210 BC Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, was a tyrant responsible for the deaths of thousands of scholars whom he buried alive to stop them preaching the works of Confucius. He died on September 10, 210 BC while on a tour to Eastern China due to trying to eat too much mercury – which he thought was the key to immortality. Afraid that news of the emperor's death would cause a revolt, his trusted advisers transported his body back to his palace among barrels of rotten fish, to mask the smell.
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| Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China |
1224 The Franciscans first arrived in England on September 10, 1224. Blessed Agnellus of Pisa, who led the mission, was chosen by Francis of Assisi to go to England and become the first Minister Provincial. He was accompanied by eight Franciscan brothers; three of whom were English. These early Franciscans wore a grey robe, tied at the waist by a plain cord with three knots representing the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. In England they were nicknamed "Greyfriars."
1817 In April 1817, Jane Austen knowing she was dying wrote out her will. She passed away in Winchester in the arms of her sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's will was proved on September 10, 1817, at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Her total assets were valued at £800. The one page of Jane's will left all her possessions to her sister Cassandra and £50 to her brother Henry. When Jane died she was practically unknown in the literary world and her tombstone doesn't even mention she was a writer.
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| Jane Austen's will www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
1842 John Tyler's wife Letitia Christian avoided the limelight during her husband's political ascension to becoming the 10th USA president, preferring domestic responsibilities to those of a public wife. In 1839, Letita suffered a paralytic stroke that left her an invalid. As first lady, Letita remained in the upstairs living quarters of the White House; she came down once, to attend the wedding of their daughter Elizabeth in January 1842. Letitia Tyler died on September 10, 1842 aged 51.
1846 Elias Howe, was working in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, cotton machinery factory when he dreamed up the idea of a machine that could sew. The idea fascinated him, and he spent all his spare time during the next five years developing a practical sewing machine. Howe eventually completed his first successful sewing machine in 1845 and it was patented on September 10, 1846. Howe's invention helped to establish mass production of clothing and other sewn goods.
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| Elias Howe Sewing Machine September 10, 1846 |
1873 If you know your onions on a subject, you're considered very knowledgeable. The phrase comes from lexicographer Charles Talbut Onions, born on September 10, 1873, who worked on the Oxford English Dictionary. His name became a byword for his craft.
1894 German composer Richard Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on September 10, 1894. Pauline was famous for being irascible, garrulous, shrewish, eccentric and outspoken, but to all appearances their relationship was essentially happy, and she was a great source of inspiration to him. The Strausses had one son, Franz, who was born in 1897. Though Strauss was immensely wealthy, Pauline ruled his life with a rod of iron and she gave her husband a small allowance to live on.
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| Strauss with his wife and son, 1910 |
1897 When George Smith drove his taxi into a building in London's Bond Street on September 10, 1897 he became history’s first convicted drunk driver. PC Russell was the first policeman to give evidence in a prosecution of a motorist for drunken driving. Smith claimed he’d had only two or three beers but was fined 25 shillings.
1939 Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939, the only time the country has ever declared war. The only known armed German military operation on North American soil in World War II was the installation of a covert weather station in northern Canada. Wetter-Funkgerät Land-26 was erected by a German U-boat crew in Northern Labrador in October 1943.
1945 Mike the Headless Chicken, also known as "Miracle Mike," was a real chicken that lived for about 18 months after being decapitated. On September 10, 1945, a farmer named Lloyd Olsen attempted to slaughter the chicken for dinner but failed to completely sever its head. Surprisingly, Mike survived and continued to live without a head, with the bulk of its brainstem intact.
1946 The Albanian Agnes Bojaxhi (later to be known as Mother Teresa) joined the Loretto Convent in Darjiling in the lower Himalayas in 1929. After taking her first religious vows she chose to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries; On September 10, 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling, Sister Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call", directing her to leave the convent and devote herself to the sick and impoverished.
