This Day in History – January 5, 2012

1066 – Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England. 1709 – Sudden extreme cold kills thousands of Europeans 1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides. 1759 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis. 1776 – Assembly of New Hampshire adopts its First state constitution 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold. 1782 – American Revolutionary War: French troops begin a siege of a British garrison on Brimstone Hill in Saint Kitts. 1804 – Ohio legislature passes First laws restricting free blacks movement 1825 – Alexandre Dumas (Three Musketeers author) pare fights his First duel; his pants fall down 1836 – Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the Alamo 1841 – James Clark Ross (UK) is First to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf 1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom. 1850 – California Exchange opens 1854 – The steamer “San Francisco” sinks, killing 300 people. 1861 – 250 Federal troops are sent from New York to Fort Sumter (Charleston, SC) 1875 – President Grant sends federal troops to Vicksburg, MS 1887 – First US school of librarianship opens at Columbia University 1892 – First successful auroral photograph made 1895 – Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island.  He is later declared innocent! 1896 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays. 1903 – San Francisco-Hawaii telegraph cable opens for public use 1905 – National Association of Audubon Society incorporates 1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day’s labor, from $2.40 per 9-hour day 1918 – The Free Committee for a German Workers Peace, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded. 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States. (Wyoming) 1931 – First woman to purchase a baseball team Lucille Thomas purchases Topeka franchise in the Western League 1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay. 1940 – FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time. 1943 – William H Hastie, civilian aide to secretary of war, resigns to protest segregation in armed forces 1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper. 1945 – Pepe LePew debuts in Warner Bros cartoon “Odor-able Kitty” 1949 – President Harry S Truman labels his administration the “Fair Deal” 1956 – Elvis Presley records “Heartbreak Hotel” 1957 – In a speech given to the United States Congress, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine. 1957 – Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson retires rather than be traded to New York Giants 1959 – “Bozo the Clown” live children’s show premieres on TV 1968 – Dr. Benjamin Spock indicted for conspiring to violate draft law 1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program. 1982 – Arkansas judge rules against obligatory teaching of creation 1985 – Discovery moves to launch pad for STS 51-C mission 1987 – Surrogate Baby M case begins in Hackensack NJ 1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the last legal hanging in America). 1993 – Price is Right model Janice Pennington sues CBS for show accident 1993 – Reggie Jackson elected to Hall of Fame 1996 – Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone. 1996 – Miami Dolphin coach Don Shula retires as winningest coach in NFL history 2003 – Police arrest seven suspects in connection with Wood Green ricin plot. 2005 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.]]]]> ]]>