Peristiwa Dunia, Mitos & Sejarah

cikatilia · Post time 11-7-2013 04:56 PM

Jul 11, 1979:
Skylab crashes to Earth

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/iskylabi-crashes-to-earth

July 11, 1979 — America's first space station was a makeshift thing, retrofitted from the commodious third stage of a Saturn V booster that would no longer be needed to send men to the moon. It was fired into orbit unmanned on May 14, 1973, immediately developed technical problems and had to be set right by the first Skylab crew, which followed along shortly after. The station was soon functioning reasonably well and ultimately served as home to three crews before being decommissioned in February 1974. Thereafter it was left to drift, its orbit slowly decaying. With no rockets aboard to boost it higher, the ship was destined to crash to the earth, which it did 5½ years later, breaking up in the atmosphere and scattering its remains across the Australian outback. There was, luckily, no damage to life or property, but more than a little to NASA's rep, which, post-moon, was starting to look as adrift as Skylab itself.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1664897_1664899_1666136,00.html #ixzz2Yj2XU1bl

http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/09/23/7924817-when-skylab-fell-to-earth?lite

In July 1979 the US Skylab space station, in a poor state of repair and with its orbit decaying, spiralled back to earth and crashed into the Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Several fragments from the wreck fell in the Western Australian outback, and became popular finds. This image shows a piece of the debris on display at the 1979 Miss Universe contest held in Perth.

This image should be cited as NAA: A6135, K19/7/79/2

http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/media/images/1979-cabinet/skylab.aspx

jarikuku · Post time 12-7-2013 12:33 PM

HARI INI DALAM SEJARAH - Sir Alec Newboult Umumkan Perluasan Undang-Undang Darurat Ke Seluruh Negara

Pada hari ini dalam tahun 1948, Sir Alec Newboult telah mengumumkan perluasan Undang-Undang Darurat ke seluruh negara. Ianya bertujuan untuk memberi kuasa yang lebih kepada pihak polis dan tentera untuk mengangkap dan menahan orang yang disyaki terlibat dalam kegiatan subversif. Darurat diisytiharkan apabila pemberontakan dan keganasan yang dilakukan oleh pihak komunis semakin menjadi-jadi. Mereka telah melancarkan keganasan dan beberapa pemogokan di seluruh negara bagi melumpuhkan ekonomi negara. Oleh itu, beberapa langkah telah dijalankan oleh pihak Kerajaan dalam usaha mengawal kegiatan pihak komunis seperti pembesaran Pasukan Askar Melayu, Penubuhan Jawatankuasa Kerja Perang, Penubuhan Kampung-kampung Baru di bawah Rancangan Briggs dan perkhidmatan tentera yang diwajibkan. Sesungguhnya peluasan Undang-Undang Darurat pada hari ini dalam tahun 1948, mampu menyekat kegiatan-kegiatan subversif pengganasan komunis daripada terus menguasai Tanah Melayu.

jarikuku · Post time 12-7-2013 12:33 PM

TODAY IN HISTORY - Medal of Honor Created

President Abraham Lincoln signs into law a measure calling for the awarding of a U.S. Army Medal of Honor, in the name of Congress, "to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities during the present insurrection." The previous December, Lincoln had approved a provision creating a U.S. Navy Medal of Valor, which was the basis of the Army Medal of Honor created by Congress in July 1862. The first U.S. Army soldiers to receive what would become the nation's highest military honor were six members of a Union raiding party who in 1862 penetrated deep into Confederate territory to destroy bridges and railroad tracks between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1863, the Medal of Honor was made a permanent military decoration available to all members, including commissioned officers, of the U.S. military. It is conferred upon those who have distinguished themselves in actual combat at risk of life beyond the call of duty. Since its creation, during the Civil War, more than 3,400 men and one woman have received the Medal of Honor for heroic actions in U.S. military conflict.

rosemary70 · Post time 13-7-2013 01:24 AM

Jul 13, 1943:
Largest tank battle in history ends

The Battle of Kursk, involving some 6,000 tanks, two million men, and 5,000 aircraft, ends with the German offensive repulsed by the Soviets at heavy cost.

