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.
1192 Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna
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
1699 Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year changed-Sept 1 to Jan 1
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
1812 “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” or “Children’s and Household Tales” by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm is first published
1820 Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50
1860 South Carolina secedes from the Union.
1892 Alexander T. Brown and George Stillman patented the pneumatic tire.
1920 Bob Hope becomes an American citizen
1922 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)
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
1948 U.S. Supreme Court announces that it has no jurisdiction to hear the appeals of Japanese war criminals sentenced by the International Military Tribunal.
1954 Buick Motor Company signed Jackie Gleason to one of the largest contracts ever entered into with an entertainer. Gleason agreed to produce 78 half-hour shows over a two-year period for $6,142,500.
1957 Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army for National Service
1960 The National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, is officially formed in South Vietnam
1963 Four thousand cross the Berlin Wall to visit relatives under a 17-day Christmas accord.
1973 Spanish Prime Minister Carrero Blanco assassinated
1988 Animal rights terrorists fire-bomb Harrod’s department store, London
1989 U.S. troops invade Panama to oust General Manuel Noriega and replace him with Guillermo Endara.
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.
1996 NeXT merges with Apple Computer, leading to the development of groundbreaking Mac OS X.
1999 Portuguese transfer sovereignty of Macau to China
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.
2007 Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the UK; previously, that honor belonged to Queen Victoria.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
