Today in history, Dec 14th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 14th!

Today in history 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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/14/today-in-history-dec-14th/

1799	George Washington dies on his Mount Vernon estate.
1819	Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.
1861	Prince Albert, husband of Britain’s Queen Victoria, died in London.
1863	Confederate General James Longstreet attacks Union troops at Bean’s Station, Tenn.
1863	President Abraham Lincoln grants amnesty to the widow of Confederate General B.H. Helm after she swears allegiance to the Union. Mrs. Helm is the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.
1900	Max Planck presents the quantum theory at the Physics Society in Berlin.
1906	The first U1 submarine is brought into service in Germany. Italy’s MAS torpedo boats.
1908	The first truly representative Turkish Parliament opens.
1909	The Labor Conference in Pittsburgh ends with a “declaration of war” on U.S. Steel.
1911	Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole.
1920	The League of Nations creates a credit system to aid Europe.
1939	The League of Nations drops the Soviet Union from its membership. Joseph Avenol sold out the League of Nations.
1941	German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel orders the construction of defensive positions along the European coastline. Desperate Hours on Omaha Beach
1946	The United Nations adopt a disarmament resolution prohibiting the A-Bomb.
1949	Bulgarian ex-Premier Traicho Kostov is sentenced to die for treason in Sofia.
1960	A U.S. Boeing B-52 bomber sets a 10,000-mile non-stop record without refueling.
1979	The album “London Calling” by the Clash was released.
1980	NATO warns the Soviets to stay out of the internal affairs of Poland, saying that intervention would effectively destroy the détente between the East and West.
1981	Israel annexed the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967.
1985	Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
1993	A Colorado judge struck down as unconstitutional the state’s voter-approved ban on gay rights laws.
2000	The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.
2006	South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon was sworn in as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations.
2008	An Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad; Bush was not hit.

Today in history, Dec 12th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 12th!

Today in history 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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/12/today-in-history-dec-12th/

1745	John Jay, statesman and the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, was born in New York City.
1753	George Washington, the adjutant of Virginia, delivers an ultimatum to the French forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain’s claim to the entire Ohio River valley.
1770	The British soldiers responsible for the “Boston Massacre” are acquitted on murder charges.
1787	Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1862	The Union loses its first ship to a torpedo, USS Cairo, in the Yazoo River.
1863	Orders are given in Richmond, Virginia, that no more supplies from the Union should be received by Federal prisoners.
1870	Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first black congressman.
1897	“The Katzenjammer Kids,” the pioneering comic strip by Rudolph Dirks, debuted in the New York Journal.
1901	Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio transmission in St. John’s Newfoundland.
1914	The New York Stock Exchange re-opened for the first time since July 30. The market had shut down when World War I broke out.
1915	Singer Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, N.J.
1917	Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town outside Omaha, Neb.
1925	The first motel, the Motel Inn, opened, in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
1927	Communists forces seize Canton, China.
1930	The Spanish Civil War begins as rebels take a border town.
1930	The last Allied troops withdraw from the Saar region in Germany.
1931	Under pressure from the Communists in Canton, Chiang Kai-shek resigns as president of the Nanking Government but remains the head of the Nationalist government that holds nominal rule over most of China.
1943	The German Army launches Operation Winter Tempest, the relief of the Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad.
1947	The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor.
1956	The United Nations calls for immediate Soviet withdrawal from Hungary.
1964	Three Buddhist leaders begin a hunger strike to protest the government in Saigon.
1967	The United States ends the airlift of 6,500 men in Vietnam.
1975	Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to trying to kill President Gerald R. Ford.
1995	Willie Brown beats incumbent mayor Frank Jordon to become the first African-American mayor of San Francisco.
1998	The House Judiciary Committee approved a fourth article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton and submitted the case to the full House.
2003	Keiko, the killer whale made famous by the “Free Willy” movies, died in a Norwegian fjord.
2009	Houston became the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor, with voters handing a solid victory to City Controller Annise Parker.

Today in history, Dec 11th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 11th!

