Scott Allsop's Blog, page 142

8th March 1971: Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier faced each other in the ‘Fight of the Century’

The match went all the way to the 15th round before Frazier was declared the winner by unanimous ...

3rd March 1857: The largest ever sale of enslaved people in the United States, known as the Weeping Time

When the two-day sale ended on 3 March, 429 slaves had been ...

27th February 1973: Oglala Lakota and members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee

Approximately 200 Oglala Lakota and members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, for 71 ...

26th February 1917: The Original Dixieland ‘Jass’ Band makes the first commercially released jazz recording

The resulting record was released in May, and went on to sell hundreds of thousands of ...

25th February 1870: Hiram Rhodes Revels becomes the first African-American U.S. Senator

After intense debate Senators voted 48 to 8 to seat Revels as the first African-American in the United States ...

23rd February 1836: The Siege of the Alamo begins, lasting for thirteen days before the final battle

Having received few reinforcements by the time the Mexicans attacked on 6 March, the Alamo’s defenders suffered a decisive defeat that is believed to have killed every soldier in the ...

21st February 1885: the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was dedicated

The 555-foot tall Washington Monument was dedicated at a ceremony featuring President Chester Arthur alongside fellow politicians, engineers and ...

15th February 1946: ENIAC, the world’s first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, formally dedicated

ENIAC was soon put to use running calculations to help build a hydrogen bomb, and continued to operate until ...

13th February 1981: The sewers of Louisville, Kentucky, explode after industrial waste makes its way into the tunnels

The explosion wiped out services for thousands of residents, while the stench from the open sewers was ...

10th February 1962: Captured U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers freed in a prisoner exchange

Powers had been sentenced to 10 years’ confinement in the USSR but, amidst concerns that he might reveal any remaining secrets to the Soviet authorities, the U.S. government agreed to exchange Powers and imprisoned student Frederic Pryor in return for Soviet Colonel Rudolf ...