1945 – The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The bombing came three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. About 74,000 people were killed. Coincidentally, the first network television broadcast occurred in Washington, DC, that program announced the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.
0048 BC – Caesar’s civil war: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
0378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople – A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths in present-day Turkey. Valens is killed along with over half of his army.
0681 – Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of the Danube, after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta.
1048 – Pope Damasus II dies in Rome, after reigning for only 23 days
1173 – Construction of the Tower of Pisa begins, and it takes two centuries to complete
1378 – Cardinals declare pope Urbanus VI lawless (anti christian/devil)
1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel
1655 – Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell divides England into 11 districts
1666 – Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships in the Vlie estuary, and pillaging the town of West-Terschelling, an act later knkown as “”Holmes’s Bonfire””
1757 – English Fort William Henry, NY, surrenders to French & Indians troops
1790 – The Columbia returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage. It was the first ship to carry the American flag around the world.
1831 – The first steam locomotive began its first trip between Schenectady and Albany, NY.
1842 – The U.S. and Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which solved a border dispute.
1848 – Martin Van Buren was nominated for president by the Free-Soil Party in Buffalo, NY.
1854 – “Walden” was published by Henry David Thoreau.
1859 – The escalator was patented by Nathan Ames.
1877 – Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole – A small band of Nez Perc Indians clash with the United States Army.
1898 – Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent #608,845 for his internal combustion engine, later known as the diesel engine
1904 – Libanus McLouth Todd of Rochester, New York patents his check-writing machine, the Protectograph designed to protect against check forgers
1910 – Alva Fisher received a patent for the electric washing machine.
1918 – Cincinnati Reds manager Christy Mathewson suspects Hal Chase of taking bribes to fix games, and suspends him “for indifferent play”
1936 – Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. He was the first American to win four medals in one Olympics.
1941 – Winston Churchill reaches Newfoundland for talks with FDR
1942 – Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested Britain. He was not released until 1944.
1944 – The Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council created “Smokey the Bear.”
1945 – The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The bombing came three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. About 74,000 people were killed. Japan surrendered August 14.
1945 – The first network television broadcast occurred in Washington, DC. The program announced the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.
1952 – General strike against overtime conscription in Belgium
1956 – The first statewide, state-supported educational television network went on the air in Alabama.
1960 – Race riot in Jacksonville Florida
1965 – Singapore proclaimed its independence from the Malaysian Federation.
1969 – Members of a cult led by Charles Manson brutally murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men’s hairstylist Jay Sebring, and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, California
1971 – Operation Demetrius (or Internment) is introduced in Northern Ireland allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial; the security forces arrested 342 people suspected of supporting paramilitaries
1972 – Rockwell receives NASA contract to construct the Space Shuttle
1973 – The U.S. Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair filed suit against President Richard Nixon.
1974 – U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon formally resigned. Gerald R. Ford took his place, and became the 38th president of the U.S.
1981 – Major league baseball teams resumed play at the conclusion of the first mid-season players’ strike.
1985 – Arthur J. Walker, a retired Navy officer, was found guilty of seven counts of spying for the Soviet Union.
1987 – 9 people are shot dead and 17 more injured as 19-year old Julian Knight opens fire at random in the Hoddle Street Massacre in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, in Australia.
1987 – The National Union of Mineworkers begin South Africa’s longest wage strike
1997 – Security guard Abner Louima, attacked by NYC police
1999 – The Diet of Japan enacts a law establishing the Hinomaru as the official national flag, and “Kimi Ga Yo” as national anthem.
1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and his entire cabinet for the fourth time in 17 months.
2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush announced he would support federal funding for limited medical research on embryonic stem cells.
2001 – In Jerusalem, 15 people die and 130 are wounded in the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing.
2004 – Trump Hotel and Casion Resorts announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2005 – A chemical plant explosion happened at the EQ Recovery Plant in Romulus, Michigan, forcing residents within 1 to 1 mile radius from the plant to evacuate
2007 – The Fed pumps $24 Billion into the U.S. banking system through large purchases of securities. The European Central Bank makes a record cash injection of $130 billion into its markets to shake off credit fears. The Fed pumps another $38 billion in temporary reserves into the U.S. financial system the following day
2013 – 8 people are killed and 24 are injured after gunmen open fire on a Sunni mosque in Quetta, Pakistan
2017 – Giant inflatable chicken resembling US President Donald Trump placed outside US White House as a political protest
2017 – North Korea says it plans to fire rockets on US territory Guam in continuing escalation of tension between it and the US
2018 – Saudi-led air coalition strikes a school bus in Sada Province, Yemen, killing 43, many of them children
2020 – Disputed Belarusian presidential election sees long time dictator Alexander Lukashenko officially win 80% of the votes but unofficially lose 60-70% of the votes to main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Sparks widespread protests in Belarus and international condemnation.
2021 – Cholera outbreak in Nigeria has killed more than 800 people with 31,425 suspected cases since January 2021 according to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
