial law and signs General Order No. 1 which orders the arrest of opposition leaders, media censorship, banning travel to other countries except for diplomatic missions, abolishing the Philippine Congress, establishing dictatorial government, take-over or sequestering of public and private corporations and suspension of classes for one week in the Philippines.


# 2002 - The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released.

[jAnEz]

September 24 is the 267th day of the year (268th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 98 days remaining until the end of the year.

# 1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower the nation's first National Monument.

Devils Tower (Lakota: Mato Tipila, which means “Bear Tower”) is a monolithic igneous intrusion or volcanic neck located in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 386 m (1,267 ft) above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 1,558 m (5,112 ft) above sea level.

Devils Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Monument's boundary encloses an area of 5.45 km² (1,347 acres).

In recent years about 1%[citation needed] of the Monument's 400,000 annual visitors climb Devils Tower, mostly through traditional climbing ("trad") techniques.

Devils Tower National Monument


Mato Tipila (Devils Tower) at Devils Tower National Monument


East face of Devils Tower


Devils Tower National Monument near the base


Ponderosa Pine forest east of Devils Tower

[jAnEz]

# 1946 - Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong

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Cathay Pacific Airways Limited is the largest airline and flag carrier of Hong Kong. Based at Hong Kong International Airport, the airline's operations include scheduled passenger and cargo services to 120 destinations worldwide.[2]

Cathay Pacific is one of only six airlines worldwide to carry a five-star rating from Skytrax. Cathay was named "Airline of the Year" in 2003 and 2005 by Skytrax and in 2006 by Air Transport World and OAG. Cathay Pacific is accredited by the IATA with the IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) for safety practices.[3] It is also a member of the Oneworld alliance. The company is managed by the Swire Group.

# 1948 - The Honda Motor Company is founded.

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Honda Motor Company, Limited is a multinational corporation, engine manufacturer and engineering corporation headquartered in Japan.

The company manufactures automobiles and motorcycles, trucks, scooters, robots, jets and jet engines, ATV, water craft, electrical generators, marine engines, lawn and garden equipment, and aeronautical and other mobile technologies. Honda's line of luxury cars are branded Acura in North America and China. More recently they have ventured into mountain bikes.

Honda is the 5th largest automobile manufacturer in the world as well as the largest engine-maker in the world, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year. As of August 2008 Honda surpassed Chrysler as 4th largest automobile manufacturer in United States. Currently, Honda is the second largest manufacturer in Japan behind Toyota and ahead of Nissan.[2]

Honda is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Their shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, as well as exchanges in Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Fukuoka, London, Paris and Switzerland. American Honda Motor Co. is based in Torrance, California. Honda Canada Inc. is headquartered in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, and is building new corporate headquarters in Markham, Ontario, scheduled to relocate in 2008. [3]Hero Honda, a joint venture between India's Hero Group and Honda, is the largest manufacturer of two wheelers in the world. Honda of Canada Manufacturing is based in Alliston, Ontario. Honda has also created joint ventures around the world, such as Honda Siel Cars India Ltd, Hero Honda Motorcycles India Ltd, Guangzhou Honda and Dongfeng Honda Automobile Company in China and Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan.

With high gas prices and a weak US economy in June 2008, Honda has reported a 1% sales increase while its rivals including the Detroit Big Three and Toyota have reported double-digit losses. Analysts have attributed this to the model lineup which is the most fuel-efficient in the industry, as it largely avoided contesting the US truck and SUV market, and its flexible factories could be retooled to produce in-demand vehicles. Honda's sales were up almost 20 percent from the same month last year. The Civic and the Accord were in the top five list of sales.

[jAnEz]

# 1957 - Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe, is opened in Barcelona.

The Camp Nou Catalan for "new field", often erroneously called the Nou Camp in both Spanish and English) is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. The stadium has been the home of FC Barcelona since its construction in 1957. It is a UEFA 5-star rated stadium, and has hosted numerous international matches at senior level, and UEFA Champions League finals, the most recent being in 1999. It has a capacity of 98,772, making it the largest stadium in Europe, and the tenth largest in the world. Its official name was Estadi del FC Barcelona (FC Barcelona Stadium) until 2000, when the club membership voted to change the official name to the popular nickname, Camp Nou.[2]

Opposite Camp Nou is the Palau Blaugrana, the stadium for indoor sports and adjacent is the Ice Rink, the stadium for ice-based sports. Just behind the complex is the Mini Estadi, the stadium where the FC Barcelona Atlétic plays its games.

The inside of the Camp Nou


The outside of the Camp Nou


The future Camp Nou


One of the stands displaying Barcelona's motto, Més que un club meaning more than a club.


Exterior