Content by F T.Bear
Good morning! Rise and shine!
Today in history is a place for you early risers to exercise your brains as you wait for the day to begin. Please, by all means, bring your own bits of history to the comments section and add your memories of what YOU did on this day however many years ago.
The beauty of an early morning historical post is that the date can mean the event happened today “our time” or today “other side of the world” time.
From the life and death of Plato through to the latest most recent history as it happens, we intend on bringing you stimulating and educational historical knowledge.
July 28
1893: A petition, of more than 25,000 signatures is presented to parliament in support of women’s suffrage. There were also 12 other smaller petitions presented about the same time. When pro suffrage MP Sir John Hall presented them all to parliament there were 32,000 signatures in total, almost 25% of the adult European female population in NZ.
1976: At 3.42am in Tangshan, China an earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 on the Richter scale kills an estimated 242,000 people. This is regarded as one of the worst earthquakes in history, in regards of lives lost, surpassed only by 300,000 killed in Calcutta in 1737, and an estimated 830,000 in Shaanix China in 1556.
1945: Betty Lou Oliver becomes perhaps the unluckiest and luckiest person alive, when she survives two serious accidents in one day. Betty was the “elevator girl” and happened to be on the 80th floor of the Empire State Building when a plane crashes into the 79th floor. Betty survives but is badly burned. When rescuers arrive they decide to send her down in the elevator, not knowing the elevator cables are badly damaged. When the doors close the cables break and she plummets 79 floors, where she is again rescued. Betty finally dies in 1999.
1540: King Henry VIII marries his 5th wife, Catherine Howard. Henry celebrates with the beheading of Thomas Cromwell on the same day. Catherine was about 16/17 years old, Henry was 49. Catherine would come to the same fate as Thomas in 1542 aged 18/19.
