1974 – President Nixon addressed the nation and announced his intention to resign the next day effective at Noon. The next morning, White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig presented this letter to President Nixon to sign. The President’s resignation letter is addressed to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who initialed it at 11:35 a.m.
0070 – Tower of Antonia destroyed by Romans
1303 – Crete earthquake strikes with estimated magnitude of 8, triggering a major tsunami that damaged the Lighthouse of Alexandria and swept ships 2 miles inland in Egypt
1356 – Edward “the Black Prince” began a raid north from Aquitaine.
1220 – Sweden was defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.
1585 – John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in quest for the Northwest Passage.
1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – The naval engagement ends, thus ending the Spanish Armada’s attempt to invade England
1609 – Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei’s telescope
1647 – The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungans Hill – English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces.
1703 – Vienna-based newspaper Wiennerisches Diarium (later called Wiener Zeitung) prints 1st edition; publishes daily for almost 320 years
1786 – Mont Blanc on the French- Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard.
1793 – The insurrection of Lyon occurred during the French Revolution
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic. The remainder of his life was spent there in exile.
1844 – After the killing of Joseph Smith on June 27, Bringham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons.
1863 – American Civil War: Tennessee’s “”military”” Gov. Andrew Johnson freed his personal slaves. During the early 20th century, the day was celebrated by blacks in Tennessee as a holiday.
1876 – Thomas Edison received a patent for the mimeograph. The mimeograph was a “method of preparing autographic stencils for printing.”
1899 – The refrigerator was patented by A.T. Marshall.
1911 – The number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives was established at 435. There was one member of Congress for every 211,877 residents.
1911 – The millionth patent is filed in the United States Patent Office by Francis Holton for a tubeless vehicle tire.
1918 – World War I: The Allies launch the Hundred Days Offensive, beginning with the Battle of Amiens where 500 tanks and 10 Allied divisions attacked German lines
1919 – Treaty of Rawalpindi, British recognize Afghanistan’s independence
1925 – 1st national march of Ku Klux Klan (between 25,000 and 40,000 marchers) in Washington, D.C.
1931 – Workers go on strike at the Hoover dam
1937 – Berlin: 115 demonstrators are arrested. Rev. Martin Niemoller is arrested and charged with having opposed Nazi restrictions.
1940 – The German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Great Britain.
1942 – 6 convicted Nazi saboteurs who landed in US executed in Wash DC
1945 – The United Nations Charter was signed by U.S. President Truman.
1945 – During World War II, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.
1949 – Bhutan, land of the Dragon, became an independent monarchy
1950 – Whataburger opened its restaurant in Corpus Christi, TX.
1953 – The U.S. and South Korea initiated a mutual security pact.
1953 – Soviet leader Georgi Malenkov reports possession of hydrogen bomb
1956 – Japan launched an oil tanker that was 780 feet long and weighed 84,730 tons. It was the largest oil tanker in the world.
1966 – Michael DeBakey became the first surgeon to install an artificial heart pump in a patient.
1967 – ASEAN is Founded, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an economic and political organization which was formed after the heads of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand signed the Bangkok Declaration.
1969 – The Beatles are photographed by Iain MacMillan crossing the street as they walk away from EMI Recording Studios, for the cover of their “Abbey Road” album
1973 – U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew goes on television to denounce accusations he had taken kickbacks while governor of Maryland
1973 – Kim Dae-Jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped
1974 – U.S. President Nixon announced that he would resign the following day. https://www.archivesfoundation.org/documents/richard-nixon-resignation-letter-gerald-ford-pardon/
1976 – Chicago White Sox suit up in shorts
1978 – The U.S. launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.
1979 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein executes 22 political opponents
1983 – Military coup in Guatemala, Dictator and former General Efraín Rios Montt flees
1985 – Japan launches Planet A, a probe to Halley’s comet
1988 – Discovery of most distant galaxy announced
1988 – It was announced that a cease-fire between Iraq and Iran had begun.
1989 – New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange resigns after 5 years on a no confidence issue
1990 – American forces began positioning in Saudia Arabia.
1991 – John McCarthy, a British TV producer, was released by his Lebanese kidnappers. He had been held captive for more than five years. A rival group abducted Jerome Leyraud in retaliation and threatened to kill him if any more hostages were released.
1991 – The U.N. Security Council approved North and South Korea for membership.
1994 – The first road link between Israel and Jordan opened.
1994 – Representatives from China and Taiwan signed a cooperation agreement.
1995 – Saddam Hussein’s two eldest daughters, their husbands, and several senior army officers defected.
2000 – The submarine H.L. Hunley was raised from ocean bottom after 136 years. The sub had been lost during an attack on the U.S.S. Housatonic in 1864. The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink a warship.
2009 – A suicide bomber detonates a bomb outside the French embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania, wounding two. The attack is the first suicide bombing in Mauritania’s history.”
2012 – China announces that it plans to close 23 rare earth mines and up to 50 smelting companies
2013 – 14 people are killed by a bomb explosion in Nangarhar, Afghanistan
2013 – 28 people are killed by a suicide bombing in Quetta, Pakistan
2017 – Kenyan general election: President Uhuru Kenyatta and Jubilee Party of Kenya re-elected, opposition leader Raila Odinga refuses verdict
2018 – US State Department imposes new sanctions on Russia for nerve attack in Britain
2019 – Nuclear accident at Russian nuclear-weapon testing site at closed city Sarov kills five scientists in mysterious circumstances
2021 – More than 51 people killed in northern Mali after attacks on three villages by Islamist jihadists
2022 – FBI conduct a search of former US President Donald Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Largo, over his handling of classified government documents
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
