Today in history, greetings, and social banter here. (More)

Paris’ first recorded trial for witchcraft began today (1390). Also, Walter Raleigh was beheaded after his conviction for conspiracy against James I (1618), Gottfried Leibniz introduced the long-s ∫ symbol for the integral in calculus (1675), Mozart’s Don Giovanni premiered (1787), Oregon’s Mount Hood was named for the British naval officer who sighted it while exploring the mouth of the Willamette River (1792), representatives of 18 countries met in Geneva to form the International Red Cross (1863), office workers in New York City threw ticker tape out their windows to celebrate the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, the origin of the city’s ticker tape parades (1886), the Convention of Constantinople guaranteed free passage of the Suez Canal for all nations (1888), the Link River Dam in Klamath Falls, Oregon was completed, on the same day Harvard University’s 25-game football winning streak ended with an upset loss to Centre College (1921), Italy’s Victor Emmanuel III appointed Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister (1922), the Tangier Protocol reintegrated the then-international city into Morocco (1956), Cassius Clay, later Muhammad Ali, won his first professional boxing match (1960), the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania, on the same day John “Murph the Surf” Murphy and two accomplices stole a collection of gems including the 565-carat Star of India from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (1964), Montreal’s World Fair, Expo 67, closed after receiving over 50 million visitors (1967), the first ever computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET (1969), Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opened the last stretch of Britain’s M25 motorway (1986), the Galileo spacecraft made its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, making it the first probe to visit an asteroid (1991), Francisco Duran was arrested after firing over two dozen shots at the White House (1994), South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission presented its report condemning atrocities and injustice on both sides of the struggle to end apartheid, on the same day 77-year-old John Glenn became the oldest man to fly into space, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, and the same day 11,000 people died as Category 5 Hurricane Mitch made landfall in Honduras, and the same day 63 people died in a fire at Sweden’s Gothenburg nightclub (1998), at least 10,000 people died as a Category 5 cyclone struck the coast of Odisha in India (1999), 60 people died as a fire swept through the Ho Chi Minh City ITC department store (2002), Al Jazeera broadcast an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which he first admitted direct responsibility for 9/11 attacks (2004), 60 people died as three bombs exploded in Delhi, India (2005), and Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines to form the world’s largest airline (2008). And 148 people died as Category 1 Hurricane Sandy struck the U.S. east cost (2012).

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Good morning! ::hugggggs::