TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 5
1477 Swiss troops defeat the forces under Charles the Bold of Burgundy at the Battle of Nancy.
1781 British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, Virginia
1815 Federalists from all over New England, angered over the War of 1812, draw up the Hartford Convention, demanding several important changes in the U.S. Constitution.
1861 The merchant vessel Star of the West sets sail from New York to Fort Sumter, in response to rebel attack, carrying supplies and 250 troops.
1895 Alfred Dreyfus is sentenced to life imprisonment The French artillery officer was accused of treason.
1896 It was reported by The Austrian newspaper that Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered the type of radiation that became known as X-rays.
1904 American Marines arrive in Seoul, Korea, to guard the U.S. legation there.
1914 Henry Ford astounds the world as he announces that he will pay a minimum wage of $5 a day and will share with employees $10 million in the previous year’s profits.
1920 GOP women demand equal representation at the Republican National Convention in June.
1923 The U.S. Senate debates the benefits of Peyote for the American Indian.
1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is sworn in as the first woman governor in the United States.
1933 Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins
1940 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) got its very first demonstration of FM radio
1947 Great Britain nationalizes its coal mines.
1952 Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington to confer with President Harry S. Truman.
1969 President Richard M. Nixon appoints Henry Cabot Lodge as negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks.
1971 President Richard M. Nixon names Robert Dole as chairman of the Republican National Party.
1972 President Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle.
1982 A Federal judge voids a state law requiring balanced classroom treatment of evolution and creationism.
1987 U.S. President Ronald Reagan underwent prostate surgery.
1993 The state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd. It was America’s first legal hanging since 1965. Dodd was an admitted child sex killer.
1996 Yahya Ayyash, a member of the Hamas in Israel, is killed by a booby-trapped cellular phone.
2000 INS Commissioner Doris Meissner ruled that 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez must be returned to Cuba.
2005 Eris, largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System is discovered in images taken Oct. 21, 2003, at Palomar Observatory.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
