TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 16
27 BC The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate
1120 The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem
1547 Ivan IV (Ivan IV the Terrible) crowns himself the new Czar of Russia in Assumption Cathedral in Moscow.
1556 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V appoints his son Philip II, King of Spain
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.
1581 English parliament passes laws against Catholicism
1786 The Council of Virginia guarantees religious freedom.
1793 French King Louis XVI sentenced to death by the National Convention during the French Revolution
1868 Refrigerator car patented by William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit
1870 Virginia becomes 8th state re-admitted to US after Civil War
1883 The U.S. Civil Service Commission established.
1917 “Zimmermann Telegram” is sent from Germany to Mexico, stating in the event of the US entering World War I on the allied side, Mexico would be given Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Intercepted by British intelligence and partially deciphered by the next day. It’s release in March shifts US public opinion in favor of war against Germany.
1920 A year after it was ratified, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages, went into effect.
1939 Daily newspaper comic strip “Superman” debuts
1939 The IRA begins a bombing campaign in England
1962 Suit accuses New York City NY Board of Education uses “racial quotas”
1970 Colonel Kadhaffi becomes premier of Libya
1979 Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi of Iran flees Iran for Egypt
1985 “Playboy” magazine announced its 30-year tradition of stapling centerfold models in the bellybutton and elsewhere would come to an immediate end
1991 Operation Desert Storm was announced by the White House.
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
2002 U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that John Walker Lindh would be brought to the United States to face trial. He was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA, with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorist organizations, and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban of Afghanistan.
2002 UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and freezes assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the members of the Taliba
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
