TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 18
218 BC Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal’s Carthaginian army heavily defeat Roman forces on Italian soil
1118 Afonso the Battler, the Christian King of Aragon captures Saragossa, Spain, causing a major blow to Muslim Spain.
1719 Thomas Fleet publishes “Mother Goose’s Melodies For Children”
1777 1st national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating Burgoyne’s surrender
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte arrives in Paris after his disastrous campaign in Russia.
1849 William Bond obtains 1st photograph of Moon through a telescope
1862 Union General Ulysses S. Grant announces the organization of his army in the West. Sherman, Hurlbut, McPherson, and McClernand are to be corps commanders.
1865 Slavery is abolished in the United States. The 13th Amendment is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution, ensuring that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
1892 Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite” premiered at St. Petersburg’s Maryinksy Theatre.
1915 In a single night, about 20,000 Australian and New Zealand troops withdraw from Gallipoli, Turkey, undetected by the Turks defending the peninsula.
1936 Su-Lin, 1st giant panda to come to US from China, arrives in San Francisco
1940 Adolf Hitler issues his secret plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union–Operation Barbarossa.
1944 The Supreme Court upheld the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans.
1951 North Koreans give the United Nations a list of 3,100 POWs.
1956 Japan is admitted to the United Nations.
1957 World’s 1st full scale nuclear power plant begins to generate electricity, at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania
1960 A rightist government is installed under Prince Boun Oum in Laos as the United States resumes arms shipments.
1965 U.S. Marines attack VC units in the Que Son Valley during Operation Harvest Moon.
1989 The European Economic Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and economic communication.
1991 General Motors announces the closing of 21 plants
2002 California Gov. Gray Davis announces the state faces a record budget deficit; the looming $35 billion shortfall is almost double the amount reported a month earlier during the state’s gubernatorial campaign.
2008 United Arab Emirates holds it first-ever elections.
2010 The Senate votes 65 to 31 in favor of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Clinton-era military policy that forbids openly gay men and women from serving in the military.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
