1914 – Four-year old Charlotte May Pierstorff mailed by train from Grangeville, Idaho to her grandparents’ house 73 miles away in most famous ‘child in the post’ instance
0356 – Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples
0842 – Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstates the veneration of icons in churches
1408 – The revolt of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, against King Henry IV, ends with his defeat and death at Bramham Moor.
1516 – Consecration of the Lady Chapel, part of Westminster Abbey, by Henry VII, called “one of the most perfect buildings ever erected in England”
1539 – Jews of Tyrnau Hungary (then Trnava Czech), expelled
1594 – Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.
1600 – Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history
1797 – The Peace of Tolentino : Pope Pius VI cedes Papal territories of Avignon, Venaissin, Ferrara, Bologna, and the Romagna to France
1803 – US Congress accepts Ohio’s constitution, statehood not ratified till 1953
1807 – Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was later tried and acquitted on charges of treason.
1846 – The formal transfer of government between Texas and the United States took place. Texas had officially become a state on December 29, 1845.
1847 – Rescuers finally reach the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierras.
1852 – The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
1856 – The tintype camera was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith.
1861 – Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom.
1878 – Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (the phonograph).
1881 – Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
1903 – The Austria-Hungary government decrees a mandatory two year military service.
1906 – W.K. Kellogg (after falling out with brother over development credit and wanting to add sugar to cereal) joins Charles D. Bolin in founding the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, now the multinational food manufacturer Kellogg’s
1913 – Mexican General Victoriano Huerta takes power with US support
1914 – Four-year old Charlotte May Pierstorff mailed by train from Grangeville, Idaho to her grandparents’ house 73 miles away in most famous ‘child in the post’ instance
1915 – British and French warships begin their attacks on the Turkish forts at the mouth of the Dardenelles, in an abortive expedition to seize the straits of Gallipoli.
1917 – American troops are recalled from the Mexican border.
1925 – President Calvin Coolidge proposes the phasing out of inheritance tax.
1926 – Dr. Lane of Princeton estimates the earth’s age at one billion years.
1933 – Prussian minister Goering bans all Catholic newspapers
1942 – U.S. President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.
1942 – The New York Yankees announced that they would admit 5,000 uniformed servicemen free to each of their home ball games during the coming season.
1942 – Approximately 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin.
1945 – During World War II, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima.
1953 – The State of Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the U.S. Newspapers were excluded from the new legislation.
1959 – Cyprus was granted its independence with the signing of an agreement with Britain, Turkey and Greece.
1963 – The Soviet Union informed U.S. President Kennedy it would withdraw “several thousand” of its troops in Cuba.
1965 – Fourteen Vietnam War protesters are arrested for blocking the United Nations’ doors in New York.
1966 – Robert F. Kennedy suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.
1968 – Children’s educational TV program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuts on NET (now PBS)
1976 – Britain slashes welfare spending.
1981 – The U.S. State Department call El Savador a “textbook case” of a Communist plot.
1981 – Ford Motor Company announced its loss of $1.5 billion.
1985 – William Schroeder became the first artificial-heart patient to leave the confines of the hospital.
1986 – The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide. The pact had been submitted 37 years earlier for ratification.
1986 – The “Mir” Space Station is launched, The Soviet vehicle was the world’s first modular space station and remained in orbit for 15 years.
1987 – US President Reagan lifts trade boycott against Poland
1997 – FCC makes available 311 for non-emergency calls & 711 for hearing or speech-impaired emergency calls
2001 – An Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial
2002 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft began using its thermal emission imaging system to map Mars.
2004 – Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader’s collapse. Skilling was later convicted and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.
2005 – The USS Jimmy Carter was commissioned at Groton, CT. It was the last of the Seawolf class of attack submarines.
2008 – Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency. His brother Raul was later named as his successor.
2012 – 44 people killed in prison brawl in Apocada, Mexico, between two rival drug cartels
2014 – Death toll in Ukraine reaches 26 after Government crackdown on protesters
2018 – Nigeria says 110 girls missing, presumed kidnapped by Boko Haram after attack on school in Dapchi, Yobe state
2018 – Syrian government forces bombard Gouta in deadliest day in 3 years, killing over 100 civilians
2019 – New York city bans hair discrimination, to limit racial stereotyping
2019 – Vatican confirms secret church guidelines for children of priests
2020 – German gunman opens fire in a bar in Hanau, Germany, killing nine in a racially motivated attack
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
