1982 – The “Snowplow Game”: when a snowstorm holds a New England vs Miami game scoreless, Mark Henderson, a convict on work release, on Patriots coach Ron Meyer order, clears the path for John Smith’s attempt, which wins the game for the Patriots, 3-0
1098 – 1st Crusaders capture & plunder Mara, Syria
1279 – Discovery of a sarcophagus supposedly containing the body of Mary Magdalene in the crypt of the church of Saint-Maximin, southeastern France
1408 – Order of the Dragon: The Order of the Dragon was first created on December 12, 1408 by Emperor Sigismund, then King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje following the battle for possession of Bosnia.
1474 – Isabella crowns herself queen of Castile & Aragon
1524 – Pope Clement VII approves Organization of Jewish Community of Rome
1694 – The Royal Society censures Edmond Halley for suggesting in a paper titled ‘Some considerations about the cause of the universal deluge’ that the story of Noah’s flood could be an account of a cometary impact
1787 – Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1791 – The Bank of the United States, also known as the First Bank, opened for business in Philadelphia, PA.
1822 – Mexico officially recognized as an independent nation by US
1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black lawmaker to be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.
1897 – Anti-Jewish violence breaks out in Bucharest, Romania
1900 – Charles M. Schwab formed the United States Steel Corporation.
1901 – The first radio signal to cross the Atlantic was picked up near St. John’s Newfoundland, by inventor Guglielmo Marconi.
1906 – Oscar Straus, 1st Jewish US government member, appointed Secretary of Commerce
1912 – The Mother’s Day International Association was incorporated with the purpose of furthering meaningful observations of Mother’s Day.
1915 – The first all-metal aircraft, the German Junkers J1, made its first flight.
1917 – Father Edward Flanagan opened Boys Town in Nebraska. The farm village was for wayward boys. In 1979 it was opened to girls.
1925 – Medina surrenders to Saudi forces led by Sultan Abdulaziz Ibn Saud
1925 – The “Motel Inn,” the first motel in the world, opened in San Luis Obispo, CA.
1937 – Japanese aircraft sank the U.S. gunboat “Panay” on China’s Yangtze River. Japan apologized for the attack, and paid $2.2 million in reparations.
1946 – A United Nations committee voted to accept a six-block tract of Manhattan real estate to be the site of the UN’s headquarters. The land was offered as a gift by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
1947 – The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor.
1948 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali Massacre – 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaysia allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
1951 – The U.S. Navy Department announced that the world’s first nuclear powered submarine would become the sixth ship to bear the name Nautilus.
1955 – It was announced that the Ford Foundation gave $500,000,000 to private hospitals, colleges and medical schools.
1955 – British engineer Christopher Cockerell patented the first hovercraft.
1957 – US announces manufacture of Borazon (harder than diamond)
1957 – Willem J Kolff and his team at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic removed the heart from a dog and replaced it with a pneumatic pump which kept the dog alive for 90 minutes, proving the viability of the artificial heart
1963 – Kenya gained its independence from Britain.
1963 – Argentina asks for extradition of ex-President Juan Perón
1963 – Frank Sinatra, Jr returned by kidnappersafter his father paid the $240,000 ransom demanded
1969 – Piazza Fontana bombing, A bomb exploded at the building of the National Agrarian Bank, Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and injuring 88.
1975 – Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to a charge of trying to kill U.S. President Ford in San Francisco the previous September.
1975 – Gas stove explodes & starts fire killing 138 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
1980 – Apple makes its initial public offering on the US stock market – 38 years later it would become the first US company valued at over $1 trillion
1982 – The “Snowplow Game”: when a snowstorm holds a New England vs Miami game scoreless, Mark Henderson, a convict on work release, on Patriots coach Ron Meyer order, clears the path for John Smith’s attempt, which wins the game for the Patriots, 3-0
1982 – 20,000 women encircled Greenham Common air base in Britain in protest against proposed cite of U.S. Cruise missiles there.
1983 – Car bombs were set off in front of the French and U.S. embassies in Kuwait City. Shiite extremists were responsible for the five deaths and 86 wounded. Total of five bombs went off in different locations.
1984 – In a telephone conversation with U.S. President Reagan, William J. Schroeder complained of a delay in his Social Security benefits. Schroeder received a check the following day.
1985 – 248 American soldiers and eight crewmembers were killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed in Gander, Newfoundland after takeoff.
1989 – Britain forcibly removed 51 Vietnamese from Hong Kong and returned them to their homeland.
1989 – Leona Helmsley was fined $7 million and sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion.
1991 – At the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in California, the first web server outside of Europe was installed.
1994 – The Brazilian Supreme Court acquitted former President Fernando Collor de Mello of corruption charges that had forced him to resign in 1992.
1995 – The U.S. Senate stopped a constitutional amendment giving Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of desecration against the American flag.
1997 – Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the international terrorist known as “Carlos the Jackal,” went on trial in Paris on charges of killing two French investigators and a Lebanese national. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
1997 – The U.S. Justice Department ordered Microsoft to sell its Internet browser separately from its Windows operating system to prevent it from building a monopoly of Web access programs.
1998 – The House Judiciary Committee rejected censure, and approved the final article of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton. The case was submitted to the full House for a verdict.
2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court found that the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was unconstitutional. U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush the next day.
2000 – Timothy McVeigh, over the objections of his lawyers, abandoned his final round of appeals and asked that his execution be set within 120 days. McVeigh was convicted of the April 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Fedal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, that killed 168 and injured 500.
2001 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would implement minimum federal election standards and provide funding to help states modernize their voting systems.
2001 – Gerardo Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison for being the leader of a Cuban spy ring. His conviction was based on his role in the infiltration of U.S. military bases and in the deaths of four Cuban-Americans whose planes were shot down five years before.
2002 – North Korea announced that it would reactivate a nuclear power plant that U.S. officials believed was being used to develop weapons.
2013 – The United States announces sanctions on the two dozen companies who assisted Iran with their nuclear program
2015 – COP21 climate change summit in Paris reaches a deal between 195 countries to limit the rise in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels
2018 – American Media Inc. publisher of “National Enquirer” admits paying hush money to mistresses of US President Donald Trump
2018 – Michael Cohen, former lawyer for US President Donald Trump sentenced to three years in prison for campaign-finance violations and tax fraud
2018 – Seven mass graves in former Islamic State area discovered containing hundreds of bodies, some tortured, near Albu Kamal, eastern Syria
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