In early July, Germany and the USSR concentrated their forces near the city of Kursk in western Russia, site of a 150-mile-wide Soviet pocket that jutted 100 miles into the German lines. The German attack began on July 5, and 38 divisions, nearly half of which were armored, began moving from the south and the north. However, the Soviets had better tanks and air support than in previous battles, and in bitter fighting Soviet antitank artillery destroyed as much as 40 percent of the German armor, which included their new Mark VI Tiger tanks. After six days of warfare concentrated near Prokhorovka, south of Kursk, the German Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge called off the offensive, and by July 23 the Soviets had forced the Germans back to their original positions.

In the beginning of August, the Soviets began a major offensive around the Kursk salient, and within a few weeks the Germans were in retreat all along the eastern front.

http://www.history.com/this-day- ... tle-in-history-ends

http://www.battleofkursk.org/Battle-of-Kursk-Tanks.html

rosemary70 · Post time 13-7-2013 01:41 PM

            Jul 13, 1960:                                                       Kennedy nominated for presidency

            In Los Angeles, California, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts is nominated for the presidency by the Democratic Party Convention, defeating Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. The next day, Johnson was named Kennedy's running mate by a unanimous vote of the convention.

Four months later, on November 8, Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history, surpassing by a fraction the 49.6 percent received by Vice President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican.

On January 20, 1961, on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States. A fourth-generation Irish American, Kennedy was also the nation's first Catholic president. During his famous inauguration address, Kennedy, the youngest candidate ever elected to the presidency, declared that "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans" and appealed to Americans to "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline, and the large Kennedy clan seemed fitting representatives of the youthful spirit of America during the early 1960s, and the Kennedy White House was idealized by admirers as a modern-day "Camelot." In foreign policy, Kennedy actively fought communism in the world, ordering the controversial Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and sending thousands of U.S. military "advisers" to Vietnam. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he displayed firmness and restraint, exercising an unyielding opposition to the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba but also demonstrating a level-headedness during tense negotiations for their removal. On the domestic front, he introduced his "New Frontier" social legislation, calling for a rigorous federal desegregation policy and a sweeping new civil rights bill. On November 22, 1963, after less than three years in office, Kennedy was assassinated while riding in an open-car motorcade with his wife in Dallas, Texas.

http://www.history.com/this-day- ... ated-for-presidency

http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Campaign-of-1960.aspx

Last edited by rosemary70 on 13-7-2013 01:44 PM

rosemary70 · Post time 14-7-2013 03:28 PM

Jul 14, 1099: Jerusalem captured in First Crusade

During the First Crusade, Christian knights from Europe capture Jerusalem after seven weeks of siege and begin massacring the city's Muslim and Jewish population.
Beginning in the 11th century, Christians in Jerusalem were increasingly persecuted by the city's Islamic rulers, especially when control of the holy city passed from the relatively tolerant Egyptians to the Seljuk Turks in 1071. Late in the century, Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comenus, also threatened by the Seljuk Turks, appealed to the West for aid. In 1095, Pope Urban II publicly called for a crusade to aid Eastern Christians and recover the holy lands. The response by Western Europeans was immediate.

The first crusaders were actually undisciplined hordes of French and German peasants who met with little success. One group, known as the "People's Crusade," reached as far as Constantinople before being annihilated by the Turks. In 1096, the main crusading force, featuring some 4,000 mounted knights and 25,000 infantry, began to move east. Led by Raymond of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert of Flanders, and Bohemond of Otranto, the army of Christian knights crossed into Asia Minor in 1097.

In June, the crusaders captured the Turkish-held city of Nicaea and then defeated a massive army of Seljuk Turks at Dorylaeum. From there, they marched on to Antioch, located on the Orontes River below Mount Silpius, and began a difficult six-month siege during which they repulsed several attacks by Turkish relief armies. Finally, early in the morning of June 3, 1098, Bohemond persuaded a Turkish traitor to open Antioch's Bridge Gate, and the knights poured into the city. In an orgy of killing, the Christians massacred thousands of enemy soldiers and citizens, and all but the city's fortified citadel was taken. Later in the month, a large Turkish army arrived to attempt to regain the city, but they too were defeated, and the Antioch citadel surrendered to the Europeans.

After resting and reorganizing for six months, the crusaders set off for their ultimate goal, Jerusalem. Their numbers were now reduced to some 1,200 cavalry and 12,000 foot soldiers. On June 7, 1099, the Christian army reached the holy city, and finding it heavily fortified, began building three enormous siege towers. By the night of July 13, the towers were complete, and the Christians began fighting their way across Jerusalem's walls. On July 14, Godfrey's men were the first to penetrate the defenses, and the Gate of Saint Stephen was opened. The rest of the knights and soldiers then poured in, the city was captured, and tens of thousands of its occupants were slaughtered.

