1959 – “The Day the Music Died” plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper), and the pilot. near Clear Lake, Iowa
1377 – Mass execution of population (between 2,500 and 5,000) of Cesena, Italy, by Breton troops of Giovanni Acuto under the command of Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, acting as the legate of Pope Gregory XI
1451 – Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire
1488 – The Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Diaz landed at Mossal Bay in the Cape, the first European known to have landed on the southern extremity of Africa.
1509 – The Battle of Diu, naval battle at port of Diu, India between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire, establishes Portuguese trading control
1576 – Henry of Navarre (future Henry IV) escapes from Paris
1653 – Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile
1690 – The first paper money in America was issued by the Massachusetts colony. The currency was used to pay soldiers that were fighting in the war against Quebec.
1740 – Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invites Jews to return to Sicily
1743 – Philadelphia establishes a “pesthouse” to quarantine immigrants
1783 – Spain recognized the independence of the United States.
1807 – A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the city of Montevideo in the Battle of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire now capital of Uruguay (Napoleonic Wars)
1809 – The territory of Illinois was created.
1815 – The world’s first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland.
1836 – Whig Party holds its 1st national convention (Albany NY)
1862 – Thomas Edison printed the “Weekly Herald” and distributed it to train passengers traveling between Port Huron and Detroit, MI. It was the first time a newspaper had been printed on a train.
1870 – US state of Iowa ratifies the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution allowing suffrage for all races & colour
1874 – A patent was issued to Samuel W. Francis for the spork.
1882 – Circus owner P. T. Barnum buys his world-famous elephant Jumbo
1900 – In Frankfort, KY, gubernatorial candidate William Goebels died from an assasin’s bullet wounds. On August 18, 1900, Ex-Sec. of State Caleb Powers was found guilt of conspiracy to murder Gov. Goebels.
1908 – Supreme Court rules a union boycott violates Sherman Antitrust Act
1913 – The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized the power to impose and collect income tax.
1917 – The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
1918 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel began service. It is the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet.
1927 – The Federal Radio Commission was created when U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill.
1928 – Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black reports his findings on the ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China in the journal Nature and declares them to be a new species he names ‘Sinanthropus pekinensis’ (now known as ‘Homo erectus’)
1931 – Arkansas legislature passes motion to pray for soul of journalist H. L. Mencken, after he calls the state the “apex of moronia”
1941 – US Supreme Court upheld Federal Wage & Hour law, sets minimum wages & maximum hours
1945 – Russia agreed to enter World War II against Japan.
1947 – Percival Prattisbecame the first black news correspondent admitted to the House and Senate press gallery in Washington, DC. He worked for “Our World” in New York City.
1950 – Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs arrested on spying charges
1959 – “The Day the Music Died” plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper), and the pilot. near Clear Lake, Iowa
1962 – US President John F. Kennedy bans all trade with Cuba except for food & drugs
1964 – Black & Puerto Rican students boycott NYC public schools
1966 – The first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet space vehicle Luna IX.
1967 – Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne
1969 – At the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed leader of the PLO.
1971 – NYPD officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust while his fellow officers stood outside and failed to call for assistance
1971 – OPEC mandates “total embargo” against any company that rejects 55 percent tax rate
1972 – The deadliest snowstorm in history kills 4000, The Iran Blizzard lasted a week and left whole villages without survivors.
1982 – Porn star John Holmes ordered to stand trial for murder
1986 – OPEC fails to agree upon a petroleum production agreement after a 2 day meeting in Vienna
1988 – Nurses across the UK strike over pay and funding for the NHS
1989 – Paraguay’s dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, is overthrown, Stroessner had come to power in 1954 with a military coup.
1992 – Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $300 per week
1994 – President Bill Clinton lifts US trade embargo against Vietnam
1998 – Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker. She was the first woman executed in the U.S. since 1984.
1998 – In Italy, a U.S. Military plane hit a cable causing the death of 20 skiers on a lift.
2007 – A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
2009 – Eric Holder was sworn in as attorney general. He was the first African-American to hold the post.
2013 – 33 people are killed by a suicide bombing by an explosive-packed truck in Kirkuk, Iraq
2015 – The British House of Commons voted to approve letting scientist create babies from the DNA of three people.
2016 – Lord Lucan’s death certificate is granted, 42 years after he disappeared following the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett
2020 – Cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3700 passengers quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan after cases of COVID-19 found on board
2020 – Malawi’s constitutional court annuls 2019 election which saw President Peter Mutharika re-elected due to voting irregularities
2022 – ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi blows himself and his family up during a raid by US Special Forces in Syria
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
