TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JANUARY 10
49 BC Julius Caesar defies the Roman Senate and crosses the Rubicon, uttering “alea iacta est” (the die is cast), signaling the start of civil war which would lead to his appointment as Roman dictator for life
1430 Catholic Order of the Golden Fleece founded in Bruges in celebration of the prosperous and wealthy domains of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy
1645 The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, is beheaded on Tower Hill, accused of acting as an enemy of the British Parliament.
1724 King Philip V shocks all of Europe when he abdicates his throne in favor of his eldest son, Louis.
1776 Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which greatly influenced the authors of the Declaration of Independence, was published.
1811 An uprising of over 400 slaves is put down in New Orleans. Sixty-six blacks are killed and their heads are strung up along the roads of the city.
1839 Tea from India 1st arrives in the United Kingdom
1861 Florida becomes 3rd state to secede from US
1863 London Underground opens. “The Tube” is the world’s oldest underground railway.
1870 John D. Rockefeller and his brother William establish the Standard Oil Company of Ohio.
1899 Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo renounces the Treaty of Paris, which annexed the Philippines to the United States.
1903 Argentina bans the importation of American beef because of sanitation problems
1920 The Treaty of Versailles goes into effect.
1941 The Soviets and Germany agree on the East European borders and the exchange of industrial equipment.
1946 The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens. 51 nations were represented on that day.
1957 Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick rules Bing Crosby can keep token stock in the Detroit Tigers, even though he owns part of Pittsburgh Pirates
1967 The first African-American senator elected by popular vote, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, took his seat.
1971 “Masterpiece Theatre” premiered on PBS with host Alistair Cooke. The introduction drama series was “The First Churchills.”
1983 New York Supreme Court issues a preliminary injunction barring New York Yankees from playing season-opening series against Tigers in Denver
1984 The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years.
1985 Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes President of Nicaragua, vowing to continue the country’s transformation to a socialist state with close ties to the USSR and Cuba.
1994 In Manassas, VA, Lorena Bobbitt went on trial. She had been charged with maliciously wounding her husband John. She was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.
1996 Israel frees hundreds of Palestinian prisoners
2000 It was announced that Time-Warner had agreed to buy America On-line (AOL). It was the largest-ever corporate merger priced at $162 billion. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the deal on December 14, 2000.
2003 North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
2019 In Venezuela, Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly declared incumbent President Nicolás Maduro “illegitimate” and started the process of attempting to remove him from office.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
