2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal trade status with the United States.
0537 – Hagia Sophia inaugurated by the Emperor Justinian I as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral
1437 – Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of Bohemia
1512 – The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regards to native Indians in the New World.
1521 – The “Zwickau Prophets” appear in Wittenberg
1610 – Paris France, Hélène Boullé de Champlain, age 12, signs marriage contract with 40 year old Samuel de Champlain; daughter of a wealthy secretary to Louis XIII
1657 – “Flushing Remonstrance” petition signed in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, protesting the ban on Quaker worship
1703 – The Methuen Treaty was signed between Portugal and England, giving preference to the import of Portuguese wines into England.
1825 – First public railroad using steam locomotive completed in England
1831 – Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. Darwin’s discoveries during the voyage helped him form the basis of his theories on evolution.
1845 – Dr. Crawford Williamson Long used anesthesia for childbirth for the first time. The event was the delivery of his own child in Jefferson, GA.
1892 – Foundation Stone of the Cathedral of St John laid (New York NY)
1900 – Carrie Nation staged her first raid on a saloon at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, KS. She broke each and every one of the liquor bottles that could be seen.
1904 – James Barrie’s play “Peter Pan” premiered in London.
1915 – US Iron and Steel workers begin a 3-week strike in Ohio for a eight-hour-day; they are successful as the US needs steel for armaments
1918 – The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.
1923 – Namba Daisuke, a Japanese student, tries to assassinate the Prince Regent Hirohito
1924 – The US signs a treaty with the Dominican Republic, which supersedes that of 1907: in July, the Us had withdrawn its Marines and ended its occupation
1926 – Latkin Square in Bronx named for first US Jewish soldier to die in WW I
1927 – Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
1932 – Emperor Hirohito of Japan narrowly evades an assassination attempt by a Korean independence activist, Lee Bong-chang
1934 – Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi declares Persia now Iran
1937 – German immigration officials with no explanation bar Juan Carlos Zabala (Arg), 1932 Olympic marathon champion, from entering Germany
1941 – Japan bombs Manila even though it was declared an “open city”
1943 – France transfers most of her powers in Lebanon to Lebanese government
1945 – The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.
1947 – The children’s television program “Howdy Doody,” hosted by Bob Smith, made its debut on NBC.
1949 – Indonesian Independence, The Southeast Asian country’s independence came after 4 years of revolution and struggle. In August 1945, Sukarno signed the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, which was formally accepted and recognized by the Dutch in 1949.
1951 – In Cincinnati, OH, a Crosley automobile, with a steering wheel on the right side, became the first vehicle of its kind to be placed in service for mail delivery.
1961 – Belgium & Congo resume diplomatic relations
1965 – The BP oil rig Sea Gem capsized in the North Sea, with the loss of 13 lives.
1968 – “The Breakfast Club” signed off for the last time on ABC radio, after 35 years on the air.
1971 – Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock of Charles Schulz’ “Peanuts” comic strip were on the cover of “Newsweek” magazine.
1978 – Spain adopted a new constitution and became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.
1979 – Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal succeeded President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed.
1983 – Propane gas fire devastated 16 blocks of Buffalo
1985 – Dian Fossey, an American naturalist, was found murdered at a research station in Rawanda.
1988 – Bulgaria stops jamming Radio Free Europe after more than 3 decades
1992 – The U.S. shot down an Iraqi fighter jet during what the Pentagon described as a confrontation between a pair of Iraqi warplanes and U.S. F-16 jets in U.N.-restricted airspace over southern Iraq.
1996 – Muslim fundamentalist Taliban forces retook the strategic air base of Bagram, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.
1997 – In Northern Ireland, Billy Wright was assassinated. He was imprisoned as a Protestant paramilitary leader.
2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal trade status with the United States.
2002 – Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya.
2004 – Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.
2007 – Benazir Bhutto assassinated, The former Prime Minister of Pakistan was killed after a shooting and the detonation of a suicide bomb while campaigning for the upcoming elections in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
2009 – A consortium led by Korea Electric Power gets a US$20.4-billion contract to build nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, the largest-ever energy deal in the Middle East.
2011 – Israelis Protest Against Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Extremism
2012 – NASA unveils plans to capture a 500 ton asteroid in 2025
2013 – GM Recalls Vehicles in China – General Motors announced a recall of over 1.4 million cars in China. The recall focused on an issue with a securing an oil pump.
2015 – Iraqi forces retake IS held city of Ramadi (ISIS first captured in May)
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com