TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 5
1811 After George III was declared insane, the Prince of Wales became Prince Regent of England, and later George IV.
1817 1st US gas company incorporated, Baltimore (coal gas for street lights)
1846 The first Pacific Coast newspaper, Oregon Spectator, is published.
1861 1st moving picture peep show machine is patented by Samuel Goodale of Cincinnati
1885 King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal colonial possession
1900 The United States and Great Britain sign the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, giving the United States the right to build a canal in Nicaragua but not to fortify it.
1901 Pierpont Morgan forms US Steel Corp
1904 American occupation of Cuba ends
1917 U.S. Congress nullifies President Woordrow Wilson’s veto of the Immigration Act; literacy tests are required.
1918 The Soviets proclaim separation of church and state.
1919 United Artists is founded Charlie Chaplin was one of the film studio’s founders.
1922 The Reader’s Digest begins publication in New York.
1937 FDR proposed increasing the number of Supreme Court justices—”packing” the court.
1947 The Soviet Union and Great Britain reject terms for an American trusteeship over Japanese Pacific Isles.
1952 New York adopts three-colored traffic lights.
1973 Funeral for LC William Nolde, last US soldier killed in Vietnam War
1980 Egyptian parliament votes to end boycott of Israel
1985 U.S. halts a loan to Chile in protest over human rights abuses.
1990 Notre Dame becomes 1st team to sell its game to a major network (NBC)
1991 A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides
1993 Grenade explodes in Sarajevo, killing 63 & injuring 160
1997 Under international pressure, three of Switzerland’s biggest banks created a fund worth 100 million Swiss francs for Holocaust victims and their families.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
