TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 10
49 BC Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war
1072 Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger take Palermo in Sicily.
1645 The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, is beheaded on Tower Hill, accused of acting as an enemy of the British Parliament.
1776 Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
1811 An uprising of over 400 slaves is put down in New Orleans. Sixty-six blacks are killed and their heads are strung up along the roads of the city.
1847 General Stephen Kearny and Commodore Robert Stockton retake Los Angeles in the last California battle of the Mexican War.
1861 Florida secedes from the Union.
1870 John D. Rockefeller and his brother William establish the Standard Oil Company of Ohio.
1903 Argentina bans the importation of American beef because of sanitation problems.
1918 In Washington, the House of Representatives passes legislation for women’s suffrage.
1928 The Soviet Union ordered the exile of Leon Trotsky.
1929 The first Adventures of Tintin comic book is published
1946 The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens
1964 Panama breaks ties with the U.S. and demands a revision of the canal treaty.
1967 President Johnson asks for a 6 percent surcharge on personal and corporate income taxes to help support the Vietnam War for two years.
1971 “Masterpiece Theatre” premiered on PBS with host Alistair Cooke. The introduction drama series was “The First Churchills.”
1974 Following a global shortage of oil Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked all oil consuming nations to work together to increase oil supplies and solve the world’s energy shortage
1984 The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years.
1990 Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. completed a $14 billion merger. The new company, Time Warner, was the world’s largest entertainment company.
1994 In Manassas, VA, Lorena Bobbitt went on trial. She had been charged with maliciously wounding her husband John. She was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.
2000 It was announced that Time-Warner had agreed to buy America On-line (AOL). It was the largest-ever corporate merger priced at $162 billion. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the deal on December 14, 2000.
2003 North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
