What Happened Today

When Christopher Columbus' first voyage reached land, he managed to change the world forever. By hitting the island he called San Salvador, although the native Taino called it Guanahani, Columbus inaugurated the Columbian exchange, whereby the good, foods, and people of previously separated continents went across the globe. Columbus was not a hero even to the men underneath him or the Monarchs of Spain he sailed for, Ferdinand and Isabella. He was an egotistical blowhard whose understanding of the world, that it was much smaller than thought, made him the only person who believed he would hit Asia easily by sailing west from Europe. Everyone else thought he would die on the open seas. With a promise he would become Admiral of the Ocean Sea and General of whatever land he could claim, Columbus was motivated on his voyage. During the voyage, the Pinzon brothers, who were the captains of two of Columbus' three ships, stopped mutinies against Columbus. He had just days to find land before turning back to Spain when land was spotted. Once Columbus landed in the Americas, not that he ever thought he did, the world would never be the same.

The Second Vatican Council transformed the very nature of modern Roman Catholicism, replacing the Latin mass, reshaping the role of the clergy, and establishing new relationships with other churches. Yet when it was first opened by Pope John XXIII, the nature of the council was still taking shape. John XXIII had announced a council three years earlier, which was a bold move. The previous Vatican Council, in 1870, was interrupted by Italian Unification. Further, John XXIII's call for a new council would clearly have to deal with the state of the church and the world in a post-World War II era. Cardinal Giovanni Montini, John XXIII's future successor as Pope Paul VI, said he had "no idea what kind of a hornet's nest he had kicked up." This might have been unfair to John XXIII, who, as a Papal Nuncio in World War II, had helped save Jews from the Holocaust and worked to retire Bishops who had collaborated with the Nazis in France. John XXIII wanted to reorient the church towards Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, and Jews. It was only John XXIII who could have opened the Second Vatican Council by telling the world that "Gaudet Mater Ecclesia," or "the mother church rejoices."

The Battle of Tours would become one of those historical events that was a famous turning point in history. In that narrative, Tours represented the furthest reach of Muslim invasions into Europe in the Middle Ages. The Frankish commander, Charles Martel, the "Hammer," would become the hero of Western Christianity for pushing back the Muslim forces and defeating Muslim commander Abdul Rahman, who died on the battlefield. The actual historical record of what happened on the battlefield is thin and contradictory, as both sides said they were severely outnumbered. The most clear element of the Battle of Tours, though, was that Muslim armies remained mostly on the Iberian Peninsula and made few attempts to expand their territory. Charles Martel, officially the Mayor of the Palace rather than the Frankish King, would consolidate his authority over much of Western Europe. All of which can be traced to Charles' victory at Tours over Abdul Rahman.

The Taliban decided one of the best ways to keep in force their ban on educating girls was to shoot a 15 year old girl on her way home from an exam. The girl was Malala Yousafzai, and the Taliban had targeted their biggest obstacle in enforcing a ban on girls going to school. Malala Yousafzai had begun anonymously blogging for BBC Urdu three years earlier. After a documentarian found her story, she became publicly known, appearing on television telling her story of living under Taliban rule in Pakistan's Swat Valley and becoming an activist against the Taliban. Although she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman, Malala Yousafzai survived. What's more is she was now the symbol of the Taliban's cruelty as she went through recovery and rehabilitation in Birmingham, England. The Taliban would be roundly condemned, including by a group of 50 Pakistani Islamic clerics. Meanwhile, Malala Yousafzai would launch programs funding education for girls, attend Oxford University, and win a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Battle of Perryville was also known as the "Battle for Kentucky," because it was the only major battle fought in the state during the Civil War. Kentucky was a border state, a slave state that remained with the Union, but it also produced more Confederate troops than any other Union state. This made Kentucky an obvious target for the Confederates, despite its consistent status as Union held. By the summer of 1862, a plan was hatched by Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith to launch a Confederate invasion of Kentucky. This would be coordinated with Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland in the Eastern Theater, and Bragg argued it could be a distraction to Union forces in the Western Theater. Actually, Bragg was pursued by Don Carlos Buell's Union troops all the way into Kentucky. When they met near the town of Perryville, both sides were disorganized and tired. On the field, the Union lost more men and proved to have more problematic leadership. Yet the Confederates were further from supplies and had fewer men, which forced them to retreat. This made the Battle of Perryville a Union victory officially, and made Kentucky safely a Union state for the duration of the war.

