1294 Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
1577 Francis Drake sets sail from England on a circumnavigation of the world
1636 The United States National Guard was created when militia regiments were organized by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1642 New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman.
1809 The first abdominal surgical procedure was performed in Danville, KY, on Jane Todd Crawford. The operation was performed without an anesthetic.
1862 In America, an estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded when Union forces were defeated by Confederates under General Robert E. Lee, at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
1920 F Pease’s interferometer measures 1st stellar diameter (Betelgeuse)
1920 League of nations establishes International Court of Justice in The Hague
1928 Clip-on tie designed
1944 Japanese kamikaze crashes into US cruiser Nashville, kills 138
1964 In El Paso, TX, President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande River, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border. This ended a century-old border dispute.
1972 Apollo 17 was the last mission of the United States’ Apollo lunar landing program. It was also the sixth and the last time humans landed on the Moon.
1988 A bankruptcy judge in Columbia, SC, ordered the assets of the troubled PTL television ministry sold to a Toronto real estate developer for $65 million.
1993 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people must receive a hearing before property linked to illegal drug sales can be seized.
1998 Puerto Rican voters rejected U.S. statehood in a non-binding referendum.
2000 Seven convicts, the “Texas 7,” escaped from Connally Unit in Kenedy, TX, southeast of San Antonio, by overpowering civilian workers and prison employees. They fled with stolen clothing, pickup truck and 16 guns and ammunition.
2001 Gunmen stormed the Indian Parliament and killed seven people and injured 18. Security forces killed the attackers during a 90-minute gunbattle.
2003 Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit, during Operation Red Dawn by US forces https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/saddam-hussein-captured
2014 The British Government announces it will send hundreds of troops to Iraq, to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the conflict with Islamic State
2017 Prehistoric bones of a penguin as tall as a human (1.77m) found on Otago beach, New Zealand, reported in “Nature Communications”
2018 US Senate passes non-binding “war powers resolution” against long-term ally Saudi Arabia
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
