2001 – NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr. dies at the age of 49 in a last-lap crash at the 43rd Daytona 500 when he collided with another car, then crashed into a wall.
1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
1332 – Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces. (some sources state 1329)
1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is privately executed in the Tower of London
1519 – Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico with 11 ships and 500 men
1536 – France & Turkey sign military/trade agreement against King Karel
1634 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II charges commander Albrecht von Wallenstein’s with high treason and orders him brought to Vienna, dead or alive
1685 – Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France’s claim to Texas.
1688 – First vote against slavery is recorded in the U.S. in Germantown, PA. Quakers consider drafting formal protest of slavery
1735 – The first opera performed in America. The work was “Flora” (or “Hob in the Well”) and was presented in Charleston, SC.
1787 – Austrian emperor Jozef II bans children under 8 from labor
1797 – Trinidad is surrendered to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby.
1841 – The first continuous filibuster in the U.S. Senate began. It lasted until March 11th.
1856 – The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore
1861 – In Montgomery, AL, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States.
1878 – The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico
1885 – Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was published in the U.S. for the first time.
1896 – Cave of Winds at Niagara Falls goes almost dry for first time in 50 years
1903 – Dutch government of Abraham Kuyper launches anti-strike laws
1908 – The American ambassador to Japan is given a note by the Japanese in which they agree to restrict Japanese emigration to the US; this becomes known as the ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’
1913 – President Francisco Madero of Mexico is overthrown
1915 – Germany begins a blockade of England
1924 – US, Minister of Marine Edwin Denby ends term due to Teapot Dome-scandal
1927 – US & Canada begin diplomatic relations
1930 – The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930.
1932 – The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China.
1943 – The Gestapo arrests German resistance fighter Sophie Scholl and other White Rose activists
1951 – 3 City College of NY basketball players admit to accepting bribes
1952 – Greece and Turkey became members of NATO.
1953 – Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed a contract worth $8,000,000 to continue the “I Love Lucy” TV show through 1955.
1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
1957 – Dedan Kimathi, a Kenyan rebel leader is executed by the British colonial government.
1962 – France & Algerian Moslems negotiate truce to end 7 year war
1965 – Church deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson is beaten and shot during a peaceful march in Marion, Alabama. His death 8 days later inspires the Selma to Montgomery marches.
1968 – 10,000 demonstrators against US in Vietnam War in West-Berlin
1970 – The Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention.
1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, 6 Cal.3d 628 invalidates the state’s death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison
1977 – The space shuttle Enterprise went on its maiden “flight” sitting on top of a Boeing 747.
1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington, said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in American history.
1986 – Anti-smoking ad airs for 1st time on TV, featuring Yul Brynner: he died of smoking-induced lung cancer on 10th October 1985
1987 – The executives of the Girl Scout movement decided to change the color of the scout uniform from the traditional Girl Scout green to the newer Girl Scout blue.
1991 – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
1998 – In Nevada, two white separatists were arrested and accused of plotting a bacterial attack on subways in New York City.
1999 – Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic is warned by the U.S. to make peace with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, or face military intervention.
2000 – The U.S. Commerce Department reported a deficit in trade goods and services of $271.3 billion for 1999. It was the largest calender-year trade gap in U.S. history.
2001 – NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500 race. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dale-earnhardt-killed-in-crash
2003 – In South Korea, at least 120 people were killed when a man lit a fire on a subway train.
2005 – The United Kingdom law banning fox hunting, hare coursing and other sports which kill wild mammals is enforced from this date
2010 – Joseph Stack flies his plane into the side of an Austin Texas Internal Revenue Service building. He was killed. – USA
2013 – $50 million worth of diamonds is stolen in an armed robbery at Brussels Airport, Belgium
2014 – Ukrainian Revolution of 2014 begins as protesters, riot police and unknown shooters take part in violent events in the capital, Kiev, culminating after five days in the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych
2016 – Pope Francis questions US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s Christianity over his call to build a wall on the Mexican border
2019 – 16 US states, including California and New York, band together to sue President Donald Trump over his use of emergency powers to build a border wall.
2020 – Ashraf Ghani declared the winner of Afghanistan’s presidential elections five months after the vote, fraud allegations meant recounting
2021 – Facebook blocks users in Australia from accessing news sites in response to proposed new laws for tech companies to pay to show news content
2022 – Scientific study says the sudden drop in emissions due to COVID-19 shutdowns caused the record rainfall in eastern China in 2020 that killed hundreds
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
