1918 – U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France. York had originally tried to avoid being drafted as a conscientious objector. After this event his was promoted to sergeant and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
314 – Battle at Cibalae: Roman emperor in the west Constantine beats emperor in the east Licinius
1480 – Great Stand on the Ugra river: Standoff between forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde and Ivan III, Grand Prince of all Rus. Ends with a Tatar-Mongol retreat, leading to the disintegration of the Horde.
1604 – Supernova “Kepler’s nova” first sighted by Lodovico delle Colombe in Italy
1633 – Massachusetts Bay Colony forms its first government
1645 – First hospital in Montreal, Quebec founded, the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal by nurse Jeanne Mance
1769 – Captain James Cook lands in New Zealand at Poverty Bay on the East Coast of the North Island
1775 – Officers decide to bar slaves and free blacks from the Continental Army
1806 – British forces lay siege to French port of Boulogne using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve
1856 – The Second Opium War or second Anglo-Chinese War: begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River
1871 – Great Chicago fire begins, The fire that destroyed most of Chicago’s business district began in a barn on the evening of October 8, 1871. A very dry summer and an early autumn fanned the fire, which raged for 2 days. It killed over 300 people and destroyed property worth millions of dollars.
1873 – First women’s prison run by women opens at Indiana Reformatory Institute
1895 – The Berliner Gramophone Company was founded in Philadelphia, PA.
1912 – First Balkan war begins, Montenegro started the conflict by declaring war on the Ottoman Empire. A few days later Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia joined the war and created the Balkan League. The 7-month long war ended with a decisive Balkan League victory. Dissatisfaction over the spoils of the war led to the Second Balkan War a year later.
1915 – During World War I, the Battle of Loos concluded. German forces contain British attack (85,000 casualties)
1918 – U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France. York had originally tried to avoid being drafted as a conscientious objector. After this event his was promoted to sergeant and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
1934 – Bruno Hauptmann is indicted for the murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son
1938 – The cover of “The Saturday Evening Post” portrayed Norman Rockwell.
1945 – Microwave oven patented by US inventor Percy Spencer
1945 – U.S. President Truman announced that only Britain and Canada would be given the secret to the atomic bomb.
1948 – World’s first internal pacemaker implanted, A 43-year-old man called Arne Larsson was the recipient of the pacemaker which worked only for a few hours. However, Larsson lived long after the pacemaker stopped working. He died in 2001 at the age of 86.
1950 – U.N. forces crossed into North Korea from South Korea.
1953 – Birmingham, Alabama, bars Jackie Robinson’s Negro-White All-Stars from playing there Robinson gives in & drops white players from his group
1962 – North Korea reports 100% election turnout, miraculously 100% vote for the Workers’ Party
1962 – Spiegel scandal: Der Spiegel publishes article “Bedingt abwehrbereit” (“Conditionally prepared for defense”) about NATO manoeuver called “Fallex 62”, uncovering sorry state of West German army. Magazine soon accused of treason.
1967 – Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia
1969 – The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago, Illinois.
1973 – OPEC meets with oil companies to discuss revision of 1971 Tehran agreement and oil prices; negotiations fail.
1976 – Sex Pistols sign with EMI
1981 – U.S. President Reagan greeted former Presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon to the White House. The group was preparing to leave for Egypt to attend the funeral of Anwar Sadat.
1982 – In Poland, all labor organizations, including Solidarity, were banned.
1990 – Israeli police kill 17 Palestinian rioters
1991 – A slave burial site was found by construction workers in lower Manhattan. The “Negro Burial Ground” had been closed in 1790. Over a dozen skeletons were found.
1993 – The U.S. government issued a report absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in its final assault in Waco, TX, on the Branch Davidian compound. The fire that ended the siege killed as many as 85 people.
1998 – Taliban forces attacked Iranian border posts. Iran said that three border posts were destroyed before the Taliban forces were forced to retreat. The Taliban of Afghanistan denied the event occurred.
1998 – US House of Representatives votes to begin impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton on charges of lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky
2001 – US President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security
2001 – Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania, was sworn in as director of the new U.S. department of Homeland Security.
2001 – Rush Limbaugh announced to his listeners that he was totally deaf in his left ear and had only partial hearing in his right ear. The condition had happened in a three month period.
2012 – 35 people are killed by a Nigerian military bomb struck a convoy in Maiduguri
2019 – FBI confirm Samuel Little is America’s most prolific serial killer, after verifying more than half of his 93 confessed murders
2020 – FBI charge 13 men with plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and storm the Michigan Capitol
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