Today in history 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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/11/today-in-history-dec-11th/

1816	Indiana became the 19th state.
1861	A raging fire sweeps the business district of Charleston, South Carolina, adding to an already depressed economic state.
1862	Union General Ambrose Burnside occupies Fredericksburg and prepares to attack the Confederates under Robert E. Lee.
1863	Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline enter St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and begin bombardment of both Confederate quarters and saltworks.
1882	A production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe at Boston’s Bijou Theatre becomes the first performance in a theatre lit by incandescent electric lights.
1927	Nearly 400 world leaders sign a letter to President Calvin Coolidge asking the United States to join the World Court.
1930	As the economic crisis grows, the Bank of the United States closes its doors.
1933	Reports say Paraguay has captured 11,000 Bolivians in the war over Chaco.
1936	Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.
1941	The United States declares war on Italy and Germany.
1943	U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull demands that Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria withdraw from the war.
1945	A Boeing B-29 Superfortress shatters all records by crossing the United States in five hours and 27 minutes.
1946	UNICEF (the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) was established.
1951	Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement from baseball.
1955	Israel raids Syrian positions on the Sea of Galilee.
1964	Frank Sinatra, Jr., is returned home to his parents after being kidnapped for the ransom amount of $240,000.
1967	The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
1972	Challenger, the lunar lander for Apollo 17, touches down on the moon’s surface, the last time that men visit the moon.
1978	Massive demonstrations take place in Tehran against the shah.
1981	The U.N. Security Council chose Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru to be its fifth secretary-general.
1994	Russian troops rolled into breakaway republic of Chechnya in a failed bid to restore Moscow’s control over the region.
1997	More than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to take steps to control greenhouse gas emissions.
1998	The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton.
2000	Shortstop Alex Rodriguez agreed to a $252 million 10-year deal with the Texas Rangers, the most lucrative sports contract in history at the time.
2002	A congressional report found that intelligence agencies before Sept. 11, 2001, were poorly organized, poorly equipped and slow to pursue clues that might have prevented that day’s terrorist attacks.
2008	Bernard Madoff was arrested, accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. (He later pleaded guilty and is serving 150 years in prison.)
2009	Tiger Woods announced on his website that he was taking an indefinite leave from golf to try to save his marriage to Elin Nordegren. (The couple divorced in August 2010.)

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is unique–in my opinion–for two reasons: 1) The Guinness Book of World Records regards the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the “document most translated.” 2) This may be one of the few times when nations from all over the world voted and agreed on one particular subject.

With the ending of World War II, there was a worldwide outcry to prevent further crimes against humanity. The United Nations was formed, and it replaced the League of Nations. One of their first goals to carry out was to create an “International Bill of Human Rights.” John Peters Humphrey, a Canadian legal and human rights advocate, was the primary drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Once the draft was complete, over fifty of the United Nations members participated in the final draft. Hernán Santa Cruz of Chile, member of the drafting sub-Committee, wrote:

I perceived clearly that I was participating in a truly significant historic event in which a consensus had been reached as to the supreme value of the human person, a value that did not originate in the decision of a worldly power, but rather in the fact of existing—which gave rise to the inalienable right to live free from want and oppression and to fully develop one’s personality.  In the Great Hall…there was an atmosphere of genuine solidarity and brotherhood among men and women from all latitudes, the like of which I have not seen again in any international setting.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proposed to the General Assembly on December 10, 1948, it was successfully adopted, with eight nations abstaining from the vote but none dissenting. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was spearheaded by Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of former president Franklin D. Roosevelt. This should come to no surprise, as this document is founded on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms. In Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, he expressed the need for the following four freedoms:

1. Freedom of speech and expression
2. Freedom of worship
3. Freedom from want
4. Freedom from fear

Below is the actual text from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

• Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

• No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

• No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

• Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

• All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

• Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

• Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

• (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
• (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
• (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

• (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
• (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

• (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
• (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
• (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

• (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
• (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

• (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
• (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
• (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

• Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

• (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

• Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
• (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

• (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
• (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
• (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

• (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
• (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

• Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

• (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
• (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
• (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

• Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/10/universal-declaration-of-human-rights/

Today in history, Dec 10th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 10th!

