TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 4
211 Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta
1194 Richard I, King of England, is freed from captivity in Germany.
1508 The Proclamation of Trent is made.
1787 Shay’s Rebellion, an uprising of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers against the new U.S. government, fails.
1789 1st US electoral college chooses George Washington as President and John Adams as Vice-President
1822 Free American Blacks settle Liberia, West Africa
1844 World’s oldest known Bible, “The Codex Sinaiticus” (Sinai Bible), is discovered or stolen in Egypt by Constantin von Tischendorf
1861 The Confederate States of America are established 6 slave states met in Montgomery, Alabama to form the Confederacy, which lasted only until 1865.
1889 Harry Longabaugh is released from Sundance Prison in Wyoming, thereby acquiring the famous nickname, “the Sundance Kid.”
1899 After an exchange of gunfire, fighting breaks out between American troops and Filipinos near Manila, sparking the Philippine-American War
1906 The New York Police Department begins finger print identification.
1909 California law segregates Caucasian and Japanese schoolchildren.
1936 1st radioactive substance produced synthetically (radium E)
1945 The Big Three, American, British and Soviet leaders, meet in Yalta to discuss the war aims.
1949 Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia
1966 Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins televised hearings on the Vietnam War.
1974 Newspaper heiress Patty Hearst is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, beginning one of the most bizarre cases in FBI history.
1985 20 countries (but not US) sign UN treaty outlawing torture
1987 President Reagan’s veto of Clean Water Act is overridden by Congress
1988 Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega indicted on drug charges
1997 OJ Simpson found liable in murders of Ron Goldman & Nicole Simpson
2003 The country of Yugoslavia disappeared, to be replaced by the loose federation of Serbia and Montenegro.
2004 The Massachusetts Supreme Court declared that gays had the right to marry.
2004 Facebook is founded The social networking service currently has over 1 billion active users.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