The crusaders had achieved their aims, and Jerusalem was in Christian hands, but an Egyptian army marched on the holy city a few weeks later to challenge their claim. The Egyptians' defeat by the outnumbered Christians in August ended Muslim resistance to the Europeans for the time being, and five small Christian states were set up in the region under the rule of the leaders of the crusade.

http://www.history.com/this-day- ... ed-in-first-crusade

http://jreuter.hubpages.com/hub/ ... nquest-of-Jerusalem

cikatilia · Post time 15-7-2013 01:21 PM

1966 U.S.A. Richard Speck Murders 14th July 1966 :
In one of the worst murder cases to date 8 student nurses are brutally murdered by Richard Speck at their group residence in Chicago, Illinois.

On the night of July 14, 1966, eight student nurses are brutally murdered by Richard Speck at their group residence in Chicago, Illinois. Speck threatened the women with both a gun and a knife, tying each of them up while robbing their townhouse. Over the next several hours, Speck stabbed and strangled each of the young women throughout various rooms of the place. One young woman, Corazon Amurao, managed to escape with her life by hiding under a bed; Speck had lost count of his victims.

Richard Speck was an alcoholic and a petty criminal with over 20 arrests on his record by the age of 25. He had "Born to Raise Hell" tattooed on his forearm and periodically worked on cargo boats traveling the Great Lakes. On the night of July 13, after drinking heavily at several Chicago bars, Speck broke into the townhouse for student nurses of the South Chicago Community Hospital.

Speck then used his gun to force three nurses into a bedroom, where he found three more women. Using nautical knots, he then tied the women's hands and feet with strips torn from bedsheets. By midnight, three more nurses had come home only to be tied up as well. Speck assured the women that he was only going to rob them.

After stealing from the women, he took them into separate rooms, killing them one by one. The remaining women heard only muffled screams from their roommates. Amurao, who was hiding under her bed, waited until 6 a.m. the following day before leaving her hiding place. She then crawled out onto a second-story ledge and screamed for help. Police responding to the cries obtained a detailed description of Speck from Amurao; the sketch was placed on the front page of every local newspaper the next morning. Speck, who was hiding out at a dollar-a-night hotel, slashed his right wrist and left elbow in a suicide attempt on July 16.

Speck was arrested the next day at the Cook County Hospital. With Amurao's identification and his fingerprints left at the scene, Speck was convicted and sentenced to death. However, in 1972, when the Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty law under which he was sentenced, Speck was re-sentenced to 400 years in prison. He died in prison of a heart attack on December 5, 1991.

si pembunuh

mangsa

yang selamat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Speck
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/speck/index_1.html

cikatilia · Post time 15-7-2013 04:03 PM

1976 U.S.A. School Bus Kidnapped Chowchilla, California 15th July 1976 :

An entire school bus of twenty six children and the driver are kidnapped in Chowchilla, California by three gunmen. They are then forced into a moving van which had been buried underground in a quarry in Livermore, California. The bus driver Ed Ray and some of the older children spent the next 16 hours digging their way out and emerge in the middle of the night and walked to a nearby guard shack at the entrance to the quarry. The quarry owner's son, Frederick Woods, and two friends, Richard and James Schoenfeld, are charged and found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

1976 bus kidnapping[edit]
Main article: 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping
Chowchilla made national news on July 15, 1976, when 26 students and their bus driver were kidnapped from a bus and held in a buried moving van at a quarry in Livermore, California. The driver and some of the students were able to escape and notify the quarry guard. All the victims returned unharmed. The quarry owner’s son and two friends were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chowchilla,_California#1976_bus_kidnapping

'I still sleep with a night light': Survivors of 1976 school bus kidnapping reveal their enduring fears - as their captor is freed

Nearly 40 years after they were snatched and buried alive for 16 hours, the children of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping have revealed how the memories of that horrifying day have endured. And while one of their captors walks free from prison, many of the 26 children taken on July 15, 1976 say they will never be able to escape from the fears the ordeal inflicted. 'I still sleep with a night light,' Jennifer Brown Hyde, who moved from California to Nashville, explained to People magazine. 'I can't ride a subway or go underground.'

