TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 26
1492 1st Spanish settlement La Navidad in the New World is founded by Christopher Columbus (modern Môle-Saint-Nicolas in Haiti)
1512 The laws of Burgos give New World natives legal protection against abuse and authorize Negro slavery.
1620 The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.
1792 Trial of French King Louis XVI, court hears the kings defense brought by Raymond Desèze
1831 HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, departs from Plymouth. It will eventually visit the Galapagos Islands where Darwin will form his theories on evolution.
1865 James H. Nason received a patent for a coffee percolator.
1913 Charles Moyer, president of the Miners Union, is shot in the back and dragged through the streets of Chicago.
1915 In Ohio, iron and steel workers go on strike for an eight-hour day and higher wages.
1917 During World War I, the U.S. government took over operation of the nation’s railroads.
1941 U.S. President Roosevelt signed a resolution that set the a fixed-date, the fourth Thursday of November, for the Federal Thanksgiving Day holiday.
1945 The International Monetary Fund and the Bank for Reconstruction and Development are created.
1950 The United States and Spain resume relations for the first time since the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
1966 The first Kwanzaa is celebrated.
1979 President Hafizullah Amin of Afghanistan is ousted and murdered in a coup backed by the Soviet Union, beginning a war that will last more than 10 years.
1982 The Man of the Year in “TIME” magazine was a computer. It was the first time a non-human received the honors.
1983 President Reagan takes all responsibility for the lack of security in Beirut that allowed a terrorist on a suicide mission to kill 241 Marines.
1985 Palestinian guerrillas kill 18 people at airports in Rome and Vienna.
2000 Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.
2001 China receives permanent normal trade relations with the US
2002 The first cloned human baby was born. The announcement was made the December 27 by Clonaid.
2004 In the Indian Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest in 40 years, triggered a tsunami that ultimately killed more than 280,000.
2007 After Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of Kenya’s presidential elections, rioting begins in Mombasa, precipitating an economic, humanitarian and political crisis.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
