1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1041 – Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
1520 – Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict. The papacy demanded that he recant or face excommunication. Luther refused and was formally expelled from the church in January 1521.
1672 – New York Gov Lovelace announces monthly mail service between New York and Boston
1684 – Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
1817 – Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th American state.
1861 – American Civil War: the Confederate States of America accepts a rival state government’s pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
1864 – Sherman reaches Savannah and 12 day siege begins
1869 – Women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory.
1898 – A treaty was signed in Paris that officially ended the Spanish-American War. Also, Cuba became independent of Spain & US acquires Philippines, PR and Guam.
1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1927 – Grand Ole Opry makes its first radio broadcast, in Nashville, TN
1939 – The National Football League’s attendance exeeded 1 million in a season for the first time.
1941 – Japan invaded the Philippines.
1948 – The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
1950 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche was presented the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first African-American to receive the award. Bunche was awarded the prize for his efforts in mediation between Israel and neighboring Arab states.
1953 – Hugh Hefner published the first “Playboy” magazine with an investment of $7,600.
1964 – In Oslo, Norway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest person to receive the award.
1965 – The Grateful Dead play their first concert, at the Fillmore in San Francisco
1968 – Japan’s biggest heist, the still-unsolved “300 million yen robbery”, occurs in Tokyo.
1971 – William H Rehnquist confirmed as Supreme Court justice
1978 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1980 – South Carolina Representative John W. Jenretter resigned to avoid being expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives following his conviction on charges to the FBI’s Abscam investigation.
1982 – The Law of the Sea Convention was signed by 118 countries in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 23 nations and the U.S. were excluded.
1983 – Raul Alfonsin was inaugurated as Argentina’s first civilian president after nearly eight years of military rule.
1988 – Massive Earthquake in Armenia kills 100,000 in cities of Leninakan and Spitak
1989 – Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announced the establishment of Mongolia’s democratic movement that peacefully changed the second oldest communist country into a democratic society.
1990 – The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Norplant, a long-acting contraceptive implant.
1992 – Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called “unwelcome and offensive” actions toward women. However, he refused to resign.
1994 – Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ, was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber.
1995 – The first U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in the former Yugoslavia.
1996 – Rwandan Genocide: Military Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Maurice Baril recommends that the UN multi-national forces in Zaire stand down.
1998 – The Palestinian leadership scrapped constitutional clauses that rejected Israel’s existence.
1999 – After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later pled guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped.
2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contibutions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)
2006 – Two million Lebanese opposition supporters gather in downtown Beirut, calling for the government to resign.”
2007 – Cristina Fernandez was sworn in as Argentina’s first elected female president.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
