December 5th, 2008

Today in History

1492:
Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

1484:
Pope Innocent VIII writes a Papal Bull that sets the inquisition into full swing and leads to the deaths hundreds of thousands of people accused of being witches

1936:
The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution.

1926:
Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin," debuts

1941:
The nonfiction book Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck is published (Steinbeck used knowledge gained writing this book to develop the marine biologist character Doc in Cannery Row).