845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving
1461 – Edward IV secured his claim to the English thrown by defeating Henry VI’s Lancastrians at the battle of Towdon.
1638 – First permanent European settlement in Delaware was established.
1673 – English King Charles II accepts Test Act: Roman Catholics excluded from public functions
1798 – Republic of Switzerland forms
1804 – Thousands of Whites massacred in Haiti
1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway
1847 – U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott took possession of the Mexican stronghold at Vera Cruz.
1848 – Niagara Falls stopped flowing for one day due to an ice jam.
1867 – The British Parliament passed the North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada.
1867 – US Congress first approves building of Lincoln Memorial
1906 – In the U.S., 500,000 coal miners walked off the job seeking higher wages.
1912 – Robert Scott makes his final diary entry – Scott wrote: “We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.” The British explorer and his companions died on an expedition to the South Pole.
1936 – Nazi propaganda claims 99% of Germans voted for Nazi candidates
1943 – In the U.S. rationing of meat, butter and cheese began during World War II.
1951 – In the United States, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were executed in June 19, 1953.
1961 – The 23rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment allowed residents of Washington, DC, to vote for president.
1961 – After a 4½ year trial Nelson Mandela is acquitted of treason in Pretoria
1966 – Leonid Brezhnev became the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounced the American policy in Vietnam and called it one of aggression.
1968 – Students seize building at Bowie (Maryland) State College
1971 – Lt. William Calley Jr., of the U.S. Army, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of at least 22 Vietnamese civilians. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial was the result of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968.
1973 – The last U.S. troops left South Vietnam.
1974 – The Terracotta Army is discovered in Xi’an, China – The famous collection of some 8000 soldier sculptures, depicting Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s army, was located by local farmers when they were digging a water well.
1974 – Mariner 10, the U.S. space probe became the first spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury. It had been launched on November 3, 1973.
1974 – Eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. All the guardsmen were later acquitted.
1992 – Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton said “I didn’t inhale and I didn’t try it again” in reference to when he had experimented with marijuana.
1993 – The South Korean government agreed to pay financial support to women who had been forced to have sex with Japanese troops during World War II
1994 – Serbs & Croats sign a cease-fire to end the war in Croatia
1995 – The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional amendment that would have limited terms to 12 years in the U.S. House and Senate.
2010 – Two Chechen suicide bombers detonate their devices in the Moscow underground – 40 people died in the attack allegedly carried out by so-called “black widows”, or Islamist Chechen female suicide bombers.
2013 – 10 people are killed and 31 are injured by a blast outside the US consulate in Pakistan
2015 – Nigerian General Election – voting is extended to a 2nd day. death toll from Boko Haram attacks at 43
2017 – UK Prime Minister Theresa May sends a letter to the EU invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, formally triggering Brexit
2021 – Trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd begins in Minneapolis
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
