TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 20
0069 Vespians’s supporters enter Rome and discover Vitellius in hiding. He is dragged through the streets before being brutally murdered.
1522 Suleiman the Magnificent accepts surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle in Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
1606 The “Susan Constant,” “Godspeed” and “Discovery” set sail from London. Their landing at Jamestown, VA, was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.
1669 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery
1790 Samuel Slater built the nation’s first cotton mill in Pawtucket, R.I.
1803 French flag lowered in New Orleans to mark the formal transfer of the Louisiana Purchase from France to USA for $27M
1820 Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50
1860 South Carolina secedes from the Union.
1861 English transports loaded with 8,000 troops set sail for Canada so that troops are available if the “Trent Affair” is not settled without war.
1917 Cheka formed – Soviet state security force and forerunner to the KGB, under Felix Dzerzhinsky after decree by Lenin
1924 Adolf Hitler is released from prison after serving less than one year of a five year sentence for treason.
1933 The German government announces 400,000 citizens are to be sterilized because of hereditary defects.
1938 Vladimir K Zworykin (Pennsylvania) receives patent on the Iconoscope TV system
1963 Four thousand cross the Berlin Wall to visit relatives under a 17-day Christmas accord.
1985 Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC
1988 Animal rights terrorists fire-bomb Harrod’s department store, London
1990 The world’s first website and server go live at CERN. The first website was http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html.
1994 Marcelino Corniel, a homeless man, was shot and mortally wounded by White House security officers. He had brandished a knife near the executive mansion.
1999 The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.
2001 The U.S. Congress passed a $20 billion package to finance the war against terrorism taking place in Afghanistan.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
