TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 2
216 BC Hannibal Barca wins his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae. After avidly studying the tactics of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus eventually bested his Carthaginian adversary.
47 BC Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, “veni, vidi, vici,” (I came, I saw, I conquered).
1552 The treaty of Passau gives religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany.
1589 During France’s religious war, a fanatical monk stabs King Henry II to death.
1776 The Continental Congress, having decided unanimously to make the Declaration of Independence, affixes the signatures of the other delegates to the document.
1790 1st US census conducted, the population was 3,939,214 including 697,624 slaves
1791 Samuel Briggs and his son Samuel Briggs, Jr. received a joint patent for their nail-making machine. They were the first father-son pair to receive a patent.
1802 Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed “Consul for Life” by the French Senate after a plebiscite from the French people.
1832 Troops under General Henry Atkinson massacre Sauk Indian men, women and children who are followers of Black Hawk at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin. Black Hawk himself finally surrenders three weeks later, bringing the Black Hawk War to an end.
1876 Wild Bill Hickok is shot while playing poker.
1861 The United States Congress passed the first income tax. The revenues were intended for the war effort against the South. The tax was never enacted.
1923 Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president upon the death of Warren G. Harding.1934 German President Paul von Hindenburg dies and Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor.
1939 U.S. President Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act. The act prohibited civil service employees from taking an active part in political campaigns.
1943 Lt. John F. Kennedy, towing an injured sailor, swims to a small island in the Solomon Islands. The night before, his boat, PT-109, had been split in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.
1964 Three North Vietnamese torpedo boats launch torpedoes against The US Destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin.1965 Newsman Morley Safer films the destruction of a Vietnamese village by U.S. Marines.
1980 A bomb planted by right wing terrorists in a waiting room explodes in Bologna railway station, killing over 70 and injuring more than 200.
1983 U.S. House of Representatives approved a law that designated the third Monday of January would be a federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The law was signed by President Reagon on November 2.
1988 American Defense Secretary, Frank Carlucci, got a rare view of Russian military bases and armaments after his Soviet counterparts were allowed the same privilege in America.
1990 Iraqi forces invade neighboring Kuwait.In 2 days Iraqi forces had overrun Kuwaiti forces and Saddam Hussein declared Kuwait as the 19th province of Iraq. The invasion lasted for 7 months and ended after a UN-authorized coalition force led by the United States intervened.
1996 Following the ever increasing trade deficit between Japan and the U.S.A a trade agreement is reached centered on establishing fair practices for the sale of American computer chips.
1998 Second Congo War Begins The deadliest war in Africa, the war and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.4 million people. The war started with a mutiny in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and soon involved 9 African nations. It lasted for 5 years.
2009 The remains of the last US serviceman to be officially listed as missing in action from the 1991 Gulf War were found in Iraq by military officials after being notified of the possible location by local citizens.
2011 After the US Senate voted to approve a debt deal, narrowly avoiding the default deadline, President Obama signed the deal, that would raise the debt ceiling by up to $2.4 trillion, it into law.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
