TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 2
338 BC Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean
216 BC Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – Carthaginian army lead by Hannibal defeats numerically superior Roman army under command consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro
0047 Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, “veni, vidi, vici,” (I came, I saw, I conquered).
1492 Jews are expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella
1552 The treaty of Passau gives religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany.
1589 During France’s religious war, a fanatical monk stabs King Henry II to death.
1776 The Continental Congress, having decided unanimously to make the Declaration of Independence, affixes the signatures of the other delegates to the document.
1832 Troops under General Henry Atkinson massacre Sauk Indian men, women and children who are followers of Black Hawk at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin. Black Hawk himself finally surrenders three weeks later, bringing the Black Hawk War to an end.
1862 The Army Ambulance Corps is established by Maj. Gen. George McClellan.
1870 World’s first underground railway opened The Tower Subway beneath river Thames in London opened its doors for passengers
1876 Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in Deadwood, S.D.
1909 The first Lincoln penny was issued.
1923 Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president upon the death of Warren G. Harding.
1934 German President Paul von Hindenburg dies and Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor.
1939 Hatch Act prohibits political activity by federal workers
1943 Lt. John F. Kennedy, towing an injured sailor, swims to a small island in the Solomon Islands. The night before, his boat, PT-109, had been split in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.
1958 The Arab Federation is dissolved
1965 Newsman Morley Safer films the destruction of a Vietnamese village by U.S. Marines.
1980 A bomb planted by right wing terrorists in a waiting room explodes in Bologna railway station, killing over 70 and injuring more than 200.
1990 Iraqi forces invade neighboring Kuwait.
1998 Second Congo War Begins. The deadliest war in Africa, the war and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.4 million people.
2009 The remains of the last US serviceman to be officially listed as missing in action from the 1991 Gulf War were found in Iraq by military officials after being notified of the possible location by local citizens.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
