1980 – Iran-Iraq War begins with Iraq invading Iran, It is thought to be one of the 20th century’s deadliest and longest conventional war. It ended 7 years later with no decisive victory and massive losses, both in terms of human lives and in terms of economy to both sides.
1499 – Switzerland becomes an independent state
1598 – Playwright and poet Ben Jonson is indicted for manslaughter as the result of a duel
1656 – All female jury hears case of Judith Catchpole, accused of killing her child (acquit her) in Patuxent County, Maryland
1692 – Last people hanged for witchcraft (8) in the US, 19 hanged overall, with six other deaths during Salem witch trials
1699 – People of Rotterdam strike over high cost of butter
1735 – Robert Walpole becomes the first British “Prime Minister” (actually First Lord of the Treasury) to live at 10 Downing Street
1773 – Benjamin Franklin publishes a hoax letter “An Edict by the King of Prussia” in the Public Advertiser, criticising Britain’s colonial policies in the American colonies
1789 – The U.S. Congress authorized the office of Postmaster General.
1792 – French First Republic formed by the National Convention, stripping the French king of his powers
1792 – Day one of the short-loved French Republican calendar (declared 1793, abandoned 1806)
1861 – Fort Fauntleroy (Wingate) in New Mexico fires on and kills Navajo Indians after horse race dispute
1862 – U.S. President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It stated that all slaves held within rebel states would be free as of January 1, 1863.
1868 – Race riots in New Orleans, Louisiana
1877 – Rudolf Virchow delivers an anti-Darwinian speech to the Congress of German Naturalist and Physicians, Munich where he speaks against the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools
1905 – Race riot in Atlanta Georgia (10 blacks & 2 whites killed)
1906 – Race riot in Atlanta Georgia, kills 21
1913 – Coal mine explosion kills 263 at Dawson, New Mexico
1914 – Three British cruisers were sunk by one German submarine in the North Sea. 1,400 British sailors were killed. This event alerted the British to the effectiveness of the submarine.
1920 – Chicago grand jury convenes to investigate charges that 8 White Sox players conspired to fix the 1919 World Series
1922 – US Congress passes the Cable Act, under which an American women who marries an ‘alien’ will not lose citizenship; neither will a women marrying an American automatically become a citizen
1927 – “The long count” – in a famous boxing rematch, Gene Tunney beats Jack Dempsey by 10-round unanimous decision at Soldiers Field, Chicago to retain world heavyweight title; crowd 104,943; gate $2,858,660
1937 – Date celebrated as the first International Hobbit Day and the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins
1949 – The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb successfully.
1953 – Islamic uprising in Atjeh, Indonesia
1955 – Commercial television began in Great Britain. The rules said that only six minutes of ads were allowed each hour and there was no Sunday morning TV permitted.
1961 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy signed a congressional act that established the Peace Corps.
1968 – Ceremony to mark relocation of ancient Egyptian Abu Simbel temples, honoring Ramesses II after rebuilt 200 meters inland away from Aswan Dam
1970 – US President Richard Nixon requests 1,000 new FBI agents for college campuses
1971 – OPEC directs members to negotiate price increases to offset the devaluation of the US dollar
1975 – Assassination attempt on US President Gerald Ford is foiled, FBI informant Sara Jane Moore’s attempt to assassinate the president in San Francisco failed due to a faulty gun and the efforts of ex-FBI agent Oliver Sipple who tackled her.
1980 – Iran-Iraq War begins with Iraq invading Iran, It is thought to be one of the 20th century’s deadliest and longest conventional war. It ended 7 years later with no decisive victory and massive losses, both in terms of human lives and in terms of economy to both sides.
1985 – French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius appears on TV to confess “Agents of the DGSE sank this boat [Rainbow Warrior]. They acted on orders.”
1986 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan addressed the U.N. General Assembly and voiced a new hope for arms control. He also criticized the Soviet Union for arresting U.S. journalist Nicholas Daniloff.
1988 – Canada’s government apologized for the internment of Japanese-Canadian’s during World War II. They also promised compensation.
1990 – Saudi Arabia expelled most of the Yememin and Jordanian envoys in Riyadh. The Saudi accusations were unspecific.
1991 – An article in the London newspaper “The Mail” revealed that John Cairncross admitted to being the “fifth man” in the Soviet Union’s British spy ring.
1992 – The U.N. General Assembly expelled Yugoslavia for its role in the war between Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1998 – The U.S. and Russia signed two agreements. One was to privatize Russia’s nuclear program and the other was to stop plutonium stockpiles and nuclear scientists from leaving the country.
2006 – The F-14 Tomcat retires from the United States Navy
2006 – Hezbollah claims “Divine Victory” over Israel in a massive demonstration in Beirut.
2013 – 78 people are killed in a church suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan
2015 – Volkswagen admits that 11 million cars have been wrongly programmed to appear to emit lesser emissions than they are
2016 – Police officer Betty Shelby charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting unarmed black man Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma
2019 – US President Donald Trump admits he spoke to Ukrainian President about Joe Biden’s son, after news a US intelligence officer made an official complaint about the call
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
