1998 – Officials confirmed that the remains of a Vietnam War serviceman buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.
0350 – Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, is defeated and killed by troops of the usurper Magnentius, in Rome
1097 – The Crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.
1294 – Jews are expelled from Berne, Switzerland
1377 – Foundation stone laid for Ulm Minster, in Ulm, Germany. Will not be completed until 1890, when it becomes the tallest church in the world.
1520 – Spanish conquistadors are expelled from Tenochtitlan following an Aztec revolt against their rule under Hernán Cortés during “La Noche Triste” (the Night of Sadness). Many soldiers drown in the escape, and Aztec emperor Moctezuma II dies in the struggle
1548 – Augsburg Interim issued by Charles V becomes law – orders Lutherans to return to Catholic practices with some concessions
1596 – English and Dutch fleet begin attack of the Spain fleet moored at Cádiz during the Anglo-Spanish war. Leads also to the looting and burning of the city of Cádiz.
1665 – The number of deaths in London from the Great Plague during June is recorded as 6,137 people
1704 – First trial for piracy by the British Admiralty Court outside of Britain finds Captain John Quelch and five crew guilty, sentenced to hang the same day
1794 – Seige of Fort Recovery, Ohio, Anglo American army holds off an attack on the fort by an Indian confederacy
1805 – Michigan Territory organizes
1834 – Congress creates Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)
1859 – Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1860 – Famous debate on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution held at the Oxford University Museum and dominated by arguments between Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce
1864 – Yosemite Grant Act signed by President Abraham Lincoln bestowing 200,000 acres to the state of California, establishes America’s first state-controlled park
1865 – 8 alleged conspirators in assassination of Lincoln are found guilty
1894 – Korea declared independence from China and asked for Japanese aid.
1905 – Albert Einstein submits a paper outlining his theory of special relativity
1906 – US Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act; these laws owe much to the expose journalism of the period (Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle’ in particular)
1908 – A meteor explosion in Siberia knocked down trees in a 40-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away.
1913 – Fighting broke out between Bulgaria and Greece and Serbia. It was the beginning of the Second Balkan War.
1918 – Prominent US Socialist and Pacifist Eugene Debs is arrested on charges of denouncing the government, a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917
1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft chief justice of the United States.
1922 – Irish rebels in London assassinate Sir Henry Wilson, the British deputy for Northern Ireland.
1934 – Adolf Hitler purged the Nazi Party by destroying the SA and bringing to power the SS in the “Night of the Long Knives.”
1935 – Fascists caused an uproar at the League of Nations when Haile Selassie of Ethiopia speaks.
1943 – General MacArthur begins Operation Cartwheel (island-hopping)
1950 – U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops into Korea and authorizes the draft.
1951 – On orders from Washington, General Matthew Ridgeway broadcasts that the United Nations was willing to discuss an armistice with North Korea.
1952 – CBS-TV debuted “The Guiding Light.”
1953 – The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. It sold for $3,250.
1955 – The U.S. began funding West Germany’s rearmament.
1957 – The American occupation headquarters in Japan was dissolved.
1958 – The U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.
1960 – US stops sugar import from Cuba
1960 – The Katanga province seceded from Congo (upon Congo’s independence from Belgium).
1964 – The last of U.N. troops left Congo after a four-year effort to bring stability to the country.
1967 – Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. named 1st black astronaut
1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could not prevent the Washington Post or the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers.
1971 – The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 returned to Earth. The three cosmonauts were found dead inside.
1971 – The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. The amendment lowered the minimum voting age to 18.
1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced his opposition to the B-1 bomber.
1977 – Marvel Comics publish “Kiss book” tributing rock group Kiss
1982 – Federal Equal Rights Amendment fails 3 states short of ratification
1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.
1989 – US Congressman Donald Lukens found guilty of having sex with a 16 year old girl
1994 – The U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the 1994 national championship and banned her from the organization for life for an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.
1995 – Exxon signs a $15.2-billion deal to develop oil and gas fields near Russia’s Sakhalin Island
1998 – Officials confirmed that the remains of a Vietnam War serviceman buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.
2000 – U.S. President Clinton signed the E-Signature bill to give the same legal validity to an electronic signature as a signature in pen and ink.
2004 – The international Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit. The craft had been on a nearly seven-year journey.
2012 – 30 people attending a funeral in Zamalka, Syria, are killed on a day that saw 83 civilian deaths
2014 – US Supreme Court rules that family-owned corporations can reject provision of ‘Obamacare’ on religious grounds
2019 – President Donald Trump becomes first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea in the Korean Demilitarized Zone meeting Kim Jong Un
2021 – Pennsylvania Supreme overturns comedian Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby in return for Cosby’s testimony in a related civil suit; Cosby immediately released from prison
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
