TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 17
1568 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II agrees to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire for peace
1600 Italian philospher, alchemist, and Copernican theory advocate Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy by the Inquisition.
1676 Kings Charles II & Louis XIV sign secret treaty
1720 Spain signs the Treaty of the Hague with the Quadruple Alliance ending a war that was begun in 1718.
1801 The House of Representatives breaks an electoral college tie and chooses Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr.
1863 A precursor of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is founded The “Committee for Relief to the Wounded” was created by a group of citizens in Geneva, Switzerland.
1864 The Confederate submarine Hunley sinks the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.
1865 The South Carolina capital city, Columbia, is destroyed by fire as Major General William Tecumseh Sherman marches through.
1870 Mississippi becomes 9th state re-admitted to US after Civil War
1876 Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine
1897 National Congress of Parents & Teachers (PTA) organizes (Washington DC)
1909 Apache chief Geronimo dies of pneumonia at age 80, while still in captivity at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
1913 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon)
1925 The first issue of Harold Ross’ magazine, The New Yorker, hits the stands, selling for 15 cents a copy.
1933 The League of Nations censures Japan in a worldwide broadcast.
1933 Blondie Boopadoop marries Dagwood Bumstead; Dagwood’s father promptly disinherits him
1938 The first color television is demonstrated at the Dominion Theatre in London.
1944 U.S forces land on Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific.
1947 Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR
1951 Packard introduces its “250” Chassis Convertible.
1955 Britain announces its ability to make hydrogen bombs.
1959 The United States launches its first weather station in space, Vanguard II.
1960 Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested in the Alabama bus boycott.
1964 US Supreme court rules – 1 man 1 vote (Westberry vs Sanders)
1969 Golda Meir sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Israel
1979 China begins a “pedagogical” war against Vietnam. It will last until March.
1981 Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history
1992 Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is jailed for life Dahmer was convicted of murdering and dismembering at least 17 young men and boys
1995 Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming US tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked
1998 Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax
2008 Kosovo declares its independence The region’s secession from Serbia followed an armed conflict referred to as the Kosovo War.
2017 Discovery of a new mostly underwater continent Zealandia in the South Pacific announced in research journal “GSA Today”
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
