Today in History.....July 12

On this day in …

1810, the United States' young trade union movement was put to the test on this day in 1810, as the New York branch of the Journeymen Cordwainers began a trial that potentially imperiled their ability to go on strike

1861, special commissioner Albert Pike completes treaties with the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes, giving the new Confederate States of America several allies in Indian Territory. Some members of the tribes also fought for the Confederacy. ALSO: Wild Bill Hickok begins to establish his reputation as a gunfighter after he coolly shoots three men during a shootout in Nebraska

1862, Congress authorized the Medal of Honor

1933, the U.S. minimum wage was set at 40 cents an hour

1943, tone of the greatest clashes of armor in military history takes place as the German offensive against the Russian fortification at Kursk, a Russian railway and industrial center, is stopped in a devastating battle, marking the turning point in the Eastern front in the Russians' favor

1977, President Carter defended Supreme Court decisions limiting government payments for poor women's abortions, saying, "There are many things in life that are not fair."

1985, just two days after Mikhail Gorbachev was re-elected head of the Soviet Communist Party, Boris Yeltsin, president of the Republic of Russia, announces his resignation from the Party. Yeltsin's action was a serious blow to Gorbachev's efforts to keep the struggling Soviet Union together

1995, President Clinton spelled out school-prayer guidelines, asserting the First Amendment already guaranteed adequate freedom of religion

1996, the House voted overwhelmingly to define marriage in federal law as a legal union of one man and one woman --- no matter what states might say

2005, Mohammed Bouyeri, a practitioner of that "religion of peace", on trial in the slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, unexpectedly confessed in court, saying he was driven by religious conviction. (Bouyeri was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.)