1986 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged that the U.S. had sent “defensive weapons and spare parts” to Iran. He denied that the shipments were sent to free hostages, but that they had been sent to improve relations.
833 – Louis the Pious, King of the Franks, performs public act of penance at the Church of Saint Medard in Soissons
1002 – English king Ethelred II (the ‘Unready’) launches ‘St Brice’s Day’ massacre of Danish settlers
1553 – English Lady Jane Grey and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer accused of high treason
1715 – Battle of Sheriffmuir during Jacobite rebellion. Battle inconclusive but Government forces halt advance of Jacobite army lead by Scottish Earl of Mar
1775 – During the American Revolution, U.S. forces captured Montreal.
1789 – Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
1805 – Johann George Lehner, a Viennese butcher, invented a recipe and called it the “frankfurter.”
1839 – 1st US anti-slavery party, Liberty Party, convenes in NY
1839 – Last bull run in Britain as the Stamford bull run ends after 700 years
1861 – A letter is written by Reverend Mark R. Watkinson petitioning the Treasury Department to “recognize Almighty God” on American coins; the department eventually decides on the motto “In God We Trust”
1887 – Bloody Sunday in London. Protests by poor and unemployed Londoners over their hardships in Trafalgar Square took a violent turn when the police charged on those protesting with batons. By the end of the day, 2 or 3 people were killed and several hundred protestors were injured.
1907 – The Conference of Central American States, convoked in response to the war between Honduras and Nicaragua, meets in Washington, D.C. to promote unification
1909 – Collier’s magazine accuses U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields
1927 – The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.
1933 – In Austin, MN, the first sit-down labor strike in America took place.
1935 – Anti-British riots in Egypt
1940 – The Walt Disney movie “Fantasia” had its world premiere at New York’s Broadway Theater.
1942 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.
1946 – First artificial snow produced from a natural cloud, Mt Greylock, Massachusetts
1950 – Assassination of Carlos Delgado Chalbaud. The Venezuelan president and head of the military Junta was kidnapped and killed by rebels headed by Rafael Simón Urbina. Chalbaud came to power after a coup against Rómulo Gallegos in 1948.
1956 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.
1968 – William Craig, Home Affairs Minister, bans all marches, with the exception of ‘customary’ parades, in Derry, Northern Ireland; the exception of ‘customary’ parades meant that Loyalist institutions could parade but civil rights marches could not
1969 – Vice President Spiro Agnew accuses network TV news departments of bias and distortion
1970 – US Vice President Spiro Agnew calls TV executives “impudent snobs”
1971 – The U.S. spacecraft Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, Mars.
1980 – Gabriella Brum, 18, of West Germany crowned 30th Miss World; she resigns the next day because she wants to marry her 52 year old boyfriend
1980 – US spacecraft Voyager 1 sends back 1st close-up pictures of Saturn during its fly-by
1984 – A libel suit against Time, Inc. by former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to trial in New York.
1986 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged that the U.S. had sent “defensive weapons and spare parts” to Iran. He denied that the shipments were sent to free hostages, but that they had been sent to improve relations.
1990 – In the seaside town of Aramoana, David Gray shoots dead 13 people in the Aramoana massacre
1990 – Saudis ask US for rights to bid on SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) crude
1991 – Bomb destroys Dutch Labour party politician Aad Kosto’s house in a failed assassination attempt, he survives and in a famous image finds and cuddles his cat
1994 – Sweden voted to join the European Union.
1997 – Iraq expelled six U.N. arms inspectors that were U.S. citizens.
1998 – Monica Lewinsky signed a deal with St. Martin’s Press for the North American rights to her story about her affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton.
2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order that would allow for military tribunals to try any foreigners captured with connections to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. It was the first time since World War II that a president had taken such action.
2001 – US President George W. Bush orders that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve be filled to capacity over the next few years
2007 – An explosion hits the south wing of the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Quezon City, killing four people, including Congressman Wahab Akbar, and wounding six
2009 – NASA announced that water had been discover on the moon. The discovery came from the planned impact on the moon of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).
2015 – Terrorist attacks in Paris. A series of coordinated terrorist attacks that included suicide bombs and mass shootings took place in France’s capital city. Venues attacked included the Stade de France and the Bataclan theater during a concert. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Daesh (ISIL) took responsibility for the attacks that killed about 130 people.
2018 – Four members of a family arrested for the Rhoden family massacre where eight people were shot, south of Columbus, Ohio in 2016
2019 – First day of public testimony in Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry held in Washington, D.C.
2021 – Glasgow Climate Pact agreed at COP26: commits countries to a phasedown” of “unabated” coal, end deforestation by 2030 and cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
