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.
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.
1921 Police in Sunbury PA issue an edict requiring Women to wear skirts at least 4 inches below the knee
1947 XB-45, 1st US 4-engine jet bomber, makes 1st test flight, Muroc CA
1959 Farthest radio signal heard (Pioneer IV, 400,000 miles)
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.
1978 Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia
1980 Islamic militants in Tehran say that they will turn over the American hostages to the Revolutionary Council.
1981 President Reagan announces plans to cut 37,000 federal jobs.
1981 Walter Cronkite signs-off as anchorman of “The CBS Evening News”
1983 US Football League begins its 1st season
1990 SR-71 sets a transcontinental record, flying 2,404 miles in 1:08:17
1991 Following Iraq’s capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, President Bush told Congress that “aggression is defeated; The war is over”
1998 Matt Beck, an angry lottery accountant kills 4 at Connecticut state lottery
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
