1981 – Donkey Kong is released by Nintendo
0118 – Hadrian, Rome’s new emperor, made his entry into the city.
0455 – Avitus, the Roman military commander in Gaul, became Emperor of the West.
1401 – Turko-Mongol ruler Tamerlane (Timur) destroys Baghdad, killing 20,000
1540 – England’s King Henry VIII had his 6-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.
1755 – Battle of Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh): French troops beat British
1776 – The American Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington’s troops in New York.
1790 – The Swedish navy captured one third of the Russian fleet at the naval battle of Svensksund in the Baltic Sea.
1795 – James Swan pays off the $2,024,899 US national debt
1816 – Argentina declares independence from Spain
1846 – The territory of the District of Columbia south of the Potomac River (39 mi² or about 100 km²) is returned to Virginia through an Act of Congress
1847 – A 10-hour work day was established for workers in the state of New Hampshire.
1850 – Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the U.S., died after only 16 months in office
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It did this by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, depriving any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
1872 – The doughnut cutter was patented by John F. Blondel.
1900 – The Commonwealth of Australia was established by an act of the British Parliament, uniting the separate colonies under a federal government.
1918 – US Congress creates Distinguished Service Medal (not to be confused with other countries’ decorations of the same name)
1939 – A meeting of 6,000 Indians, held at the Indian Sports Ground in Johannesburg South Africa, launch the Passive Resistance Campaign against apartheid and racial policy in South Africa
1943 – American and British forces made an amphibious landing on Sicily.
1947 – The engagement of Britain’s Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.
1951 – U.S. President Truman asked Congress to formally end the state of war between the United States and Germany.
1955 – The Russell-Einstein Manifesto is released by Bertrand Russell in London on the need to avoid nuclear war
1971 – The United States turned over complete responsibility of the Demilitarized Zone to South Vietnamese units.
1979 – A car bomb destroys a Renault owned by famed “Nazi hunters” Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.
1981 – Donkey Kong is released by Nintendo
1986 – Attorney General’s Commission on pornography links hard-core porn to sex crimes
1986 – The New Zealand parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Bill legalising consensual sex between men aged 16 and older
1995 – Former South African President F. W. de Klerk is implicated of knowing and condoning a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign that was waged against the ANC between 1990 and the 1994 election in a bid to destabilize the organization
2000 – Police fired tear gas at fans during a World Cup qualifying soccer game between Zimbabwe and South Africa, setting off a stampede that killed twelve people in Harare, Zimbabwe
2011 – After more than 50 years of struggle, South Sudan declares independence and becomes Africa’s 54th state.
2015 – The South Carolina House of Representatives approved taking down the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds. The flag was removed the next day and taken to a state military museum.
2018 – Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed officially end the “no war, no peace” peace deal made in 2000 in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara
2020 – McGirt v. Oklahoma, in landmark case US Supreme Court rules Congress had not disestablished Oklahoma Indian reserves
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
