TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 27
312 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross
1553 Michael Servetus, who discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood, is burned for heresy in Switzerland.
1659 William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson became the first Quakers to be executed in America.
1787 The first of the Federalist Papers, which called for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published.
1795 Pinckney’s Treaty [Treaty of San Lorenzo] signed by Spain and US, establishing the southern boundary of the US and giving Americans right to navigate the Mississippi River
1809 President James Madison orders the annexation of the western part of West Florida. Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority.
1838 Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs signed Missouri Executive Order 44 (The Extermination Order) The executive order ruled that ‘all Mormons were to be treated as enemies and that they must be exterminated or driven out of the state for public peace.’ The order forced members of the Church of Latter Day Saints to migrate from Missouri to Illinois.
1858 Roland Macy opened Macy’s Department Store in New York City. It was Macy’s eighth business adventure, the other seven failed.
1873 Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applies for a patent on barbed wire. Glidden eventually received five patents and is generally considered the inventor of barbed wire.
1904 The New York subway officially opens running from the Brooklyn Bridge uptown to Broadway at 145th Street.
1917 20,000 women march in a suffrage parade in New York. As the largest state and the first on the East Coast to do so, New York has an important effect on the movement to grant all women the vote in all elections.
1921 A senate committee is advising that the United States changes to the metric system of weights and measures as it is now used by 37 countries against the Imperial weights and measure system used in just 12 countries .
1954 Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the US Air Force.
1962 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offers to remove Soviet missile bases in Cuba if the U.S. removes its missile bases in Turkey.
1964 The political career of future US president Ronald Reagan is launched when he delivers a speech on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
1970 Controlled Substance Act becomes law which class Cannabis, marijuana, heroin and LSD among many others as schedule I drugs
1988 US President Ronald Reagan decides to tear down a new US Embassy in Moscow because Soviet listening devices were built into the structure.
1992 United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is murdered by a shipmate and is a victim of a hate crime due to his being gay
1997 Stock markets crash around the world over fears of a global economic meltdown.
1999 8 people, including the country’s prime minister, Vazgen Sargsyan and Speaker Karen Demirchyan, were killed when armed gunmen shot at the members of the Armenian National Assembly.
2008 US Alaskan Senator Stevens found guilty of lying about gifts worth $250,000 he received from the oil company Veco.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
