1933 – The motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.
1127 – Assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders
1629 – English King Charles I dissolves Parliament against opposition, imprisoning 9 members of parliament
1657 – Great Fire of Meireki destroys 60-70% of the Japanese capital city of Edo, killing an estimated 100,000 people
1776 – American troops begin shelling the British in Boston
1797 – The Directory of Great Britain authorizes vessels of war to board and seize neutral vessels, particularly if the ships are American.
1807 – The U.S. Congress passed an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States… from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.”
1836 – Texas declared its independence from Mexico and an ad interim government was formed.
1861 – US creates Dakota & Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah territories
1877 – In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
1889 – Congress passes the Indian Appropriations Bill, proclaiming unassigned lands in the public domain; the first step toward the famous Oklahoma Land Rush.
1896 – Bone Mizell, the famed cowboy of Florida, is sentenced to two years of hard labor in the state pen for cattle rustling. He would only serve a small portion of the sentence.
1897 – U.S. President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants entering the country.
1899 – Mount Rainier National Park in Washington was established by the U.S. Congress.
1899 – U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.
1900 – The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.
1901 – Congress passes the Platt amendment, which limits Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.
1903 – The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel had 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women..
1907 – In Hamburg, Germany, dock workers went on strike after the end of the night shift. British strike breakers were brought in. The issue was settled on April 22, 1907.
1908 – In New York, the Committee of the Russian Republican Administration was founded.
1917 – The Russian Revolution began with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.
1917 – Citizens of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act.
1923 – In Italy, Mussolini admits that women have a right to vote, but declares that the time is not right.
1925 – State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route-numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker.
1925 – Japan’s House of Representatives recognizes male suffrage
1933 – The motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.
1945 – MacArthur raises the U.S. flag on Corregidor in the Philippines.
1946 – Ho Chi Minh was elected President of Vietnam.
1949 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, TX. The American plane had completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight.
1955 – Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her seat in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks‘ famous arrest for the same offense.
1968 – The siege of Khe Sanh ends in Vietnam, the U.S. Marines stationed there are still in control of the mountain top.
1969 – In Toulouse, France, the supersonic transport Concorde made its first test flight.
1970 – Rhodesia declares itself an independent republic, By severing the country’s ties with the United Kingdom, white Prime Minister Ian Smith attempted to prevent the institution of black majority rule.
1974 – A grand jury in Washington, D.C. concludes that President Nixon was indeed involved in the Watergate cover-up.
1981 – The United States plans to send 20 more advisors and $25 million in military aid to El Salvador.
1984 – The first McDonald’s franchise was closed. A new location was opened across the street from the old location in Des Plaines, IL.
1985 – The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS to be used to keep infected blood from entering the blood supply.
1987 – The U.S. government reported that the median price for a new home had gone over $100,000 for the first time.
1989 – Representatives from the 12 European Community nations all agreed to ban all production of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) by the end of the 20th century.
1995 – Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev was killed by a gunman in Moscow.
1995 – Nick Leeson was arrested for his role in the collapse of Britain’s Barings Bank.
1998 – The U.N. Security Council endorsed U.N. chief Kofi Annan’s deal to open Iraq’s presidential palaces to arms inspectors.
1998 – Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.
2000 – In Great Britain, Chile’s former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was freed from house arrest and allowed to return to Chile. Britain’s Home Secretary Jack Straw had concluded that Pinochet was mentally and physically unable to stand trial. Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland had sought the former Chilean leader on human-rights violations.
2004 – NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.
2004 – War in Iraq: Al Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500
2008 – Riots in Yerevan, Armenia concerning the Armenian presidential election, 2008 come to a fatal end, with police forces clashing with civilians in their peaceful protest, resulting in 8 deaths.
2016 – The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved sanctions on North Korea that included mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea, a ban on all sales and transfers of small arms and light weapons and expulsion of diplomats that engage in “illicit activities.” The sanctions were in reaction to the latest nuclear test and rocket launch in defiance of a ban on all nuclear-related activity.
2017 – US Attorney General Jeff Sessions recuses himself from the investigation into Trump campaign contacts with Russia after revelations he met Russian ambassador
2018 – Gunmen attack the French embassy and army HQ in suspected terrorist incident in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, killing 8 and injuring 80
2020 – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey can not longer enforce 2016 deal with EU to stop migrants entering Europe, warns millions may try
2021 – Six books by Dr. Seuss will cease publication because of racist and insensitive imagery according to Dr. Seuss Enterprises
2022 – UN states agree to create legally binding plastic pollution treaty (tbc 2024) after talks in Nairobi, Kenya – hailed most significant environmental deal since 2015 Paris climate accord
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
