TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 11
1620 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
1688 James II abdicates the throne because of William of Orange landing in England.
1719 The first recorded sighting of the aurora borealis took place in New England.
1769 Edward Beran of London patented venetian blinds
1792 France’s King Louis XVI goes on trial, accused of high treason and crimes against the state
1816 Indiana is admitted to the Union as the 19th state.
1844 Dr. Horace Wells became the first person to have a tooth extracted after receiving an anesthetic for the dental procedure. Nitrous Oxide, or laughing gas, was the anesthetic.
1861 A raging fire sweeps the business district of Charleston, South Carolina, adding to an already depressed economic state.
1927 Nearly 400 world leaders sign a letter to President Calvin Coolidge asking the United States to join the World Court.
1928 In Buenos Aires, police thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert Hoover.
1930 As the economic crisis grows, the Bank of the United States closes its doors.
1936 Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry American Wallis Warfield Simpson.
1941 The United States declares war on Italy and Germany.
1946 UNICEF established The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, a U.N. affiliate organization that works for the welfare of children around the world, was founded on this day.
1955 Israel raids Syrian positions on the Sea of Galilee.
1964 Frank Sinatra, Jr., is returned home to his parents after being kidnapped for the ransom amount of $240,000.
1961 A U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon the first direct American military support for South Vietnam’s battle against Communist guerrillas.
1967 The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
1972 Challenger, the lunar lander for Apollo 17, touches down on the moon’s surface, the last time that men visit the moon.
1978 Massive demonstrations take place in Tehran against the shah.
1980 U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed into law legislation creating $1.6 billion environmental “superfund” that would be used to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.
1981 Military forces in El Salvador kill over 800 civilians in what is known as the El Mozote massacre during the Salvadoran Civil War.
1988 62 people were killed in a Mexico City marketplace when tons of illegal fireworks exploded.
1990 Ivana Trump was divorced from Donald Trump after 12 years of marriage.
1991 Salman Rushdie, under an Islamic death sentence for blasphemy, made his first public appearance since 1989 in New York, at a dinner marking the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of speech in the U.S.).
1994 Russian troups invaded Chechnya in an unsuccessful attempt to restore Moscow’s power in the region. 1997 Housing secretary Henry Cisneros was indicted for conspiracy, obstructing justice, and false statements to the FBI.
1998 Majority Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pushed through three articles of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton.
2001 U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft announced the first federal indictment directly related to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Zacarias Moussaoui was charged with six conspiracy charges. Moussaoui was in custody at the time of the attacks.
2001 Federal agents seized computers in 27 U.S. cities as part of “Operation Buccaneer.” The raids were used to gain evidence against an international software piracy ring.
2006 President of Mexico Felipe Calderon launches a military-led offensive against drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacan.
2008 Bernard “Bernie” Madoff arrested and charged with securities fraud in what was called a $50-billion Ponzi scheme.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
