1863 – Battle of Gettysburg ends: The 3-day long battle during the American Civil War was fought between the Union and Confederacy in-and-around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Thought to be one of the bloodiest battles of the war – around 50,000 soldiers were lost on both sides – the Battle of Gettysburg marked a key turning point in the conflict. The decisive Union victory led to the retreat of Confederate soldiers from the north.
0324 – Battle of Adrianople: Roman Emperor Constantine I defeats his co-emperor Licinius, who flees to Byzantium
0987 – Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792.
1187 – Battle of Horns of Hattin: Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, destroys Jerusalem’s crusader army
1250 – Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars’ Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.
1608 – The city of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain.
1754 – George Washington surrenders to French, Ft Necessity (7 Years’ War)
1775 – U.S. Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, MA.
1778 – British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in Wyoming, Pa
1790 – In Paris, the marquis of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women.
1816 – French frigate “”Medusa”” runs aground off Cap Blanc. Gross incompetence kills 150 in calm seas
1841 – John Couch Adams decides to determine the position of an unknown planet by irregularities it causes in the motion of Uranus
1844 – The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
1844 – Ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiated a commercial treaty with China that opened five Chinese ports to U.S. merchants and protected the rights of American citizens in China.
1863 – Battle of Gettysburg ends, The 3-day long battle during the American Civil War was fought between the Union and Confederacy in-and-around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Thought to be one of the bloodiest battles of the war – around 50,000 soldiers were lost on both sides – the Battle of Gettysburg marked a key turning point in the conflict. The decisive Union victory led to the retreat of Confederate soldiers from the north. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-gettysburg-ends
1871 – The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company introduced the first narrow-gauge locomotive. It was called the “Montezuma.”
1880 – “Science” began publication. Thomas Edison had provided the principle funding.
1890 – Idaho became the 43rd state to join the United States of America.
1898 – During the Spanish American War, a fleet of Spanish ships in Cuba’s Santiago Harbor attempted to run a blockade of U.S. naval forces. Nearly all of the Spanish ships were destroyed in the battle that followed.
1903 – The first cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila.
1913 – Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett’s Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors
1915 – US military forces occupy Haiti, remain until 1934
1915 – After exploding a bomb in US Senate reception room previous day, Erich Muenter, a German instructor at Cornell University, shoots JP Morgan for representing the British government in war contract negotiations
1922 – “Fruit Garden and Home” magazine was introduced. It was later renamed “Better Homes and Gardens.”
1924 – Clarence Birdseye founded the General Seafood Corp.
1930 – The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Veterans Administration.
1934 – U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) made its first payment to Lydia Losiger.
1940 – The legendary comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello debuted with their network radio show on NBC
1944 – The U.S. First Army opened a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of Normandy, France.
1944 – During World War II, Soviet forces recaptured Minsk.
1945 – U.S. troops landed at Balikpapan and take Sepinggan airfield on Borneo in the Pacific.
1945 – The first civilian passenger car built since February 1942 was driven off the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit, MI. Production had been diverted due to World War II.
1950 – U.S. carrier-based planes attacked airfields in the Pyongyang-Chinnampo area of North Korea in the first air-strike of the Korean War
1954 – Food rationing ended in Great Britain almost nine years after the end of World War II.
1962 – Algeria gains its independence from France
1966 – Race riots in Omaha Nebraska
1970 – The British Army impose curfew on Falls Road area of Belfast as they search for weapons; coming under attack from the Official IRA (OIRA) and republican rioters
1974 – The Threshold Test Ban Treaty was signed, prohibiting underground nuclear weapons tests with yields greater than 150 kilotons.
1976 – Israel launches rescue of 103 Air France crew & passengers being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers
1978 – US Supreme Court rules 5-4, FCC had a right to reprimand NY radio station WBAI for broadcasting George Carlin’s “Filthy Words”
1981 – The Associated Press ran its first story about two rare illnesses afflicting homosexual men. One of the diseases was later named AIDS.
1984 – Supreme Court rules Jaycees may be forced to admit women as members
1986 – U.S. President Reagan presided over a ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.
1988 – United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard
1988 – The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus
1989 – Supreme Court rules states do not have to provide funds for abortions
1990 – Liberian President Samuel Kanyon Doe offers to resign in response to rebel incursions in his country; he is later kidnapped and executed
1991 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush formally inaugurated the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.
1996 – UK House of Commons announces that the Stone of Scone, aka the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish (and subsequently English and British monarchs), will be returned to Scotland after 700 years in Westminster Abbey
2001 – At a meeting of its oil ministers, OPEC agrees to maintain current production quotas; ministers indicate that, if Iraqi oil returns to the market, they may cut production in response to maintain their desired level of prices
2005 – The national law legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect in Spain.
2012 – Truck bombing kills 25 people and wounds 40 in Diwaniyah, Iraq
2013 – Coup in Egypt, Egyptian defense minister Abdul Fatah al-Sisi staged a coup and forced out President Mohamed Morsi, just over a year after he was elected.
2018 – Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is arrested on corruption charges, accused of stealing 700 million from state development fund 1MDB
2019 – US produces the most waste per head globally and recycles the least at 35% according to new research by Verisk Maplecroft, Germany recycles the most at 68%
2022 – Sri Lanka says it has less than one day’s worth of fuel, as its economic crisis deepens, closing schools and stopping public transport
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
