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What Happened Today in History?

Posted by Kronos Profile 04/07/25 at 12:12PM History See more by Kronos
1227, August 15 - 31

Genghis Khan, (actually named Borjigin Temujin), the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, dies in Mongolia some time in late August. 1227. At the time of his death, the Mongol Empire was 2.5 times larger by territory than the Roman Empire. A study published in 2003 in The American Journal of Human Genetics suggested that Genghis Khan DNA can be found in one in 200 men today. The cause of his death is shrouded in mystery and it is now believed that it was caused by the bubonic plague.

1920 CE, August 18

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote is ratified as Tennessee, by a vote of 50 to 49, becomes the 36th State to do so. The deciding vote came from Harry T. Burn, a 24 year old, who supported suffrage but but was under political pressure to vote no. In his pocket was a letter from his mother, Febb Burn, urging him to vote for the amendment. The amendment was formally adopted into the Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby on August 26, 1920. More

1936 CE, August 18

Federico García Lorca, widely considered one of the most important Spanish poet and playwright of the 20th century, was murdered by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. His remains have never been found and the motive remains unknown, although a personal dispute is believed to be the more likely reason. 

A Comment by Loy

Your avatar
Loy • 04/08/2025 at 03:36PM • Like 1 Profile

Love the new UI - it is fun to be able to easily look up specific days, years and months throughout history. I must control me ADHD 😳🙂

Publius Ovidius Naso known in English as Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus  and was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace and often ranked  with them as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature.Ovid was extremely popular during his lifetime but was exiled by emperor Augustus to Tomis, known today as Constanța, a historical city located on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a carmen et error ("poem and a mistake"), but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.

Source: The Tristia of Ovid

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What kind of clouds are these? Although their cause is presently unknown, such unusual atmospheric structures, as menacing as they might seem, do not appear to be harbingers of meteorological doom. Formally recognized as a distinct cloud type only last year, asperitas clouds can be stunning in appearance, unusual in occurrence, and are relatively unstudied. Whereas most low cloud decks are flat bottomed, asperitas clouds appear to have significant vertical structure underneath. Speculation therefore holds that asperitas clouds might be related to lenticular clouds that form near mountains, or mammatus clouds associated with thunderstorms, or perhaps a foehn -- a type of dry downward wind that flows off mountains. Clouds from such a wind called the Canterbury arch stream toward the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. The featured image, taken above Hanmer Springs in Canterbury, New Zealand in 2005, shows great detail partly because sunlight illuminates the undulating clouds from the side.

Photo by Witta Priester

"Earth’s atmosphere contains carbon dioxide, which is good for life on Earth – in moderation." ..."The atmospheric concentration of CO2 has risen by more than 50% since industries began burning coal and other fossil fuels in the late 1700s, reaching concentrations that haven’t been found in the Earth’s atmosphere in at least a million years. And the concentration continues to rise..." More at The Conversation➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

In the predawn sky on August 13, two planets were close. And despite the glare of a waning gibbous Moon, bright Jupiter and even brighter Venus were hard to miss. Their brilliant close conjunction is posing above the eastern horizon in this early morning skyscape. The scene was captured in a single exposure from a site near Gansu, China, with light from both planets reflected in the still waters of a local pond. Also seen against the moonlight were flashes from the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, known for its bright, fast meteors. Near the much anticipated peak of activity, the shower meteors briefly combined with the two planets for a celestial spectacle even in moonlit skies.

Photo by Jeff Dai

This painting on the ceiling in Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, a church on Via Veneto in Rome, depicts the Virgin Mary being assumed body and soul into heaven. Today is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary in much of Western Christianity or the Dormition of the Mother of God in Eastern Christianity.

Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

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