2016 – White supremacist Dylann Roof is found guilty of the Charleston Church Massacre which killed 9
1167 – Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut, in present-day Iran, part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia
1488 – Bartolomeu Dias returns to Portugal after becoming 1st known European to sail round the Cape of Good Hope
1569 – Hunted by Queen Elizabeth I for treason in “The Rising of the North”, Charles Neville, Earl of Westmorland, escapes to Scotland.
1612 – German Astronomer Simon Marius is 1st to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
1654 – A meteorological office established in Tuscany began recording daily temperature readings.
1675 – King Philip’s War: After peace talk fail, Narraganset warriors attack the Jireh Bull Blockhouse, in South Kingston, Rhode Island, killing at least 15 colonists
1680 – Tax revolt on Terschelling due to tax on cereal
1791 – In the U.S., the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, went into effect following ratification by the state of Virginia.
1791 – 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania
1810 – 1st Irish magazine in US, “Shamrock” published
1840 – Napoleon Bonapart’s remains were interred in Les Invalides in Paris, having been brought from St. Helena, where he died in exile.
1854 – In Philadelphia, the first street cleaning machine was put into use.
1874 – 1st reigning king to visit US is the King of Hawaii, received by President Grant
1890 – American Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, SD, during an incident with Indian police working for the U.S. government.
1907 – In Persia, the Shah leads a coup de’etat against the liberal Prime Minister Nasir ul-Mulk and imprisons him, but a popular uprising forces the Shah to restore Nasir ul-Mulk soon after
1915 – WWI: ANZAC forces begin their withdrawal from the Gallipoli Peninsula after Ottoman forces successfully defend access to Constantinople
1925 – The third Madison Square Gardens opened.
1938 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presided over the ground-breaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
1939 – Premier of the Gone with the Wind
1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into practice Bill of Rights Day.
1944 – A single-engine plane carrying U.S. Army Major Glenn Miller disappeared in thick fog over the English Channel while en route to Paris.
1944 – American forces invaded Mindoro Island in the Philippines.
1944 – Dr. R. Townley Paton and a small group of doctors laid the groundwork for the Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration.
1961 – Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death in Jerusalem by an Israeli court. He had been tried on charges for organizing the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.
1961 – The U.N. General Assembly voted against a Soviet proposal to admit Communist China as a member.
1964 – Canada’s House of Commons approved a newly designed flag thereby dropping the Canadian “Red Ensign” flag.
1965 – Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered within 10 feet of each other while in orbit around the Earth.
1966 – Audouin Dollfus discovers 10th satellite of Saturn, Janus
1970 – The Soviet probe Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land softly on the surface of Venus. The probe only survived the extreme heat and pressure for about 23 minutes and transmitted the first data received on Earth from the surface of another planet.
1973 – J. Paul Getty III was found in southern Italy after being held captive for five months, during which his right ear was cut off and sent to a newspaper in Rome.
1973 – American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not a mental illness
1978 – U.S. President Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year’s Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.
1979 – The former shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, left the United States for Panama. He had gone to the U.S. for medical treatment on October 22, 1979.
1979 – In a preliminary ruling, the International Court of Justice ordered Iran to release all hostages that had been taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.
1981 – The U.S. Congress passed $200 billion spending bill. At the time it was the largest in U.S. history.
1982 – Teamsters president Roy Williams and 4 others convicted of bribery
1983 – The last 80 U.S. combat soldiers in Grenada withdrew. It was just over seven weeks after the U.S.-led invasion of the Caribbean island.
1989 – An uprising in Romania began as demonstrators gathered to prevent the arrest of the Reverend Laszlo Tokes, a dissident clergyman.
1992 – IBM announced it would eliminate 25-thousand employees in the coming year.
1992 – El Salvador’s government and leftist guerrilla leaders formally declared the end of the country’s 12-year civil war.
1993 – The prime ministers of Britain and the Republic of Ireland (John Major and Albert Reynolds respectively) made the “Downing Street Declaration,” stating the basis for trying to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.
1999 – Syria reopened peace talks with Israel in Washington, DC, with the mediation of U.S. President Clinton.
2000 – The Chernobyl atomic power plant in Kiev, Ukraine, was shut down.
2001 – It was announced that Siena Heights University would begin offering a class called “Animated Philosophy and Religion.” The two-credit class would cover how religion and philosophy are part of popular culture and is based on the television series “The Simpsons.”
2005 – Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of same-sex couples being entitled to marry.
2011 – Former French President Jacques Chirac is convicted of diverting public funds, receives a two-year suspended prison sentence
2013 – China successfully lands its moon rover on the moon
2015 – 1,000 schools closed in Los Angeles after a email threat, supposedly from jihadists
2015 – Mayor of Flint, Michigan declares state of emergency over contaminated water supplies amid calls for a criminal investigation
2016 – White supremacist Dylann Roof is found guilty of the Charleston Church Massacre which killed 9
2018 – Affordable Care Act (‘Obamacare’) ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas; later reversed by US Supreme Court
2019 – Protests against India’s new citizenship bill that excludes Muslims, erupt across major cities, killing at least five
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
