Alliance for Progress
On March 13, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the Alliance for Progress to provide economic and social aid to Latin America.
On March 13, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the Alliance for Progress to provide economic and social aid to Latin America.
Carl Christian Schurz was born on March 2, 1829, in Liblar, Prussia, Germany (present-day Erftstadt). Schurz commanded forces during the Civil War, reformed the Civil Service and was a vocal proponent of forest preservation.
The 1984 Winter Olympic Games opened in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia), on February 8, 1984. These were the first Winter Games – and the second Olympics – held in a Communist state.
On February 6, 1778, Delegates of King Louis XVI of France and the Second Continental Congress signed a Treaty of Alliance, promising military support to each other. French aid and manpower contributed to America’s ultimate victory in the Revolution.
On January 30, 1948, a Hindu extremist assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi used civil disobedience and hunger strikes to fight discrimination and push for India’s independence from Great Britain, among many other causes.
On January 27, 1938, the Honeymoon Bridge at Niagara Falls collapsed from the force of ice on the river pressing against its supports. It had been the largest steel arch bridge in the world.
On January 26, 1788, the first British prisoners arrived in Australia, establishing an experimental penal colony. Though the colony struggled at first, it eventually thrived and became an independent commonwealth.
Artist Albert Bierstadt was born on January 7, 1830, in Solingen, Germany. He was the most successful of the Hudson River School Artists and his paintings of the American West helped inspire increased settlement.
Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, France. Braille invented the reading and writing system used by the visually impaired for nearly two centuries.