Changed: Victims of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping, in which 26 children and their bus driver were held captive underground for 16 hours in 1976, have revealed they still struggle with the memories

Safe: Most of the children pose with the bus driver, Ed Ray, who was credited with getting them to safety

The children, then aged five to 14, were on the schoolbus in July 1976 when the driver, Ed Ray, stopped to see if an apparently broken-down white van needed help.
But three masked men, later identified as brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld and Frederick Woods, stormed onto the vehicle brandishing guns and forced Ray to the back of the bus.

Richard poked a gun in my belly,' Jodi Heffinton Medrano, who had been 10 at the time, told People. 'One said: "Tell me your name or you are never going to see your mommy and daddy again".' The children and Ray were loaded onto two vans and driven around for 11 hours, during which time the hungry, petrified children soiled themselves and held each other in fear.

Struggle: Jodi Heffington-Medrano, left, and Lynda Carrejo Labendeira recounted the fearful day when their bus was taken over by three kidnappers and they were forced into a container underground

The bus eventually came to a halt at a rock quarry in Livermore owned by Woods' father, where the 27 hostages were forced into a van that had been buried underground. 'They left cereal, peanut butter and bread, but it was gone quickly,' Linda Carrejo Labendeira remembered. 'There was no ventilation, just a battery fan that died. It was like a grave, dark.' The driver and older boys were able to stack mattresses to a hole in the top of the van. They pushed open a weighted-down metal lid and freed the children who had spent 16 hours underground. 'He was a courageous man,' Medrano said of Ray, the driver. 'He kept 26 scared children in line and made us feel safe.' But even when they started to escape, they feared the men were waiting outside for them, she said.

Hijacked: On July 15, 1976, an armed man and his two accomplices took over the school bus

Saved: The 26 children were forced into a van which had been buried underground, left, but the bus driver, right, stacked the mattress on top of each other so the children could escape out of a hatch in the top

Buried alive: Ray and the 26 children spent 16 hours inside a van buried underground in a rock quarry

'After all of us were out, we started walking,' she continued. 'A man drove up and said, "Oh my God. You're those kids".'
About 36 hours after the bus was hijacked, the children were reunited with their panic-stricken parents - and discovered the national media had descended on their doorsteps.

Freed: One of the three captors, Richard Schoenfeld, was let out of prison earlier this year despite a life sentence.

The other two remain locked up
But even when they were returned to the safety of their homes, the children suffered trauma from the kidnapping, with some admitting they still struggle today.
'I felt ashamed,' Madrano said. 'I became depressed. I didn't want to be touched. I gained 50 lbs.'
Larry Park, who was six at the time, added: 'After the kidnapping I started to hear a voice in my head. When I was 11, it turned violent. I fantasized about killing my kidnappers.'
Park battled addiction and schizophrenia for most of his life but now counsels others, People reported.
The Schoenfelds and Woods, who were from wealthy families, had plotted to kidnap the children in the hopes of getting $5 million ransom after losing $30,000 in a real estate deal.
The bus driver, who died in May aged 91, was hailed a hero for helping the children escape safely. Under hypnosis, he remembered the license plate of one of the vehicles and police began a manhunt.
Richard Schoenfeld, who was 22 at the time of the crime, surrendered to police eight days later. The Woods initially escaped to Canada, but turned themselves in a week after their accomplice.
In July 1977, the three pleaded guilty to 27 counts of kidnapping for ransom. They were sentenced to life without possibility of parole, which was changed in 1981 to life with the possibility of parole.
But last June, Richard Schoenfeld, 57, was freed and taken to Mountain View, California the home of his mother, Merry, after serving time for his role in the 1976 abduction.

Convicted: James Schoenfeld (left), Fred Woods (center) and Richard Schoenfeld (right) had lost $30,000 in a real estate deal and hoped to get $5 million from the kidnapping ransom money

Relief : Young victims huddle together for celebration honoring them and bus driver Ed Ray in August of 1976

Earlier this year, an appeals court ordered Schoenfeld's immediate release, stating that the Board of Parole had unfairly set his release date for 2021 even though he was not a threat to society.
Chowchilla Mayor Janan Herbert issued a statement ahead of the release saying her town was unhappy that Schoenfeld would be freed and that the emotional legacy of the crime still lingered.
She said that while the victims did not suffer physical harm, they were 'psychologically harmed' and that 'we are acutely aware of the enduring pain Mr Schoenfeld has caused them by his actions'.
The now-grown children agreed the legacy has endured and many are unable to take subways, go on buses or sleep in the dark.
Schoenfeld's two accomplices, Schoenfeld's older brother James and Frederick Woods, both now 60, were denied parole and remain in jail.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ ... .html#ixzz2Z6BiU3Ux

cikatilia · Post time 15-7-2013 04:30 PM

1997 U.S.A. Gianni Versace Murdered 15th July 1997 : The Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot twice in the head on the steps outside his Miami mansion by Andrew Cunanan

