TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 8
1856 Arrow, a ship flying the British flag, is boarded by Chinese who arrest the crew, thus beginning the Second (Opium) Chinese War.
1871 The Great Chicago Fire begins in southwest Chicago, possibly in a barn owned by Patrick and Katherine O’Leary. Fanned by strong southwesterly winds, the flames raged for more than 24 hours, eventually leveling three and a half square miles and wiping out one-third of the city. Approximately 250 people were killed in the fire; 98,500 people were left homeless; 17,450 buildings were destroyed.
1897 Journalist Charles Henry Dow, founder of the Wall Street Journal, begins charting trends of stocks and bonds.
1900 Maximilian Harden is sentenced to six months in prison for publishing an article critical of the German Kaiser.
1917 Leon Trotsky named chairman of the Petrograd Soviet as Bolsheviks gain control
1918 US Army corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132 in the Argonne Forest; promoted to sergeant and awarded US Medal of Honor and French Croix de Guerre.
1919 The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives pass the Volstead Prohibition Enforcement Bill.
1921 First live radio broadcast of a football game; Harold W. Arlin was the announcer when KDKA of Pittsburgh broadcast live from Forbes Field as the University of Pittsburgh beat West Virginia University 21–13.
1933 As the nations farmers continue to struggle the National Farmers Union has asked President Roosevelt to intervene and place a moratorium on farm mortgage foreclosures and that farm prices be pegged at the cost of production.
1934 Bruno Hauptmannn was indicted for the murder of Charles Lindbergh’s baby.
1945 President Harry Truman announced the U.S. would share the secret of the atomic bomb only with Great Britain and Canada.
1948 World’s first internal pacemaker implanted. A 43-year-old man called Arne Larsson was the recipient of the pacemaker which worked only for a few hours
1966 The U.S. Government declared that LSD was dangerous and an illegal substance.
1967 Guerrilla Che Guevara captured in Bolivia.
1969 The “Days of Rage” begin in Chicago; the Weathermen faction of the Students for a Democratic Society initiate 3 days of violent antiwar protests.
1973 In the Yom Kippur War an Israeli armored brigade makes an unsuccessful attack on Egyptian positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal.
1974 Franklin National Bank once the United States 20th largest bank, is declared insolvent due to mismanagement and fraud by the Treasury Department
1991 A slave burial site was found by construction workers in lower Manhattan. The “Negro Burial Ground” had been closed in 1790. Over a dozen skeletons were found.
1993 The U.S. government issued a report absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in its final assault in Waco, TX, on the Branch Davidian compound. The fire that ended the siege killed as many as 85 people.
1998 Taliban forces attacked Iranian border posts. Iran said that three border posts were destroyed before the Taliban forces were forced to retreat. The Taliban of Afghanistan denied the event occurred.
2001 US President George W. Bush establishes the Office of Homeland Security.
2002 A federal judge approved U.S. President George W. Bush’s request to reopen West Coast ports, to end a caustic 10-day labor lockout. The lockout was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day
2003 Vietnam and the United States reached a tentative agreement that would allow the first commercial flights between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
