TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MAY 2
1670 The Hudson Bay Company is founded.
1776 France and Spain agree to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.
1798 The black General Toussaint Louverture forces British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.
1808 The citizens of Madrid rise up against Napoleon.
1865 President Andrew Johnson offers a $100,000 reward for the capture of the Confederate President
1885 Good Housekeeping magazine went on sale for the first time.
1887 Hannibal W. Goodwin applied for a patent on celluloid photographic film. This is the film from which movies are shown.
1890 The Territory of Oklahoma is created.
1919 The first U.S. air passenger service starts.
1926 U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to put down a revolt and to protect U.S. interests. They did not depart until 1933.
1930 President Hoover in a speech said that the stock market crash of last year was just a temporary setback and would soon pass and that the economy would soon bounce back
1941 Hostilities break out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s pro-German faction.
1941 The Federal Communications Commission agreed to let regular scheduling of TV broadcasts by commercial TV stations begin on July 1, 1941. This was the start of network television.
1960 Caryl Chessman was executed. He was a convicted sex offender and had become a best selling author while on death row.
1970 Student anti-war protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard takes control of campus.
1971 Anti War demonstrators in the Capitol were foiled by mass arrests from flying squads of police using tear gas and batons to break up large crowds of protesters and arrested over 6000 protesters who were trying to stop traffic flowing in the capitol, in the afternoon a large number of National Guards and Army and Marines to help with controlling the demonstrations.
1982 Falklands War: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano sunk by British submarine Conqueror, killing more than 350 men
1989 The Iron Curtain begins to crumble as Hungary dismantles its border fence
1997 Tony Blair becomes British Prime Minister, ending 18 years of Conservative Party reign
2008 Fifteen people were killed when a bomb was set off at a mosque in Saada City, Yemen. Another fifty-five people were hurt in the blast.
2013 Rhode Island became the tenth state in the United States to legalized gay marriage after Governor Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
