1961 – Apollo program: U.S. president John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a “”man on the moon”” before the end of the decade
585 BC – The first known prediction of a solar eclipse was made in Greece.
1085 – Alfonso VI took Toledo, Spain from the Moslems.
1241 – First attack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main Germany
1521 – Edict of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, outlaws Martin Luther and his followers
1571 – Pope Pius V forms The Holy League to fight the Ottomans with other Catholic maritime states including Spain, Venice, Naples and Sicily
1659 – Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England, earning the nickname “Tumbledown Dick” as a result of his abrupt fall from power
1720 – “Le Grand St Antoine” reaches Marseille, plague kills 80,000
1738 – A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners.
1787 – The Constitutional convention opened in Philadelphia with George Washington presiding.
1793 – Father Stephen Theodore Badin is first US Roman Catholic priest ordained
1810 – Argentina declared independence from Napoleonic Spain.
1844 – The gasoline engine was patented by Stuart Perry.
1861 – John Merryman is arrested under suspension of writ of habeas corpus it later sparks a supreme court decision protecting the writ
1895 – James P. Lee first published “Gold in America — A Practical Manual.”
1911 – President of Mexico, Porfolio Diaz, resigned his office.
1914 – The United Kingdom’s House of Commons passes Home Rule Act for devolution in Ireland.
1925 – John Scopes was indicted for teaching the Darwinian theory in school.
1926 – Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People’s Republic.
1927 – Ford Motor Company announced that the Model A would replace the Model T.
1935 – Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks five world records and ties a sixth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1938 – Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths
1942 – First commercial fluid catalytic cracking facility begins production at Exxon – now produces half the world’s gasoline, developed by the “Four Horsemen” research team at Exxon
1943 – Riot at Mobile AL shipyard over upgrading 12 black workers
1945 – Arther C Clark proposes relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit
1947 – Coal dust explosion rocks Centralia Coal Company’s Mine #5 killing 111
1949 – Chinese Red army occupies Shanghai
1952 – USS Iowa bombards Chongjin, Korea
1953 – In Nevada, the first atomic cannon was fired.
1959 – Supreme Court rules that Louisiana prohibiting black-white boxing is unconstitutional
1961 – America was asked by U.S. President Kennedy to work toward putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
1962 – US unions AFL-CIO starts campaign for 35-hour work week
1963 – 32 African countries form a coalition against white rule – The Organisation of African Unity was founded to promote decolonization and end white minority governments in Africa. The OAU was replaced by the African Union in 2002.
1966 – Peru & Argentina soccer fans fight in Lima; 248 die
1969 – “Midnight Cowboy” released with an X rating
1970 – Boeing Computer Services was founded.
1977 – “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” opened and became the largest grossing film to date.
1979 – Etan Patz disappears – The disappearance and murder of the 6-year-old boy from New York City and the extensive publicity it received helped spark the missing children’s movement.
1981 – In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
1983 – “The Return of the Jedi” opened nationwide. It set a new record in opening day box office sales. The gross was $6,219,629.
1986 – Approximately 7 million Americans participated in “Hands Across America.”
1991 – Israel evacuates 14,000 Ethiopian Jews
1995 – The Bosnian Serb Army kills 72 youngsters in the Bosnian city of Tuzla.
1996 – In Nimes, France, Christina Sanchez became the first woman to achieve the rank of matadore in Europe.
1997 – Military coup d’etat in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with army Major Johnny Paul Koromah; Kabbah restored to office after 9 months
1999 – A report by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China concluded that China had “stolen design information on the U.S. most-advanced thermonuclear weapons” and that China’s penetration of U.S. weapons laboratories “spans at least the past several decades and almost certainly continues today.”
2000 – The Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc. signed a long-term deal that ended a dispute over the airing policies of Time Warner. Time Warner had blacked out Disney programs for a 39 hour period the previous month due to the lack of an agreement.
2006 – In Houston, former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skillinng were convicted of conspiracy and fraud for the downfall of Enron.
2008 – NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed in the arctic plains of Mars.
2009 – North Korea announced that it had conducted a second successful nuclear test in the province of North Hamgyong. The United Nations Security Council condemned the reported test.
2012 – A SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to dock at the International Space Station
2017 – Pitched battles between Islamic State-linked militants and Philippine government troops in and around Marawi, leave 43 dead, with thousands fleeing
2020 – Video of African American George Floyd’s arrest and murder while restrained in Minneapolis police custody shows he was pinned to the ground by police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, ignites widespread condemnation and nationwide protests
2021 – Coup in Mali as military Colonel Assimi Goïta ousts country’s civilian President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane arresting and detaining them
2023 – Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years in prison for organizing Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol – first person to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy and longest sentence so far
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
