TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 29
1170 Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury, is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights of Henry II.
1607 Indian chief Powhatan spares John Smith’s life after the pleas of his daughter Pocahontas.
1813 The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.
1837 Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.
1845 Texas (comprised of the present state of Texas and part of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) is admitted as the 28th state of the Union, with the provision that the area (389,166 square miles) should be divided into no more than five states “of convenient size.”
1849 Gas lighting is installed in the White House.
1851 The first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) opened in Boston.
1890 The last major conflict of the Indian wars takes place at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota after Colonel James W. Forsyth of the 7th Cavalry tries to disarm Chief Big Foot and his followers.
1914 The production of Belgian newspapers is halted to protest German censorship.
1921 Sears Roebuck president Julius Rosenwald pledges $20 million of his personal fortune to help Sears through hard times.
1937 Ireland established A new constitution, established by a national referendum, changed the name of the Irish Free state to Ireland. The Irish Free State was a part of the British Commonwealth and was established in 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty singed in 1921.
1948 Tito declares Yugoslavia will follow its own path to Communism.
1956 President Dwight Eisenhower asks Congress for the authority to oppose Soviet aggression in the Middle East.
1965 A Christmas truce is observed in Vietnam, while President Johnson tries to get the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table.
1972 Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of “LIFE” magazine hit the newsstands. The magazine later became a monthly publication.
1975 England — Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Act The Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts comes into force which will prevent women being paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same job.
1975 A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York’s LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.
1981 President Ronald Reagan curtails Soviet trade in reprisal for its harsh policies on Poland.
1989 Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country’s Federal Assembly. He was the first non-Communist to hold the position in more than four decades.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
