1865 – At Appomattox Court House, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor of Wilmer McClean’s home. Grant allowed Rebel officers to keep their sidearms and permitted soldiers to keep their horses and mules. Though there were still Confederate armies in the field, the war was officially over. The four years of fighting had killed 360,000 Union troops and 260,000 Confederate troops.
0193 – Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans)
0715 – Constantine ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
0817 – Louis the Pious, King of the Franks, barely survives when wooden gallery collapses in Aachen, prompts him to later name his succession
1241 – Battle of Liegnitz – Mongolian armies inflict one of the largest defeats in Polish history on Polish and Germans force led by Henry of Silesia with 20-25,000 killed or massacred, including Henry
1454 – The city states of Venice, Milan and Florence signed a peace agreement at Lodi, Italy.
1483 – Edward V (aged 12) succeeds his father Edward IV as king of England. He is never crowned, and disappears presumed murdered, after incarceration in the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard (the “Princes in the Tower”)
1595 – Spanish Mendaña and Queirós Expedition departs Callao, Peru, led by Alvaro de Mendan accompanied by 378 men, women and children in four ships to colonise the Solomon Islands (find Marquesas instead)
1667 – In Paris, The first public art exhibition was held at the Palais-Royale.
1682 – Louisiana USA – René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle erects a cross and proclaims the Mississippi delta the property of Louis XIV
1766 – The first fire escape patented, wicker basket on a pulley & chain
1768 – John Hancock refuses to allow two British customs agents to go below deck of his ship, considered by some to be the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies
1770 – Captain James Cook discovered Botany Bay on the Australian continent.
1831 – Robert Jenkins loses an ear, starts war between Britain and Spain
1833 – Peterborough, NH, opened the first municipally supported public library in the United States.
1865 – At Appomattox Court House, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor of Wilmer McClean’s home. Grant allowed Rebel officers to keep their sidearms and permitted soldiers to keep their horses and mules. Though there were still Confederate armies in the field, the war was officially over. The four years of fighting had killed 360,000 Union troops and 260,000 Confederate troops.
1866 – The Civil Rights Bill passed over U.S. President Andrew Johnson’s veto.
1867 – The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty with Russia that purchased the territory of Alaska by one vote.
1869 – The Hudson Bay Company ceded its territory to Canada.
1870 – The American Anti-Slavery Society was dissolved.
1900 – British forces routed the Boers at Kroonstadt, South Africa.
1909 – The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.
1913 – The Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ebbets Field opened.
1914 – US President Woodrow Wilson refuses to recognize Victoriano Huerta as President of Mexico on the ground that the dictator has not been elected by the people
1916 – The German army launched it’s third offensive during the Battle of Verdun.
1917 – The Battle of Arras began as Canadian troops began a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
1918 – Latvia proclaimed its independence.
1921 – The Russo-Polish conflict ended with signing of Riga Treaty.
1923 – In ‘Adkins vs Children’s Hospital’, the US Supreme Court finds that the minimum wage law for women and children, adopted by the District of Columbia, is unconstitutional
1935 – Works Progress Administration approved by Congress
1940 – Nazi Germany invades Denmark and Norway, and Denmark surrenders after a six-hour battle
1942 – Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March: American and Filipino forces were overwhelmed by the Japanese Army.
1943 – Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya convicted of involvement with Mau Mau
1945 – National Football League officials decreed that it was mandatory for football players to wear socks in all league games.
1947 – The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws.
1948 – Jorge Elicer Gaitn’s assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogot (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in all of Colombia (La violencia)
1952 – Hugo Ballivian’s government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalisation of tin mines
1957 – The Suez Canal was cleared for all shipping.
1959 – Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States’ first seven astronauts, which the news media quickly dub the “Mercury Seven”.
1963 – Winston Churchill became the first honorary U.S. citizen.
1965 – “TIME” magazine featured a cover with the entire “Peanuts” comic gang.
1968 – Murdered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was buried.
1969 – The “Chicago Eight” plead not guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois
1973 – Otto Kerner, former governor of Illinois, convicted for his role in an illegal racetrack scheme
1975 – 24 OECD members sign an agreement to establish a $25 billion lending facility to provide assistance to industrial nations hurt by high oil prices
1976 – The U.S. and Russia agreed on the size of nuclear tests for peaceful use.
1980 – Israeli troops move into Lebanon
1981 – The U.S. Submarine George Washington struck and sunk a small Japanese freighter in the East China Sea. The Nissho Maru’s captain and first mate died.
1984 – Nicaragua asked the World Court to declare U.S. support for guerilla raids illegal.
1985 – Japanese Premier Nakasone urged Japanese people to buy foreign products.
1987 – Dikye Baggett became the first person to undergo corrective surgery for Parkinson’s disease.
1989 – Hundreds of thousands marched past the White House in support of the right to abortion.
1991 – Georgia voted to secede from the U.S.S.R.
1992 – Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in Miami, FL, of eight drug and racketeering charges.
1998 – The National Prisoner of War Museum opened in Andersonville, GA, at the site of an infamous Civil War camp.
1999 – In Niger, President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was assassinated. Daouda Malam Wanke was designated president two days later.
2011 – Gunman murders five people, injures eleven, and commits suicide in a mall in the Netherlands
2013 – 12 civilians and UN peacekeepers are killed in an ambush in Jonglei, Sudan
2017 – Two Egyptian coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria attacked by suicide bombers leaving at least 44 dead
2019 – Nine prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters found guilty on public nuisance charges for their part in 2014 “Umbrella Movement”
2021 – Uganda opposition party National Unity Platform Party, headed by Bobi Wine, claims 623 people have been abducted and tortured by the government of President Yoweri Museveni
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
