Today marks the day Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon reached the end of the now famous Mason-Dixon Line. #AncestralPassages #masondixonline #TodayInHistory

📅 October 18, 1867: The United States Takes Possession of Alaska

A deal that seemed foolish to say,
Seward bought Alaska that day.
For two cents an acre,
Each doubter and faker
Ate crow when gold came into play!

#TodayInHistory #Limerick #History

Today in History - 1867, the U.S. formally took possession of Alaska, bought from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. The deal, which added 586,412 square miles (about twice the size of Texas) to the country. #TodayInHistory

18 Oct 1776
At Battle of Pellham, 750 Americans fight 4,000 British troops, ending in strategic American retreat.
#RevWar #TodayInHistory

Today in Bookish and Literary History, October 18

#todayinhistory #otd #october18 #booksky #books #reading #readers #releasedates #publicationday

#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊
💀Oct 17, 1907 Gustav Zeuner died in Dresden, Germany 🇩🇪

1869: Three-dimensional population surface or "stereogram," with axonometric projection to show curves of various "slices'
-- paved the way for 3D #dataviz

#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊
💀Oct 17, 2010 Herman P. Friedman died in New York, USA 🇺🇸

1971: Irregular polygon ("star plot") to represent multivariate data -- a profile plot in polar coords

📅 October 17, 1781: The British Surrender at Yorktown

A general named Cornwallis found dread,
When Washington's troops lay ahead,
At Yorktown he'd fall,
Surrendering all,
And a new nation rose in his stead.

#TodayInHistory #Limerick #History

Today in History - 1931: A jury convicted Al Capone of tax evasion. Prosecutors used his Palm Island estate in Miami Beach as proof of his untaxed income, and after prison, Scarface retired there until his death in 1947. #TodayInHistory

17 Oct 1777
British General Burgoyne surrenders army of 6,200 troops at Saratoga, convincing French to aid America.
#RevWar #TodayInHistory

#TodayInHistory/1973
OPEC enacts oil embargo

And while we don’t have “no gas today” signs, or long lines at the pump (yet), Trump has done us much worse.

www.history.com/this-...

Today in Bookish and Literary History, October 17

#todayinhistory #otd #october17 #booksky #books #reading #readers #releasedates #publicationday