Britain's first live public broadcast was made from the factory of Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company in Chelmsford in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mail's Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba. The Melba broadcast caught the people's imagination and marked a turning point in the British public's attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office (GPO), was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts.
But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests and moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies with over 3,000 members. Anxious to avoid the same chaotic expansion experienced in the United States, the GPO proposed that it would issue a single broadcasting licence to a company jointly owned by a consortium of leading wireless receiver manufacturers, to be known as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its general manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. L. Stanton Jefferies was its first director of music. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved domestic manufacturers. To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform, educate and entertain".


Television broadcasting was suspended from 1 September 1939 to 7 June 1946, during the Second World War, and it was left to BBC Radio broadcasters such as Reginald Foort to keep the nation's spirits up. The BBC moved most of its radio operations out of London, initially to Bristol, and then to Bedford.  Concerts were broadcast from the Corn Exchange; the Trinity Chapel in St Paul's Church, Bedford was the studio for the daily service from 1941 to 1945, and, in the darkest days of the war in 1941, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York came to St Paul's to broadcast to the UK and the world on the National Day of Prayer. BBC employees during the war included George Orwell who spent two years with the broadcaster.
During his role as prime minister during the war, Winston Churchill delivered 33 major wartime speeches by radio, all of which were carried by the BBC within the UK. On 18 June 1940, French general Charles de Gaulle, in exile in London as the leader of the Free French, made a speech, broadcast by the BBC, urging the French people not to capitulate to the Nazis.
In 1938, John Reith and the British government, specifically the Ministry of Information which had been set up for WWII, designed a censorship apparatus for the inevitability of war. Due to the BBC's advancements in shortwave radio technology, the corporation could broadcast across the world during the Second World War. Within Europe, the BBC European Service would gather intelligence and information regarding the current events of the war in English. Regional BBC workers, based on their regional geo-political climate, would then further censor the material their broadcasts would cover. Nothing was to be added outside the preordained news items. For example, the BBC Polish Service was heavily censored due to fears of jeopardising relations with the Soviet Union. Controversial topics, i.e. the contested Polish and Soviet border, the deportation of Polish citizens, the arrests of Polish Home Army members and the Katyn massacre, were not included in Polish broadcasts. American radio broadcasts were broadcast across Europe on BBC channels. This material also passed through the BBC's censorship office, which surveilled and edited American coverage of British affairs. By 1940, across all BBC broadcasts, music by composers from enemy nations was censored. In total, 99 German, 38 Austrian and 38 Italian composers were censored. The BBC argued that like the Italian or German languages, listeners would be irritated by the inclusion of enemy composers. Any potential broadcasters said to have pacifist, communist or fascist ideologies were not allowed on the BBC's airwaves. In 1937, a MI5 security officer was given a permanent office within the organisation. This officer would examine the files of potential political subversives and mark the files of those deemed a security risk to the organisation, blacklisting them. This was often done on spurious grounds; even so, the practice would continue and expand during the years of the Cold War.


The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate. Set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee. The Committee recommended a short term reorganisation of licence fees with improved enforcement in order to address the BBC's immediate financial distress, and an increased share of the licence revenue split between it and the GPO. This was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee to fund broadcasts. The BBC's broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, as was the prohibition on advertising. To avoid competition with newspapers, Fleet Street persuaded the government to ban news bulletins before 7 pm and the BBC was required to source all news from external wire services.
Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee. By now, the BBC, under Reith's leadership, had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified (monopoly) broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss-making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a public service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production, and with restrictions on news bulletins waived, the BBC suddenly became the primary source of news for the duration of the crisis.
The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position. On the one hand Reith was acutely aware that the government might exercise its right to commandeer the BBC at any time as a mouthpiece of the government if the BBC were to step out of line, but on the other he was anxious to maintain public trust by appearing to be acting independently. The government was divided on how to handle the BBC, but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PM's own. Although Winston Churchill in particular wanted to commandeer the BBC to use it "to the best possible advantage", Reith wrote that Stanley Baldwin's government wanted to be able to say "that they did not commandeer [the BBC], but they know that they can trust us not to be really impartial". Thus the BBC was granted sufficient leeway to pursue the government's objectives largely in a manner of its own choosing. The resulting coverage of both striker and government viewpoints impressed millions of listeners who were unaware that the PM had broadcast to the nation from Reith's home, using one of Reith's sound bites inserted at the last moment, or that the BBC had banned broadcasts from the Labour Party and delayed a peace appeal by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Supporters of the strike nicknamed the BBC the BFC for British Falsehood Company. Reith personally announced the end of the strike which he marked by reciting from Blake's "Jerusalem" signifying that England had been saved.
While the BBC tends to characterise its coverage of the general strike by emphasising the positive impression created by its balanced coverage of the views of government and strikers, Jean Seaton, Professor of Media History and the Official BBC Historian, has characterised the episode as the invention of "modern propaganda in its British form". Reith argued that trust gained by 'authentic impartial news' could then be used. Impartial news was not necessarily an end in itself.
The BBC did well out of the crisis, which cemented a national audience for its broadcasting, and it was followed by the Government's acceptance of the recommendation made by the Crawford Committee (1925–26) that the British Broadcasting Company be replaced by a non-commercial, Crown-chartered organisation: the British Broadcasting Corporation.


In 2002, several television and radio channels were reorganised. BBC Knowledge was replaced by BBC Four and became the BBC's arts and documentaries channel. CBBC, which had been a programming strand as Children's BBC since 1985, was split into CBBC and CBeebies, for younger children, with both new services getting a digital channel: the CBBC Channel and CBeebies Channel. In addition to the television channels, new digital radio stations were created: 1Xtra, 6 Music and BBC7. BBC 1Xtra was a sister station to Radio 1 and specialised in modern black music, BBC 6 Music specialised in alternative music genres and BBC7 specialised in archive, speech and children's programming.
The following few years resulted in repositioning of some channels to conform to a larger brand: in 2003, BBC Choice was replaced by BBC Three, with programming for younger adults and shocking real-life documentaries, BBC News 24 became the BBC News Channel in 2008, and BBC Radio 7 became BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2011, with new programmes to supplement those broadcast on Radio 4. In 2008, another channel was launched, BBC Alba, a Scottish Gaelic service.
During this decade, the corporation began to sell off a number of its operational divisions to private owners; BBC Broadcast was spun off as a separate company in 2002, and in 2005, it was sold off to Australian-based Macquarie Capital Alliance Group and Macquarie Bank Limited and rebranded Red Bee Media. The BBC's IT, telephony and broadcast technology were brought together as BBC Technology Ltd in 2001, and the division was later sold to the German company Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS). SIS was subsequently acquired from Siemens by the French company Atos. Further divestments included BBC Books (sold to Random House in 2006); BBC Outside Broadcasts Ltd (sold in 2008 to Satellite Information Services); Costumes and Wigs (stock sold in 2008 to Angels The Costumiers); and BBC Magazines (sold to Immediate Media Company in 2011). After the sales of OBs and costumes, the remainder of BBC Resources was reorganised as BBC Studios and Post Production, which continues today as a wholly owned subsidiary of the BBC.
The 2004 Hutton Inquiry and the subsequent report raised questions about the BBC's journalistic standards and its impartiality. This led to resignations of senior management members at the time including the then Director General, Greg Dyke. In January 2007, the BBC released minutes of the board meeting which led to Greg Dyke's resignation.
Unlike the other departments of the BBC, the BBC World Service was funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, more commonly known as the Foreign Office or the FCO, is the British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom abroad.
In 2006, BBC HD launched as an experimental service, and became official in December 2007. The channel broadcast HD simulcasts of programmes on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four as well as repeats of some older programmes in HD. In 2010, an HD simulcast of BBC One launched: BBC One HD. The  channel uses HD versions of BBC One's schedule and uses upscaled versions of programmes not currently produced in HD. The BBC HD channel closed in March 2013 and was replaced by BBC Two HD in the same month.
On 18 October 2007, BBC Director General Mark Thompson announced a controversial plan to make major cuts and reduce the size of the BBC as an organisation. The plans included a reduction in posts of 2,500; including 1,800 redundancies, consolidating news operations, reducing programming output by 10% and selling off the flagship Television Centre building in London. These plans were fiercely opposed by unions, who threatened a series of strikes; however, the BBC stated that the cuts were essential to move the organisation forward and concentrate on increasing the quality of programming.
On 20 October 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced that the television licence fee would be frozen at its current level until the end of the current charter in 2016. The same announcement revealed that the BBC would take on the full cost of running the BBC World Service and the BBC Monitoring service from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and partially finance the Welsh broadcaster S4C.


