TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 31
1596 Catholic League disbanded
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.
1627 Spanish government goes bankrupt
1747 The first clinic specializing in the treatment of venereal diseases was opened at London Dock Hospital.
1835 A man with two pistols misfires at President Andrew Jackson at the White House.
1865 Congress passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (passes 121-24)
1865 Robert E. Lee was appointed commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces.
1876 The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.
1900 The final report of the USA’s Philippine Commission is released, favouring territorial government for the islands with home rule in local affairs, but with US assumptions of ultimate responsibility for the government.
1911 The German Reichstag exempts royal families from tax obligations.
1916 President Woodrow Wilson refuses the compromise on Lusitania reparations
1928 Scotch tape 1st marketed by 3-M Company
1934 FDR devalues the dollar in relation to gold at $35 per ounce
1940 The first social security check was issued to Ida Fuller for $22.54.
1944 Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until June
1950 President Truman reveals that he ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to develop the hydrogen bomb
1961 Ham the chimpanzee is 1st primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury/Redstone 2
1985 The final Jeep rolled off the assembly line at the AMC plant in Toledo, OH.
1990 1st McDonalds in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow
1995 President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
1996 In Columbo, Sri Lanka, a truck was rammed into the gates of the Central Bank. The truck filled with explosives killed at least 86 and injured 1,400.
2001 A Scottish court in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that occurred in 1988.
2006 US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retires and is replaced by Samuel Alito
2007 Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
