This Day in History...

[jcribb16]

On December 3


1828    Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States.

1833    Oberlin College in Ohio opened as the first truly coeducational school of higher education in the United States.

1835    The first fire insurance policy was issued by Manufacturer Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Rhode Island.

1947    The Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire opened at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theater.

1964    Police arrested about 800 students at the University of California at Berkeley. The arrest took place one day after the students staged a massive sit-in inside an administration building.

1983    3-foot-high concrete barriers were installed at two White House entrances.

1994    AIDS activist, Elizabeth Glaser, died at the age 47. She and her two children were infected with HIV because of a blood transfusion.

1995    Former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan was arrested for his role in a 1979 coup.

1997    Pierce Brosnan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1997    In Ottawa, Canada, more than 120 countries were represented to sign a treaty prohibiting the use and production of anti-personnel land mines. The United States, China and Russia did not sign the treaty.

1997    South Korea received $55 billion from the International Monetary Fund to bailout its economy.

1998    In Manilla, 28 people were killed in an orphanage that caught fire. Most of the victims were children.

1999    Tori Murden became the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean alone. It took her 81 days to reach the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.

1999    The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded a four-day meeting in Seattle, WA, without setting an agenda for a new round of trade talks. The meeting was met with fierce protests by various groups.

1999    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lost radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander as it entered Mars' atmosphere. The spacecraft was unmanned.

[ricdsm]

Very interesting.  Thanks

[jcribb16]

Very interesting.  Thanks

You're welcome!  It's pretty neat going back in time seeing or being reminded of things that happened. 

[jcribb16]

On December 4


1783    Gen. George Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.

1812    Peter Gaillard patented the power mower.

1875    William Marcy Tweed, the "Boss" of New York City's Tammany Hall political organization, escaped from jail and fled from the U.S.

1942    President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration. The program had been created in order to provide jobs during the Great Depression.

1942    U.S. bombers attacked the Italian mainland for the first time during World War II.

1965    The U.S. launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Comdr. James A. Lovell on board.

1978    Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco's first woman mayor when she was named to replace George Moscone, who had been murdered.

1980    The bodies of four American nuns slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. Five national guardsmen were later convicted of the murders.

1992    President Bush ordered American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia.

1993    The Angolan government and its UNITA guerrilla foes formally adopted terms for a truce. The conflict was killing an estimated 1,000 people per day.

1994    Bosnian Serbs released 53 out of about 400 UN peacekeepers they were holding as insurance against further NATO airstrikes.

2000    O.J. Simpson was involved in an incident with another motorist in Miami, FL Simpson was accused of scratching the other motorists face while pulling off the man's glasses.

2000    O.J. Simpson's home in Florida was raided by the FBI in an ongoing two year international investigation into drug trafficking, satellite service pilfering and money laundering. Some satellite equipment was taken from Simpson's home and no drugs were found.

[jcribb16]

On December 5


1766    James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.

1776    In Williamsburg, VA, at the ***College of William and Mary, the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized.

1848    President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming the fact that gold had been discovered in California.

1932    German physicist, Albert Einstein, was granted a visa making it possible for him to travel to the U.S.

1934    Fighting broke out between Italian and Ethiopian troops on the Somalian border.

1978    The American space probe, Pioneer Venus I, orbited Venus, and began beaming back its first picture of the planet.

1985    The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 1,500 for the first time.

1998    James P. Hoffa became the head of the Teamsters union, 23 years after his father was the head. His father disappeared and was presumed dead.

2001    In Germany, Afghan leaders signed a pact to create a temporary administration for post-Taliban Afghanistan. Two women were included in the cabinet structure. Hamid Karzai and his Cabinet were planned to take over power in Afghanistan on December 22.


***My grandmother graduated from the College of William and Mary!

[ancmetro]

      And "This is History"...Real History. It is reason for which I live every single day to the fullest!

[africanclaudie]

WOW, this has been a most interesting post!! Thank you! I've learned a lot here today.   

[tin8604]

This is a really interesting thread. 

[momoney555]

History is really a very interesting subject.  Wish I had had an interest when I was a student, I thought it was soooo boring then.  When we know the history of things, it allows us to understand why things are the way they are now.

[jcribb16]

On December 6


1492    Columbus landed in Hispaniola (now Haiti) and the Dominican Republic.

1790    The U.S. Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.

1865    The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment abolished slavery in the U.S.

1884    The construction of the Washington Monument was completed by Army engineers. The project took 34 years.

1923    President Calvin Coolidge became the first president to give a presidential address that was broadcast on radio.

1957    America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed when the satellite blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL.

1973    Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the vice president of the United States after vice president Spiro Agnew resigned.

1989    The worst mass shooting in Canadian history occurred when a man gunned down 14 women at the University of Montreal's school of engineering. The man then killed himself.

