TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JANUARY 11
1569 1st recorded lottery in England is drawn at St Paul’s Cathedral
1787 Titania & Oberon, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Herschel
1803 Monroe & Livingston sail for Paris to buy New Orleans; they buy Louisiana
1805 Michigan Territory is organized
1813 1st pineapples planted in Hawaii
1838 First public demonstration of telegraph messages sent using dots and dashes at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail
1861 Alabama becomes 4th state to secede
1867 Benito Juarez returned to the Mexican presidency, following the withdrawal of French troops and the execution of Emperor Maximilian.
1887 At Fort Smith, Arkansas, hangman George Maledon dispatches four victims in a multiple hanging.
1902 “Popular Mechanics” magazine was published for the first time.
1904 British troops massacre 1,000 dervishes in Somaliland.
1922 Insulin first used on humans to treat diabetes, on Canadian Leonard Thompson, aged 14
1923 The French enter the town of Essen in the Ruhr valley, to extract Germany’s resources as war payment.
1940 Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., becomes the U.S. Army’s first black general, his son would later become a general as well.
1941 Adolf Hitler orders forces to be prepared to enter North Africa to assist the Italian effort, marking the establishment of the Afrika Korps.
1948 President Harry S. Truman proposes free, two-year community colleges for all who want an education.
1962 A massive landslide kills 4,000 in Peru
1964 The first government report regarding the dangers of cigarette smoking was issued by the U.S. Surgeon General, Luther Terry.
1973 Baseball’s American League adopted the “designated hitter” rule which allowed another player to bat for the pitcher.
1977 France released Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
1980 Honda announces it will build the first Japanese-owned passenger-car assembly plant in the United States–in Ohio.
1984 Supreme Court reinstated $10M award to Karen Silkwood’s family
1994 The Irish Government announces an end to a 15-year ban on broadcasting by the IRA and its political branch, Sinn Fein.
2002 The first al-Qaeda prisoners arrive at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
2003 Illinois Gov. George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on the state’s death row in the wake of allegations that Chicago police detective and commander Jon Burge tortured confessions from some 200 suspects over a 19 year period.
2011 The Arab Spring movement begins in Tunisia when demonstrators take to the streets to protest chronic unemployment and police brutality.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
