To help educate you all about history-here are some things that happened today in the good 'ol days!

I love history and so I randomly thought I'd find out about some of the things that happened today in history and share them for the sake of providing you all with information that might help you with trivia board games/crosswords etc. So here are a few of the more eccentric things that happened today in the past. (These facts are courtesy of historyorb.com: http://www.historyorb.com/day/april/29.)

Today (April 29th) in:

• 1540 - Emperor Charles declares all privileges of Gent ended (clearly today wasn't a great day for Gents!)
• 1553 - Flemish woman introduces practice of starching linen into England (Proving that Flemish women should get even more credit for their fashion sense!)
• 1701 - Drenthe, Netherlands adopts Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is May 12, 1701 (Obviously the people of Drenthe are very forward thinking in a literal sense, plus I've decided I really love the name Drenthe- it sounds like it should rhyme with strength!)
• 1715 - John Flamsteed observes Uranus for 6th time (why the sixth sighting of that planet is so noteworthy I don't understand. Weren't 5 sightings of the planet enough to prove it was/is there? I guess it was either a slow news day or Mr. Flamsteed was just rather obsessed with Uranus-not that there's anything wrong with that-I'm sure it's a lovely planet to look at!) 
• 1813 - Rubber is patented (man, just think how rich the person who patented it would be if they were still alive today!) 
• 1834 - Charles Darwin's expedition sees top of Andes from Patagonia (Then what?)
• 1852 - 1st edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus published (Thanks to the thesaurus I found a most unusual word the other day-"Absquatulate"-yes it is a word-it means to leave abruptly!)
• 1882 - The "Elektromote" - forerunner of the trolleybus - is tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin. (Trolley Tours in big cities have Mr. von Siemens for their success!)
• 1913 - Swedish engineer Gideon Sundback of Hoboken patents all-purpose zipper (So go examine yours now!)
•  1930 - Telephone connection England-Australia goes into service. (It took them long enough!)
• 1953 - The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV. (Why go to the movies to get the 3-D experience when one can do so at home? I guess the regular size telly isn't as fun!)
• 1967 - Aretha Franklin releases "Respect" (And everyone R-E-S-P-E-C-T-S her for it!)
• 1981 - Phillie Steve Carlton is 1st lefty to strike out 3,000 batters (Yet another example of how left handed people rock!)
• 1990 - Wrecking cranes began tearing down Berlin Wall at Brandenburg Gate (Yay!)
• 1995 - Final TV broadcast of "Empty Nest" on NBC TV (Alas, the nest really was empty that day. )  :(
• 1995 - Longest sausage ever, at 2877 miles, made in Kitchener Ontario (Living up to the city's name no doubt!)

So as you see, today was a monumentally important day in history for so many reasons! Hope it was a good day for you all!