TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JUNE 12
1099 Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.
1787 Law passes providing a senator must be at least 30 years old
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte and his army invade Russia.
1838 Territory of Iowa organized
1839 Abner Doubleday created the game of baseball, according to the legend.
1849 The gas mask is patented by Lewis P. Haslett.
1864 The Battle of Trevilian Station, the bloodiest and largest all-cavalry battle of the American Civil War in Louisa County ends with Confederate tactical victory and Union successful retreat
1897 Carl Elsener patented his penknife. The object later became known as the Swiss army knife.
1898 Emilio Aguinaldo, head of the Philippine nationalists, proclaimed independence from Spain.
1901 Cuba agrees to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.
1917 Secret Service extends protection of president to his family
1921 President Warren Harding urges every young man to attend military training camp.
1931 Gangster Al Capone and 68 of his henchmen are indicted for violating Prohibition laws.
1935 U.S. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words.
1937 Eight of Stalin’s generals are sentenced to death during purges in the Soviet Union.
1963 Black civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
1964 Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa
1967 The Supreme Court rules that states cannot ban interracial marriages.
1967 Race riot in Cincinnati Ohio (300 arrested)
1977 David Berkowitz gets 25 years to life for the Son of Sam murders in New York.
1979 Bryan Allen flew man-powered Gossamer Albatross over English Channel in a human-powered aircraft; flight took 2 hrs, 49 min
1982 75,000 people rallied against nuclear weapons in New York City’s Central Park. Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt were in attendance.
1985 The U.S. House of Representatives approves $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.
1987 While standing in front of the Berlin Wall President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Wall down.
1991 Boris Yeltsin becomes Russia’s first President
1996 In Philadelphia a panel of federal judges blocked a law against indecency on the internet. The panel said that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.
2009 In the U.S., The switch from analog TV trasmission to digital was completed.
2016 Mass Shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida Kills 49 People
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
