TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 29
661 Rashidun Caliphate, then the largest empire in history, ends with the death of its leader, Ali. Succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphate
1594 Mathematician John Napier dedicates his “Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John” to King James VI, predicts end of the world in 1688 or 1700
1802 John Beckley of Virginia appointed first Librarian of Congress
1813 Jane Austin publishes Pride and Prejudice.
1820 Britain’s King George III died insane at Windsor Castle.
1834 President Jackson orders first use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute
1845 Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Raven” 1st published (NYC)
1850 Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.
1861 Kansas is admitted into the Union as the 34th state.
1863 Bear River Massacre: American soldiers slaughter hundreds of Native Americans at the confluence of the Bear River and Beaver Creek in present day Idaho
1886 The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.
1905 Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, unsettled by the rising violence and protest, enacts reforms to improve the conditions of workers; these changes will do little to stop disorder throughout Russia in ensuing months
1929 The Seeing Eye, America’s first school for training dogs to guide the blind, founded in Nashville, Tennessee.
1944 The world’s greatest warship, Missouri, is launched
1944 285 German bombers attack London
1950 Riots break out in Johannesburg, South Africa, over the policy of Apartheid
1955 John William Cox buys Yankee Stadium, sells grounds to Knights of Columbus, later leaves structure to Rice University (1962)
1959 Walt Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” released
1964 Most lopsided high-school basketball score-211-29 (Louisiana)
1979 President Carter commuted Patricia Hearst’s 7 year sentence to 2 years
1987 “Physician’s Weekly” announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci’s Mona Lisa was caused by a “…facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear.”
1990 Exxon Valdez capt Joseph Hazelwood goes on trial due to oil spill
1998 A bomb exploded at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL, killing an off-duty policeman and severely wounding a nurse. Eric Rudolph was charged with this bombing and three other attacks in Atlanta.
1999 The U.S. Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two presidential advisers for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial.
2001 Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
2002 US President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address describes “regimes that sponsor terror” an “Axis of Evil”, which includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea
2009 Rod Blagojevich, the Governor of Illinois, is removed from office after being convicted of corruption charges
2017 Attack on mosque in Quebec kills 6 and injures 17, shooter is French-Canadian student
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
