1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison, The album “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison” became a huge success.
532 – Nika riots begin in Constantinople, a revolt against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I that leaves half the city burned and thousands dead. The riots were prompted by the failed execution of chariot racing supporters and only stopped after Empress Theodora refused to flee, forcing her husband to act decisively.
888 – Odo (Eudes), Count of Paris, succeeds Charles III the Fat to become King of West Francia (888-898)
1099 – Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria
1128 – Pope Honorius II granted a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar. He declared it to be an army of God.
1404 – The Act of Multipliers is passed by the English Parliament forbidding alchemists to use their knowledge to create precious metals (it was feared that if any alchemist should succeed it would bring ruin upon the state)
1607 – The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain
1610 – Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th satellite of Jupiter
1794 – U.S. President Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.
1830 – Great fire in New Orleans thought to be set by rebel slaves
1842 – Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for (reputedly) being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
1854 – Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, PA, was granted the first U.S. patent for the accordion. He made improvements to the keyboard and enhanced the sound.
1893 – Britain’s Independent Labor Party, a precursor to the current Labor Party, met for the first time.
1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
1898 – Emile Zola publishes his open letter “J’accuse” accusing the French government of framing Alfred Dreyfus for sabotage
1900 – In Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph decreed that German would be the language of the imperial army to combat Czech nationalism.
1922 – Buck Weaver, a Black Sox, applies unsuccessfully for reinstatement
1927 – US & Mexico battle over oil interests
1928 – Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television.
1938 – The Church of England accepts the theory of evolution
1942 – Henry Ford patented the plastic automobile referred to as the “Soybean Car.” The car was 30% lighter than the average car.
1954 – Military rule in Egypt; 318 Muslim Brotherhood members arrested
1958 – 9,000 scientists of 43 nations petition UN for nuclear test ban
1959 – French President Charles de Gaulle grants amnesty to 130 Algerians sentenced to death
1964 – Hindu-Muslim rioting breaks out in the Indian city of Calcutta – now Kolkata – resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people.
1966 – Robert C. Weaver became the first black Cabinet member when he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by U.S. President Johnson.
1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison, The album “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison” became a huge success.
1972 – An army commander stages a bloodless coup in Ghana, while the prime minister is in London
1975 – Henry Kissinger hints at military action against oil countries in case of “actual strangulation of the industrialized world” in the wake of oil shock
1979 – YMCA files libel suit against Village People’s YMCA song
1982 – Air Florida 737 took off in a snowstorm, crashes into 14th St Bridge in Washington, D.C., & falls into Potomac River, killing 78
1986 – The NCAA adopted the controversial “Proposal 48,” which set standards for Division 1 freshman eligibility.
1986 – “The Wall Street Journal” printed a real picture on its front page. The journal had not done this in nearly 10 years. The story was about artist, O. Winston Link and featured one of his works.
1988 – Supreme Court rules (5-3) public school officials have broad powers to censor school newspapers, plays & other expressive activities
1990 – L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, the nation’s first elected black governor, took the oath of office in Richmond.
1992 – Japan apologized for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.
1997 – Radical guerrillas hold 72 hostages and shoot at police outside the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru
1998 – One of the 110 missing episodes of the British TV show “Doctor Who” was found in New Zealand.
2001 – An earthquake devastates El Salvador, This quake killed nearly 1000 people; at least 315 people feel victim to a second quake on February 13, 2001.
2002 – Japan and Singapore signed a free trade pact that would remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between the two countries.
2002 – U.S. President George W. Bush fainted after choking on a pretzel.
2007 – Two thirds of the Venus’s southern hemisphere suddenly brightened as something triggered aerosols to form at a furious rate.
2009 – Ethiopian military forces began pulling out of Somalia, where they had tried to maintain order for nearly two years.
2012 – The cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks, killing 32, The ship’s captain was later accused of imprudence, negligence, and incompetence.
2018 – Early-morning ballistic missile alert sent across Hawaii in error, revoked after 38 minutes
2021 – Deadliest air raid by Israel on Syria since 2018, when 10 soldiers and 47 allied fighters killed in attacks on military positions
2021 – Irish PM Minister Micheal Martin issues apology for treatment of unmarried mothers and babies in church-run institutions 1920-1990s after report 9,000 children had died
2021 – President Donald Trump is impeached by the US House of Representatives voting 232-197, for “incitement of insurrection”, first time in history a US President is impeached twice
2021 – World’s oldest known cave painting of an animal – a pig, 45,000 years old, discovered in Leang Tedongnge cave, island of Sulawesi, Indonesia
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
