TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: Aug 5
910 The last major Viking army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward and Earl Aethelred
1264 Anti-Jewish riots break out in Arnstadt Germany
1305 William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.
1391 Castilian sailors in Barcelona, Spain set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 people and setting off four days of violence against Jews.
1583 Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland for the British crown – first English colony in North America and the beginning of the British Empire
1763 Colonel Henry Bouquet decisively defeats the Indians at the Battle of Bushy Run in Pennsylvania during Pontiac’s rebellion
1846 Oregon country divided between US & Britain at 49th parallel
1861 US Army abolishes flogging
1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, Ala; Adm David Farragut orders “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
1884 The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s Island.
1892 Harriet Tubman receives a pension from Congress for her work as a nurse, spy and scout during the Civil War.
1914 The first electric traffic signal lights are installed in Cleveland, Ohio.
1921 The first play-by-play broadcast of a baseball game was done by Harold Arlin. KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA described the action between the Pirates and Philadelphia.
1921 The cartoon “On the Road to Moscow”, by Rollin Kirby, was published in the “New York World”. It was the first cartoon to win a Pulitzer Prize.
1944 Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed.
1953 During the Korean conflict prisoners were exchanged at Panmunjom. The exchange was labeled Operation Big Switch.
1963 The United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union signed the limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater.
1969 The U.S. space probe Mariner 7 transmitted pictures of Mars.
1974 President Richard Nixon admits he ordered a cover-up for political as well as national security reasons.
1981 President Ronald Reagan fires 11,500 striking air traffic controllers.
1991 An investigation was formally launched by Democratic congressional leaders to find out if the release of American hostages was delayed until after the Reagan-Bush presidential election.
1992 Four police officers are indicted on civil rights charges in the beating of Rodney King.
1997 The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, goes on trial
2002 The U.S. closed its consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The consulate was closed after local authorities removed large concrete blocks and reopened the road in front of the building to normal traffic.
2002 The gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised from the ocean floor.
2011 Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a mission to Jupiter. It was the first solar-powered spacecraft to go to Jupiter.
2012 A gunman in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, opens fire in a Sikh temple, killing six before committing suicide.
2012 The plutonium-powered rover Curiosity successfully lands on Mars. Larger than earlier rovers, Curiosity will spend two years examining the land, looking for evidence that conditions on Mars are fit for life.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
