1968 – North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation’s territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
393 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor
909 – Bulgarian Saint John of Rila [Saint Ivan] performs the miracle of the two pies – uses two pies to feed the poor
971 – War elephant corps of the Southern Han defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops; Southern Han state forced to submit to the Song Dynasty. 1st regular war elephant corps in Chinese army
1265 – 1st English Parliament not summoned by the monarch formally convened (some authorities)
1368 – In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.
1484 – Parliament of English King Richard III opens, passes Titulus Regis, (Richard’s right to the throne)
1556 – An earthquake in Shanxi Province, China, was thought to have killed about 830,000 people.
1570 – Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland, assassinated; civil war breaks out
1571 – The Royal Exchange in London, founded by financier Thomas Gresham, was opened by Queen Elizabeth I.
1668 – England, Netherlands & Sweden sign Triple Alliance against French
1789 – Georgetown College was established as the first Catholic college in the U.S. The school is in Washington, DC.
1795 – War of the First Coalition: French cavalry captures 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns near the port of Den Helder – rare instance of cavalry capturing a fleet
1833 – Joseph Pease becomes the first Quaker to be admitted to the UK Parliament on his affirmation
1845 – The U.S. Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
1846 – Tunisia becomes the first Arab nation to outlaw slavery in decree issued by Ahmed I Bey
1859 – Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii begins an eruption that lasts 300 days
1870 – Marias Massacre: Approximately 200 Piegan Blackfeet Indians (mostly women, children, and elderly men) killed by US Army, in Montana Territory, spawning outrage and preventing the military from regaining control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
1897 – Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Resulting murder trial of her husband perhaps only case in US history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
1904 – Ålesund Fire: the Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.
1913 – The ‘Young Turks’ lead a coup d’etat against the Turkish Government, assassinating Minister of War Nazim Pasha
1920 – The Dutch government refused the demands from the Allies to hand over the ex-kaiser of Germany.
1930 – Clyde Tombaugh photographs dwarf planet Pluto
1937 – In Moscow, seventeen people went on trial during Josef Stalin’s “Great Purge.”
1943 – The British captured Tripoli from the Germans.
1950 – The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
1957 – Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, Today, the Frisbee is used around the world as both a toy and as part of flying disc games, such as Ultimate.
1958 – Dictator Marcos Perez Jiménez flees Venezuela, Larrazabal takes power
1960 – The U.S. Navy bathyscaphe Trieste descended to a record depth of 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) in the Pacific Ocean.
1961 – Supreme Court rules cities & states have right to censor films
1962 – British intelligence officer Kim Philby defects to USSR
1964 – Ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was completed. This amendment eliminated the poll tax in federal elections.
1968 – North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation’s territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/uss-pueblo-captured
1971 – Britain allowed to sell arms to S. Africa, after Commonwealth Conference in Singapore ends in compromise
1973 – Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi announces that the 1954 operating agreement between a consortium of oil companies and Iran will not be renewed when it expires in 1979
1973 – U.S. President Nixon announced that an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.
1976 – The results to U.S. advice columnist Ann Landers’ question (if they could do it all over, would parents still become parents) state that 70% of 10,000 responding parents were negative about being parents
1977 – The TV mini-series “Roots,” began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel.
1978 – Sweden banned aerosol sprays because of damage to environment. They were the first country to do so.
1984 – Hulk Hogan defeats Iron Sheik to win his 1st World Wrestling Federation title at Madison Gardens, New York
1985 – The proceedings of the House of Lords were televised for the first time.
1991 – Bagogwe Massacre of Tutsi in and around Ruhengeri, Northern Rwanda
1991 – World’s largest oil spill, caused by embattled Iraqi forces in Kuwait
1993 – NY Newsday reports Oregan Senator Bob Packwood sexually harassed 23 women
1997 – A judge in Fairfax, VA, sentenced Mir Aimal Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside the CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people.
1997 – A British woman received a record £186,000 damages for Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).
2001 – A van used by the remaining two fugitives of the “Texas 7” was recovered in Colorado Springs, CO. A few hours later police surrounded a hotel where the convicts were hiding. Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody the next morning without incident.
2002 – John Walker Lindh returned to the U.S. under FBI custody. Lindh was charge with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorists and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban while a member of the al-Quaida terrorist organization in Afghanistan.
2003 – North Korea announced that it would consider sanctions an act of war for North Korea’s reinstatement of its nuclear program.
2003 – Final communication between Earth and NASA space probe Pioneer 10 (then 7.6 billion miles (12.23 billion kilometers from Earth)
2012 – European Union agrees to embargo Iranian oil in protest against Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program
2013 – 18 people are killed in a market shooting in Damboa, Nigeria
2013 – 23 people are killed in a mosque suicide bombing in Tuz Khormato, Iraq
2016 – Zika virus outbreak in Brazil prompts Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica to recommend women delay pregnancies for up to 2 years
2018 – Chinese researchers report they have cloned two monkeys, using the same technology as Dolly the Sheep
2018 – Twelve camels disqualified from the King Abdulaziz Camel beauty contest, Saudi Arabia after their owners used botox on their lips
2019 – US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disinvites President Donald Trump from making a State of the Union address in Congress citing government shutdown
2019 – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declares himself acting President amid widespread violent protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s regime
2020 – China locks down the city of Wuhan and its 9 million people, in a belated but ultimately successful effort to control the city’s COVID-19 epidemic
2020 – Voice of a 3,000 year old Egyptian priest recreated by scientists 3D printing his vocal tract published in “Scientific Reports”
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
