1945 – Germany’s Nazi regime surrenders unconditionally, The capitulation ended World War II, one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. According to estimates, between 40 and 71 million people died in the war and the Holocaust initiated by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
0558 – The dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. It was immediately rebuilt as ordered by Justinian.
1253 – Flemish friar William of Rubruck sets off to convert the Mongols to Christianity, a mission ordered by French king Louis IX – one of the most famous travel accounts in the Medieval world
1274 – The Second Council of Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope.
1355 – 1,200 Jews of Toledo, Spain killed by Count Henry of Trastamara
1416 – Monk Nicolaas Serrurier arrested because of heresy at Tournay
1429 – The English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc.
1525 – The German peasants’ revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.
1660 – Isaack B Fubine of Savoy, in The Hague, patents macaroni
1697 – Stockholm’s medieval royal castle is destroyed by fire, the Codex Gigas (world’s largest extant medieval illuminated manuscript) survives by being thrown out a window
1700 – William Penn began monthly meetings for blacks advocating emancipation
1727 – Jews are expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia
1756 – Burmese King Alaungphaya sends his Golden Letter on rolled gold to King George II of Great Britain detailing trade proposals
1763 – Indian chief Pontiac began all out war on the British in New York.
1789 – The first U.S. Presidential Inaugural Ball was held in New York City.
1800 – The U.S. Congress divided the Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part became the Indiana Territory and the eastern section remained the Northwest Territory.
1836 – The settlement of Mayagüez elevates Puerto Rico to the royal status of villa by the government of Spain
1847 – The AMA (American Medical Association) was organized in Philadelphia, PA.
1866 – German premier Otto von Bismarck seriously wounded in assassination attempt
1867 – Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patents dynamite in England, the first of three patents he would receive for the explosive material
1889 – In Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins Hospital opened.
1895 – Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention – the world’s first radio receiver in St. Petersberg. Celebrated as Radio Day in Russia.
1907 – Central American Court of Justice inaugurated in San Jose, Costa Rica – first standing tribunal for International Law in the world
1912 – Columbia University approved final plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories.
1912 – The first airplane equipped with a machine gun flew over College Park, MD.
1913 – Plot by English suffragettes to blow up part of St Paul’s cathedral thwarted when the bomb is discovered
1915 – A German U-Boat sinks the RMS Lusitania, 1198 lives were lost in the attack, making it the deadliest shipwreck during World War I. The fact that some of the dead were U.S. citizens influenced the country’s decision to enter the war in 1917.
1926 – A U.S. report showed that one-third of the nation’s exports were motors.
1928 – In Britain, the minimum voting age for women was lowered from 30 to 21.
1937 – The German Condor Legion arrived in Spain to assist Franco’s forces.
1939 – Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1940 – Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.
1942 – In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.
1943 – The last major German strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.
1945 – Baseball owner Branch Rickey announced the organization of the United States Negro Baseball League. There were 6 teams.
1945 – Germany’s Nazi regime surrenders unconditionally, The capitulation ended World War II, one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. According to estimates, between 40 and 71 million people died in the war and the Holocaust initiated by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
1946 – Sony is founded, The company started as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering. It is now one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products.
1951 – Russia was admitted to participate in the 1952 Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee.
1954 – French Colonial Forces surrendered to the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu after 55 days of fighting.
1954 – The United States and the United Kingdom rejected the Soviet Union’s bid to join NATO.
1960 – Leonid Brezhnev became president of the Soviet Union.
1975 – U.S. President Ford declared an end to the “Vietnam era.”
1977 – Rookie Janet Guthrie set the fastest time on opening day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Her time was 185.607.
1980 – Paul Geidel Jr, American murderer, and longest-serving prison inmate in the United States, paroled after 68 years, 296 days, at the age of 86.
1982 – Californian federal jury rules NFL violates antitrust laws in preventing Oakland Raiders move to Los Angeles Coliseum
1984 – A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who claimed they had suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant while serving in the armed forces.
1989 – Panamanian voters reject dictator Manuel Noriega’s bid for presidency
1992 – 5 NYC cops arrested in Hauppauge, Long Island, for selling cocaine
1992 – A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified as the 27th Amendment.
1996 – The trial of Serbian police officer Dusan Tadic opened in the Netherlands. He was later convicted on murder-torture charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
1997 – A report released by the U.S. government said that Switzerland provided Nazi Germany with equipment and credit during World War II. Germany exchanged for gold what had been plundered or stolen. Switzerland did not comply with postwar agreements to return the gold.
1998 – Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. for close to $40 billion. It was the largest industrial merger on record.
1998 – Residents of London voted to elect their own mayor for the first time in history. The vote would take place in May 2000.
1999 – A jury ruled that “The Jenny Jones Show” and Warner Bros. were liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure. He was killed by another guest on the show. The jury’s award was $25 million.
1999 – In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens were killed and 20 were wounded when a NATO plane mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy.
1999 – In Guinea-Bissau, the government of President João Bernardo Vieira was ousted in a military coup.
2000 – Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia, The former KGB officer enjoys high approval ratings in his country as living standards in Russia have improved drastically under his rule. Internationally, he has been criticized for his authoritarian style of government.
2003 – In Washington, DC, General Motors Corp. delivered six fuel cell vehicles to Capitol Hill for lawmakers and others to test drive during the next two years.
2007 – Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University announces he has discovered the tomb of Herod the Great at Herodium, West Bank
2012 – Paeleoclimatological research claims dinosaur flatulence may have warmed the earth
2013 – 55 people are killed by a Boko Haram attack in Nigeria
2014 – Fighting between pro-Russian and Kiev forces continue amid fears internationally of a civil war in Ukraine
2017 – MTV becomes 1st major awards show to adopt gender-neutral categories – Emma Watson best film actor, Millie Bobby Brown best TV actor
2018 – Global tourism accounts for 8% of the world’s carbon emissions according to a University of Sydney study
2019 – Hackers seize control of the computer system of the US city of Baltimore, demanding a ransom in Bitcoins to unlock them
2019 – Venezuela’s Congress strips opposition lawmakers of immunity and accuses them of treason
2020 – US unemployment claims hit 33.3 million or 20% of the workforce, vs two months ago unemployment 3.5%, a 50-year low
2021 – Former police officer and suspected serial killer Hugo Ernesto Osorio Chávez arrested in Chalchuapa, El Salvador, after a mass grave of 15-40 bodies found at his house
2021 – Ransomware attack on US Colonial pipeline by the DarkSide criminal group stops supply to half of east coast
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
