Timeline March 5 to 9

March 5
1496   King Henry VII of England issued letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.
1512   Gerardus Mercator, Flemish cartographer, was born.
1616   Nicolaus Copernicus's book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was banned by the Catholic Church
1770  The Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers, taunted by a crowd of colonists, opened fire, killing five people.
1967  Georges Vanier, Canadian politician and Governor General of Canada, died.
1980  Jay Silverheels, Canadian actor, died.

March 6
1475  Michelangelo, Italian sculptor, painter and architect, was born.
1619  Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist and satirist, was born.
1834  The city of Toronto (formerly York) was incorporated.
1836  The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege.
1899  Bayer registered "Aspirin" as a trademark.
1981  After 19 years of presenting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time.

March 7
1788  Antoine César Becquerel, French physicist, was born.
1792  Sir John Herschel, English astronomer, was born.
1876  Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone.
1913  Emily Pauline Johnson, Native Canadian poet died,
1926  The first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversation took place, between New York City and London.

March 8
1702  England's Queen Anne ascended the throne upon the death of King William III.
1872  Cornelius Krieghoff, Canadian painter, died.
1917  Russia's February Revolution (so called because of the Old Style calendar used by Russians at the time) began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg.

March 9
1627  John Bowne, English-born American Quaker, was born. [My 8th great-grandfather.]
1796  Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of France, married Josephine de Beauharnais.
1934  Yuri Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut, first space traveler, was born.
1996  Comedian George Burns died at age 100.

Ottawa Genealogy 2013 - Saturday May 4th

The details of the event on 4 May are now available at http://ogsottawa.on.ca/ottawa-genealogy-2013/. On line registration is open and we already have almost 25% of the seats sold.

Marketplace is also filling up with GlobalGenealogy.com, Archive CD Books Canada, Patricia McGregor Books, Gloucester Historical Society, Ubbink Book & Paper Conservation, Grenville County Historical Society and Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives.

Timeline March 1 to 4

March 1
1790  US Congress authorized the first U.S. census.
1810  Frederic Chopin, Polish French composer and pianist, was born.
1873  E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
1893  Nikola Tesla gave the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
1896  Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity.
1904  Glenn Miller, American composer and band leader, was born.
1910  David Niven, English stage and screen actor, was born.
1915  Malak Karsh, Canadian photographer, was born.

March 2
1769  DeWitt Clinton, American who presided over construction of the Erie Canal, Was born.
1791  John Wesley, English founder of Methodism, died.
1904  Theodor Seuss Geisel, who wrote and illustrated the popular 'Dr. Seuss' children's books, was born.
1945  Emily Carr, Canadian artist, died.
1965  The movie version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music" had its world premiere in New York.
1983  Compact Disc players and discs are released for the first time in the United States and other markets.

March 3
1678  Madeleine de Verchères, Canadian heroine, was born.
1831  George Pullman, American industrialist and inventor, was born.
1847  Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1885  The American Telephone & Telegraph Company was incorporated in New York.
1890  Norman Bethune, Canadian doctor and humanitarian, was born.
1920  James Doohan, Canadian-born actor "Scotty", was born.
1931  The United States adopted The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.

March 4
1394  Henry the Navigator, Portuguese sponsor of voyages of exploration, was born.
1628  The Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a Royal charter.
1675  John Flamsteed was appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England.
1678  Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer and violinist, was born.
1681  England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for an area of land that later became Pennsylvania.
1814  Americans defeated the British at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville.

Timeline February 26 to 28

February 26
1815  Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the island of Elba to begin his second conquest of France.
1846  William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, buffalo hunter, Indian scout and Frontiersman-turned-showman,  was born in Scott County, Iowa.
1852  John Harvey Kellogg, American physician who developed dry cereal, was born.
1866  Herbert H Dow, American founder of Dow Chemical Co. was born.
1937  Hagood Hardy, Canadian musician and composer, was born.

February 27
1594  Henry IV was crowned King of France.
1807  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, was born.
1899  Charles Best, Canadian scientist & co-discoverer of insulin, was born.
1902  John Steinbeck, American Nobel Prize winning novelist, was born in Salinas, Calif.
1932  Elizabeth Taylor, actress, was born.
1986  Jacques Plante, Canadian ice hockey goaltender, died.

February 28
1784  John Wesley chartered the Methodist Church.
1865  Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary, was born.
1901  Linus Pauling, the American Nobel Prize-winning chemist and political activist, was born.
1935  DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invented nylon.
1953  Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick published the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes.

Who Do You Think You Are! - Day 3

We have now finished with the final day of WDYTYA, in London.

We arrived about 10 am. Fewer people on the tube early on Sunday. Three were still problems with lines being closed for maintenance.

There were fewer people at the conference today as well.
We decided to take in a few lectures followed by some more booth cruising and a few more purchases. Said hello to Leslie Anderson again. We did not do our third session of volunteering at the Guild of One-Name Studies booth as they were not very busy.

In all a very large and interesting conference.

Timeline February 24 & 25

February 24
1582  Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull outlining his calendar reforms. (The Gregorian Calendar is the calendar in general use today.)
1723  John Burgoyne, British general, was born.
1986  Tommy Douglas, Canadian politician, died.
2008  Cuba's parliament named Raul Castro president, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel.

Februrary 25
1723  Sir Christopher Wren, English architect, died.
1836  Samuel Colt, American inventor, patented his revolver.
1873  Enrico Caruso, Italian operatic tenor, was born.

Who Do You Think You Are - Day 2

This morning we decided to spend a couple of hours in the Science Museum in London.
We saw exhibits on James Watt and Alan Turing.

Watt was much more versatile than what we learned about him in school. We knew him most for the steam engine, but he was into scientific instrument making, musical instruments, pottery, sculpture reproduction etc.  He also developed the concept of Horse Power in order to have a scientific way of charging his industrial customers for the use of his steam engines. I would describe him as the first "Edison" perhaps.

The exhibit about Turing was interesting also. He was involved with code breaking during WW II and contributed much to the invention and development of computing and computers.

We also had time to skim through the displays on the history of medicine
and the science and art of medicine.
We only scratched the surface of this museum!

Navigating the Tube was a different matter today. Two of the main lines were closed for planned
maintenance. This meant that all of the people moving East and West in London were crammed onto one line instead of three. Great fun!

We finally got to the Kensington Oylmpia in the afternoon in time for our volunteer session at the Guild of One-Name Studies. I only worked for a half hour and then removed myself so I could attend an excellent talk given by John Reid and Glenn Wright. Good show guys! I did not see anyone leave and the talk was quite lively. I didn't have tickets but was able to find a standing room place next to Leslie Anderson. Elizabeth worked her time at the Guild table. After that we went booth cruising again and made a few more purchases.

We also ran into Glenn and had a brief chat with him.

The afternoon crowds were as big as the first day of the conference.
We were tired again by evening and were happy to return to our hotel.