Gianni Versace (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒanni verˈsaːtʃe]; born Giovanni Maria Versace; December 2, 1946 – July 15, 1997) was an Italian fashion designer and founder of Gianni Versace S.p.A., an international fashion house, which produces accessories, fragrances, makeup and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films, and was a friend of Diana, Princess of Wales, Madonna, Elton John, Cher, Sting and many other celebrities. Openly gay, Versace and his partner Antonio D'Amico were regulars on the international party scene. Versace was murdered outside his Miami Beach home, the former Casa Casuarina now known as "The Villa By Barton G.", at the age of 50 by spree killer Andrew Cunanan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianni_Versace

1997: Versace murdered on his doorstep
Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace has been shot dead on the steps of his Miami mansion.
The incident happened shortly before 0900 local time (1400 GMT) as the 50-year-old designer returned from the fashionable News Café where he bought breakfast and Italian newspapers.

Witnesses described a white man in his mid-twenties taking a gun from a backpack and shooting Versace twice in the back of the head as he unlocked the gates to his Ocean Drive home.

A gun was found with discarded clothes in a red Chevrolet pick-up truck abandoned in a car park.

Prime suspect

Police have traced the weapon to Andrew Cunanan, 27, a gay prostitute with an "affluent clientele".

He is already on the FBI's most wanted list in connection with four other murders - all of the victims were, like Versace, homosexual.

Miami police chief Richard Barreto described Cunanan as the sole suspect, but he did not know if he had any relationship with Versace.

Hundreds of people have gathered opposite Versace's three-storey, Mediterranean style home, the only residential building in the art deco section of Ocean Drive.

Police have sealed off the area round the blood-stained steps to the house - Casa Casuarina - where Versace lived most of the time with his friend Antonio D'Amico.

Around the world Versace's stores have been closing as they received news of the tragedy.

Tributes are pouring in from the many rich and famous friends who enjoyed wearing Versace's flamboyant designs.

Amongst them Princess Diana has issued a statement saying she was "devastated at the loss of a great and talented man".

Versace had just released his new winter collection and a glamorous television launch planned for the Spanish Steps in Rome has been cancelled.

With the help of his sister Donatella and his brother Santo, Versace transformed the family firm into a multimillion-dollar fashion empire.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/15/newsid_2503000/2503757.stm

In Context

Following America's biggest manhunt, detectives traced Andrew Cunanan to a houseboat three miles from the murder scene on 25 July 1997.After a five-hour siege a swat team stormed the boat and found Cunanan dead.
He had shot himself in the head with the gun he used to kill Versace.
His motive and any clues to his links with organised crime went with him to the grave.
There were some press reports which suggested he had been diagnosed HIV-positive, but a post mortem examination showed this was not the case.
Versace was his fifth victim, at the end of a killing spree which began in April 1997.
Versace launched his fashion label in 1978 and the year before his death made pre-tax profits of ￡60m from a global turnover of ￡300m.
The label has continued under the direction of Donatella and Santo Versace.

jarikuku · Post time 15-7-2013 04:47 PM

HARI INI DALAM SEJARAH - Orkestra Simfoni Putrajaya 2007 Catat Rekod Malaysia

Pada hari ini dalam tahun 2007, Persembahan Orkestra Simfoni Putrajaya 2007 mencatat rekod Malaysia apabila berjaya mengadakan persembahan di dalam taman dan di catatkan dalam Malaysia Book of Records sebagai konsert pertama serta terbesar pernah di adakan di tempat terbuka. Seramai 1,000 tetamu jemputan hadir menyaksikan konsert orkestra tersebut di perkarangan Kompleks Seri Perdana, di Putrajaya. Konsert tersebut diadakan selama dua jam adalah sempena meraikan ulang tahun kemerdekaan negara ke-50 itu turut diserikan dengan kehadiran Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan isteri, Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah, Menteri Kabinet, wakil diplomat asing dan tokoh-tokoh korporat. Konsert tersebut diiringi oleh Orkestra Radio dan Televisyen Malaysia dianggotai seramai 70 ahli muzik profesional di bawah pimpinan dua orang konduktor muzik iaitu Datuk Mokhzani Ismail dan Jimmy Ali bersama Koir Kebangsaan. Lagu-lagu yang dipilih bermula seawal era 50-an hinggalah bertaraf klasik antarabangsa yang digabungkan dalam 10 segmen sepanjang konsert itu berlangsung. Dimajlis tersebut, YAB Datuk Seri Abdullah turut menyampaikan sijil Pengiktirafan Malaysia Book of Records kepada Menteri Penerangan, Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin diatas kejayaan Persembahan Orkestra Simfoni Putrajaya 2007 mengadakan persembahan konsert di tempat terbuka.

