TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 31
1606 Guy Fawkes is hanged, drawn and quartered for his part in the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up Parliament.
1620 Virginia colony leaders write to the Virginia Company in England, asking for more orphaned apprentices for employment.
1851 Gail Borden announces invention of evaporated milk
1865 House of Representatives approves a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.
1865 General Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies during US Civil War
1916 President Woodrow Wilson refuses the compromise on Lusitania reparations.
1917 Germany resumes unlimited sub warfare, warning that all neutral ships that are in the war zone will be attacked.
1929 Leon Trotsky expelled from Russia to Turkey
1942 No longer were civilian vehicles made as of this date by companies such as Chevrolet or DeSoto. From this time on until the end of the war only military vehicles were produced.
1945 Private Eddie Slovik is executed by firing squad near the village of Ste-Marie aux Mines, France after being court martial for desertion to avoid hazardous duty and became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
1950 US President Harry Truman publicly announces support for the development of a hydrogen bomb
1961 Ham the Chimp travels into outer space
The chimpanzee survived the US Mercury Program test flight with just a bruised nose.
1966 U.S. planes resume bombing of North Vietnam after a 37-day pause.
1968 In Vietnam, the Tet Offensive begins as Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers attack strategic and civilian locations throughout South Vietnam.
1974 McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc buys San Diego Padres
1976 Ernesto Miranda, famous from the Supreme Court ruling on Miranda vs. Arizona is stabbed to death.
1981 Lech Walesa announces an accord in Poland, giving Saturdays off to laborers.
1990 On this day in history the first Mc Donald’s was opened in Russia, in the city of Moscow. This restaurant had served at least 30,000 people in its first day
1995 Following the devaluation of the Mexican to an all-time low, President Clinton exercised his executive power to authorize the Treasury Department to issue a $20 billion loan through the Exchange Stabilization Fund.
1996 A suicide bombing in Sri Lanka kills 91 people
Separatist Tamil Tigers detonated a truck loaded with explosives in front of the central bank in Colombo.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
