1527 – German troops began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance.
1541 – King Henry VIII orders a bible in English be placed in every church in England
1576 – The peace treaty of Chastenoy ended the fifth war of religion.
1682 – King Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, France.
1794 – Haiti, under Toussaint Louverture, revolts against France
1835 – James Gordon Bennett published the “New York Herald” for the first time.
1837 – US blacksmith John Deere creates the first steel plough in Grand Detour, Illinois
1861 – Arkansas & Tennessee becomes 9th & 10th states to secede from US
1877 – Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska.
1889 – The Universal Exposition opened in Paris, France, marking the dedication of the Eiffel Tower. Also at the exposition was the first automobile in Paris, the Mercedes-Benz.
1906 – Tsar Nicolas II of Russia claims right to legislate by decree and restricts the power of the Duma (Russian Parliament)
1910 – George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII
1937 – The Hindenburg zeppelin filled with hydrogen goes up in flames – The footage showing a colossal fireball engulfing the German airship during a landing attempt in Lakehurst, NJ, has become iconic for the end of the zeppelin era. 35 lives were lost in the crash.
1941 – At California’s March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show
1945 – Axis Sally made her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1960 – U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
1968 – Street battle between students & troops in Paris, 1,000 injured
1976 – A massive earthquake hits northeast Italy – 939 people died and 157,000 were left homeless in Italy’s worst earthquake, which measured 6.5 on the Richter scale.
1981 – A jury of international architects and sculptors unanimously selected Maya Ying Lin’s entry for the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. https://www.history.com/news/the-21-year-old-college-student-who-designed-the-vietnam-memorial
1987 – American televangelist Jim Bakker and Rich Dortch dismissed from Assemblies of God after revelations of an alleged rape of a church secretary
1994 – Channel tunnel linking England & France officially opens
1994 – US House of Representatives passes the Federal Assault Weapons Ban
1996 – The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
1997 – Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping six trainees at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
1999 – Scotland elected its first separate parliament in three centuries.
2011 – The US Department of Labor states that 244,000 jobs were created in April, with 235,000 added in February and 221,000 in March, but unemployment continues to grow, reaching 9%
2014 – Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, releases a 57 minute video boasting about abducting schoolgirls in Nigeria
2017 – 84 abducted schoolgirls released in exchange for Boko Haram suspects in Nigeria
2020 – Irish organization repays a 170 year old favor, raising over $2 million (to date) for US Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation badly affected by COVID-19. In 1840s Choctaw Nation sent $170 to aid Irish potato famine.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
