TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – NOV 19
1620 The Pilgrims sight Cape Cod.
1703 A masked man held prisoner in the Bastille in Paris died. His true identity was the cause of much intrigue, and his story became the basis of literary works by François Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas.
1794 Britain’s King George III signed the Jay Treaty. It resolved the issues left over from the Revolutionary War.
1805 Lewis & Clark expedition reaches the Pacific Ocean, first European Americans to cross the west
1861 Julia Ward Howe writes “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” while visiting Union troops near Washington.
1863 Lincoln delivers the “Gettysburg Address” at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.
1911 New York receives first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy.
1923 The Oklahoma State Senate ousts Governor Walton for anti-Ku Klux Klan measures.
1926 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Politburo in the Soviet Union.
1930 With the growth of the use of vending machines to dispense cigarettes many are concerned that it is encouraging smoking by children still in high school as no controls are in place to stop children buying cigarettes.
1931 The United States and other countries involved with the League of Nations decided to aid China in the fight to force Japan to withdraw from Manchuria.
1943 Janowska camp uprising In November 1943, in anticipation of the advancement of Soviet troops, the Nazis tried to evacuate the camp and used the inmates to remove traces of executions and mass killings in the past. On this day, the inmates staged an uprising and attempted to escape. Most escapees, however, were recaptured and killed.
1954 The first automatic toll collection machine is used at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway.
1973 Senator Thomas J. McIntyre charged the major American oil companies of incompetence and selfishness. McIntyre alleged that they did not prepare for the upcoming energy crisis, and as a result have betrayed the American people.
1976 Patty Hearst is released from prison on $1.5 million bail.
1977 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
1981 U.S. Steel agrees to pay $6.3 million for Marathon Oil.
1985 US President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, meet for the first time.
1993 The U.S. Senate approved a sweeping $22.3 billion anti-crime measure
1998 The impeachment inquiry of U.S. President Clinton began.
2001 U.S. President George W. Bush signed the most comprehensive air security bill in U.S. history.
2002 The U.S. government completed its takeover of security at 424 airports nationwide.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
