1854 – The Charge of the Light Brigade took place during the Crimean War. The British were winning the Battle of Balaclava when Lord James Cardigan received an order to attack the Russians. He took his troops into a valley and suffered 40 percent caualties. Later it was revealed that the order was the result of confusion and was not given intentionally.
0732 – The army of Charles Martel defeats the Arabs at the Battle of Tours.
1147 – The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a four-month siege.
1315 – Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea and William Bradshaw, led an attack on Liverpool Castle.
1415 – In Northern France, England won the Battle of Agincourt over France during the Hundred Years’ War. Almost 6000 Frenchmen were killed while fewer than 400 were lost by the English.
1521 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles V bans wooden buildings in Amsterdam and decrees new building have to be built from stone
1651 – Limerick, Ireland, surrenders to British after lengthy siege
1671 – Giovanni Cassini discovers Iapetus, satellite of Saturn
1760 – George III succeeds his late grandfather, George II, to become King of the British Empire.
1813 – War of 1812: Canadians and Mohawks defeat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay.
1829 – Eastern State Penitentiary opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the world’s 1st prison to entirely use solitary confinement system intended for rehabilitation; designed by Robert Strickland, it closed in 1971, and is now a museum
1854 – The Charge of the Light Brigade took place during the Crimean War. The British were winning the Battle of Balaclava when Lord James Cardigan received an order to attack the Russians. He took his troops into a valley and suffered 40 percent caualties. Later it was revealed that the order was the result of confusion and was not given intentionally.
1870 – The first U.S. trademark was given. The recipient was the Averill Chemical Paint Company of New York City.
1881 – The founder of “Cubism,” Pablo Picasso, was born in Malaga, Spain.
1917 – The Bolsheviks (Communists) under Vladimir Ilyich Lenin seized power in Russia.
1923 – Senate committee publishes 1st report on Teapot Dome scandal
1924 – The forged Zinoviev Letter is published in the Daily Mail, wrecking the British Labour Party’s hopes of re-election
1929 – Alber B. Fall, of U.S. President Harding’s cabinet, was found guilty of taking a bribe. He was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000.
1932 – Benito Mussolini promises to remain dictator for 30 years
1936 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini create the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1938 – The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces Swing music as “a degenerated musical system… turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people”, warning that it leads down a “primrose path to hell”
1939 – “The Time of Your Life” by William Saroyan opened in New York City.
1940 – Benjamin Oliver Davis became the first African-American general in the United States Army.
1944 – During Battle of Leyte Gulf in Battle of Surigao Straits, U.S. battleships execute the maneuver of “”crossing the tee”” of the Japanese forces. In Battle Off Samar, escort carriers, destroyers and destroyer escorts heroically resist attacks of Japanese Center Force. In Battle Off Cape Engano, 3rd Fleet carriers attack Japanese Northern Force sinking several small carriers
1945 – Japanese surrender Taiwan to General Chiang Kai-shek
1948 – Special Council of Annulment convicts writer Friedrich Weinreb for collaboration with the Nazis
1950 – Chinese Communist Forces launch first offensive in Korea.
1951 – In Panmunjom, peace talks concerning the Korean War resumed after 63 days.
1954 – A U.S. cabinet meeting was televised for the first time.
1955 – The microwave oven, for home use, was introduced by The Tappan Company.
1957 – Cosa Nostra crime boss Albert Anastasia is murdered in a barber’s chair in New York City, probably by fellow mobster Joe Gallo
1958 – U.S. Marines withdrew from Beirut, Lebanon. They had been sent in on July 25, 1958, to protect the nation’s pro-Western government.
1960 – The Accutron watch by the Bulova Watch Company was introduced.
1962 – U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson presented photographic evidence to the United Nations Security Council. The photos were of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
1963 – Anti-Kennedy “WANTED FOR TREASON” pamphlets scattered in Dallas
1964 – Eric Cooke, the “”Moonstruck Murderer,”” is hanged in Perth for multiple killings
1970 – The wreck of Confederate submarine Hunley was found off Charleston, South Carolina, by pioneer underwater archaeologist, Dr. E. Lee Spence, then just 22 years old. Hunley was the first submarine to sink a ship in warfare.
1971 – The U.N. General Assembly voted to expel Taiwan and admit mainland China.
1972 – The Washington Post reports that White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman was the fifth person to control a secret cash fund designed to finance illegal political sabotage and espionage during the 1972 presidential election campaign
1976 – Gov Wallace grants full pardon to Clarence Norris, last known survivor of 9 Scottsboro Boys who were convicted in 1931 rape
1983 – U.S. troops and soldiers from six Caribbean nations invaded Grenada to restore order and provide protection to U.S. citizens after a recent coup within Grenada’s Communist (pro-Cuban) government.
1986 – International Red Cross ousted from South Africa
1990 – It was announced by U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney that the Pentagon was planning to send 100,000 more troops to Saudi Arabia.
1996 – The “Days of Action”, the largest one day strike in Ontario, Canada’s history, as over 250,000 protesters converged on the Ontario Legislature and attempted to shut-down Toronto, in protest to the Mike Harris government’s budget cuts
1997 – After a brief civil war which has driven President Pascal Lissouba out of Brazzaville, Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaims himself the President of the Republic of the Congo
2000 – AT&T Corp. announced that it would restructure into a family of four separately traded companies (consumer, business, broadband and wireless).
2001 – It was announced that scientists had unearthed the remains of an ancient crocodile which lived 110 million years ago. The animal, found in Gadoufaoua, Niger, grew as long as 40 feet and weighed as much as eight metric tons.
2004 – Fidel Castro, Cuba’s President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned by November 8
2013 – 74 Boko Harem members killed in a coordinated assault in Borno State, Nigeria
2017 – Chinese Premier Xi Jinping unveils his new ruling council in the Great Hall of the People, none of the five are young enough to succeed him
2018 – Google says it has fired 48 people for sexual harassment after New York Times reveals Android software creator Andy Rubin got $90M package when let go for sexual harassment
2020 – Chile overwhelmingly votes to scrap their constitution, drafted during dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet
2021 – NASA scientists announce they may have detected the first planet outside our galaxy, in Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), 28 million light-years away
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
