TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JAN 9
1349 700 Jews of Basel Switzerland, burned alive in their houses
1431 Judges’ investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government
1570 Tsar Ivan the terrible kills 1000-2000 residents of Novgorod
1776 Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense, a scathing attack on King George III’s reign over the colonies and a call for complete independence.
1799 British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon
1858 Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide
1861 Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union.
1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905 was sparked by troops firing on petitioners to Czar Nicholas in St. Petersburg.
1912 Colonel Theodore Roosevelt announces that he will run for president if asked.
1915 Pancho Villa signs a treaty with the United States, halting border conflicts.
1922 KQV-AM in Pittsburgh PA begins radio transmissions
1942 US Joint Chiefs of Staff created
1951 “Life After Tomorrow”, 1st film to receive an “X” rating, premieres
1976 C. W. McCall CB song “Convoy” hits #1 on the country music charts
1979 Supreme Court strikes down (6-3) PA law requiring doctors performing an abortion to try to preserve lives of potentially viable fetuses
1979 K-Mart pulls Steve Martin’s “Let’s Get Small” for being in “bad taste”
1980 63 beheaded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
1990 Supreme Court strikes down Dallas’ ordinance imposing strict zoning on sexually oriented businesses
1991 U.S. secretary of state Baker and Iraqi foreign minister Aziz met for 61/2 hours in Geneva, but failed to reach any agreement that would forestall war in the Persian Gulf.
1996 A raid by Chechen separatists in the city of Kizlyar turns into a hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians.
2002 The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corp. The company had filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.
2005 The Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the Second Sudanese Civil War is signed by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.
2007 Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, unveils the first iPhone.
2014 Taliban suicide car bomb assassinates senior police officer Chaudhry Aslam and kills three others in Pakistan, Pakistan
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
