TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 23
1490 1st dated edition of Maimonides “Mishneh Torah”, a code of Jewish religious law is published
1775 Patrick Henry proclaims “Give me liberty or give me death” in speech in favour of Virginian troops joining US Revolutionary war
1791 Etta Palm, a Dutch champion of woman’s rights, sets up a group of women’s clubs called the Confederation of the Friends of Truth.
1808 Napoleon’s brother Joseph takes the throne of Spain
1857 Elisha Otis installs the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City.
1867 Congress passes 2nd Reconstruction Act over President Johnson’s veto
1877 The first Easter egg roll was held on the White House lawn.
1880 John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patents the grain crushing mill. This mill allows flour production to increase by 70 percent
1909 British Lt. Ernest Shackleton finds the magnetic South Pole.
1909 Theodore Roosevelt begins an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
1912 Dixie Cup invented
1919 Benito Mussolini establishes the Fascist Party, just 2 years later in 1922 they took over power in Italy and ruled until 1943.
1925 Tennessee becomes 1st state to outlaw teaching theory of evolution
1933 Enabling Act: German Reichstag grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers
1942 More than 600 Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans from the Pacific Coast assembled at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl under military orders to evacuate to a camp in Owens Valley, California.
1956 Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, although it is still within the British Commonwealth.
1965 Moroccan army shoots on demonstrators, about 100 killed
1981 U.S. Supreme Court upholds a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women.
1981 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.
1983 U.S. President Ronald Reagan proposed a space-based missile defense system called the Strategic Defense Initiative or “Star Wars.”
2001 Russia’s Mir space station ended its 15-year orbit of the Earth, splashing down in the South Pacific.
2003 A U.S. Army convoy was ambushed in Iraq with 11 killed and seven captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
2006 The French parliament passes a law that raises the age at which a woman can get married from 15 to 18.
2008 The number of United States military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion has passed the 4,000 mark.
2010 President Barack Obama signed a health-care overhaul bill, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, into law.
2019 Syrian Democratic Forces announce that the last Islamic State territory has been retaken raising flags in Baghuz, Syria and ending the five-year Islamic State “caliphate”
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
