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June 21, 2007
Today in History: June 21st
The following information is from: Those Were the Days - Today in History:
1788 - The colony of New Hampshire became the ninth state to enter the United States of America. It had been a long time coming. For 38 years, the fishing colony, first settled in 1623, and named in 1630 by Captain John Mason after his Hampshire, England home, was a part of the Massachusetts colony. Then, in 1679 it became a separate royal colony. Concord, the capital of the Granite State, was also central to much of the Revolutionary War. The official state bird is the purple finch, and has a matching state flower, the purple lilac.
1834 - Cyrus McCormick patented the first practical reaper for farming.
1853 - The envelope folding machine was patented by Dr. Russell L. Hawes of Worcester, MA.
1859 - Andrew Lanergan of Boston, MA received the first rocket patent. Did the receipt of this patent make Mr. Lanergan of Boston the first rocket scientist?
1948 - For those of us who have a garage full of those 12-inch round, black disks protected by flimsy cardboard covers, this note: Columbia Records announced that it was offering a new Vinylite long-playing record that could hold 23 minutes of music on each side. One of the first LPs produced was of the original cast of the Broadway show, "South Pacific". Critics quickly scoffed at the notion of LPs, since those heavy, breakable, 78 RPM, 10-inch disks with one song on each side, were selling at an all-time high. It didn’t take very long though, for the 33-1/3 RPM album -- and its 7-inch, 45 RPM cousin to revolutionize the music industry and the record buying habits of millions.
1958 - "Splish Splash", Bobby Darin’s first million-seller, was released by Atco Records. The song, written by Darin and Jean Murray, was Atco single #6117, recorded Apr 10, 1958.
1964 - Jim Bunning (later to become a U.S. Senator from Kentucky), a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, threw the first perfect game in the National League in 84 years, leading the Phils to a 6-0 win over the New York Mets. Bunning worked his magic in the first game of a Father’s Day doubleheader. Byrum Saam called the play-by-play on radio. In the second game of the twin-bill, 18-year-old Rick Wise won his first major-league game, 8-2, as the Phillies swept the Mets that summer day. (Bunning was also the first hurler in 61 years to get a no-hitter in both leagues.)
1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court in "Texas v. Johnson" ruled that burning the American flag as a political protest is protected by the First Amendment. In 1984, on Dallas City Hall property, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag to protest Reagan administration policies. He was tried and convicted (one year in jail and $2,000 fine) under a Texas law outlawing flag desecration. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had reversed the conviction and the state then appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-to-4 against the Texas law.
1995 - Microsoft and Netscape officials met at Netscape headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Notes taken by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen indicate that Microsoft offered to buy a share of its rival if Netscape would stop making Navigator for the Windows market. The Andreessen notes would be used later in the U.S. government’s massive antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. (Microsoft founder Bill Gates was painted as the master string-puller in a no-holds-barred plan to destroy Netscape Communications Corp. when it refused to collaborate on a plot to divide the market for Internet browser software.)
Posted by d-nadler at June 21, 2007 05:34 PM