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

The Roman Senate declared Vespasian emperor, the final of the Year of the Four Emperors, today (69). Also, the Mayflower Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts (1620), the Fredonian Revolution began with American settlers in Nagadoches declaring their independence from Mexican Texas (1826), the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers launched the Cooperative Movement by opening a business in Rochdale, England (1844), President Abraham Lincoln signed the Congressional resolution authorizing the Navy Medal of Valor, now the Medal of Honor (1861), Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House premiered in Copenhagen (1879), the Chilean army killed over 2000 striking workers, wives, and children in the Santa María School Massacre (1907), 344 miners died in an explosion at Westhoughton, England’s Hulton Bank Colliery (1910), the New York World published the first crossword puzzle, Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross” (1913), anarchist Emma Goldman was stripped of her U.S. citizenship and deported to Russia (1919), Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film, premiered in Los Angeles (1937), over 1300 people died as a magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck Nankaidō, Japan (1946), Libya gained independence (1951), Norway established Rondane National Park, the nation’s first national park (1962), NASA launched Apollo 8 toward the Moon, the first manned mission to orbit another celestial body (1968), the United Nations adopts the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1969), the Lancaster House Agreement cleared the way for an independent Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe (1979), 270 people died as a bomb exploded aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over Locherbie, Scotland (1988), dozens of towns were evacuated as Mexico’s Popocatépetl erupted (1994), and the city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control (1995). And Spanish authorities intercepted a shipment of explosives intended to destroy Madrid’s Torre Picasso (1999).

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Good morning! ::hugggggs::