TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: AUG 16
1743 Earliest boxing code of rules formulated in England (Jack Broughton)
1777 During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Bennington took place. New England’s minutemen routed the British regulars
1777 France declares a state of bankruptcy.
1812 American General William Hull surrenders Detroit without resistance to a smaller British force under General Issac Brock
1819 Manchester Massacre; English police charge unemployed demonstrators
1829 The original Siamese twins, Eng and Chang, arrived in Boston.
1858 U.S. President James Buchanan and Britain’s Queen Victoria exchange messages inaugurating the first transatlantic telegraph line.
1861 Pres Lincoln prohibits Union states from trading with Confederacy
1898 Patent for Loop-the-Loop Roller Coaster is Awarded
1920 Ray Chapman, of the Indians is hit in the head by Yanks’ Carl Mays pitch; he dies next day, only major league fatality
1934 US ends occupation of Haiti (been there since 1915)
1945 Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on May 6, 1942, is released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops.
1946 Direct Action Day: Widespread riots erupt in Calcutta between Muslims and Hindus over whether Pakistan should be a separate state, killing over 4,000 and leaving 100,000 homeless
1954 First Issue of Sports Illustrated Hits the Newsstands
1965 The Watts riots end in south-central Los Angeles after six days
1977 Elvis Presley dies of a heart attack in the upstairs bedroom suite area of his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.
1986 Sudanese rebels shoot down a Sudanese Airways plane, killing 57 people.
1987 Astrological alignment of sun, moon and six planets marks what believers maintain is the dawning of a New Age.
1988 Mayor Koch says he plans to wipe out street-corner windshield washers
1990 Iraq orders 2,500 Americans and 4,000 British nationals in Kuwait to Iraq, in the aftermath of Iraq’s invasion of that country.
2012 Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
