1980 – The arcade game Pac-Man is released, The game featuring a dot-munching round yellow figure moving through a maze has become one of the best-known video games in history. It was produced by Namco.
0334 BC – The Greek army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus
1176 – Murder attempt by the Hashshashin (Assassins) on Saladin near Aleppo.
1246 – Henry Raspe was elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.
1370 – Jews are expelled/massacred from Brussels Belgium
1455 – King Henry VI was taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.
1570 – Abraham Ortelius published the first modern atlas in Belgium.
1712 – Emperor Karel VI crowned king of Hungary
1761 – In Philadelphia, the first life insurance policy was issued in the U.S.
1807 – US authorities arrest former vice president Aaron Burr February 19 in Alabama and bring him to trial May 22 at Richmond, Va , in a circuit court presided over by Chief Justice John Marshall of the Supreme Court Burr has apparently schemed to establish an independent nation comprised of Mexico and parts of the Louisiana Territory, but the court acquits him for lack of evidence
1819 – The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June 20.
1843 – Thousands of people and their cattle headed west via wagon train from Independence, Missouri to what would later become the Oregon Territory. It was part of the Great Migration. They followed what is now known as the Oregon Trail
1849 – Abraham Lincoln received a patent for the floating dry dock.
1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas (“”Bleeding Kansas””).
1863 – War Department establishes Bureau of Colored Troops
1868 – Near Marshfield, IN, The “Great Train Robbery” took place. The robbery was worth $96,000 in cash, gold and bonds to the seven members of the Reno gang.
1872 – Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
1882 – The U.S. formally recognized Korea.
1900 – The Associated Press was incorporated as a non-profit news cooperative in New York.
1900 – A. DeVilbiss, Jr. patented his pendulum-type computing scale.
1906 – The Wright brothers received a patent their flying machine.
1915 – Five trains collide in the Quintinshill rail crash near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246; the accident is found to be the result of non-standard operating practices during a shift change at a busy junction
1931 – Canned rattlesnake meat first goes on sale in Florida
1939 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a military alliance between Germany and Italy known as the “Pact of Steel.”
1942 – Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
1942 – World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor
1947 – Cold War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.
1955 – A scheduled dance to be headlined by Fats Domino was canceled by police in Bridgeport, Connecticut because “rock and roll dances might be featured.”
1957 – South Africa Government approves race separation in universities
1959 – Benjamin O Davis Jr becomes first black general-major in USAF
1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode.
1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined his goals for his “Great Society.” https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/great-society
1967 – “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” premiered on PBS.
1967 – Egyptian president Nasser closes Straits of Tiran to Israel
1969 – A lunar module of Apollo 10 flew within nine miles of the moon’s surface. The event was a rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
1972 – U.S. President Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit Russia. He met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
1972 – The island Ceylon adopted a new constitution and became the republic of Sri Lanka.
1977 – Janet Guthrie set the fastest time of the second weekend of qualifying, becoming the first woman to earn a starting spot in the Indianapolis 500 since its inception in 1911.
1980 – The arcade game Pac-Man is released, The game featuring a dot-munching round yellow figure moving through a maze has become one of the best-known video games in history. It was produced by Namco.
1985 – US sailor Michael L Walker arrested for spying for USSR
1990 – In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merged to become a single state known as the Republic of Yemen.
1992 – Johnny Carson hosted NBC’s “Tonight Show” for the last time. He had been host for nearly 30 years. Jay Leno took over the job three days later.
1997 – Kelly Flinn, the U.S. Air Force’s first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge. She thereby avoided court-martial on charges of adultery, lying and disobeying an order.
1998 – New information came to light about the June 1996 bombing that killed 19 American airmen. The information indicated that Saudi citizens had been responsible and not Iranians as once believed.
1998 – A federal judge said that Secret Service agents could be compelled to testify before a grand jury in Monica Lewinsky investigation concerning U.S. President Clinton.
1998 – Voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland turned out to cast ballots giving approval to a Northern Ireland peace accord.
2002 – Chandra Levy’s remains were found in Washington, DC’s Rock Creek Park. She was last seen on April 30, 2001. California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy.
2002 – In Birmingham, AL, a jury convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder in the 1963 church bombing that killed four girls.
2003 – At the Colonial in Fort Worth, TX, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman to play on the PGA tour in 58 years. She ended the day at 1-over par.
2006 – Results from the Montenegrin independence referendum, 2006 are announced. 55.4% of voters voted to become independent from the Serbia and Montenegro Union
2010 – Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral, Poland after a 200 year search for his tomb
2013 – British Army Fusilier Lee Rigby is murdered near the Royal Artillery Barracks in London by two Islamic terrorists, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
2017 – Japanese researchers from University of Yamanashi report birth of mice from freeze-dried sperm stored on the International Space Station
2017 – Suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, England, after Ariana Grande concert kills 22 and injures 59
2018 – Australian court finds Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson guilty of covering up sexual abuse in 1970s, most senior Catholic priest to be convicted
2019 – Protests break out in Jakarta, Indonesia against the re-election of President Joko Widodo, killing six people and injuring 200
2020 – Australian computer scientist report they had achieved the speed of 44.2 Terabits over a standard optical fiber.
2022 – Report released on sexual abuse in US Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, details 20 years of suppressing many allegations
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