1670 (MDCLXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1670th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 670th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 70th  year of the 17th century, and the  1st   year of the 1670s decade. As of the start of 1670, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


January 17 – Raphael Levy, a Jewish resident of the city of Metz in France is burned at the stake after having been accused of the September 25 abduction and ritual murder of a small child who had disappeared from the village of Glatigny.  The prosecutor applies to King Louis XIV for an order expelling all 95 Jewish families from Metz, which the King refuses to do.
January 27 – The Muslim Emperor Aurangzeb of the Mughal Empire in India issues an order for the destruction of all Hindu temples and schools in the empire, including the Keshvadeva Temple in Mathura.
February 4 – The Battle of Sinhagad takes place in India (in the modern-day Maharashtra state) as the Maratha Empire army, led by Tanaji Malusare, leads an assault on the Kondhana Fortress that had been captured by the Mughal Empire. Tanaji, called "The Lion" by his followers, captures the fortress by guiding the successful scaling of the walls of the fortress with ladders created from rope, but is killed in the battle. The Maratha Emperor Shivaji orders the fortress named Sinhagad, the Marathi language words for "Lion's Fort".
February 9 – Christian V becomes the King of Denmark (which includes, at this time, Norway) upon the death of his father, Frederick III.
February 27 – The royal wedding in Poland, between King Michal Wisniowiecki (who is also the Grand Duke of Lithuania) and Eleonore of Austria (daughter of the late Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor), with ceremonies taking place at the Denhoff Palace in Kruszyna.
March 7 – Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh since 1669, is allowed to return to Ireland for the first time in more than 22 years, after a new policy of tolerance of Catholicism is enacted in England. Plunkett had departed for Rome in 1647 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Later executed in 1681 on charges of plotting an invasion of Ireland, Plunkett is canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1975.
March 15 – The first English settlers arrive at the modern-day U.S. state of South Carolina, at this time the Province of Clarendon carved out of the Province of Carolina, and construct a settlement at Albemarle Point on the Ashley River.
March 18 – Petar Zrinski, the Viceroy of Croatia within the Holy Roman Empire, issues a proclamation urging Croatians to rebel against the Habsburg rulers. The uprising fails and Zrinski and his brother-in-law, Krsto Frankopan, are quickly arrested.  Both are beheaded in Vienna on April 30, 1671.
March 31 – The British warship HMS Sapphire is wrecked beyond repair when her captain, John Pearce, orders the ship to be run aground at Sicily while fleeing what he believes to be four Algerian pirate ships, rather than attempting to fight.  The ships turn out to have been friendly, and Pearce and his lieutenant, Andrew Logan, are court-martialed for their cowardice and executed on September 17.


January 3 – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English soldier (b. 1608)
January 6
Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1st Baronet of Harrow on the Hill, English politician (b. 1587)
Charles of Sezze, Italian Franciscan friar and saint (b. 1613)
January 21
Claude Duval, French-born highwayman
Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de Racan, French aristocrat (b. 1589)
January 25 – Nicholas Francis, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1609)
February 9 – King Frederick III of Denmark (b. 1609)
February 12 – Niklaus Dachselhofer, Swiss politician (b. 1595)
February 17 – Elizabeth Barnard, granddaughter of William Shakespeare (b. 1608)
March 1 – Giovanna Maria Bonomo, beatified Italian Catholic nun (b. 1606)
March 2 – François-Henri Salomon de Virelade, French lawyer (b. 1620)
March 10
Johann Glauber, German chemist (b. 1604)
Ludovicus a S. Carolo, French monk (b. 1608)
March 15 – John Davenport, Connecticut pioneer (b. 1597)
April – Ahom King Swargadeo Chakradhwaj Singha or Supangmung of Assam, India
April 5 – Leonora Baroni, Italian singer  (b. 1611)
April 12 – George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1582)
April 23 – Loreto Vittori, Italian singer and composer (b. 1600)
May 10 – Claude Vignon, French painter (b. 1593)
May 21
Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer and physicist (b. 1586)
Giovanni Andrea Sirani, Italian painter (b. 1610)
May 19 – Ferdinando Ughelli, Italian Cistercian monk, church historian (b. 1595)
May 23 – Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1610)
May 31 – Josceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland, English noble (b. 1644)
June 12 – Hasanuddin of Gowa, 16th Ruler of the Sultanate of Gowa (b. 1631)
June 25 – Lorens von der Linde, Swedish field marshal (b. 1610)
June 27 – Thomas Bennet, English civil lawyer (b. 1592)
June 28 – Hendrik Martenszoon Sorgh, Dutch painter (b. 1610)
June 30
Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, English and French princess (b. 1644)
Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (b. 1613)
July 16 – Abraham Diepraam, Dutch painter (b. 1622)
August 24 – William Neile, English mathematician and founder member of the Royal Society (b. 1637)
September 11 – Jeanne Chezard de Matel, French mystic (b. 1596)
September 16 – William Penn, English admiral and politician (b. 1621)
September 26 – Abraham Teniers, Flemish painter (b. 1629)
September 28 – Alexander Morus, Franco-Scottish Calvinist preacher (b. 1616)
August 10 – Richard Ottley, English politician (b. 1626)
October 3 – Sir Henry Yelverton, 2nd Baronet, English Member of Parliament (b. 1633)
October 27 – Vavasor Powell, Welsh non-conformist leader (b. 1617)
November 8 – Emmanuel, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, German prince of the House of Ascania (b. 1631)
November 15 – Comenius, Czech writer (b. 1592)
November 21 – William VII, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (b. 1651)
November 22 – Landgravine Sophie of Hesse-Kassel, Countess of Schaumburg-Lippe (b. 1615)
December 4 – Emilie of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst, Regent of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1646–1662) (b. 1614)
date unknown – Alena Arzamasskaia, Russian rebel leader (b. year unknown)


October 3 – In India, Chhatrapati Shivaji maharaj, the ruler of the Maratha Empire, leads an attack on the British settlement at Surat near Bombay.  British Governor Gerald Aungier secures the British fortress at Surat and saves the lives and property of British citizens.
October 14 – Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, a five-act comedy and ballet authored by Molière, is given its first performance, presented before King Louis XIV at the Château de Chambord. Public performances begin on November 23 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.
October 18 – The Battle of Kitombo takes place in southwest Africa in Angola, when colonial soldiers of the Army of Portugal invade Soyo, an independent BaKongo kingdom, with the intent of annexing it to Portuguese West Africa.  The 400 Portuguese troops, led by João Soares de Almeida, encounter a stiff resistance.  Soyo's Estevao da Silva, whose army has the benefit of weapons supplied by the Dutch Republic, is joined in battle by troops from the neighboring Kingdom of Ngoyo on the other side of the Congo River. General Soares de Almeida is killed, and most of his troops die or are captured; Soyo's General da Silva is killed in the process of winning the battle.  Because of the defeat, Portugal makes no further attempt to conquer Soyo or Ngoyo.
November 24 – Louis XIV of France inaugurates the construction of Les Invalides, a veterans' hospital in Paris.
December 15 – Henry Morgan, a Welsh privateer in English service, recaptures Santa Catalina Island, Colombia.
December 27 – Henry Morgan captures Fort San Lorenzo, on Panama's Caribbean coast.
December 31 – The expedition of John Narborough leaves Corral Bay having surveyed the coast and lost four hostages to the Spanish.


January 24 – William Congreve, English playwright (d. 1729)
February 25 – Maria Margarethe Kirch, German astronomer (d. 1720)
February 28 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American president of Harvard University (d. 1737)
May 8 – Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, English soldier (d. 1726)
May 12 – King Frederick Augustus I of Poland (d. 1733)
June 22 – Eva von Buttlar, German mystic sectarian (d. 1721)
July 18 – Giovanni Bononcini, Italian composer (d. 1747)
July 19 – Richard Leveridge, English bass player and composer (d. 1758)
August 21 – James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, French military commander (d. 1734)
November 15 – Bernard Mandeville, Dutch-born economic philosopher (d. 1733)
December 4 – John Aislabie, English politician, director of the South Sea Company (d. 1742)
date unknown – Sultan Abdullah Khan Abdali, Persian Governor of Herat, Shah of Herat (d. 1721)


Children's libraries are special collections of books intended for juvenile readers and usually kept in separate rooms of general public libraries. Some children's libraries have entire floors or wings dedicated to them in bigger libraries while smaller ones may have a separate room or area for children. They are an educational agency seeking to acquaint the young with the world's literature and to cultivate a love for reading. Their work supplements that of the public schools.
Services commonly provided by public libraries may include storytelling sessions for infants, toddlers, preschool children, or after-school programs, all with an intention of developing early literacy skills and a love of books. One of the most popular programs offered in public libraries are summer reading programs for children, families, and adults.
Another popular reading program for children is PAWS TO READ or similar programs where children can read to certified therapy dogs. Since animals are a calming influence and there is no judgment, children learn confidence and a love of reading. Many states have these types of programs: parents need simply ask their librarian to see if it is available at their local library.


