TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 1
404 Last gladiator competition in Rome
630 Prophet Muhammad sets out with his army towards Mecca, capturing it bloodlessly
1500 The Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral reaches the coast of Brazil and claims the region for Portugal.
1586 Sir Francis Drake launches a surprise attack on the heavily fortified city of Santo Domingo in Hispanola.
1710 Paris merchant Jean Marius obtains 5-year royal privilege for his invention of a folding umbrella – first in Europe
1788 The Times, London’s oldest running newspaper, publishes its first edition.
1801 The dwarf planet Ceres is discovered by Italian monk Giuseppe Piazzi
1808 A U.S. law banning the import of slaves comes into effect, but is widely ignored.
1853 1st practical fire engine (horse-drawn) in US enters service
1863 President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the Confederacy.
1891 Facilities opened on Ellis Island, New York, to cope with the vast flood of immigrants coming into the United States.
1895 In Battle Creek, MI, C.W. Post created his first usable batch of Monks Brew (later called Postum). It was a cereal-based substitute for caffeinated drinks.
1934 Nazi Germany passes the “Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring”.
1934 Alcatraz officially becomes a federal prison
1937 At a party at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest wins $100 for naming a new canned meat–Spam.
1944 Army defeats Navy 10-7 in football “Arab Bowl,” Oran, North Africa
1959 Fidel Castro seizes power in Cuba as General Fulgencio Batista flees.
1966 All US cigarette packs have to carry “Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health”
1975 John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman were convicted of obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair.
1976 Venezuela nationalizes oil fields
1980 Mob storms Russian embassy in Tehran
1984 AT&T’s 22 owned Bell system companies divests into 8 companies
1993 Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
1995 The World Trade Organization came into existence. The group of 125 nations monitors global trade.
1999 In California, a law went into effect that defined “invasion of privacy as trespassing with the intent to capture audio or video images of a celebrity or crime victim engaging in a personal of family activity.”
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
