TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 13
1250 The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France captured
1775 Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.
1796 1st elephant arrives in US from Bengal India
1861 After 34 hours of bombardment, Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.
1863 Hospital for Ruptured & Crippled in New York is 1st orthopedic hospital
1864 Union forces under Gen. Sherman begin their devastating march through Georgia.
1868 Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala and Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II commits suicide
1869 Steam power brake patented (George Westinghouse)
1919 British forces kill hundreds of Indian nationalists in the Amritsar Massacre.
1934 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments
1949 Philip S. Hench and associates announced that cortizone was an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
1957 Due to lack of funds, Saturday mail delivery in the US is temporarily halted
1959 Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics from voting for communists
1960 The first navigational satellite is launched into Earth’s orbit.
1962 In the U.S., major steel companies rescinded announced price increases. The John F. Kennedy administration had been applying pressure against the price increases.
1970 An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing and jeopardizing the lives of the three-man crew.
1975 Civil War began in Lebanon when gunmen killed 4 Christian Phalangists who retaliated by killing 27 Palestinians.
1981 Washington Post’s Janet Cooke wins Pulitzer Prize for “Jimmy’s World” (later admits story was a hoax and returns prize)
1984 U.S. President Reagan sent emergency military aid to El Salvador without congressional approval.
1990 The Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the World War II murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The Soviets had previously blamed the massacre on the Nazis.
1999 Jack Kervorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, MI, to 10 to 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk. Youk’s assisted suicide was videotaped and shown on “60 Minutes” in 1998.
2002 Twenty-five Hindus were killed and about 30 were wounded when grenades were thrown by suspected Islamic guerrillas near Jammu-Kashir.
2002 Venezuela’s interim president, Pedro Carmona, resigned a day after taking office. Thousands of protesters had supported over the ousting of president Hugo Chavez.
2012 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, exploded shortly after its launch. The U.S. and other countries called the launch a violation of United Nations Security Council rules.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