Libraries may provide physical or digital access to material, and may be a physical location or a virtual space, or both. A library's collection can include books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, films, maps, prints, documents, microform, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, e-books, audiobooks, databases, table games, video games and other formats. Libraries range widely in size, up to millions of items.
Libraries often provide quiet areas for studying, and they also often offer common areas to facilitate group study and collaboration. Libraries often provide public facilities for access to their electronic resources and the Internet. Public and institutional collections and services may be intended for use by people who choose not to—or cannot afford to—purchase an extensive collection themselves, who need material no individual can reasonably be expected to have, or who require professional assistance with their research.
Services offered by a library are variously described as library services, information services, or the combination "library and information services", although different institutions and sources define such terminology differently. Organizations or departments are often called by one of these names.


The area has a low population density with the majority of the inhabitants being Haitian migrant workers. In 2010, Haitians represented 81.1 percent of the total population.


Year 1572 (MDLXXII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.


During the 20th century, the city hosted various fairs and conferences, including the Solvay Conference on Physics and on Chemistry, and three world's fairs: the Brussels International Exposition of 1910, the Brussels International Exposition of 1935 and the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo '58). During World War I, Brussels was an occupied city, but German troops did not cause much damage. During World War II, it was again occupied by German forces, and spared major damage, before it was liberated by the British Guards Armoured Division on 3 September 1944. Brussels Airport, in the suburb of Zaventem, dates from the occupation.
After the war, Brussels underwent extensive modernisation. The construction of the North–South connection, linking the main railway stations in the city, was completed in 1952, while the first premetro (underground tram) service was launched in 1969, and the first Metro line was opened in 1976. Starting from the early 1960s, Brussels became the de facto capital of what would become the European Union (EU), and many modern offices were built. Development was allowed to proceed with little regard to the aesthetics of newer buildings, and numerous architectural landmarks were demolished to make way for newer buildings that often clashed with their surroundings, giving name to the process of Brusselisation.


Brussels (French: Bruxelles [bʁysɛl] (listen) or [bʁyksɛl] (listen); Dutch: Brussel [ˈbrʏsəl] (listen)), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest), is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region (within which it forms an enclave) and the Walloon Region. Brussels is the most densely populated and the richest region in Belgium in terms of GDP per capita. It covers 162 km² (63 sq mi), a relatively small area compared to the two other regions, and has a population of over 1.2 million. The five times larger metropolitan area of Brussels comprises over 2.5 million people, which makes it the largest in Belgium. It is also part of a large conurbation extending towards Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven and Walloon Brabant, home to over 5 million people.
Brussels grew from a small rural settlement on the river Senne to become an important city-region in Europe. Since the end of the Second World War, it has been a major centre for international politics and home to numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union, as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, including its administrative-legislative, executive-political, and legislative branches (though the judicial branch is located in Luxembourg, and the European Parliament meets for a minority of the year in Strasbourg). Because of this, its name is sometimes used metonymically to describe the EU and its institutions. The secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of NATO are also located in Brussels. As the economic capital of Belgium and a top financial centre of Western Europe with Euronext Brussels, it is classified as an Alpha global city. Brussels is a hub for rail, road and air traffic, and is sometimes considered, together with Belgium, as the geographic, economic and cultural crossroads of Europe. The Brussels Metro is the only rapid transit system in Belgium. In addition, both its airport and railway stations are the largest and busiest in the country.
Historically Dutch-speaking, Brussels saw a language shift to French from the late 19th century. Nowadays, the Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual in French and Dutch, even though French is the lingua franca with over 90% of the inhabitants being able to speak it. Brussels is also increasingly becoming multilingual. English is spoken as a second language by nearly a third of the population and many migrants and expatriates speak other languages as well.
Brussels is known for its cuisine and gastronomic offer (including its local waffle, its chocolate, its French fries and its numerous types of beers), as well as its historical and architectural landmarks; some of them are registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Main attractions include its historic Grand Place, Manneken Pis, the Atomium, and cultural institutions such as La Monnaie/De Munt and the Museums of Art and History. Due to its long tradition of Belgian comics, Brussels is also hailed as a capital of the comic strip.


To become a Muslim and to convert to Islam, it is essential to utter the Shahada, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, a declaration of faith and trust that professes that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is God's messenger. It is a set statement normally recited in Arabic: ašhadu ʾal-lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu wa ʾašhadu ʾanna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh (أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمداً رسول الله)  "I testify that there is no god [worthy of worship] except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."
In Sunni Islam, the shahada has two parts: la ilaha illa'llah (there is no god but Allah), and Muhammadun rasul Allah (Muhammad is the messenger of God), which are sometimes referred to as the first shahada and the second shahada. The first statement of the shahada is also known as the tahlīl.
In Shia Islam, the shahada also has a third part, a phrase concerning Ali, the first Shia Imam and the fourth Rashid caliph of Sunni Islam: وعليٌ وليُّ الله (wa ʿalīyyun walīyyu-llāh), which translates to "Ali is the wali of God".
In Quranist Islam, the shahada is the testimony that there is no god but Allah (la ilaha illa'llah ).
The religious practices of Muslims are enumerated in the Five Pillars of Islam: the declaration of faith (shahadah), daily prayers (salah), almsgiving (zakat), fasting during the month of Ramadan (sawm), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime.


January 8 – The Young Pretender Charles Edward Stuart occupies Stirling, Scotland.
January 17 – Battle of Falkirk Muir: British Government forces are defeated by Jacobite forces.
February 1 – Jagat Singh II, the ruler of the Mewar Kingdom, inaugurates his Lake Palace on the island of Jag Niwas in Lake Pichola, in what is now the state of Rajasthan in northwest India.
February 19 – Brussels, at the time part of the Austrian Netherlands, surrenders to France's Marshal Maurice de Saxe.
February 19 – Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, issues a proclamation offering an amnesty to participants in the Jacobite rebellion, directing them that they can avoid punishment if they turn their weapons in to their local Presbyterian church.
March 10 – Zakariya Khan Bahadur, the Mughal Empire's viceroy administering Lahore (in what is now Pakistan), orders the massacre of the city's Sikh people.


Eva Ekeblad reports her discovery, of how to make flour and alcohol from potatoes, to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The town of Vilkovo (Odes'ka oblast', Ukraine) is founded.
Gabriel Johnston, British Governor of the Province of North Carolina, moves to New Bern, the province's largest. New Bern replaces Edenton as the capital of North Carolina until Raleigh is established in 1792.
Charles Batteux's Les beaux-arts réduits à un même principe is published in Paris, putting forward for the first time the idea of "les beaux arts": "the fine arts".


1746 (MDCCXLVI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1746th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 746th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th  year of the 18th century, and the  7th   year of the 1740s decade. As of the start of 1746, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


Eisenach's origin and early history is unknown. An 8th century Frankish settlement near Petersberg hill is regarded as the nucleus of Eisenach. However, there are no written sources about that early period. According to legend, Louis the Springer began in 1067 to establish Wartburg castle above the settlement.
In 1080, the castle was first mentioned in a Saxon chronicle. Eisenach itself followed in a document dating to 1150 where it was referred to as "Isinacha". During the 1180s, the town was established by the construction of three independent market settlements around the Saturday's market (today's Karlsplatz), the Wednesday's market (today's Frauenplan) and the Monday's market (today's Marktplatz). Due to its convenient location at a bottleneck between the Thuringian Forest in the south and the Hainich mountains in the north, Eisenach benefitted from substantial west-east trade along Via Regia from Frankfurt to Erfurt and Leipzig and became a rich merchant town. During the second half of the 12th century, the town walls were erected (the Nikolaitor is an important relict of this wall) and Eisenach got a planned grid of streets and alleys. In the late 12th century, the Wartburg became the main residence of the Ludowingians, making Eisenach a leading place in today's western Thuringia and northern Hesse, which also belonged to the Ludowingian landgraviate. In 1207, the legendary Sängerkrieg supposedly took place at Wartburg castle.
In 1221, St. Elizabeth married Landgrave Louis' IV and she lived in Eisenach or at Wartburg castle until 1228. Later, she became the patroness of Thuringia and Hesse.
In 1247, the Ludowingians died out which led to the War of the Thuringian Succession between the Wettins and Duchess Sophie of Brabant. As a consequence, the landgraviate was divided. Eisenach and the eastern parts went to the Wettins (later becoming Thuringia) and Kassel, Marburg and the western parts went to Sophie (later becoming Hesse). Eisenach kept a leading position among the Wettin's Thuringian cities by becoming their Oberhof (leading court), so that their law had to be derived from Eisenach's municipal law and disputes had to be resolved here. The confident citizens of Eisenach fought against the Wettin's rule to become a free imperial city between 1306 and 1308, but lost. In the 14th century various crises followed: in 1342, a big fire destroyed nearly all the buildings and the Black Death killed many inhabitants in 1349 and 1393. Since 1406, Eisenach was no longer a Wettin residence, which led to a decline in urban development. In 1485, in the "division of Leipzig", the town fell to the Ernestine line of the Wettins.


