TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 31
1687 The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage.
1695 The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up.
1744 English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble)
1775 The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle.
1775 George Washington orders recruiting officers to accept free blacks into the army.
1776 Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70¢ a day for carpenters, 42¢ for tailors
1852 The richest year of the gold rush ends with $81.3 million in gold produced.
1862 President Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia to the Union
1879 Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.
1890 Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot
1907 For the 1st time a ball drops at Times Square to signal the new year
1915 The Germans torpedo the British liner Persia without any warning killing 335 passengers.
1923 The Sahara is crossed by an automobile for the first time.
1923 1st transatlantic radio broadcast of a voice, Pittsburgh-Manchester
1930 Brewery heir Adolphus Busch is kidnapped.
1938 The first breath test for drivers, “drunkometer,” was introduced in Indianapolis.
1958 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista tells his Cabinet he is fleeing the country
1961 The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.
1964 The al-Fatah guerrillas of Yasser Arafat launched their first terrorist raid on Israel.
1965 California becomes the largest state in population.
1977 Cambodia breaks relations with Vietnam.
1977 Ted Bundy escapes from jail in Colorado
1978 Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, DC. The event marked the end of diplomatic relations with the U.S.
1979 At year end oil prices were 88% higher than at the start of 1979.
1981 CNN Headline News debuts
1984 NYC subway gunman Bernhard Goetz surrenders to police in New Hampshire
1995 Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his “Calvin & Hobbes” comic strip
1999 Control of Panamá Canal reverts to Panamá
1999 Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president.
1999 Five hijackers left the airport where they had been holding 150 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane. They left with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed from an Indian prison. The plane had been hijacked during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal to New Dehli on December 24.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
