1919 The U.S. Congress enacted the Volstead Act, also known as the National Prohibition Act. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the passing of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
0306 Maxentius is proclaimed Roman Emperor.
0312 Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman Emperor.
0969 Antioch falls to Byzantine forces after a long siege, ending 300 years of Arab rule in the Syrian city
1061 Empress Agnes, acting as Regent for her son, brings about the election of Bishop Cadalus, the antipope Honorius II
1216 Henry III aged nine is crowned King of England at Gloucester Cathedral after the death of his father King John (2nd coronation in 1220)
1265 Eleanor de Montfort, wife of slain baron rebellion leader Simon de Montfort and sister of King Henry III, leaves England for exile in France after negotiating end to siege of Dover Castle
1348 Third wave of the Great plague hits the Old World
1449 Christian I is crowned King of Denmark in the Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen, establishing the House of Oldenburg
1516 Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza.
1531 Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia falls under Imam Ahmad’s control.
1628 The Siege of La Rochelle, which had been ongoing for 14 months, ends with Huguenot surrender
1636 A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.
1640 English King Charles I signs a peace treaty with the Scottish Covenanters, ending the Second Bishops’ War
1726 “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift is published by Benjamin Motte in London
1776 Battle of White Plains; Washington retreats to NJ
1790 New York gives up claims to Vermont for $30,000
1793 Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin.
1831 Michael Faraday demonstrates his dynamo invention, an electrical generator
1834 The Battle of Pinjarra occurs in the Swan River Colony in present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia. Between 14 and 40 Aborigines are killed by British colonists.
1868 Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, an electrical vote recorder
1886 The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor by U.S. President Cleveland. The statue weighs 225 tons and is 152 feet tall. It was originally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World.
1900 (Modern) Olympic Games, Paris, France: competition ends after 5 months; no opening or closing ceremonies conducted
1904 St Louis police try a new investigation method-fingerprints
1916 First conscription referendum in Australia and among forces overseas Proposal to introduce conscription defeated
1918 The German fleet is immobilized when sailors mutiny en masse and disobey an order to leave port five times; 1,000 would ultimately be arrested
1919 The U.S. Congress enacted the Volstead Act, also known as the National Prohibition Act. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the passing of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1922 March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.
1936 FDR rededicates Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
1938 Polish “Aktion.” Thousands of Polish Jews are rounded up and sent back to the Polish border town of Zbonzyn. Poland expels all its German Jewish residents.
1939 “The first Polish ghetto is established in Piotrkow, Poland.”
1940 Greece successfully resists Italy’s attack
1941 Holocaust in Kaunas, Lithuania: German SS forces arrange the massacre of more than 9,000 Jews of the Kaunas ghetto. After the victims assembled on the Demokratu square at 6 am to be shot they are buried in gigantic ditches.
1942 Holocaust: SS directive orders all Jewish children’s mittens and stockings to be sent from the death camps to the SS families.
1943 The alleged Philadelphia Experiment supposedly occurred.
1949 U.S. President Harry Truman swore in Eugenie Moore Anderson as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Anderson was the first woman to hold the post of ambassador.
1954 The modern Kingdom of the Netherlands is re-founded as a federal monarchy.
1962 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
1965 Pope Paul VI issued a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
1970 US/USSR sign an agreement to discuss joint space efforts
1971 The British Parliament debates the European Communities principle of membership and votes 356 to 244 in favour of joining, requiring a new law to be drafted and a later final vote on joining
1976 John D. Ehrlichman, former domestic policy adviser of President Nixon and convicted Watergate felon, arrives at the Swift Trail Camp minimum-security facility in southeastern Arizona.”
1978 NBC’s premiere of Kiss’ acting debut, “Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park” TV film
1983 The U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution “deeply deploring” the ongoing U.S.-led invasion of Grenada.
1985 Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and makes peace overtures to the United States; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.
1986 The centennial of the Statue of Liberty’s dedication is re-celebrated in New York Harbor.
1988 The French drug manufacturer Roussel Uclaf states that it will resume distribution of the so-called abortion drug RU-486.
1990 Iraq announced that it was halting gasoline rationing.
1993 Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, called for a complete blockade of Haiti to force out the military leaders.
1994 U.S. President Clinton visited Kuwait and implied that all the troops there would be home by Christmas.
2005 Plame affair: Lewis Libby, Vice-president Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, is indicted in the Valerie Plame case. Libby resigns later that day.
2006 Funeral service for the peace of the executed at Bykivnia forest, outside of Kiev, Ukraine, with reburial of 817 Ukrainian civilians (out of some 100,000) executed by Bolsheviks at Bykivnia in 1930s early 1940s.
2007 Argentina Elects its First Female President: Former First Lady of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, won the elections with over 45% of all votes cast
2009 The 28 October 2009 Peshawar bombing kills 117 and wounds 213.
2012 15 people are killed and 33 injured by a series of Baghdad car bombings
2015 World Heath Organization ranks Tuberculosis alongside HIV as world’s deadliest infectious diseases, killing 1.2 million
2016 Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area established off Antarctica – world’s largest marine protected area at 598,000 square miles (2.06 million square-kilometers), larger than Mexico
2017 Twin car bomb attacks in Mogadishu, Somalia, kill at least 27, Islamist militant group al-Shabab claim responsibility
2018 Political crisis in Sri Lanka after President Sirisena sacks Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and the cabinet, suspends parliament for two weeks with one man killed in protests
2020 New coral reef 500m (1,640ft) high, taller than the Empire State Building, discovered north of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
2021 Largest-ever drug bust in Asia made by police in Laos with 55 million methamphetamine tablets and 1.5 tonnes of crystal meth discovered in beer crates
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
