ARPNET, the first internet network, was established in 1969. Rebecca L. Felton became the first woman to serve in the US Senate in 1922. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964. The first balloon flight took place in 1783. Oliver North ordered the destruction of incriminating documents in 1986. Einstein’s research on E=mc2 was published in 1905. The Piltdown Man skull was debunked as a hoax in 1953. Iraq’s debt was mostly canceled by the Paris Club in 2004. The Mayflower Compact was signed in 1620. North Carolina became the twelfth state in 1789. The mystery of “Who Shot JR?” was solved in 1980.
The first ARPNET connection (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was established permanently for the first time. (1969) The packet-switched network was developed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It connected the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and was one of the first networks used to establish the Internet.
The first woman was sworn into the US Senate, and many records were set. (1922) Georgia teacher and writer Rebecca L. Felton was sworn in on this day to fill a seat left vacant by the senator who had died. She served in the Senate for a day, filling the vacancy so Governor Thomas W. Hardwick would not have a competitor in his race for the seat. Hardwick was elected and assumed office on November 22, 1922. Felton’s one-day term was the shortest in United States Senate history. She also set the record for being the oldest sitting senator at 87 years, 9 months and 22 days. She was also the last US Senator to own slaves.
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened as the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. (1964) Bridge connects Brooklyn and Staten Island to New York City with a double bridge of six lanes each. It is 4,260 feet (about 1,298 meters) long. It held the record for longest suspension bridge until 1997 when the Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong was opened.
The first balloon flight in the world took place. (1783) The Marquis d’Arlandes, Francois Laurent, and Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier, a French physician, flew the balloon more than 5 miles (about 8 km) above Paris. The flight lasted about 25 minutes. The hot air balloon was made by the Montgolfier brothers, who invented the first successful hot air balloon.
US naval officer Oliver North has ordered his staff to destroy incriminating documents relating to the Iran Contra political scandal. (1986) The documents were evidence implicating the US government in arms sales to Iran to raise funds for Nicaraguan Contra rebels. Some hoped the sale would also serve as an exchange for six US hostages. North was eventually convicted of three felonies, but an appeals court later overturned the convictions.
The research that led to the formula E=mc2 has been published. (1905) The journal Annalen der Physik published an article written by Albert Einstein, “Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?” The research in the paper introduced his findings on the relationship between mass and energy.
The ‘Piltdown Man’ skull has been debunked as a hoax. (1953) The skull, which was actually fashioned by combining parts of orangutan and human skulls, was seen as an important human fossil find, identifying a form of man previously unknown to scientists.
Iraq’s debt has all but been canceled by the Paris Club. (2004) The Paris Club – a financial group comprising some of the world’s largest countries, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada – canceled 80% of Iraq’s debt, amounting to approximately $100 billion US dollars (USD).
The Mayflower Pilgrims have signed the “Mayflower Compact”. (1620) The covenant was a set of documents that early settlers used to govern their new settlement. It was signed by 41 of the male passengers who had arrived on the Mayflower ship.
North Carolina became the twelfth state of the United States. (12) He also ratified the US Constitution on this day.
The Great Mystery of “Who Shot JR?” has been solved. (1980) In what was one of the most-watched television cliffhangers in television history, 350 million viewers worldwide tuned in to the American television series Dallas to find out who shot JR Ewing at the end of the show’s previous season . As it turned out, he was killed by his wife’s sister, who was also his ex-lover, Kristin Shepard.
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