TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 7
43 BC Cicero, considered one of the greatest sons of Rome, is assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius.
1431 In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France.
1787 Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1796 John Adams was elected to be the second president of the United States.
1808 James Madison is elected president in succession of Thomas Jefferson.
1836 Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.
1863 Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the “Innocents,” robs and then kills Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.
1909 Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry
1917 The U.S. declared war on Austria-Hungary in World War I
1926 The gas operated refrigerator was patented by The Electrolux Servel Corporation.
1931 Ford produces the last Ford Model A and discontinues production and closes the factory to retool ready for the Ford V8 which is planned for production starting in April 1932
1931 A report indicates that Nazis would ensure “Nordic dominance” by sterilizing certain races.
1941 The Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack was the impetus for the U.S.’s entry into World War II.
1959 In McMurdo Sound the overabundance of dogs became a problem, since they were not being used as much. A female dog could potentially produce up to sixteen pups a year. With 11 male dogs and 10 females their capacity to breed could get astronomical. New homes were sought for the dogs outside of Antarctica.
1965 Pope Paul VI & Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led to split of 2 churches in 1054
1972 America’s final moon mission, Apollo 17, blasted off from Cape Canaveral.
1977 All Soviet consulates and educational centers were ordered to be shut down by Egypt’s Prime Minister, Mamdouth Salem. The Soviets and four other ousted European nations were accused of interfering with Egyptian-Israeli peace negotiations.
1981 The Reagan Administration predicts a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion.
1982 Charlie Brooks Junior, a convicted murderer, became the first prisoner in the U.S. to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, TX.
1986 Under great political pressure, President Reagan admitted that there were mistakes made in the diversion of arms to Iran. He claimed that he had no knowledge that Iran got armaments from the U.S. . However, the majority of the American public did not believe Reagan.
1987 43 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner.
1988 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat recognizes Israel’s right to exist.
1992 The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Mississippi abortion law which, required women to get counseling and then wait 24 hours before terminating their pregnancies.
1993 Colin Ferguson opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six people and wounding 17, before other passengers stopped him by tackling and holding him down. He was later convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.
1993 Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary revealed that the U.S. government had conducted more than 200 nuclear weapons tests in secret at its Nevada test site.
1998 U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.
1999 The Recording Industry Association of America files a copyright infringement suit against the file-sharing website Napster.
2001 Taliban forces fled from Kandahar, their last stronghold in Afghanistan.
2002 Iraq formally declared to the UN that it had no weapons of mass destruction.
2002 – In Mymensingh, Bangladesh, four movies theaters were bombed within 30 minutes of each other. At least 15 people were killed and over 200 were injured.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