In 1817, the Wartburg Festival took place in Eisenach, a meeting of students advocating moves towards a more liberal, constitutional state and a unification of Germany. The industrial revolution started relatively early in Eisenach. As early as the first half of the 19th century, the first factories were founded. In 1847, Eisenach was connected by the Thuringian Railway to Erfurt and Halle/Leipzig in the east and in 1849 to Kassel and Frankfurt in the west. In 1858, the Werra Railway to Lichtenfels (and further to Nuremberg) was opened.
In August 1869, the leading socialists August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht founded the SDAP, one of the two predecessors of today's SPD in Eisenach. The Eisenach Program remained the party's main manifesto for the following years. The late 19th and early 20th century was the period with the fastest urban growth in Eisenach. The Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach (FFE), later Automobilwerk Eisenach, basis of car production in Eisenach, was founded in 1896, the first trams ran in 1897, the Burschenschaftsdenkmal ("fraternity monument") was erected in 1902 and the J. S. Bach museum opened in 1907. Tourists also started to arrive in this period, drawn by the pleasing landscape and the various sights within the town.
Between the 1860s and 1938, Eisenach hosted one of the largest Jewish communities in Thuringia with nearly 500 members at the beginning of the 20th century. Many Jews migrated from the Rhön area around Stadtlengsfeld to Eisenach after their emancipation in the early 19th century. The new synagogue was built in 1885 and destroyed by the Nazis during Kristallnacht in November 1938. Most Jews emigrated at that time, others were deported to concentration camps and murdered there. During Nazi Germany the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life, an antisemitic propaganda institute, was set up in Eisenach by eleven German Protestant churches, founded at the instigation of the German Christian movement.
Before the Second World War, BMW had produced motorcycles in the town. In preparation for World War II, new barracks were established in Eisenach and the car industry started the production of military equipment. After 1940, around 4,000 forced labourers (most of them from the Soviet Union) were pressed to work in the town's factories, where some of them died due to the bad working conditions. Postwar, the managing director of the BMW aircraft engine works, Dr Schaaf, told the Fedden Mission there were as many as 11,000 working in the town, 4,500 in a plant inside a hillside turning out BMW 132 engines and parts for the 801, the rest in town. The bombings during the war destroyed about 2,000 housing units and big parts of the car factories, as well as some historic buildings in the town centre, which were rebuilt soon after the war. The US Army arrived in Eisenach on 6 April 1945, but the Soviets took over control of the town on 1 July 1945, making it Communism's westernmost major town.
Eisenach was part of the GDR after 1949. The Inner German border ran only ten kilometres west of Eisenach and was closed in 1952, cutting off parts of Eisenach's traditional hinterland. The location near the border inhibited the further development during the next 40 years and the population declined through that period. Nevertheless, Eisenach remained an important industrial location. The BMW car factory was socialized and under the new name EMW produced the Wartburg, the so-called "Mercedes of the East". The deteriorating condition of many historic houses led to a housing shortage during the 1970s. The government fought this by demolishing some historic quarters (e.g. at Jakobstraße) and rebuilding them with Plattenbau settlements. The biggest Plattenbau district was built at the northern periphery of Eisenach between 1978 and 1985 with nearly 4,000 housing units. In 1975, the tramway system was discontinued.
After German reunification in 1990, the economic situation changed. The car factory was taken over by Opel, whereas many other factories were closed. On the other hand, Eisenach moved from the inner German border to the centre of the reunified country. Tourism saw significant growth and the Wartburg castle was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. Nevertheless, the financial situation of Eisenach remained difficult, unemployment stayed above average and car production suffered from the business problems of Opel.


Eisenach is situated at the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest, at an elevation of about 220 m. The terrain is hilly, to the south also mountainous (up to 460 m of elevation), with the central Hörsel valley crossing the town in east-western direction. The Nesse river enters the Hörsel river in Eisenach after forming a valley through the spur of the Hörselberg mountains in the eastern municipal territory. The northern territory around the Neunkirchen, Stregda and Hötzelsroda districts is relatively flat and in agricultural use. Approximately 7 km (4 mi) west of the town centre runs the wide Werra valley, where the Hörsel river enters this bigger river near Hörschel district. The southern municipal territory is covered with forest, same as some smaller parts north of the Hörsel river. The Hainich mountains begin 10 km (6 mi) north-east of Eisenach.


Eisenach has a humid continental climate (Dfb) or an oceanic climate (Cfb) according to the Köppen climate classification system. Summers are warm and sometimes humid, winters are relatively cold. The town's topography creates a microclimate with mostly adequate air circulation along the west-eastern valley which made Eisenach a resort at the end of the 19th century. Annual precipitation is 831 millimeters (32.7 in) with moderate rainfall throughout the year. Light snowfall mainly occurs from December through February, but snow cover does not usually remain for long in the inner town valley.


Vienna (/viˈɛnə/ (listen) vee-EN-ə; German: Wien [viːn] (listen); Austro-Bavarian: Wean [veɐ̯n]) is the capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about two million inhabitants (2.9 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political center. It is the 6th-largest city proper by population in the European Union and the largest of all cities on Danube river.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had two million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams" because it was home to the world's first psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.
Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within". Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012–2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.


In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.
During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.
Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.
On 2 April 1945, the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.


In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15. The city also saw major uprisings against Habsburg rule in 1848, which were suppressed. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.
During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.
From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometers of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.
Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna" (Das rote Wien). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.


The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from vedunia, meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German uuenia (wenia in modern writing), the New High German wien and its dialectal variant wean.
Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction Vindobona, probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, vindo-, meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish fionn and the Welsh gwyn –, and -bona "village, settlement". The Celtic word vindos may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city (Vídeň, Viedeň and Wiedeń respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.
Another theory suggests the name comes from the Wends (Old English: Winedas; Old Norse: Vindr; German: Wenden, Winden; Danish: vendere; Swedish: vender; Polish: Wendowie, Czech: Wendové) which is a historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas.
The name of the city in Hungarian (Bécs), Serbo-Croatian (Beč; Cyrillic: Беч) and Ottoman Turkish (Beç) has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.


Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy. The population of Vienna generally stagnated or declined through the remainder of the 20th century, not demonstrating significant growth again until the census of 2000. In 2020, Vienna's population remained significantly below its reported peak in 1916.
Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.
By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%).
As of 2012, an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.
From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.


The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.
In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.


January 1 – French troops of King Louis XII surrender Gaeta to the Spanish, under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.
January 21 – After the death of Sten Sture the Elder on December 14 the year before, Svante Nilsson is elected the new Regent of Sweden.
January 31 – Treaty of Lyon: France cedes Naples to Ferdinand II of Aragon, who becomes King of Naples as Ferdinand III.
February 29 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse this night, to convince the indigenous Jamaican people to provide him with supplies.
April 1 – English guilds become subject to state control.
April 23 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, routes troops to Bavaria.


