1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all 7 crew members, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space
1077 – German King Henry IV is absolved by Holy Roman Emperor Pope Gregory VII and invited back to the Church after his penitent Walk to Canossa
1099 – First Crusaders begins siege of Hosn-el-Akrad Syria
1495 – Pope gives his son Cesare Borgia as hostage to Charles VIII of France
1521 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles V opens the Diet of Worms in Worms, Germany which lasts until May 25. Produced the “Edict of Worms” which denounced Martin Luther.
1547 – England’s King Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his 9 year-old son, Edward VI.
1581 – James VI signs the 2nd Confession of Faith in Scotland
1724 – The Russian Academy of Sciences was founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented in the Senate decree. It was called St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.
1788 – Lord Gordon found guilty of libel of queen of France
1807 – London’s Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight.
1813 – Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, is first published in the United Kingdom.
1820 – Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the Antarctic continent approaching the Antarctic coast.
1871 – France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War.
1878 – The first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT.
1902 – The Carnegie Institution was established in Washington, DC. It began with a gift of $10 million from Andrew Carnegie.
1909 – The United States ended direct control over Cuba.
1915 – The Coast Guard was created by an act of the U.S. Congress to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea.
1916 – Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by President Wilson to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.
1918 – The Bolsheviks occupied Helsinki, Finland.
1921 – A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honour the unknown dead of World War I.
1930 – Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera resigns as Prime Minister of Spain after losing the support of his fellow military leaders and King Alfonso XIII
1932 – First US state unemployment insurance act enacted-Wisconsin
1933 – The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
1935 – Iceland became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.
1944 – Leonard Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” premieres in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1945 – During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1950 – Preston Tucker, auto maker, found not guilty of mail fraud
1951 – American and Bermudan naturalist discover nesting site of Bermuda petrel, a sea bird also known as cahow; the species was thought extinct since 1615, but sporadic sightings spawned an expedition to some remote rocky crags off of Bermuda
1953 – 19-year old Derek Bentley is hanged in Wandsworth Prison, London, controversially convicted of the murder of a police officer. He was pardoned on 30th July 1998.
1958 – The Lego brick is patented
1961 – Republic of Rwanda proclaimed
1965 – General Motors reported the biggest profit of any U.S. company in history.
1968 – Radiation alert following B-52 crash in Arctic air base of Thule in Greenland
1980 – Six Americans who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, left Iran using false Canadian diplomatic passports. The Americans had been hidden at the Canadian embassy in Tehran.
1982 – Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier. 42 days before he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
1985 – USA for Africa record “We Are the World”
1986 – The U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. All seven of its crewmembers were killed.
1988 – Canada’s Supreme court declares anti-abortion law unconstitutional
1991 – Dictator Siad Barre flees Somalia ending 22 year rule
1994 – In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez in the murder of his parents. Lyle, and his brother Erik, were both retried later and were found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1998 – In Manilla, Philippines, gunmen held at least 400 children and teachers for several hours at an elementary school.
1999 – Ford Motor Company announced the purchase of Sweden’s Volvo AB for $6.45 billion.
2002 – Toys R Us Inc. announced that it would be closing 27 Toys R Us stores and 37 Kids R Us stores in order to cut costs and boost operating profits.
2003 – In his State of the Union address US President George W. Bush announces President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) – plan will go on to save 25 million lives worldwide (as of Jan 2023)
2010 – Five murderers of Bangladeshi President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman hanged: Lieutenant Colonel Syed Faruq Rahman, Lieutenant Colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Major Bazlul Huda and Lieutenant Colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed
2012 – Death toll from coordinated bombing attacks in Kano, Nigeria, reaches 185
2014 – DNA analysis confirms that the 6th century Plague of Justinian was caused by a variant of Yersinia pestis (the same bacteria for the Black Death)
2019 – Draft framework for peace agreement to end 17-year conflict in Afghanistan agreed by US and Afghan negotiators
2021 – Mexico’s COVID-19 death toll becomes the world’s third highest, overtaking India’s at 155,145
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
