TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JULY 29
1602 The Duke of Biron is executed in Paris for conspiring with Spain and Savoy against King Henry IV of France.
1603 Bartholomew Gilbert is killed in Virginia by Indians, during a search for the missing Roanoke colonists.
1609 Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years
1786 “The Pittsburgh Gazette” became the first newspaper west of the Alleghenies to be published. The paper’s name was later changed to “The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.”
1830 Liberals led by the Marquis de Lafayette seize Paris in opposition to the king’s restrictions on citizens’ rights.
1848 Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police
1858 Japan signs a treaty of commerce and friendship with the United States.
1905 US Secretary of State William Howard Taft makes secret agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Katsura agreeing to Japanese free rein in Korea in return for non-interference with the US in the Philippines
1915 U.S. Marines land at Port-au-Prince to protect American interests in Haiti.
1921 Adolf Hitler becomes the president of the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis).
1957 The International Atomic Energy Agency is established The independent agency aims to ban the use of nuclear energy for military purposes. American W. Sterling Cole served as the agency’s first director general.
1958 President Eisenhower signed the congressional act that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was authorized by Congress.
1968 Pope Paul VI banned the contraceptive pill as well as all other artificial means of birth control.
1975 OAS (Organization of American States) members voted to lift collective sanctions against Cuba. The U.S. government welcomed the action and announced its intention to open serious discussions with Cuba on normalization.
1981 Prince Charles marries Lady Diana.
1993 The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard “Ivan the Terrible.” His death sentence was thrown out and he was set free.
1996 A US federal court strikes down the child protection portion of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, calling it too broad.
1999 Day Trader (Mark O. Barton) opens fire at the All-Tech Investment Group Inc Atlanta brokerage office, killing nine and wounding 13 others before shooting himself to death, he had earlier killed his wife and two children.
2005 Astronomers announce the discovery of dwarf planet Eris, leading the International Astronomic Union to clarify the definition of a planet.
2008 The U.S. House of Representatives publicly apologized for the institution of slavery and Jim Crow laws that discriminated against African Americans.
2008 Former United States President and Commander in Chief, George W. Bush approved the first execution of an American soldier in over fifty years on this day. Ronald Gray a serial killer who was found guilty of the rape and murder of 4 victims, a member of the armed forces in the states of North Carolina was convicted of rape and murder in 1988 and sentenced to death.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
