1968 – PFC James Anderson Jr is 1st African American Marine to win Medal of Honor (Vietnam War)
1192 – Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
1264 – Kublai Khan accepts the surrender of his younger brother Ariq Böke at Xanadu, at the end of the Mongol civil war
1321 – 160 Jews of Chincon France, burned at stake
1541 – Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom and go on to dominate central Hungary for 150 years
1673 – King Louis XIV donates 600 books to found the library of L’Académie française
1680 – The Pueblo Indians drove the Spanish out and took possession of Santa Fe, NM.
1703 – The Edirne Event: Turkish army removes Sultan Mustafa II, lessening the power of the sultans
1760 – The church (later cathedral) of “Our Lady of Candlemas of Mayagüez (Puerto Rico)” is founded, establishing the basis for the founding of the city.
1772 – King Gustav III of Sweden completes a coup d’etat by adopting a new Constitution and installing himself as an enlightened despot, ending 50 years of parliamentary rule
1831 – Nat Turner, a former slave, led a violent insurrection in Virginia. He was later executed.
1858 – 1st Lincoln-Douglas debate in Illinois
1878 – The American Bar Association was formed by a group of lawyers, judges and law professors in Saratoga, NY.
1879 – Oldsmobile is founded by Ransom Eli Olds of Olds Motor Works
1879 – The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears to the people of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
1911 – The Mona Lisa is stolen, The famed Leonardo da Vinci painting was stolen by a Louvre employee. It was recovered 2 years later in Italy.
1923 – In Kalamazoo, Michigan, an ordinance was passed forbidding dancers from gazing into the eyes of their partner.
1938 – Italy bars all Jewish teachers in Public & High School
1943 – Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been the last North American foothold held by the Japanese.
1945 – U.S. President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped about $50 billion in aid to America’s Allies during World War II.
1949 – Philadelphia fans cause A’s to forfeit game when they riot over a trapped line drive by Rich Ashburn, Giants leading 4-2 in 9th declared winners
1955 – Emmett Till arrives in Money, Mississippi, a week before he is murdered
1959 – Hawaii became the 50th state. U.S. President Eisenhower also issued the order for the 50 star flag.
1961 – Kenyan political activist Jomo Kenyatta released from jail after 9 years. Imprisoned during 1952 Mau Mau rebellion with other nationalist leaders by British authorities
1963 – In South Vietnam, martial law was declared. Army troops and police began to crackdown on the Buddhist anti-government protesters.
1968 – PFC James Anderson Jr is 1st African American Marine to win Medal of Honor (Vietnam War)
1968 – Warsaw Pact forces complete their invasion of Czechoslovakia by arresting the Czech leader Alexander Dubček and forcing him to sign the Moscow Protocols
1975 – US lightens trade embargo against Cuba
1987 – Clayton Lonetree, 1st US marine court-martialed for spying, convicted
1989 – Voyager 2, a U.S. space probe, got close to the Neptune moon called Triton.
1991 – Latvia gains full independence from the Soviet Union
1991 – The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ended. The uprising that led to the collapse was led by Russian federation President Boris Yeltsin.
1992 – US Marshals move in on Randy Weaver’s cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho to apprehend him on firearms charges; an 11 day stand-off ensues
1993 – NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft. The fate of the spacecraft was unknown. The mission cost $980 million.
1996 – The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was signed by U.S. President Clinton. The act made it easier to obtain and keep health insurance.
1997 – Hudson Foods Inc. closed a plant in Nebraska after it had recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef that was potentially contaminated with E. coli 01557:H7. It was the largest food recall in U.S. history.
1997 – Afghanistan suspended its embassy operations in the United States.
1998 – P. W. Botha found guilty of contempt for repeatedly ignoring subpoenas to testify before South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission
2002 – In Pakistan, President General Pervez Musharraf unilaterally amended the Pakistani constitution. He extended his term in office and granted himself powers that included the right to dissolve parliament.
2003 – In Ghana, businessman Gyude Bryant was selected to oversee the two-year power-sharing accord between Liberia’s rebels and the government. The accord was planned to guide the country out of 14 years of civil war.
2012 – 20 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo die from the Ebola virus
2015 – Terrorist attack on train between Amsterdam and Paris thwarted by 4 passengers overpowering gunman
2015 – European Refugee Crisis: Germany makes it easier for Syrian refugees to claim asylum by suspending their Dublin Regulations
2017 – Destroyer USS John S McCain collides with an oil tanker near Singapore leaving 10 missing and 5 injured
2018 – Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, pleads guilty to charges including illegal payment at direction of Trump to women Trump had affairs with
2018 – Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, is convicted on eight counts of fraud in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia
2018 – Californian Representative Duncan Hunter indicted for using campaign funds for personal expenses including holidays and flight for a pet rabbit
2019 – Nigeria goes three years without a case of polio in landmark toward eradication of the disease
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
