1950 – U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. This was the beginning of “McCarthyism.”
1234 – Mongol army takes the Jin city of Caizhou, last holdout of Jin Emperor Ai-Tsung, who commits suicide rather than be captured
1267 – Synod of Breslau orders Jews of Silesia to wear special caps
1555 – Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake for heresy
1567 – Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in his sick-bed in a house in Edinburgh when the house blows up.
1807 – The Grand Sanhedrin (Jewish high court) is convened by Napoleon Bonaparte to give legal sanction to the principles in the Assembly of Notables
1822 – Haiti invades the newly founded Dominican Republic.
1825 – The U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. No candidate had received a majority of electoral votes.
1861 – The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis as its president.
1870 – The United States Weather Bureau was authorized by Congress. The bureau is officially known as the National Weather Service (NWS).
1871 – Federal fish protection office authorized by US Congress
1886 – US President Grover Cleveland declares a state of emergency in Seattle because of anti-Chinese violence
1895 – Volley Ball was invented by W.G. Morgan.
1897 – Invasion of Benin City by British Expedition force, the city is burnt and looted, marks the end of Nigerian Kingdom of Benin formed in the 11th century
1904 – Japanese torpedo boats make a surprise attack on Russian ships Port Arthur naval base, Manchuria, beginning the Russo-Japanese War. Japanese also land troops at Chemulpo (Inchon), near Seoul, Korea; in 3 weeks they advance to the Yalu River, the border of Manchuria.
1909 – France agrees to recognize German economic interests in Morocco in exchange for political supremacy.
1909 – The first forestry school was incorporated in Kent, Ohio.
1922 – World War Foreign Debt Commission is established by Congress to settle the problem of Allied war and postwar loans
1926 – Teaching theory of evolution forbidden in Atlanta, Georgia schools
1941 – Nazi collaborators destroy pro-Jewish café Alcazar Amsterdam (Alcazar refused to hang “No Entry for Jews” signs in front of cafe)
1942 – The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II.
1942 – Daylight-saving “War Time” went into effect in the U.S.
1943 – The Red Army takes back Kursk 15 months after it fell to the Germans.
1946 – Stalin announces the new five-year plan for the Soviet Union, calling for production boosts of 50 percent.
1950 – U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. This was the beginning of “McCarthyism.”
1959 – The world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile becomes operational in the USSR
1960 – A verbal agreement was reached between representatives of the American and National Football Leagues. Both agreed not to tamper with player contracts.
1964 – The Beatles embark on their first tour in the United States
1964 – The U.S. embassy in Moscow is stoned by Chinese and Vietnamese students.
1969 – The Boeing 747 flew its inaugural flight.
1971 – The San Fernando Valley experienced the Sylmar earthquake that registered 6.4 on the Richter Scale.
1971 – The Apollo 14 spacecraft returned to Earth after mankind’s third landing on the moon.
1975 – The Russian Soyuz 17 returned to Earth.
1978 – Canada expels 11 Soviets in spying case.
1979 – Walter Hill’s drama film “The Warriors” is released in the United States, sparking gang violence at many theaters and a halt to the film’s marketing campaign
1984 – NBC Entertainment president, Brandon Tartikoff, gave an interviewer the “10 Commandments for TV Programmers.”
1987 – Former US national security adviser Robert McFarlane attempts suicide by overdosing on Valium hours before scheduled testimony before panel investigating illegal arms-for-hostages “Iran-Contra” affair
1989 – Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. completed the $25 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco, Inc.
1990 – Spacecraft Galileo flies by Venus at an altitude of 10,000 miles (16,000 km) in a gravity assist maneuver to gain speed on its way to Jupiter
1996 – The Irish paramilitary organization IRA ends an 18-month ceasefire by exploding a large bomb in London
1997 – Fox cartoon series “The Simpsons” airs 167th episode; longest-running animated series in cartoon history
2014 – Australian National University scientists discover the oldest known star at 13.6 billion years old
2014 – Protest erupt in Sarajevo and other cities in Bosnia-Herzegovina; the unemployment rate remains at 40% (57% for youth)
2020 – Deaths from COVID-19 virus overtake those of Sars (2003) with 813 deaths worldwide, with more than 34,800 known infections
2020 – Suspected militants attack and kill at least 30 people, many while sleeping in their cars in Auno, north-eastern Nigeria, kidnapping women and children
2021 – US Senate Impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump begins in Washington D.C.
2022 – Nearly four million bottles of beer destroyed in large crackdown on alcohol in northern Nigerian state of Kano, where alcohol prohibited under Sharia law
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
