TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 4
771 With the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne becomes sole ruler of the Frankish Empire.
1619 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish, England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God. Considered by many the first Thanksgiving in the Americas.
1783 George Washington delivered his farewell address to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City.
1812 Peter Gaillard patented the power mower.
1816 James Monroe of Virginia was elected (by electors) the fifth president of the United States.
1861 The U.S. Senate, voting 36 to 0, expels Senator John C. Brekinridge of Kentucky because of his joining the Confederate Army.
1861 Queen Victoria of Britain forbids the export of gunpowder, firearms and all materials for their production.
1875 William Marcy “Boss” Tweed of New York’s Tammany Hall escaped from jail and fled the country.
1918 France cancels trade treaties in order to compete in the postwar economic battles.
1923 Cecil B. DeMille’s first version of “The Ten Commandments” premieres
1934 In Turkey all uniforms were forbidden – even Boy Scout uniforms from other countries. Also prohibited were Nazi brown uniforms and Fascist black military dress.
1943 The Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Great Depression of the 1930’s is ended.
1943 Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis announced that any club was free to employ black players.
1945 The Senate approved U.S. participation in the United Nations.
1950 The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.
1953 Canadian-U.S. relations were at a low point, even though the two countries boasted the longest undefended border in the world. The source of the animosity was over Igor Gouzenko who had information on Soviet espionage.
1954 The first Burger King (Insta Burger King) is opened in Miami, Florida by James McLamore and David Edgerton. Burger King continued to grow slowly and in 1967 followed other fast food chains by allowing franchise restaurants.
1961 The birth control pill an oral contraception will now be available on the National Health Service (uk)..
1969 Police kill Fred Hampton, 21, and Mark Clark, 22, members of the Black Panther Party who are gunned down by 14 police officers as they lie sleeping in their Chicago, Illinois, apartment. The Black Panther Party was an African American organization founded to promote civil rights and social justice and was a part of the anti establishment counterculture of the Sixties.
1971 Pub Bomb Belfast. Bomb demolishes crowded Belfast pub killing at least 10 and injuring 17 one of a number of attacks.
1974 Russia and Norway were having another round of talks about the boundaries beneath the Barents Sea in the Arctic. There was oil under the sea and Russia was eager to get at it, however, Norway wanted to wait and get the borders settled before allowing the Russians to bring their oil drilling equipment in.
1977 Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Empire, crowned himself emperor in a ceremony believed to have cost more than $100 million. He was deposed 2 years later.
1978 Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco’s first female mayor.
1981 President Ronald Reagan broadens the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the United States.
1982 China adopts its current constitution The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China replaced the Constitutions of 1954, 1975, and 1978.
1983 U.S. jet fighters struck Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon in retaliation for attacks directed at American reconnaissance planes. Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman Jr. was shot down and captured by Syria.
1984 A five-day hijack drama began as four men seized a Kuwaiti airliner en route to Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran. Two American passengers were killed by the hijackers.
1985 Robert McFarland resigns as National Security Advisor. Admiral John Poindexter is named to succeed.
1991 Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson is released after seven years as a hostage in Lebanon.
1991 The last American hostages held in Lebanon are released.
1992 US Pres. George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 troops to Somalia during the Somali Civil War.
2001 The United States froze the financial assets of organizations allegedly linked to the terrorist group Hamas including the Texas-based Islamic foundation that calls itself a charity, saying the organization acts as a front to finance the militant wing of the Palestinian group Hamas.
2003 The US has pulled back from implementing a punitive tax on imported steel amounting to increases of 30% to the cost of a range of imported steel products, to avoid a damaging trade war between the United States and Europe after the EU threatened implementing tariffs of $2.2bn on US imports into Europe.
2009 About seventy-six people are believed to have been killed and about sixty hospitalized in a blast that took place in a cafe in the Ural’s city of Perm. The blast occurred at 23:15 Moscow time, and was followed by fire. Firefighters have brought the blaze under control. The cafe was attached to a residential house, which was not damaged by the blast.
2011 Iran announced that it had taken down a US drone that had violated its borders. The country stated the spy plane suffered minimal damage and that their army was inspecting it.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
