TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 25
1760 George III of England crowned.
1812 During the War of 1812, the U.S. frigate United States captured the British vessel Macedonian
1854 The infamous Charge of Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War; over 100 killed
1917 The Bolsheviks (Communists) under Vladimir Ilyich Lenin seized power in Russia.
1923 The Teapot Dome scandal comes to public attention as Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, subcommittee chairman, reveals the findings of the past 18 months of investigation. His case will result in the conviction of Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil, and later Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, the first cabinet member in American history to go to jail. The scandal, named for the Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming, involved Fall secretly leasing naval oil reserve lands to private companies.
1929 Alber B. Fall, of U.S. President Harding’s cabinet, was found guilty of taking a bribe. He was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000.
1933 The Roosevelt gold buying policy was inaugurated today with the government paying $31.36 per ounce 27 cents higher than quotations on the London Gold Exchange.
1940 Benjamin Oliver Davis became the first African-American general in the United States Army.
1944 The Japanese are defeated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the world’s largest sea engagement. From this point on, the depleted Japanese Navy increasingly resorts to the suicidal attacks of Kamikaze fighters.
1946 1st trial against nazi war criminals in Nuremberg
1954 President Eisenhower conducts the first televised Cabinet meeting.
1955 A crackdown on the sale and use of stimulants often called “Bennies” “Golf Balls” or “Co_Pilots” in the trucking industry is occurring in many states, the truckers use them to stay awake on long journeys
1960 Martin Luther King, Jr., is sentenced to four months in jail for a sit-in.
1962 In South Africa, civil rights activist Nelson Mandela is sentenced to 5 years in prison.
1983 1,800 U.S. troops and 300 Caribbean troops land on Grenada. U.S. forces soon turn up evidence of a strong Cuban and Soviet presence–large stores of arms and documents suggesting close links to Cuba.
1984 Following reports from Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid and the Red Cross who believe 10 million people are facing starvation in Ethiopia.
2009 Terrorist bombings in Baghdad kill over 150 and wound over 700.
2011 Police arrest 75 people outside Oakland City Hall while clearing the campsite of the Occupy Oakland protest police disperse protesters, using tear gas and rubber bullets.
2013 In a rare move of reconciliation North Korea has returned six South Korean citizens to Seoul. The men had not been on any list of those abducted by the North.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
