Fredrich Christoph Halling (born 1844)

In 1844, in the year that Fredrich Christoph Halling was born, on July 3rd, the last known pair of great auk were killed in Iceland. A flightless bird, the average auk was about 33 inches tall and weighed about 11 pounds with a black back and white belly. They were most often found along the coast of Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Canada Great Britain, Ireland - and sometimes as far south as Spain.

In 1851, on March 27th, the first recorded visit of white men to Yosemite Valley occurred. The Mariposa Battalion, chasing Native Americans, went into the valley. One man, Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, wrote "the grandeur of the scene was but softened by the haze that hung over the valley -- light as gossamer -- and by the clouds which partially dimmed the higher cliffs and mountains. This obscurity of vision but increased the awe with which I beheld it, and as I looked, a peculiar exalted sensation seemed to fill my whole being, and I found my eyes in tears with emotion."

In 1920, in September, a bomb exploded in the J.P. Morgan bank building in New York City, killing 30 people immediately - 8 later died due to their injuries - and injuring another 200. Killing more people than the 1910 bombing of the LA Times (the deadliest terrorist act up until then), no one took responsibility and the perpetrators were never found. Italian anarchists were suspected of the bombing.

In 1971, on May 3rd, 10,000 federal troops, 5,100 officers of the D.C. Metropolitan Police, 2,000 members of the D.C. National Guard, and federal agents assembled in Washington DC to prevent an estimated 10,000 Vietnam War protesters from marching. President Nixon (who was in California) refused to give federal employees the day off and they had to navigate the police and protesters, adding to the confusion. By the end of a few days of protest, 12,614 people had been arrested - making it the largest mass arrest in US history.

In 1990, after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela, the leader of the movement to end South African apartheid was released on February 11th 1990.