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.
1750 Christopher Dock completed the first book of teaching methods. It was titled “A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management.”
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
1916 Sir Roger Casement is hanged for treason in England.
1933 The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.
1943 Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.
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.
1960 Niger gains its independence from France
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.
1981 U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President Reagan had warned.
1985 Mail service returned to a nudist colony in Paradise Lake, FL. Residents promised that they’d wear clothes or stay out of sight when the mailperson came to deliver.
1988 The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No ties were made between U.S. President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.
1990 The US commits naval forces to the Persian Gulf region in the wake of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
1990 Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of Kuwait could spread.
2004 Statue of Liberty’s pedestal reopens to visitors after being closed following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
2004 NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011. On April 30, 2015, Messenger crashed into the surface of Mercury after sending back more than 270,000 pictures.
2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes office in Iran An engineer and teacher by profession, Ahmadinejad became the 6th president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
