1848 – The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845.
1141 – Battle of Lincoln: King Stephen captured by forces loyal to Empress Matilda and commanded by Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester
1349 – By this date at least 200 people a day were being buried in London as a result of the Black Death
1461 – Battle of Mortimer’s Cross: in a major battle of the War of the Roses Yorkist army of Edward, Earl of March, defeats Lancaster force led by Jasper Tudor
1536 – The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.
1542 – Portuguese under Christovão da Gama capture a Muslim-occupied hillfort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente.
1653 – New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated.
1709 – British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued by William Dampier after being marooned on a desert island for 5 years, his story inspires “Robinson Crusoe
1787 – Arthur St. Clair is elected the 9th President of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation
1802 – The first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown by Othello Pollard in Boston, MA.
1811 – Russian settlers establish Ft Ross trading post, north of San Francisco
1843 – US & British settlers in Oregon Country choose government committee
1848 – The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845.
1852 – The first public flushing toilet is opened in London, Using the “Public Waiting Room” at 95 Fleet Street cost 2 pence.
1848 – The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco, CA.
1861 – The “Organized Incorporated Territory of Nevada” is created, lasting until October 31st, 1864
1863 – Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain.
1870 – The “Cardiff Giant” was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, NY, was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human.
1876 – Baseball’s National League forms at the Grand Central Hotel, NYC with teams in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia and St Louis
1887 – The beginning of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA.
1892 – Longest boxing match under modern rules; 77 rounds in Nameoki, Illinois between Harry Sharpe & Frank Crosby
1897 – The Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated nine years later on the same site.
1901 – Mexican government troops are ambushed by Yaqui Indians, 100 killed
1901 – The US Congress passes the Army Reorganization Act, placing the minimum number of men under arms at 58,000
1922 – “Ulysses” by James Joyce is published, The novel is considered one of the most important works of modernist literature.
1923 – US signs friendship treaty with Central American countries
1925 – 20 mushers embark on a journey to transport medicine to Nome, Alaska, inspiring the Iditarod Race
1933 – 2 days after becoming chancellor, Adolf Hitler dissolves the German Reichstag (Parliament)
1935 – Leonard Keeler conducted the first test of the polygraph machine, in Portage, WI.
1942 – LA Times urges security measures against Japanese-Americans
1942 – US auto factories switch from commercial to war production
1943 – During World War II, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. Stalingrad has since been renamed Volgograd.
1957 – UN adopts a resolution calling for Israeli troops to leave Egypt
1958 – Syria joins Egypt in United Arab Republic
1962 – The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.
1964 – GI Joe, debuts as a popular American boy’s toy
1971 – Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.
1972 – Angry demonstrators burn the British Embassy in Dublin to the ground in protest at the shooting dead of 13 people on ‘bloody sunday’
1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time.
1980 – The situation known as “Abscam” began when reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation that targeted members of the U.S. Congress. A phony Arab businessmen were used in the operation.
1989 – The final Russian armored column left Kabul, Afghanistan, after nine years of military occupation.
1990 – South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.
1993 – Václav Havel becomes the first president of an independent Czech Republic, after the split with Slovakia
1998 – U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.
2004 – It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.
2013 – 23 people are killed and 8 are injured after militants attacked an army base in the Lakki Marwat District, Pakistan
2014 – Protests in Ukraine turn violent after parliament passes legislation that outlaws protest
2016 – First case of Zika contracted on US mainland (Texas) and second known sexually transmitted case confirmed in Texas
2018 – All 955 miners rescued from the Beatrix gold mine in Welkom town, South Africa, after 2 days underground
2019 – Virginia Governor Ralph Northam admits to wearing blackface in 1984 but says he’s not in a photo of men wearing blackface and a Ku Klux Klan robe on a yearbook page
2021 – Alejandro Mayorkas is the first Latino and immigrant to be confirmed as head of the US Department of Homeland Security
2021 – Pete Buttigieg is the first openly gay person to be confirmed to a US cabinet post as transportation secretary
2021 – Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny jailed for three and a half years in jail over alleged parole violations in Moscow
2022 – More than one million Afghans have fled the country for Iran since October due to the country’s economic crisis, according to immigration authorities threatening a new migrant crisis
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