February 3 – Petar Živković, Yugoslavian politician, 11th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1879)
February 4 – Luigi Russolo, Italian painter, composer (b. 1885)
February 6
O. Max Gardner, Governor of North Carolina (b. 1882)
Luigi Russolo, Italian Futurist painter, composer (b. 1885)
February 11 – Martin Klein, Estonian wrestler (b.1884)
February 12
Kurt Lewin, German-born American psychologist (b. 1890)
Sidney Toler, American actor (b. 1874)
February 14 – Celestina Boninsegna, Italian soprano (b. 1877)
February 15 – Mustafa Abdel-Razek, Egyptian Islamic philosopher (b. 1885)
February 16
Pedro de Répide Gallegos, Spanish journalist, writer (b. 1853)
Bertha Schwarz, German soprano (b. 1855)
February 18
Valentina Dmitryeva, Soviet writer, teacher and doctor (b. 1859)
Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt (b. 1901)
February 20 – Henry Herbert, British actor (b. 1879)
February 23 – Hakim Habibur Rahman, Indian physician, writer, journalist and politician (b. 1881)
February 24
Morinosuke Chiwaki, Japanese dentist (b. 1870)
Pierre Janet, French psychologist (b. 1859)
February 26
Antonino D'Agata, Italian politician (b. 1882)
Heinrich Häberlin, Swiss politician, president of the Federal Council (b. 1868)
Ben Webster, British-born American actor (b. 1864)
February 27 – Heinrich Häberlin, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1868)


January 3 – Al Herpin, French-born American insomniac, "The Man Who Never Slept" (b. 1862)
January 5 – Osami Nagano, Japanese admiral (b. 1880)
January 8 – Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Polish general (b. 1885)
January 9
Herman Bing, German actor (b. 1889)
Karl Mannheim, Hungarian sociologist (b. 1893)
January 10
Arthur E. Andersen, American accountant (b. 1885)
Hanns Sachs, Austrian psychoanalyst (b. 1881)
January 11 – Eva Tanguay, Canadian-born vaudeville performer (b. 1878)
January 12
Zdenko Blažeković, Yugoslavian politician (b. 1915)
Júlio Afrânio Peixoto, Brazilian physician, writer, politician and historian (b. 1876)
January 13
Sixto María Durán Cárdenas, Ecuadorian pianist, composer and lawyer (b. 1875)
Ignazio Lupo, Italian-born American gangster (b. 1877)
January 14 – Bill Hewitt, American football player (Chicago Bears), Pro Football Hall of Fame member (b. 1909)
January 17 – Hryhoriy Khomyshyn, Ukrainian Roman Catholic bishop, martyr and blessed (b. 1867)
January 18 – Maria Giovanna Fasce, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed, Augustinian nun and blessed (b. 1881)
January 19 – Manuel Machado, Spanish poet (b. 1874)
January 20
Josh Gibson, African-American baseball player, MLB Hall of Fame member (b. 1911)
Andrew Volstead, American politician (b. 1860)
January 22 – Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot, British writer (b. 1888)
January 23
Pierre Bonnard, French painter (b. 1867)
Roy Geiger, American general (b. 1885)
January 24 – August Meyszner, Austrian-born SS officer (executed) (b. 1886)
January 25 – Al Capone, American gangster (b. 1899)
January 26
Grace Moore, American opera singer, actress (b. 1898)
Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten (b. 1906)
January 27 – Vassily Balabanov, Soviet administrator, Provincial Governor of Imperial Russia (b. 1873)
January 28 – Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan-born French composer (b. 1874)
January 30 – Frederick Blackman, British plant physiologist (b.1866)


1963
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1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1963rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 963rd  year of the 2nd millennium, the 63rd  year of the 20th century, and the  4th   year of the 1960s decade.


David H. Frisch and J.H. Smith prove that the radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by their motion (see Einstein's special relativity and general relativity).
The TAT-3 transatlantic communications cable goes into operation.
Ivan Sutherland writes the revolutionary Sketchpad program and runs it on the Lincoln TX-2 computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Construction of Moscow's Ostankino Tower begins.
The IEEE Computer Society is founded.
The Urdu keyboard is standardised by the Central Language Board in Pakistan.
Harvey Ball invents the ubiquitous smiley face symbol.
The classic Porsche 911 is first produced.
The Reformed Druids of North America is founded.
Hergé's The Castafiore Emerald is published.
Marvel releases their Superhero assembly team The Avengers


View of Dhaka from the International Space Station
Delonix regia trees beside Crescent Lake blooming during the summer
Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at 23°42′N 90°22′E, on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of 306.38 square kilometres (118.29 sq mi).  Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterize the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Due to its location on the lowland plain of the Ganges Delta, the city is fringed by extensive mangroves and tidal flat ecosystems. Dhaka District is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj.


With the exception of Old Dhaka, which is an old bazaar-style neighborhood, the layout of the city follows a grid pattern with organic development influenced by traditional South Asian as well as Middle Eastern and Western patterns. Growth of the city is largely unplanned and is focused on the northern regions and around the city centre, where many of the more affluent neighborhoods may be found. Most of the construction in the city consists of concrete high-rise buildings. Middle-class and upper-class housing, along with commercial and industrial areas, occupy most of the city; slums may be found in the outskirts and in less-visible areas such as alleyways. The most significant area of slums is found near the Buriganga River covering Kamrangirchar Thana.
Dhaka does not have a well-defined central business district. Old Dhaka is the "indigenous" commercial center, but most development has moved to the north. The area around Motijheel is considered the "old" CBD, while to some extent Gulshan is considered the "new" CBD. Many Bangladeshi government institutions can be found in Tejgaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, and Ramna.
Dhaka is among the most congested cities in the world, and traffic was estimated to cost the local economy US$3.9 billion per year in 2013. The average speed of a car travelling in Dhaka is estimated to be around  20 kilometres per hour (12 mph). Most residents travel by rickshaw and green-coloured auto rickshaws powered by compressed natural gas, often referred to by locals as "CNGs". Much activity is centered around a few large roads, where road laws are rarely obeyed and street vendors and beggars are frequently encountered.


Dhaka (/ˈdɑːkə/ DA-kə or /ˈdækə/ DAK-ə; Bengali: ঢাকা, romanized: Ḍhākā,  [ˈɖʱaka]), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city in the world with a population of 8.9 million residents as of 2011, and a population of over 21.7 million residents in the Greater Dhaka Area. According to a Demographia survey, Dhaka has the most densely populated built-up urban area in the world, and is popularly described as such in the news media. Dhaka is one of the major cities of South Asia and a major global Muslim-majority city. As part of the Bengal delta, the city is bounded by the Buriganga River, Turag River, Dhaleshwari River and Shitalakshya River.
The area of Dhaka has been inhabited since the first millennium. An early modern city developed from the 17th century as a provincial capital and commercial centre of the Mughal Empire. Dhaka was the capital of a proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal for 75 years (1608–39 and 1660–1704). It was the hub of the muslin trade in Bengal and one of the most prosperous cities in the world. The Mughal city was named Jahangirnagar (City of Jahangir) in honour of the erstwhile ruling emperor Jahangir. It hosted the seat of the Mughal Subahdar, Naib Nazims, Dhaka Nawabs, and Dewans. The pre-colonial city's glory peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries when it was home to merchants from across Eurasia. The Port of Dhaka was a major trading post for both riverine and seaborne trade. The Mughals decorated the city with well-laid gardens, tombs, mosques, palaces and forts. The city was once called the Venice of the East. Under British rule, the city saw the introduction of electricity, railways, cinemas, Western-style universities and colleges and a modern water supply. It became an important administrative and educational centre in the British Raj, as the capital of Eastern Bengal and Assam province after 1905. In 1947, after the end of British rule, the city became the administrative capital of East Pakistan. It was declared the legislative capital of Pakistan in 1962. In 1971, after the Liberation War, it became the capital of independent Bangladesh.
A beta-global city, Dhaka is the center of political, economic and culture life in Bangladesh. It is the seat of the Government of Bangladesh, many Bangladeshi companies and leading Bangladeshi educational, scientific, research and cultural organizations. Since its establishment as a modern capital city; the population, area and social and economic diversity of Dhaka have grown tremendously. The city is now one of the most densely industrialized regions in the country. The city accounts for 35% of Bangladesh's economy. The Dhaka Stock Exchange has over 750 listed companies. Dhaka hosts over 50 diplomatic missions as well as the headquarters of BIMSTEC and CIRDAP. The city's culture is known for its rickshaws, cuisine, art festivals and religious diversity. The old city is home to around 2000 buildings from the Mughal and British periods.


