1984 – In Bhopal, India, more than 2,000 people were killed after a cloud of poisonous gas escaped from a pesticide plant. The plant was operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary.
1347 – Pope Clemens VI declares Roman tribunal Cola di Rienzo as heretics
1586 – Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England, from Colombia
1621 – Galileo perfects the telescope
1685 – Charles II bars Jews from settling in Stockholm Sweden
1775 – First official US flag raised (Grand Union Flag) aboard naval vessel USS Alfred
1792 – The trial of France’s King Louis XVI began. He was eventually put to death for the 33 charges.
1818 – Illinois was admitted as the 21st state of the union.
1833 – Oberlin College in Ohio opened as the first truly coeducational school of higher education in the United States.
1835 – In Rhode Island, the Manufacturer Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued the first fire insurance policy.
1854 – Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.
1878 – Settlers arrive at Petach Tikvah, Israel
1901 – US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking the Congress to curb the power of trusts “within reasonable limits”
1910 – The neon lamp was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show. The lamp was developed by French physicist Georges Claude.
1911 – Willis Carrier presents his influential “Rational Psychrometric Formulae”, on air conditioning to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers – makes air conditioning possible
1917 – The Quebec Bridge opened for traffic after almost 20 years of planning and construction. The bridge suffered partial collapses in 1907 (August 29) and 1916 (September 11).
1927 – First Laurel & Hardy movie released
1931 – Alka Seltzer was sold for the first time.
1944 – The Greek Civil War breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between communists and royalists.
1947 – The Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theater.
1948 – The “Pumpkin Papers” came to public light. The House Un-American Activities Committee announced that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.
1950 – Paul Harvey began his national radio broadcast.
1953 – US President Dwight Eisenhower criticizes Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy for saying communists are in the Republican Party
1964 – Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents’ decision to forbid protests on UC property
1967 – In Cape Town, South Africa, a team of surgeons headed by Dr. Christian Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky. Washkansky only lived 18 days.
1968 – The rules committee of Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that in 1969 the pitcher’s mound would be lowered from 15 to 10 inches. This was done in order to “get more batting action.”
1970 – October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libration du Qubec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Canadian government grants five terrorists from the FLQ’s Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba
1973 – Pioneer 10 sent back the first close-up images of Jupiter. The first outer-planetary probe had been launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on March 2, 1972.
1979 – Eleven people are killed when fans stampede during a concert by The Who at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum.
1982 – A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
1983 – 3-foot-high concrete barriers were installed at two White House entrances.
1984 – In Bhopal, India, more than 2,000 people were killed after a cloud of poisonous gas escaped from a pesticide plant. The plant was operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary.
1987 – U.S. President Reagan said there was a good chance of progress toward a treaty on long-range weapons with Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
1989 – Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end (some commentators from both nations exaggerated the wording and independently declared the Cold War over)
1992 – The UN Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help starving Somalians.
1993 – Angola’s government and its rebel enemies agreed to a cease-fire in their 18-year war.
1994 – Rebel Serbs in Bosnia failed to keep a pledge to release hundreds of UN peacekeepers.
1995 – Former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan was arrested for his role in a 1979 coup.
1997 – In Ottawa, Canada, more than 120 countries were represented to sign a treaty prohibiting the use and production of anti-personnel land mines. The United States, China and Russia did not sign the treaty.
1999 – The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded a four-day meeting in Seattle, WA, without setting an agenda for a new round of trade talks. The meeting was met with fierce protests by various groups.
2007 – Devastating winter storms cause Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, closing 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days, resulting in at least eight deaths and billions of dollars of damage
2010 – The Boeing X-37 returned to Earth on successfully after its first orbital mission. It launched on April 22, 2010.
2014 – Protests erupt in cities across the US after a grand jury decides not to charge the New York City police officer who killed Eric Garner with a choke-hold
2016 – US army decides it will not allow an oil pipeline to be built in North Dakota, after months of protests by The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
2019 – World leaders discussing US President Donald Trump in unflattering terms at NATO reception caught on camera and goes viral
2022 – Former US President Donald Trump call for “termination” of all rules including US Constitution in a Truth Social post, so to overturn the 2020 election, which he again falsely claims that he won
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
