December 22nd, 2009

Today in History

1963:
Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.

1944:
Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Vietnam

1894:
The Dreyfus affair begins, in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason, on antisemitic grounds.

1849:
The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is canceled at the last second.

1807:
The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.