2002 – Beltway sniper attacks begin, A series of coordinated sniper attacks occurred in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The attacks lasted 3 weeks and resulted in the killing of 10 people.
1187 – Sultan Saladin captures Jerusalem from Crusaders
1263 – The battle of Largs: Scots defeat the Norwegians on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, returning the Western Isles to Scotland and ending 500 years of Viking invasions
1492 – King Henry VII of England invaded France.
1535 – Jacques Cartier discovers Mount Royal (Montreal)
1614 – French King Louis XIII declared an adult at 13
1627 – Last Emperor of the Chinese Ming dynasty, Chongzhen, comes to the throne after death of his brother Emperor Tianqi
1656 – English North American colony of Connecticut passes law against Quakers
1780 – British army major John Andre was hanged as a spy. He was carrying information about the actions of Benedict Arnold.
1789 – George Washington transmits the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification
1835 – The first battle of the Texas Revolution took place near the Guadalupe River when American settlers defeated a Mexican cavalry unit.
1836 – Charles Darwin returned to England after 5 years of acquiring knowledge around the world about fauna, flora, wildlife and geology. He used the information to develop his “theory of evolution” which he unveiled in his 1859 book entitled The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
1851 – The pasilalinic-sympathetic compass(a contraption built to test the pseudo-scientific hypothesis that snails create a permanent telepathic link when they mate) is demonstrated but proves to be a fake.
1853 – Austrian law forbids Jews from owning land
1870 – Rome was made the capital of Italy.
1871 – US Mormon leader Brigham Young arrested for bigamy
1889 – The first international Conference of American States began in Washington, DC.
1902 – Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” is published by Frederick Warne & Co. in London
1904 – German General Lothar von Trotha issues order to exterminate Herero people of Namidia, first genocide of the 20th Century, will kill 65,000 Herero and 100,000 of the Nama tribe
1919 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.
1928 – “Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God”, known as Opus Dei, founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá
1935 – Mussolini’s Italian army attacks Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1941 – Operation Typhoon was launched by Nazi Germany. The plan was an all-out offensive against Moscow.
1944 – The Nazis crushed the Warsaw Uprising.
1950 – Peanuts published for the first time, Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip, Peanuts, was printed for the first time in 9 newspapers around the U.S.
1958 – Guinea, the French colony in West Africa, proclaimed its independence. Sekou Toure was the first president of the Republic of Guinea.
1962 – U.S. ports were closed to nations that allowed their ships to carry arms to Cuba, ships that had docked in a socialist country were prohibited from docking in the United States during that voyage, and the transport of U.S. goods was banned on ships owned by companies that traded with Cuba.
1963 – West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer condemns western grain shipments to USSR
1968 – Mexico City police fire on protesting students, 300-500 killed
1968 – Redwood National Park established to preserve the tallest trees on earth, by an act of US Congress with 58,000 acres
1978 – Syrian & Palestinians shoot in East Beirut, 1,300 killed
1982 – Bomb attack in Tehran, kills 60, injures 700
1984 – Richard Miller becomes 1st (former) FBI agent to be charged with espionage
1986 – Sikhs attempt to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
1989 – In Leipzig, East Germany a protest took place demanding the legalization of opposition groups and the adoption of democratic reforms.
1990 – US Senate votes 90-9 to confirm David Souter’s appointment to Supreme Court
1992 – Carandiru massacre, A prison riot in Carandiru Penitentiary, Brazil, led to the killing of over 100 inmates by the police.
1993 – Opponents of Russian President Boris Yeltsin fought police and set up burning barricades.
1998 – Hawaii sued petroleum companies, claiming state drivers were overcharged by about $73 million a year in price-fixing.
1998 – About 10,000 Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq and attacked Kurdish rebels.
2001 – NATO, for the first time, invoked a treaty clause that stated that an attack on one member is an attack on all members. The act was in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
2002 – Beltway sniper attacks begin, A series of coordinated sniper attacks occurred in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The attacks lasted 3 weeks and resulted in the killing of 10 people.
2006 – Charles Carl Roberts murders five schoolgirls in a shooting incident at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania; he then commits suicide.
2012 – 20 students are gunned down in Mubi, Nigeria
2014 – Siege of Syrian town Kobani and its surrounds by ISIS prompts 130,00 people to flee the area
2018 – Saudi American journalist Jamal Khashoggi enters the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, never to be seen again prompting a diplomatic crisis
2021 – Massive oil slick from a pipeline discovered off California, along Orange County coast covering 13 square miles
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
