TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 16
27 BC The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate
1412 The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy
1547 Ivan IV crowns himself the new Czar of Russia in Assumption Cathedral in Moscow.
1572 The Duke of Norfolk was tried for treason for complicity in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. He was executed on June 2.
1786 The Council of Virginia guarantees religious freedom.
1793 French King Louis XVI sentenced to death by the National Convention during the French Revolution
1847 John C. Fremont, the famed “Pathfinder” of Western exploration, is appointed governor of California.
1883 The U.S. Civil Service Commission established.
1909 One of Ernest Shackleton’s polar exploration teams reaches the Magnetic South Pole.
1914 Maxim Gorky is authorized to return to Russia after an eight year exile for political dissidence.
1920 The League of Nations holds its first meeting in Paris.
1920 A year after it was ratified, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages, went into effect.
1925 Leon Trotsky was dismissed as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of the USSR.
1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt asks for an extension of the Social Security Act to include more women and children.
1944 Eisenhower assumes supreme command of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
1953 The first corvette was presented at a car show that took place at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
1956 The Egyptian government makes Islam the state religion.
1958 A grasshopper plague causes serious damage across the state of Colorado and Neighboring states. This particular plague damaged farmer’s crops, annoyed tourists, and cost millions of dollars.
1965 Eighteen are arrested in Mississippi for the murder of three civil rights workers.
1975 The Irish Republican Army calls an end to a 25-day cease fire in Belfast.
1979 The Shah leaves Iran.
1982 Britain and the Vatican resumed full diplomatic relations after a break of over 400 years.
1988 Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder was fired as a CBS sports commentator one day after telling a TV station in Washington, DC, that, during the era of slavery, blacks had been bred to produce stronger offspring.
1991 The Persian Gulf War begins. The massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq — Operation Desert Storm — ends on February 28, 1991, when President George Bush declares a cease-fire, and Iraq pledges to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms.
1992 The El Salvador government signed a peace treaty with guerrilla forces, formally ending 12 years of civil war.
1998 It was announced that Texas would receive $15.3 billion in a tobacco industry settlement. The payouts were planned to take place over 25 years.
1998 Three federal judges secretly granted Kenneth Starr authority to probe whether U.S. President Clinton or Vernon Jordan urged Monica Lewinsky to lie about her relationship with Clinton.
2001 The fuel supply tanker ‘Jessica’ has run aground on the Island of San Cristobal in the Galapagos Islands
2002 The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted sanctions against Osama bin Laden, his terror network and the remnants of the Taliban. The sanctions required that all nations impose arms embargoes and freeze their finances.
2003 Space shuttle Columbia blasted off on what would be its final mission. The craft broke up on its descent on Feb. 1, killing all on board.
2009 Bank Of America the largest in the U.S. will receive $20bn in fresh US government aid and $118bn worth of guarantees against bad assets. This is in addition to the $25bn in capital injections from the Troubled Assets Relief Programme, known as Tarp Bank of America has already received.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
