TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JUNE 5
1099 Members of the First Crusade witness an eclipse of the moon and interpret it as a sign they will recapture Jerusalem.
1637 American settlers in New England massacre a Pequot Indian village.
1794 The U.S. Congress prohibits citizens from serving in any foreign armed forces.
1851 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in The National Era.
1872 The Republican National Convention, the first major political party convention to include blacks, commences.
1873 Sultan Bargash bin Said under British pressure closes the infamous slave market of Zanzibar in modern day Tanzania
1884 Civil War hero Gen. William T. Sherman refused the Republican nomination for president with the words, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”
1912 US marines invade Cuba (3nd time)
1917 10 million US men begin registering for draft in WW I
1922 The Supreme Court decides that Union organizations are liable for damage or injury caused during strikes. The decision was regarded as one of the biggest blows to labor unions.
1933 The United States went off the gold standard.
1947 Secretary of State George C. Marshall outlines “The Marshall Plan,” a program intended to assist European nations, including former enemies, to rebuild their economies.
1963 State of siege proclaimed in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini arrested
1967 The Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan begins.
1968 Sirhan Sirhan shoots Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy after Kennedy’s victory in the pivotal California primary election.
1981 The first cases of AIDS are reported
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described five cases of a rare form of pneumonia, a deadly immune deficiency disease which later became known as AIDS
1984 Indira Gandhi orders an attack on Sikh’s holiest site, the Golden Temple in Amritsar
1986 A federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus 10 years.
1998 C-Span reported that Bob Hope had died. The report was false and had begun with an inaccurate obituary on the Associated Press website.
2002 Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home.
2013 The British newspaper the Guardian published the first of many stories based on leaks by Edward Snowden about the top-secret surveillance activities of the National Security Agency.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
