20 January 1981
On this date in 1981...
Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, just minutes after the U.S. presidency passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
- 1801 - John Marshall of Virginia was appointed chief justice of the United States.
- 1861 - Mississippi state troops seized federal installations at Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico.
- 1868 - Florida’s reconstruction constitutional convention met in Tallahassee.
- 1870 - The Mississippi reconstruction legislature elected AME minister Hiram R. Revels to finish the term of Jefferson Davis as U.S. Senator for Mississippi.
- 1891 - James Hogg took office as the first native-born governor of Texas.
- 1952 - In Juarez, Mexico, Patricia McCormick of Texas debuted as the first professional woman bullfighter from the United States.
- 1988 - An Arizona committee opened a hearing on the impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham.
- 1994 - Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina under court order but soon dropped out.
Read: Why Know Southern History?
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