TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: July 30
1178 Frederick I (Barbarossa), Holy Roman Emperor, crowned King of Burgundy
1419 First defenestration of Prague: anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, storm Prague town hall and throw the judge, mayor and several city council members out the windows. They die in the fall or killed by crowd outside.
1619 The House of Burgesses convenes for the first time at Jamestown, Va.
1733 Society of Freemasons opens 1st American lodge in Boston
1863 Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, promising to stop harassing the emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah
1864 In an effort to penetrate the Confederate lines around Petersburg, Va. Union troops explode a mine underneath the Confederate trenches but fail to break through. The ensuing action is known as the Battle of the Crater.
1919 Federal troops are called out to put down Chicago race riots.
1942 FDR signs bill creating women’s Navy auxiliary agency (WAVES)
1956 The phrase “In God We Trust” was adopted as the U.S. national motto.
1960 Over 60,000 Buddhists march in protest against the Diem government in South Vietnam.
1965 President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicare Bill into law.
1974 The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Nixon for blocking the Watergate investigation and for abuse of power.
1975 Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa disappears, last seen coming out of a restaurant in Bloomingfield Hills, Michigan.
1980 The Israeli Knesset passes the Jerusalem Law and adds it to Israel’s Basic Law. The law declared Jerusalem the unified capital of Israel.
1980 The Republic of Vanuatu, formerly known as the New Hebrides, gained its independence from France and Britain.
1988 King Hussein dissolves Jordan’s Parliament, surrenders Jordan’s claims to the West Bank to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1990 In Spring Hill, TN, the first Saturn automobile rolled off the assembly line.
1998 A group of Ohio machine-shop workers (who call themselves the Lucky 13) won the $295.7 million Powerball jackpot. It was the largest-ever American lottery.
2002 Pretoria Accord signed. The Pretoria Accord was signed between the between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda as an attempt to end the Second Congo War
2003 The last of the uniquely shaped “old style” Volkswagen Beetles rolls off the assembly line in Mexico
2012 Blackout in India as power grid failure leaves 300 million+ without power.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