During the Indian mutiny of 1857, the city witnessed revolts by the Bengal Army. Direct rule by the British crown was established following the successful quelling of the mutiny. It bestowed privileges on the Dhaka Nawab Family, which dominated the city's political and social elite. The Dhaka Cantonment was established as a base for the British Indian Army. The British developed the modern city around Ramna, Shahbag Garden and Victoria Park. A modern civic water system was introduced in 1874. In 1885, the Dhaka State Railway was opened with a 144 km metre gauge (1000 mm) rail line connecting Mymensingh and the Port of Narayanganj through Dhaka. The city later became a hub of the Eastern Bengal State Railway. The first film shown in Dhaka was screened on the riverfront Crown Theatre on 17 April 1898. The film show was organized by the Bedford Bioscope Company. The electricity supply began in 1901.
Some of the early educational institutions established during the period of British Rule include the Dhaka College, the Dhaka Medical School, the Eden College, St. Gregory's School, the Mohsinia Madrasa, Jagannath College and the Ahsanullah School of Engineering. Horse racing was a favourite pastime for elite residents in the city's Ramna Race Course beside the Dhaka Club. The Viceroy of India would often dine and entertain with Bengali aristocrats in the city. Automobiles began appearing after the turn of the century.
By the early-20th century, Dhaka projected itself as the standard-bearer of Muslim minorities in British India; as opposed to the heavily Hindu-dominated city of Kolkata . During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka became the short-lived capital of Eastern Bengal and Assam. In 1906, the All India Muslim League was formed at the Ahsan Manzil, during a conference on liberal education hosted by Nawab Sir Khawja Salimullah. Bengal was reunited in 1911. The University of Dhaka was established in 1921 by an Act passed in the Imperial Legislative Council. It started with three faculties and 12 departments, covering the subjects of Sanskrit, Bengali, English, education, history, Arabic, Islamic Studies, Persian, Urdu, philosophy, economics, politics, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and law.
The East Bengal Cinematograph Company produced the first full-length silent movies in Dhaka during the 1920s, including Sukumari and The Last Kiss. DEVCO, a subsidiary of the Occtavian Steel Company, began widescale power distribution in 1930. The Tejgaon Airport was constructed during World War II as a base for Allied Forces. The Dhaka Medical College was established in 1946.


July 2 – Abraham a Sancta Clara, German Augustinian monk (d. 1709)
July 4 – Josceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland, English noble (d. 1670)
July 7 – Joan Geelvinck, Dutch politician (d. 1707)
July 10 – Miguel Bayot, Spanish Catholic prelate, Bishop of Cebu (1697–1700) (d. 1700)
July 22 – Peter Drelincourt, Irish chaplain (d. 1722)
August 6
Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1655–1712) (d. 1712)
Louise de La Vallière, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (d. 1710)
August 12 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Bohemian composer and violinist (d. 1704)
August 29 – Anne Bourdon, nun in New France (d. 1711)
August 30 – Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet, British politician (d. 1729)
September 3 – Richard Newport, 2nd Earl of Bradford, English politician (d. 1723)
September 6 – Juan Bautista Cabanilles, Spanish composer (d. 1712)
September 11 – Jacob Rotius, Dutch painter (d. 1681)
September 22 – Jacques Échard, French Dominican, historian of the Order (d. 1724)
September 25 – Ole Rømer, Danish astronomer (d. 1710)


April 6 – António Luís de Sousa, 2nd Marquis of Minas, Portuguese general, governor-general of Brazil (d. 1721)
April 7
Nathaniel Johnson, American politician (d. 1713)
François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy, French soldier (d. 1730)
April 11 – Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours, Duchess of Savoy (d. 1724)
April 17 – Abraham Storck, Dutch painter (d. 1708)
April 21 – Conrad von Reventlow, Danish statesman and the first Grand Chancellor of Denmark (d. 1708)
May 2 – Robert Cotton, English politician (d. 1717)
May 4 – Juan Caballero y Ocio, Spanish priest remarkable for lavish gifts to the Catholic Church and charity (d. 1707)
May 5 – Sir Richard Newdigate, 2nd Baronet, English landowner (d. 1710)
May 26 – Michael Ettmüller, German physician (d. 1683)
June 2 – William Salmon, English medical writer (d. 1713)
June 7 – Johann Christoph Volkamer, German botanist (d. 1720)
June 16 – Henrietta Anne Stuart, Princess of Scotland, England and Ireland (d. 1670)
June 17 – Johann Wolfgang Franck, German baroque composer (d. 1710)


July 1 – Torstenson War – Battle of Colberger Heide: The Dano-Norwegian and Swedish fleets fight a naval battle off the coast of Schleswig - Holstein. The battle was indecisive but was a minor success for the Dano-Norwegian fleet.
July 2 – English Civil War – Battle of Marston Moor: The Parliamentarians crush the Royalists, ending Charles I's hold on the north of England.
September 1 – English Civil War – Battle of Tippermuir: Montrose defeats Lord Elcho's Covenanters, reviving the Royalist cause in Scotland.
September 2 – English Civil War – Second Battle of Lostwithiel: Charles I and the Royalists gain their last major victory.
September 15 – Pope Innocent X succeeds Pope Urban VIII, becoming the 236th pope.
October 1 – The Jews of Mogilev, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, are attacked during Tashlikh.
November – The Castle of Elvas in Portugal resists a 9-day siege by the Spanish during the Portuguese Restoration War.
November 8 – The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
November 23
Battle of Jüterbog: Sweden's forces defeat those of the Holy Roman Empire.
Areopagitica, by John Milton, is published in England.
December – Plague breaks out in Edinburgh.
December 18 (December 8 Old Style) – As Christina comes of age, she is made ruling queen of Sweden.


1644 (MDCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1644th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 644th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 44th  year of the 17th century, and the  5th   year of the 1640s decade. As of the start of 1644, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
  It is one of eight years (CE) to contain each Roman numeral once (1000(M)+500(D)+100(C)+(-10(X)+50(L))+(-1(I)+5(V)) = 1644).


York ham (French: jambon d'York, formerly often called "Yorkshire ham") is a characteristic type of ham that originated in Yorkshire, England.  Like Parma or Westphalian ham, it is made by a dry curing process, but unlike them it is eaten cooked.  At its best it is widely considered one of the finest hams.  However, it has never enjoyed protected designation of origin status, and has been imitated in many places.  Various productions, some of doubtful quality, have been sold as York hams.  Contrary to common belief, York hams did not originate in the City of York.


The breed originated in 19th century Yorkshire, where industrial workers around Leeds, Keighley and Skipton had a strong tradition of keenly competitive, spare-time pig-breeding.  According to a Victorian academic, the Large White became famous and was taken up after a Keighley weaver, Joseph Tulley, entered one in the Royal Agricultural Society's 1851 Windsor exhibition.  Tulley
by considerable skill and judgment, produced the most wonderful pigs ever seen in this or perhaps any country; and his famous strain proved to be the foundation of the entire race of our modern Large White breed, which was for many years called the 'Yorkshire breed.'
 Tulley sold specimens to professional breeders at high prices and they spread round the world.
The first herdbook for the Large White was published in 1884.  In 1954 it represented 76% of the total male pig population of the UK.


Sturgis, Russell (1896). European Architecture: A Historical Study. The New York Public Library: Macmillan. pp. 3, 558.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pediment" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 37.
Luebke, Wilhelm (1 January 1878). History of Sculpture from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time: Tr. by F.E. Bunnètt, Volume 2. Smith. p. 468. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
Kimball, Fiske; Edgell, George Harold (1918). A History of Architecture. Harper & Brothers. pp. 108, 118, 144, 423.
Harris, Cyril M., ed. Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture, Dover Publications, New York, c. 1977, 1983 edition p. 386


Mies settled in Chicago, Illinois, where he was appointed head of the architecture school at Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology (later renamed Illinois Institute of Technology). One of the benefits of taking this position was that he would be commissioned to design the new buildings and master plan for the campus. All his buildings still stand there, including Alumni Hall, the chapel, and his masterpiece the S.R. Crown Hall, built as the home of IIT's School of Architecture. Crown Hall is widely regarded as Mies' finest work, the definition of Miesian architecture.
In 1944, he became an American citizen, completing his severance from his native Germany. His thirty years as an American architect reflect a more structural, pure approach toward achieving his goal of a new architecture for the twentieth century. He focused his efforts on enclosing open and adaptable "universal" spaces with clearly arranged structural frameworks, featuring prefabricated steel shapes filled in with large sheets of glass.
His early projects at the IIT campus, and for developer Herbert Greenwald, presented to Americans a style that seemed a natural progression of the almost forgotten nineteenth century Chicago School style. His architecture, with origins in the German Bauhaus and western European International Style, became an accepted mode of building for American cultural and educational institutions, developers, public agencies, and large corporations.


