1915 – The Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk by a German submarine. Nearly 2,000 people were killed.
0558 – The dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. It was immediately rebuilt as ordered by Justinian.
1253 – Flemish friar William of Rubruck sets off to convert the Mongols to Christianity, a mission ordered by French king Louis IX – one of the most famous travel accounts in the Medieval world
1274 – The Second Council of Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope.
1355 – 1,200 Jews of Toledo Spain killed by Count Henry of Trastamara
1416 – Monk Nicolaas Serrurier arrested because of heresy at Tournay
1429 – Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orlans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning wounded to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years’ War.
1525 – The German peasants’ revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.
1638 – Cornelis S Goyer takes possession of Mauritius (uninhabited)
1657 – Louis XlV prohibits the sale of liquor to Indians.
1660 – Isaack B Fubine of Savoy, in The Hague, patents macaroni
1697 – Stockholm’s medieval royal castle is destroyed by fire, the Codex Gigas (world’s largest extant medieval illuminated manuscript) survives by being thrown out a window
1700 – William Penn began monthly meetings for Blacks advocating emancipation
1727 – Jews are expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia
1756 – Burmese King Alaungphaya sends his Golden Letter on rolled gold to King George II of Great Britain detailing trade proposals
1763 – Indian chief Pontiac began all out war on the British in New York.
1789 – The first U.S. Presidential Inaugural Ball was held in New York City.
1800 – The U.S. Congress divided the Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part became the Indiana Territory and the eastern section remained the Northwest Territory.
1840 – The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history
1866 – German premier Otto von Bismarck seriously wounded in assassin attempt
1867 – Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patents dynamite in England, the first of three patents he would receive for the explosive material
1895 – Alexander Popov demonstrates the world’s first radio receiver
1909 – Construction begins on first 100 houses in Ahuzat Bayit (Tel Aviv)
1913 – Plot by English suffragettes to blow up part of St Paul’s cathedral thwarted when the bomb is discovered
1914 – US Congress establishes mother’s day
1915 – World War I: a German submarine U-20 sinks the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turned many formerly pro-Germans in the United States of America against the German Empire
1920 – Kiev Offensive: Polish troops led by Jzef Pisudski and Edward Rydz-migy and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force captured Kiev only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
1926 – A U.S. report showed that one-third of the nation’s exports were motors.
1928 – In Britain, the minimum voting age for women was lowered from 30 to 21.
1937 – The German Condor Legion arrived in Spain to assist Franco’s forces.
1939 – Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1940 – Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.
1942 – In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.
1943 – The last major German strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.
1945 – Germany signed unconditional surrender ending World War II. It went into effect the next day.
1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. was founded. The company was later renamed Sony.
1954 – French Colonial Forces surrendered to the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu after 55 days of fighting.
1956 – Battle at Oran, Algeria, kills 300
1960 – Leonid Brezhnev became president of the Soviet Union.
1963 – Bruno Sammartino becomes WWF champion
1975 – U.S. President Ford declared an end to the “Vietnam era.”
1980 – Paul Geidel Jr, American murderer, and longest-serving prison inmate in the United States, paroled after 68 years, 296 days, at the age of 86.
1982 – Californian federal jury rules NFL violates antitrust laws in preventing Oakland Raiders move to Los Angeles Coliseum
1984 – A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who claimed they had suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant while serving in the armed forces.
1992 – Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.
1996 – The trial of Serbian police officer Dusan Tadic opened in the Netherlands. He was later convicted on murder-torture charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
1997 – A report released by the U.S. government said that Switzerland provided Nazi Germany with equipment and credit during World War II. Germany exchanged for gold what had been plundered or stolen. Switzerland did not comply with postwar agreements to return the gold.
1998 – Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. for close to $40 billion. It was the largest industrial merger on record.
1999 – A jury ruled that “The Jenny Jones Show” and Warner Bros. were liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure. He was killed by another guest on the show. The jury’s award was $25 million.
2000 – Russian President Vladimir V. Putin named First Deputy Premier Mikhail Kasyanov as premier.
2003 – In Washington, DC, General Motors Corp. delivered six fuel cell vehicles to Capitol Hill for lawmakers and others to test drive during the next two years.
2005 – Former Lebanese Prime Minister, General Michel Aoun returns to Lebanon after 15 years in exile
2007 – Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University announces he has discovered the tomb of Herod the Great at Herodium, West Bank
2013 – The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 15,056.20. It was the first time it had closed over 15,000.
2014 – Fighting between pro-Russian and Kiev forces continue amid fears internationally of a civil war in Ukraine
2019 – Hackers seize control of the computer system of the US city of Baltimore, demanding a ransom in Bitcoins to unlock them
2020 – US unemployment claims hit 33.3 million or 20% of the workforce, vs two months ago unemployment 3.5%, a 50-year low
2021 – Former police officer and suspected serial killer Hugo Ernesto Osorio Chávez arrested in Chalchuapa, El Salvador, after a mass grave of 15-40 bodies found at his house
2022 – Afghan women issued decree to cover their faces in public (hijab reaching head to toe) by Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or her male guardian faces criminal punishment
2023 – Man rams car into group of migrants waiting at a bus stop in Brownsville, Texas, killing eight people and injuring at least 10
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
