TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – SEPT 20
480 BC Themistocles and his Greek fleet win one of history’s first decisive naval victories over Xerxes’ Persian force off Salamis.
451 Roman General Flavius Aetius defeats Attila the Hun at The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (Chalons-sur-Marne), halting Hun invasion of Roman Gaul
622 Islamic Prophet Muhammed/Abu Bakr arrives in Jathrib (Medina)
1378 The election of Robert of Geneva as anti-pope by discontented cardinals creates a great schism in the Catholic church.
1519 Ferdinand Magellan embarks from Spain on a voyage to circumnavigate the world.
1561 Queen Elizabeth of England signs a treaty at Hampton Court with French Huguenot leader Louis de Bourbon, the Prince of Conde. The English will occupy Le Havre in return for aiding Bourbon against the Catholics of France.
1806 Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark pass the French village of La Charette, the first white settlement they have seen in more than two years.
1830 The National Negro Convention convenes in Philadelphia with the purpose of abolishing slavery.
1881 Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, succeeding James A. Garfield, who had been assassinated.
1933 Pittsburgh Steelers (as Pirates) play 1st NFL game, lose 23-2
1942 As part of British war effort to conserve fuel every household is asked to bathe in no more than 5 inches of water, the royal family is leading the way with black lines painted on all baths in the royal household at a depth of 5 inches with posters all over the palace reminding all of the need to conserve energy.
1952 Scientists confirm that DNA holds hereditary data.
1962 Black student James Meredith is barred from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by the segregationist Governor Ross R. Barnett.
1967 Israeli Tank gunners sank three Egyptian patrol boats carrying armed soldiers travelling down the blocked Suez Canal heightening tension in the area
1971 Hurricane Irene becomes the first hurricane known to cross from the Atlantic to Pacific, where it is renamed Hurricane Olivia.
1973 In a pro tennis bout dubbed “The Battle of the Sexes,” Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome in Texas.
1977 The first of the “boat people” arrived in San Francisco from Southeast Asia under a new U.S. resettlement program.
1984 Suicide car bomber attacks US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 22.
1985 Australia introduces a capital gains tax.
2000 British MI6 Secret intelligence Service building in London attacked by unidentified group using RPG-22 anti-tank missile.
2000 Independent Counsel Robert Ray announced the end of the Whitewater investigation, saying there was insufficient evidence to charge President Clinton and his wife, Hillary.
2001 US Pres. George W. Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress, declares a “war on terror.”.
2002 Following the suicide attack earlier in the week in Tel Aviv, the Israeli army have surrounded the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah with tanks.
2008 A truck loaded with explosives detonates by Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 45 and injuring 226.
2011 US military ends its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and allows gay men and women to serve openly.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
