History: Rio de Janeiro founded in 1565
History: Rio de Janeiro founded On this day in 1565, the city of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro (River of January) was founded on the flat sandy beaches between Sugar Loaf and Morro Cara de Cao. The name of…
History: Rio de Janeiro founded On this day in 1565, the city of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro (River of January) was founded on the flat sandy beaches between Sugar Loaf and Morro Cara de Cao. The name of…
History: Largest prehistoric penguin discovered in 2012 On this day in 2012, the penguin species Kairuku grebneffi was discovered from a 27 million-year-old fossil, which showed the penguin to weigh around 132 lbs (60 kg) and stood at nearly 5ft…
Today is International Polar Bear Day Recognized since 2011, Polar Bear Day is meant to raise awareness of the declining number of polar bears worldwide, largely believed to be a result of global warming and the loss of their natural…
History: World's 1st jazz record in 1917 On this day, the “Original Dixieland Jass Band” (ODJB) recorded “Livery Stable Blues” for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York. The word jass was later changed to jazz (at the time,…
History: Polaroid introduces the instant camera in 1947 On this day in 1947, Polaroid founder Edwin Land first demonstrated the instant camera at a meeting of the Optical Society of America in New York City. The American scientist got his…
History: North German Lloyd founded in 1857 On this day in 1857, the German shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) (North German Lloyd) was founded by Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen. NDL became one of the most important German…
History: Thomas Edison patented the phonograph in 1878 It was the first machine able to reproduce recorded sound. In its later forms, the device was also called a gramophone, record player (since the 1940s), or, more recently, a turntable. View…
Today in History: First Ironman in Hawaii in 1978 On this day in 1978, the first "Ironman Triathlon" was held in Kailua-Konain, The world championship has been held annually since 1978 (with an additional race in 1982) and is preceded…
History Today: Premiere of "Madame Butterfly" It was not all smooth sailing for Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly" at its world premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy in 1904. Quite the opposite, the opening was interrupted by its hostile…
History: Burial chamber of Pharoh Tutankhamun was opened in 1923 On this day in 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found…