1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre, On this day, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry tried to disarm the members of the Lakota tribe who were camped at the Wounded Knee Creek. During their attempt, a shot was fired and the cavalry massacred over 150 members of the tribe including women and children. Many historians believe that the number of people massacred was much higher. Wounded Knee is near present day Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the state of South Dakota.
1170 – St. Thomas à Becket, the 40th archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights acting on Henry II’s orders.
1503 – Battle of Garigliano: Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeats French forces in Italy, giving Spain control of the Kingdom of Naples
1539 – St Jacob’s Church burns after being hit by lightning
1566 – Danish student and future astronomer Tycho Brache loses part of his nose in a sword duel over who is the better mathematician (he wore a prosthetic nose the rest of his life)
1708 – Great Alliance occupies Gent
1778 – British troops occupy Savannah, Georgia
1782 – 1st nautical almanac in US published by Samuel Stearns, Boston
1786 – French Revolution: The Assembly of Notables is convoked
1812 – The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.
1813 – The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.
1835 – Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States
1837 – Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.
1845 – U.S. President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.
1848 – U.S. President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.
1851 – The first American Young Men’s Christian Association was organized, in Boston, MA.
1888 – The first performance of Macbeth took place at the Lyceum Theatre.
1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre, On this day, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry tried to disarm the members of the Lakota tribe who were camped at the Wounded Knee Creek. During their attempt, a shot was fired and the cavalry massacred over 150 members of the tribe including women and children. Many historians believe that the number of people massacred was much higher. Wounded Knee is near present day Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the state of South Dakota. https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee
1895 – The Jameson Raid from Mafikeng into Transvaal, which attempted to overthrow Kruger’s Boer government, started.
1903 – French Equatorial Africa separates into Gabon, Chad and Ubangi-Shari
1911 – Mongolian Independence, The landlocked North East Asian country declared its independence from the Qing Dynasty, after the Mongolian Revolution of 1911. The country had been under the Qing rule for about 200 years.
1911 – Sun Yat-sen became the first president of a republican China.
1916 – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man published, The first novel of Irish writer, James Joyce, the book follows the life of Stephen Dedalus, who many believe was the author’s alter ego. It first came out as a series in the literary magazine, The Egoist and was then published by American publisher B. W. Huebsch. James Joyce is best known for his book Ulysses, which is about a single day in the life of advertising agent, Leopold Bloom. In honor of the book, fans of the author celebrate an unofficial holiday, Bloomsday on June 16.
1920 – Yugoslav government bans communist party
1934 – Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
1940 – Worst German air raid on London as over 10,000 bombs including the 1st incendiary bombs are dropped on the city as part of the Blitz
1945 – The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, “Truth or Consequences”, hosted by Ralph Edwards.
1949 – Hungary nationalized its industries
1952 – The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation.
1967 – Star Trek’s “Trouble With Tribbles” 1st airs
1968 – Israeli commandos destroy 13 Lebanese airplanes
1970 – Occupational Safety and Health Act (United States) signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon
1972 – Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of “LIFE” magazine hit the newsstands. The magazine later became a monthly publication.
1975 – A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York’s LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.
1978 – Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi asks Shapour Bahktiar to form a civilian government
1983 – US formally notifies UNESCO that it will withdraw from the organization on the Jan 1, 1985, in protest over perceived anti-Western bias, efforts to restrict press freedom and wasteful management methods
1985 – Phil Donahue and a Soviet radio commentator hosted the “Citizens’ Summit” via satellite TV.
1986 – The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, reopened for business after eighteen years and $47 million expended on restoration.
1989 – Following Hong Kong’s decision to forcibly repatriate some Vietnamese refugees, thousands of Vietnamese ‘boat people’ battled with riot police.
1989 – Václav Havel is selected to be president of Czechoslovakia by the Federal Assembly shortly after the Velvet Revolution
1992 – Governor Cuomo grants Jean Harris (Scarsdale Diet Dr killer) clemency
1996 – The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a civil war that had lasted 36 years.
1997 – Russia signs agreement to build a $3B nuclear power plant in China
1997 – Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of ‘bird flu.’
1998 – Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.
2001 – Mesa Redonda shopping center fire, Lima, Peru, at least 291 killed.
2012 – 200 people are executed by the Syrian army in Homs
2012 – 21 security personnel are killed by Pakistani Taliban near Peshawar
2013 – 16 people are killed and 40 are wounded by a suicide bomb attack at Volgograd-1 railway station, Russia
2013 – Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says barrel bombs on Aleppo have killed 517 people since 15th December
2015 – Ebola epidemic in Guinea declared over by WHO, 2,500 died over 2 years
2016 – US President Barack Obama retaliates against Russia for hacking American computer systems and trying to influence the 2016 presidential election by ejecting 35 Russian spies and imposing sanctions
2018 – 40 militants killed in Giza and El-Arish by Egyptian police after attack on a tourist bus the day before killed four
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
