This day in history - February 1
Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 2:28 pm
1861 - The Texas Legislature voted to secede from the Union, the 7th state do secede.
President of the Republic of Texas Sam Houston opposed secession and had refused to call the Legislature into special session. He was ignored.
A special election had been held in January to elect delegates to a special convention on secession. Houston had then called the Legislature into special session, hoping to overrule the convention. He failed, and the Legislature voted 166 to 8 to secede.
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/civ ... ssion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I don't know whether this bill did not require the President's signature, or if the normal rules of legislation were simply ignored. In any case, it was a veto-proof majority.
1968 - The police chief of Saigon, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. News photographer Eddie Adams caught the act in one of the most shocking photos from that war. (Adams won the Pulitzer prize for this photo.)
The photo helped turn public opinion in the U.S. further against the war, despite the fact that the shooting victim had committed atrocities.
1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after years in exile, capping off the Iranian Islamic revolution.
2003 - The space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven crew members.
- Jim
President of the Republic of Texas Sam Houston opposed secession and had refused to call the Legislature into special session. He was ignored.
A special election had been held in January to elect delegates to a special convention on secession. Houston had then called the Legislature into special session, hoping to overrule the convention. He failed, and the Legislature voted 166 to 8 to secede.
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/civ ... ssion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I don't know whether this bill did not require the President's signature, or if the normal rules of legislation were simply ignored. In any case, it was a veto-proof majority.
1968 - The police chief of Saigon, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. News photographer Eddie Adams caught the act in one of the most shocking photos from that war. (Adams won the Pulitzer prize for this photo.)
The photo helped turn public opinion in the U.S. further against the war, despite the fact that the shooting victim had committed atrocities.
1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after years in exile, capping off the Iranian Islamic revolution.
2003 - The space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven crew members.
- Jim
