1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy.
622 – Muslim Era begins – Muhammad begins flight from Mecca to Medina (Hijra)
1054 – Beginning of the Great Schism between Western and Eastern churches when Roman Cardinal Humbert issues bull of excommunication against Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, on the altar of the Hagia Sophia, Constantinople
1099 – Crusaders herd Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue & set it afire
1212 – Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa [Battle of Al-Uqab]: combined Christian army defeats Almohad Muslim force in a turning point for Muslim power on Iberian peninsula
1377 – Richard II aged 10 crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, succeeding his grandfather Edward III
1439 – Kissing is banned in England (to stop the Black Death from spreading)
1519 – Public debate between Martin Luther and theologian Johann Eck at Pleissenburg Castle in Liepzig, during which Luther denies the divine right of the Pope
1769 – Father Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego the 1st mission in California
1774 – Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their six-year war.
1790 – The District of Columbia, or Washington, DC, was established as the permanent seat of the United States Government.
1791 – Louis XVI was suspended from office until he agreed to ratify the constitution.
1862 – David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
1875 – The new French constitution was finalized.1894 – Many negro miners in Alabama killed by striking white miners
1897 – The South African Committee, investigating the Jameson Raid releases its report finding that it was conducted almost implicitly through the support and encouragement of Cecil Rhodes and the mining houses in the Transvaal
1900 – A report appears in London that all foreigners in Peking, China, have been massacred. Although soon exposed as false, the report helps mobilize support for relief of foreigners
1926 – The first underwater color photographs appeared in “National Geographic” magazine. The pictures had been taken near the Florida Keys.
1940 – Adolf Hitler ordered the preparations to begin on the invasion of England, known as Operation Sea Lion.
1942 – French police officers rounded up 13,000 Jews and held them in the Winter Velodrome. The round-up was part of an agreement between Pierre Laval and the Nazis. Germany had agreed to not deport French Jews if France arrested foreign Jews.
1945 – 1st test detonation of an atomic bomb, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico as part of the US Manhattan Project
1951 – J.D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was first published.
1957 – Marine Major John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he flew a jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds.
1969 – Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL, and began the first manned mission to land on the moon.
1973 – Alexander P. Butterfield informed the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair of the existence of recorded tapes.
1979 – Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq after forcing Hasan al-Bakr to resign.
1981 – After 23 years with the name Datsun, executives of Nissan changed the name of their cars to Nissan.
1990 – The ANC send a report on police violence to President F. W. de Klerk and demanded an end to “the shocking inhumanity” of police action in rural areas of South Africa
1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy.
2011 – The NASA space probe Dawn entered Vesta orbit.
2014 – Hamas and Islamic Jihad offer Israel a 10-year truce with 10 conditions, which include lifting the blockade and the release of prisoners; it is rejected
2015 – Scientists reveal 1st close-up pictures of Pluto, sent by the New Horizons probe
2015 – Shootings in Chattanooga at a US military recruitment centre and a naval reserve training center kill 5 and injure others
2018 – US President Donald Trump appears to accept the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin over US intelligence services about Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, in an interview after the two leader’s Helsinki Summit
2018 – 12 new moons discovered orbiting Jupiter bringing planet’s moon total to 79, by scientists at Carnegie Institution for Science
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
