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| On this date in: | |
| 1558 | Elizabeth I ascended to the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary. |
| 1800 | Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C., in the partially completed Capitol building. |
| 1869 | The Suez Canal opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red seas. |
| 1917 | French sculptor Auguste Rodin died at age 77. |
| 1934 | Lyndon B. Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as "Lady Bird." |
| 1962 | Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy. |
| 1968 | NBC outraged football fans by cutting away from the final minutes of a game to air a TV special, "Heidi," on schedule. Viewers were deprived of seeing the Oakland Raiders come from behind to beat the New York Jets 43-32. |
| 1970 | The Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon. |
| 1997 | Six militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt, killing 62 people, most of them foreign tourists. The attackers were killed by police. |
| 1998 | Israel's parliament overwhelmingly approved the Wye River land-for-peace accord with the Palestinians. |
| 2000 | The Florida Supreme Court froze the state's presidential tally, forbidding Secretary of State Katherine Harris to certify results of the marathon vote count in the race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. |
| 2001 | The Taliban confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden's military chief Mohammed Atef in an airstrike three days earlier. |
| 2003 | John Allen Muhammad was convicted of two counts of capital murder in the Washington-area sniper shootings. (He was later sentenced to death.) |
| 2003 | Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as governor of California. |
| 2005 | A jury in Sarasota, Fla., convicted mechanic Joseph Smith of kidnapping, raping and strangling 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, whose abduction had been captured by a car-wash security camera. (Smith was later sentenced to death.) |
| 2006 | Hall of Fame college football coach Bo Schembechler died at age 77. |
Article of the day
Elizabethan Age begins
Queen Mary I, the monarch of England and Ireland since 1553, dies and is succeeded by her 25-year-old half-sister, Elizabeth.
The two half-sisters, both daughters of King Henry VIII, had a stormy relationship during Mary's five-year reign. Mary, who was brought up as a Catholic, enacted pro-Catholic legislation and made efforts to restore the pope to supremacy in England. A Protestant rebellion ensued, and Queen Mary imprisoned Elizabeth, a Protestant, in the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity. After Mary's death, Elizabeth survived several Catholic plots against her; though her ascension was greeted with approval by most of England's lords, who were largely Protestant and hoped for greater religious tolerance under a Protestant queen. Under the early guidance of Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, Elizabeth repealed Mary's pro-Catholic legislation, established a permanent Protestant Church of England, and encouraged the Calvinist reformers in Scotland.
In foreign affairs, Elizabeth practiced a policy of strengthening England's Protestant allies and dividing her foes. Elizabeth was opposed by the pope, who refused to recognize her legitimacy, and by Spain, a Catholic nation that was at the height of its power. In 1588, English-Spanish rivalry led to an abortive Spanish invasion of England in which the Spanish Armada, the greatest naval force in the world at the time, was destroyed by storms and a determined English navy.
With increasing English domination at sea, Elizabeth encouraged voyages of discovery, such as Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the world and Sir Walter Raleigh's expeditions to the North American coast.
The long reign of Elizabeth, who became known as the "Virgin Queen" for her reluctance to endanger her authority through marriage, coincided with the flowering of the English Renaissance, associated with such renowned authors as William Shakespeare. By her death in 1603, England had become a major world power in every respect, and Queen Elizabeth I passed into history as one of England's greatest monarchs.
Today Birthdays
| Lorne Michaels turns 64 years old today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 AP Photo/Reed Saxon TV producer Lorne Michaels ("Saturday Night Live") turns 64 years old today.
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