TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: OCT 11
1138 Earthquake in Aleppo, Syria, kills an estimated 230,000
1531 The Catholics defeat the Protestants at Kappel during Switzerland’s second civil war.
1727 George II of England crowned.
1737 Earthquake kills 300,000 and destroys half of Calcutta, India
1779 Polish patriot and American Revolutionary War commander Casimir Pulaski was killed in the battle of Savannah.
1795 In graditude for putting down a rebellion in the streets of Paris, France’s National Convention appoints Napoleon Bonaparte second in command of the Army of the Interior.
1862 The Confederate Congress in Richmond passes a draft law allowing anyone owning 20 or more slaves to be exempt from military service. This law confirms many southerners opinion that they are in a ‘rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.’
1869 Thomas Edison filed for a patent on his first invention. The electric machine was used for counting votes for the U.S. Congress, however the Congress did not buy it.
1877 Outlaw Wild Bill Longley, who killed at least a dozen men, is hanged, but it took two tries; on the first try, the rope slipped and his knees drug the ground.
1890 Daughters of the American Revolution founded
1899 The Boer War began in South Africa between the British and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
1906 San Francisco school board orders the segregation of Oriental schoolchildren, inciting Japanese outrage.
1915 English nurse Edith Cavell was executed by the Germans.
1929 JCPenney opened a store in Milford, DE, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 states.
1939 A letter from Albert Einstein was delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt concerning the possibility of atomic weapons
1945 Negotiations between Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and Communist leader Mao Tse-tung break down. Nationalist and Communist troops are soon engaged in a civil war.
1972 Race riot breaks out aboard carrier USS Kitty Hawk off Vietnam during Operation Linebacker.
1975 Saturday Night Live comedy-variety show premiers on NBC, with guest host comedian George Carlin and special guests Janis Ian, Andy Kaufman and Billy Preston
1983 Last hand-cranked telephones US went out of service as 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, Maine, were switched over to direct-dial
1984 Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, part of the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger, becomes the first American woman to walk in space.
1984 Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) made his debut in the National Hockey League (NHL) against the Boston Bruins. He scored a goal on his first shot on his first NHL shift.
1986 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev open talks at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland
1987 200,000 gays march for civil rights in Washington
1991 Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas begin.
1994 The Colorado Supreme Court declared that the anti-gay rights measure in the state was unconstitutional.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
