1968 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams and helped sway public opinion against the war.
1327 – Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
1587 – English queen Elizabeth I signs Mary Stuart’s death sentence
1662 – The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
1669 – French King Louis XIV limits freedom of religion
1713 – The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan’s order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
1775 – Peasants in Bohemia revolt against servitude.
1788 – Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the steamboat.
1790 – The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York City.
1793 – France declared war on Britain and Holland.
1810 – US Population – 7,239,881; Black population – 1,377,808 (19%)
1851 – Anti-transportation groups meet in Melbourne to lobby for permanent end to shipping of convicts to eastern Australian colonies.
1861 – Texas voted to secede from the Union.
1862 – “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” by Julia Ward Howe was first published in the “Atlantic Monthly.”
1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed a Joint Resolution submitting the proposed 13th Amendment to the states.
1867 – In the U.S., bricklayers start working 8-hour days.
1871 – Jefferson Long of Georgia is first black to make an official speech in House of Representatives (opposing leniency to former Confederates)
1884 – The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.
1900 – Eastman Kodak Co. introduced the $1 Brownie box camera.
1902 – US Secretary of State Hay protests granting Russia exclusive privileges in China, on ground that it runs contrary to the ‘open door’ policy granting all nations equal rights there
1908 – King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe are assassinated by Republican sympathizers in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon
1909 – US forces withdraw from Cuba after liberal Jose Miguel Gomez becomes president; ensuing political instability will bring a threat of US intervention in 1912
1913 – Grand Central Terminal (also known as Grand Central Station) opened in New York City, NY. It was the largest train station in the world.
1918 – German spy Lothar Witzke arrested by CIP agent Byron S. Butcher at the US border at Nogales – only German spy sentenced in the US during WWI
1919 – The first Miss America was crowned in New York City.
1920 – Canada’s Royal North West Mounted Police changed their name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The organization was commissioned in 1873.
1921 – Carmen Fasanella registered as a taxicab owner and driver in Princeton, New Jersey. Fasanella retired November 2, 1989 after 68 years and 243 days of service.
1930 – The Times published its first crossword puzzle.
1933 – German Parliament is dissolved by President Paul von Hindenburg by the request of new chancellor Adolf Hitler
1934 – Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss dissolves all political parties but his own
1943 – Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
1946 – Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations.
1950 – USSR demands condemnation of Emperor Hirohito for war crimes
1951 – The first telecast of an atomic explosion took place.
1956 – Hague Daily Newspaper reveals war crimes of Hague mayor Schokking
1957 – P.H. Young became the first black pilot on a scheduled passenger airline.
1958 – The United Arab Republic was formed by a union of Egypt and Syria. It was broken 1961.
1960 – Four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They had been refused service.
1968 – During the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. The scene was captured in a news photograph.
1971 – Canada and China open diplomatic relations; exchange diplomats in both countries, and officially recognize each other’s sovereignty
1972 – The Ministry of Defence also issues a detailed account of the British Army’s version of events during ‘Bloody Sunday’
1975 – Otis Francis Tabler is first open homosexual to get security clearance to work for the Defense Department
1978 – Director Roman Polanski skips bail & fled to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl
1979 – Patty Hearst was released from prison after serving 22 months of a seven-year sentence for bank robbery. Her sentence had been commuted by U.S. President Carter.
1982 – Amoco Canada and Chevron Standard Ltd. withdraw from $13.5 billion Alsands oil consortium in Alberta
1984 – Ravindara Mhatrem, Indian diplomat, kidnapped in England (killed 0203)
1987 – 163 day strike against Deere & Company ends, workers accept wage freeze
1992 – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case
1994 – Jeff Gillooly pled guilty in Portland, OR, for his role in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Gillooly, Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, struck a plea bargain under which he confessed to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony implicating Harding.
1996 – Visa and Mastercard announced security measures that would make it safe to shop on the Internet.
1999 – Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a deposition that was videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against U.S. President Clinton.
2001 – Three Scottish judges found Abdel Basset al-Mergrahi guilty of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people. The court said that Megrahi was a member of the Libyan intelligence service. Al-Amin Khalifa, who had been co-accused, was acquitted and freed.
2003 – NASA’s space shuttle Columbia exploded while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.
2004 – 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
2012 – At least 73 people are killed in the Egyptian football riots in Port Said
2013 – 21 people are killed and 30 are wounded by a market suicide bombing in Hangu, Pakistan
2014 – Syrian civil war death toll reaches 130,000, while 4 million are displaced
2016 – WHO declares a global public health emergency over the rapid spread of zika-linked conditions
2018 – The Indian government announces plan to give 500 million people free healthcare
2019 – U.S. President Trump confirmed that the U.S. would leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 due to Russian non-compliance. Russia suspended its obligations to the treaty the next day.
2021 – Military stage a coup in Myanmar, detaining civilian leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi and declare a one-year state of emergency
2022 – 60 people killed in attack by militants on Plaine Savo camp for displaced persons in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
