1993 – U.S. Federal agents raided the compound of an armed religious cult in Waco, TX. The ATF had planned to arrest the leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh, on federal firearms charges. Four agents and six Davidians were killed and a 51-day standoff followed.
202 BC – Coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty’s rule over China
0364 – Valentinian I becomes Roman Emperor (rules till 375)
1066 – Westminster Abbey, the most famous church in England, opens its doors.
1574 – On the orders of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, two Englishmen and an Irishman are burnt for heresy.
1646 – Roger Scott tried in Massachusetts for sleeping in church
1704 – Indians attack Deerfield, Mass. killing 40 and kidnapping 100.
1708 – Slave revolt in Newton, Long Island NY results in 11 deaths
1730 – Russian Empress Anna Ivanovna revokes “the conditions” and dissolves the Privy Council, re-instituting autocracy
1759 – Pope Clement XIII allows Bible to be translated into various languages
1787 – The charter establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh is granted
1794 – US Senate voids Pennsylvania’s election of Abraham Gallatin
1804 – Charles Pichegru, French army general and royalist who plotted to overthrow Napoleon in the Pichegru Conspiracy, arrested
1827 – The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first railroad incorporated for commercial transportation of people and freight.
1838 – Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec)
1844 – Several people were killed aboard the USS Princeton when a 12-inch gun exploded.
1847 – Colonel Alexander Doniphan and his ragtag Missouri Mounted Volunteers ride to victory at the Battle of Sacramento, during the Mexican War.
1849 – Regular steamboat service to California via Cape Horn arrived in San Francisco for the first time. The SS California had left New York Harbor on October 6, 1848. The trip took 4 months and 21 days.
1861 – The U.S. territory of Colorado was organized.
1871 – 2nd Enforcement Act gives federal control of congressional elections in US
1893 – Edward G. Acheson showed his patent for Carborundum.
1900 – In South Africa, British troops relieved Ladysmith, which had been under siege since November 2, 1899.
1915 – WWI: After the French try to drive the Germans forces back into the Champagne region, they gain a few hundred yards – at the cost of 50,000 casualties
1924 – U.S. troops are sent to Honduras to protect American interests during an election conflict.
1933 – After the Reichstag Fire Decree, the German Communist Party (KPD) is essentially outlawed (though not formally banned) after the German government blames the Communists for burning down the Reichstag building
1936 – The Japanese Army restores order in Tokyo and arrests officers involved in a coup.
1940 – The first televised basketball game was shown. The game featured Fordham University and the University of Pittsburgh from Madison Square Gardens in New York.
1942 – Race riot at Sojourner Truth Homes, a housing project in Detroit, Michigan
1945 – U.S. tanks break the natural defense line west of the Rhine and cross the Erft River.
1947 – February 28 Massacre: Anti-government uprising in Taiwan is violently put down by Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang-led Republic of China government with the loss of 18,000-28,000 lives. Marks the beginning of the White Terror.
1951 – A Senate committee issued a report that stated that there were at least two major crime syndicates in the U.S.
1953 – In a Cambridge University laboratory, scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.
1954 – In San Francisco “Birth of a Planet” was aired. It was the first American phase-contrast cinemicrography film to be presented on television.
1956 – American engineer Wright Forrester issued a patent for computer core memory
1967 – A West German court rules that impostor Anna Anderson failed to prove that she was missing Russian duchess Anastasia Romanov, ending a legal case that lasted almost 30 years
1967 – In Mississippi, 19 are indicted in the slayings of three civil rights workers.
1969 – A Los Angeles court refuses Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan’s request to be executed.
1971 – A British soldier dies in Derry after his vehicle had been attacked with petrol bombs (he died as a result of inhaling chemicals from fire extinguishers that were used to put out the fire).
1971 – The male electorate in Lichtenstein refuses to give voting rights to women.
1974 – The U.S. and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a break of seven years.
1975 – A London underground train crashes into the end of the tunnel at Moorgate station, The Moorgate tube crash claimed 43 lives and was the deadliest accident in the London Underground in during peacetime.
1982 – FALN (PR Nationalist Group) bombs Wall Street
1983 – “M*A*S*H” became the most watched television program in history when the final episode aired.
1986 – Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in Stockholm.
1991 – The first Gulf War ends, The armed conflict had lasted a little over half a year and claimed over 100,000 civilian casualties.
1993 – U.S. Federal agents raided the compound of an armed religious cult in Waco, TX. The ATF had planned to arrest the leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh, on federal firearms charges. Four agents and six Davidians were killed and a 51-day standoff followed. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/atf-raids-branch-davidian-compound
1994 – NATO made its first military strike when U.S. F-16 fighters shot down four Bosnian Serb warplanes in violation of a no-fly zone over central Bosnia.
1997 – FBI agent Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia
1998 – Serbian police began a campaign to wipe out “terrorist gangs” in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
2002 – In Ahmadabad, India, Hindus set fire to homes in a Muslim neighborhood. At least 55 people were killed in the attack.
2004 – Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947
2007 – NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made a gravitational slingshot against Jupiter to change the planned trajectory towards Pluto.
2008 – Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is arrested on corruption charges upon returning to Thailand after months of exile.
2012 – Occupy London protesters evicted from St Paul’s Cathedral
2013 – Benedict XVI resigned as pope. He was the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415 and the first to resign voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.
2013 – 28 people are killed and 60 are injured after a series of bombings across Baghdad, Iraq
2018 – 700 illegal churches closed in Rwanda for being too noisy and lacking building permits
2021 – Hong Kong charges 47 with “conspiracy to commit subversion” in harshest implementation of its new security laws imposed by China
2021 – Myanmar security forces open fire on protests around the country, killing at least 18, in bloodiest day since the military coup
2022 – Russia shells the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, while a 40 mile Russian military convoy approaches capital city of Kyiv
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
