1603 – Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns
1629 – In Virginia, the first game law was passed in the American colonies.
1664 – A charter to colonize Rhode Island was granted to Roger Williams in London.
1765 – Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the American colonies to house 10,000 British troops in public and private buildings.
1832 – Mormon Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio.
1837 – Canada gave blacks the right to vote
1882 – In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ (bacillus).
1906 – In Mexico, the Tehuantepec Istmian Railroad opened as a rival to the Panama Canal.
1906 – The “Census of the British Empire” revealed that England ruled 1/5 of the world.
1934 – U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act, declaring the Philippines independent after a period of 10 years
1938 – The U.S. asked that all countries help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.
1944 – In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen. Over 300 civilians were executed.
1947 – Congress proposes 2-term limitation on the presidency
1955 – The first oil drill seagoing rig was put into service.
1958 – Elvis Presley joins the U.S. Army (serial number 53310761)
1960 – A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” was not obscene and could be sent through the mail.
1965 – Millions watch NASA spacecraft Ranger 9 crash into the Moon – The U.S. space probe broadcast live pictures back to Earth, enabling TV viewers to follow its approach to the Moon and its controlled crash.
1976 – Argentine President Isabel Martínez de Perón is deposed in a military coup headed by Jorge Rafael Videla
1980 – In San Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass.
1988 – Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pled innocent to Iran-Contra charges.
1989 – Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska
1995 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal.
1998 – In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins
1999 – NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina). The attacks marked the first time in its 50-year history that NATO attacked a sovereign country. The bombings were in response to Serbia’s refusal to sign a peace treaty with ethnic Albanians who were seeking independence for the province of Kosovo.
2003 – The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.
2005 – The government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed after opposition protesters took over President Askar Akayev’s presidential compound and government offices.
2014 – It was announced that the U.S. and its allies would exclude Russia from the G8 meeting and boycott a planned summit in Sochi in response to Russia’s takeover of Crimea.
2016 – Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić found guilty of genocide during 1995 Srebrenica massacre, sentenced to 40 years
2017 – US President Donald Trump and Republican party forced to pull their attempt to repeal Obamacare after internal opposition
2019 – U.S. Attorney General William Barr released a four-page summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report in U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign. The report concluded that there was no collusion with Russia.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
