TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JANUARY 4
1757 Robert Francois Damiens makes an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.
1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government
1863 Union General Henry Halleck, by direction of President Abraham Lincoln, orders General Ulysses Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi.
1865 New York Stock Exchange opens its 1st permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad St, near Wall Street in New York City
1885 Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is thought to be the first appendectomy.
1896 Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
1904 The U.S. Supreme Court decides in the Gonzales v. Williams case that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and can enter the United States freely, yet stops short of awarding citizenship.
1920 The Negro National League, the first black baseball league, is organized by Rube Foster.
1923 Lenin’s “Political Testament” calls for removal of Stalin
1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt claims in his State of the Union message that the federal government will provide jobs for 3.5 million Americans on welfare.
1948 Burma gains independence from the United Kingdom
1965 President Johnson outlined his “Great Society” in his State of the Union address.
1974 President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1976 The Ulster Volunteer Force kills six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day 10 Protestant civilians are murdered in retaliation.
1979 Ohio officials approve an out-of-court settlement awarding $675,000 to the victims and families in the 1970 shootings at Kent State University, in which four students were killed and nine wounded by National Guard troops.
1980 President Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
1981 The Broadway show “Frankenstein” lost an estimated $2 million, when it opened and closed on the same night.
1983 US Football League holds its 1st player draft
1990 Over 300 people die and more than 700 are injured in Pakistan’s deadliest train accident, when an overloaded passenger train collides with an empty freight train.
1991 The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
1999 Jesse “The Body” Ventura, a former professional wrestler, is sworn in as populist governor of Minnesota.
2007 Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) becomes the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
