1. 1830: The Mormon Church is Established
Joseph Smith reading from the Book of Mormon
PHOTO: MyLifeInZion
PHOTO: Columbian
A man named Joseph Smith claimed he had seen an angel named Moroni in 1823. He said the angel spoke of an ancient book made of gold plates that had holy text engraved on them, and Moroni sent Smith to find the plates. Over the next six years with the help of his wife and many other scribes, Smith was able to transcribe the entire Holy Text and in 1830 The Book of Mormon was released. That was also the year that Smith founded the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day-Saints in Fayette Township, New York.
2. 1896: The First Modern Day Style Olympics Take Place
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PHOTO: cnn
On this day in 1896, the modern style Olympics began again after more than 1500 years. Roughly 280 men showed up from over 14 countries that would compete in 43 different events from swimming to track and field and everything in between. Interestingly, there was not a single female competitor that year. The Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, which was a proper fit since that was where the last Olympics had been. Some of the most popular events are usually the track and field and for the 1896 Olympics they were held in the Panathenaic Stadium which was built back in 330 B.C. but was updated for the 1896 Olympic. The United States won 9 out of 12 of those Track & Field events which was a pretty big deal back then. Another interesting fact about the 1896 Olympics was that was the first time that someone ran the “marathon” in competition. The run was based off the 25 mile route from Marathon to Athens that Greek soldiers ran to carry the news that the Persians had been defeated. It wasn’t until 1924 that the marathon was standardized to the 26 miles and 385 yards.
3. 1950: The Leopoldina Railways Train Falls Off a Bridge, Kills 110 people
PHOTO: allstar
On this day in 1950, the Leopoldina Railways Train had 22 cars connected as it headed towards its destination of Victoria, Espirito Santo from Rio De Janeiro. The Train was filled with both cargo and people and although it had made this journey many times before there was a torrential downpour taking place and as they reached the Bridge that would take them across the Indios River there was no warning system to let them know that the heavy rain had made the river rise so much that it had actually swept most of the foundation of the bridge downriver. So as the Locomotive and a few luggage cars that were up front hit the bridge they went flying down into the river pulling all the cars carrying people with them. Over 200 people hit the water that night but due to the location and terrible weather rescue crews were not able to make it out to the crash for a few days. Some of the people that went overboard were able to swim to safety but once all was done there were more than 110 people that had lost their lives.