December 4th, 2008

Today in History

1992:
President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 US troops to Somalia.

1958:
Dahomey (present-day Benin) becomes a self-governing country within the French Community.

1867:
Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange Movement).

1829:
In the face of fierce opposition, British Lord William Bentinck carries a regulation declaring that all who abetted suttee in India were guilty of culpable homicide.

1619:
Thirty-eight colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (this is considered to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).