1979 – Greensboro massacre: Five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a “Death to the Klan” rally.
0361 – Roman Emperor Constantius II dies at Mopsucrene on route to put down his general and cousin Julian, whose troops had proclaimed him Augustus
0644 – Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim caliph, is killed by a Persian slave in Medina.
1394 – Jews are expelled from France by Charles VI
1492 – Peace of Étaples signed between Henry VII of England and Charles VIII of France, ending an English invasion of France and French support for the Yorkist Pretender Perkin Warbeck
1507 – Leonardo DaVinci was commissioned by the husband of Lisa Gherardini to paint her. The work is known as the Mona Lisa.
1534 – English parliament passes the Act of Supremacy making Henry VIII and all subsequent monarchs the Head of the Church of England
1631 – The Reverend John Eliot arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was the first Protestant minister to dedicate himself to the conversion of Native Americans to Christianity.
1679 – Great panic occurs in Europe over the close approach of a comet
1716 – Pacification Treaty of Warsaw: Tsar Peter the Great guarantees Saxon monarch August I’s Polish kingdom
1783 – John Austin, a highwayman, is the last to be publicly hanged at London’s Tyburn gallows.
1793 – French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined
1796 – John Adams was elected the 2nd U.S. President.
1813 – US troops under General Coffee annihilate the Red Stick Creek Indian village at Tallasseehatchee, Alabama
1838 – The Times of India, the world’s largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce
1839 – The first Opium War between China and Britain erupted.
1848 – A greatly revised constitution, drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, severely limiting the powers of the Dutch monarchy, and strengthening the powers of the parliament and the ministers, is proclaimed. This constitution is still in effect today
1868 – John Willis Menard from Louisiana is elected the first black US Congressman (opposition to his election means he never sits in Congress)
1883 – American Old West: Self-described “”Black Bart the poet”” gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture
1885 – Tacoma vigilantes drive out Chinese, burn their homes & businesses
1888 – Jack the Ripper kills last victim
1892 – The first automatic telephone went into service at LaPorte, IN. The device was invented by Almon Strowger.
1900 – The first automobile show in the United States opened at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
1903 – Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia.
1905 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia signs a document of amnesty for the political prisoners
1911 – Chevrolet Motor Car Company was founded by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant.
1916 – Treaty establishes British suzerainty over Qatar
1918 – Poland proclaims independence from Russia after WW I
1930 – The Detroit-Windsor traffic tunnel opens lining the Canadian and American cities
1935 – George II of Greece regains his throne through a popular plebiscite.
1941 – U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Grew warned that the Japanese may be planning a sudden attack on the U.S.
1942 – Battle of El Alamein ends in the North African desert in WWII
1944 – World War II: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Jn Golian and Rudolf Viest are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces
1952 – Frozen bread was offered for sale for the first time in a supermarket in Chester, NY.
1954 – Godzilla released- The Japanese science fiction starring a mutated monster of the same name became an instant hit.
1957 – Sputnik II was launched by the Soviet Union. It was the second manmade satellite to be put into orbit and was the first to put an animal into space, a dog named Laika.
1961 – UN General Assembly unanimously elects U Thant as acting Secretary-General after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash
1964 – Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time.
1970 – US President Richard Nixon promises gradual troop removal of Vietnam
1973 – The U.S. launched the Mariner 10 spacecraft. On March 29, 1974 it became the first spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury.
1975 – An independent audit of Mattel, one of the United States’s largest toy manufacturers, reveals that company officials fabricated press releases and financial information to “maintain the appearance of continued corporate growth.”
1979 – Greensboro massacre: Five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a “Death to the Klan” rally.
1984 – 3,000 die in 3 day anti-Sikh riot in India as the body of assassinated Indian PM Indira Gandhi cremated
1986 – The Ash-Shiraa, pro-Syrian Lebanese magazine, first broke the story of U.S. arms sales to Iran to secure the release of seven American hostages. The story turned into the Iran-Contra affair.
1987 – China told the U.S. that it would halt the sale of arms to Iran.
1988 – Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries try to overthrow the Maldivian government. At President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s request, the Indian military suppresses the coup attempt within 24 hours.
1991 – Israeli and Palestinian representatives held their first-ever face-to-face talks in Madrid, Spain.
1992 – Carol Moseley-Braun became the first African-American woman U.S. senator.
1994 – Susan Smith of Union, SC, was arrested for drowning her two sons. Nine days earlier Smith had claimed that the children had been abducted by a black carjacker.
1995 – U.S. President Clinton dedicated a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery to the 270 victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
1998 – Minnesota elected Jesse “The Body” Ventura, a former pro wrestler, as its governor.
2002 – At Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong, 777 people assembled a 58,435 square foot jigsaw puzzle with 21,600 pieces.
2003 – In Kabul, Afghanistan, a post-Taliban draft constitution was unveiled.
2004 – With no sign the lockout of its players will end in the near future, the National Hockey League cancels 2005 All-Star Game scheduled for February in Atlanta
2007 – Pervez Musharraf declares emergency rule across Pakistan, suspends the Constitution, imposes a State of Emergency and fires the chief justice of the Supreme Court
2012 – Syrian rebels launch a major assault on Taftanaz airbase
2014 – In New York City, One World Trade Center opened for business.
2017 – Pakistani woman charged with poisoning 17 members of husband’s family in attempt to escape forced marriage in Punjab Province
2018 – Truck loses control hitting 31 cars and killing at least 15 people near a tollbooth in Lanzhou, China
2019 – Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil producer Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, announces its plans to go public
2021 – US begins vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 years with a lower dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
2022 – Oregon approves drug-policy reform ballot legalizing psilocybin (magic) mushrooms for use in therapy, along with decriminalizes possession of small amounts of drugs
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
