TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 21
1189 Philip Augustus, Henry II of England and Frederick Barbarossa assemble the troops for the Third Crusade.
1677 1st medical publication in America (pamphlet on smallpox), published in Boston
1785 Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa and Wyandot Indians sign the treaty of Fort McIntosh, ceding present-day Ohio to the United States.
1789 W.H. Brown’s “Power of Sympathy” was published. It was the first American novel to be published. The novel is also known as the “Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth”.
1793 The French King Louis XVI is guillotined for treason.
1813 Pineapple introduced to Hawaii
1813 Spaniard Don Francisco de Paula y Marin plants coffee in Hawaii – 1st record of coffee growing in Hawaii
1865 An oil well was drilled by torpedoes for the first time.
1899 Opel manufactures its first automobile
1919 The German Krupp plant begins producing guns under the U.S. armistice terms.
1919 Irish militant nationalist party Sinn Fein creates its own parliament in Dublin and declares Ireland independent of Great Britain, sparking the Irish War of Independence
1924 Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died. Joseph Stalin began a purge of his rivals for the leadership of the Soviet Union.
1941 The United States lifts the ban on selling arms to the Soviet Union.
1951 Communist troops force the UN army out of Inchon, Korea after a 12-hour attack.
1958 The Soviet Union calls for a ban on nuclear arms in Baghdad Pact countries.
1968 US B-52 bomber with nuclear bomb on board crashes in Greenland
1968 In Vietnam, the Siege of Khe Sanh begins as North Vietnamese units surround U.S. Marines based on the hilltop headquarters
1969 A partial meltdown at the Lucens nuclear reactor in Switzerland seriously contaminating the cavern containing the reactor; the plant is sealed and decommissioned
1974 The U.S. Supreme Court decides that pregnant teachers can no longer be forced to take long leaves of absence.
1977 US President Jimmy Carter pardons almost all Vietnam War draft evaders
1977 President Carter urges 65 degrees as the maximum heat in homes to ease the energy crisis.
1991 CBS News correspondant Bob Simon and four TV crew captured and held for 40 days by Iraqis in the Persian Gulf
1997 Newt Gingrich was fined as the U.S. House of Representatvies voted for first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.
1998 A former White House intern said on tape that she had an affair with U.S. President Clinton.
2003 It was announced by the U.S. Census Bureau that estimates showed that the Hispanic population had passed the black population for the first time.
2008 Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