Today in history 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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/10/today-in-history-dec-10th/

1817	Mississippi was admitted to the union as the 20th state.
1861	Kentucky is admitted to the Confederate States of America.
1862	The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill creating the state of West Virginia.
1869	Governor John Campbell signs the bill that grants women in Wyoming Territory the right to vote as well as hold public office.
1898	The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ceding Spanish possessions, including the Philippines, to the United States.
1917	The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Red Cross.
1918	U.S. troops are called to guard Berlin as a coup is feared.
1919	Captain Ross Smith becomes the first person to fly 11,500 miles from England to Australia.
1936	Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American-born divorcee.
1941	Japanese troops invade the Philippine island of Luzon.
1941	The siege of Tobruk in North Africa is raised.
1943	Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that postpones a draft of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers.
1943	Allied forces bomb Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
1948	The U.N. General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
1949	150,000 French troops mass at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
1950	Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first African-American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1965	The Grateful Dead played their first concert, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.
1967	Singer Otis Redding died at age 26 in the crash of his private plane in Wisconsin.
1977	On UN Human Rights Day, the Soviet Union places 20 prominent dissidents under house arrest, cutting off telephones and threatening to break up a planned silent demonstration in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. Soviet newspapers decry human rights violations elsewhere in the world.
1980	Rep. John W. Jenrette, D-S.C., resigned to avoid being expelled from the House following his conviction on charges related to the FBI’s Abscam investigation.
1984	South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize.
1994	Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize.
1998	Six astronauts opened the doors to the new international space station.
1998	The Palestinian leadership scrapped constitutional clauses rejecting Israel’s right to exist.
2001	“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first in a three-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy, premiered in London.
2002	Former President Jimmy Carter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomacy in the Middle East in the 1970s.
2007	Former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis.
2007	NFL star Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.
2007	Cristina Fernandez was sworn in as Argentina’s first elected female president.
2009	President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a humble acknowledgment of his scant accomplishments and a robust defense of the U.S. at war.
2009	James Cameron’s 3-D film epic “Avatar” had its world premiere in London.

Today in history, Dec 7th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 7th!

Today in history 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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/07/today-in-history-dec-7th/

43 BC	Cicero, considered one of the greatest sons of Rome, is assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius.
983	Otto III takes the throne after his father’s death in Italy. A power struggle between magnates ensues.
1787	Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1796	Electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States.
1808	James Madison is elected president in succession of Thomas Jefferson.
1836	Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.
1842	The New York Philharmonic gave its first concert.
1861	USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halts the British schoonerEugenia Smith and captures J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent.
1862	Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
1863	Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the “Innocents,” robs and then kills Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.
1917	The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress.
1918	Spartacists call for a German revolution.
1931	A report indicates that Nazis would ensure “Nordic dominance” by sterilizing certain races.
1941	Japanese planes raid Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack.
1942	The U.S. Navy launches USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built.
1946	The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, orders all striking miners back to work.
1949	The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organize a non-Communist international trade union.
1963	Videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast during the Army-Navy football game on CBS.
1970	Poland and West Germany sign a pact renouncing the use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland’s western frontier, and acknowledging the transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory.
1972	The crew of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, lifts off at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1981	The Reagan Administration predicts a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion.
1982	A U.S. prisoner was executed by injection for the first time, in Huntsville, Texas.
1985	Retired Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart died at age 70.
1988	An earthquake in Armenia kills an estimated 100,000 people.
1993	A gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six people and wounding 17. (Colin Ferguson was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.)
1995	A 746-pound probe from the Galileo spacecraft hurtled into Jupiter’s atmosphere, sending back data to the mothership before it was destroyed.
2001	Taliban forces abandoned their last bastion in Afghanistan, fleeing the southern city of Kandahar.
2002	Iraq denied it had weapons of mass destruction in a declaration to the United Nations.
2004	Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president.
2007	Baseball home run king Barry Bonds pleaded not guilty in San Francisco to charges he’d lied to federal investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs.

Today in history, Dec 4th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 4th!

