TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MAY 6
1527 German troops begin sacking Rome. Libraries are destroyed, the Pope is captured and thousands are killed.
1682 King Louis XIV moves his court to Versailles, France.
1851 The mechanical refrigerator was patented by Dr. John Gorrie.
1856 U.S. Army troops from Fort Tejon and Fort Miller prepare to ride out to protect Keyesville, California, from Yokut Indian attack.
1861 Arkansas becomes the ninth state to secede from the Union.
1877 Chief Crazy Horse surrenders to U.S. troops in Nebraska. Crazy Horse brought General George Custer to his end.
1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act over President Chester A. Arthur’s veto.
1889 Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) in Paris opens with the recently completed Eiffel Tower serving as the entrance arch
1935 The Works Progress Administration (WPA), opens allowing thousands of unemployed Americans decent-paying jobs on a wide range of public works projects including parks, playgrounds, major infrastructure projects, schools and post-offices. During it’s existence the WPA was responsible for employing 8.5 million Americans during its eight-years.
1937 The dirigible Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
1941 Joseph Stalin becomes Premier of the Soviet Union
1945 Axis Sally makes her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1960 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
1979 Over 65,000 anti-nuclear power demonstrators marched on the capitol in protest against more nuclear power plants, the consumer advocate Ralph Nader describes nuclear power as “our countries technological Vietnam.” The group was formed after the accident at The Three Mile Island nuclear plant.
1981 A jury of international architects and sculptors unanimously selected Maya Ying Lin’s entry for the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1994 The Channel Tunnel linking England to France is officially opened.
1994 Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against U.S. President Clinton. The case alleged that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.
1997 Bayer and the other three manufacturers of blood products agree to pay $660 million to settle cases on behalf of more than 6,000 hemophiliacs infected in United States in the early 1980s, paying an estimated $100,000 to each infected hemophiliac.
2009 The United States state of Maine became the fifth state to allow gay marriage. The bill allowing gay marriage was passed in the state’s legislature and then signed by the governor, John Baldacci.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
