TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 14
1066 William of Normandy defeats King Harold in the Battle of Hastings
1322 Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence
1586 Mary Queen of Scots goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth
1651 Laws are passed in Massachusetts forbidding the poor to adopt excessive styles of dress.
1834 1st black to obtain a US patent, Henry Blair, for a corn planter
1884 Transparent paper-strip photographic film is patented by George Eastman.
1888 In England, Louis Le Prince filmed the experimental film “Roundhay Garden Scene.” It is the oldest surviving motion picture.
1912 Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is shot and wounded in assassination attempt in Milwaukee. He was saved by the papers in his breast pocket and, though wounded, insisted on finishing his speech.
1933 The Geneva disarmament conference breaks up as Germany proclaims withdrawal from the disarmament initiative, as well as from the League of Nations, effective October 23. This begins German policy of independent action in foreign affairs.
1944 German Field Marshal Rommel, suspected of complicity in the July 20th plot against Hitler, is visited at home by two of Hitler’s staff and given the choice of public trial or suicide by poison. He chooses suicide and it is announced that he died of wounds.
1947 Test pilot Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier aboard a Bell X-1 rocket plane.
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis begins; USAF U-2 reconnaissance pilot photographs Cubans installing Soviet-made missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
1964 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent resistance to racial prejudice in America.
1968 US Defense Department announces 24,000 soldiers and Marines will be sent back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours of duty.
1975 Pres Ford escapes injury when his limousine is struck broadside
1979 The first Gay Rights March on Washington, D.C. demands “an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people” and draws 200,000 people.
1982 US President Reagan proclaims a war on drugs
1983 Prime Minister of Grenada Maurice Bishop overthrown and later executed by a military coup.
1991 Scientists from the International Atmospheric Authority in Australia have said that the Earth’s protective Ozone layer has shrunk 4% in the the last ten years compared with 2% in the preceding 10 years.
1991 Kurdish leaders have admitted today to shooting and killing 60 Iraq prisoners of war at point blank range in retaliation to Iraq soldiers killing Kurdish prisoners of war earlier in the week.
1998 Eric Robert Rudolph charged with the 1996 bombing during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia; It was one of several bombing incidents Rudolph carried out to protest legalized abortion in the US.
2002 Britain stripped power from the Catholic and Protestant politicians of Northern Ireland. Britain resumed sole responsibility for running Northern Ireland.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
