This Day in History – December 12, 2011

0627 – Battle of Nineveh: Byzantine emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II’s Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh. 1098 – 1st Crusaders capture & plunder Mara Syria 1787 – Pennsylvania becomes 2nd state to ratify US constitution 1792 – In Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven (21) receives 1st lesson in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn 1800 – Washington DC established as capital of US 1862 – USS Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River near Vicksburg, Mississippi, becoming the first armored ship to be sunk by an electrically detonated mine. 1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman, the first one being Hiram Revels. 1878 – Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing “St Louis Dispatch” 1913 – “Mona Lisa”, recovered after being stolen from the Louvre Museum in 1911 1917 – Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys Omaha NE 1941 – Adolf Hitler announces extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery 1946 – Tide detergent introduced 1946 – UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D Rockefeller Jr 1957 – Jerry Lee Lewis weds his cousin Myra Gale Brown, 13, while still married to his 1st wife, Jane Mitcham 1957 – US announces manufacture of Borazon (harder than diamond) 1959 – UN Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space is established 1962 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1963 – Frank Sinatra Jr returned after being kidnapped 1964 – Shooting starts for “Star Trek” pilot, “The Cage” (Menagerie) 1965 – Beatles last Great Britain concert (Capitol Theatre in Cardiff Wales) 1966 – US Supreme Courts votes 4-3 allowing Braves to move to Atlanta 1968 – Arthur Ashe becomes 1st black to be ranked #1 in tennis 1968 – Rolling Stones film TV show “Rock ‘n Roll Circus” – it never airs 1968 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1975 – Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to trying to kill President Gerald Ford 1976 – QB Joe Namath’s last game as a New York Jet 1980 – US’s copyright law amended to include computer programs 1982 – $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in New York, NY 1995 – Amendment to make it illegal to physically desecrate the flag turned down by senate 63-36 (need 2/3 vote) 1997 – Carlos the Jackal, “professional revolutionary” goes on trial in Paris 1997 – TWA 800 hearings end in Baltimore MD 2000 – The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore]]]]> ]]>