TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 26
1492 Christopher Columbus established the first Spanish settlement in the New World.
1620 The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.
1776 After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington leads an attack on Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, and takes 900 men prisoner.
1786 Daniel Shay leads a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt.
1792 Trial of French King Louis XVI, court hears the kings defense brought by Raymond Desèze
1825 Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar Nicholas I begins [O.S. 14 December]
1862 38 Santee Sioux are hanged in Mankato, Minnesota for their part in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. Little Crow has fled the state.
1865 James H. Nason received a patent for a coffee percolator.
1917 As a wartime measure, President Woodrow Wilson places railroads under government control, with Secretary of War William McAdoo as director general.
1925 Six U.S. destroyers are ordered from Manila to China to protect interests in the civil war that is being waged there.
1941 Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.
1941 U.S. President Roosevelt signed a resolution that set the a fixed-date Fourth Thursday of November set as Thanksgiving Day in the US
1944 Advancing Soviet troops complete their encirclement of Budapest in Hungary.
1945 The United States, Soviet Union and Great Britain, end a 10-day meeting, seeking an atomic rule by the UN Council.
1956 Fidel Castro attempted a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. All but 11 of his supporters were killed.
1962 Eight East Berliners escape to West Berlin, crashing through gates in an armor-plated bus.
1966 Dr. Maulana Karenga celebrates the first Kwanza, a seven-day African-American celebration of family and heritage.
1985 Zoologist Dian Fossey was found murdered in Rwanda.
1991 The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union formally dissolves the Soviet Union.
1995 Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority.
1996 JonBenet Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, is found beaten and strangled to death in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado, one of the most high-profile crimes of the late 20th century in the US.
2000 Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.
2002 The first cloned human baby was born. The announcement was made the December 27 by Clonaid.
2004 Massive tsunami causes damage and kills thousands in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
