TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 23
962 Byzantine-Arab Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops stormed city of Aleppo, recovering the tattered tunic of John the Baptist
1688 King James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch flees to France from William of Orange
1783 US General George Washington resigns his military commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army to Congress
1788 Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the District of Columbia.
1823 The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (“‘Twas the night before Christmas”), written by either Clement C. Moore or Maj. Henry Livingston, Jr., was published in the Troy Sentinel of New York.
1856 Ralph Collier was issued a U.S. patent for the first rotary egg beater with rotating parts.
1888 Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear with a razor, after argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, and sends to a prostitute for safe keeping
1900 The Federal Party, which recognizes American sovereignty, is formed in the Philippines.
1913 President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the Federal Reserve System.
1919 The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief and had 515 beds.
1919 Great Britain institutes a new constitution for India.
1921 President Warren G. Harding frees Socialist Eugene Debs and 23 other political prisoners.
1933 Pope Pius XI condemns the Nazi sterilization program.
1937 London warns Rome to stop anti-British propaganda in Palestine.
1944 General Dwight D. Eisenhower confirms the death sentence of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American shot for desertion since the Civil War.
1947 President Harry S Truman grants a pardon to 1,523 who had evaded the World War II draft.
1947 John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain and William Shockley invented the transistor.
1953 Soviet secret police chief Lavrenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.
1954 The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts
1968 The crew of the U.S. Navy ship, Pueblo, was released by North Korea. The Captain of the Pueblo, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, and 82 of his crew were held for 11 months after the ship was seized by North Korea because of suspected spying by the Americans.
1972 The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second play that was dubbed the “Immaculate Reception.” Pittsburgh’s Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran it in for the winning touchdown.
1974 The B-1 bomber makes its first successful test flight.
1975 Metric Conversion Act signed by U.S. President Gerald Ford
1994 Organized crime boss Whitey Bulger goes into hiding
1995 The bodies of 16 members of the Solar Temple religious sect were found in a clearing near Grenoble, France. 14 were presumed shot by two people who then committed suicide.
1997 Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
