TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – SEPT 28
48 BC On landing in Egypt, Pompey is murdered on the orders of Ptolemy.
855 The Emperor Lothar dies in Gaul, and his kingdom is divided between his three sons.
935 Saint Wenceslas is murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I of Bohemia
1066 William, Duke of Normandy, soon to be known as William the Conqueror invades England.
1607 Samuel de Champlain and his colonists return to France from Port Royal Nova Scotia.
1781 9,000 American and 7,000 French troops begin siege of Yorktown
1789 In the U.S., the first Federal Congress passed a resolution that asked President George Washington to recommend to the nation a day of thanksgiving. Several days later Washington issued a proclamation that named Thursday, November 26, 1789 as a “Day of Publick Thanksgivin.” The fixed-date for Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday of November, was established on December 26, 1941.
1829 Walker’s Appeal, racial antislavery pamphlet, published in Boston
1850 The U.S. Navy abolished flogging as a form of punishment.
1864 Union General William Rosecrans blames his defeat at Chickamauga on two of his subordinate generals. They are later exonerated by a court of inquiry.
1887 Yellow River or Huáng Hé floods in China, killing between 900,000 and 2 million people, one of the deadliest natural disasters in history
1904 A woman is placed under arrest for smoking a cigarette on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
1913 Race riots in Harriston, Mississippi, kill 10 people.
1918 In the worlds worst flu epidemic in history (called Spanish Flu because the first major outbreak causing multiple deaths was in Spain), an estimated 30 million people died worldwide.
1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin when he notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory; it remained for Howard Florey and Ernst Chain to isolate the active ingredient, allowing the “miracle drug” to be developed in the 1940s.
1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland; Warsaw surrenders to German troops.
1946 An ever increasing number of returning World War II vets are learning to fly under the legislation provided by the GI Bill of Rights, with thousands across the country gaining private pilot licenses.
1961 Military coup in Damascus ends the Egypt-Syria union known as the United Arab Republic that was formed Feb. 1, 1958.
1963 Roy Lichtenstein’s pop art work Whaam!, depicting in comic-book style a US jet shooting down an enemy fighter, is exhibited for the first time; it will become one of the best known examples of pop art.
1978 Pope John Paul I died of a heart attack, just 33 days after he was elected pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
1981 Joseph Paul Franklin, avowed racist, sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 2 black joggers in Salt Lake City
1981 Up to 38% of all those claiming disability benefits could well be losing those benefits due to the new review of eligibility as part of a federal economy drive, it is believed as many as 500,000 people could lose benefits by the new eligibility rules.
1996 Afghanistan’s former president (1986-92) Mohammad Najibullah tortured and murdered by the Taliban.
2000 The hard line Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon sparked a riot during a tour of the compound around Al-Aqsa mosque. Soon after the tour began protesters gathered in large numbers hurling stones and other missiles and the Israeli police answered with tear gas and rubber-coated bullets.
2000 The U.S. Federal Drug Administration approved the use of RU-486 in the United States. The pill is used to induce an abortion.
2008 SpaceX launches the first private spacecraft, Falcon 1.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
