1983 – An estimated 100 million people watched the controversial ABC-TV movie “The Day After.” The movie depicted the outbreak of nuclear war.
0284 – Roman general Diocletian proclaimed Emperor by armies of the east and west after the death of Carinus at the Battle of the Margus
0762 – Bögü, Khan of the Uyghurs, conquers Lo-Yang, capital of the Chinese Empire
1194 – Palermo is conquered by Emperor Henry VI.
1272 – Edward I proclaimed King of England after death of his father, Henry III. He would take two years to return to England from the Ninth Crusade.
1407 – A solemn truce between John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orlans is agreed under the auspices of John, Duke of Berry. Orlans would be assassinated three days later by Burgundy
1521 – Arabs attribute shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine
1616 – Bishop Richelieu becomes French minister of Foreign affairs and War
1637 – Peter Minuit and1st Swedish immigrants to Delaware sail from Sweden
1695 – Zumbi, the last King of the Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil and ex-slave, is executed and decapitated, his head displayed on a pike to dispel any legends of his immortality
1700 – King Charles XII of Sweden aged 17, defeats the army of Czar Peter the Great in the battle of Narva
1759 – Battle of Quiberon Bay begins: British win crucial naval victory over the French, thwarting a planned French invasion of Britain
1789 – New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1795 – Curacao government forbids slave work on Sunday
1804 – Alexander I reissues manifesto of Catherine II, with some modifications, inviting foreigners to settle in New Russia.
1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story)
1829 – Jews expelled from Nikolayev & Sevastopol, Russia
1856 – CDR Andrew H. Foote lands at Canton, China, with 287 Sailors and Marines to stop attacks by Chinese on U.S. military and civilians
1862 – Confederate armies of Mississippi and Kentucky merge as Army of Tennessee, under General Braxton Bragg
1873 – Budapest was formed when the rival cities of Buda and Pest were united to form the capital of Hungary.
1888 – William Bundy patents the timecard clock
1901 – The second Hay-Pauncefoot Treaty provided for construction of the Panama Canal by the U.S.
1910 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosi, denouncing President Porfirio Daz, declaring himself president, and calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution.
1914 – US State Department starts requiring photographs for passports
1917 – Ukraine is declared a republic.
1936 – Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange is killed by a republican execution squad.
1938 – Documented anti-Semitic remarks are heard over US radio (by Father Coughlin)
1940 – World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.
1942 – The Alaska Highway 2,451km long from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, first opens to military traffic
1943 – During World War II, U.S. Marines began their landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands.
1945 – Nuremberg Trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
1947 – Britain’s Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh in Westminster Abbey.
1950 – In the Korean war advancing allied troops reach the Manchurian Chinese border
1959 – Declaration of the Rights of the Child, The United Nations General Assembly adopted the document that laid out the rights of children around the world. The day is also annually celebrated as Universal Children’s Day.
1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The Soviet Union removed its missiles and bombers from Cuba and the U.S. ended its blockade of the island.
1967 – The Census Clock at the Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, went past 200 million.
1968 – Vietnam War: Eleven men comprising a Long Range Patrol team from F Company, 58th Infantry, 101st Airborne are surrounded and nearly wiped out by North Vietnamese army regulars from the 4th and 5th Regiment. The seven wounded survivors are rescued after several hours by an impromptu force made of other men from their unit.
1969 – The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase out of the substance.
1970 – The majority in U.N. General Assembly voted to give China a seat, but two-thirds majority required for admission was not met.
1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel’s parliament.
1978 – A satellite system for transmitting newspaper content was dedicated on this day in 1978. The system transmitted The Wall Street Journal from where it was typeset in Massachusetts to Orlando, Florida, at a rate of 3.5 minutes per page
1979 – Grand Mosque Seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6000 hostages in the Kaaba. The Saudi government received help from French special forces to put down the uprising.
1980 – On Jefferson Island, Louisiana, an oil rig in Lake Pigneur pierced the top of the salt dome beneath the island. The freshwater lake completely drained within a few hours. The Delcambre Canal reversed flow and two days later the previous freshwater lake was a 1,300-foot-deep saltwater lake.
1983 – An estimated 100 million people watched the controversial ABC-TV movie “The Day After.” The movie depicted the outbreak of nuclear war.
1986 – Dr. Halfdan Maher, the director of the World Health Organization, announced the first coordinated global effort to fight the disease AIDS.
1987 – Police investigating the fire at King’s Cross, London’s busiest subway station, said that arson was unlikely to be the cause of the event that took 31 lives.
1988 – Egypt and China announced that they would recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council.
1989 – Over 200,000 people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding democratic reforms.
1990 – Saddam Hussein ordered another 250,000 Iraqi troops into the country of Kuwait.
1992 – A fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle in England.
1993 – The U.S. Senate passed the Brady Bill and legislation implementing NAFTA.
1994 – The Angolan government and rebels signed a treaty in Zambia to end 19 years of war.
1995 – Princess Diana admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles in an interview that was broadcast on BBC Television.
1998 – Afghanistan’s Taliban militia offered Osama bin Laden safe haven. Osama bin Laden had been accused of orchestrating two U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and later terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.
2001 – The U.S. Justice Department headquarters building was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy building by President George W. Bush. The event was held on what would have been Kennedy’s 76th birthday.
2003 – After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate.
2008 – After critical failures in the US financial system began to build up after mid-September, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level since 1997.
2012 – Toshiba unveils a robot designed to help in nuclear disasters
2014 – Nearly 5 million illegal migrants in the US have the threat of deportation deferred, after President Barack Obama announces sweeping immigration changes
2015 – More than half of all trees in Amazon forest at risk of extinction according to data published in journal “Sciences Advances”
2018 – More than 40 religious scholars killed, at event to mark birth of prophet Mohammed, by a suicide bomber near the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan
2019 – US Ambassador Gordon Sondland testifies in impeachment inquiry that “We followed the president’s orders.” and that “everyone was in the loop” over Ukraine dealings
2022 – UN COP27 summit agrees to establish fund to help poor and vulnerable countries with climate change, with committee to be made up of representatives from 24 countries
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
