TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 17
1746 Charles Edward Stuart, the young pretender, defeats the government forces at the battle of Falkirk in Scotland.
1773 Captain James Cook becomes the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle.
1871 1st cable car patented, by Andrew S Hallidie (begins service in 1873)
1873 A group of Modoc warriors defeats the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, a part of the Modoc War
1874 Armed Democrats seize Texas government ending Radical Reconstruction
1893 Queen Liliuokalani, the Hawaiian monarch, is overthrown by a group of American sugar planters led by Sanford Ballard Dole.
1917 US pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands
1924 US surplus war material was being sold to the Mexican government, as approved by President Coolidge.
1939 The Reich issues an order forbidding Jews to practice as dentists, veterinarians and chemists.
1945 The Red army occupies Warsaw.
1949 The first Volkswagen Beetle ( The Peoples Car ) in the U.S. arrived from Germany, designed by Ferdinand Porsche at the request of Adolf Hitler.
1951 China refuses cease-fire in Korea
1961 Patrice Lumumba is murdered with support from western governments
An independent commission concluded that Lumumba, the first democratically elected leader of the Congo, died at the hands of his domestic adversaries with the assistance of the Belgian government and the CIA.
1977 Gary Gilmore became the first person executed in the U.S. since the death penalty was reintroduced.
1984 Supreme Court rules (5-4) private use of home VCRs to tape TV programs for later viewing does not violate federal copyright laws
1985 A jury in New Jersey rules that terminally ill patients have the right to starve themselves.
1989 Gunman opens fire in California schoolyard; 5 students slain, 30 wounded
2001 Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency concerning California’s electricity crisis.
2010 Iran has suspended pilgrimages to the Muslim holy places until the Saudi religious police end their ‘appalling behaviour’ towards Iranian Shi’ite pilgrims.
2014 A judge in Pennsylvania has overturned a 2012 voter identification law that had asked voters to show a photo ID in order to vote.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
