TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MAY 12
1588 King Henry III flees Paris after Henry of Guise triumphantly enters the city.
1641 The chief advisor to Charles I, Thomas Wentworth, is beheaded in the Tower of London
1641 Prince Willem II (14) marries English princess Henriette Mary Stuart (9)
1789 Society of St Tammany is formed by Revolutionary War soldiers – It later becomes an infamous group of NYC political bosses
1792 Toilet that flushes itself at regular intervals is patented
1865 The last land battle of the Civil war occurs at Palmito Ranch, Texas. It is a Confederate victory.
1928 Mussolini ends woman’s rights in Italy
1928 Opium laws enforced
1932 The body of Charles and Anne Lindbergh’s kidnapped baby was found.
1935 Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio by “Bill W.,” a stockbroker, and “Dr. Bob S.,” a heart surgeon.
1941 The world’s first programmable, fully automatic computer is presented The Z3 was designed by German inventor, Konrad Zuse
1942 Nazi U-boat sinks American cargo ship at mouth of Mississippi River
1949 The Soviet blockade that prompted the Berlin airlift was ended.
1965 Israel & West Germany exchange letters beginning diplomatic relations
1982 US Football League forms
1982 A Spanish priest attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II
1990 Nora Dunn & Sinead O’Connor boycott Saturday Night Live to protest Andrew “Dice” Clay’s hosting
1991 A new cancer drug is announced, which can only be found in bark of a rare tree in the Pacific Northwest
1997 Russia & Chechnya sign peace deal after 400 years of conflict
1998 Violent clashes follow the killing of four protesters in Jakarta, Indonesia The riots eventually led to the resignation of President Suharto.
2002 Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro’s 1959 revolution.
2008 Tens of thousands killed and thousands injured when a 7.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan Provinces in western China.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
