TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JULY 8
1099 Christian Crusaders march around Jerusalem as Muslims watch from within the city.
1663 The British crown grants Rhode Island a charter guaranteeing freedom of worship.
1693 NYC authorizes 1st police uniforms in American colonies
1776 The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was given in Philadelphia, Pa.
1777 Vermont abolishes slavery
1800 Dr Benjamin Waterhouse gives 1st cowpox vaccination in the US to his son to prevent smallpox
1865 C.E. Barnes patented the machine gun.
1870 Congress authorizes registration of trademarks
1876 White terrorists attack Black Republicans in Hamburg SC, killing 5
1889 Wall Street Journal published for the first time
1918 Ernest Hemingway is wounded in Italy while working as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross.
1950 General Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of the United Nations forces in Korea.
1954 The US backed Castillo Armas takes over as leader of Guatemala from the communist leader President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman , and was considered a successful covert operation against international communism by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
1960 The US Pilot of a U-2 Spy Plane Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage in a Soviet Union court. In August he was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison but two years later he was exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
1986 Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.
1988 Stevie Wonder announces he will run for mayor of Detroit in 1992
1994 Kim Jong-il takes office as the Supreme Leader of North Korea
1997 The Mayo Clinic and the U.S. government warned that the diet-drug combination known as “fen-phen” could cause serious heart and lung damage.
2011 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched for the last time It was also the last flight of NASA’s 30-year long and successful Space Shuttle program. https://www.space.com/12096-nasa-final-space-shuttle-launch-date-atlantis-sts135.html
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
