This Day in History
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The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956
The first volume of The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956, a history and memoir of life in a Soviet Union prison camp, written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, was first published in Paris in the original Russian on Dec 28, 1973. “… authorized for Western publication only after the Soviet secret police seized a copy of the manuscript last August, …” The Soviets arrested Solzhenitsyn on February 12, 1974 taking away his citizenship and deporting him. Solzhenitsyn warned the Russian people, citizens of a severely, censorial, 1973 Russia, in the preface of his book The Gulag Archipelago (a three-volume work), that they must consider the reading of his writings as a “very dangerous” act. Learn more about life in Stalin’s Gulag.
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Jonas Salk’s 100th Birthday
The History of Polio is forever and inextricably linked with Jonas Salk . Salk’s eagerly anticipated achievement of inoculation against the much feared polio virus was made public on April 12, 1955 Not long after the announcement of the success of the Salk Vaccine , Jonas appeared in what would become a well-known television interview with Edward R. Murrow. When Murrow asked why he did not obtain a patent on his medical discovery, Salk famously said in response, “Would you patent the sun?” His response left the impression that it was a morally motivated decline on Salk’s part that resulted in an unpatented invention. But there are other details that point to the possibility of an altogether different reason having less to do with…
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IBM Introduces the System/360
May the computers unite and with that revolutionary concept the IBM System/360 was born. Before the uniting of computers into a network of systems, each was its own creation uniquely customized for each of IBM’s clients. It has been 50 years since the 360 mainframe was introduced in 1964. It boasted the first mainframe computers that IBM customers could optimize from a lower cost model to something upgraded in power. ABC News
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Ole Miss Riot
On Oct. 1, 1962 Mississippi University admitted James Meredith; their first black student. This Federally ordered act of integration resulted in a violent mob riot on the campus. Two people were killed and hundreds injured. Mississippi had segregationist laws that Governor Ross Barnett tried to uphold despite President Kennedy’s order to obey the federal law against segregation. The fight to preserve James Meredith’s civil right to attend the University of Mississippi is sometimes referred to as “the last battle of the Civil War”. Learn more about the facts and people involved.
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The Triangle Waist Factory Fire On March 25, 1911 in New York City
List of 146 Who Died Adler, Lizzie, 24 Altman, Anna, 16 Ardito, Annina, 25 Bassino, Rose, 31 Benanti, Vincenza, 22 Berger, Yetta, 18 Bernstein, Essie, 19 Bernstein, Jacob, 38 Bernstein, Morris, 19 Billota, Vincenza, 16 Binowitz, Abraham, 30 Birman, Gussie, 22 Brenman, Rosie, 23 Brenman, Sarah, 17 Brodsky, Ida, 15 Brodsky, Sarah, 21 Brucks, Ada, 18 Brunetti, Laura, 17 Cammarata, Josephine, 17 Caputo, Francesca, 17 Carlisi, Josephine, 31 Caruso, Albina, 20 Ciminello, Annie, 36 Cirrito, Rosina, 18 Cohen, Anna, 25 Colletti, Annie, 30 Cooper, Sarah, 16 Cordiano , Michelina, 25 Dashefsky, Bessie, 25 Del Castillo, Josie, 21 Dockman, Clara, 19 Donick, Kalman, 24 Driansky, Nettie, 21 Eisenberg, Celia, 17 Evans,…