TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 12
30 BC Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, commits suicide.
1099 At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, route an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem, which had already fallen to the Crusaders.
1508 Ponce de Le¢n arrives in Puerto Rico
1624 Cardinal Richelieu was named chief minister of France by king Louis XIII.
1676 “King Phillip’s War” came to an end with the killing of Indian chief King Phillip. The war between the Indians and the Europeans lasted for two years.
1762 The British capture Cuba from Spain after a two month siege.
1791 Black slaves on the island of Santo Domingo rise up against their white masters.
1851 American inventor Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine
1863 Confederate raider William Quantrill leads a massacre of 150 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas.
1867 U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
1896 Gold is discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. After word reaches the United States in June of 1897, thousands of Americans head to the Klondike to seek their fortunes.
1898 The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed.
1908 Henry Ford’s first Model T rolls off the assembly line.
1922 The home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. is dedicated as a memorial.
1941 French Marshal Henri Philippe Petain announces full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
1955 Pres Eisenhower raises minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour
1961 The erection of the Berlin Wall begins, preventing access between East and West Germany.
1976 About 3000 refugees are killed during a massacre at a Palestinian refugee camp
1976 Four young people were looking to turn a profit at the Republican National Convention in Kansas city. They spent $1,904 for 1,500 cans of “political hot air”. The cans were patriotic red, white, and blue, with a picture of Washington on them.
1977 Steven Biko, leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa, is arrested.
1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes its first free flight and landing.
1979 Massive book burnings by press censors begin in Iran.
1981 IBM introduces the PC and PC-DOS version 1.0
1992 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is concluded between the United States, Canada and Mexico, creating the world’s wealthiest trade bloc.
1993 U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic controllers that had been fired for going on strike in 1981.
1998 Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle lawsuits brought by Holocaust survivors and their heirs. The banks had kept millions of dollars deposited by Holocaust victims before and during World War II.
2000 Russian Navy submarine K-141 Kursk explodes and sinks with all hands during military exercises in the Barents Sea.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
