Hankering For History

Here are some of the great historical events that happened today, October 10th, in history!

19	Germanicus, the best loved of Roman princes, dies of poisoning. On his deathbed he accuses Piso, the governor of Syria, of poisoning him.
732	At Tours, France, Charles Martel kills Abd el-Rahman and halts the Muslim invasion of Europe.
1733	France declares war on Austria over the question of Polish succession.
1789	In Versailles France, Joseph Guillotin says the most humane way of carrying out a death sentence is decapitation by a single blow of a blade.
1794	Russian General Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov crushes the rebel Polish army at Maciejowice, Poland.
1813	Composer Giuseppe Verdi was born in Le Roncole, Italy.
1845	The U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Md.
1863	The first telegraph line to Denver is completed.
1877	Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer is buried at West Point in New York.
1886	The tuxedo dinner jacket made its American debut at the autumn ball in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
1911	The Panama Canal opens.
1911	Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrew China’s Manchu dynasty.
1933	At Rio de Janeiro, nations of the Western Hemisphere sign a non-aggression and conciliation treaty. President Roosevelt adopts a “good neighbor” policy toward Latin America and announces a policy of nonintervention in Latin American affairs at the December 7th International American Conference at Montevideo, Uruguay.
1935	George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess,” featuring an all-black cast, opened on Broadway.
1941	Soviet troops halt the German advance on Moscow.
1943	Chiang Kai-shek took the oath of office as president of China.
1964	The 18th Summer Olympic Games opened in Tokyo.
1966	U.S. Forces launch Operation Robin, in Hoa Province south of Saigon in South Vietnam, to provide road security between villages.
1966	The Beach Boys released the single “Good Vibrations.”
1970	The Quebec Provincial Minister of Labour, Pierre Laporte, is kidnapped by terrorists.
1970	Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule.
1973	Spiro Agnew resigns the vice presidency amid accusations of income tax evasion. President Richard Nixon names Gerald Ford as the new vice president. Agnew is later convicted and sentenced to three years probation and fined $10,000.
1979	Hockey Hall-of-Famer Wayne Gretzky made his NHL debut with the Edmonton Oilers.
1985	U.S. fighter jets forced an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, where the gunmen were taken into custody.
2002	The House voted 296-133 to give President George W. Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraq. (The Senate followed suit the next day.)
2005	Angela Merkel became Germany’s first female chancellor.
2008	Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled that gay couples have the right to marry.

Today’s historical facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, HistoryOrb.com, and On This Day blogs from my blogroll.