1973 – Supporters of the American Indian Movement begin their occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, site of the 1890 Sioux massacre. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/aim-occupation-of-wounded-knee-begins
1454 – Siege of Malbork, including its castle, seat of the Teutonic Order begun by Polish and Prussian forces – captured September 1454
1526 – Saxony & Hesse form League of Gotha (league of Protestant princes)
1560 – The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland.
1617 – Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
1670 – Jews expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I
1678 – Earl of Shaftesbury freed out of London Tower
1700 – The Pacific Island of New Britain was discovered.
1713 – French troops bomb Willemstad, Curacao
1801 – The city of Washington, DC, was placed under congressional jurisdiction.
1813 – First federal vaccination legislation enacted
1827 – New Orleans held its first Mardi Gras celebration.
1861 – In Warsaw, Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland. Five protesting marchers were killed in the incident.
1873 – Dutch socialist Samuel van Wooden demands law against child labor
1879 – Constantine Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener)
1900 – In South Africa, the British received an unconditional surrender from Boer Gen. Piet Cronje at Paardeberg.
1908 – Sacrifice fly adopted (repealed in 1931, reinstated 1954)
1922 – A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
1927 – For 2nd Sunday in a row golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath
1932 – The neutron is discovered – English physicist James Chadwick was later awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery.
1933 – Nazi Germany’s parliament building “The Reichstag” is destroyed by fire; possibly set by the Nazis, who blame and execute Dutch Communist Marinus van der Lubbe
1938 – Britain & France recognize Franco government in Spain
1939 – The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.
1942 – Radio emissions from the Sun first detected by English physicist and radio astronomer James Stanley Hey, working on WWII radar anti-jamming methods
1943 – Non-violent protests in Berlin prevent the deportation of 2000 jews – The “Rosenstrasse protest” was carried out by the “Aryan” wives and relatives of detained Jewish men.
1962 – South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm’s palace bombed by dissident air pilots in a failed assassination attempt
1964 – The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
1968 – CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite delivers a scathing editorial on America’s chances of winning the Vietnam War
1969 – General Hafez al-Assad becomes head of Syria via military coup
1970 – New York Times (falsely) reports US army has ended domestic surveillance
1972 – The Shanghai Communique was issued by U.S. President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai.
1973 – Supporters of the American Indian Movement begin their occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, site of the 1890 Sioux massacre.
1975 – US House of Representatives pass $21.3 billion anti-recession tax-cut bill
1976 – The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
1979 – The Navy took delivery of the last A-4 Skyhawk from the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, setting a record for the longest production run for any U.S. military aircraft.
1980 – Terrorists occupies Dominican embassy in Bogota
1981 – Chrysler Corporation was granted an additional $400 million in federal loan guarantees. Chrysler had posted a loss of $1.7 billion in 1980.
1982 – Wayne B. Williams was convicted of murdering two of the 28 black children and young adults whose bodies were found in Atlanta, GA, over a two-year period.
1985 – Farmers converge in Washington to demand economic relief
1986 – The U.S. Senate approved the telecast of its debates on a trial basis.
1987 – NCAA cancels SMU’s entire 1987 football schedule for gross violations of NCAA rules regarding athletic
1990 – The Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping were indicted on five criminal counts in reference to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
1991 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced live on television that “Kuwait is liberated.”
1997 – In Ireland, divorce became legal.
1998 – Britain’s House of Lords agreed to give a monarch’s first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son. This was the end to 1,000 years of male preference.
1999 – Nigeria returned to civilian rule when Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo became the country’s first elected president since August of 1983.
2002 – Godhra train burning, a Muslim mob kills 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya
2004 – A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines worst terrorist attack kills 116.
2012 – Wikileaks begins disclosing 5 million emails from private intelligence company Stratfor
2013 – 17 Afghan militia are killed by Taliban insurgents in an attack in the Andar District
2014 – US Republican Governor Jan Brewer vetoes a “religious freedom” bill that would have allowed businesses to turn away gay customers
2015 – Russian politician Boris Nemtsov is assassinated in Moscow
2019 – First gun control legislation for 25 years passed by US House of Representatives, with new federal background checks
2020 – Biggest cosmic explosion ever detected from a supermassive black hole in Ophiuchus galaxy 390 million lights years away, (size of 15 Miky Ways), published in “Astrophysical Journal”
2022 – Countries sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine; EU closes its airspace to Russian planes, Russian banks excluded from worldwide Swift payment system, Sweden sends arms to Ukraine
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
