1984 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”
3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins
2492 BC – Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation.
0586 BC – The First Temple (originally built by King Solomon) is destroyed by the Babylonians in Jerusalem.
480 BC Greco-Persian Wars: Battle of Artemisium – Persian naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought off north coast of Euboea.
0355 – Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor against Constantius II.
1093 – Foundation stone for the new Norman Durham cathedral laid by Bishop William of St. Calais in England
1259 – Mongke Khan, the Khagan of the Mongols, dies while conducting the siege against Fishing Town in Chongqing, China, then under the control of the Song Dynasty. International historical sources note three differing accounts of his death; one states he died of an arrow wound received from a Chinese archer during the siege; one states he was killed by dysentery; another states he was killed by a sudden cholera epidemic. Whatever the cause, his death sparks a succession crisis in the Mongol Empire between his brothers Kublai Khan and Ariq Bke
1611 – Emperor Rudolf forces out king of Bohemia
1674 – Battle of at Seneffe: French force led by Louis, Grand Condé fights a combined Dutch, Imperial and Spanish force under William of Orange, both sides suffer heavy casualties with neither gaining a clear advantage
1718 – Battle of Cape Passaro: British fleet destroys Spanish off Sicily
1772 – Explosive eruption blows 4,000′ off Papandayan Java, kills 3,000
1804 – Francis II assumed title of first Emperor of Austria
1828 – William Corder is hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, England, for the murder of Maria Marten at the Red Barn a year ago
1860 – The first successful silver mill in America began operations. The mill was in Virginia City, NV.
1877 – The two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer. He named them Phobos and Deimos.
1909 – The American ship Arapahoe became the first to ever use the SOS distress signal off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC.
1914 – Jews are expelled from Mitchenick, Poland
1920 – The Latvia-Bolshevist Russia peace treaty, which relinquished Russia’s authority and pretenses to Latvia, is signed
1924 – Newsreel pictures were taken of U.S. presidential candidates for the first time.
1934 – Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay, received federal prisoners for the first time.
1935 – Nazi mass demonstration against German Jews
1941 – The Atlantic Charter was signed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
1942 – 999 Jews are taken from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium
1942 – During World War II, Pierre Laval publicly announced “the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war.”
1945 – The Allies informed Japan that they would determine Emperor Hirohito’s future status after Japan’s surrender.
1948 – The first Olympic Games after the 1938 Berlin Olympics open in London
1950 – Ethel Rosenberg testifies before grand jury on allegations of spying for the Soviet Union
1952 – Hussein Ibn Talal I, proclaimed King of Jordan
1954 – Seven years of fighting came to an end in Indochina. A formal peace was in place for the French and the Communist Vietminh.
1960 – Chad gains its independence from the French, The Central African country came under French rule in 1900 after the Battle of Kousséri. Francois Tombalbay became independent Chad’s first president.
1962 – Andrian Nikolayev, of the Soviet Union, was launched on a 94-hour flight. He was the third Russian to go into space.
1963 – Four ANC political detainees escape from Pretoria Central prison in South Africa
1965 – The U.S. conducted a second launch of “Surveyor-SD 2” for a landing on the Moon surface test.
1965 – 6 day insurrection starts in Watts section of Los Angeles
1971 – 4 people are shot dead in separate incidents in Belfast; three of them by the British Army, as violence continues following the introduction of Internment and Operation Demetrius
1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit depart South Vietnam. https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/today-in-military-history-last-us-ground-forces-leave-vietnam/
1975 – The U.S. vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the United Nations. The Security Counsel had already refused to consider South Korea’s application.
1975 – East Timor: Governor Mrio Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin
1980 – Mohammed Ali Radjai appointed premier of Iran
1984 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”
1988 – Meir Kahane renounced US citizenship to stay in Israeli Parliament
1988 – Al-Qaeda formed at a meeting between Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Dr Fadl in Peshawar, Pakistan
1990 – Egyptian and Moroccan troops joined U.S. forces in Saudia Arabia to help protect from a possible Iraqi attack.
1992 – In Bloomington, MN, the Mall of America opened. It was the largest shopping mall in the United States.
1994 – A U.S. federal jury awarded $286.8 million to about 10,000 commercial fishermen for losses as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
1997 – U.S. President Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills.
1998 – British Petroleum became No. 3 among oil companies with the $49 billion purchase of Amoco. It was the largest foreign takeover of a U.S. company.
2000 – Jonathan Burton broke through the cockpit door aboard Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 while en route from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. In their own defense, the other passengers restrained Burton who later died of the resulting injuries.
2002 – US Airways announced that it had filed for bankruptcy.
2003 – Charles Taylor, President of Liberia, flew into exile after ceding power to his vice president, Moses Blah.
2003 – In Kabul, NATO took command of the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
2012 – 13 people are killed and 15 injured by a lightning strike at a Mosque in Bangladesh
2015 – Greek debt crisis: European Commission announces a bailout with Greece and its creditors has been agreed “in principle”
2015 – Largest ever outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York – 12 dead, with over 100 cases in the South Bronx
2020 – President Vladimir Putin in a propaganda stunt announces Russia has become the 1st country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine, called “Sputnik V”, despite no scientific data being published or phase 3 trials having even begun
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