jarikuku · Post time 15-7-2013 04:48 PM

TODAY IN HISTORY - Ford Motor Company Takes Its First Order

On this day in 1903, the newly formed Ford Motor Company takes its first order from Chicago dentist Ernst Pfenning: an $850 two-cylinder Model A automobile with a tonneau (or backseat). The car, produced at Ford's plant on Mack Street (now Mack Avenue) in Detroit, was delivered to Dr. Pfenning just over a week later.

Henry Ford had built his first gasoline-powered vehicle--which he called the Quadricycle--in a workshop behind his home in 1896, while working as the chief engineer for the main plant of the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. After making two unsuccessful attempts to start a company to manufacture automobiles before 1903, Ford gathered a group of 12 stockholders, including himself, to sign the papers necessary to form the Ford Motor Company in mid-June 1903. As Douglas Brinkley writes in "Wheels for the World," his history of Ford, one of the new company's investors, Albert Strelow, owned a wooden factory building on Mack Avenue that he rented to Ford Motor. In an assembly room measuring 250 by 50 feet, the first Ford Model A went into production that summer.

Designed primarily by Ford's assistant C. Harold Wills, the Model A could accommodate two people side-by-side on a bench; it had no top, and was painted red. The car's biggest selling point was its engine, which at two cylinders and eight-horsepower was the most powerful to be found in a passenger car. It had relatively simple controls, including two forward gears that the driver operated with a foot pedal, and could reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour (comparable to the car's biggest competition at the time, the curved-dash Oldsmobile).

Dr. Pfenning's order turned out to be the first of many, from around the country, launching Ford on its way to profitability. Within two months, the company had sold 215 Fords, and by the end of its first year the Mack Avenue plant had turned out some 1,000 cars. Though the company grew quickly in the next several years, it was the launch of the Model T in 1908 that catapulted Ford to the top of the automobile industry. The Lizzie's tremendous popularity kept Ford far ahead of the pack until dwindling sales led to the end of its production in 1927. That same year, Ford released the second Model A amid great fanfare; it enjoyed similar success, though the onset of the Great Depression kept its sales from equaling those of the Model T.

rosemary70 · Post time 15-7-2013 05:24 PM

Rembrandt van Rijn's 407th birth anniversary

Rembrandt van Rijn was a Dutch painter who made major contributions to European art history.

He was born on July 15, 1606 in Dutch republic, which is now known as the Netherlands.

From a very young age he showed inclination towards painting and was apprenticed to some of the greatest painters of his time such as Pieter Lastman, Jacob van Swanenburgh and Jacob Pynas.

During the initial phase of his career he painted portraits, including several self-portraits.

In 1631, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, where he successfully established himself as a professional portraitist.

The subjects of Rembrandt's work include the themes of landscape, portraiture and narrative painting.

But his contemporaries glorified him as a masterly interpreter of biblical stories and admired his skills to represent emotions and attention to detail. He mastered the fine technique in portrayal of illusionistic form and also won recognition as a printmaker.

According to 20th century art enthusiasts and connoisseurs, Rembrandt van Rijn may have produced more than 600 paintings, 400 etchings and 2,000 drawings.

A few of his works are highly popular. Some of them include 'Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp' (1632), 'Portrait of the Shipbuilder Jan Rijcksen and his wife' (1633), 'Belshazzar's Feast' (1635), 'Night Watch' (1642) and 'Syndics of the Drapers' Guild' (1662).

