TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 13
1577 Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England on a circumnavigation of the world
1636 The United States National Guard was created when militia regiments were organized by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1642 New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman.
1809 The first abdominal surgical procedure was performed in Danville, KY, on Jane Todd Crawford. The operation was performed without an anesthetic.
1789 The National Guard is created in France.
1812 The last remnants of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armeé reach the safety of Kovno, Poland, after the failed Russian campaign. Napoleon’s costly retreat from Moscow
1814 General Andrew Jackson announces martial law in New Orleans, Louisiana, as British troops disembark at Lake Borne, 40 miles east of the city. The Battle of New Orleans
1913 In the U.S., the Federal Reserve System was established.
1918 President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Europe while in office.
1924 France’s World War I wartime debt to Great Britain amounted to 623,000,000 pounds and the French also owed the United States 798,000,000 pounds.
1930 Charlotte Dynn died in Milwaukee of typhoid fever and her family couldn’t afford to feed their five remaining children, let alone pay for her funeral. However, during the Christmas season the funeral director, the cemetery’s executive, and a pastor all arranged a free funeral for Charlotte.
1940 Adolf Hitler issues preparations for Operation Martita, the German invasion of Greece.
1945 France and Britain agree to quit Syria and Lebanon.
1951 After meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Harry S Truman vows to purge all disloyal government workers.
1964 In El Paso, TX, President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande River, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border. This ended a century-old border dispute.
1966 King Saud, previous king of Saudi Arabia was overthrown by his brother Fiesal. Saud was ailing and wanted to live in Egypt.
1966 The rights to the first four Super Bowls were sold to CBS and NBC for total of $9.5 million.
1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson and Mexico’s President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz meet on a bridge at El Paso, Texas, to officiate at ceremonies returning the long-disputed El Chamizal area to the Mexican side of the border.
1972 Astronaut Gene Cernan climbs into his lunar lander on the moon and prepares to lift off. He is the last man to set foot on the moon.
1973 Great Britain cuts the work week to three days to save energy.
1978 The U.S. Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, the first U.S. coin honoring a woman.
1981 Leaders of the Solidarity trade union have been placed under arrest for inciting the unrest and the army are on the streets in a massive show of military strength imposing strict censorship and a curfew.
1985 France sues the United States over the discovery of an AIDS serum.
1987 U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark, that the Reagan administration would begin making funding requests for the proposed Star Wars defense system.
1988 A bankruptcy judge in Columbia, SC, ordered the assets of the troubled PTL television ministry sold to a Toronto real estate developer for $65 million.
1988 Following the refusal of the US to grant Yasser Arafat a Visitors Visa the United Nations is convened in Geneva, Switzerland so that PLO chairman Yasser Arafat can address the U.N. General Assembly .
1991 North Korea and South Korea signed a historic non-aggression agreement.
1993 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people must receive a hearing before property linked to illegal drug sales can be seized.
1998 Puerto Rican voters rejected U.S. statehood in a non-binding referendum.
2000 George W. Bush accepted presidency 36 days after election; Al Gore, Jr., conceded.
2001 Israel severed all contact with Yasser Arafat. Israel also launched air strikes and sent troops into Palestine in response to a bus ambush that killed 10 Israelis.
2001 U.S. President George W. Bush served formal notice to Russia that the United States was withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2001 The Indian parliament, the Sansad, was attacked by terrorists. 15 people, including the terrorists were killed during the attack.
2003 Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein captured; he is found hiding in near his home town of Tikrit.
2007 Rupert Murdoch buys Dow Jones & Co. which includes The Wall Street Journal for $5 billion-plus
2012 A law was implemented that would make it mandatory for television advertisements to be played at the same volume level as the main program. The FCC adopted the rules a year prior but allowed a one-year grace period to adjust.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
