1971 – NASA Astronaut Alan B. Shepard used a six-iron that he had brought inside his spacecraft and swung at three golf balls on the surface of the moon.
1508 – Maximilian I proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor, 1st Emperor in centuries not to be crowned by the Pope
1685 – Duke of York becomes King James II of England and VII of Scotland upon the death of his brother Charles II
1778 – The United States gained official recognition from France as the two nations signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance in Paris.
1788 – Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1815 – The state of New Jersey issued the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.
1820 – 1st organized emigration of blacks back to Africa (NY to Sierra Leone)
1840 – The Treaty of Waitangi is signed between 40 Māori Chiefs (later signed by 500) and representatives of the British crown in Waitangi, New Zealand. The treaty was designed to share sovereignty between the two groups.
1867 – American financier and philanthropist George Peabody establishes the Peabody Education Fund to provide improvements to existing schools in poor areas of the southern USA
1869 – Harper’s Weekly publishes 1st picture of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers
1899 – The U.S. Senate ratified a peace treaty between the U.S. and Spain.
1900 – The Holland Senate ratified the 1899 peace conference decree that created in international arbitration court at The Hague.
1900 – U.S. President McKinley appointed W.H. Taft as commissioner to report on the Philippines.
1911 – The first old-age home for pioneers opened in Prescott, AZ.
1928 – A woman dubbed Anna Anderson [possibly Franziska Schanzkowska] arrives in NYC, using the alias “Anastasia Tschaikovsky” claims to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II
1933 – The 20th Amendment to the Constitution was declared in effect. The amendment moved the start of presidential, vice-presidential and congressional terms from March to January.
1935 – “Monopoly” board game goes on sale for 1st time
1951 – Radio commentator Paul Harvey arrested for trying to sneak into Argonne National Laboratory, a nuclear test site located 20 miles (32 km) west of Chicago
1952 – Britain’s King George VI died. His daughter, Elizabeth II, succeeded him.
1956 – St. Patrick Center opened in Kankakee, IL. It was the first circular school building in the United States.
1959 – The U.S., for the first time, successfully test-fired a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral.
1959 – The first microchip is patented, For his invention of the integrated circuit, Jack Kilby was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.
1971 – NASA Astronaut Alan B. Shepard used a six-iron that he had brought inside his spacecraft and swung at three golf balls on the surface of the moon.
1972 – Over 500,000 pieces of irate mail arrived at the mail room of CBS-TV, when word leaked out that an edited-for-TV version of the X-rated movie, “The Demand,” would be shown.
1974 – US House of Reps begins determining grounds for impeachment of President Richard Nixon
1980 – John Wayne Gacy goes on trial for the murder of 33 young men in Cook County, Illinois
1983 – Trial of former Gestapo commandant Klaus Barbie begins in France for war crimes during World War II
1984 – Muslim militiamen take over West Beirut from Lebanese army
1987 – No-smoking rules take effect in US federal buildings
1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, The negotiations between the Polish government and the trade union Solidarność, or Solidarity in English, marked the beginning of the end of communism in Eastern Europe.
1998 – Washington National Airport was renamed for U.S. President Ronald Reagan with the signing of a bill by U.S. President Clinton.
1999 – King Hussein of Jordan transferred full political power to his oldest son the Crown Prince Abdullah.
1999 – Excerpts of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky’s videotaped testimony were shown at President Clinton’s impeachment trial.
1999 – Heavy fighting resumed along the common border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
2000 – Russia’s acting President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian forces had captured Grozny, Chechnya. The capital city had been under the control of Chechen rebels.
2001 – Ariel Sharon was elected Israeli prime minister.
2002 – A federal judge ordered John Walker Lindh to be held without bail pending trial. Lindh was known as the “American Taliban.”
2012 – Queen Elizabeth II marks the 60th anniversary of becoming British monarch, becoming only the second to do so
2014 – The Taliban and Pakistani government begin peace negotiations
2018 – Elon Musk’s company SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy, world’s most powerful rocket
2018 – Polish president Andrzej Duda signs controversial Holocaust law, outlaws accusing Poles of complicity under Nazis
2019 – Quadriga, Canada’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange is unable to get to $145 million of bitcoin assets after its CEO dies with its access passwords
2022 – Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking seventy years on the throne
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