Today in history 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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/04/today-in-history-dec-4th/

771	With the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne becomes sole ruler of the Frankish Empire.
1783	Gen. George Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
1816	James Monroe of Virginia was elected the fifth president of the United States.
1861	The U.S. Senate, voting 36 to 0, expels Senator John C. Brekinridge of Kentucky because of his joining the Confederate Army.
1861	Queen Victoria of Britain forbids the export of gunpowder, firearms and all materials for their production.
1862	Winchester, Va., falls into Union hands, resulting in the capture of 145 Southern soldiers.
1863	Seven solid days of bombardment ends at Charleston, S.C. The Union fires some 1,307 rounds.
1872	The U.S. brigantine Marie Celeste is found adrift and deserted with its cargo intact, in the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Portugal.
1900	The French National Assembly, successor to the States-General, rejects Nationalist General Mercier’s proposal to plan an invasion of England.
1914	The first Seaplane Unit formed by the German Navy officially comes into existence and begins operations from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
1918	France cancels trade treaties in order to compete in the postwar economic battles.
1918	President Woodrow Wilson set sail for France to attend the Versailles peace conference.
1941	Operation Taifun (Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on October 2, 1941, as a prelude to taking Moscow, is halted because of freezing temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft.
1942	U.S. bombers struck the Italian mainland for the first time in World War II.
1945	The Senate approved U.S. participation in the United Nations.
1950	The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.
1952	The Grumman XS2F-1 makes its first flight.
1959	Peking pardons Pu Yi, ex-emperor of China and of the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo.
1978	Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco’s first woman mayor when she was named to replace George Moscone, who had been assassinated.
1980	The rock group Led Zeppelin announced it was disbanding after the death in September of drummer John Bonham.
1980	The bodies of four American nuns slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. (Five national guardsmen were later convicted of murder.)
1981	President Ronald Reagan broadens the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the United States.
1985	Robert McFarland resigns as National Security Advisor. Admiral John Poindexter is named to succeed.
1991	The last American hostages held in Lebanon are released.
1992	President George H.W. Bush ordered American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia, threatening military action against warlords and gangs who were blocking food for starving millions.
1995	The first NATO troops landed in the Balkans to begin setting up a peace mission.
2000	A Florida state judge refused to overturn Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush’s certified victory in Florida, and the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a ruling that had allowed manual recounts.
2001	The United States froze the financial assets of organizations allegedly linked to the terrorist group Hamas.
2006	Lacking the Senate votes to keep his job, embattled U.N. Ambassador John Bolton offered his resignation to President George W. Bush, who accepted it.

A Hankering for History Christmas Miracle!

It came a little early, but Hankering for History was the recipient of a “Christmas miracle.” I just want to say a quick “thank you” to everyone who regularly stops by the site. I am hesitant to even say anything for fear of jinxing it and finding out that this month was a fluke, but here goes. In the month of November, Hankering for History received over 10,000 page-views.

This exceeds all that I had thought possible. When I started, I would have been thrilled with 10,000 hits in one year, let alone one month. It just proves that there are still those interested in history. (Luckily for me!) So keep coming back and share! Like they say, “Caring is sharing!” (Below is a humorous video about sharing…)

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/03/hankering-for-history-christmas-miracle/

Today in history, Dec 3rd!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 3rd!

