Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 1st!
| 1581 | Edmund Campion and other Jesuit martyrs are hanged at Tyburn, England, for sedition, after being tortured.  |
| 1824 | The House of Representatives convened to decide the presidential election because no candidate had received a majority in the Electoral College. |
| 1861 | The U.S. gunboat Penguin seizes the Confederate blockade runner Albion carrying supplies worth almost $100,000. |
| 1862 | President Abraham Lincoln sent his Second Annual Message to Congress, which was read aloud by the Secretary of the Senate. In it, Lincoln called for the abolition of slavery, saying that “in giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free,” |
| 1863 | Belle Boyd, a Confederate spy, is released from prison in Washington.  |
| 1881 | Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp are exonerated in court for their action in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz. |
| 1900 | Kaiser Wilhelm II refuses to meet with Boer leader Paul Kruger in Berlin. |
| 1905 | Twenty officers and 230 guards are arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the revolt at the Winter Palace. |
| 1908 | The Italian Parliament debates the future of the Triple Alliance and asks for compensation for Austria’s action in Bosnia-Herzegovina. |
| 1909 | President William Howard Taft severs official relations with Nicaragua’s Zelaya government and declares support for the revolutionaries. |
| 1913 | The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh. |
| 1916 | King Constantine of Greece refuses to surrender to the Allies. |
| 1918 | An American army of occupation enters Germany. |
| 1919 | Lady Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.  |
| 1925 | After a seven-year occupation, 7,000 British troops evacuate Cologne, Germany. |
| 1933 | Nazi storm troops become an official organ of the Reich. |
| 1934 | Sergei M. Kirov, the head of the Communist Party in Leningrad, was assassinated as Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a massive purge that would claim tens of millions of lives. |
| 1941 | The first Civil Air Patrol is organized in the United States. |
| 1942 | National gasoline rationing goes into effect in the United States. |
| 1969 | The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II. |
| 1986 | Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North pleads the 5th Amendment before a Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra arms sale. |
| 1991 | Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union. |
| 1992 | “Long Island Lolita” Amy Fisher was sentenced to prison for shooting and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco, the wife of her lover, Joey Buttafuoco. (Fisher served seven years.) |
| 2000 | Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 71 years of ruling-party domination. |
| 2004 | Tom Brokaw signed off for the last time as anchor of the “NBC Nightly News.”
Tom Brokaw Says Farewell To NBC Nightly News
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| 2009 | President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops into the war in Afghanistan but promised to begin withdrawal in 18 months. |
Today in history facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, HistoryOrb.com, and On This Day blogs from my blogroll.
Today in History
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