Tag: History Daily
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Lech Walesa, Founder of the Solidarity Trade Union, is Sworn in as Poland’s 1st Popularly Elected President. December 22, 1990.
Image: Lech Walesa in 1996. (Public Domain) On this day in history, December 22, 1990, Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity trade union, is sworn in as Poland’s 1st popularly elected president. Walesa was a labor activist who helped form and lead (1980-1990) communist Poland’s first independent trade union, Solidarity. He received the Nobel Prize…
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John Kehoe, the Last of the “Molly Maguires,” is Executed in Pennsylvania. December 18, 1878.
Image: John “Black Jack” Kehoe (Public Domain) On this day in history, December 18, 1878, John Kehoe, the last of the “Molly Maguires,” is executed in Pennsylvania. The Molly Maguires, an Irish secret society that had purportedly been accountable for some vigilante justice occurrences in eastern Pennsylvania’s coalfields, upheld their acts as efforts to protect…
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Legendary Big Band Leader Captain Glenn Miller’s Plane Would Go Missing Over the English Channel En Route to France for a Concert for American Troops That Had Assisted in the Liberation of Paris. December 15, 1944.
Glenn Miller On this day in history, December 15, 1944, trombonist and legendary big band leader Captain Glenn Miller, the biggest star of the American pop-music scene in the years directly before World War II and a man who set aside his dazzling career right at its pinnacle in 1942 to serve America as leader…
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The Mysterious Kidnap-for-Hire Case of Four-Year-Old Charley Ross. December 14, 1874.
Image: A likeness of kidnapped Charles Brewster Ross. (Public Domain) On this day in history, December 14, 1874, a failed burglary attempt further confuses one of the first kidnap-for-ransom occurrences. As he was about to go to bed, rich New Yorker Holmes Van Brunt heard thieves breaking into his brother’s house next door. After gathering…
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Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia Resisted Several Attacks by General Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Potomac and Defeated the Federals at Fredericksburg, Virginia. December 13, 1862.
Image: Gallant Charge of Humphrey’s Division at the Battle of Fredericksburg. (Public Domain). On this day in history, December 13, 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia resisted several attacks by General Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Potomac and defeated the Federals at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The rout of the Union Army was…
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During the Nanking Massacre in the Sino-Japanese War, the U.S. Gunboat Panay Was Attacked and Destroyed by Japanese Warplanes in Chinese Waters. December 12, 1937.
Image: The U.S. Navy river gunboat USS Panay (PR-5) sinking after Japanese air attack on Nanking, China, on 12 December 1937, in what became known as the Panay incident. (Public Domain) On this day in history, December 12, 1937, during the Nanking Massacre in the Sino-Japanese War, the U.S. gunboat Panay was attacked and destroyed…
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Edward VIII Decides to Abdicate After the British Government, the Public, and the Church of England Denounced His Choice to Marry the American Divorcee, Wallis Warfield Simpson. December 11, 1936.
Image: Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson on their Mediterranean holiday, 1936. (Public Domain). On this day in history, December 11, 1936, after ruling as king for less than one year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to renounce the throne willingly. He decided to abdicate after the British government, the public, and the Church…
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Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” is Published, Which Memorializes the Bravery of 600 British Soldiers at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimea Just Six Weeks Previous. December 9, 1854.
Image: The Charge of the Light Brigade by Richard Caton Woodville Jr., oil on canvas, 1894. (Public Domain) On this day in history, December 9, 1854, The Examiner publishes Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” which memorializes the bravery of 600 British soldiers charging a heavily fortified location during the Battle of…
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British musician John Lennon, Previously of the Beatles, Was Shot and Mortally Wounded in the Archway of the Dakota, His Residence in New York City. December 8, 1980.
Image: John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1980. On this day in history, December 8, 1980, British musician John Lennon, previously of the Beatles, was shot and mortally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. The assassin was Mark David Chapman, an American Beatles fan who was envious and…
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A Group of 360 Japanese Warplanes Struck the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in a Brutal Attack. The Surprise Assault Caused a Significant Blow Against the U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pulled the United States Irreversibly Into World War II. December 7, 1941.
Image: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A small boat rescues a seaman from the 31,800 ton USS West Virginia (BB-48), which is burning in the foreground. Smoke rolling out amidships shows where the most extensive damage occurred. Note the two men in the superstructure. The USS Tennessee (BB-43) is inboard. (Public Domain). On this day in history,…
History Daily With Francis Chappell Black 