TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 7
1571 In the last great clash of galleys, the Ottoman navy is defeated at Lepanto, Greece, by a Christian naval coalition under the overall command of Spain’s Don Juan de Austria.
1763 George III of Great Britain issues Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlement
1765 Delegates from nine of the American colonies meet in New York to discuss the Stamp Act Crisis and colonial response to it.
1849 Edgar Allan Poe, aged 40, dies a tragic death in Baltimore. Never able to overcome his drinking habits, he was found in a delirious condition outside a saloon that was used as a voting place.
1870 French Minister of the Interior Leon Gambetta escapes besieged Paris by balloon, reaching the French provisional government in Tours.
1921 State officials in Texas are considering a ban on parades by the Ku Klux Klan because of their incitement of violence against any non-white Americans including Jews and African-Americans.
1928 Two students from the Latvian University have died after a Duel of Honor with pistols in a nearby forest, the duel was sanctioned by the court of honor of the students corporation.
1944 Prisoner uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.
1957 A fire in the Windscale plutonium production reactor (later called Sellafield) north of Liverpool, England, spreads radioactive iodine and polonium through the countryside and into the Irish Sea. Livestock in the immediate area were destroyed, along with 500,000 gallons of milk. At least 30, and possibly as many as 1,000, cancer deaths were subsequently linked to the accident.
1959 Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 took pictures of the far side of the Moon. The images sent by the probe covered about 70% of the far side of Earth’s natural satellite and they were instrumental in helping astronomers make the first atlas of the dark side of the Moon.
1968 The Motion Picture Association of America adopted its film-rating system, ranging from “G” for general audiences to “X” for adults only.
1985 Four Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) hijackers seize the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demand the release of 50 Palestinians held by Israel.
1996 Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.
1998 Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten, robbed, and left tied to a fence. He died five days later.
2001 US invasion of Afghanistan in reaction to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 begins; it will become the longest war in US history.
2003 California voters remove Democratic governor Gray Davis from office in the state’s first successful recall of a sitting governor (only the second successful recall of a governor in US history); a Republican candidate, bodybuilder/actor Arnold Schwarzenegger wins the election to replace Davis 17 days later.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
