This Day in History Class

On this day in 1985, Coca-Cola launched New Coke, the reformulated version of its flagship drink. Coke drinkers did not respond well to the new taste, to say the least. / On this day in 1516, the Reinheitsgebot, a Bavarian beer purity law, was adopted.

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On this day in 1954, the Army-McCarthy Senate hearings began which resulted in the end of the McCarthy era. / On this day in 1915, Germany released chlorine gas during the Second Battle of Ypres, marking the first effective use of poison gas on the Western Front.

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On this day in 1966, members of the gay rights organization the Mattachine Society staged a "sip-in" to protest gay people being refused service at bars. / On this day in 1934, the Daily Mail published a photo of what was allegedly the Loch Ness Monster.

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On this day in 1968, Conservative MP gave an anti-immigration speech that became known as the "Rivers of Blood" speech. / On this day in 1946, the League of Nations was dissolved.

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Oliver Haugh, who had been convicted of killing his family, was executed by electric chair on this day in 1907. / On this day in 1861, a riot broke out in Baltimore, Maryland, between Confederate sympathizers and state militia regiments on their way to Washington, D.C.

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On this day in 1688, four Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, authored a petition against slavery. / On this day in 1980, the colony of Southern Rhodesia gained independence from Britain and became Zimbabwe.

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On this day in 1917, neurologist Constantin von Economo announced the probable spread of a viral disease, encephalitis lethargica, at a spread of a viral disease at a meeting of the Vienna Society for Psychiatry and Neurology. / On this day in 1951, Peak District National Park was established.

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Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, a famous 18th-century artist who would go on to paint 30 portraits of Queen Marie Antoinette, was born in Paris on this day in 1755. / On this day in 1853, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway opened the first commercial passenger train service in India.

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On this day in 1989, the death of reformer Hu Yaobang sparked pro-democracy protests in China. / On this day in 1970, the crew of Apollo 13 set a world record when they reached the farthest distance humans have ever been from Earth.

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On this day in 1912, stewardess Violet Jessop escaped the sinking Titanic on a lifeboat. / On this day in 1816, the largest slave uprising in Barbados began.

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