Travertine is a sedimentary rock formed by the chemical precipitation of calcium carbonate minerals from fresh water, typically in springs, rivers, and lakes; that is, from surface and ground waters. In the broadest sense, travertine includes deposits in both hot and cold springs, including the porous, spongy rock known as tufa, and also the cave features known as speleothems (which include stalactites and stalagmites). Calcrete, which is calcium minerals deposited as a horizon in the soil profile, is not considered a form of travertine.
Travertine is often defined in a more narrow sense as dense rock, sometimes massive but more commonly banded or with a fibrous internal structure, deposited in hot springs. In this more narrow sense, travertine is distinct from speleothems and tufa. Travertine is sometimes also defined by its mode of origin, as rock formed by inorganic precipitation of calcium carbonate minerals onto a surface following exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and groundwater. Calcrete, lake marls, and lake reefs are excluded from this definition, but both speleothems and tufa are included.
Fresh travertines vary widely in their porosity, from about 10% to 70%. Ancient ones may have porosities as low as 2% due to crystallization of secondary calcite in the original pore spaces, while some of the fresh aragonite travertine at Mammoth Hot Springs has a porosity greater than 80%. A porosity of about 50% is typical for cold spring travertine while hot spring travertines have a mean porosity of about 26%. Speleothems have low porosities of less than 15%.


Travertine forms distinctive landforms:
Spring mounds are domes of travertine ranging in height from less than a meter to over 100 metres (330 ft) surrounding a spring orifice. Because the spring orifice is above ground level, the formation of terrestrial mounds requires either an artesian spring or a geyser. Travertine mounds also are found under water, often in saline lakes.
Fissure ridges form from spring discharge along joints or faults. These can be over 15 metres (49 ft) in height and 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) in length. These generally show signs of progressive widening of the fissure, balanced by deposition of travertine on the fissure wall.
Cascade deposits are formed by a series of waterfalls.
Dam deposits are similar to cascades, but have localized vertical buildup of travertine that creates a pond or lake behind the travertine buildup.
Travertine forms various kinds of fluvial and lake deposits.
Paludal (marsh) deposits are shallow accumulations in poorly drained areas.
Speleothems are the characteristic "formations" of caves.


Lindbergh received unprecedented adulation after his historic flight. People were "behaving as though Lindbergh had walked on water, not flown over it". The New York Times printed an above the fold, page-wide headline: "Lindbergh Does It!" His mother's house in Detroit was surrounded by a crowd estimated at 1,000. Countless newspapers, magazines, and radio shows wanted to interview him, and he was flooded with job offers from companies, think tanks, and universities.
The French Foreign Office flew the American flag, the first time it had saluted someone who was not a head of state. Lindbergh also made a series of brief flights to Belgium and Great Britain in the Spirit before returning to the United States. Gaston Doumergue, the President of France, bestowed the French Légion d'honneur on Lindbergh, and on his arrival back in the United States aboard the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Memphis (CL-13) on June 11, 1927, a fleet of warships and multiple flights of military aircraft escorted him up the Potomac River to the Washington Navy Yard, where President Calvin Coolidge awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross.  Lindbergh received the first award of this medal, but it violated the authorizing regulation. Coolidge's own executive order, published in March 1927, required recipients to perform their feats of airmanship "while participating in an aerial flight as part of the duties incident to such membership [in the Organized Reserves]", which Lindbergh very clearly failed to satisfy. The U.S. Post Office Department issued a 10-cent air mail stamp (Scott C-10) depicting the Spirit and a map of the flight.
Lindbergh flew from Washington, D.C., to New York City on June 13, arriving in Lower Manhattan. He traveled up the Canyon of Heroes to City Hall, where he was received by Mayor Jimmy Walker. A ticker-tape parade followed to Central Park Mall, where he was honored at another ceremony hosted by New York Governor Al Smith and attended by a crowd of 200,000. Some 4,000,000 people saw Lindbergh that day. That evening,  Lindbergh was accompanied by his mother and Mayor Walker when he was the guest of honor at a 500-guest banquet and dance held at Clarence MacKay's Long Island estate, Harbor Hill.
The following night, Lindbergh was honored with a grand banquet at the Hotel Commodore given by the Mayor's Committee on Receptions of the City of New York and attended by some 3,700 people. He was officially awarded the check for the prize on June 16.
On July 18, 1927, Lindbergh was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Air Corps of the Officers Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army.
On December 14, 1927, a Special Act of Congress awarded Lindbergh the Medal of Honor, despite the fact that it was almost always awarded for heroism in combat. It was presented to Lindbergh by President Coolidge at the White House on March 21, 1928. Curiously, the medal contradicted Coolidge's earlier executive order directing that "not more than one of the several decorations authorized by Federal law will be awarded for the same act of heroism or extraordinary achievement" (Lindbergh was recognized for the same act with both the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross). The statute authorizing the award was also criticized for apparently violating procedure; House legislators reportedly neglected to have their votes counted. Similar noncombat awards of the Medal of Honor were also authorized by special statutes and awarded to naval aviators Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett, as well as arctic explorer Adolphus W. Greely. In addition, the Medal of Honor awarded to General Douglas MacArthur was reportedly based on the Lindbergh precedent, although MacArthur notably lacked implementing legislation, which probably rendered his award unlawful.
Lindbergh was honored as the first Time magazine Man of the Year (now called "Person of the Year") when he appeared on that magazine's cover at age 25 on January 2, 1928; he remained the youngest Time Person of the Year until Greta Thunberg surpassed his record in 2019. The winner of the 1930 Best Woman Aviator of the Year Award, Elinor Smith Sullivan, said that before Lindbergh's flight:
People seemed to think we [aviators] were from outer space or something. But after Charles Lindbergh's flight, we could do no wrong. It's hard to describe the impact Lindbergh had on people. Even the first walk on the moon doesn't come close. The twenties was such an innocent time, and people were still so religious—I think they felt like this man was sent by God to do this. And it changed aviation forever because all of a sudden the Wall Streeters were banging on doors looking for airplanes to invest in. We'd been standing on our heads trying to get them to notice us but after Lindbergh, suddenly everyone wanted to fly, and there weren't enough planes to carry them.


Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. At the age of 25, he achieved instant world fame by making the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris on May 20–21, 1927. Lindbergh covered the 33+1⁄2-hour, 3,600-statute-mile (5,800 km) flight alone in a purpose-built, single-engine Ryan monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Though the first non-stop transatlantic flight had been completed eight years earlier, this was the first solo transatlantic flight, the first transatlantic flight between two major city hubs, and the longest transatlantic flight by almost 2,000 miles. It was one of the most consequential flights in aviation history and ushered in a new era of transportation between parts of the globe.
Lindbergh was raised mostly in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., the son of prominent U.S. Congressman from Minnesota Charles August Lindbergh. He became an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve in 1924, earning the rank of second lieutenant in 1925. Later that year, he was hired as a U.S. Air Mail pilot in the Greater St. Louis area, where he started to prepare for his historic 1927 transatlantic flight. Lindbergh received the United States' highest military decoration from President Calvin Coolidge, the Medal of Honor, as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross for his transatlantic flight. The flight also earned him the highest French order of merit, civil or military, the Legion of Honor. His achievement spurred significant global interest in both commercial aviation and air mail, which revolutionized the aviation industry worldwide (described then as the "Lindbergh boom"), and he devoted much time and effort to promoting such activity. He was honored as Time's first Man of the Year in 1928, was appointed to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929 by President Herbert Hoover, and was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1930. In 1931, he and French surgeon Alexis Carrel began work on inventing the first perfusion pump, which is credited with making future heart surgeries and organ transplantation possible.
On March 1, 1932, Lindbergh's infant son, Charles Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what the American media called the "Crime of the Century". The case prompted the United States Congress to establish kidnapping as a federal crime if a kidnapper crosses state lines with a victim. By late 1935, the hysteria surrounding the case had driven the Lindbergh family into exile in Europe, from where they returned in 1939.
In the years before the United States entered World War II, Lindbergh's non-interventionist stance and statements about Jews and race led some to suspect he was a Nazi sympathizer, although Lindbergh never publicly stated support for the Nazis and condemned them several times in both his public speeches and in his personal diary. However, early on in the war he opposed not only the intervention of the United States but also the provision of aid to the United Kingdom. He supported the antiwar America First Committee and resigned his commission in the U.S. Army Air Forces in April 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt publicly rebuked him for his views. In September 1941, Lindbergh gave a significant address, titled "Speech on Neutrality", outlining his views and arguments against greater American involvement in the war.
Lindbergh did ultimately express public support for the U.S. war effort after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent United States declaration of war upon Germany. He flew 50 missions in the Pacific Theater as a civilian consultant, as Roosevelt refused to reinstate his Air Corps colonel's commission. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower restored his commission and promoted him to brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. In his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific author, international explorer, inventor, and environmentalist, eventually dying of lymphoma in 1974 at age 72.


