TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 28
0312 Constantine the Great defeats Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius at the Mulvian Bridge.
0969 After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.
1636 Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is founded in Cambridge, Mass.
1768 Germans and Acadians join French Creoles in their armed revolt against the Spanish governor of New Orleans.
1790 New York gives up claims to Vermont for $30,000
1793 Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin, a machine which cleans the tight-clinging seeds from short-staple cotton easily and effectively–a job which was previously done by hand.
1886 “From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome” … The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.
1904 The St. Louis police try a new investigation method: fingerprints.
1914 George Eastman announces the invention of the color photographic process.
1919 Over President Wilson’s veto, Congress passes the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew J. Volstead. It provides enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition Amendment.
1948 Flag of Israel is adopted
1962 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders Soviet missiles removed from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1965 Gateway Arch (630′ (190m) high) completed in St Louis, Missouri
1982 The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party wins election, giving Spain its first Socialist government since the death of right-wing President Francisco Franco.
1985 John A. Walker Jr. and his son, Michael Lance Walker, pled guilty to charges of spying for the Soviet Union.
2005 Libby “Scooter” Lewis, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, resigns after being indicted for “outing” CIA agent Valerie Plame.
2012 A truck carrying explosives drove into a Catholic church in Kaduna, Nigeria killing seven and injuring more. While no group claimed the attack it was believed that it could have been by the Boko Haram Islamic militant group that has targeted the city before.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
