2003 – Saddam Hussein Captured, Saddam Hussein, the fifth president of Iraq, was found hiding in a camouflaged hole in the ground and was captured by American forces near Tikrit, Iraq. The military operation that led to his capture was called Operation Red Dawn. He was subsequently handed over to the interim Iraqi government. After a trial where he was found guilty of crimes against humanity, he was executed 3 years after his capture in December 2006.
1294 – Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
1355 – The greatest traveller of his age, Ibn Battuta of Tangier completes his work “The Travels” detailing his 29 years spent travelling the Islamic world and beyond, including to India, China and Indonesia
1577 – Five ships under the command of Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe. The journey took almost three years.
1636 – The United States National Guard was created when militia regiments were organized by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1642 – New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman.
1732 – Prussia joins Austria and Russia in signing the Treaty of Berlin, a secret treaty regarding succession to the Polish throne
1774 – Paul Revere and Wentworth Cheswell ride to warn Portsmouth of the approach of British warships
1809 – The first abdominal surgical procedure was performed in Danville, KY, on Jane Todd Crawford. The operation was performed without an anesthetic.
1862 – In America, an estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded when Union forces were defeated by Confederates under General Robert E. Lee, at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
1864 – War of the Triple Alliance: Paraguay officially declares war on Brazil, invades the next day
1883 – The border between Ontario and Manitoba was established.
1902 – British and German ships bombard Venezuelan forts after President Castro refuses to comply with ultimatum demanding damages caused during his takeover of the government in 1899; Castro asks US President Theodore Roosevelt to arbitrate
1913 – It was announced by authorities in Florence, Italy, that the “Mona Lisa” had been recovered. The work was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911.
1918 – U.S. President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit a European country while holding office.
1920 – Francis G. Pease’s interferometer at Mount Wilson Observatory is the first to measure the diameter of a star – the Betelgeuse
1921 – Britain, France, Japan and the United States signed the Pacific Treaty.
1937 – Japanese forces took the Chinese city of Nanking (Nanjing). An estimated 200,000 Chinese were killed over the next six weeks. The event became known as the “Rape of Nanking.”
1944 – During World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze suicide attack. 138 people were killed in the attack.
1949 – Knesset votes to transfer Israel’s capital to Jerusalem
1964 – In El Paso, TX, President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande River, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border. This ended a century-old border dispute.
1966 – The rights to the first four Super Bowls were sold to CBS and NBC for total of $9.5 million.
1972 – Last human landing on the Moon, Apollo 17 was the last mission of the United States’ Apollo lunar landing program. It was also the sixth and the last time humans landed on the Moon.
1977 – 14 University of Evansville basketball players die in plane crash
1980 – Three days after a disputed general election, Uganda’s President Milton Obote was returned to office.
1981 – Authorities in Poland imposed martial law in an attempt to crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. Martial law ended formally in 1983.
1982 – The Sentry Armored Car Company in New York discovered that $11 million had been stolen from its headquarters overnight. It was the biggest cash theft in U.S. history.
1987 – U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark, that the Reagan administration would begin making funding requests for the proposed Star Wars defense system.
1988 – PLO chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva, where it had reconvened after the United States had refused to grant Arafat a visa to visit New York.
1988 – A bankruptcy judge in Columbia, SC, ordered the assets of the troubled PTL television ministry sold to a Toronto real estate developer for $65 million.
1989 – South African President F.W. de Klerk met for the first time with imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, at de Klerk’s office in Cape Town.
1991 – Five Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union agreed to join the new Commonwealth of Independent States.
1991 – North Korea and South Korea signed a historic non-aggression agreement.
1993 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people must receive a hearing before property linked to illegal drug sales can be seized.
1995 – US Federal Court votes that Cable companies must carry local stations
1998 – Puerto Rican voters rejected U.S. statehood in a non-binding referendum.
2000 – U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the 2000 Presidential election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The Florida electoral votes were won by only 537 votes, which decided the election. The election had been contested up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which said that the Florida recount (supported by the Florida Supreme Court) was unconstitutional.
2000 – Seven convicts, the “Texas 7,” escaped from Connally Unit in Kenedy, TX, southeast of San Antonio, by overpowering civilian workers and prison employees. They fled with stolen clothing, pickup truck and 16 guns and ammunition.
2001 – The U.S. government released a video tape that showed Osama bin Laden and others discussing their knowledge of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
2001 – Gunmen stormed the Indian Parliament and killed seven people and injured 18. Security forces killed the attackers during a 90-minute gunbattle.
2001 – NBC-TV announced that it would begin running hard liquor commercials. NBC issued a 19-point policy that outlined the conditions for accepting liquor ads.
2001 – Michael Frank Goodwin was arrested and booked on two counts of murder, one count of conspiracy and three special circumstances (lying in wait, murder for financial gain and multiple murder) in connection to the death of Mickey Thompson. Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway on March 16, 1988. Thompson, known as the “Speed King,” set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.
2003 – Saddam Hussein Captured, Saddam Hussein, the fifth president of Iraq, was found hiding in a camouflaged hole in the ground and was captured by American forces near Tikrit, Iraq. The military operation that led to his capture was called Operation Red Dawn. He was subsequently handed over to the interim Iraqi government. After a trial where he was found guilty of crimes against humanity, he was executed 3 years after his capture in December 2006.
2007 – The Mitchell Report is publicly released listing the names of 89 Major League Baseball players that have presumably used anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Notable players named include Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada.
2012 – A car bombing in Qatana, outside Damascus, kills 16 people and injures 12
2014 – A civil rights protest march in Washington, D.C. takes place, against the police killing of unarmed black men
2014 – The British Government announces it will send hundreds of troops to Iraq, to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the conflict with Islamic State
2016 – UN claims 82 civilians have been summary executed in Aleppo by pro-government forces
2017 – Scientists begin checking interstellar asteroid Oumuamua for signs of alien technology through radio signals (later studies conclude it a piece of sliced off planet)
2018 – US Senate passes non-binding “war powers resolution” against long-term ally Saudi Arabia
2021 – 1 in a 100 Americans aged over 65 has now died of COVID-19, or 75% of total deaths, according to the CDC
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
