TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: SEPT 20
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
480 Themistocles and his Greek fleet win one of history’s first decisive naval victories over Xerxes’ Persian force off Salamis.
622 Islamic Prophet Muhammed/Abu Bakr arrives in Jathrib (Medina)
1519 Ferdinand Magellan embarks from Spain on a voyage to circumnavigate the world.
1565 Pedro Menendez of Spain wipes out the French at Fort Caroline, in Florida.
1664 Maryland enacts 1st anti-amaglmation law to prevent widespread intermarriage of English women & black men
1784 Packet and Daily, the first daily publication in America, appears on the streets.
1830 The National Negro Convention convenes in Philadelphia with the purpose of abolishing slavery.
1870 Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of modern Italy, seized the Papal States from the French.
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
1934 Bruno Hauptmann arrested for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby.
1952 Scientists confirm that DNA holds hereditary data.
1962 James Meredith, a black student, was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Governor Ross R. Barnett. Meredith was later admitted.
1971 Hurricane Irene becomes the first hurricane known to cross from the Atlantic to Pacific, where it is renamed Hurricane Olivia.
1977 The first of the “boat people” arrived in San Francisco from Southeast Asia under a new U.S. resettlement program.
1982 NFL players begin a 57 day strike
1984 Suicide car bomber attacks US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 22.
1990 Both East and West Germany ratify reunification
1995 The U.S. House of Representatives voted to drop the national speed limit. This allowed the states to decide their own speed limits.
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.”.
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.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
