2005 – Trial of Saddam Hussein Begins, The Iraqi Special Tribunal started the trial of deposed President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and 7 other defendants for crimes against humanity. Hussein, who was the fifth President of Iraq was found guilty and was executed by hanging a year later on December 30, 2006.
202 BC – Battle of Zama: Hannibal Barca and the Carthaginian army are defeated by Roman legions under Scipio Africanus, ending 2nd Punic War
439 – The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa
1216 – King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry III
1298 – Rindfleisch-140 Jews of Heilbron Germany are murdered
1330 – 17-year-old English King Edward III captures his mother’s lover and the country’s de facto ruler Roger Mortimer at Nottingham Castle (later has him hanged)
1596 – Spanish galleon San Felipe is shipwrecked in Urado on the Japanese island of Shikoku en route from Manila to Acapulco. Incident leads to the crucifixion of 26 Christians who become known as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan.
1765 – In the U.S., The Stamp Act Congress met and drew up a declaration of rights and liberties.
1781 – British General Charles Lord Cornwallis surrendered to U.S. General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia. It was to be the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War.
1781 – Edict of Toleration issued by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, providing limited freedom of worship for non-Roman Catholic Christians
1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte’s French forces began their retreat out of Russia after a month of chasing the retreating Russian army.
1818 – US Government and Chickasaw Indians sign a treaty
1864 – Approx 25 Confederates make surprise attack on St Albans, Vermont
1870 – 1st African Americans (4) elected to US House of Representatives
1914 – In the U.S., government owned vehicles were first used to pick up mail in Washington, DC.
1915 – The U.S. recognized General Venustiano Carranza as the president of Mexico. The U.S. imposed embargo to all parts of Mexico except where Carranza was in control.
1915 – US bankers arrange a $500 million loan to the British and French
1919 – 1st US Distinguished Service Medal awarded to a living female recipient, Anna Howard Shaw
1926 – Russian Politburo throws out Leon Trotsky and his followers
1943 – Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University in Pistcaway, New Jersey
1943 – The Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers began in Russia during World War II. Delegates from the U.S.S.R., Great Britain, the U.S., and China met to discuss war aims and cooperation between the nations.
1944 – The U.S. Navy announced that black women would be allowed into Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES).
1950 – The United Nations forces entered the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
1951 – U.S. President Truman signed an act officially ending the state of war with Germany.
1953 – Dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is published in the US
1960 – The United States imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products.
1969 – U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew referred to anti-Vietnam War protesters “an effete corps of impudent snobs.”
1973 – OPEC oil embargo on the United States begins as participating nations cease oil exports to the US and begin a series of production cuts
1976 – US President Gerald Ford signs 1st major revision of copyright law since 1909
1977 – The Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
1983 – The U.S. Senate approved a bill establishing a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
1984 – Four U.S. employees of the CIA were killed in El Salvador when their plane crashed.
1987 – The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 508 points. It was the worst one-day percentage decline, 22.6%, in history.
1988 – Car bomb kills 7 Israelis, wounds 11 near Lebanon border
1989 – The U.S. Senate rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that barred the desecration of the American flag.
1994 – 160 killed in fighting in Tsjetsjenie (Chechnya)
1994 – Palestinian bomb attack on bus in Tel Aviv, kills 22
1998 – In Washington, DC, Microsoft went on trial to defend against an antitrust case.
2005 – Trial of Saddam Hussein Begins, The Iraqi Special Tribunal started the trial of deposed President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and 7 other defendants for crimes against humanity. Hussein, who was the fifth President of Iraq was found guilty and was executed by hanging a year later on December 30, 2006.
2006 – The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day at 12,011.73. It was the first close above 12,000.
2007 – Bomb explosion rocks Glorietta 2, a shopping mall in Makati, the Philippines killing 11, injuring more than 100 people
2013 – 16 people are killed and 30 are wounded by a suicide bombing Beledweyne, Somalia
2014 – A working human intestine is generated in a laboratory from stem cells in the United States
2017 – Outbreak of the Marburg virus declared by Uganda’s Ministry of Health
2020 – Belgium officials say country facing a “tsunami” of COVID-19 cases amid new restrictions and figures it has third-highest number of Covid-related deaths per 100,000 people globally
2020 – US charges six Russian military officers with massive cyber-attack meant to disrupt 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2017 French presidential election, and Ukraine’s power grid
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
