1984 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the first citizen to go into space would be a teacher. The teacher that was eventually chosen was Christa McAuliffe. She died in the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.
0410 – Visigothic sack of Rome ends after three days.
0663 – Remnants of the Korean Baekje Kingdom and their Yamato Japanese allies engage the combined naval forces of the Tang Chinese and Silla Koreans on the Geum River in Korea; the outcome is a significant Tang-Silla victory, while the Japanese would not attempt another invasion of Korea until the Imjin War of the late 16th century
1549 – Battle of Dussindale: John Dudley Earl of Warwick destroys Robert Kett’s army, ending Kett’s rebellion in Norfolk, England
1556 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles V abdicates in favor of his brother Ferdinand I
1610 – Polish King Wladyslaw IV Vasa claims crown as King of Russia (disputed)
1660 – The books of John Milton were burned in London due to his attacks on King Charles II.
1667 – Earliest recorded hurricane in US (Jamestown Virginia)
1758 – Colonel John Bradstreet 1714-1774 captures Fort Frontenac and its rich storehouses, as well as nine armed vessels with 100 guns, the total French naval force on Lake Ontario; British have only two wounded and not a single man killed
1776 – Battle of Long Island, in present day Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
1782 – Battle of the Combahee River near Beaufort, South Carolina, American abolitionist John Laurens is killed leading the charge
1789 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the French National Assembly.
1813 – Napoleon defeats the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden
1828 – Uruguay was formally proclaimed to be independent during preliminary talks between Brazil and Argentina.
1858 – The first cabled news dispatch was sent and was published by “The New York Sun” newspaper. The story was about the peace demands of England and France being met by China.
1859 – The first oil well was successfully drilled in the U.S. by Colonel Edwin L. Drake near Titusville, PA.
1892 – The original Metropolitan Opera House in New York was seriously damaged by fire.
1894 – The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. The provision within for a graduated income tax was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1913 – Lt Peter Nestrov, of Imperial Russian Air Service, performs a loop in a monoplane at Kiev (1st aerobatic maneuver in an airplane)”
1920 – Radio Argentina begins regularly scheduled transmissions from the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, considered the world’s first public broadcast station
1921 – The owner of Acme Packing Company bought a pro football team for Green Bay, WI. J.E. Clair paid tribute to those who worked in his plant by naming the team the Green Bay Packers. (NFL)
1928 – The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by 15 countries in Paris. Later, 47 other nations would sign the pact.
1932 – 200,000 English textile workers strike
1938 – Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers to disrupt a poetry recital by another poet, Archibald MacLeish.
1939 – Nazi Germany demanded the Polish corridor and Danzig.
1942 – Soviet woman sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko arrives in Washington D.C., the 1st Soviet citizen welcomed at the White House, by Eleanor Roosevelt
1944 – USS Stingray (SS-186) lands men and supplies on Luzon, Philippines to support guerilla operations against the Japanese.
1945 – American troops landed in Japan after the surrender of the Japanese government at the end of World War II.
1950 – General Foods blacklists Jean Muir of Aldrich Family as a communist
1952 – Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg; West Germany to pay 3 billion Deutschmark.
1962 – Mariner 2 was launched by the United States. In December of the same year the spacecraft flew past Venus. It was the first space probe to reach the vicinity of another planet.
1966 – Race riot in Waukegan Illinois
1972 – North Vietnam’s major port at Haiphong saw the first bombings from U.S. warplanes.
1976 – Transsexual Renee Richards barred from competing in US Tennis Open
1979 – 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and last Viceroy of India, is killed along with three companions, two of them children by the IRA when his boat is blown up near Sligo, Ireland
1979 – Warrenpoint ambush: 18 British Army soldiers killed when Provisional IRA explode two roadside bombs as a British convoy passes Narrow Water Castle
1984 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the first citizen to go into space would be a teacher. The teacher that was eventually chosen was Christa McAuliffe. She died in the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.
1985 – The Space Shuttle Discovery left for a seven-day mission in which three satellites were launched and another was repaired and redeployed.
1985 – The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
1990 – Market prices plunge as OPEC nears informal agreement to increase output to cover shortfall due to invasion; cash market trading experiences abrupt decline.
1990 – Canadian Army ordered to use whatever force necessary to end standoff between Kanasetake Mohawks and Quebec police at Oka.
1990 – The U.S. State Department ordered the expulsion of 36 Iraqi diplomats.
1991 – The Soviet republic of Moldavia declared its independence.
1993 – The Florida Department of Transportation decides to cease producing its distinctive colored U.S. Highway shields so that it can make use of Federal funds for those signs..
1996 – California Governor Pete Wilson signed an order that would halt state benefits to illegal immigrants.
1999 – The final crew of the Russian space station Mir departed the station to return to Earth. Russia was forced to abandon Mir for financial reasons.
2001 – The U.S. military announced that an Air Force RQ-1B “Predator” aircraft was lost over Iraq. It was reported that the unmanned aircraft “may have crashed or been shot down.”
2001 – Work began on the future site of a World War II memorial on the U.S. capital’s historic national Mall. The site is between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
2003 – Mars approaches closest to the Earth since 57,617 BC, The next time the two planets will be this close will be in 2287.
2003 – World’s Biggest Battery is Plugged in, The battery, which takes up about 2,000 square metres of space and weighs about 1,300 tonnes is set up to provide emergency electricity to the residents of Fairbanks in Alaska, for about 7 minutes.
2012 – First interplanetary human voice recording is broadcast from the Mars Rover Curiosity
2018 – UN releases report saying Myanmar military leaders should face genocide and crimes against humanity charges for violence against Rohingya
2019 – At least 25 people killed in a fire at a bar, deliberately lit by gang members in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico
2020 – Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant sentenced to life without parole, for the killing of 51 mosque worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, 1st time the country imposes the sentence
2021 – Britain’s Prince Andrew served with a US federal lawsuit alleging he sexually abused a teenager 20 years ago
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
