TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 12
627 Battle at Nineveh: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius beats Sassanid forces during Byzantine-Sassanid War
1098 1st Crusaders capture & plunder Mara Syria
1474 Isabella crowns herself queen of Castile & Aragon
1753 George Washington, the adjutant of Virginia, delivers an ultimatum to the French forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain’s claim to the entire Ohio River valley
1770 The British soldiers responsible for the “Boston Massacre” are acquitted on murder charges.
1777 Reverend Benjamin Russen executed at Tyburn, England for rape
1870 Joseph Rainey took his seat as the first African American in the U.S. House of Representatives.
1901 Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio transmission in St. John’s Newfoundland.
1912 The Mother’s Day International Association was incorporated with the purpose of furthering meaningful observations of Mother’s Day.
1913 Mona Lisa restored….The Mona Lisa was recovered in Florence after having been stolen two years earlier (August 1911) from the Louvre.
1946 UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr
1956 The United Nations calls for immediate Soviet withdrawal from Hungary.
1975 Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to trying to kill President Gerald Ford
1979 South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan, acting without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa, alleging that the chief of staff was involved in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.
1983 A truck bomb explodes at the US Embassy in Kuwait
1984 In a telephone conversation with U.S. President Reagan, William J. Schroeder complained of a delay in his Social Security benefits. Schroeder received a check the following day.
1985 Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff at Gander, Newfoundland; among the 256 dead are 236 members of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
1991 The Russian Federation becomes independent from the USSR
1995 Amendment to make it illegal to physically desecrate the flag turned down by senate 63-36 (need 2/3 vote)
2000 The US Supreme Court announces its decision in Bush v. Gore, effectively ending legal changes to the results of that year’s Presidential election.
2001 The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would implement minimum federal election standards and provide funding to help states modernize their voting systems.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