The great Dutch painter died on October 4, 1669, in Amsterdam.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.c ... leshow/21079896.cms

Rembrandt van Rijn: Famous Works

http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/

jarikuku · Post time 16-7-2013 11:16 AM

TODAY IN HISTORY - Atom Bomb Successfully Tested

On this day in 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., the Manhattan Project comes to an explosive end as the first atom bomb is successfully tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established as early as 1939, when Italian emigre physicist Enrico Fermi met with U.S. Navy department officials at Columbia University to discuss the use of fissionable materials for military purposes. That same year, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt supporting the theory that an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction had great potential as a basis for a weapon of mass destruction. In February 1940, the federal government granted a total of $6,000 for research. But in early 1942, with the United States now at war with the Axis powers, and fear mounting that Germany was working on its own uranium bomb, the War Department took a more active interest, and limits on resources for the project were removed.

Brigadier-General Leslie R. Groves, himself an engineer, was now in complete charge of a project to assemble the greatest minds in science and discover how to harness the power of the atom as a means of bringing the war to a decisive end. The Manhattan Project (so-called because of where the research began) would wind its way through many locations during the early period of theoretical exploration, most importantly, the University of Chicago, where Enrico Fermi successfully set off the first fission chain reaction. But the Project took final form in the desert of New Mexico, where, in 1943, Robert J. Oppenheimer began directing Project Y at a laboratory at Los Alamos, along with such minds as Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, and Fermi. Here theory and practice came together, as the problems of achieving critical mass-a nuclear explosion-and the construction of a deliverable bomb were worked out.

Finally, on the morning of July 16, in the New Mexico desert 120 miles south of Santa Fe, the first atomic bomb was detonated. The scientists and a few dignitaries had removed themselves 10,000 yards away to observe as the first mushroom cloud of searing light stretched 40,000 feet into the air and generated the destructive power of 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT. The tower on which the bomb sat when detonated was vaporized.

The question now became-on whom was the bomb to be dropped? Germany was the original target, but the Germans had already surrendered. The only belligerent remaining was Japan.

A footnote: The original $6,000 budget for the Manhattan Project finally ballooned to a total cost of $2 billion.

jarikuku · Post time 16-7-2013 11:16 AM

HARI INI DALAM SEJARAH - Pelantikan Dr. Mahathir Sebagai Perdana Menteri Ke-4

Pada hari ini dalam tahun 1981, Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Haji Ahmad Shah Al Musta’in Billah Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Abu Bakar Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mu’adzam Shah telah berekanan melantik Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad sebagai Perdana Menteri Malaysia yang keempat di Istana Negara, Kuala Lumpur setelah Tun Hussien Onn meletakkan jawatan atas sebab-sebab kesihatan. YAB Dr Mahathir mula aktif dalam arena politik sejak tahun 1945 dan mula bertanding dalam pilihanraya umum pada 25 April 1964 di Parlimen Kota Setar atas tiket Perikatan dan berjaya menewaskan calon PAS. Pada tahun 1974, beliau dilantik sebagai Menteri Pelajaran oleh Tun Haji Abdul Razak bin Hussein dan pada tahun 1976 beliau dilantik menjadi Timbalan Perdana Menteri oleh Tun Hussein Onn. Pada 31 Oktober 2003, beliau menyerahkan tampuk pemerintahan kepada Dato’ Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi dan beliau telah dianugerahkan Pingat Seri Maharaja Mangku Negara yang membawa gelaran ‘Tun’. Bapa Pemodenan Malaysia ini yang telah memperkenalkan pelbagai dasar bagi merintis kearah negara maju berdasarkan Wawasan 2020, iaitu dasar meletakkan Malaysia sebagai negara maju menjelang 2020.

cikatilia · Post time 16-7-2013 12:51 PM

jarikuku posted on 16-7-2013 11:16 AM
HARI INI DALAM SEJARAH - Pelantikan Dr. Mahathir Sebagai Perdana Menteri Ke-4

Pada hari ini dalam ...

walaweh
aku masih baby time che det jadi pee em

jarikuku · Post time 16-7-2013 12:58 PM

cikatilia posted on 16-7-2013 12:51 PM
walaweh
aku masih baby time che det jadi pee em

ekekek, iols belum lagi lahir masa ni..
tapi iols suka Tun M jadi PM Malaysia.

novelloverzz · Post time 16-7-2013 02:50 PM

cikatilia posted on 15-7-2013 01:21 PM
1966 U.S.A. Richard Speck Murders 14th July 1966 :
In one of the worst murder cases to date 8 stud ...

siannya diorg muda2 lagi..yg terselamat tu mesti trauma seumur hidup..nasib baik dah mampus murderer tu tp x kan dia leh hidup another 400 years kan cika..