TODAY HISTORY LESSON: APRIL 20
1653 In England, Oliver Cromwell expelled the Long Parliament for trying to pass the Perpetuation Bill that would have kept Parliament in the hands of only a few members.
1769 Ottawa Chief Pontiac is murdered by an Indian in Cahokia.
1770 Captain Cook discovers Australia.
1777 New York adopts new constitution as an independent state
1792 France declares war on Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia.
1799 Napoleon issues a decree calling for establishing Jerusalem for Jews
1832 Hot Springs National Park was intially created by an act of the U.S. Congress. It was the first time a piece of land was set aside by the U.S. government to preserve the area for recreation. The area was made a national park on March 4, 1921.
1836 The Territory of Wisconsin is created.
1841 Edgar Allen Poe’s first detective story, Murders in the Rue Morgue, is published.
1853 Harriet Tubman starts Underground Railroad
1862 First pasteurization test completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard
1879 The first mobile home (horse-drawn) is used in a journey from London to Cyprus.
1916 Sir Roger Casement landed in Ireland to incite rebellion against the British. Casement, a British diplomat, was captured within hours and was hanged for high treason on August 3.
1920 Balfour Declaration recognized, makes Palestine a British Mandate
1926 1st check sent by radio facsimile transmission across the Atlantic
1940 The first electron microscope is demonstrated.
1951 A human organ is surgically replaced for the first time. Romanian surgeon Dan Gavriliu used a section of the stomach to bypass the esophagus.
1962 The New Orleans Citizens Committee gives free one-way ride to blacks to move North.
1964 86% of black students boycott Cleveland schools
1968 British politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial “Rivers of Blood” speech
1971 The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the practice of busing for racial desegregation.
1977 Supreme Court rules “Live Free or Die” may be covered on New Hampshire licenses
1978 Soviet air defense shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 902. The Boeing 707’s crew had miscalculated their route, taking them into Soviet airspace at the height of the Cold War. The jet made an emergency landing on a frozen lake.
1983 President Ronald Reagan signs a $165 billion bail-out for Social Security
1987 US deports Karl Linnas, charged with nazi war crimes, to USSR
1992 All star concert in memory of Freddie Mercury held at Wembley Stadium London
1993 Uranus passes Neptune (this occurs once every 171 years)
1999 Two students enter Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado and open fire with multiple firearms, killing 13 students and teachers, wounding 25 and eventually shooting themselves.
2010 The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes, killing 11 and causing the rig to sink, causing a massive oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and an environmental disaster
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
