TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 6
1497 John Cabot returns to England after his first successful journey to the Labrador coast.
1661 The Treaty of The Hague is signed whereby the Dutch Republic sells New Holland (Brazil) for 63 tonnes of gold to Portugal
1806 The Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis II abdicated.
1888 Martha Turner is murdered by an unknown assailant, believed to be Jack the Ripper, in London, England.
1890 William Kemmler becomes the first man to be executed by the electric chair.
1904 President Theodore Roosevelt was officially notified about his nomination for re-election by the Republican party. The official ceremony took place at Sagamore Hill where Roosevelt had his rural residence. The president had been in the White House for three years.
1935 In Hollywood, California Dr. Ralph Willard, a doctor who came from the state of Georgia in Russia, has successfully frozen a monkey named Jekal and brought it back to life. The doctor has also frozen guinea pigs and resuscitated them. However, when he wanted to experiment on dogs howls of protest came from humane societies.
1945 Paul Tibbets, the commander of Enola Gay, drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It was the second atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki, that induced the Japanese to surrender.
1962 Jamaica becomes independent, after 300 years of British rule.
1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, outlawing the literacy test for voting eligibility in the South.
1977 President Carter got approval in the house for a new energy bill which called for a move away from foreign oil and a more efficient use of energy by Americans. The goal was to save 2-3 million barrels a day. Some opposition was felt in the senate, especially around issues like taxing crude oil and natural gas.
1981 Argentina’s ex-president Isabel Peron is freed from house arrest.
1985 In Tel Aviv, Israel, a suicide bomber astride a donkey exploded near a pro-Israeli site in Southern Lebanon. According to Israel Army Radio both the burrow and the bomber were killed and one Lebanese person was wounded.
1988 A melee that became known as the Tompkins Square Park Police Riot in New York City leads to NYPD reforms.
1991 Tim Berners-Lee publishes the first-ever website, Info.cern.ch.
1993 Pope John Paul II publishes “Veritatis splendor encyclical,” regarding fundamentals of the Catholic Church’s role in moral teachings.
1997 Microsoft announces it will invest $150 million in troubled rival Apple Computer, Inc.
2003 Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy to replace Gray Davis as governor of California to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.
2007 Russia and Afghanistan made a deal to cut 90% of the debt Afghanistan owes to Russia. The move marked an effort by Russia to show support for Afghanistan’s government as it worked with United States and NATO troops to combat Taliban rebels.
2011 The United States’ credit rating was downgraded from AAA to AA+ by Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency. The downgrade was made by the agency after citing that problems with budget deficits have created a negative outlook for the USA’s economy.
2012 Curiosity, a SUV-size rover, successfully landed on Mars. The rover’s research has been planned for the next two years, but since Curiosity’s electricity is powered by plutonium, it could be operational and provide insight into Mars for decades to come
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
