1854 – The Charge of the Light Brigade took place during the Crimean War. The British were winning the Battle of Balaclava when Lord James Cardigan received an order to attack the Russians. He took his troops into a valley and suffered 40 percent casualties. Later it was revealed that the order was the result of confusion and was not given intentionally.
1147 – Seljuk Turks defeat German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum
1415 – In Northern France, England won the Battle of Agincourt over France during the Hundred Years’ War. Almost 6000 Frenchmen were killed while fewer than 400 were lost by the English.
1521 – Emperor Charles V bans wooden buildings in Amsterdam
1555 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles V publicly abdicates his roles as Lord of the Netherlands and Duke of Burgundy in favor of his son Philip II of Spain
1621 – Governor Bradford head of the colony of American Plymouth disallows sport on Christmas Day
1671 – Giovanni Cassini discovers Iapetus, satellite of Saturn
1760 – George III started his reign as the King of Great Britain and Ireland.
1829 – Eastern State Penitentiary opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the world’s 1st prison to entirely use solitary confinement system intended for rehabilitation; designed by Robert Strickland, it closed in 1971, and is now a museum
1854 – The Charge of the Light Brigade took place during the Crimean War. The British were winning the Battle of Balaclava when Lord James Cardigan received an order to attack the Russians. He took his troops into a valley and suffered 40 percent casualties. Later it was revealed that the order was the result of confusion and was not given intentionally.
1861 – Toronto Stock Exchange created
1901 – Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial Affairs Secretary, makes an anti-German speech in Edinburgh; when word reaches Germany leads to widespread agitation against the British and breakdown of negotiations for Anglo-German alliance
1918 – Canadian steamship “Princess Sophia” hits a reef off Alaska, 398 die
1923 – Senate committee publishes 1st report on Teapot Dome scandal
1929 – Alber B. Fall, of U.S. President Harding’s cabinet, was found guilty of taking a bribe. He was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000.
1932 – Benito Mussolini promises to remain dictator for 30 years
1938 – American Archbishop of Dubuque (Iowa), Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces Swing music as “a degenerated musical system… turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people”, warning that it leads down a “primrose path to hell”.
1940 – Benjamin O Davis Sr. becomes 1st African American general in US Army
1945 – Japanese surrender Taiwan to General Chiang Kai-shek
1951 – In Panmunjom, peace talks concerning the Korean War resumed after 63 days.
1954 – A U.S. cabinet meeting was televised for the first time.
1957 – Cosa Nostra crime boss Albert Anastasia is murdered in a barber’s chair in New York City, probably by fellow mobster Joe Gallo
1958 – U.S. Marines withdrew from Beirut, Lebanon. They had been sent in on July 25, 1958, to protect the nation’s pro-Western government.
1962 – US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson demands USSR UN rep Zorin answer regarding Cuban missile bases saying “I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over”
1963 – Anti-Kennedy “WANTED FOR TREASON” pamphlets scattered in Dallas
1966 – 6 youths sentenced in “Johnson murderer!” in Amsterdam
1974 – US Air Force fires 1st ICBM
1976 – Governor Wallace grants full pardon to Clarence Norris, last known survivor of 9 Scottsboro Boys who were convicted in 1931 rape
1983 – U.S. troops and soldiers from six Caribbean nations invaded Grenada to restore order and provide protection to U.S. citizens after a recent coup within Grenada’s Communist (pro-Cuban) government.
1988 – ABC News reports on potbellied pygmy pigs’ popularity as pets
1990 – NY Daily News goes on strike (lasts through March, 1991)
1990 – It was announced by U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney that the Pentagon was planning to send 100,000 more troops to Saudi Arabia.
1994 – Susan Smith claims her 2 kids were carjacked (she actually killed them)
1997 – After a brief civil war which has driven President Pascal Lissouba out of Brazzaville, Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaims himself the President of the Republic of the Congo.
2001 – It was announced that scientists had unearthed the remains of an ancient crocodile which lived 110 million years ago. The animal, found in Gadoufaoua, Niger, grew as long as 40 feet and weighed as much as eight metric tons.
2004 – Fidel Castro, Cuba’s President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned by November 8
2009 – The 25 October 2009 Baghdad bombings kills 155 and wounds at least 721.
2013 – 74 Boko Harem members killed in a coordinated assault in Borno State, Nigeria
2017 – Chinese Premier Xi Jinping unveils his new ruling council in the Great Hall of the People, none of the five are young enough to succeed him
2020 – Chile overwhelmingly votes to scrap their constitution, drafted during dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet
2020 – Pope Francis announces appointment of 13 new cardinals including 1st African American Wilton Daniel Gregory
2021 – Sudan’s military takes control of the country, dissolving the power-sharing government and declaring a state of emergency
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
