1991 – The Gulf War in Iraq begins – “Operation Desert Storm”, launched in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, resulted in about 100,000 civilian deaths.
1377 – The Papal See was transferred from Avignon in France back to Rome.
1524 – Beginning of Giovanni da Verrazzano’s voyage to find a passage to China
1562 – French Protestants were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain.
1595 – King Henry IV of France declares war on Spain
1656 – Brandenburg & Sweden sign Treaty of Königsberg
1718 – Avalanche destroys every building in Leukerbad, Switzerland; kills 53
1757 – German Diet declares war on Prussia
1773 – Captain Cook’s Resolution became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle.
1775 – 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests in Kalisk, Poland
1779 – Captain James Cook’s last notation in Discovery’s ship’s log
1799 – Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, is executed
1821 – Mexico permits Moses Austin and 300 US families to settle in Texas, after his death leaves to son Stephen
1852 – The independence of the Transvaal Boers was recognized by Britain.
1871 – Andrew S. Hallidie received a patent for a cable car system.
1873 – A group of Modoc warriors defeats the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, a part of the Modoc War
1874 – Armed Democrats seize Texas government ending Radical Reconstruction
1893 – The Kingdom of Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.
1899 – US takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific
1900 – Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaimed their independence from Mexico.
1900 – Mormon Brigham Roberts was denied a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for his practicing of polygamy.
1911 – Failed assassination attempt on French Prime Minister Aristide Briand in the French Assembly
1912 – English explorer Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole. Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by one month. Scott and his party died during the return trip.
1913 – All partner interests in 36 Golden Rule Stores were consolidated and incorporated in Utah into one company. The new corporation was the J.C. Penney Company.
1915 – Battle of Sarikamish ends with a Russian victory over Ottoman forces led by Enver Pasha with loss of over 30,000 men of the Turkish Third Army during Caucasus Campaign
1920 – First day of prohibition of alcohol comes into effect in the US as a result of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution
1934 – Ferdinand Porsche submitted a design for a people’s car, a “Volkswagen,” to the new German Reich government.
1943 – Tin Can Drive Day in the US, salvage collected for the war effort
1945 – Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation
1945 – Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody. Wallenberg was credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews.
1945 – Soviet army enters the devastated city of Warsaw and clears German resistance
1946 – The UN Security Council holds its first session, The UNSC is the most powerful organ of the United Nations and it is charged with upholding international peace and security.
1948 – Trial of 11 US Communist party members begins in NYC
1951 – China refuses ceases-fire in Korea
1959 – Senegal and the French Sudan joined to form the Federal State of Mali.
1961 – Patrice Lumumba is murdered with support from western governments, An independent commission concluded that Lumumba, the first democratically elected leader of the Congo, died at the hands of his domestic adversaries with the assistance of the Belgian government and the CIA.
1961 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the “military-industrial complex”.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?15026-1/president-dwight-eisenhower-farewell-address
1966 – A B-52 carrying four H-bombs collided with a refueling tanker. The bombs were released and eight crewmembers were killed.
1971 – At a party conference in Dublin, Sinn Féin end their 65 year abstentionist policy and agree that any elected representative could take their seat at the Dáil
1972 – Seven men who were held as internees escape from the prison ship HMS Maidstone in Belfast Lough, North Ireland
1977 – Double murderer Gary Gilmore became the first to be executed in the U.S. in a decade. The firing squad took place at Utah State Prison.
1981 – President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos ends martial law
1983 – Alabama Governor George Wallace, becomes governor for a record 4th time
1983 – Nigeria expels 2 million illegal aliens, mostly Ghanaians
1984 – Supreme Court rules (5-4) that private use of home VCRs to tape TV programs for later viewing does not violate federal copyright laws
1989 – Gunman opens fire in California schoolyard; 5 students slain, 30 wounded
1991 – The Gulf War in Iraq begins – “Operation Desert Storm”, launched in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, resulted in about 100,000 civilian deaths.
1992 – An IRA bomb, placed next to a remote country road in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, killed seven building workers and injured seven others.
1994 – The Northridge earthquake rocked Los Angeles, CA, registering a 6.7 on the Richter Scale. At least 61 people were killed and about $20 billion in damage was caused.
1995 – More than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.
1996 – Iraq agrees to talks concerning a UN plan to allow for the Iraqi sale of $1 billion of oil; proceeds from the sale would be used for humanitarian purposes
1997 – A court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country’s history.
1997 – Israel gave over 80% of Hebron to Palestinian rule, but held the remainder where several hundred Jewish settlers lived among 20,000 Palestinians.
1998 – U.S. President Clinton gave his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him. He was the first U.S. President to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil lawsuit.
2000 – British pharmaceutical companies Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC agreed to a merger that created the world’s largest drugmaker.
2001 – Congo’s President Laurent Kabila was shot and killed during a coup attempt. Congolese officials temporarily placed Kabila’s son in charge of the government.
2001 – The director of Palestinian TV, Hisham Miki, was killed at a restaurant when three masked gunmen walked up to his table and shot him more than 10 times.
2002 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
2013 – 106 people are massacred by Syrian army forces in Homs
2014 – 21 people are killed in a suicide bombing in a restaurant in Kabul, Afghanistan
2017 – Nigerian military mistakenly bomb refugee camp killing more than 70 in Rann, Borno state
2019 – Indian spiritual leader Ram Rahim Singh and two aides sentenced to life in prison for murdering journalist who exposed sexual abuse at the sect
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