In October 1925, Lindbergh was hired by the Robertson Aircraft Corporation (RAC) at the Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field in Anglum, Missouri, (where he had been working as a flight instructor) to first lay out and then serve as chief pilot for the newly designated 278-mile (447 km) Contract Air Mail Route #2 (CAM-2) to provide service between St. Louis and Chicago (Maywood Field) with two intermediate stops in Springfield and Peoria, Illinois. Lindbergh and three other RAC pilots, Philip R. Love, Thomas P. Nelson, and Harlan A. "Bud" Gurney, flew the mail over CAM-2 in a fleet of four modified war-surplus de Havilland DH-4 biplanes.
Just before signing on to fly with CAM, Lindbergh had applied to serve as a pilot on Richard E. Byrd's North Pole expedition, but apparently his bid came too late.
On April 13, 1926, Lindbergh executed the United States Post Office Department's Oath of Mail Messengers, and two days later he opened service on the new route. On two occasions, combinations of bad weather, equipment failure, and fuel exhaustion forced him to bail out on night approach to Chicago; both times he reached the ground without serious injury and immediately set about ensuring that his cargo was located and sent on with minimum delay. In mid-February 1927 he left for San Diego, California, to oversee design and construction of the Spirit of St. Louis.
CAM-2 first flight cover
A CAM-2 "Weekly Postage Report" by Lindbergh
One of Lindbergh's Air Mail paychecks


From an early age, Lindbergh had exhibited an interest in the mechanics of motorized transportation, including his family's Saxon Six automobile, and later his Excelsior motorbike. By the time that he started college as a mechanical engineering student, he had also become fascinated with flying, though he "had never been close enough to a plane to touch it". After quitting college in February 1922, Lindbergh enrolled at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation's flying school in Lincoln and flew for the first time on April 9 as a passenger in a two-seat Lincoln Standard "Tourabout" biplane trainer piloted by Otto Timm.
A few days later, Lindbergh took his first formal flying lesson in that same aircraft, though he was never permitted to solo because he could not afford to post the requisite damage bond. To gain flight experience and earn money for further instruction, Lindbergh left Lincoln in June to spend the next few months barnstorming across Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana as a wing walker and parachutist. He also briefly worked as an airplane mechanic at the Billings, Montana, municipal airport.
Lindbergh left flying with the onset of winter and returned to his father's home in Minnesota. His return to the air and his first solo flight did not come until half a year later in May 1923 at Souther Field in Americus, Georgia, a former Army flight-training field, where he bought a World War I surplus Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplane. Though Lindbergh had not touched an airplane in more than six months, he had already secretly decided that he was ready to take to the air by himself. After a half-hour of dual time with a pilot who was visiting the field to pick up another surplus JN-4, Lindbergh flew solo for the first time in the Jenny that he had just purchased for $500. After spending another week or so at the field to "practice" (thereby acquiring five hours of "pilot in command" time), Lindbergh took off from Americus for Montgomery, Alabama, some 140 miles to the west, for his first solo cross-country flight. He went on to spend much of the remainder of 1923 engaged in almost nonstop barnstorming under the name of "Daredevil Lindbergh". Unlike in the previous year, this time Lindbergh flew in his "own ship" as the pilot. A few weeks after leaving Americus, he achieved another key aviation milestone when he made his first night flight near Lake Village, Arkansas.
While Lindbergh was barnstorming in Lone Rock, Wisconsin, on two occasions he flew a local physician across the Wisconsin River to emergency calls that were otherwise unreachable because of flooding. He broke his propeller several times while landing, and on June 3, 1923 he was grounded for a week when he ran into a ditch in Glencoe, Minnesota, while flying his father—then running for the U.S. Senate—to a campaign stop. In October, Lindbergh flew his Jenny to Iowa, where he sold it to a flying student. After selling the Jenny, Lindbergh returned to Lincoln by train. There, he joined Leon Klink and continued to barnstorm through the South for the next few months in Klink's Curtiss JN-4C "Canuck" (the Canadian version of the Jenny). Lindbergh also "cracked up" this aircraft once when his engine failed shortly after takeoff in Pensacola, Florida, but again he managed to repair the damage himself.
Following a few months of barnstorming through the South, the two pilots parted company in San Antonio, Texas, where Lindbergh reported to Brooks Field on March 19, 1924 to begin a year of military flight training with the United States Army Air Service there (and later at nearby Kelly Field). Lindbergh had his most serious flying accident on March 5, 1925, eight days before graduation, when a mid-air collision with another Army S.E.5 during aerial combat maneuvers forced him to bail out. Only 18 of the 104 cadets who started flight training a year earlier remained when Lindbergh graduated first overall in his class in March 1925, thereby earning his Army pilot's wings and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Service Reserve Corps.
Lindbergh later said that this year was critical to his development as both a focused, goal-oriented individual and as an aviator. The Army did not need additional active-duty pilots, however, so immediately following graduation, Lindbergh returned to civilian aviation as a barnstormer and flight instructor, although as a reserve officer he also continued to do some part-time military flying by joining the 110th Observation Squadron, 35th Division, Missouri National Guard, in St. Louis. He was promoted to first lieutenant on December 7, 1925, and to captain in July 1926.


Financing the operation of the historic flight was a challenge due to Lindbergh's obscurity, but two St. Louis businessmen eventually obtained a $15,000 bank loan. Lindbergh contributed $2,000 ($29,036.61 in 2020) of his own money from his salary as an air mail pilot and another $1,000 was donated by RAC. The total of $18,000 was far less than what was available to Lindbergh's rivals.
The group tried to buy an "off-the-peg" single or multiengine monoplane from Wright Aeronautical, then Travel Air, and finally the newly formed Columbia Aircraft Corporation, but all insisted on selecting the pilot as a condition of sale. Finally the much smaller Ryan Aircraft Company of San Diego agreed to design and build a custom monoplane for $10,580, and on February 25 a deal was formally closed. Dubbed the Spirit of St. Louis, the fabric-covered, single-seat, single-engine "Ryan NYP" (for "New York-Paris") high-wing monoplane (CAB registration: N-X-211) was designed jointly by Lindbergh and Ryan's chief engineer Donald A. Hall. The Spirit flew for the first time just two months later, and after a series of test flights Lindbergh took off from San Diego on May 10. He went first to St. Louis, then on to Roosevelt Field on New York's Long Island.


About half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately owned. The National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks. A friends' group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect and promote National Historic Landmarks.
If not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs.


More than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States.
There are NHLs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Three states (Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York) account for nearly 25 percent of the nation's NHLs. Three cities within these states (Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City, respectively) all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states: Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York (the latter of which has the most NHLs of all 50 states). There are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia.
Some NHLs are in U.S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U.S. commonwealths and territories; five in U.S.-associated states such as Micronesia; and one in Morocco.
Over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs.


Prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. In 1935, Congress passed the Historic Sites Act, which authorized the Interior Secretary authority to formally record and organize historic properties, and to designate properties as having "national historical significance", and gave the National Park Service authority to administer historically significant federally owned properties.  Over the following decades, surveys such as the Historic American Buildings Survey amassed information about culturally and architecturally significant properties in a program known as the Historic Sites Survey. Most of the designations made under this legislation became National Historic Sites, although the first designation, made December 20, 1935, was for a National Memorial, the Gateway Arch National Park (then known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) in St. Louis, Missouri.  The first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17, 1938.
In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the survey data gathered under this legislation, and the National Historic Landmark program began to take more formal shape.  When the National Register of Historic Places was established in 1966, the National Historic Landmark program was encompassed within it, and rules and procedures for inclusion and designation were formalized.  Because listings (either on the National Register, or as an NHL) often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the listing procedures to require owner agreement to the designations.
On October 9, 1960, 92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton. The origins of the first National Historic Landmark was a simple cedar post that the Corps of Discovery placed to commemorate the passing (from natural causes) of Sgt. Charles Floyd in 1804. In time the cedar post was replaced by a 100 foot marble monument. Floyd was the only member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to perish during their historic 2 1/2 year, 8 thousand mile trek to the Pacific. The Sergeant Floyd Monument in Sioux City, Iowa, was officially designated on June 30 of that year, but for various reasons, the public announcement of the first several NHLs was delayed.