TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 23
0303 Emperor Diocletian orders the general persecution of Christians in Rome.
1455 Johannes Gutenberg prints his first Bible (estimated date)
1540 Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado begins his unsuccessful search for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest.
1574 The 5th War of Religion breaks out in France.
1836 Alamo besieged for 13 days until March 6 by Mexican army under General Santa Anna; entire garrison eventually killed
1847 Santa Anna was defeated at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico by U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary.
1861 U.S. President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take his office after an assassination attempt in Baltimore.
1896 Tootsie Roll introduced by Leo Hirshfield
1898 Writer Emile Zola is imprisoned in France for his letter J’accuse in which he accuses the French government of anti-semitism and the wrongful imprisonment of army captain Alfred Dreyfus.
1919 Fascist Party formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini
1940 Walt Disney’s animated movie “Pinocchio” was released.
1941 Plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg
1942 A Japanese submarine shells an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, the first Axis bombs to hit American soil.
1945 U.S. Marines plant an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
1954 Mass innoculation begins as Salk’s polio vaccine is given to children for first time.
1963 The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It prohibited poll taxes in federal elections.
1967 Noam Chomsky’s anti-Vietnam war essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals” is published by the New York Review of Books
1972 Black activist Angela Davis is released from jail where she was held for kidnapping , conspiracy and murder.
1975 In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
1991 French forces unofficially start the Persian Gulf ground war by crossing the Saudi-Iraqi border
1997 Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York City’s Empire State Building. He killed one person and wounded six more before killing himself.
1998 Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders
1999 White supremacist John William King was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering James Byrd Jr. Byrd was dragged behind a truck for two miles on a country road in Texas.
2005 The New York, NY, city medical examiner’s office annouced that it had exhausted all efforts to identify the remains of the people killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, due to the limits of DNA technology. About 1,600 people had been identified leaving more than 1,100 unidentified.
2010 Unknown criminals pour more than 2.5 million litres of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in Northern Italy, causing an environmental disaster.
2012 A series of bomb attacks across 12 Iraqi cities kills 60 and injures 200
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
