TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 10
741 Pope Zachary elected
1041 Michael IV, Paphlagonicus, Byzantium Emperor dies of results of dropsy. His wife Empress Zoe elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
1258 Hulagu, a Mongol leader, seizes Baghdad, bringing an end to the Abbasid caliphate.
1294 Pope Coelestinus V becomes Pope (until Dec 13th)
1520 Martin Luther publicly burns papal edict demanding he recant
1684 Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley
1763 The Treaty of Paris ends the French-Indian War. France gives up all her territories in the New World except New Orleans and a few scattered islands.
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Cairo, Egypt, for Syria, at the head of 13,000 men.
1814 Napoleon personally directs lightning strikes against enemy columns advancing toward Paris, beginning with a victory over the Russians at Champaubert.
1817 Mississippi became the 20th state in the United States.
1845 British civil engineer Robert Thompson patented the first pneumatic tires.
1846 Led by religious leader Brigham Young, the first Mormons begin a long westward exodus from Nauvoo, Il., to Utah.
1863 P.T. Barnum’s star midgets, Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren, are married.
1869 The territory of Wyoming authorized women to vote and hold office.
1904 Russia and Japan declare war on each other.
1906 U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1913 The Women’s Christian Temperance Union marches on Washington D.C. asking the US government to create a prohibition amendment.
1915 President Wilson blasts the British for using the U.S. flag on merchant ships to deceive the Germans.
1929 Robert the Bruce, a Scottish hero who ruled as king and freedom fighter in Scotland, has had his heart misplaced. This was discovered when Rev. Dr. Christie suggested that Robert the Bruce’s heart should be buried in Israel. A shriveled heart was found, but experts said it wasn’t’t the right heart.
1942 The war halts civilian car production at Ford.
1948 The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
1950 Dr. Ralph Bunche became the first black to receive a Nobel Peace Prize.
1953 Hugh Hefner published the first “Playboy” magazine with an investment of $7,600.
1955 Bell Aircraft displays a fixed-wing vertical takeoff plane.
1960 Adolph Coors, the beer brewer, is kidnapped in Golden, Colo.
1964 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., received the Nobel Peace Prize.
1966 Protester David Miller is convicted of burning his draft card.
1967 A plane crash in Madison, Wisconsin, kills soul singer Otis Redding and members of the Bar-Kays band the plane crashed into Lake Monona, several miles from the Madison airport.
1980 South Carolina Representative John W. Jenretter resigned to avoid being expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives following his conviction on charges to the FBI’s Abscam investigation.
1981 U.S.A. Start of Aids. A mysterious epidemic, consisting of two separate diseases, a form of pneumonia and skin cancer, has been found in 180 patients in 15 states since last July. It has claimed around 75 lives so far in the US and up to 92% of the victims are homosexual men. The unknown condition was eventually named as Aids (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) virus not only restricted to homosexuals and 4,000 were infected in the space of two years.
1982 The Law of the Sea Convention was signed by 118 countries in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 23 nations and the U.S. were excluded.
1986 The largest Mafia trial in history, with 474 defendants, opens in Palermo, Italy.
1990 The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Norplant, a long-acting contraceptive implant.
1992 Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called “unwelcome and offensive” actions toward women. However, he refused to resign.
1994 Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ, was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber
1999 Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested and charged with stealing classified information.
2003 The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contibutions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)
2003 The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts.
2006 One million Lebanese pro Hezbollah and pro Syria supporters gather in downtown Beirut, protesting against the Western backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
2008 Barack Obama has called on Rod Blagojevich to resign following his arrest on charges of his trying to ‘sell’ Obama’s Senate seat. Mr. Blagojevich, as Governor, has the sole authority to pick Mr Obama’s successor as Senator for Illinois. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is revealed as the man who Blagojevich says sent an emissary to him, and offered campaign cash for the seat.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
