ON THIS DAY

On this date in 1542 Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, is executed for adultery. Instead of getting half of everything, she got her head handed to her. Yeah, back then they were executed. Today, they would have been given roles in the reality series, "The real Castle Wives of Henry the 8th."

In 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo went on trial for contradicting the idea that the sun goes around the earth. We really should have a prestigious "I told you so" award. Oh, and the earth testified that she and the sun were just friends.

On this date in 1635, America's first public school opened -- the Boston Latin School. Actually, the Boston Pig Latin School had opened two days earlier, but it was taken seriously. And boy, were they ad-may. I believe their official motto was 'E Yankius Sucketh'.

In 1741, Andrew Bradford of Pennsylvania published the first magazine in the U.S. entitled The American Magazine. He obviously spent more time with the magazine itself, than coming up with a name for it.

On this date in 1795, the University of North Carolina becomes the first U.S. state university to open its doors to students. I guess I don't know what else you would open them up to. Before then, students weren't allowed and it was much easier to run the school.

In 1866, Jesse James robbed his first bank.
This was years before he met Sandra Bullock.
To show his arrogance, he didn't even get off his horse! He just robbed 'em at the ride-through window.
They were a little nervous. In fact, it's said that as they walked in the bank, Jesse yelled out, "All right you stickers, this is a (bleep) up!"

On this date in 1933, the comic strip couple Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead were married. They spent their honeymoon in the travel section.

In 1936, the very first Social Security checks were mailed. They ought to be arriving any day now.

On this date in 1955, Israel acquired 4 of the 7 dead sea scrolls... in exchange for a first-round draft pick and an archeological find to be named later. Had they bought the complete set, they would have come with a beautiful set of steak knives.

In 1960, France tested its first atomic bomb in the Sahara Desert. The good news: it solved the rat problem... although, a bit drastic.

On this date in 1970, GM began working on unleaded cars. Now if we could just come up with unleaded toys.

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