TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 12
1493 Last day for all Jews to leave Sicily
1528 Gustav I of Sweden crowned King of Sweden, rules for 37 years and becomes known as the “father of the nation”
1773 First public museum established in north American colonies (Charlestown, SC)
1879 The British-Zulu War begins. British troops — under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus — invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.
1896 H. L. Smith took the first X-ray photograph. It was a hand with a bullet in it.
1913 After using other pseudonyms over the years, Josef Dzhugashvili signs himself as Stalin (“man of steel”) in a letter to the newspaper Social Democrat
1915 The U.S. Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.
1915 US House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women right to vote
1939 Timely Comics (later Marvel) founded by American publisher Martin Goodman in New York
1942 U.S. President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board.
1943 Frankfurters replaced by Victory Sausages (mix of meat & soy meal)
1952 University of Tennessee admits it’s 1st black student
1956 FBi arrests 6 members of the Great Brink’s robbery gang, 6 days before statute of limitations runs out
1962 Operation Ranch Hand begins, a US Air Force operation to spray South Vietnamese forests with defoliants such as Agent Orange
1966 “Batman”, starring Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, and Cesar Romero as The Joker, debuts on ABC
1967 Louisville, Kentucky, draft board refuses exemption for boxer Muhammad Ali
1990 Civil Rights activist Reverand Al Sharpton is stabbed in Bensonhurst Brooklyn
1991 US Congress gives George H. W. Bush authority to wage war against Iraq
1994 Malcolm X’s daughter arrested for plotting Louis Farrakham’s murder
1995 Murder trial against O.J. Simpson, begins in LA
1998 Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
2006 A stampede during the Stoning the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims
2006 The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany declare that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have reached a dead end and recommend that Iran be referred to the United Nations Security Council.
2010 Haiti is dealt a catastrophic blow when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. It is the region’s worst earthquake in 200 years. The number of fatalities were between 46,000 and 85,000 people.
2013 A failed attempt to rescue a French hostage in Bulo Marer, Somalia, results in 18 deaths
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
