1170 – St. Thomas Becket, the 40th archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights acting on Henry II’s orders.
1812 – The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.
1813 – The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.
1835 – Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2019/04/24/treaty-new-echota/
1845 – U.S. President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.
1890 – The U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, SD. This was the last major conflict between Indians and U.S. troops.
1940 – Worst German air raid on London as over 10,000 bombs including the 1st incendiary bombs are dropped on the city as part of the Blitz
1945 – The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, “Truth or Consequences”, hosted by Ralph Edwards.
1949 – KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule.
1967 – Star Trek’s “Trouble With Tribbles” 1st airs
1970 – Occupational Safety and Health Act (United States) signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon
1972 – Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of “LIFE” magazine hit the newsstands. The magazine later became a monthly publication.
1975 – A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York’s LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.
1983 – US formally notifies UNESCO that it will withdraw from the organization on the Jan 1, 1985, in protest over perceived anti-Western bias, efforts to restrict press freedom and wasteful management methods
1989 – Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country’s Federal Assembly. He was the first non-Communist to hold the position in more than four decades.
1997 – Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of ‘bird flu.’
2013 – 16 people are killed and 40 are wounded by a suicide bomb attack at Volgograd-1 railway station, Russia
2016 – US President Barack Obama retaliates against Russia for hacking American computer systems and trying to influence the 2016 presidential election by ejecting 35 Russian spies and imposing sanctions
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
