TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: DEC 28
1065 Westminster Abbey in London consecrated
1612 First observation of Neptune – Galileo observes and records a “fixed star” without realising it is a planet
1688 William of Orange makes a triumphant march into London as James II flees.
1694 George I of England gets divorced.
1732 “The Pennsylvania Gazette,” owned by Benjamin Franklin, ran an ad for the first issue of “Poor Richard’s Almanack.”
1832 John C. Calhoun became the first vice president in U.S. history to resign from office.
1846 Iowa is admitted as the 29th State of the Union.
1860 Harriet Tubman arrives in Auburn, New York, on her last mission to free slaves, having evaded capture for 8 years on the Underground Railroad
1869 William F. Semple patented chewing gum.
1872 A U.S. Army force defeats a group of Apache warriors at Salt River Canyon, Arizona Territory, with 57 Indians killed but only one soldier.
1904 Farmers in Georgia burn two million bales of cotton to prop up falling prices.
1920 The United States resumes the deportation of communists and suspected communists.
1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt states, “The definite policy of the United States, from now on, is one opposed to armed intervention.”
1938 France orders the doubling of forces in Somaliland; two warships are sent.
1945 Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.
1948 Premier Nokrashy Pasha of Egypt is assassinated by a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood because of his failure to achieve victory in the war against Israel.
1951 The United States pays $120,000 to free four fliers convicted of espionage in Hungary.
1971 The U.S. Justice Department sues Mississippi officials for ignoring the voting ballots of blacks in that state.
1972 Kim il Sung becomes first president of North Korea
1973 The Chamber of Commerce of Akron, OH, terminated its association with the All-American Soap Box Derby. It was stated that the race had become “a victim of cheating and fraud.”
1982 Nevell Johnson Jr. was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade. The event set off three days of race related disturbances that left another man dead.
1995 Pressure from German prosecutors investigating pornography forced CompuServe to set a precedent by blocking access to sex-oriented newsgroups on the Internet for its customers.
2007 Nepal abolishes monarchy
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
