TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 27
1512 Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regards to native Indians in the New World
1657 Flushing Remonstrance petition signed in the Dutch colony of New Netherland protesting ban on Quaker worship
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.
1845 Anesthesia used for the first time for childbirth Dr. Crawford W. Long, an American physician, gave ether to his wife during the birth of their second child.
1900 Prohibitionist Carry Nation smashed her first saloon. (Hotel Carry Annex Bar, Wichita KS)
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.
1927 Stalin’s faction wins All-Union Congress in USSR, Trotsky expelled
1934 Shah of Persia declares Persia now Iran
1937 Mae West performs Adam & Eve skit that gets her banned from NBC radio
1945 The International Monetary Fund and the Bank for Reconstruction and Development are created.
1947 1st “Howdy Doody Show” (Puppet Playhouse), telecast on NBC
1950 The United States and Spain resume relations for the first time since the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
1951 In Cincinnati, OH, a Crosley automobile, with a steering wheel on the right side, became the first vehicle of its kind to be placed in service for mail delivery.
1956 Segregation on buses in Tallahassee, Florida, is outlawed.
1968 The United States agrees to sell F-4 Phantom jets to Israel.
1971 Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock of Charles Schulz’ “Peanuts” comic strip were on the cover of “Newsweek” magazine.
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.
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.
1984 Four Polish officers are tried for the slaying of Reverend Jerzy Popieluszko.
1985 Dian Fossey, an American naturalist, was found murdered at a research station in Rawanda.
1985 Terrorists kill 20 & wound 110 attacking El Al at Rome & Vienna airports; President Reagan blamed Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi
1996 Rwanda’s first genocide trial opened for the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis.
1996 Taliban forces retake strategic Bagram Airfield during Afghan civil war.
2000 Mario Lemeiux (Pittsburgh Penguins) returned to the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player after over 3 years of retirement. He was the first owner-player in the modern era of pro sports. Lemieux had purchased the Pittsburgh Penguins during his retirement from playing.
2001 China receives permanent normal trade relations with the US.
2002 North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said that it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.
2002 In Chechnya, at least 40 people were killed when suicide bombers attacked the administartion of Grozny.
2004 Radiation reaches Earth from the brightest extrasolar event ever witnessed, an explosion of magnetar SGR 1806-20.
2007 Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto assassinated.
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 **
