TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 17
733 Battle at Tours (Poitiers): Charles Martel’s Frankish and Burgundian forces beat those of al-Andalus under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi halting Islamic influence (date disputed)
1244 The Sixth Crusade ends when an Egyptian-Khwarismian force almost annihilates the Frankish army at Gaza.
1346 English forces defeat the Scots under David II during the Battle of Neville’s Cross, Scotland.
1492 Columbus sights isle of San Salvador (Watling Island, Bahamas)
1529 Henry VIII of England strips Thomas Wolsey of his office for failing to secure an annulment of his marriage.
1739 Thomas Coram was granted a Royal Charter from George II so a “hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children”
1855 Bessemer steelmaking process patented
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
1919 Radio Corporation of America (RCA) created
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.
1937 The federal farm and administration is again stepping in to protect poultry farmers by offering to buy fresh and storage eggs ,in the spring of this year following the purchase of $2,000,000 of eggs they managed to help poultry farmers survive.
1943 Burma railway completed, built by Allied POWs and Asian laborers for use of the Japanese army
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
1986 US Senate approved immigration bill prohibiting hiring of illegal aliens & offered amnesty to illegals who entered prior to 1982
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.
1998 A pipeline explosion in Jesse, Nigeria, kills 700 people with the resulting fire burning for nearly a week. It is believed that the explosion was caused by local towns people tapping into the pipeline to steal oil
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.
2003 In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration approved a drug, known as memantine, to help people with Alzheimer’s symptoms.
2011 Occupy Wall Street, an organized protest in New York’s financial district, expands to other cities across the U.S., including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Occupy Wall Street defines itself as a group of activists who stand against corporate greed, social inequality, and the disproportion between the rich and poor.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
