On this day

1702 - Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland after William III died in a riding accident.

1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

1908 - The House of Commons turned down the women's suffrage bill, thus denying the right for women to vote.

1910 - In Britain, the first man received a pilot's certificate, John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, while in France, Mme Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to be issued a pilot's license.

1917 - In Russia, the "February Revolution" (known as such because of Russia's then use of the Julian calendar) began when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupted in Petrograd.

1930 - Mahatma Gandhi began the campaign of civil disobedience against British rule in India .

1950 - The USSR declared they had built an atomic bomb.

1962 - The Beatles performed for the first time on the BBC in Great Britain.

1965 - Around 3500 Marines landed at Da Nang in South Vietnam and became the first U.S. combat troops in Vietnam.

1974 – Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.

1978 – The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.

1979 – Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time.

1566 - David Rizzio, Italian courtier and private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, is said to have been jealous of their friendship, because of rumours that he had made Mary pregnant, and he joined in a conspiracy of Protestant nobles to murder him.

1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

1822 - Charles M. Graham of New York City received a patent for artificial teeth.

1841 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the African slaves who seized control of the Amistad slave ship had been illegally forced into slavery, and thus were free under American law.

1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

1925 - The start of Pink's War, an air to ground bombardment carried out by the Royal Air Force, under the command of Wing Commander Richard Charles Montagu Pink, against the tribesmen in north west Pakistan. It was the first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army and Royal Navy.

1945 – The Bombing of Tokyo by the United States Army Air Forces began, one of the most destructive bombing raids in history.

1954 - The first color television commercial was broadcast, for Castro Decorators of New York City.

1957 – A magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Andreanof Islands, Alaska triggers a Pacific-wide tsunami causing extensive damage to Hawaii and Oahu.

1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.

1964 - The first Ford Mustang rolled off the assembly line.

1981 - John Lambe who became known as the M5 Rapist was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was given a life sentence on each of 12 counts of rape and a six year sentence (concurrent) on four charges of attempted rape.

1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.

2010 – The first same-sex marriages in Washington, D.C., take place.

2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.

(09-03-2012 13:21 )skully Wrote:  1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.

Ivan Ivanovitch is the Russian equivalent of "John Doe", but the irony of the choice of name wasn't lost on the Americans as Ivan was also the middle name of their pioneer astronaut Virgil Grissom, and the laconic Grissom took none too kindly to reporters questions about his namesake!

The dummy was made to look as lifelike as possible, with eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes and a mouth. He was dressed in a cosmonaut suit, with a sign reading "МАКЕТ" (Russian for "dummy") placed under his visor, so that anyone who found him after his missions would not think he was a dead cosmonaut or an alien.

He flew two missions, accompanied by dogs, mice and guinea pigs both times. The dummy didn't land with the capsule, it was ejected and came down by parachute. It was not known in the West for some years that the cosmonaut landing separately was standard practice on the early Russian manned flights (although the capsules landed safely and the dogs were unharmed).

In 1993 Ivan was auctioned at Sotheby's, with the winning bid coming from a foundation belonging to US businessman Ross Perot. He fetched $189,500. Since 1997 he has been on loan to the National Air and Space Museum, where he is on display, still in his spacesuit.

1629 - Charles I dissolved the Parliament, beginning an eleven year period known as the Personal Rule. He had been harshly criticized by Parliament and realized that, as long as he could avoid war, he could rule without them.

1801 - Britain's first National Census. A census has taken place every ten years since 1801, with the exception of the 1941 census, cancelled because of World War II.

1831 – The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

1922 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation.

1945 – The U.S. Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.

1956 - Peter Twiss, former Brooke Bond tea taster and later a test pilot, became the first man to fly at more than 1,000 mph.

1969 - James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Three days later, he attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, but his motion was denied, as were his dozens of other requests for a new trial over the next 29 years.

1977 – Rings of Uranus: Astronomers discover rings around Uranus.

1987 - The Vatican condemned surrogate parenting as well as test-tube and artificial insemination.

1997 - The Spice Girls made pop music history by becoming the first group to top the charts with every one of their first four singles.

Births:

1928 – James Earl Ray, American assassin (d. 1998)
1936 – Sepp Blatter, Swiss FIFA President
1940 – Chuck Norris, American actor and martial artist
1953 – Paul Haggis, Canadian film director
1957 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi Islamist and leader of al-Qaeda (d. 2011)
1958 – Sharon Stone, American actress
1961 – Mitch Gaylord, American gymnast (gaylord!)
1963 – Rick Rubin, American record producer
1971 – Jon Hamm, American actor
1971 – Timbaland, American rapper
1973 – Chris Sutton, English footballer
1977 – Peter Enckelman, Finnish footballer
1977 – Colin Murray, British radio DJ
1981 – Samuel Eto'o, Cameroonian footballer
1981 – Steven Reid, Irish International footballer
1983 – Carrie Underwood, American country singer
1984 – Olivia Wilde, American actress
1985 – Lassana Diarra, French footballer
1992 – Emily Osment, American actress and singer

(10-03-2012 13:46 )skully Wrote:  1956 - Peter Twiss, former Brooke Bond tea taster and later a test pilot, became the first man to fly at more than 1,000 mph.

Sorry to be pedantic, but Twiss was the first to fly at 1,000 mph in level flight.

Scott Crossfield had broken Mach 2 (1,291 mph) in 1953 and the legendary Chuck Yeager had reached Mach 2.44 (1,500 mph) in 1954.

