TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: SEPTEMBER 23
1561 Philip II of Spain gives orders to halt colonizing efforts in Florida.
1667 Slaves in Virginia are banned from obtaining their freedom by converting to Christianity.
1806 After a three-year journey to the Pacific Northwest, the Lewis and Clark expedition returned to St. Louis.
1821 Fall of Tripolitsa, Greek forces massacre 30,000 Turks during Greek War of Independence
1846 German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.
1889 Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda
1909 Phantom of the Opera makes its Literary Debut
1912 Mack Sennett’s first “Keystone Cop” film debuts, Cohen Collects a Debt.
1932 The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is Founded. The Middle Eastern country was created by merging the kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd by Ibn Saud, the king of the House of Saud
1945 The first American dies in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon to French forces.
1952 Richard Nixon gives famous ‘Checkers Speech.’ As a candidate for vice president, Richard M. Nixon appears on national television to defend himself against reports that he had taken $18,000 from his supporters for his personal use. In his defense, he denies personal use of any funds, with one exception: the family dog, Checkers, which was given to Nixon as a gift.
1954 East German police arrest 400 citizens as U.S. spies.
1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders US troops to support integration of nine black students at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas
1973 Juan Peron is re-elected president of Argentina after being overthrown in 1955.
1986 Japanese newspapers quoted Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone as saying that minorities lowered the “intelligence level” of America.
1992 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates 3,700-lb. bomb in Belfast, completely destroying the Northern Ireland forensic laboratory, injuring 20 people and damaging 700 houses.
2018 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches “Modicare”, free heathcare for 500 million, world’s biggest healthcare program
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
