This Day in History – December 20, 2011

0069 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor. 1192 – Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade. 1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. 1661 – Corporation Act enforced in England 1669 – 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery 1790 – 1st successful US cotton mill to spin yarn (Pawtucket RI) 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans. 1820 – Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50 1850 – Hawaiian post office established 1860 – South Carolina votes 169-0 for Ordinance of Secession, 1st state to secede 1862 – Battle of Holly Springs, MS 1862 – Vicksburg campaign begins 1892 – Phileas Fogg completes around world trip, according to Jules Verne 1892 – Pneumatic automobile tire patented, Syracuse NY 1893 – 1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia 1920 – Bob Hope becomes an American citizen 1924 – Hitler is released early from Landsberg Prison 1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom. 1956 – Montgomery AL, removed race-based seat assignments on its buses 1957 – Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army for National Service 1962 – The Osmond brothers debut on the Andy Williams Show 1967 – “The Graduate”, starring Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft, premieres 1967 – Ian Anderson & Glenn Cornick form rock group Jethro Tull 1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California. 1978 – HR Haldeman, Nixon’s White House chief of staff released from jail 1984 – 33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in the Yale library 1985 – Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC 1988 – Animal rights terrorists fire-bomb Harrod’s department store, London 1990 – Pentagon warns Saddam Hussein that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15 1996 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X. 2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days. 2007 – The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.]]]]> ]]>