TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 17
1244 The Sixth Crusade ends when an Egyptian-Khwarismian force almost annihilates the Frankish army at Gaza.
1529 Henry VIII of England strips Thomas Wolsey of his office for failing to secure an annulment of his marriage.
1777 British Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne surrenders 5,000 men at Saratoga, N.Y.
1787 Boston blacks, petition legislature for equal school facilities
1814 London Beer Flood Vats of beer at the Meux and Company Brewery burst, flooding city streets with 610,000 liters of beer. The almost 15 feet tall wave of porter killed 8 people, some of whom were gathered for a funeral.
1815 Napoleon Bonaparte arrives at the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he has been banished by the Allies.
1855 Bessemer steelmaking process patented
1863 General Ulysses S. Grant is named overall Union Commander of the West.
1877 Brigadier General Alfred Terry meets with Sitting Bull in Canada to discuss the Indians’ return to the United States.
1907 Guglielmo Marconi’s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland
1931 Mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
1933 Due to rising anti-Semitism and anti-intellectualism in Hitler’s Germany, Albert Einstein immigrates to the United States. He makes his new home in Princeton, N.J.
1943 Burma railway completed, built by Allied POWs and Asian laborers for use of the Japanese army
1956 The nuclear power station Calder Hall is opened in Britain. Calder Hall is the first nuclear station to feed an appreciable amount of power into a civilian network.
1973 OPEC oil ministers use oil as an economic weapon in the Arab-Israeli War, mandating a cut in exports and recommending an embargo against unfriendly states
1978 Pres Carter signs bill restoring Jefferson Davis citizenship
1989 The worst earthquake in 82 years strikes San Francisco bay area minutes before the start of a World Series game there. The earthquake registers 6.9 on the Richter scale–67 are killed and damage is estimated at $10 billion.
1991 News anchor Bree Walker Lampley files an FCC complaint that LA radio KFI-AM personally attacked her by discuss her having a disformed baby
1994 Dmitry Kholodov, a Russian journalist, assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces; his murkier began a series of killings of journalists in Russia.
2001 Rehavam Ze’evi, Israeli tourism minister and founder of the right-wing Moledet party, assassinated by a member of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); he was the first Israeli minister ever assassinated.
2017 Islamic State headquarters Raqqa declared under full control of US-led alliance by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Talal Sello after 4 months of fighting
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
