1983 – The U.S. Embassy in Beirut was blown up by a suicide car-bomber. 63 people were killed including 17 Americans. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/suicide-bomber-destroys-u-s-embassy-in-beirut
1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland
1506 – Construction of the current St. Peter’s Basilica begins, St. Peter’s in Vatican City is one of the world’s most important Catholic sites.
1521 – Martin Luther confronted the emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms and refused to retract his views that led to his excommunication.
1676 – Sudbury, Massachusetts, was attacked by Indians.
1688 – “Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery”: Francis Daniel Pastorius presents 1st formal written protest against African-American slavery in English colonies in Germantown, Pennsylvania
1775 – American revolutionaries Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode though the towns of Massachusetts giving the warning that the Regulars were coming out. Later, the phrase “the British are coming” was attributed to Revere even though it is unlikely he used that wording.
1791 – National Guardsmen prevented Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
1797 – France & Austria sign ceasefire
1818 – A regiment of Indians and black people were defeated at the Battle of Suwann, in Florida, ending the first Seminole War.
1838 – The Wilkes’ expedition to the South Pole set sail.
1846 – The telegraph ticker was patented by R.E. House
1847 – U.S. troops defeated almost 17,000 Mexican soldiers commanded by Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo. (Mexican-American War)
1861 – Colonel Robert E. Lee turned down an offer to command the Union armies during the U.S. Civil War.
1877 – Charles Cros wrote a paper that described the process of recording and reproducing sound. In France, Cros is regarded as the inventor of the phonograph. In the U.S., Thomas Edison gets the credit.
1895 – New York State passed an act that established free public baths.
1906 – San Francisco, CA, was hit with an earthquake. The original death toll was cited at about 700. Later information indicated that the death toll may have been 3 to 4 times the original estimate.
1906 – The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement
1912 – Tripolitan War: in continuing hostilities, Turkey closes the Dardanelles Straits after an Italian naval bombardment of the coastline
1924 – Simon and Schuster, Inc. published the first “Crossword Puzzle Book.”
1930 – Attempted raid on the armoury of police and auxiliary forces in Chittagong in Bengal province, British India by armed pro-independence revolutionaries led by Surya Sen popularly known as Master-da
1934 – The first Laundromat opened in Fort Worth, TX.
1937 – Leon Trotsky called for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1938 – Superman made his debut when he appeared in the first issue of Action Comics. (Cover date June 1938)
1938 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt threw out the first ball preceding the season opener between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics.
1942 – James H. Doolittle and his squadron, from the USS Hornet, raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
1942 – The Vichy government capitulated to Adolf Hitler and invited Pierre Laval to form a new government in France.
1943 – Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is shot down by American P-38 fighters.
1945 – Clandestine Radio 1212, after broadcasting pro-nazi propaganda for months used their influence to trap 350,000 German army group B troops
1945 – American war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa. He was 44 years old.
1949 – The Republic of Ireland was established.
1951 – The European Coal and Steel Community, a precursor of the European Union, is established, The Treaty of Paris was signed by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
1954 – Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power in Egypt.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco were married. The religious ceremony took place April 19.
1958 – A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound is to be released from an insane asylum.
1968 – 178,000 employees of US Bell Telephone System go on strike
1968 – London Bridge is sold to US oil company (to be erected in Arizona)
1973 – US Government ends Mandatory Oil Import Program, established in 1959 by President Eisenhower
1974 – Red Brigade kidnaps Italian attorney general Mario Sossi
1978 – The U.S. Senate approved the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999.
1980 – Rhodesia became in independent nation of Zimbabwe.
1983 – The U.S. Embassy in Beirut was blown up by a suicide car-bomber. 63 people were killed including 17 Americans. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/suicide-bomber-destroys-u-s-embassy-in-beirut
1985 – Ted Turner filed for a hostile takeover of CBS.
1985 – Tulane University abolished its 72-year-old basketball program. The reason was charges of fixed games, drug abuse, and payments to players.
1989 – Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.
1990 – Supreme Court rules states could make it a crime to possess or look at child pornography, even in one’s home
1991 – Congress ends railroad worker 1 day strike
1996 – In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces accidentally shell the UN compound at Quana
2002 – The Amtrack Auto Train derailed in a remote area of north Florida. Four people were killed and 133 were injured.
2007 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision
2012 – The Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples begins burning artworks after cultural institution budget cuts
2013 – 27 people are killed and 65 are injured in a cafe bombing in Baghdad, Iraq
2013 – Two earth-like planets are discovered orbiting the star Kepler-62
2018 – Protests begin in Managua, Nicaragua, over proposed changes to social security, protesters beaten by suspected pro-government gangs
2019 – Irish Journalist Lyra McKee shot to death covering riots in Derry, Northern Ireland with dissident republican group the New IRA claiming responsibility
2022 – US Federal judge rules as “unlawful” Biden administration’s mandate that masks be worn on public transportation
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
