644 – Uthman ibn Affan, companion of Muhammad, appointed 3rd Caliph of Islam
835 – Chinese Emperor Wenzong conspires with chancellor Li Xun and general Zheng Zhu to kill all the eunuchs, but the plot is foiled. Also known as the Sweet Dew Incident
1287 – During St. Lucia’s Flood in Northwest Netherlands the Zuiderzee seawall collapses with loss of over 50,000 lives. Fifth largest recorded flood in history
1542 – Princess Mary Stuart succeeds her father James V and becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland at 6 days old
1656 – Artificial pearls 1st manufactured by M. Jacquin in Paris made of gypsum pellets covered with fish scales
1702 – The Forty-seven Ronin (leaderless samurai), under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master in Japan
1751 – The first military academy in the world, the Theresian Military Academy, is founded in Austria
1798 – David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented the nut and bolt machine.
1812 – The French invasion of Russia, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, officially ends with the French having lost as many as 530,000 people
1819 – Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.
1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends, boundary dispute between Ohio state and territory of Michigan
1897 – Emilio Aguinaldo signs the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, to end hostilities and dissolve his government, in exchange for amnesty and “$800,000 (Mexican)” as an indemnity
1900 – Professor Max Planck of Berlin University revealed his revolutionary Quantum Theory.
1903 – Orville Wright made the first attempt at powered flight. The engine stalled during take-off and the plane was damaged in the attempt. Three days later, after repairs were made, the modern aviation age was born when the plane stayed aloft for 12 seconds and flew 102 feet.
1911 – Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole. He reached the destination 35 days ahead of Captain Robert F. Scott.
1914 – US President Woodrow Wilson signs Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, to regulate and tax production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products
1918 – For the first time in Britain women (over 30) voted in a General Election.
1927 – Iraq gains independence from Britain, but British troops remain
1939 – The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.
1944 – US Congress establishes rank of General of Army (5-star General)
1945 – Josef Kramer, known as “the beast of Belsen,” and 10 others were executed in Hamelin for the crimes they committed at the Belsen and Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps.
1952 – UN Troops kill 82 North Korean POWs during a prison camp riot in Pongam-do, South Korea
1958 – Soviets Reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility, A Pole of Inaccessibility is a location on Earth that is extremely difficult to access. In the North, it is the point in the Arctic Ocean that is farthest from land, while in the Southern Hemisphere it is the point farthest from the Southern Ocean on Antarctica. In 1958, a Soviet team led by Yevgeny Tolstikov became the first people in history to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility, which is 546 miles (878 kilometers) from the geographic South Pole. Temperatures at this location averages around – 73 degree F (–58 degrees C).
1962 – The U.S. space probe Mariner II approached Venus. It transmitted information about the planet’s atmosphere and surface temperature.
1971 – The Pakistan Army executes an estimated 1,111 of East Pakistan’s intellectuals during the Bangladesh Liberation War
1975 – Six South Moluccan terrorists surrendered to police after holding 23 people hostage for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen.
1980 – Massacre at Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in Los Angeles with 3 people killed and 6 injured
1981 – Israel annexed the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in war in 1967.
1983 – The U.S. battleship New Jersey fired on Syrian positions in Lebanon for the first time after American F-14 reconnaissance flights were fired on.
1984 – Howard Cosell retired from the NFL’s Monday Night Football.
1985 – Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she formally took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of OKlahoma.
1987 – Chrysler pled no contest to federal charges of selling several thousand vehicles as new when Chrysler employees had driven the vehicles with the odometer disconnected.
1990 – Right to Die case permits Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed, she dies 12 days later
1993 – A judge in Colorado struck down the state’s voter-approved Amendment Two prohibiting gay rights laws, calling it unconstitutional.
1993 – The United Mine Workers approved a five-year contract that ended a strike that had reached seven states and involved some of the nation’s biggest coal operators.
1995 – The presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia signed the Dayton Accords to end fighting in Bosnia.
1997 – Iran’s newest president, Mohammad Khatami, called for a dialogue with the people of the United States. The preceding Iranian leaders had reviled the U.S. as “The Great Satan.”
1997 – Cuban President Fidel Castro declared Christmas 1997 an official holiday to ensure the success of Pope John Paul II’s upcoming visit to Cuba.
1998 – Hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.
1999 – U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slave and forced laborers.
2000 – It was announced that American businessman Edmond Pope would be released from a Russian prison for humanitarian reasons. Pope had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after his conviction on espionage charges.
2001 – European Union leaders agreed to dispatch 3,000-4,000 troops to join an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
2001 – The first commercial export, since 1963, of U.S. food to Cuba began. The 24,000 metric tons for corn were being sent to replenish what was lost when Hurricane Michelle struck on November 4.
2003 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt
2008 – President George W. Bush make his fourth and final trip to Iraq as president and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during a farewell conference in Baghdad
2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and 6 adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
2016 – Amazon announces its 1st delivery by drone 2 km from their warehouse in the UK
2017 – Suicide bomber kills at least 18 police officers at a training centre parade in Mogadishu, Somalia, Islamic group al-Shabab claim responsibility
2017 – US media regulator the Federal Communications Commission votes to end net neutrality
2018 – Report by Reuters US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson knew for decades their talc was contaminated with asbestos
2020 – Russia revealed to have been behind massive cyberattack on US government agencies and private companies since the Spring
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
