Aaron Tallent's This Day in History

On this day in 1944, American soldiers successfully stormed the beach at fucking Normandy. I can’t imagine ever doing anything in life that will require more courage than what these men did on that day.

On this day in 1926, Robert Earle Hughes was born in Fish Hook, Illinois. Thanks to a rare gland disorder, Hughes would became the heaviest man who ever lived. When he died of measles that turned into uremia in 1958, he weighed between 1,041 and 1,069 pounds. If you read the “Guiness Book of World Records” when you were a kid, you probably remember seeing his picture.

On this day in 1796, Congress approved Tennessee’s admittance into the United States as the 16th state.

On this day in 1971, Americans officially began celebrating Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. Prior to 1971, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30 but the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved the holiday to its current date, establishing a three-day weekend for all federal employees and millions of other Americans too.

Courtesy: Gothamist.com

On this day in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opened after 13 years of construction. The bridge which connects Manhattan to Brooklyn over the East River, allowed for the expansion of New York City (then mainly centered in Manhattan) and was the first to use steel instead of iron cables.  The timeline of the actual construction can be found here.

As with all construction projects during that time, it is important to remember that at least 20 people were killed during the construction of the bridge. Gary Feuerstein has compiled a list of the names of those who died and it can be found here.

Courtesy: USA Today

On this day in 1958, Mitch Albomwas born in Passaic, New Jersey. The author, sportswriter, radio talk show host and frequent on ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters”, is best known for this bestsellers, “Tuesdays With Morrie,” “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and “For One More Day.” However, in his day-job with the Detroit Free Press, Albom also covered University of Michigan sports and wrote “Fab Five”, the definitive account of the basketball program’s famed recruiting class of Chris Weber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson.

On this day in 2002, Chandra Levy’s body was found in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park. An intern with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Levy went missing in May of 2001 after going for a jog. The investigation of her disappearance garnered national media attention and revealed that she had an affair with then-Congressman Gary Condit [R-CA]. In March of 2009, police charged Ingmar Guandique, a Salvodaran immigrant, with her murder. His trial will take place in the District of Columbia.

I lived in D.C. when Levy was found and while I remember it being the focus of conversation that evening, the memory that sticks in my head the most is some crazy woman driving down Pennsylvania Avenue, screaming from her car, “They found Chandra! They found Chandra.”

In 2009 before Guandique was arrested, The Washington Post published an excellent series on Levy’s disappareance and investigation.

On this day in 1999, the final report of the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China was declassified. Dubbed the Cox report, after its the committee’s chairman, U.S. Representative and future SEC Chairman Chris Cox [R-CA], the report found and stated:

• The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has stolen design information on the United States’ most advanced thermonuclear weapons.
• PRC’s next generation of thermonuclear weapons, currently under development, will exploit elements of stolen U.S. design information.
• PRC penetration of our national weapons laboratories spans at least the past several decades and almost certainly continues today.

The full report itself can be accessed here.

On this day in 1932, Amelia Earhart landed on the coast of Ireland after a 15 hour and 18 minute trip from Newfoundland, Canada. Her flight was the second solo flight across the the Atlantic, after Charles Lindbergh and the longest solo flight by a woman (2,026 miles). 

More on Amelia Earhart can be found here.

Courtesy: ThamesWeb.co.uk

On this day in 1910, the funeral of Britain’s King Edward VII was held at Windsor. The funeral (video below) is the last time the leading figures of European royalty gathered together and is described in vivid detail in Barbara Tuchman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, “The Guns of August.”