1468	Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano succeed their father, Piero de Medici, as rulers of Florence, Italy.
1762	France cedes to Spain all lands west of the Mississippi–the territory known as Upper Louisiana.
1800	The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Hohenlinden, near Munich.
1818	Illinois was admitted to the union as the 21st state.
1828	Andrew Jackson was elected the seventh president of the United States.
1847	Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney establish the North Star, and anti-slavery paper.
1862	Confederate raiders attack a Federal forage train on the Hardin Pike near Nashville, Tenn.
1863	Confederate General James Longstreet moves his army east and north toward Greeneville. This withdrawal marks the end of the Fall Campaign in Tennessee.
1864	Major General William Tecumseh Sherman meets with slight resistance from Confederate troops at Thomas Station on his march to the sea.
1906	The U.S. Supreme Court orders Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders extradited to Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.
1915	The United States expels German attaches on spy charges.
1916	French commander Joseph Joffre is dismissed after his failure at the Somme. General Robert Nivelle is the new French commander in chief.
1918	The Allied Conference ends in London where they decide that Germany must pay for the war.
1925	The League of Nations orders Greece to pay an indemnity for the October invasion of Bulgaria.
1926	British reports claim that German soldiers are being trained in the Soviet Union.
1947	“A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.
1948	The House Un-American Activities Committee announced that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.
1950	The Chinese close in on Pyongyang, Korea, and UN forces withdraw southward.
1964	Police arrested some 800 students at the University of California at Berkeley who had stormed the administration buildingthe previous day and staged a massive sit-in.
1965	The National Council of Churches asks the United States to halt the massive bombings in North Vietnam.
1965	The album “Rubber Soul” by the Beatles was released.
1967	Surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant.
1967	The 20th Century Limited, the famed luxury train, completed its final run from New York City to Chicago.
1977	The State Department proposes the admission of 10,000 more Vietnamese refugees to the United States.
1979	Eleven are dead and eight injured in a mad rush to see a rock band (The Who) at a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1984	Toxic gas leaks from a Union Carbide plant and results in the deaths of thousands in Bhopal, India.
1989	Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announce the official end to the Cold War at a meeting in Malta.
1989	East German Communist leader Egon Krenz, the ruling Politburo and the party’s Central Committee resigned.
1997	South Korea struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund for a $55 billion bailout of its foundering economy.
1999	Scientists failed to make contact with the Mars Polar Lander after it began its fiery descent toward the red planet; the spacecraft was presumed destroyed.
2009	Comcast and GE announced joint venture plans, with Comcast owning a 51 percent controlling stake in NBC Universal.

Today in history 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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/03/today-in-history-dec-3rd/

Today in history, Dec 1st!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 1st!

Today in history 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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/01/today-in-history-dec-1st/

1581	Edmund Champion and other Jesuit martyrs are hanged at Tyburn, England, for sedition, after being tortured.
1824	The House of Representatives convened to decide the presidential election because no candidate had received a majority in the Electoral College.
1861	The U.S. gunboat Penguin seizes the Confederate blockade runner Albion carrying supplies worth almost $100,000.
1862	President Abraham Lincoln sent his Second Annual Message to Congress, which was read aloud by the Secretary of the Senate. In it, Lincoln called for the abolition of slavery, saying that “in giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free,”
1863	Belle Boyd, a Confederate spy, is released from prison in Washington.
1881	Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp are exonerated in court for their action in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
1900	Kaiser Wilhelm II refuses to meet with Boer leader Paul Kruger in Berlin.
1905	Twenty officers and 230 guards are arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the revolt at the Winter Palace.
1908	The Italian Parliament debates the future of the Triple Alliance and asks for compensation for Austria’s action in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
1909	President William Howard Taft severs official relations with Nicaragua’s Zelaya government and declares support for the revolutionaries.
1913	The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh.
1916	King Constantine of Greece refuses to surrender to the Allies.
1918	An American army of occupation enters Germany.
1919	Lady Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.
1925	After a seven-year occupation, 7,000 British troops evacuate Cologne, Germany.
1933	Nazi storm troops become an official organ of the Reich.
1934	Sergei M. Kirov, the head of the Communist Party in Leningrad, was assassinated as Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a massive purge that would claim tens of millions of lives.
1941	The first Civil Air Patrol is organized in the United States.
1942	National gasoline rationing goes into effect in the United States.
1969	The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.
1986	Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North pleads the 5th Amendment before a Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra arms sale.
1991	Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.
1992	“Long Island Lolita” Amy Fisher was sentenced to prison for shooting and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco, the wife of her lover, Joey Buttafuoco. (Fisher served seven years.)
2000	Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 71 years of ruling-party domination.
2004	Tom Brokaw signed off for the last time as anchor of the “NBC Nightly News.”httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMxUzdep6p0&noredirect=1
2009	President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops into the war in Afghanistan but promised to begin withdrawal in 18 months.

Today in history, Nov 30th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on November 30th!

