TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – NOV 15
1315 Swiss soldiers ambush and slaughter invading Austrians in the battle of Morgarten.
1492 Christopher Columbus notes 1st recorded reference to tobacco
1626 The Pilgrim Fathers, who have settled in New Plymouth, buy out their London investors.
1763 Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon began surveying the Mason-Dixon line.
1777 The Articles of Confederation, instituting perpetual union of the United States of America, are adopted by Congress.
1805 Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their party reach the mouth of the Columbia River, completing their trek to the Pacific.
1806 Explorer Zebulon Pike discovers the Colorado Peak that bears his name, despite the fact that he didn’t climb it.
1864 Union Major General William T. Sherman’s troops set fires that destroy much of Atlanta’s industrial district prior to beginning Sherman’s March to the Sea.
1881 The American Federation of Labor is founded.
1884 European Colonization and trade in Africa is officially regulated at the international Berlin Conference, formalizing European powers “Scramble for Africa”
1904 King C. Gillette patents the Gillette razor blade
1920 Forty-one nations open the first League of Nations session in Geneva..
1926 Radio network National Broadcasting Co ( NBC ) launches with a radio network of 24 stations and one of the earliest remote musical broadcasts.
1937 Eighteen lawsuits are brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority, calling for its dissolution
1939 Social Security Administration approves 1st unemployment check
1957 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev asserts Soviet superiority in missiles, challenging the United States to a rocket-range shooting match.
1963 Argentina voids all foreign oil contracts.
1965 The Soviet probe, Venera 3, was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. On March 1, 1966, it became the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet when it crashed on Venus.
1969 A quarter of a million anti-Vietnam War demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
1979 The so called UnaBomber strikes for the first time when a bomb explodes in the cargo cabin of an American Airlines 727 on its way from Chicago to Washington, forcing it to make an emergency landing.
1986 A government tribunal in Nicaragua convicted American Eugene Hasenfus of charges related to his role in delivering arms to Contra rebels. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and was pardoned a month later.
1988 Palestinian National Council proclaims an independent State of Palestine.
1990 President Bush signs the Clear Air Act of 1990
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
