TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 22
1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovers Brazil.
1509 Henry VIII ascends to the throne of England upon the death of his father, Henry VII.
1526 1st slave revolt occurs in South Carolina
1529 Spain and Portugal divide the eastern hemisphere in the Treaty of Saragossa.
1769 Madame du Barry becomes King Louis XV’s “official” mistress
1792 President George Washington proclaims American neutrality in the war in Europe.
1889 The Oklahoma land rush officially starts at noon as thousands of Americans race for new, unclaimed land.
1898 Congress passes Volunteer Army Act calling for a Volunteer Cavalry
1914 México ends diplomatic relations with US
1915 At the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans use poison gas for the first time.
1931 Egypt signs treaty of friendship with Iraq.
1940 Rear Admiral Joseph Taussig testifies before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable (He was right)
1945 Adolf Hitler admits defeat The German dictator announced in the underground Führerbunker that he plans to commit suicide after learning that Soviet forces had entered Berlin.
1954 The Senate Army-McCarthy hearings begin. They are broadcast on television
1955 Congress orders all U.S. coins to bear the motto “In God We Trust.”
1969 1st human eye transplant performed
1970 1st Earth Day held internationally to conserve natural resources
1976 Barbara Walters becomes 1st female nightly network news anchor (Today Show)
1983 Stern magazine announces major historical find-discovery of 60 volume personal diaries written by Adolf Hitler (turned out to be a hoax)
1987 The American Physical Society said that the “Star Wars” missile system was “highly questionable” and would take ten years to research.
1992 A series of massive explosions destroys parts of Guadalajara
1993 Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Washington, D.C.
1995 In Africa, Rwandan troops kill thousands of Hutu refugees in Kibeho.
1997 The Japanese embassy hostage crisis ends after 126 days
2000 In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives’ home in Miami, Florida.
2016 Paris Agreement on climate change signed in New York binding 195 nations to an increase in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
