TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: DEC 10
1520 Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict. The papacy demanded that he recant or face excommunication. Luther refused and was formally expelled from the church in January 1521.
1620 Supporters of Marie de Medici, the queen mother, who has been exiled to Blois, are defeated by the king’s troops at Ponts de Ce, France.
1684 Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley
1763 The Treaty of Paris ends the French-Indian War. France gives up all her territories in the New World except New Orleans and a few scattered islands.
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Cairo, Egypt, for Syria, at the head of 13,000 men.
1817 Mississippi becomes 20th state
1846 Led by religious leader Brigham Young, the first Mormons begin a long westward exodus from Nauvoo, Il., to Utah.
1869 The territory of Wyoming authorized women to vote and hold office.
1898 A treaty was signed in Paris that officially ended the Spanish-American War. Also, Cuba became independent of Spain.
1901 First Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant and peace activist Frederic Passy
1904 Russia and Japan declare war on each other.
1906 U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1915 10,000,000th model T Ford assembled
1915 President Wilson blasts the British for using the U.S. flag on merchant ships to deceive the Germans.
1936 Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson
1945 Preston Tucker reveals plan to produce the Torpedo, a new 150 MPH car
1948 U.N. General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1953 Hugh Hefner published the first “Playboy” magazine with an investment of $7,600.
1966 Protester David Miller is convicted of burning his draft card.
1971 William H Rehnquist confirmed as Supreme Court justice1
1980 South Carolina Representative John W. Jenretter resigned to avoid being expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives following his conviction on charges to the FBI’s Abscam investigation.
1984 1st “planet” outside our solar system discovered
1985 Bill to balance the federal budget passed by Congress
1986 The largest Mafia trial in history, with 474 defendants, opens in Palermo, Italy.
1992 Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called “unwelcome and offensive” actions toward women. However, he refused to resign.
1995 The first U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in the former Yugoslavia.
1995 Worst snowstorm in Buffalo history, 37.9″ in 24 hours (Starting Dec 9 at 7 PM, breaks previous record of 25.3″ in 1982
1999 Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested and charged with stealing classified information.
2003 The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contibutions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)
2007 Argentina swears in first female elected President. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner became the first elected female President of Argentina.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