1951 Leonard Bernstein married the Chilean-born American actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on September 10, 1951. It has been suggested that Bernstein chose to marry partly to dispel rumors of his homosexuality in order to help secure a major conducting appointment. In 1976 Bernstein left his wife Felicia for a period to live with the writer Tom Cothran. The next year she was diagnosed with lung cancer and eventually Bernstein moved back in with her and cared for her until she died in June 1978.
1960 Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila became on September 10, 1960 the first sub-Saharan African to win an Olympic gold medal. Abebe decided to run the Rome marathon without shoes, the way he'd trained for the race, so he won in bare feet.
1960 A New Zealand otolaryngologist working in London, Harold Gillies developed many of the techniques of modern facial surgery in caring for soldiers suffering from disfiguring facial injuries during the First World War. A new hospital devoted to facial repairs was developed at Sidcup, London. The Queen's Hospital opened in June 1917 and more than 11,000 operations were performed on over 5,000 men there. The Father of Plastic Surgery, Sir Harold Gillies passed away on September 10, 1960.
1963 American Express launched their first charge card in October 1958 with an annual fee of $6. It was $1 higher than Diners Club, so it could be seen as a premium product. The first cards were paper, with the account number and card member's name typed. American Express launched the UK's first charge card on September 10, 1963 (annual fee £3 12s).
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| American Express |
1967 An Anglo-Dutch force seized Gibraltar during The War of the Spanish Succession in 1704. It was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht, signed in 1713. Spain unsuccessfully besieged Gibraltar in 1704, 1727 and 1779–83; its status is still disputed. In a referendum in Gibraltar on whether to remain British held on September 10, 1967, 99.64 per cent voted in favor.
1972 The USA suffered its first loss of an Olympic basketball game on September 10, 1972 in a disputed match against the Soviet Union at the Munich, Germany Olympic Games. The Americans had won the previous seven gold medals since the sport began Olympic play in 1936. and was favored to win another at the 1972 Olympics. The Soviets won the game by a single point, making the winning basket as time expired and igniting vociferous American objections questioning the legitimacy of the final play.
1973 Skylab was the United States' space station that orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979. NASA ground controllers were shocked to hear a female voice from Skylab, which had an all-male crew on September 10, 1973. The woman startled capsule communicator Bob Crippen by calling him by name, and then explaining: "The boys haven't had a home-cooked meal in so long I thought I'd bring one up." They had been pranked by one of the astronauts, Owen Kay Garriott, who used a recording of his wife.
1977 Torturer-murderer Hamida Djandoubi was the last person to be guillotined in France. He was executed on September 10, 1977 in Marseilles. Djandoubi was a Tunisian agricultural worker who was sentenced to death for the torture and murder of 21-year-old Élisabeth Bousquet.
1983 Jon Brower Minnoch died on September 10, 1983 aged 41. The American was at his peak weight the heaviest human being ever recorded, weighing approximately 1,400 lb (635 kilograms; 100 stone). Jon Brower Minnoch also holds the record for the largest weight loss when he embarked on a strict diet of 1,200 kcal (5,000 kJ) per day after being admitted to hospital. After 16 months, Minnoch weighed 476 lb (216 kg; 34.0 st), having lost approximately 924 lb (419 kg; 66.0 st).
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| Jon Brower Minnoch |
1990 The largest church building in the world was consecrated on September 10, 1990 by Pope John Paul I. The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace (Basilique Notre-Dame de la Paix) in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast was designed by the Ivorian president Félix Houphouët-Boigny. The basilica covers an area of approximately 323,000 square feet (30,000 square meters), making it larger in floor area than the previous largest, St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro is also taller than St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, with its dome reaching a height of 518 feet (158 meters), while the dome of St. Peter's Basilica is approximately 448 feet (137 meters) tall.
2011 Meghan Markle married her first husband actor and producer Trevor Engelson in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, on September 10, 2011 after the two dated for 7 years. They divorced in August 2013. Meghan married Prince Harry five years later after they met on a blind date.
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