Daily Chat 17/07/09

Busy date in history. In Russia, Sophie Friederike August became Empress Catherine II in 1762 and Tsar Nicholas II, his family and several retainers were assasinated in 1918. The Spanish Civil War began in 1936. Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955. TWA flight 800 crashed off the coast of Long Island, New York in 1996, killing 230. In 1997, F.W. Woolworth closed after more than 117 years in business. In 1998, an earthquake in Papua New Guinea triggers a tsunami which killed more than 3,000 people and in 2007, a TAM Airlines flight crashed in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 199 people. Celebrating birthdays today: Donald Sutherland, Spencer Davis, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Camilla, David Hasselhoff, Angela Merkel and Jaap Stam. Today is the Yamaboko Junko in Kyoto.