1987 – Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses. He was released August 3, 1988.
585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.
1349 – Black Death Massacre: 60 Jews murdered in Breslau, Silesia; part of a wave of pogroms across Western Europe
1431 – Joan of Arc is accused of relapsing into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for her execution
1503 – The Treaty of Everlasting Peace between Scotland and England is signed, which would actually last 10 years
1533 – England’s Archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.
1539 – Hernando de Soto lands in Florida
1731 – All Hebrew books in Papal State are confiscated
1754 – Battle of Jumonville Glen: forces led by George Washington kill French Canadian officer Joseph Coulon de Jumonville
1830 – US President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, a key law leading to the forced removal of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes out of Georgia and surrounding states, setting the stage for the Cherokee Trail of Tears
1863 – The first black regiment left Boston to fight in the U.S. Civil War.
1892 – The Sierra club was organized in San Francisco, CA.
1900 – Paul Kruger, President of the Boer Republic of South Africa, flees its capital, Pretoria, goes to Watervalboven to evade the advancing British
1901 – Laws against phosphor matches enacted (inhibition white phosphorous)
1915 – John B Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll
1917 – Racial strife in East St Louis, Illinois, White workers march through Black neighborhoods beating people and burning some buildings; state governor call in National Guard to restore order
1918 – Azerbaijan declared independence.
1923 – Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere
1928 – Chrysler Corporation merged with Dodge Brothers, Inc.
1929 – Warner Brothers debuted “On With The Show” in New York City. It was the first all-color-talking picture.
1930 – The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens.
1934 – The Dionne quintuplets were born near Callender, Ontario, to Olivia and Elzire Dionne. The babies were the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
1937 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, DC, signaling that vehicular traffic could cross the newly opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.
1940 – During World War II, Belgium surrendered to Germany.
1942 – World War II: In retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1800 people.
1948 – Israeli Air Force is officially founded shortly after the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1953 – The Walt Disney film “Melody” premiered in the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood. The picture was the first 3-D cartoon.
1956 – Eisenhower signs farm bill allows government to store agricultural surplus
1959 – Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 miles (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile, became first animals retrieved from a space mission
1961 – Amnesty International, a human rights organization, was founded.
1962 – Suit alleging de facto school segregation filed in Rochester NY
1964 – Palestine National Congress forms the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in Jerusalem
1972 – White House “plumbers” break into Democratic National HQ at Watergate
1976 – The Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Treaty was signed, limiting any nuclear explosion – regardless of its purpose – to a yield of 150 kilotons.
1977 – Fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, KY. 165 people were killed.
1985 – David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He was freed 17 months later.
1987 – Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses. He was released August 3, 1988.
1991 – The capital city of Addis Ababa, falls to the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War.
1996 – U.S. President Clinton’s former business partners in the Whitewater land deal were convicted of fraud.
1998 – Pakistan matched India with five nuclear test blasts. The U.S., Japan and other nations imposed economic sanctions. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said “Today, we have settled the score with India.”
1999 – In Milan, Italy, Leonardo de Vinci’s “The Last Supper” was put back on display after more than 20 years of restoration work.
2000 – Walk for Reconciliation takes place across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, part of Corroboree 2000, organized by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation
2002 – Russia became a limited partner in NATO with the creation of the NATO-Russia Council.
2004 – The Iraqi Governing Council chooses Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, to become prime minister of Iraq’s interim government
2008 – The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty.
2010 – Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, is planning to raise wages for its Chinese workers by about 20 percent after a spate of suicides at its main plant in southern China
2016 – Harambe, a gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo, is shot after dragging a 3-year-old boy who had slipped into its enclosure (Cincinnati, Ohio)
2018 – Coca-Cola launched Lemon-Do in Kyushu, Japan. The three fizzy lemon drinks ranged in alcohol content from 3-8%.
2019 – Johnson & Johnson go on trial in Oklahoma accused of deceptively marketing painkillers and downplaying risks of addiction helping create “opioid epidemic”, first of 2,000 cases against US pharmaceutical firms
2020 – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani calls for new protections for women after the ‘honor killing’ of a 14-year-old by her father
2021 – Discovery of a mass grave with the remains of 215 children from Kamloops Indian Residential School announced by First Nation in British Columbia, Canada
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
