Todays History Flashback: 1775 - Thomas Jefferson was elected to the second Continental Congress as a delegate to Virginia. Jefferson became an important figure of the Continental Congress after publishing several papers including A Summary View of the Rights of British America and Drafts and Notes on the Virginia Constitution. These papers were instrumental in Jefferson being selected to write the Declaration of Independence. 1836 - During Texas war for independence, a group of Texan rebels led by James W. Fannin were defeated by Santa Annas Mexican forces under the leadership of his chief lieutenant, General Urrea, at the town of Goliad. The Texans surrendered to Urrea expecting to be treated as prisoners of war. However, Urrea and his men executed all 417 men. Remember Goliad became a war cry for the Texas revolutionaries. 1865 - Abraham Lincoln met with Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman in City Point, Virginia to discuss the last stages of the U.S. Civil War. 1905 - Fingerprint evidence is used for the first time in a high profile murder case. In South London, Thomas and Ann Farrow were murdered in their shop. Fingerprint evidence was used to convict brothers Alfred and Albert Stratton of the crime. 1912 - First Lady Helen Taft and he Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshina cherry trees on the Potomac Rivers Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial in a formal ceremony. The trees were two of a couple thousand gifted to the U.S. by Japan. After World War II, clippings of the Washington trees were sent to Japan to restore the Tokyo collection, which was destroyed by American bombing during the war. Thousands of visitors travel to Washington every Spring to see the blossoming cherry trees. 1958 - Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev replaced Nicolay Bulganin as Soviet premier. Khrushchev was the first Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin to hold both offices at the same time. 1973 - Marlon Brando declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Godfather in protest of Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 11:53:59 +0000
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