1793 – Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for “high treason” by the newly created French Parliament (Convention nationale), during the French Revolution
1077 – German King Henry IV petitions Pope Gregory VII for forgiveness
1189 – Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.
1522 – Head inquisitor Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected pope
1525 – The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz’s mother in Zrich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union
1604 – Tsar Ivan IV defeats the False Dmitri, who claims to be the true tsar
1643 – Dutch mariner Abel Tasman discovers Tonga in the Pacific
1677 – The first medical publication in America (pamphlet on smallpox), Boston
1789 – W.H. Brown’s “Power of Sympathy” was published. It was the first American novel to be published. The novel is also known as the “Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth”.
1793 – During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was executed on the guillotine. He had been condemned for treason.
1799 – Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccination is introduced
1812 – The Y-bridge in Zanesville, OH, was approved for construction.
1827 – Freedom Journal, first Black paper, begins publishing
1846 – The first issue of the “Daily News,” edited by Charles Dickens, was published.
1861 – The future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, resigned from the U.S. Senate. Four other Southerners also resigned.
1865 – An oil well was drilled by torpedoes for the first time.
1899 – Opel manufactured its first automobile .
1900 – Canadian troops set sail to fight in South Africa. The Boers had attacked Ladysmith on January 8, 1900.
1908 – In New York City, the Sullivan Ordinance was passed. It made smoking in public places by women illegal. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. two weeks later.
1911 – The first Monte Carlo car rally was held. Seven days later it was won by Henri Rougier.
1915 – The first Kiwanis club was formed in Detroit, MI.
1924 – Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died. Joseph Stalin began a purge of his rivals for the leadership of the Soviet Union.
1925 – Albanian parliament announces itself a republic; Ahmed Zogoe President
1941 – Anti-Jewish riots take place in Rumania. Gangs of Rumanian Legionnaires hunt for Jews, loot and beat Jews in the street, desecrate 25 synagogues, destroy hundreds of homes and shops, and butcher hundreds of Jews.
1942 – Bronx magistrate rules all pinball machines illegal
1945 – The Brazilian Expeditionary Force leads an allied attack on Monte Castelo in Italy, the only participation of South American troops in World War II
1950 – Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
1954 – The Nautilus was launched in Groton, CT. It was the first atomic-powered submarine. U.S. First Lady Mamie Eisenhower broke the traditional bottle of champagne across the bow.
1968 – US B-52 bombers with nuclear bomb crashes in Greenland
1970 – The Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight from New York to London for Pan American.
1976 – The French Concorde SST aircraft began regular commercial service for Air France and British Airways.
1977 – President Carter pardoned American Vietnam War-era draft evaders and ordered a case-by-case study of deserters.
1980 – Canada expels three diplomats from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa for spying; caught buying secret information from an American citizen in Ottawa.
1983 – In Regina Saskatchewan Joanne Wilson found murdered in her garage; ex-wife of politician Colin Thatcher, son of ex-Premier Ross Thatcher, who will be found guilty of first-degree murder
1986 – Bomb attack in East-Beirut, 27 killed
1988 – US accept immigration of 30,000 US-Vietnamese children
1991 – CBS News correspondent Bob Simon captured by Iraqis in Persian Gulf
1994 – A jury in Manassas, VA, acquitted Lorena Bobbitt by reason of temporary insanity of maliciously wounding (severing his penis) her husband John. She accused him of sexually assaulting her.
1997 – Newt Gingrich was fined as the U.S. House of Representatvies voted for first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.
1999 – The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a ship headed for Houston, TX, that had over 9,500 pounds of cocaine aboard. It was one of the largest drug busts in U.S. history.
2002 – In London, a 17th century book by Capt. John Smith, founder of the English settlement at Jamestown, was sold at auction for $48,800. “The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles” was published in 1632.
2003 – Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, was indicted by a grand jury on murder charges stemming from the Washington area sniper attacks
2005 – In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government’s new taxes erupts into riots
2008 – Fears of a possible US recession cause a Black Monday for global stock markets, European stocks suffer their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%
2010 – President Barack Obama proposes the “Volcker Rule,” a rule proposed by Paul Volcker intended to restrict risky trading by United States banks
2017 – More than 2 million people protest worldwide in the ‘Women’s March’ against Donald Trump, with 500,000 marching in Washington, D.C.
2018 – Gambian Dictator Yahya Jammeh finally concedes office and leaves Gambia 2 months after losing the presidential election
2020 – World’s oldest asteroid impact at 2.2 billion years old found in Yarrabubba, Western Australia, may have ended an ice age, reported in “Nature Communications”
2023 – 72 year-old gunman shoots and kills eleven people, injuring nine, at dance studio in Monterey Park, California. Attempts second killing nearby before being surrounded and killing himself.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
