1692 – In Salem Village, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Salem witch trials began. Four women were the first to be charged; Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are arrested
752 BC – Romulus, first king of Rome, celebrates the first Roman triumph after his victory over the Canniness, following the Rape of the Sabine Women
0293 – Roman emperor Maximianus introduces tetrarchy (rule of four people) elevating Galerius and Constantius Chlorus to Caesar
0743 – The Roman Council at Estinnes decrees that Christian slaves may not be owned by Jews, fearing that the slaves may convert to Judaism
1498 – Vasco de Gama landed at what is now Mozambique on his way to India.
1562 – In Vassy, France, Catholics massacred over 1,000 Huguenots. The event started the First War of Religion.
1579 – British admiral and explorer Francis Drake surprises and captures the Spanish treasure ship ‘Nuestra Señora de la Concepción’ off the coast of Peru, Drake’s richest plunder
1628 – Writs are issued in February by Charles I of England mandating that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date
1633 – Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.
1692 – In Salem Village, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Salem witch trials began. Four women were the first to be charged; Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are arrested
1780 – Pennsylvania becomes the first U.S. state to abolish slavery.
1781 – In America, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.
1790 – The U.S. Congress authorized the first U.S. census.
1803 – Ohio became the 17th U.S. state.
1811 – Egyptian ruler Mohammed Ali massacred the leaders of the Mameluke dynasty.
1845 – U.S. President Tyler signed the congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas.
1847 – Michigan becomes 1st English-speaking jurisdiction to abolish the death penalty (except for treason against the state)
1854 – SS City of Glasgow leaves Liverpool harbour with approximately 480 passengers and crew; she was never seen again
1864 – Louis Ducos de Hauron patented a machine for taking and projecting motion pictures. The machine was never built.
1867 – Nebraska became the 37th U.S. state.
1870 – War of the Triple Alliance finally ends with the Battle of Cerro Corá and the death of Paraguayan Dictator Francisco Solano López after over 5 years of bloodshed between Paraguay and Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay
1872 – The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone National Park. It was the world’s first national park.
1875 – Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which is invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1883.
1896 – The Battle of Adowa began in Ethiopia between the forces of Emperor Menelik II and Italian troops. The Italians were defeated.
1900 – In South Africa, Ladysmith was relieved by British troops after being under siege by the Boers for more than four months.
1907 – In Odessa, Russia, there were only about 15,000 Jews left due to evacuations.
1907 – In Spain, a royal decree abolished civil marriages.
1911 – Jose Ordonez was elected President of Uruguay.
1912 – Captain Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
1917 – The so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the case of war between the United States and Germany, is published on the front pages of newspapers across America. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/zimmermann-telegram-published-in-united-states
1921 – The Allies reject a $7.5 billion reparations offer in London. German delegation decides to quit all talks.
1932 – The 22-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped. The child was found dead in May.
1935 – Germany officially establishes the Luftwaffe.
1937 – U.S. Steel raised workers’ wages to $5 a day.
1937 – In Connecticut, the first permanent automobile license plates were issued.
1941 – Bulgaria joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact.
1947 – The International Monetary Fund began operations.
1947 – Chinese Premier T.V. Soong resigned.
1950 – Klaus Fuchs was convicted of giving U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
1953 – After an all-night movie and dinner session with his top advisers, Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses. He dies four days later.
1954 – The United States announced that it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It was the first U.S. test of a dry fuel hydrogen bomb under Operation Castle.
1954 – Five U.S. congressmen were wounded when four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives.
1959 – Archbishop Makarios returned to Cyprus from exile.
1960 – 1,000 Black students pray and sing the national anthem on the steps of the old Confederate Capitol in Montgomery, Ala.
1961 – The Peace Corps was established by U.S. President Kennedy.
1966 – The Soviet probe, Venera 3 crashed on the planet Venus. It was the first unmanned spacecraft to land on the surface of another planet.
1966 – Ghana ordered all Soviet, East German and Chinese technicians to leave the country.
1967 – US House of Representatives expels Rep Adam Clayton Powell Jr
1971 – A bomb exploded in a restroom in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol. There were no injuries. A U.S. group protesting the Vietnam War claimed responsibility.
1974 – Seven people were indicted in connection with the Watergate break-in. The charge was conspiring to obstruct justice.
1978 – Charlie Chaplin’s coffin and remains are stolen from a Swiss cemetery in an extortion plot
1980 – The US enacts the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act as part of a compromise between the Carter Administration and the Congress over the decontrol of crude oil prices
1983 – The New Jersey Transit strike began. It ended on April 2.
1984 – The U.S.S.R. performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk, U.S.S.R.
1985 – The Pentagon accepts the theory that an atomic war would block the sun, causing a “nuclear winter.”
1988 – Soviet troops were sent into Azerbaijan after ethnic riots between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
1990 – Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
1992 – Bosnian Serb snipers fired upon civilians after a majority of the Moslem and Croatian communities voted in favor of Bosnia’s independence.
1992 – King Fahd of Saudi Arabia announced major political reforms that ceded some powers after 10 years of disciplined rule.
1992 – Bosnian Muslims and Croats voted to secede from Yugoslavia.
1993 – The U.S. government announced that the number of food stamp recipients had reached a record number of 26.6 million.
1994 – Israel released about 500 Arab prisoners in an effort to placate Palestinians over the Hebron massacre.
1995 – The European Parliament rejected legislation that would have allowed biotechnology companies to patent new life forms.
1999 – The Angolan Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia, exploded. Four other bombs went off in the capital.
1999 – In Uganda, eight tourists were brutally murdered by Hutu rebels.
2002 – Operation Anaconda began in eastern Afghanistan. Allied forces were fighting against Taliban and Al Qaida fighters.
2003 – In the U.S., approximately 180,000 personnel from 22 different organizations around the government became part of the Department of Homeland Security. This completed the largest government reorganization since the beginning of the Cold War.
2003 – Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured by CIA and Pakistani agents near Islamabad. He was the suspected mastermind behind the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
2007 – “Squatters” are evicted from Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark, provoking the March 2007 Denmark Riots
2013 – The 2013 US budget sequestration comes into effect
2014 – 29 people are killed & 130 are injured by a group of knife-wielding terrorists at Kunming Railway Station, China
2014 – US President Barack Obama warns Russian President Vladimir Putin over involvement in Ukraine
2016 – Two Guatemalan military officers are convicted of sexual slavery during country’s civil war – first ever prosecution of sexual slavery during an armed conflict
2018 – US President Donald Trump says he will impose 25% steel, 10% aluminum import tariffs, raising fears of a trade war
2020 – Turkey launches major offensive against Syrian government in northern Syria after 36 Turkish soldiers killed in air and artillery strikes 3 days earlier
2022 – US President Joe Biden’s says Vladimir Putin has “badly miscalculated” by invading Ukraine in his State of the Union address
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
