TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 12
1554 Lady Jane Grey, the Queen of England for thirteen days, is beheaded on Tower Hill. She was barely 17 years old.
1709 Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish seaman whose adventures inspired the creation of Daniel Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe, is taken off Juan Fernandez Island after more than four years of living there alone.
1733 Led by philanthropist James Edward Oglethorpe, the first English colonists arrived in Georgia, at the site of Savannah.
1793 The first fugitive slave law, requiring the return of escaped slaves, is passed.
1825 Creek Indian treaty signed; Tribal chiefs agree to turn over all their land in Georgia to the government & migrate west by Sept 1, 1826
1836 Mexican General Santa Anna crosses the Rio Grande en route to the Alamo.
1870 The Utah Territory granted women the right to vote (revoked in 1887).
1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded in the U.S.
The NAACP is one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States
1912 China becomes a republic following the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty.
1938 Japan refuses to reveal naval data requested by the U.S. and Britain.
1949 Muslim Brotherhood chief Hassan el Banna is shot to death in Cairo.
1953 The Soviets break off diplomatic relations with Israel after the bombing of Soviet legation.
1957 Researchers announce Borazan (harder than diamonds) been developed
1961 USSR launches Venera 1 toward Venus
1973 The first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam war took place.
1974 The Symbionese Liberation Army asks the Hearst family for $230 million in food for the poor.
1980 The Lake Placid Winter Olympics open in New York.
1987 Survivors of a black man murdered by KKK members awarded $7 million damages
1998 US district judge T Hogan declares line-item veto law unconstitutional
1999 The U.S. Senate fails to pass two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. He had been accused of perjury and obstruction of justice by the House of Representatives.
2001 NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the “saddle” region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
2002 The trial of Slobodan Milošević begins at The Hague
The former President of Yugoslavia and Serbia died 4 years later, before the trial’s conclusion.
2013 North Korea allegedly conducts its third nuclear test, saying it was a nuclear device that could be weaponized
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