1990    Iraq announced that it would release all its 2,000 foreign hostages.

1992    In India, thousands of Hindu extremists destroyed a mosque. The following two months of Hindu-Muslim rioting resulted in at least 2,000 people being killed.

1993    Former priest James R. Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Porter had admitted molesting 28 children in the 1960s.

1998    In Venezuela, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez was elected president. He had staged a *bleep* coup attempt against the government six years earlier.

1998    Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour connected the first two building blocks of the international space station in the shuttle cargo bay.

2002    Winona Ryder was sentenced to 36 months of probation and 480 hours of community service stemming from her conviction for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue. She was also ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and restitution.

2002    Officials released the detailed plans for a $4.7 million memorial commemorating Princess Diana. The large oval fountain was planned to be constructed in London's Hyde Park.

[jcribb16]

On December 7


1796    John Adams was elected to be the second president of the United States.

1941    Pearl Harbor, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, was attacked by nearly 200 Japanese warplanes. The attack resulted in the U.S. entering into World War II.

1972    Apollo 17 was launched at Cape Canaveral. It was the last U.S. moon mission.

1974    President Makarios returned to Cyprus after five months in exile.

1987    Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, set foot on American soil for the first time. He had come to the U.S. for a Washington summit with U.S. President Reagan.

1989    East Germany's Communist Party agreed to cooperate with the plan for free elections and a revised constitution.

1993    Six people were killed and 17 were injured when a gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train.

1996    The space shuttle Columbia returned from the longest-ever shuttle flight of 17 days, 15 hours and 54 minutes.

1998    U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.

1999    A U.S. federal grand jury indicted a former convict in the 1995 disappearance of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair.

2002    In Amsterdam, Netherlands, two Van Gogh paintings were stolen from the Van Gohn Museum. The two works were "View of the Sea at Scheveningen" and "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen."

2002    In Mymensingh, Bangladesh, four movies theaters were bombed within 30 minutes of each other. At least 15 people were killed and over 200 were injured.

[jcribb16]

On December 8


1765    Eli Whitney was born in Westboro, MA. Whitney invented the cotton gin and developed the concept of mass-production of interchangeable parts.

1776    George Washington's retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

1863    U.S. President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South.

1886    At a convention of union leaders in Columbus, OH, the American Federation of Labor was founded.

1941    The United States entered World War II as it declared war against Japan. The act came one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Britain and Canada also declared war on Japan.

1953    Los Angeles became the third largest city in the United States.

1992    Americans got to see live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia during Operation Restore Hope.

1994    In Los Angeles, 12 alternate jurors were chosen for the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

1998    The FBI opened its files on Frank Sinatra to the public. The file contained over 1,300 pages.

1998    Nkem Chukwu and Iyke Louis Udobi's first of eight babies was born. The other seven were delivered 12 days later.

1998    The first female ice hockey game in Olympic history was played. Finland beat Sweden 6-0.

1999    In Memphis, TN, a jury found that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin.

1999    Russia and Belarus agreed in principle to form an economic and political confederation.

[PMZ908]

Very interesting.  im having fun reading these.

[jcribb16]

On December 9


1793    "The America Minerva" was published for the first time. It was the first daily newspaper in New York City and was founded by Noah Webster.

1879    Thomas Edison organized the Edison Ore Milling Company.

1907    Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, in the Wilmington, Delaware, post office.

1940    During World War II, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa.

1941    China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.

1960    Sperry Rand Corporation unveiled a new computer, known as "Univac 1107."

1983    NATO foreign ministers called on the Soviet Union to join in a "comprehensive political dialogue" to ease tensions in the world.

1984    Iranian security men seized control of the plane ending a five-day hijacking of a Kuwaiti jetliner, which was parked at the Tehran airport.

1987    In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli patrol attacked the Jabliya refugee camp.

1990    The first American hostages to be released by Iraq began arriving in the U.S.

1994    President Clinton fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders after learning that she had told a conference that masturbation should be discussed in school as a part of human sexuality.

1996    UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali approved a deal allowing Iraq to resume its exports of oil and easing the UN trade embargo imposed on Iraq in 1990.

1999    The U.S. announced that it was expelling a Russian diplomat that had been caught gathering information with an eavesdropping device at the U.S. State Department.

2002    United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was the sixth largest bankruptcy filing.

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On December 10


1520    Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict. The papacy demanded that he recant or face excommunication. Luther refused and was formally expelled from the church in January 1521.

1851    American librarian, Melvil Dewey, was born. He created the "Dewey Decimal Classification" system.

1901    The first Nobel prizes were awarded.

1906    President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1953    Hugh Hefner published the first "Playboy" magazine with an investment of $7,600.

1958    The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. when 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami on a National Airlines Boeing 707.

1964    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest person to receive the award.

1993    The crew of the space shuttle Endeavor deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth's orbit.

1994    Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ, was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber.

1996    South Africa's President Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country's transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy.

1999    After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later plead guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped.

2003    The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contibutions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)

2003    The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts.