1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” subtitled “Life Among the Lowly,” was first published.
0141 – The 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet took place.
1345 – Conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, thought by scholars at the University of Paris to be the “cause of the plague epidemic” known as the Black Death. Actual cause was the bacterium yersinia pestis spread by fleas, rats and other animals.
1413 – Henry V took the throne of England upon the death of his father Henry IV.
1525 – Paris’ parliament began its pursuit of Protestants.
1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years imprisonment.
1627 – France & Spain signed an accord for fighting Protestantism.
1648 – King Charles I of England first tries to escape captivity at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight by climbing out a window – but gets stuck
1739 – In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupied Delhi and took possession of the Peacock throne.
1760 – The great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.
1792 – In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
1800 – French army defeated the Turks at Helipolis, Turkey, and advanced into Cairo.
1814 – Prince Willem Frederik became the monarch of Netherlands.
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris after his escape from Elba and began his “Hundred Days” rule.
1816 – The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions.
1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” subtitled “Life Among the Lowly,” was first published.
1854 – Republican Party Founded: In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig political party meet to establish a new political party that would oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories
1865 – A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldier’s Home near Washington, DC.
1868 – Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russelville, KY, of $14,000.
1883 – The Unity treaty of Paris was signed to protect industrial property.
1886 – The first AC power plant in the U.S. began commercial operation.
1891 – The first computing scale company was incorporated in Dayton, OH.
1896 – U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.
1899 – At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was put to death for the murder of her stepdaughter.
1900 – It was announced that European powers had agreed to keep China’s doors open to trade.
1902 – France and Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance. They also asserted their right to protect their interests in China and Korea.
1906 – In Russia, army officers mutiny at Sevastopol.
1913 – Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days later
1915 – The French called off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
1916 – Albert Einstein presents his general theory of relativity
1918 – The Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union asked for American aid to rebuild their army.
1922 – The USS Langley was commissioned. It was the first aircraft carrier for the U.S. Navy.
1932 – The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular schedule.
1933 – Giuseppe Zangara is executed in Florida’s electric chair for fatally shooting Anton Cermak in an assassination attempt against Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
1939 – 7,000 Jews flee German occupied Memel Lithuania
1940 – The British Royal Air Force conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.
1942 – General Douglas MacArthur vows “I came through and I shall return” after escaping Japanese-occupied Philippines
1943 – The Allies attacked Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
1947 – A blue whale weighing 180-metric tons was caught in the South Atlantic.
1952 – The U.S. Senate ratified a peace treaty with Japan.
1956 – Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) exploded.
1963 – The first “Pop Art” exhibit began in New York City.
1964 – The ESRO (European Space Research Organization) was established.
1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
1974 – A failed kidnap attempt is made on Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.
1976 – Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her role in the hold up of a San Francisco Bank.
1980 – The U.S. made an appeal to the International Court concerning the American Hostages in Iran.
1981 – Argentine ex-president Isabel Peron was sentenced to eight years in a convent.
1982 – U.S. scientists’ returned from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.
1984 – The U.S. Senate rejected an amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools.
1985 – For the first time in its 99-year history, Avon representatives received a salary. Up to that time they had been paid solely on commissions.
1987 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AZT. The drug was proven to slow the progress of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
1990 – Namibia became an independent nation ending 75 years of South African rule.
1991 – Consumer and Corporate Affairs reports that personal and business bankruptcies reached their highest level ever; up 68% from 1990.
1993 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule. He set a referendum on whether the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.
1995 – In Tokyo, Japan, at the height of the morning rush hour, five two-man terrorist teams from the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult, riding on separate subway trains, converge at the Kasumigaseki station and secretly release lethal sarin gas into the air
2000 – Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after a gun battle that leaves a Georgia sheriff’s deputy dead
2004 – Stephen Harper wins the leadership of the newly created Conservative Party of Canada, thus becoming the first leader in the party’s history
2006 – Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.
2012 – 50 people are killed and 240 injured in a wave of terror attacks across 10 cities in Iraq
2016 – Barack Obama becomes the first US President to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a 3 day tour
2018 – Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with US President Donald Trump at the White House
2020 – India hangs four men for 2012 gang rape and murder of woman on a bus in New Delhi, country’s first hanging since 2013
2022 – Intense fighting in Ukrainian city of Mariupol continues as Russian forces encircle the city, trapping 300,000 people
2023 – UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says world has less than a decade to stop catastrophic warming: must reduce greenhouse gases by half by 2030, and cease adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by early 2050s
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
