TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 4
1642 King Charles I with 400 soldiers attacks the English parliament
1757 Robert Francois Damiens makes an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.
1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government
1863 Union General Henry Halleck, by direction of President Abraham Lincoln, orders General Ulysses Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area.
1863 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY
1893 US President Harrison grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
1896 Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
1902 France offers to sell their Nicaraguan Canal rights to the United States.
1904 The U.S. Supreme Court decides in the Gonzales v. Williams case that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and can enter the United States freely, yet stops short of awarding citizenship.
1920 The Negro National League, the first black baseball league, is organized by Rube Foster.
1923 Lenin’s “Political Testament” calls for removal of Stalin
1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt claims in his State of the Union message that the federal government will provide jobs for 3.5 million Americans on welfare.
1951 UN forces abandon Seoul, Korea, to the Chinese Communist Army.
1965 President Johnson outlined his “Great Society” in his State of the Union address.
1969 France begins arms embargo against Israel
1974 President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1975 The Khmer Rouge launches its newest assault in its five-year war in Phnom Penh. The war in Cambodia would go on until the spring of 1975.
1976 The Ulster Volunteer Force kills six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day 10 Protestant civilians are murdered in retaliation.
1980 President Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
1983 US Football League holds its 1st player draft
1990 Over 300 people die and more than 700 are injured in Pakistan’s deadliest train accident, when an overloaded passenger train collides with an empty freight train.
1995 Newt Gingrich (R) becomes speaker of the House
1999 Jesse “The Body” Ventura, a former professional wrestler, is sworn in as populist governor of Minnesota.
2004 NASA Mars rover Spirit successfully lands on Mars.
2007 Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) becomes the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
