TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: NOVEMBER 15
1315 Swiss soldiers ambush and slaughter invading Austrians in the battle of Morgarten.
1492 Christopher Columbus notes 1st recorded reference to tobacco
1626 The Pilgrim Fathers, who have settled in New Plymouth, buy out their London investors.
1763 Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon began surveying the Mason-Dixon line.
1777 The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, the precursor to the U.S. Constitution.
1806 Explorer Zebulon Pike discovers the Colorado Peak that bears his name, despite the fact that he didn’t climb it.
1864 Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his troops began their “March to the Sea” during the U.S. Civil War.
1881 The American Federation of Labor is founded.
1884 European Colonization and trade in Africa is officially regulated at the international Berlin Conference, formalizing European powers “Scramble for Africa”
1937 Eighteen lawsuits are brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority, calling for its dissolution.
1939 Nazis begin mass murder of Warsaw Jews
1939 Social Security Administration approves 1st unemployment check
1940 The first 75,000 men were called to Armed Forces duty under peacetime conscription.
1960 The first submarine with nuclear missiles, USS George Washington, takes to sea from Charleston, South Carolina
1963 Argentina voids all foreign oil contracts.
1969 About 250,000 protesters against the Vietnam War, the largest war protest ever, converged peacefully on Washington, DC.
1986 A government tribunal in Nicaragua convicted American Eugene Hasenfus of charges related to his role in delivering arms to Contra rebels. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and was pardoned a month later.
1988 The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, proclaimed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state at the close of a four-day conference in Algiers.
1990 President Bush signs the Clear Air Act of 1990
1990 Producers confirm that Milli Vanilli didn’t sing on their album
1993 A judge in Mineola, NY, sentenced Joey Buttafuoco to six months in jail for the statutory rape of Amy Fisher. Fisher was serving a prison sentence for shooting and wounding Buttafuoco’s wife, Mary Jo.
1999 Representatives from China and the United States signed a major trade agreement that involved China’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
2000 Three police officers from the Rampart division of the Los Angeles police department were convicted on several counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. One other officer was acquitted. The case was the first major case against the anti-gang unit.
2003 Members of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda drive two trucks packed with explosives and bombs into the Bet Israel and Neve Shalom synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey killing 27 and injuring 300 more.
2012 The Eurozone economies fell back into recession after growth rates shrunk over three months. The news was revealed soon after workers in Europe held protests over austerity measures.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
