Tuesday 9 February 2016

On This Day In History 9th February

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 9th February
 
On This Day, the 9th of February, 1825, John Quincy Adams is elected as President of the United States of America.
 
He didn't actually receive the most electoral votes. That accolade went to future President, Andrew Jackson. But, due to neither getting an overall majority, the House of Representatives decided to swing towards John Quincy Adams.
 
To say Andrew Jackson was miffed would be an understatement. He proclaimed the election of Adams was a corrupt bargain, and that Pepsi Max was better than Coca Cola. He also thought the election of a really bad wig would be a huge mistake.
 
Andrew Jackson is well known for his liking of duels. It's very lucky he decided against challenging Adams to a duel to decide the fate of the Presidency. Jackson never lost a duel. Unless you count that one he had against the parrot. But, in all fairness, the parrot cheated.
 
In Other News On This Day In History
On This Day in 1900, The Davis Cup, a tennis competition for national teams, was established. The current champions and holders of the Davis Cup is Great Britain. Those Murray brothers sure can play tennis. Well done Team GB.
 
On This Day in 1964, America went wild for the British Invasion that was The Beatles, after their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. They performed in front of an estimated 73 million viewers.
 
On This Day in 1971, after a successful Moon Landing, NASA's third, the Apollo 14 returned to Earth with the crew all speaking a very outdated Lunar language and insisting on being fed donuts by a trained donut-feeding monkey. What? They do exist. Donut-Feeding Monkeys. You can buy them on Ebay.
 
On This Day in 1986, Halley's Comet ventured into the inner Solar System. The next time it will do this will be in 2061.
 
On This Day in 2001, the USS Greeneville "accidentally" strikes and sinks the Ehume-Maru, a Japanese training vessel. Oops.
 
The USS Greenville, a Los Angeles Class nuclear submarine, was giving a demonstration for VIP civilians. The Captain of the sub took it upon himself to perform an emergency ballast blow, causing the submarine to surface very quickly.
 
And boink. It hit the large fisheries training vessel and sank it within ten minutes. Nine crew were killed, including four high school students.

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