TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 10
1516 1st Jewish ghetto established: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area
1790 The U.S. patent system was established when U.S. President George Washington signed the Patent Act of 1790 into law
1865 At Appomattox Court, Va, General Robert E. Lee issues his last orders to the Army of Northern Virginia.
1866 The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is formed.
1869 Congress increases number of Supreme Court judges from 7 to 9
1902 South African Boers accept British terms of surrender.
1912 Titanic set sail on its fateful voyage.
1925 F Scott Fitzgerald publishes “The Great Gatsby”
1930 The first synthetic rubber is produced.
1945 Allied troops liberate the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald north of Weener, Germany.
1947 Jackie Robinson becomes the first black to play major league baseball as he takes the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1953 Warner Bros. released “House of Wax.” It was the first 3-D movie to be released by a major Hollywood studio.
1963 The atomic-powered submarine Thresher sank off Cape Cod, Mass.
1972 US, USSR & 70 other nations agree to ban biological weapons
1972 An earthquake in southern Iran killed more than 5,000 people.
1984 The U.S. Senate condemned the CIA mining of Nicaraguan harbors.
1992 A bomb exploded in London’s financial district. The bomb, set off by the Irish Republican Army, killed three people and injured 91.
1996 U.S. President Clinton vetoed a bill that would have outlawed a technique used to end pregnancies in their late stages.
2001 The Netherlands legalized mercy killings and assisted suicide for patients with unbearable, terminal illness.
2002 Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the U.S. Senate as a representative of the Israeli government. He warned that suicide bombers would spread to the U.S. if Israel was not allowed to finish its military offensive in the West Bank. Netanyaho also cited the goals of dismantling the terror regime and expelling Arafat from the region, ridding the Palestinian territories of terrorist weapons and establishing “physical barriers” to protect Israelis from future Palestinian attacks.
2003 The U.S. House passed the “Amber Alert” bill. It provided a system for alerting the public about missing or abducted children.
2010 The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, dies in a plane crash
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
