TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 29
1638 A permanent European colony is established in present-day Delaware.
1847 U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott take possession of the Mexican stronghold at Vera Cruz.
1857 The Indian Mutiny against British rule in India had been begun by Indian troops (sepoys) that were in the service of the British East India Company.
1867 The United States purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.
1886 Coca-Cola goes on sale for the first time at a drugstore in Atlanta. Its inventor, Dr. John Pemberton, claims it can cure anything from hysteria to the common cold.
1903 A regular news service begins between New York and London on Marconi’s wireless.
1912 Captain Robert Scott, storm-bound in a tent near South Pole, makes last entry in his diary “the end cannot be far”
1913 The German government announces a raise in taxes in order to finance the new military budget.
1943 The rationing of meat, cheese, butter and cooking oils goes into effect when Americans are given ration books allowing the purchase of a certain amount of meat, cheese, butter and cooking oils each month.
1950 A note is sent to police in New York warning of a bomb planted at Grand Central Station in New York City, the bomb squad do mange to diffuse the bomb. The Mad Bomber had been targeting New York since 1940 taking a break during World War II and left a total of at least 33 bombs, of which 22 exploded until he was caught.
1951 The Chinese reject Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s offer for a truce in Korea.
1952 President Harry Truman removes himself from the presidential race.
1961 The 23rd amendment, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote for president, is ratified.
1962 Cuba opens the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.
1971 Lt. William L. Calley Jr. is found guilty for his actions in the My Lai massacre.
1973 The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Vietnam.
1974 The Terracotta Army is discovered in Xi’an, China
1976 Eight Ohio National Guardsmen are indicted for shooting four Kent State students during an anti-war protest on May 4, 1970.
1979 The Committee on Assassinations Report issued by U.S. House of Representatives stated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the result of a conspiracy.
1986 A court in Rome acquits six men in a plot to kill the Pope.
1992 Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton said “I didn’t inhale and I didn’t try it again” in reference to when he had experimented with marijuana.
1995 The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional amendment that would have limited terms to 12 years in the U.S. House and Senate.
2007 The Saudi monarch has made a forceful appeal for Arab unity, and denounced the U.S. policy in Iraq and Palestinian embargo at the Arab League summit in Riyadh.
2007 The Senate is ignoring President Bush’s veto threat and has approved the $122 billion spending bill with a timeline for troop withdrawal. The bill, which will continue to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, orders Bush to start withdrawing troops from Iraq 120 days after its passage. As such it sets a nonbinding target date for troop withdrawal by the end of March, 2008.
2009 A man shot and killed seven patients and a nurse at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina. He, himself, was wounded during a shootout with a police officer.
2010 Two Chechen suicide bombers detonate their devices in the Moscow underground
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
