TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – Nov 16
534 Second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus published
1776 British troops captured Fort Washington during the American Revolution.
1821 Trader William Becknell reaches Santa Fe, N.M., on the route that will become known as the Santa Fe Trail.
1864 Union General William T. Sherman departs Atlanta and begins his “March to the Sea.”
1902 A cartoon appears in the Washington Star, prompting the Teddy Bear Craze, after President Teddy Roosevelt refused to kill a captive bear tied up for him to shoot during a hunting trip to Mississippi.
1907 The Indian and Oklahoma territories are unified to make Oklahoma, which becomes the 46th state.
1915 Coca-Cola had its prototype for a countoured bottle patented. The bottle made its commercial debut the next year.
1933 The United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations.
1940 Warsaw ghetto sealed. The largest Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland, the Warsaw ghetto, was created in October 1940 by a German decree. According to the decree, all Jews in the city had to move to the ghetto, which was closed off by a 10 feet wall and had soldiers and police guarding it from the outside 24 hours a day.
1945 Founding of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
1945 The United States brings 88 German scientists who had been working on the V-1 and V-2 rockets for Germany to work on the American Space / Defense program . Video shows a US built V2 rocket built by German Scientists working for America.
1948 President Harry S Truman rejects four-power talks on Berlin until the blockade is removed.
1948 Operation Magic Carpet – 1st plane from Yemen carrying Jews to Israel
1953 The United States joins in the condemnation of Israel for its raid on Jordan.
1960 After the integration of two all-white schools, 2,000 whites riot in the streets of New Orleans.
1965 The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The mission was to land on the surface of the planet Venus. The mission was successful when Venera 3 crash-landed on Venus on 1st March 1966 becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.
1966 Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard was acquitted in his second trial of charges he had murdered his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954.
1973 President Nixon signed the bill authorizing the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
1981 A vaccine for hepatitis B was approved. The vaccine had been developed at Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research.
1982 Space Shuttle Columbia completes its 1st operational flight
1985 Colonel Oliver North was put in charge of the shipment of HAWK anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.
1989 Salvadoran Army death squad kills six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University.
1998 In Burlington, Wisconsin, five high school students, aged 15 to 16, were arrested in an alleged plot to kill a carefully selected group of teachers and students.
1998 It was announced that Monica Lewinsky had signed a deal for the North American rights to a book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton.
1998 The U.S. Supreme Court said that union members could file discrimination lawsuits against employers even when labor contracts require arbitration.
2000 Bill Clinton became the first serving U.S. president to visit Communist Vietnam.
2001 Congress passed the aviation security bill requiring that all airport screeners will be federal employees, and would undergo criminal background checks and would have to be U.S. citizens.
2002 The United States government decided to begin closely monitoring all Iraqis present within the U.S.A. The government felt this was necessary in case terrorist-sympathetic individuals originating from Iraq were still hiding within the borders of the U.S. Security against terrorists has been a major priority since the terrorist bombings that took place in New York a little over a year from this date.
2004 President George W. Bush nominated Condoleezza Rice to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state.
2008 The Iraqi cabinet has approved a plan for the US deployment in their country. 150,000 troops will remain there until 2011, but US troops will be withdrawn from the streets of Iraqi towns in 2009. America’s National Security Council have welcomed the cabinet’s vote, saying that it was “an important and positive step” towards stability and security.
2012 Hostess Brands has announced that they were going to shut down and sell their assets, causing the loss of 18,500 jobs.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
