1990 – Invasion of Kuwait begins, In 2 days Iraqi forces had overrun Kuwaiti forces and Saddam Hussein declared Kuwait as the 19th province of Iraq. The invasion lasted for 7 months and ended after a UN-authorized coalition force led by the United States intervened.
338 BC – Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean
216 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – Carthaginian army lead by Hannibal defeats numerically superior Roman army under command consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro
1100 – King William II of England (William Rufus) is killed by an arrow shot by Sir Walter Tyrell while hunting in the New Forest
1552 – Treaty of Passau: Emperor Charles V accepts Lutheran religion
1701 – Great Peace of Montreal signed between New France and North American Indian nations at urging of Huron chief Kondiaronk
1776 – Formal signing of the US Declaration of Independence by 56 people (date most accepted by modern historians)
1790 – 1st US census conducted, the population was 3,939,214 including 697,624 slaves
1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte declared “Consul for Life” after winning national referendum
1832 – Battle of Bad Axe, Wisconsin: 1,300 Illinois militia defeat Sauk & Fox Native Americans ending the Black Hawk War in the US
1858 – In Boston and New York City the first mailboxes were installed along streets.
1865 – Lewis Carroll publishes “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
1870 – World’s first underground railway opened, The Tower Subway beneath river Thames in London opened its doors for passengers. The subway was closed within a few months because of bankruptcy. The tunnel is now used for utilities.
1876 – Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in Deadwood, S.D.
1909 – The first Lincoln penny was issued.
1921 – After 3 hours deliberation a Chicago jury acquits 8 Chicago White Sox accused in Black Sox scandal; next day they are banned from organized baseball for life
1928 – Benito Mussolini signs peace treaty with Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1939 – Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging the U.S. to have an atomic weapons research program.
1939 – U.S. President Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act. The act prohibited civil service employees from taking an active part in political campaigns.
1941 – Jews are expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia
1942 – 250 Dutch Catholic Jews arrested, transported to Amersfoort camp
1943 – Armed revolt by 800 prisoners at Treblinka Extermination Camp: crematorium destroyed; 200 escape the compound, but only 100 survive
1945 – After 3½ days suffering exhaustion, lack of water and shark attacks in the Philippine Sea, the surviving crew of USS Indianapolis are spotted by Wilbur “Chuck” Gwinn, a PV-1 Ventura pilot on a routine sector search. 316 had survived.
1945 – Potsdam Conference between Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill (replaced by Clement Attlee after losing the 1945 general election) ends
1958 – The Arab Federation is dissolved, The short-lived federation of Jordan and Iraq was dissolved after King Faisal of Iraq was deposed and assassinated during the 14 July Revolution.
1964 – North Vietnam fires at US Navy destroyer USS Maddox in what becomes known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident which would eventually escalate US involvement in the Vietnam War
1970 – Rubber bullets used for the first time in Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’
1980 – Fascist bomb attack on Bologna Italy train station, 86 killed
1983 – U.S. House of Representatives approved a law that designated the third Monday of January would be a federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The law was signed by President Reagon on November 2.
1989 – NASA confirmed Voyager 2’s discovery of 3 more moons of Neptune designated temporarily 1989 N2, 1989 N3 & 1989 N24
1990 – Invasion of Kuwait begins, In 2 days Iraqi forces had overrun Kuwaiti forces and Saddam Hussein declared Kuwait as the 19th province of Iraq. The invasion lasted for 7 months and ended after a UN-authorized coalition force led by the United States intervened.
1990 – US President George H. W. Bush orders troops to Saudi Arabia
1994 – Congressional hearings begin on White Water
1995 – China ordered the expulsion of two U.S. Air Force officers. The two were said to have been caught spying on military sights.
1998 – Second Congo War Begins, The deadliest war in Africa, the war and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.4 million people. The war started with a mutiny in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and soon involved 9 African nations. It lasted for 5 years.
2012 – 23 people are killed after two blasts in a fruit market in Lahore, Pakistan
2017 – First successful gene editing in human embryos to repair disease-causing mutation reported by scientists in “Nature”
2017 – US President Donald Trump signs legislation imposing sanctions on Russia, limiting his ability to ever lift them
2018 – Pope Frances declares the death penalty unacceptable in all cases, reversing church teachings and adding to Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church
2018 – Oldest library in Germany confirmed unearthed in Cologne dating to 2AD, possibly held 20,000 scrolls
2019 – Saudi Arabia announces news rules for women including allowing them to travel independently abroad without a male guardian’s permission
2020 – Islamic State stages a jail break at a prison in Afghan city of Jalalabad, placing bombs at its entrance, results in 20 hr gunfight, 29 deaths and over 300 prisoners at large
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
