TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: DEC 17
1398 Tamerlane captures and sacks Delhi, defeating Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud’s armies by setting camels loaded with hay alight and charging them at the Sultans armored elephants
1526 Pope Clemens VII publishes degree Cum ad zero – forms Inquisition
1728 Congregation Shearith Israel of New York purchases a lot on Mill Street in lower Manhattan, to build New York’s 1st synagogue
1777 France recognizes independence of English colonies in America
1790 Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone
1798 1st impeachment trial against a US senator (William Blount, Tennessee) begins
1821 Kentucky abolishes debtors prisons
1861 The Stonewall Brigade begins to dismantle Dam No. 5 of the C&O Canal.
1862 General US Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
1886 At a Christmas party, Sam Starr (husband to infamous outlaw queen Belle Starr) shoots his old enemy Frank West, but is fatally wounded himself.
1895 Anti-Saloon League of America formed, Washington DC
1903 Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.
1938 Italy declares the 1935 pact with France invalid because ratifications had not been exchanged. France denies the argument.
1944 U.S. approves end to internment of Japanese Americans. U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that Japanese American “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes effective January 2, 1945.
1961 Disgruntled employee set fire to a Niteroi Circus of Rio de Janeiro circus tent in Niteroi Brazil; 323 die
1965 Ending an election campaign marked by bitterness and violence, Ferdinand Marcos is declared president of the Philippines.
1969 The U.S. Air Force ended its “Project Blue Book” and concluded that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial activity behind UFO sightings.
1973 Thirty-one people were killed at Rome airport when Arab guerillas hijacked a German airliner.
1976 Superstation WTBS in Atlanta went national
1979 Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, was fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami, FL. Four white police officers were later acquitted of charges stemming from McDuffie’s death.
1981 Red Brigade terrorists kidnap Brigadier General James Dozier, the highest-ranking U.S. NATO officer in Italy.
1986 Mrs Davina Thompson makes medical history by having the 1st heart, lung & liver transplant at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England
1989 First episode of The Simpsons aired
1992 U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.
1996 The Red Cross pulled all but a few of its western staff out of Chechnya after six foreign aid workers were killed by masked gunmen.
1997 U.S. President Clinton signed the No Electronic Theft Act. The act removed protection from individuals who claimed that they took no direct financial gains from stealing copyrighted works and downloading them from the Internet.
2002 U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the Pentagon to have ready for use within two years a system for protecting American territory, troops and allies from ballistic missile attacks.
2004 U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence gathering in 50 years. The bill aimed to tighten borders and aviation security. It also created a federal counterterrorism center and a new intelligence director.
2010 Mohamed Bouazizi immolates himself, the catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and the subsequent Arab Spring.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
