TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: July 6
1348 Papal bull of Pope Clement VI issued during the Black Death stating Jews not to blame and urging their protection
1415 Jan Hus, a Czech who spoke out against Church corruption, is burned at the stake as a heretic.
1535 Sir Thomas More is beheaded in England for refusing to swear allegiance to King Henry VIII as head of the Church.
1699 Captain William Kidd, the pirate, was captured in Boston, MA, and deported back to England.
1770 The entire Ottoman fleet is destroyed by the Russians at the Battle of Chesma.
1785 US Congress unanimously resolves the name of US currency to the “dollar” and adopts decimal coinage
1788 10,000 troops are called out in Paris as unrest mounts in the poorer districts over poverty and lack of food.
1853 William Wells Brown publishes “Clotel,” 1st novel by black American
1885 Louis Pasteur gives the first successful anti-rabies inoculation.
1892 Striking steelworkers in Homestead, Pa fire on scabs, killing 7
1917 During World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence captured the port of Aqaba from the Turks.
1923 The Central Executive Committee accepts the Treaty of Union, signed in Moscow in December 1922, and the Russian Empire becomes the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
1944 Lieutenant Jackie Robinson of the U.S. Army, while riding a civilian bus from Camp Hoo, Texas, refuses to give up his seat to a white man.
1944 A fire caused by inept fire-eaters in the main tent of the Ringling Brothers Circus in Hartford, Conn., killed over 160 people.
1945 Operation Overcast begins in Europe–moving Austrian and German scientists and their equipment to the United States
1945 Pres Truman signs executive order establishing Medal of Freedom
1957 Harry S Truman Library established in Independence, Missouri
1964 Malawi gains its independence from Britain
1970 California passes 1st “no fault” divorce law
1971 White House Plumbers unit formed to plug news leaks
1981 The Dupont Company announced an agreement to purchase Conoco, Inc. (Continental Oil Co.) for $7 billion. At the time it was the largest merger in corporate history.
1982 President Ronald Reagan agrees to contribute U.S. troops to the peacekeeping unit in Beirut.
1983 Supreme Court rules retirement plans can’t pay women less
1988 Several popular beaches were closed in New York City due to medical waste and other debris began washing up on the seashores.
1997 The Mars rover Sojourner rolled onto the Martian surface.
2006 Nathula Pass, a trading post between India and China opens for business
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
