Nov. 1
Today in history
Today is Nov. 1. On this date in:
1512: The more than 5,000 square feet of biblical scenes from the Old Testament that Michelangelo had spent four years creating was first opened to public viewing. Since then, millions of visitors have flocked to the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City to marvel at the iconic frescoes high above, which Michelangelo painted while standing on scaffolding he designed to bring himself within an arm’s reach of the plaster.
1755: Estimated at magnitude 7.7, the Great Lisbon Earthquake struck offshore in the Atlantic Ocean and, combined with its resulting tsunami and a fire that swept through Lisbon, killed tens of thousands of people in Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
1765: The Stamp Act, passed by the British Parliament that March, went into effect in all American colonies, taxing publishers by requiring them to use specially stamped paper and inflaming colonial discontent over taxation without representation.
1800: President John Adams moved from Philadelphia into the White House in Washington, DC, becoming the first president to live in what was then known as the President’s Mansion. Construction of the building, with the use of enslaved laborers, began eight years earlier.
1945: The first issue of Ebony magazine was published. The monthly publication focused on the accomplishments of Black people and stories important to their community, with topics ranging from civil rights to entrepreneurship, fashion, education and more.
1950: Two extremists who wanted independence for Puerto Rico, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, opened fire in an assassination attempt outside the Blair House in Washington, DC, where President Harry Truman and his family were living while the White House was being renovated. Torresola was killed by police and Collazo was captured. Collazo was sentenced to death, but Truman commuted the sentence to life in prison; in 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted the sentence to time served and Collazo was released.
1952: The United States tested the first hydrogen bomb on the Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in a blast equivalent to 10.4 megatons of TNT, hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It created a fireball 3 miles wide and a mushroom cloud 100 miles wide. The island beneath it was obliterated, becoming a crater beneath the surface of the sea. The test was not officially announced until 1954.
1957: The longest suspension bridge between cable anchorages at the time, the nearly 5-mile Mackinac Bridge opened to traffic passing between the Upper and Lower peninsulas of Michigan.
1990: Under criticism over its environmental impact, McDonald’s announced it would stop using polystyrene foam food containers.
1993: The Maastricht Treaty took effect, establishing the European Union, a political and economic alliance initially comprising 12 countries but later growing to more than double that total.
1997: The film “Titanic” premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The Hollywood premiere wasn’t until December; the film went on to earn more than $2 billion globally.
2018: Thousands of Google employees around the world staged a walkout after it had been reported the company paid millions in severance to executives accused of sexual harassment. Some of the protesters’ demands were eventually met, including increased transparency for the handling of claims and an end to forced arbitration.
– USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in history, November 1
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