1521 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
1565 – The first Spanish settlement in Philippines was established in Cebu City.
1667 – Blind and impoverished, English poet John Milton sells the copyright of “Paradise Lost” for £10
1773 – British Parliament passes Tea Act
1805 – A force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.
1813 – Americans under Gen. Pike capture York (present day Toronto) the seat of government in Ontario.
1861 – West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union during the American Civil War.
1861 – U.S. President Lincoln issued an order to General Winfield Scott that authorized him to suspend the writ of habeas corpus between Philadelphia and Washington at or near any military line. https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/order-president-abraham-lincoln-general-winfield-scott-suspending-writ-habeas
1865 – Steamboat “SS Sultana” explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home.
1880 – Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.
1897 – Grant’s Tomb was dedicated.
1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore (for the time being) of the United States Senate
1938 – Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.
1940 – Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1943 – Witold Pilecki escapes from Auschwitz after having voluntarily been imprisoned there to gain information about the Holocaust
1950 – South Africa passed the Group Areas Act, which formally segregated races.
1953 – The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.
1953 – Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term “Pencil neck geek”
1960 – The submarine Tullibee was launched from Groton, CT. It was the first sub to be equipped with closed-circuit television.
1961 – The United Kingdom granted Sierra Leone independence
1972 – NYC Mayor John Lindsey appeals that John Lennon not be deported
1978 – Cooling tower collapses at a coal-fired power plant at Willow Island, West Virginia, kills 51
1982 – The trial of John W. Hinckley Jr. began in Washington. Hinckley was later acquitted by reason of insanity for the shooting of U.S. President Reagan and three others.
1982 – China proposed a new constitution that would radically alter the structure of the national government.
1986 – Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) interrupted HBO.
1986 – Soviet authorities order the evacuation of the city of Pripyat (pop. 50,000) 1 day after the Chernobyl nuclear accident
1987 – The U.S. Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the U.S. He claimed that he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1989 – Student protestors took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
1992 – For the first time in its 700-year history, the British House of Commons is presided over by a female Speaker – Betty Boothroyd served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1992 to 2000.
1994 – South African citizens of all races are allowed to vote in a general election for the first time – The 1994 general election was held precisely 44 years after Apartheid was formalized by the government with the passing of the Group Areas Act.
2002 – The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10
2011 – U.S. President Barack Obama, coerced by incessant false “birther” accusations, publicly releases a copy of his birth certificate
2018 – Historic Korean summit, the North’s Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in of South Korea agree to officially end Korean war and rid peninsula of nuclear weapons
2019 – Shooter opens fire in a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one and injuring three
2020 – US Defense Department declassifies and releases videos of unidentified “aerial phenomena” from 2004 and 2015
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
