TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 3
1492 Christopher Columbus sets sail on his first voyage with three ships, Santa María, Pinta and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the “Indies”
1546 French printer Etienne Dolet, accused of heresy, blasphemy and sedition, is hanged and burned at the stake for printing reformist literature.
1610 Henry Hudson of England discovers a great bay on the east coast of Canada and names it for himself.
1805 Muhammad Ali becomes the new ruler of Egypt.
1807 The trial of Aaron Burr begins. He is accused of plotting the secession of New England.
1882 Congress passes the Immigration Act, banning Chinese immigration for ten years.
1900 Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is founded
1914 Germany invades Belgium and declares war on France, beginning World War I
1921 Due to a technicality, 8 Chicago White Sox accused in the Black Sox scandal are acquited, however Landis throws them out of baseball
1934 Adolf Hitler merges the offices of German Chancellor and President, declaring himself “Führer” (leader)
1946 World’s first theme park opens its doors in in Santa Claus, Indiana, USA
1949 The National Basketball Association was formed.
1958 The first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, passes under the North Pole.
1961 President John F. Kennedy got approval from Congress to spend $958 million to purchase missiles, planes, and war ships to bolster the American military.
1963 Great Train Robbery-$2.5 M ($3.25 M) robbed
1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson announces plans to send 45,000 more troops to Vietnam.
1977 Radio Shack unveils TRS-80 personal computer, which with Apple and Commodore would form the “1977 Trinity.” Its price and Radio Shack’s established retail outlets made it a bestseller for several years.
1978 Israel retaliates after Palestinian terrorists bomb a Tel Aviv market by sending in bombers to a guerrilla base southern Lebanon.
1981 13,000 Air traffic controllers walked off the job today in hopes that the U.S. federal government would agree to their demands for better pay.
1982 Michael Hardwick is arrested for sodomy after a police officer observes him having sex with another man in his own bedroom in Georgia. In 1986 the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, ruling by a 5-4 vote that states could continue to treat certain types of consensual sex as criminal acts.
1990 The US commits naval forces to the Persian Gulf region in the wake of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
2004 Statue of Liberty’s pedestal reopens to visitors after being closed following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