Twiss had a walk-on part as a speedboat driver in the James Bond film "From Russia With Love". He also appeared in the film "Sink the Bismarck" in which he flew a Fairey Swordfish, the type of plane in which he had set the record (a supersonic delta wing).

Twiss was married five times and died less than seven months ago at the age of 90.

1955: Farewell to scientist who discovered penicillin
Sir Alexander Fleming - the man who first discovered the life-saving drug penicillin - has died of a heart attack. He was 73.
Sir Alexander died suddenly at his home in London. He was married only two years ago to Dr Amalia Coutsouris, from Athens, who worked at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington. His first wife, with whom he had a son, died in 1949.

For many years, Sir Alexander was Professor of Bacteriology in the University of London and until last year was head of the Wright-Fleming Institute of Micro-Biology at St Mary's hospital, Paddington.

The young scientist served in a battlefield hospital laboratory in France during World War I. When he saw how many soldiers were dying from infections he became determined to find a cure.

His first notable discovery was lysozyme in 1922. It is a naturally-occurring antibacterial substance, found in tears and other body fluids.

Knighthood

But his biggest discovery - penicillin - was made by chance in 1929. During some routine research, he noticed a mould had developed on a culture plate left forgotten under a microscope. Where the new mould had grown the bacteria around it had faded away.

Further tests showed the fluid in which the mould had grown was strongly antibacterial - but non-toxic to animals and human beings. It was crude penicillin.

The discovery prompted further research but it was scientists at Oxford who managed to harness its full potential as a life-saving drug and penicillin was ready for commercial use by 1940.

Honours were heaped upon him. He was knighted in 1944 and the following year he shared the Nobel prize for medicine with Sir Howard Florey and Dr Ernst Chain, the two Oxford scientists who did most to develop the drug.

In a BBC radio programme broadcast in 1945, Sir Alexander spoke of his discovery: "Penicillin is not a cure-all, while it has the most remarkable action on many common microbes which infect us, it has no effect on many others, like tuberculosis, typhoid fever, dysentery, influenza, measles and many others."

He also foresaw the problems which would arise once certain bacteria developed an immunity to the drug.


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Alexander Fleming pictured during a 1947 interview at the BBC






In Context
Sir Alexander Fleming's funeral took place on Friday 18 March 1955 at St Paul's Cathedral. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was represented by his son Randolph. His ashes were buried in the vault.
The discovery of penicillin transformed the world of medicine. It was the first antibiotic drug. Without it, many illnesses would be incurable and life expectancy would be lower.

Main production of the drug moved to the States in 1941, to protect it from the bombs pounding England. Other strains were discovered, including one on a cantaloupe melon which had gone mouldy.

Millions of soldiers were able to benefit during World War II from increased production of the drug.

In recent years, the use of penicillin has declined slightly because some bacteria are developing a resistance to it and also because some people are allergic to it.


Stories From 11 Mar
2004: Many die as bombs destroy Madrid trains
1985: Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader
1955: Farewell to scientist who discovered penicillin
1977: Roman Polanski charged with rape
1974: 'Anti-IRA spies' break out of jail
2001: Big rise in new cases of foot-and-mouth

Births:

1931 – Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born entrepreneur
1959 – Nina Hartley, American porn star, author and feminist
1964 – Shane Richie, British actor
1965 – Jesse Jackson, Jr., American politician
1965 – Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, British reality TV personality
1969 – Terrence Howard, American actor
1971 – Johnny Knoxville, American actor and comedian
1976 – Thomas Gravesen, Danish footballer
1978 – Didier Drogba, Ivorian footballer
1979 – Benji Madden, American guitarist and singer (Good Charlotte, Dead Executives and Taintstick)
1979 – Joel Madden, American singer and actor (Good Charlotte and Dead Executives)
1985 – Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lankan Cricketer
1988 – Fábio Coentrão, Portuguese football player
1989 – Anton Yelchin, Russian/American actor
1991 – Jack Rodwell, English footballer
1992 – Sacha Parkinson, British actress

Deaths:


2006 – Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia (b. 1941)

1956 - The Dream Weavers reach the number one place in the UK Singles Chart. Their song "It's Almost Tomorrow", is the only UK hit for the Miami based group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_Weavers

1977 - The Clash appear at the Roxy Club, London. They are accompanied by the Slits, the first all female punk band, who are making their live debut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roxy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slits

1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev takes office as Soviet Union leader.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates...538327.stm

1990 - Lithuania declares independence from the USSR.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_the_..._Lithuania

2004 - Spain is devastated by terror attacks, as bombs rip through three train stations in Madrid. 170 people are killed and a further 500 injured.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates...273817.stm

1702 – The Daily Courant, England's first national daily newspaper is published for the first time.

1845 – The Flagstaff War: Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti and Māori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororareka, New Zealand.

1851 – The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice.

1945 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.

1983 – Pakistan successfully conducts a cold test of a nuclear weapon.

1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1988 - The Bank of England pound note, first introduced on 12th March 1797, ceased to be legal tender in Britain at midnight. When the deadline for returning old notes was reached, it was estimated that some 70 million were still outstanding.

1990 - Lithuania proclaimed its independence from the USSR, the first Soviet republic to do so.

2004 - Spain is the victim of terrorists when at least 10 bombs explode on four commuter trains in Madrid during rush hour, killing 202 people and wounding more than 2,000. An Arabic newspaper reports it received a fax alleging that al-Qaeda was behind the attack.

2011 – An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.