TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JULY 10
1520 The Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes is driven from Tenochtitlan and retreats to Tlaxcala.
1609 The Catholic states in Germany set up a league under the leadership of Maximilian of Bavaria.
1778 In support of the American Revolution, Louis XVI declares war on England.
1821 U.S. troops took possession of Florida. The territory was sold by Spain.
1832 U.S. President Andrew Jackson vetoed legislation to re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.
1850 Millard Fillmore is sworn in as the 13th president of the United States following the death of Zachary Taylor.
1890 Wyoming becomes the 44th state.
1893 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the first successful open-heart surgery, without the benefit of penicillin or blood transfusion.
1925 The trial of Tennessee teacher John T. Scopes opens, with Clarence Darrow appearing for the defense and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution.
1925 The official news agency of the Soviet Union, TASS, was established.
1938 Aviator Howard Hughes makes a record flight around the world. He completed the trip in just 91 hours, breaking the previous record by more than four days. Taking off from New York City in a Lockheed Super Electra he continued to Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Anchorage, Minneapolis, ending back at New York City.
1940 Battle of Britain begins as Nazi forces attack shipping convoys in the English Channel
1951 Armistice talks between the United Nations and North Korea begin at Kaesong
1960 Belgium sends troops to the Congo to protect whites as the Congolese Bloodbath begins, just 10 days after the former colony became independent of Belgian rule.
1962 Telstar, the world’s first communication satellite is launched in space
1973 The Bahamas became independent from Great Britain.
1985 Coca-Cola Co. announces it will resume selling “old formula Coke,” following a public outcry and falling sales of its “new Coke.”
1985 French foreign intelligence agents blow up the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor, New Zealand to prevent it interfering with French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira is killed.
1987 An attack by an Iranian Gunboat on a US super tanker in the Persian Gulf has caused a big jump in oil prices to jump to $21.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
1991 Boris Yeltsin is sworn in as the first elected president of the Russian Federation, following the breakup of the USSR.
1998 The U.S. military delivered the remains of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie to his family in St. Louis. He had been placed in Arlington Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown in 1984. His identity had been confirmed with DNA tests.
1998 The Diocese of Dallas agreed to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who said they were molested by 52-year-old Rudolph ‘Rudy’ Kos, who is now serving a life sentence in prison.
2002 The United States Senate gives final approval to bury all of the country’s nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, Nevada about 80 miles from Las Vegas. The plans include storing 70,000 metric tons of radioactive material from America’s 103 nuclear power plants deep inside the mountain for about 10,000 years. As of 2008 the project is still not accepting Nuclear waste due to legal challenges, funding, the transport of nuclear waste issues, and ongoing political pressure. Currently there are 130 separate nuclear waste sites scattered around the US.
2003 Spain opened its first mosque (in Granada) since the Moors were expelled in 1492.
2012 The American Episcopal Church becomes the first to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
