TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 5
1496 English King Henry VII grants John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) a commission to explore for new lands
1624 Class-based legislation is passed in the colony of Virginia, exempting the upper class from punishment by whipping.
1770 Boston Massacre (Incident on King Street): British soldiers kill 5 men in a crowd throwing snowballs, stones and sticks at them. African American Crispus Attucks 1st to die; later held up as early black martyr. Massacre galvanizes anti-British feelings.
1841 1st continuous filibuster in US Senate began, lasting until March 11
1842 Over 500 Mexican troops led by Rafael Vasquez invade Texas, briefly occupy San Antonio and then head back to the Rio Grande.
1845 Congress appropriates $30,000 to ship camels to western US
1912 The Italians become the first to use dirigibles for military purposes, using them for reconnaissance flights behind Turkish lines west of Tripoli.
1918 The Soviets move the capital of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.
1923 Montana & Nevada become 1st states to enact old age pension laws
1933 Newly inaugurated President Franklin D. Roosevelt halts the trading of gold and declares a bank holiday.
1943 In desperation due to war losses, fifteen and sixteen year olds are called up for military service in the German army.
1946 In Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill tells a crowd that “an iron curtain has descended on the Continent [of Europe].”
1959 Iran & US sign economic & military treaty
1984 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that cities have the right to display the Nativity scene as part of their Christmas display.
1992 Ethic committee votes to reveal congressmen who bounced checks
1995 Graves of Tsar Nicholas II and family found in St Petersburg
1997 North and South Korean representatives met for the first time in 25 years for peace talks.
2003 In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed by a Hamas suicide bomb in the Haifa bus 37 massacre.
2017 US President Donald Trump in a tweet accusses former President Obama without offering any evidence of wiretapping Trump Towers during the presidential campaign
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
