TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 27
312 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross
1553 Michael Servetus, who discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood, is burned for heresy in Switzerland.
1659 William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson became the first Quakers to be executed in America.
1682 City of Philadelphia Founded
1787 The first of the Federalist Papers, which called for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published.
1791 President George Washington transmits to Congress the results of the first US census, exclusive of South Carolina which had not yet submitted its findings.
1795 Pinckney’s Treaty [Treaty of San Lorenzo] signed by Spain and US, establishing the southern boundary of the US and giving Americans right to navigate the Mississippi River
1809 President James Madison orders the annexation of the western part of West Florida. Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority.
1871 Boss Tweed (William Macy Tweed), Democratic leader of Tammany Hall, arrested after NY Times exposed his corruption
1873 Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applies for a patent on barbed wire. Glidden eventually received five patents and is generally considered the inventor of barbed wire.
1891 D. B. Downing, inventor, is awarded a patent for the street letter (mail) box.
1904 Underground movements…New York City’s first rapid transit subway, the IRT, opened.
1917 20,000 women march in a suffrage parade in New York. As the largest state and the first on the East Coast to do so, New York has an important effect on the movement to grant all women the vote in all elections.
1922 In Italy, liberal Luigi Facta’s cabinet resigns after threats from Mussolini that “either the government will be given to us or we will seize it by marching on Rome.” Mussolini calls for a general mobilization of all Fascists.
1927 Fox Movie-tone news, the first sound news film, is released.
1954 Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the US Air Force.
1962 American U-2 reconnaissance plane shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Cuba, killing the pilot, Maj. Rudolf Anderson, the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1978 President Carter signs Hawkins-Humphrey full employment bill
1979 Voluntary Euthanasia Society publishes how-to-do-it suicide guide
1982 China announces its population has reached 1 billion plus people
1986 British government deregulates financial markets in a “Big Bang”, enhancing London’s status as a financial capital while increasing income inequality
1991 Turkmenistan Declares Independence from the Soviet Union
1997 The Dow Jones industrial average fell 554.26 points, forcing the stock market to shut down.
1999 Shooting in the Armenian Parliament… 8 people, including the country’s prime minister, Vazgen Sargsyan and Speaker Karen Demirchyan, were killed when armed gunmen shot at the members of the Armenian National Assembly.
2004 After an 86 year wait, the Boston Red Sox finally captured a World Series trophy.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
