TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 5
910 The last major Viking army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward and Earl Aethelred
1305 William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.
1391 Castilian sailors in Barcelona, Spain set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 people and setting off four days of violence against Jews.
1763 Colonel Henry Bouquet decisively defeats the Indians at the Battle of Bushy Run in Pennsylvania during Pontiac’s rebellion.
1762 Russia, Prussia and Austria sign a treaty agreeing on the partition of Poland.
1815 A peace treaty with Tripoli–which follows treaties with Algeria and Tunis–brings an end to the Barbary Wars.
1861 For the first time, the U.S. government levied an income tax.
1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, won by the Union Army led by Rear Admiral Farragut with the cry “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” (US Civil War)
1884 The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s Island.
1892 Harriet Tubman receives a pension from Congress for her work as a nurse, spy and scout during the Civil War.
1914 The first electric traffic signal lights are installed in Cleveland, Ohio.
1921 Mustafa Kemal is appointed virtual ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
1947 Impoverished by World War II, Britain was looking to America in 1948 for financial help. Winston Churchill offered the Labor party support in appealing to the U.S. for another loan. He accused the British government of wasting the previous loan of $3,150,000 on non-essentials
1951 The United Nations Command suspends armistice talks with the North Koreans when armed troops are spotted in neutral areas.
1957 “American Bandstand,” which featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 chart music hosted by Dick Clark, makes its network debut on ABC.
1962 Actress Marilyn Monroe dies under mysterious circumstances.
1969 The U.S. space probe Mariner 7 transmitted pictures of Mars.
1973 Two Arab gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Black September take 35 hostages and open fire and throw grenades into a crowded passenger lounge at Athens airport killing 3 and injuring over 50 more. The terrorists are captured and later sentenced to death for the murders.
1974 President Richard Nixon admits he ordered a cover-up for political as well as national security reasons.
1981 Following the strike by Air traffic controllers for more pay and better working conditions President Ronald Reagan called the strike illegal and threatened to fire any controller who had not returned to work within 48 hours. He also declared a lifetime ban on the rehiring of any sacked strikers by the Federal Aviation Administration.
1983 AT&T is broken down into seven regional companies (often called Baby Bells) following the government’s anti-trust suit against AT&T in 1974, and after nearly a decade of legal wrangling, forced the phone behemoth to divest itself of companies that provided local service.
1991 An investigation was formally launched by Democratic congressional leaders to find out if the release of American hostages was delayed until after the Reagan-Bush presidential election.
1991 Iraq admitted to misleading U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons.
1992 Four police officers are indicted on civil rights charges in the beating of Rodney King.
1997 The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, goes on trial.
2002 The U.S. closed its consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The consulate was closed after local authorities removed large concrete blocks and reopened the road in front of the building to normal traffic.
2006 Phoenix, Arizona police have arrested two suspects in connection with the Serial Shooter Murders responsible for six murders and at least 29 other shootings in the Phoenix area. The suspects have been identified as Dale S. Hausner and Samuel John Dieteman.
2007 Jesse Spielman, a United States soldier convicted of playing a role in the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl and her family in Iraq was sentenced to 110 years in prison.
2012 A gunman in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, opens fire in a Sikh temple, killing six before committing suicide.
2012 The plutonium-powered rover Curiosity successfully lands on Mars. Larger than earlier rovers, Curiosity will spend two years examining the land, looking for evidence that conditions on Mars are fit for life.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
