1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies
390 BC – Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia – Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leads to subsequent sacking of Rome
0064 – Great fire of Rome: A fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly plays his lyre and sings while watching the blaze from a safe distance.
1100 – Jerusalem’s Godfrey of Bouillon dies at age 39 after successful forays against the Seljuk Turks that have taken him as far as Damascus
1290 – King Edward I orders expulsion of Jews from England, this edict will remain in place for 350 years
1334 – Bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by artist Giotto di Bondone
1536 – The authority of the pope was declared void in England.
1656 – Polish-Lithuanian forces clashes with Sweden and its Brandenburg allies in the start of what is to be known as The Battle of Warsaw which ends in a decisive Swedish victory.
1743 – “The New York Weekly Journal” published the first half-page newspaper ad.
1753 – Lemuel Haynes, escapes from slaveholder in Framingham Mass
1789 – Robespierre, a deputy from Arras, France, decided to back the French Revolution.
1812 – Great Britain signed the Treaty of Orebro, making peace with Russia and Sweden.
1814 – British capture Prairie du Chien (Wisc)
1817 – Selkirk Treaty: Lord Selkirk signs agreement with five chiefs of Sautaux and Cree Nations for land use either side of Red and Assiniboine Rivers – 1st agreement in Western Canada recognizing Indigenous land rights
1830 – Uruguay adopted a liberal constitution.
1857 – Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall’s war on the French.
1870 – The first Vatican Council, also known as Vatican I, decrees the doctrine of Papal infallibility, The doctrine claims that the Pope cannot err when speaking on issues of morality and/ or faith.
1872 – The Ballot Act was passed in Great Britain, providing for secret election ballots.
1914 – Six planes of the U.S. Army helped to form an aviation division called the Signal Corps.
1915 – WWI: Second Battle of Isonzo begins with Kingdom of Italy offensive against Austria-Hungary, ends 2-1/2 weeks later with over 91,000 combined casualties
1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
1932 – The U.S. and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.
1935 – Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urged his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army.
1936 – The first Oscar Meyer Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company’s factory in Chicago, IL.
1942 – The German Me-262, the first jet-propelled aircraft to fly in combat, made its first flight.
1944 – U.S. troops captured Saint-Lo, France, ending the battle of the hedgerows.
1944 – Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister due to setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.
1947 – U.S. President Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which placed the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president. https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/president-pro-tempore/presidential-succession-act.htm
1947 – British seize “Exodus 1947” ship of Jewish immigrants to Palestine
1964 – Race riot in Harlem (NYC); riots spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bkln)
1968 – Vietnam War: The two-day Honolulu Conference begins in Honolulu, Hawaii between US President Lyndon B. Johnson and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu
1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/incident-on-chappaquiddick-island
1971 – New Zealand and Australia announced they would pull their troops out of Vietnam.
1972 – Egyptian president Anwar Sadat throws out 20,000 Russian military aides
1975 – Jury can’t decide on trial of Dave Forbes of Boston Bruins (1st athlete indicted for excessive violence during play)
1982 – 268 campesinos (“”peasants”” or “”country people””) are slain in the Plan de Snchez massacre in Ros Montt’s Guatemala
1984 – McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police
1989 – Actress Rebecca Schaeffer is shot by a crazed fan, prompting California to pass America’s first anti-stalking law in 1990
1992 – The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre disappear from their university in Lima, Peru
1993 – Agathe Uwilingiyimana elected as Prime Minister of Rwanda, Rwanda’s only female prime minister’s tenure was cut short when she was assassinated at the outset of the Rwandan genocide.
1996 – The UN approves an Iraqi aid distribution plan, a major step forward in the direction of allowing Iraq to sell oil under Resolution 986
1997 – 8000 low-caste Indians riot in Mumbai (Bombay) following a funeral for 10 children who had been killed by police.
2001 – A train derailed, involving 60 cars, in a Baltimore train tunnel. The fire that resulted lasted for six days and virtually closed down downtown Baltimore for several days.
2012 – 14 people are killed after a bomb explosion at Pakistan’s Orakzai Agency
2012 – Kim Jong-un is officially appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea and given the rank of Marshal in the Korean People’s Army
2013 – Government of Detroit declares bankruptcy, The city, which was up to $20 billion in debt, became the largest municipal entity in the United States to declare bankruptcy.
2015 – The Ebay spin-off of PayPal into a separate publicly traded company was completed.
2018 – 44 Forest fires in Sweden as far north as the Arctic Circle prompt Swedish government to request extra assistance, with drought and warm weather to blame
2018 – Elon Musk apologises for calling British caver diver in Thai rescue “pedo guy” after widespread criticism and fall in Tesla stock price
2019 – One of world’s earliest mosques at 1,200 years old discovered by archaeologists in Israel’s Negev Desert
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
