The man who built the town stocks in Boston, Massachusetts charged so much that he became the first man to be put in them.
Quote of the Day
"He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
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~ Thomas Paine
On This Day
1707Four ships of the fleet led by Sir Cloudesley Shovell were shipwrecked on the Isles of Scilly after bad weather and navigational mistakes sent them off course. Between 1,400 and 2,000 people were killed, making it one of the worst maritime disasters in British history.
1797André-Jacques Garnerin made the first notable parachute jump from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 ft above Paris. He landed shaken but in one piece half a mile away from the take-off site.
1877Two hundred and seven people died in Scotland's worst mining disaster, when firedamp ignited at Blantyre Colliery. It would not be the last time the mine experienced disaster: further explosions occurred in 1878 and 1879.
1975The Soviet unmanned space probe Venera 9 landed on Venus. It was the first such probe to return images from the surface of another planet.