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.
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
1874 William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, of Tammany Hall (NYC) convicted of defrauding the city of $6M, sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment
1911 New York receives first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy
1928 “Time” magazine presented its cover in color for the first time. The subject was Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
1942 Operation Uranus: Soviet offensive begins during Battle of Stalingrad, 1 million Soviet soldiers encircle the German Sixth Army
1959 Ford cancels the Edsel
1968 Army coup seizes power in Mali
1981 U.S. Steel agreed to pay $6.3 million for Marathon Oil.
1985 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time in Geneva.
1993 The U.S. Senate approved a sweeping $22.3 billion anti-crime measure.
1998 The impeachment inquiry of U.S. President Clinton began.
2002 The oil tanker Prestige broke into two pieces and sank off northwest Spain. The tanker lost about 2 million gallons of fuel oil when it ruptured November 13th and was towed about 150 miles out to sea.
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 **
