TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 6
1521 Ferdinand Magellan discovers Guam.
1820 The Missouri Compromise is enacted by Congress and signed by President James Monroe, providing for the admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibits slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase territory.
1836 Battle of the Alamo: After 13 days of fighting 1,500-3,000 Mexican soldiers overwhelm the Texan defenders, killing 182-257 Texans including William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett
1857 The Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision holds that blacks cannot be citizens.
1860 While campaigning for the presidency, Abraham Lincoln makes a speech defending the right to strike.
1869 The first periodic table of chemical elements is presented Dmitri Mendeleev presented the system to the Russian Chemical Society on that day.
1884 Over 100 suffragists, led by Susan B. Anthony, present President Chester A. Arthur with a demand that he voice support for female suffrage.
1899 Aspirin is patented following Felix Hoffman’s discoveries about the properties of acetylsalicylic acid
1930 Clarence Birdseye started to sell prepackaged frozen food for the first time, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1939 In Spain, Jose Miaja takes over Madrid government after a military coup and vows to seek “peace with honor.”
1947 Winston Churchill opposes the withdrawal of troops from India.
1953 Upon Josef Stalin’s death, Georgi Malenkov is named Soviet premier.
1965 The United States announces that it will send 3,500 troops to Vietnam.
1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his plan to establish a draft lottery.
1967 Stalin’s daughter defects to the West The Soviet dictator’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, caused an international uproar when she approached the United States embassy in New Delhi and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen
1973 President Richard Nixon imposes price controls on oil and gas.
1975 Iran and Iraq announce that they have settled the border dispute.
1981 President Reagan announces plans to cut 37,000 federal jobs.
1981 Walter Cronkite retires as the nation’s most beloved anchorman from CBS Evening News.
1983 The United States Football League began its first season of pro football competition.
1990 The Russian Parliament passed a law that sanctioned the ownership of private property.
2006 Governor Rounds has signed legislation to ban most abortions in South Dakota, and has set a challenge to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion. The bill will make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions unless the procedure was necessary to save the woman’s life, and makes no exception for cases of rape or incest.
2007 Lewis ( Scooter ) Libby former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney is convicted of perjury, lying and obstruction of justice over charges relating to his role in the leaking of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