The worst loss in college football history began with a baseball game. In a matchup in the 1916 baseball season, Cumberland College beat Georgia Tech 22 to 0, almost certainly through the use of dressing a professional team in Cumberland's uniforms. This angered and humiliated Georgia Tech's coach John Heisman, who was also the football coach and athletic director. Therefore, when Cumberland was scheduled to play Georgia Tech in Atlanta in football, he insisted they play or pay a sizable sum to cover lost revenue, despite the fact that Cumberland had dissolved their football team. John Heisman was already a college football legend, bringing innovations to the game like the forward pass, the snap, and coordinated blocking. And when he faced Cumberland, he refused to take it easy. Cumberland never had a first down, because they couldn't make it. Georgia Tech never had a first down, because they kept scoring touchdowns. In the end, the Georgia Tech team would demolish Cumberland as the most impressive victory in an unbeaten streak, winning by a score of 222-0.

In the middle of The Jazz Singer, the film's star Al Jolson spoke to an audience at his character's performance by saying, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet." This was also a larger commentary on the experience of the film's audience, because The Jazz Singer was the first film to feature extended sequences of talking by the movie's actors. Using the Warner Bros. system known as "Vitaphone," the film was the first feature to have dialogue and singing synchronized with the picture. This made The Jazz Singer revolutionary. Yet the film also was a reflection of already popular forms of entertainment. The film was based on a straight play based on a short story by Samson Rafaelson, and it told the story of a Jewish kid, the son of a cantor, who chose to perform as a blackface minstrel rather than follow in his father's footsteps. The entire tale was based on Al Jolson's life after Rafaelson had seen him in a revue. Although Jolson wasn't in the play, he became the star of the film when it was planned to be a musical with sound. This allowed for the biggest musical star in the world to star in a movie specially designed to showcase his particular talents for the whole world to see.

At about 8:30 in the Horse and Groom Pub in Guildford, Surrey, a bomb went off, killing five. Upon hearing of the explosion, the nearby Seven Stars was evacuated, which meant that the bomb which exploded at 9:00 there did not cause any fatalities. Very quickly, authorities connected the bombing to the Irish Republican Army. Armed with a new law, the Prevention of Terror Act, the authorities swiftly arrested Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Paddy Armstrong, and Carole Richardson. Known as "The Guildford Four," they all confessed to the bombings, and relatives of Conlon, the Maguire family, were arrested for conspiracy. The problem was that they did not have ties to the crime. In 1975, a group of IRA operatives staged a standoff in Balcombe Street, London, after being chased by police under suspicion of terror activity. On trial, they told their lawyers that they knew for a fact that the Guildford Four were in prison for crimes they did not commit. This half confession did not cause the release of the Guildford Four. Instead, brand new investigations, and the revelation that the confessions were given under torture, resulted in the release of the Guildford Four.

In the mid-1950s, both the Soviet Union and the United States were planning to send a satellite into space and orbit around the Earth. Yet when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, it was astonishing to most of the world. Part of why it was astonishing was that the United States was nowhere near launching a satellite. The fact it could go into space was due to the fact that Sputnik was remarkably similar. The small metal sphere with antennae jutting out was not the initial plan for a Soviet satellite, but instead became the project after a more complicated satellite full of instruments was pushed back. Sputnik was simply attached to a rocket, slipped out into orbit, and sent radio signals at a low level back to Earth. Yet Sputnik's very existence and orbit created widespread panic among Americans. Everyday Americans were worried a Soviet satellite was a precursor to much more sinister objects. This was quickly proven untrue as it just sent a "beep-beep-beep" radio signal, but even that was enough to send the American government into a flurry of activity, granting more funds for scientific research and creating the National Aeronautic and Space Administration.

OJ Simpson, football star, actor, and pitch man, was one of the most famous people in America in 1994. Then his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered along with her houseguest Ron Goldman, and OJ Simpson became the prime suspect. With an obsessively watched low speed chase in a White Ford Bronco before he turned himself in, Simpson became the most infamous person in America. Throughout his lengthy trial, news channels covered each in and out obsessively. It appeared to most commentators that Simpson was guilty, as the Prosecutors' had eyewitnesses, physical evidence, and DNA. Yet in a backdrop of intense racial unrest in Los Angeles, OJ Simpson's "Dream Team" of lawyers began poking holes in the prosecution's case. When the jury announced they had a verdict after just four hours, observers were floored. Then they announced they unanimously found OJ Simpson Not Guilty. In a later civil trial, Simpson would be found liable. 13 years to the day after the murder case's verdict, Simpson was found guilty of armed robbery in a Las Vegas burglary of sports memorabilia, sending him to jail for nine years.