TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: NOVEMBER 8
0392 Theodosius of Rome passes legislation prohibiting all pagan worship in the empire.
1576 The 17 provinces of the Netherlands form a federation to maintain peace.
1701 William Penn presents Charter of Privileges, guaranteed religious freedom for the colony in Pennsylvania
1789 Bourbon Whiskey, 1st distilled from corn (by Elijah Craig, Bourbon KY)
1805 The “Corps of Discovery” reached the Pacific Ocean. The expedition was led by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. The journey had begun on May 14, 1804, with the goal of exploring the Louisiana Purchase territory.
1889 Montana becomes the 41st state of the Union.
1895 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen produces and detects electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Röntgen rays
1900 Theodore Dresier’s first novel Sister Carrie is published by Doubleday, but is recalled from stores shortly due to public sentiment.
1910 The Democrats prevail in congressional elections for the first time since 1894.
1923 Adolf Hitler attempted, and failed, to seize control of the German government in the Beer Hall Putsch
1933 The Civil Works Administration was created by executive order by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The organization was designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed people in the U.S.
1942 The United States and Great Britain invade Axis-occupied North Africa.
1944 25,000 Hungarian Jews are loaned to the Nazis for forced labor
1979 ABC broadcasts “Iran Crisis: American Held Hostage” with Frank Reynolds (the forerunner to “Nightline”)
1979 U.S. Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Mac Mathias (R-MD) introduced legislation to provide a site on the National Mall for the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1980 Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California announced that they had discovered a 15th moon orbiting the planet Saturn.
1985 A letter signed by four American hostages in Lebanon was delivered to The Associated Press in Beirut. The letter, contained pleas from Terry Anderson, Rev. Lawrence Jenco, David Jacobsen and Thomas Sutherland to President Reagan to negotiate a release.
1987 A dozen people are killed and over 60 wounded when the IRA detonates a bomb during a Remembrance Day ceremony in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, honoring those who had died in wars involving British forces.
1994 After a 40-year Democrat domination, the Republican Party gained control of the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as a Senate majority. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-republican-revolution
2000 Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report that absolved the government of wrongdoing in the 1993 seige of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.
2002 Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council under Resolution 1441 unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face “serious consequences”
2006 U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigns and President George W. Bush announced that he will nominate Robert Gates, former head of the CIA, as a replacement for Rumsfeld.
2007 US military forces in Iraq have released five hundred detainees at a ceremony with the Iraqi government at Camp Victory outside Baghdad.
2011 The Nord Stream gas pipeline was officially opened and began to flow after a ceremony in Germany. The pipeline connects Siberian gas to the European Union through pipelines that sit under the Baltic Sea.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
