1999 – The Columbine High School massacre leaves 15 people (including the two gunmen) dead and 24 wounded in Jefferson County, Colorado.
1139 – The Second Lateran Council opened in Rome.
1290 – Round Table tournament held near Winchester, England, in imitation of King Arthur, to commemorate betrothal of daughter of Edward I, and attended by the king
1303 – The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.
1505 – Jews are expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg
1534 – Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, set sail from St. Malo to explore the North American coastline.
1611 – First known performance of Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth at the Globe Theatre, London, recorded by Simon Forman
1653 – Oliver Cromwell and 40 musketeers forcibly dissolve the English Rump Parliament, after it failed to establish a caretaker government. In Cromwell’s words “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately … In the name of God, go!”
1657 – Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).
1689 – The siege of Londonderry began. Supporters of James II attacked the city.
1769 – In Cahokia Illinois, Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, murdered by an Illinois Indian; six years earlier he helped lead the Ottawa, Hurons (Wyandots), Potawatomis and Ojibwas in a rising against the British garrisons on the Great Lakes.
1775 – American troops began the siege of British-held Boston.
1792 – France declared war on Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia. It was the start of the French Revolutionary wars.
1809 – Napoleon defeated Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria.
1832 – Hot Springs National Park was intially created by an act of the U.S. Congress. It was the first time a piece of land was set aside by the U.S. government to preserve the area for recreation. The area was made a national park on March 4, 1921.
1841 – In Philadelphia, PA, Edgar Allen Poe’s first detective story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” was published in Graham’s Magazine.
1865 – Safety matches were first advertised.
1879 – First mobile home (horse drawn) was used in a journey from London to Cyprus.
1902 – Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive element radium.
1912 – Fenway Park opened as the home of the Boston Red Sox.
1914 – Ludlow Massacre: Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) security team and Colorado National Guard soldiers kill 21 workers, women and children during mine strike in Ludlow, Colorado
1916 – Sir Roger Casement landed in Ireland to incite rebellion against the British. Casement, a British diplomat, was captured within hours and was hanged for high treason on August 3.
1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day
1919 – The Polish Army captured Vilno, Lithuania from the Soviets.
1926 – 1st check sent by radio facsimile transmission across Atlantic
1934 – Heinrich Himmler appointed chief of all German police including the Prussian secret state police
1936 – Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
1940 – The First electron microscope was demonstrated by RCA.
1942 – Pierre Laval, the premier of Vichy France, in a radio broadcast, establishes a policy of “true reconciliation with Germany.”
1945 – Soviet troops began their attack on Berlin.
1951 – A human organ is surgically replaced for the first time – Romanian surgeon Dan Gavriliu used a section of the stomach to bypass the esophagus.
1953 – Operation Little Switch began in Korea. It was the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of war. Thirty Americans were freed.
1961 – FM stereo broadcasting was approved by the FCC.
1962 – The New Orleans Citizens’ Council offered a free one-way ride for black people to move to northern states.
1964 – 86% of black students boycott Cleveland schools
1968 – English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.
1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.
1972 – The manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.
1977 – Supreme Court rules “Live Free or Die” may be covered on NH licenses
1978 – Soviet air defense shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 902
1982 – Businessman Peter Pocklington held hostage in his home for almost 12 hours by a gunman demanding $1 million
1984 – Britain announced that its administration of Hong Kong would cease in 1997.
1985 – In Madrid, Santiago Carillo was purged from the Communist Party. Carillo was a founder of Eurocommunism.
1987 – In Argentina, President Raul Alfonsin quelled a military revolt.
1988 – The U.S. Air Forces’ Stealth (B-2 bomber) was officially unveiled.
1993 – Uranus passes Neptune (once every 171 years)
1994 – Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze Bosnia, 47 killed
1998 – German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
1999 – The Columbine High School massacre leaves 15 people (including the two gunmen) dead and 24 wounded in Jefferson County, Colorado.
2004 – In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92
2007 – Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a hand gun barricades himself in NASA’s Johnson Space Center before killing a male hostage and himself.
2010 – The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes – The explosion of the British Petroleum (BP) platform operated by Transocean killed 11 workers and led to the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.
2016 – The U.S. Treasury Department announced a plan for Harriet Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson as the portrait on the $20 bill.
2017 – Terrorist attack on police van on Champs Élysées, Paris 1 police officer killed, 2 injured
2018 – Mexican court bars sales of controversial Frida Kahlo Barbie doll
2020 – Price of US oil turns negative for the 1st time in history – West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, falls as low as minus $37.63 a barrel as worldwide demand falls
2021 – President of Chad for three decades, Idriss Déby reported to have been killed on a battlefield fighting rebels near the capital of Ndjamena
2023 – 136 people massacred in village of Karma, Burkina Faso, one of the country worst attacks on civilians, blamed on the country’s security forces.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
