1923 – Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day he entered the chamber with several invited guests. He had originally found the tomb on November 4, 1922.
0600 – Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying “God bless You” is the correct response to a sneeze
1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols
1641 – English king Charles I accepts Triennial Act requiring that Parliament meet for at least a fifty-day session once every three years
1659 – 1st known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey
1677 – Earl of Shaftesbury arrested and confined in the Tower of London
1741 – Benjamin Franklin published America’s second magazine, “The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle”.
1760 – Cherokee Indians held hostage at Fort St. George are killed in revenge for Indian attacks on frontier settlements.
1804 – US Navy lieutenant Steven Decatur leads a small group of sailors into Tripoli harbor and burns the USS Philadelphia, captured earlier by Barbary pirates.
1838 – Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions
1838 – Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulu warriors
1857 – The National Deaf Mute College was incorporated in Washington, DC. It was the first school in the world for advanced education of the deaf. The school was later renamed Gallaudet College.
1862 – During the U.S. Civil War, about 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Donelson, TN.
1868 – The Jolly Corks organization, in New York City, changed it name to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
1883 – “Ladies Home Journal” began publication.
1913 – US President William Howard Taft agrees not to intervene in Mexico
1916 – The German ambassador in Washington announces that Germany will pay an indemnity for American lives lost on the Lusitania
1917 – 1st synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid
1918 – Lithuania proclaimed its independence.
1923 – Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day he entered the chamber with several invited guests. He had originally found the tomb on November 4, 1922.
1929 – In mysterious murder suicide Ned Doheny Jr., son of oil magnate Edward L. Doheny, dies along with secretary Hugh Plunkett at Greystone Mansion, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
1932 – The first fruit tree patent was issued to James E. Markham for a peach tree which ripens later than other varieties.
1934 – Thousands of Socialists battle Communists at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
1937 – Wallace H. Carothers received a patent for nylon. Carothers was a research chemist for Du Pont.
1938 – The U.S. Federal Crop Insurance program was authorized.
1942 – Tojo outlines Japan’s war aims to the Diet, referring to “new order of coexistence” in East Asia.
1942 – Bangka Island massacre: Japanese soldiers machine-gun 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew members from two sunken ships. Only one nurse and two soldiers survive.
1943 – Sign on Munich facade: “Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!” done by “White Rose” student anti-Nazi resistance group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22
1945 – During World War II, U.S. troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines.
1948 – NBC-TV began airing its first nightly newscast, “The Camel Newsreel Theatre”, which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.
1948 – Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for 1st time
1951 – NYC passes bill prohibiting racism in city-assisted housing
1952 – The FBI arrests 10 members of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina.
1957 – The “Toddlers’ Truce”, a controversial television close down between 6 and 7 pm, abolished in the United Kingdom
1959 – Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba after the overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista.
1960 – The U.S.S. Triton began the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip ended on May 10.
1965 – Four persons are held in a plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument.
1968 – In the U.S., the first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, AL.
1970 – Joe Frazier began his reign as the undefeated heavyweight world champion when he knocked out Jimmy Ellis in five rounds. He lost the title on January 22, 1973, when he lost for the first time in his professional career to George Foreman.
1972 – German mass murderers “Three of Breda” freed
1978 – China and Japan sign a $20 billion trade pact, which is the most important move since the 1972 resumption of diplomatic ties.
1985 – Hezbollah is founded, The Lebanese political party and militant group is classified as a terrorist organization by several western countries.
1987 – John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem. He was accused of being “Ivan the Terrible”, a guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. He was convicted, but the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the ruling.
1988 – 1st documented combat action by US military advisors in El Salvador
1989 – Investigators in Lockerbie, Scotland, announced that a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was the reason that Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down the previous December. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground were killed.
1992 – Ethiopia finds the remains of former Emperor Haile Selassie on the grounds of the Imperial Palace, under the private lavatory of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who overthrew the Emperor
1999 – Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
1999 – A bomb exploded at the government headquarters in Uzbekistan. Gunfire followed the incident. The event apparently was an attempt on the life of President Islam Karimov.
1999 – Kurds seized embassies and held hostages across Europe following Turkey’s arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
1999 – Testimony began in the Jasper, TX, trial of John William King. He was charged with murder in the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. King was later convicted and sentenced to death.
2002 – The operator of a crematory in Noble, GA, was arrested after dozens of corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered around in the surrounding woods.
2005 – The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect, The global warming pact was ratified by 191 countries to date – excluding the United States.
2005 – 2004-05 NHL season is cancelled by Commissioner Gary Bettman; first time a North American professional sports league has called off a season due to labor dispute
2006 – The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army
2013 – 84 people are killed and 190 are injured after a market bombing in Hazara Town, Pakistan
2016 – China announces it will relocate 9,000 people in Guizhou province, before completion of world’s largest telescope (FAST), designed to look for extraterrestrial life
2016 – Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy is placed under investigation for campaign funds
2017 – Car bomb in Bayaa, Baghdad kills at least 48, Islamic State claims responsibility. 3rd attack in 3 days
2017 – Suicide attack on shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sehwan, Pakistan kills 72, Islamic State claims responsibility
2018 – More than 100,00 orangutans killed in Borneo since 1999 according to study published in “Current Biology”
2019 – Pope Francis defrocks ex-cardinal and archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick for sexually abusing minors and adults. First Cardinal to be removed for sexual abuse.
2020 – America evacuates 400 citizens from COVID-19-infected cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
