1980 – Mt. Saint Helens erupted in Washington state. 57 people were killed and 3 billion in damage was done.
1096 – Crusaders massacre Jews of Worms
1268 – The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch
1291 – After 100 years of Crusader control, Acre is the last Crusader stronghold reconquered and destroyed by the Mamluks under Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil
1302 – The weaver Peter de Coningk led a massacre of the Flemish oligarchs.
1593 – Playwright Thomas Kyd’s accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe
1619 – Dutch jurist and scholar Hugo Grotius sentenced to life in prison in Loevestein Castle in the Netherlands (later escapes in a book chest)
1643 – Queen Anne, the widow of Louis XIII, was granted sole and absolute power as regent by the Paris parliament, overriding the late king’s will.
1652 – In Rhode Island, a law was passed that made slavery illegal in North America. It was the first law of its kind.
1756 – Great Britain declares war on France at the start of the Seven Years’ War
1803 – “Peace of Amiens” between French Republic and Great Britain ends as Britain declares war on France, due to France’s imperialist policies in the West Indies, Italy, and Switzerland
1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor by the French Senate.
1848 – The first German National Assembly gathers in Frankfurt, The assembly constituted the first freely elected parliament of Germany. It produced a constitution that provided the basis for today’s constitution of Germany (Grundgesetz).
1863 – US General Ulysses S. Grant begins siege on Vicksburg, Mississippi; after 47 days of battle siege, Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton’s troops surrender
1896 – The U.S. Supreme court upheld the “separate but equal” policy in the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision. The ruling was overturned 58 years later with Brown vs. Board of Education.
1896 – Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field, Moscow, during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, results in the deaths of 1,389 people
1917 – The U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service act, which called up soldiers to fight in World War I.
1926 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, CA. She reappeared a month later with the claim that she had been kidnapped.
1927 – 45 people die in the United States’ worst school massacre, In the Bath school disaster, a disgruntled school board member set off several bombs at the Bath Consolidated School and other locations in Michigan.
1933 – Tennessee Valley Act (TVA) Act signed by FDR
1933 – Around 5,000 forced deportees in the Soviet Union arrive on Nazino Island; within thirteen weeks most of them will be dead due to disease, cannibalism and violence
1934 – The U.S. Congress approved an act, known as the “Lindberg Act,” that called for the death penalty in interstate kidnapping cases.
1944 – Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars from Crimea by Soviet Union begins, they are accused of collaborating with the Germans
1951 – The United Nations moved its headquarters to New York City.
1953 – The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour.
1964 – US Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than 3 years
1967 – Tennessee Governor Ellington approves repeal of the Butler Act (or “Monkey Law”) – prohibiting the teaching of evolution, upheld in 1925 Scopes Trial
1977 – US, USSR and other nations sign the Environmental Modification Convention which prohibits weather warfare having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects
1980 – Mt. Saint Helens erupted in Washington state. 57 people were killed and 3 billion in damage was done.
1983 – The U.S. Senate revised immigration laws and gave millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program.
1992 – US Supreme Court rules states could not force mentally unstable criminal defendants to take anti-psychotic drugs
1994 – Israel’s three decades of occupation in the Gaza Strip ended as Israeli troops completed their withdrawal and Palestinian authorities took over.
1998 – U.S. federal officials arrested more than 130 people and seized $35 million. This was the end to an investigation of money laundering being done by a dozen Mexican banks and two drug-smuggling cartels.
2000 – A bill was finally passed that removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse.
2001 – Saudi Arabia selects the eight foreign companies to take part in its “Gas Initiative,” three core venture gas projects that have an anticipated worth of $25 billion
2004 – Sonia Gandhi stunned her party, the Indian National Congress, by refusing to accept the prime ministership of India.
2009 – The Sri Lankan Civil War ends, The 25-year conflict between the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers had claimed up to 100,000 lives. It ended with the Tigers’ defeat.
2020 – US President Donald Trump confirms he is taking controversial drug hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
