by ABC News Writers President-elect Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent Friday’s sentencing in his New York criminal hush money case. In a filing Wednesday morning, defense lawyers argued that sentencing Trump — who has attempted to halt the case based on a claim of presidential immunity — would damage “the institutionContinue reading “History Lesson Tuesdays: Trump asks Supreme Court to block his criminal hush money sentencing”
Category Archives: Historical Facts
History Lesson Tuesdays: A Quarry Worker Felt Strange Bumps While Digging. They Turned Out to Be the Largest Dinosaur Trackway in the U.K.
About 166 million years ago, dinosaurs ambled across a shallow lagoon in modern-day Britain. Some of the Jurassic giants took their sweet time, moving in fits and starts; others might have skulked more urgently. All made the mud squelch beneath their toes as they tromped here. At the time, such an occurrence was just aContinue reading “History Lesson Tuesdays: A Quarry Worker Felt Strange Bumps While Digging. They Turned Out to Be the Largest Dinosaur Trackway in the U.K.”
History Lesson Tuesdays: Sam Houston Elected as President of Texas in 1836
On September 5, 1836, Sam Houston is elected as president of the Republic of Texas, which earned its independence from Mexico in a successful military rebellion. Born in Virginia in 1793, Houston moved with his family to rural Tennessee after his father’s death; as a teenager, he ran away and lived for several years with the Cherokee tribe. Houston servedContinue reading “History Lesson Tuesdays: Sam Houston Elected as President of Texas in 1836”
History Lesson Tuesdays: Krakatoa explodes with massive force – 1883
One of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history occurs on Krakatoa (also called Krakatau), a small, uninhabited volcanic island east of Sumatra and west of Java, on August 27, 1883. Heard 3,000 miles away—and believed to have produced the loudest sounds in human history—the explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air,Continue reading “History Lesson Tuesdays: Krakatoa explodes with massive force – 1883”
History Lesson Tuesdays: 1934 – Federal Prisoners Land On Alcatraz
A group of federal prisoners classified as “most dangerous” arrives at Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre rocky outcrop situated 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay, on August 11, 1934. The convicts—the first civilian prisoners to be housed in the new high-security penitentiary—joined a few dozen military prisoners left over from the island’s days as a U.S. military prison.Continue reading “History Lesson Tuesdays: 1934 – Federal Prisoners Land On Alcatraz”
History Lesson Tuesdays: 1944 FDR Signs G.I. Bill
On June 22, 1944, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the G.I. Bill, an unprecedented act of legislation designed to compensate returning members of the armed services—known as G.I.s—for their efforts in World War II. As the last of its sweeping New Deal reforms, Roosevelt’s administration created the G.I. Bill (officially the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944) hoping to avoid a relapseContinue reading “History Lesson Tuesdays: 1944 FDR Signs G.I. Bill”
History Lesson Tuesday: 1968-Robert F. Kennedy is Fatally Shot
Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He was pronounced deadContinue reading “History Lesson Tuesday: 1968-Robert F. Kennedy is Fatally Shot”
History Lesson Tuesday: 1937: The Hindenburg Disaster
The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crew-members, on May 6, 1937. Frenchman Henri Giffard constructed the first successful airship in 1852. His hydrogen-filled blimp carried a three-horsepower steam engine that turned a large propeller andContinue reading “History Lesson Tuesday: 1937: The Hindenburg Disaster”
History Lesson Tuesdays: 1972- Apollo 16 departs for the Moon
April 20, 1972- From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apollo 16, the fifth of six U.S. lunar landing missions, is successfully launched on its 238,000-mile journey to the moon. On April 20, astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke descended to the lunar surface from the Command Module, which remained in orbit around the moon with a third astronaut,Continue reading “History Lesson Tuesdays: 1972- Apollo 16 departs for the Moon”
History Lesson Tuesdays: 1933-FDR broadcasts first ‘fireside chat’ during the Great Depression.
On March 12, 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address—or “fireside chat”—broadcast directly from the White House. Roosevelt began that first address simply: “I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking.” He went on to explain his recent decision to closeContinue reading “History Lesson Tuesdays: 1933-FDR broadcasts first ‘fireside chat’ during the Great Depression.”
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