TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 21
1192 Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
1680 Pueblo Indians drove out the Spanish and took possession of Santa Fe, N.M.
1703 The Edirne Event: Turkish army removes Sultan Mustafa II, lessening the power of the sultans
1831 Nat Turner slave revolt kills 55 (Southampton County, Virginia)
1858 The first of a series of debates begins between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Douglas goes on to win the Senate seat in November, but Lincoln gains national visibility for the first time.
1863 Confederate raiders under William Quantrill strike Lawrence, Kansas, leaving 150 civilians dead.
1911 The world’s most famous art heist…. The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre museum in France by an Italian waiter, Vicenzo Perruggia.
1922 Curly Lambeau & Green Bay Football Club granted NFL franchise
1938 President Roosevelt publicly pledged to defend Canada should it be invaded by an enemy and in return he expected Canada to come to American aid if the U.S. was attacked.
1942 U.S. Marines turn back the first major Japanese ground attack on Guadalcanal in the Battle of Tenaru.
1944 The Dumbarton Oaks conference, which lays the foundation for the establishment of the United Nations, is held in Washington, D.C.
1945 President Harry S. Truman cancels all contracts under the Lend-Lease Act.
1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th US state
1972 US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus launched.
1976 Operation Paul Bunyan: after North Korean guards killed two American officers sent to trim a poplar tree along the DMZ on Aug. 18, US and ROK soldiers with heavy support chopped down the tree.
1988 Cease fire between Iran & Iraq takes effect after 8 years of war
1989 Voyager 2 begins a flyby of planet Neptune.
1991 Communist hardliners’ coup is crushed in USSR after just 2 days; Latvia declares independence from USSR.
2006 Saddam Hussein’s genocide and crimes against humanity trial began on this day.
2013 US soldier, Bradley Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison after sharing sensitive information with Wikileaks.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
