2008 – Bernard Madoff arrested, Popularly known as Bernie Madoff, the founder and chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was arrested and subsequently convicted of fraud. The Ponzi scheme he was involved in was the biggest such fraud in the history of the United States
1282 – Llywelyn ab Gruffydd/Llywelyn the Last, last native Prince of Wales is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, south Wales. Reigned from 1259.
1395 – John “Eleanor” Rykener, a male cross-dressing prostitute, is brought to court in London for “committing that detestable unmentionable and ignominious vice” in late medieval England’s only recorded case on same-sex intercourse (verdict unknown)
1602 – Surprise attack by forces of the Duke of Savoy and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain repelled by citizens of Geneva. Commemorated since as Fête de l’Escalade.
1618 – The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia agree to the Truce of Deulino ending the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618)
1688 – King James II captured in Kent
1719 – The first recorded sighting of the aurora borealis took place in New England.
1769 – Edward Beran of London patented venetian blinds.
1792 – France’s King Louis XVI went before the Convention, which had replaced the National Assembly, to face charges of treason. He was convicted and condemned and was sent to the guillotine the following January.
1844 – Dr. Horace Wells became the first person to have a tooth extracted after receiving an anesthetic for the dental procedure. Nitrous Oxide, or laughing gas, was the anesthetic.
1862 – Battle of Fredricksburg in Virginia begins between Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside
1872 – Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback became America’s first black governor when he took office as acting governor of Louisiana.
1894 – The world’s first motor show opened in Paris with nine exhibitors.
1902 – The US signs a treaty with Cuba allowing for a 20 percent reduction of tariff rates on imported Cuban products
1906 – US President Theodore Roosevelt attacks abuses in the Congo
1917 – 13 black soldiers hanged for participation in Houston riot
1928 – In Buenos Aires, police thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert Hoover.
1930 – The Bank of the United States in New York failed.
1937 – The Fascist Council in Rome, withdrew Italy from the League of Nations.
1941 – Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The U.S in turn declared war on the two countries.
1946 – The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established by the U.N. General Assembly. The fund provides relief to children in countries devastated by war.
1958 – Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) gains autonomy from France
1960 – Black Sunday – Riot in Algiers; pro-independence demonstrations turn violent, 114 die
1961 – The first direct American military support for South Vietnam occurred when a U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon.
1964 – Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. An unknown terrorist fires a mortar shell at the building during the speech.
1967 – The prototype of the Concorde was shown for the first time in Toulouse, France.
1971 – A bomb explodes outside a furniture showroom on the mainly-Protestant and loyalist Shankill Road, Belfast; four civilians (including two babies) were killed and nineteen wounded
1973 – West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and Czech Prime Minister Lubomir Strougal formally nullified the 1938 Munich pact when they signed a treaty sanctioning Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.
1978 – 6 masked men bound 10 employees at Lufthansa cargo area at NYC Kennedy Airport & made off with $5.8m in cash & jewelry
1980 – The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (known as either CERCLA or Superfund) is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed into law legislation creating $1.6 billion environmental “superfund” that would be used to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.
1985 – The U.S. House of Representatives joined the U.S. Senate by giving final congressional approval to the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.
1985 – General Electric Company agreed to buy RCA Corporation for $6.3 billion. Also included in the deal was NBC Radio and Television.
1985 – Computer store owner in Sacramento California killed by package bomb
1986 – The government of South Africa expanded its media restrictions by imposing prior censorship and banning coverage of a wide range of peaceful anti-apartheid protests.
1988 – 62 people were killed in a Mexico City marketplace when tons of illegal fireworks exploded.
1990 – Ivana Trump was divorced from Donald Trump after 12 years of marriage.
1991 – Salman Rushdie, under an Islamic death sentence for blasphemy, made his first public appearance since 1989 in New York, at a dinner marking the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of speech in the U.S.).
1994 – Thousands of Russian troops, armored columns and jets entered Chechnya. The move by Moscow was an effort to restore control the breakaway republic.
1994 – The world’s largest free trade zone was created when leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations signed a free-trade declaration known as “The Miami Process.”
1997 – Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams became the first political ally of the IRA to meet a British leader in 76 years. He conferred with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.
1997 – More than 270 Tutsi refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo were killed by Juto guerillas in Mudende, Rwanda.
1997 – More than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth’s “greenhouse gases.”
1998 – Scientists announced that they had deciphered the entire genetic blueprint of a tiny worm.
1998 – The Mars Climate Orbiter blasted off on a nine-month journey to the Red Planet. However, the probe disappeared in September of 1999, apparently destroyed because scientists had failed to convert English measures to metric values.
1998 – Majority Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pushed through three articles of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton.
2001 – U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft announced the first federal indictment directly related to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Zacarias Moussaoui was charged with six conspiracy charges. Moussaoui was in custody at the time of the attacks.
2001 – It was announced that U.S. President George W. Bush would withdraw the U.S. from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.
2001 – Federal agents seized computers in 27 U.S. cities as part of “Operation Buccaneer.” The raids were used to gain evidence against an international software piracy ring.
2005 – Cronulla riots: thousands of white Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence, resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who were not) in Cronulla Sydney. These are followed by ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
2007 – Two car bombs go off at the Constitutional Court building in Algiers and the United Nations office. An estimated 45 people are killed in the bombings.
2008 – Bernard Madoff arrested, Popularly known as Bernie Madoff, the founder and chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was arrested and subsequently convicted of fraud. The Ponzi scheme he was involved in was the biggest such fraud in the history of the United States https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/billionaire-conman-bernard-madoff-arrested
2010 – Two explosions occur in a busy shopping district of Stockholm, Sweden, killing one and injuring two others. Officials say the incident is being treated as a terrorist attack.
2012 – 125 people are killed and 200 are injured by bombings in Aqrab, Syria
2012 – HSBC bank settles with US authorities to pay $1.9 billion for drug cartel money laundering
2013 – 20 people are killed by the bubonic plague in a small Madagascan village
2015 – “Playboy” magazine publishes its last nude issue, features Pamela Anderson on the cover
2016 – Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh says he will contest his election defeat in court, after his 1st election loss in 22 years
2017 – Attempted suicide terrorist bomb attack in New York wounds 3, bomb fails to fully detonate
2017 – US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand calls for the resignation of President Donald Trump given 16 women have accused him of sexual harassment
2018 – US President Donald Trump says he would be “proud” to shut down the government in contentious meeting at The White House with Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer
2019 – India passes controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill clearing way for citizenship for immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but not if they are Muslim
2019 – Militants attack army base in Ates, Niger, killing at least 71. Islamic State claim responsibility.
2020 – Gunmen storm a school in Kankara, Katsina state, northern Nigeria, kidnapping more than 300 students (Boko Haram later claims responsibility)
2020 – US Supreme Court rejects lawsuit by Texas to overturn Jo Biden’s election in four battleground states, endorsed by 17 Republican attorney generals
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