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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/11/30/today-in-history-nov-30th-2/

1782	The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
1804	Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase went on trial, accused of political bias. (He was acquitted by the Senate.)
1835	Author Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Mo.
1838	Mexico declares war on France.
1861	The British Parliament sends to Queen Victoria an ultimatum for the United States, demanding the release of two Confederate diplomats who were seized on the British ship Trent.
1864	The Union wins the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
1900	The French government denounces British actions in South Africa, declaring sympathy for the Boers.
1900	Oscar Wilde dies in a Paris hotel room after saying of the room’s wallpaper: “One of us had to go.”
1906	President Theodore Roosevelt publicly denounces segregation of Japanese schoolchildren in San Francisco.
1919	Women cast votes for the first time in French legislative elections.
1929	Producer and “American Bandstand” host Dick Clark was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y.
1935	Non-belief in Nazism is proclaimed grounds for divorce in Germany.
1945	Russian forces take Danzig in Poland and invade Austria.
1948	The Soviet Union complete the division of Berlin, installing the government in the Soviet sector.
1950	President Truman declares that the United States will use the A-bomb to get peace in Korea.
1956	The United States offers emergency oil to Europe to counter the Arab ban.
1961	The Soviet Union vetoes a UN seat for Kuwait, pleasing Iraq.
1962	U Thant of Burma was elected secretary-general of the United Nations, succeeding the late Dag Hammarskjold.
1966	The former British colony of Barbados became independent.
1974	India and Pakistan decide to end a 10-year trade ban.
1974	Pioneer II sends photos back to NASA as it nears Jupiter.
1979	The album “The Wall” by Pink Floyd was released.
1979	Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope in 1,000 years to attend an Orthodox mass.
1982	Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time, was released by Epic Records.
1993	President Bill Clinton signed into law the Brady bill, which requires a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.
1993	Authorities in California arrested Richard Allen Davis, who confessed to abducting and killing 12 year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma.
1999	The opening of a 135-nation trade gathering in Seattle was disrupted by at least 40,000 demonstrators, some of whom clashed with police.
2004	Ken Jennings’ streak of 74 wins on the TV game show “Jeopardy!” came to an end. Ha ha, Good old Ken Jennings!
2010	Pentagon leaders called for scrapping the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban after releasing a survey about the prospect of openly gay troops.

Today in history, Nov 29th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on November 29th!

1863	The Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ends with a Confederate withdrawal.
1864	Colonel John M. Chivington’s 3rd Colorado Volunteers massacre Black Kettles’ camp of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians at Sand Creek, Colo.
1890	Navy won the first Army-Navy football game 24-0 at West Point, N.Y.
1903	An Inquiry into the U.S. Postal Service demonstrates the government has lost millions in fraud.
1923	An international commission headed by American banker Charles Dawes is set up to investigate the German economy.
1924	Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels.
1929	Commander Richard Byrd makes the first flight over the South Pole.
1931	The Spanish government seizes large estates for land redistribution.
1939	Soviet planes bomb an airfield at Helsinki, Finland.
1947	The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews.
1948	The Metropolitan Opera is televised for the first time as the season opens with “Othello.”
1948	The popular children’s television show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, premieres.
1949	The United States announces it will conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
1952	President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower kept his campaign promise to visit Korea to assess the conflict.
1961	NASA launches a chimpanzee named Enos into Earth orbit.
1962	Algeria bans the Communist Party.
1963	President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1989	In response to a growing pro-democracy movement in Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run parliament ended the party’s 40-year monopoly on power.
1990	The U.N. Security Council voted 12-2 to authorize military action if Iraq did not withdraw its troops from Kuwait and release all foreign hostages by Jan. 15, 1991.
1996	A U.N. court sentenced Bosnian Serb army soldier Drazen Erdemovic to 10 years in prison for his role in the massacre of 1,200 Muslims – the first international war crimes sentence since World War II.
1999	Protestant and Catholic adversaries formed a Northern Ireland government.
2001	Rock musician George Harrison of the Beatles died at age 58 following a battle with cancer.

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.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/11/29/today-in-history-nov-29th/