The Iron Curtain

5 March 1946  

On this date in 1946...

At Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill gave his "Iron Curtain" speech. The speech popularized the term and drew attention to the communist domination of eastern Europe.

Other Years:

• 1623 - The first American temperance law enacted in Virginia colony.
• 1766 – Spaniard Don Antonio de Ulloa took possession of Louisiana Territory from the French.
• 1831 - In the case of the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Indian tribes are a distinct political society capable of governing themselves, and managing their own affairs. However, the court rules that the Cherokee are not a "foreign state", and therefore the court has no jurisdiction in the dispute.
• 1842 – More than 500 Mexican troops led by Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas, briefly occupying San Antonio before then heading back to the Rio Grande.
• 1856 - Georgia became the first U.S. state to regulate railroads.
• 1861 - The Confederate government appointed Albert Pike of Arkansas as Indian Commissioner to negotiate treaties. Pike established the "United Nations of the Indian Territory."
• 1865 - President Jefferson Davis signed the law adopting the Third National Pattern Flag as the official Confederate States Flag.

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