Daily Pic
11/01/16
Wall mural of sugar skull (calavera) in Oaxaca, Mexico
Today in History
11/01/16
(1512) Michelangelo’s masterpiece opens to the public
Four years in the making,
Michelangelo’s masterpiece covers over
5,000 square feet of the papal chapel’s
arched ceiling. The depictions of
hundreds of human figures in various
poses will be hugely influential for
centuries to come..
The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a
cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The ceiling is that of the Sistine Chapel,
the large papal chapel built within the Vatican between 1477 and 1480 by Pope
Sixtus IV, for whom the chapel is named. It was painted at the commission of Pope
Julius II. The chapel is the location for papal conclaves and many important
services.
Date completed: 1512
Artist: Michelangelo
Location: Sistine Chapel
Artworks in series: The Creation of Adam · Separation of Light from Darkness
Period: High Renaissance
Media: Plaster · Gold
— Source: wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling
(1765) New British tax leads to charges of ‘taxation without
representation’
The new tax forces colonists in British
America to pay a fee on legal documents
and other papers to help fund British
forces in North America. Colonists
vehemently oppose the tax, organizing a
resistance that will presage the American
Revolution..
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American
colonists by the British government. The act, which imposed a tax on all paper
documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in
debt from the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) and looking to its North American
colonies as a revenue source. Arguing that only their own representative
assemblies could tax them, the colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional,
and they resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning.
Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766, but issued a Declaratory Act at the
same time to reaffirm its authority to pass any colonial legislation it saw fit. The
issues of taxation and representation raised by the Stamp Act strained relations
with the colonies to the point that, 10 years later, the colonists rose in armed
rebellion against the British.
Citation: 5 George III, c. 12
Introduced by: The Rt. Hon. George Grenville, MP (Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer &
Leader of the House of Commons)
Territorial extent: British America and the British West Indies
Royal assent: 22 March 1765
Commencement: 1 November 1765
Repealed: 18 March 1766
Repealed by: Act Repealing the Stamp Act 1766
Relates to: Declaratory Act
— Source: wiki/Stamp_Act_1765
— Additional Source: www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/stamp-act
(1938) Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral
‘The Match of the Century’ pits the
small and scrappy thoroughbred
racehorse Seabiscuit against the regal
Triple Crown-winner War Admiral.
Seabiscuit beats the favorite by four
lengths and will be named the American
Horse of the Year..
War Admiral was an American thoroughbred racehorse, best known as the fourth
winner of the American Triple Crown and Horse of the Year in 1937, and rival of
Seabiscuit in the ‘Match Race of the Century’ in 1938. During his career toward
the end of the Great Depression, War Admiral won 21 of his 26 starts with earnings
of $273,240.
Height: 5′ 1″ (1.55 m)
Born: 1934
Died: 1959
Parents: Man o’ War
Awards: American Horse of the Year · Triple Crown Trophy (1954) · American Champion ThreeYear-Old Male Horse (1937)
Children: Busher · Busanda
— Source: wiki/War_Admiral
(1952) Ivy Mike ushers in Cold War arms race
The United States detonates the first fullscale thermonuclear weapon on
Enewetak, an atoll in the Pacific. The Hbomb test, dubbed Operation Ivy Mike,
detonates an 82-ton bomb about 1,000
times more powerful than its nuclear
predecessors. The blast, which will spark
an arms race with the USSR, highly
contaminates the area around the atoll
and sends radioactive debris miles in all
directions..
On 31 January 1950 Pres. Harry S. Truman publicly declared the U.S. intention to
develop a hydrogen bomb. The primary motivations for this declaration was were
two surprising revelations – the Soviet Union’s first fission bomb during the
previous fall; and the discovery of Klaus Fuchs’ espionage activity of at Los Alamos,
uncovered just days before. These combined shocks, added to the rapidly growing
Cold War tensions, created grave concern at the highest levels of Washington
about the United States being overtaken in a nuclear arms race by the Soviet
Union.
From that time onward, the highest priority was placed on developing new and
more potent strategic weapons – especially thermonuclear weapons (hydrogen
bombs). At that time though no one had good ideas about how a practical
thermonuclear weapon could be made, rendering Truman’s declaration hollow.
This raised new fears – that Truman’s pronouncement may have spurred Soviet
thermonuclear efforts onward even faster, and that they might have hit upon
concepts not yet known in the U.S. Consequently a fallback strategy was pursued –
developing the highest yield fission bomb possible, a technical effort led by
Theodore Taylor at Los Alamos. The conceptual breakthroughs of Stanslaw Ulam
and Edward Teller the following January provided the needed insights to develop a
thermonuclear device.
So from early 1951 onward, these two parallel efforts to develop high yield
weapons were focused on a Pacific Proving Ground test series for late in 1952. This
series – Operation Ivy – exploded the two largest bombs tested up to that time. It
inaugurated the thermonuclear age with the first “true” thermonuclear test (code
name Mike), which was considerably more powerful than all the high explosives
used in two World Wars put together. Ivy also tested the highest yield pure fission
weapon ever exploded.
It is part of my responsibility as Commander in Chief of the Armed forces to see to
it that our country is able to defend itself against any possible aggressor.
Accordingly, I have directed the AEC to continue its work on all forms of atomic
weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or Super bomb.
— President Harry S. Truman, 31 January 1950
Ivy Mike was the codename given to the first test of a full-scale thermonuclear
device, in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion. It was
detonated on November 1, 1952 by the United States on the island of Elugelab in
Enewetak Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean, as part of Operation Ivy. It was the first full
test of the Teller-Ulam design, a staged fusion device.
— Source: wiki/Ivy_Mike
— Additional Source: www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Ivy.html
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