1941 – Winston Churchill was the first to use the two-finger “V is for Victory” sign.
0064 – Circus Maximus in Rome catches fire
1324 – Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, arrives in Cairo on his way to Mecca, with a procession of 600,000 men, 12,000 slaves and 80 camels carrying 136 kg (300 pounds) of gold each
1510 – 38 Jews are burned at stake in Berlin, Prussia
1524 – Peasants’ War begins in Germany’s Black Forest
1525 – The Catholic princes of Germany formed the Dessau League to fight against the Reformation.
1553 – Mary I replaces Lady Jane Grey as Queen of England – Also known as Bloody Mary due to her brutal persecution of Protestants, Mary I was the only child of Catherine of Aragon and Henry III.
1595 – Astronomer Johannes Kepler has an epiphany and develops his theory of the geometrical basis of the universe while teaching in Graz
1674 – Court of Holland bans books of Hobbes, Spinoza and Meyer
1692 – 5 more people are hanged for witchcraft (19 in all) in Salem, Massachusetts
1816 – Survivors of French frigate Medusa rescued off Senegal after 17 days
1843 – The steamship SS Great Britain is launched, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and the largest vessel afloat in the world
1848 – Seneca Falls Convention begins – One of the first women’s rights convention to be held in American history, the two-day convention attracted 300 women and men who protested the social, economic, and political discrimination American women faced.
1867 – US Congress passes 3rd Reconstruction Act over President Andrew Johnson’s veto
1869 – Louis Riel speaks at a meeting of Metis residents about rights, setting in motion the events now referred to as the Red River Rebellion
1899 – National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers forms
1900 – Paris Metro opens – One of the densest metros in the world and the second largest metro in Europe, the first line of the Paris Metro opened during the World’s Fair.
1903 – The first Tour de France comes to an end – Maurice Garin became the first person to win the debut of the now annual bike race.
1912 – A meteorite of estimated 190kg mass explodes over Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona, causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town
1919 – Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen rioted and burnt down Luton Town Hall.
1939 – Dr Roy P Scholz is 1st surgeon to use fiberglass sutures
1940 – Adolf Hitler orders Great Britain to surrender – they decline
1941 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC)
1941 – Winston Churchill was the first to use the two-finger “V is for Victory” sign.
1941 – Tom and Jerry first appear under their own names in cartoon “The Midnight Snack” by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
1942 – German U-boats were withdrawn from positions off the U.S. Atlantic coast due to effective American anti-submarine countermeasures.
1947 – Prime Minister of shadow Burma government, Bogyoke Aung San and 6 of his cabinet and 2 non-cabinet members assassinated by armed paramilitaries
1957 – 1st rocket with nuclear warhead fired, Yucca Flat, Nevada
1966 – Governor James Rhodes declares state of emergency in Cleveland (race riot)
1967 – Race riots in Durham, North Carolina
1974 – The House Judiciary Committee recommended that U.S. President Richard Nixon should stand trial in the Senate for any of the five impeachment charges against him.
1976 – Allman Brother’s roadie Scooter Herring sentenced to 75 years for providing drugs for the group, based on Gregg Allman’s testimony
1979 – In Nicaragua, the dictatorship of the Somozas was overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional or FSLN).
1980 – XXII Summer Olympic Games open in Moscow, Russia; led by United States, 66 nations boycott event because of Soviet-Afghan war
1982 – The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 14% of the population had an income below the official poverty level in 1981.
1985 – Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. She died with six others when the Challenger exploded the following year.
1993 – Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – President Clinton announced the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gay service members in the military.
2001 – Michael Brunet discovers the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis in the Djurab Desert, Chad. One of the oldest known species in the human family tree, 6-7 million years ago years old
2009 – The Wesley Impact: black spot the size of Earth discovered on Jupiter after unknown object crashed onto the planet
2015 – World Health Organization puts world’s Ebola death toll at 11,284
2017 – US scientists calculate total amount plastic ever produced – 8.3 billion tonnes, equal to weight of 1 billion elephants
2018 – Israel’s parliament passes controversial “nation state” law giving only Jews self-determination, relegating Arabic to “special status”
2018 – Airbus Beluga XL, painted to look like the whale, makes its first flight, landing in Toulouse-Blagnac, France
2018 – Russian ship Dmitri Donskoii, with possible cargo of gold coins is discovered in waters between South Korea and Japan where it sunk in 1905
2019 – Largest wind farm in Africa opens at Lake Turkana, Kenya, generating 310 megawatts
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
