TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 31
1142 Possible date for establishment of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) League – with the aid of Hiawatha and Deganawidah
1535 Pope Paul II deposed & excommunicated King Henry VIII
1802 Captain Meriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.
1852 The first pre-stamped envelopes were created with legislation of the U.S. Congress.
1864 At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president.
1887 The kinetoscope was patented by Thomas Edison. The device was used to produce moving pictures.
1888 Mary Ann Nicholls, considered to be Jack the Ripper’s first victim, was found murdered in London.
1919 The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, “Workers of the world unite!”
1920 John Lloyd Wright was issued a patent for “Toy-Cabin Construction,” which are known as Lincoln Logs. (U.S. patent 1,351,086)
1920 The first news program to be broadcast on radio was aired. The station was 8MK in Detroit, MI.
1935 FDR signs an act prohibiting export of US arms to belligerents
1949 Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attend the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1954 Census Bureau established
1961 A concrete wall replaces the barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany, it will be called the Berlin wall.
1965 US Congress creates Department of Housing & Urban Development.
1970 Lonnie McLucas convicted of torturing and murdering fellow Black Panther Party member Alex Rackley in the first of the New Haven Black Panther Trials.
1971 Dave Scott becomes 1st person to drive a car on the Moon
1979 Comet Howard-Koomur-Michels collides with the Sun
1985 Police capture Richard Ramirez, dubbed the “Night Stalker” for a string of gruesome murders that stretched from Mission Viejo to San Francisco, Cal.
1987 Longest mine strike in South Africa’s history ends, after 11 people were killed, 500 injured and 400 arrested.
1990 East and West Germany sign the Treaty of Unification (Einigungsvertrag) to join their legal and political systems.
1994 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a “complete cessation of military operations,” opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century.
1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a Paris car crash along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul while fleeing paparazzi.
1998 North Korea Announces the Launch of its First Satellite. Most space agencies around the world, have not been able to confirm whether the launch was successful.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
