Exceedingly Mundane

I wasn’t going to blog today, but then decided I would look and see what happened on this day in history. I looked at a couple of websites, and you know what? This is not a very exciting day in history! Not much happened, and not very many famous people were born today Oh well, you win some and you lose some!!

Here’s what I did find (Via the History Channel website):

1867 — U.S. takes possession of Alaska. On this day in 1867, the U.S. formally takes posession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than 2 cents an acre. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by William Henry Seward, the enthusiastically expansionist secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson

1767 — Mason-Dixon line drawn. On this day in 1767, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon complete their survey of the boundary between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as areas that would eventually become the states of Delaware and West Virginia. The Penn and Calvert families had hired Mason and Dixon, English surveyors, to settle their dispute over the boundary between their two proprietary colonies, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

1469 — Ferdinand and Isabella marry. Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile in Valladolid, thus beginning a cooperative reign that would unite all the dominions of Spain and elevate the nation to a dominant world power. Ferdinand and Isabella incorporated a number of independent Spanish dominions into their kingdom and in 1478 introduced the Spanish Inquisition, a powerful and brutal force of homogenization in Spanish society. In 1492, the reconquest of Granada from the Moors was completed, and the crown ordered all Spanish Jews to convert to Christianity or face expulsion from Spain. Four years later, Spanish Muslims were handed a similar order.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer sponsored by Isabella and Ferdinand, discovered the New World for Europe and claimed the rich, unspoiled territory for Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella’s subsequent decision to encourage vigorous colonial activity in the Americas led to a period of great prosperity and imperial supremacy for Spain.

And notable people sharing my birthday include:

1961 Wynton Marsalis – trumpeter, bandleader
1960 Jean Claude Van Damme – actor
1951 Pam Dawber – actress (Mork & Mindy)
1939 Mike Ditka – football player, coach, sportscaster
1928 Keith Jackson – sportscaster
1927 George C. Scott – actor (Oscar® winner, 1970)
1926 Chuck Berry – singer, guitarist
1919 Pierre Trudeau – Canadian Prime Minister (1968-79)