1940 – The Three Stooges film “You Nazty Spy!” about the Nazis released with the disclaimer “Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle.”
0379 – Theodosius installed as co-emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire by Emperor Gratian
1363 – English King Edward III introduces his Sumptuary Laws, restricting what people ate and wore to preserve social status (largely ignored)
1419 – French city of Rouen surrenders to Henry V in Hundred Years War
1520 – Battle of Bogesund: Christian II of Denmark defeats the Regent of Sweden, Sten Sture the Younger who is mortally wounded
1668 – French King Louis XIV and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I sign a secret Partition Treaty, dividing the Spanish Empire if Charles II of Spain died without an heir
1764 – John Wilkes was expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
1790 – Second Fleet sails from England with 1,006 convicts aboard for new settlement at Sydney Cove.
1793 – King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine.
1795 – Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands. End of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
1812 – Peninsular War: After a ten day siege Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, ordered British soldiers of the Light and third divisions storm Ciudad Rodrigo
1825 – Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City patented a canning process to preserve salmon, oysters and lobsters.
1840 – Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
1847 – Mexican and indigenous Pueblo warriors kill territorial governor Charles Bent (47), and 5 others in a revolt against new American rulers in Taos, New Mexico Territory
1861 – Georgia seceded from the Union.
1863 – General Mieroslawski appointed dictator of Poland
1883 – Thomas Edison’s first village electric lighting system using overhead wires began operation in Roselle, NJ.
1900 – Bubonic plague spreads from Adelaide to Sydney (103 were to die).
1903 – French newspaper L’Auto announces new 5-stage, long distance bicycle race, “Tour de France”
1910 – Germany & Bolivia ends commerce/friendship treaty
1915 – More than 20 people were killed when German zeppelins bombed England for the first time. The bombs were dropped on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn.
1917 – German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States
1918 – Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.
1920 – US Senate votes against membership in League of Nations
1921 – Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador sign Pact of Union
1922 – Geological survey says US oil supply would be depleted in 20 years
1923 – UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Stanley Baldwin and US Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon agree to reschedule repayment of Britain’s $4.5 billion war debt over 62 years
1938 – The Spanish Nationalist air force bombed Barcelona and Valencia, killing 700 civilians and wounding hundreds more.
1940 – The Three Stooges film “You Nazty Spy!” about the Nazis released with the disclaimer “Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle.”
1942 – The Japanese invaded Burma (later Myanmar).
1944 – The U.S. federal government relinquished control of the nation’s railroads after the settlement of a wage dispute.
1949 – The salary of the President of the United States was increased from $75,000 to $100,000 with an additional $50,000 expense allowance for each year in office.
1953 – Sixty-eight percent of all TV sets in the U.S. were tuned to CBS-TV, as Lucy Ricardo, of “I Love Lucy,” gave birth to a baby boy.
1955 – U.S. President Eisenhower allowed a filmed news conference to be used on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time.
1966 – Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.
1971 – At the Charles Manson murder trial, the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” was played. At the scene of one of his gruesome murders, the words “helter skelter” were written on a mirror.
1977 – On his last day as U.S. President, Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino, better known to U.S. troops as Tokyo Rose, from her acts of treason during WWII
1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW’s plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America will continue until 2003.
1979 – Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, better known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” is arrested in Bolivia
1984 – California Supreme Court rejects the request of quadriplegic Elizabeth Bouvia’s to starve herself to death in a public hospital
1987 – Guy Hunt becomes Alabama’s first Republican governor since 1874
1989 – President Reagan pardons George Steinbrenner for illegal funds for Nixon
1990 – Turning point in the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Hindus from Indian-administrated Kashmir due to violence from Muslim militants
1993 – Celebrities ranging from Barbra Streisand to Michael Jackson to a reunited Fleetwood Mac threw a nationally televised pre-inaugural bash for President-elect Clinton.
1995 – Russian forces overwhelmed the resistance forces in Chechnya.
1996 – U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. The investigation was concerning the discovery of billing records related to the Whitewater real estate investment venture.
1997 – Two bombs exploded at a Tulsa, Okla., abortion clinic that had been bombed two weeks earlier.
1999 – NATO warned Yugoslav Pres. Slobodan Milosevic that he must honor the 1998 cease-fire negotiated with the rebels in Kosovo or face air strikes.
2001 – Texas officials demoted a warden and suspended three other prison workers in the wake of the escape of the “Texas 7.”
2003 – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Bush administration might allow Saddam Hussein to seek safe haven in another country as a way to avoid war.
2006 – NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft was launched. The mission was the first to investigate Pluto.
2007 Turkish journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated, The murderer was a 17-year old Turkish nationalist who disagreed with Dink’s view on the Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
2012 – FBI shuts down Megaupload.com for alleged copyright infringement, hacker group Anonymous responds by attacking government and entertainment industry websites
2013 – In Scottsdale, AZ, the original Batmobile for the TV series “Batman” sold at auction for $4.6 million. It was the first of six Batmobiles produced for the show.
2017 – Adama Barrow sworn in as President of Gambia in Dahkar as Senegalese troops enter Gambia to persuade former President Yahya Jammeh to leave
2021 – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says China is committing genocide in its repression of Uighurs and other Muslim people
2022 – Major report on antimicrobial resistance shows 4.95m deaths worldwide associated with drug-resistant bacteria, making untreatable infections now a leading cause of death
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
