1983 – Soviet military officer Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war by judging supposed missile attack from the US an error
46 BC – Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in accordance with a vow he made at the Battle of Pharsalus
1212 – Golden Bull of Sicily certified hereditary royal title in Bohemia for Přemyslid dynasty
1396 – Ottoman Sultan Bajezid I beheads hundreds of crusaders after the Battle of Nicopolis
1580 – Francis Drake completes circumnavigation of the world, sailing into Plymouth aboard the Golden Hind
1655 – Peter Stuyvesant recaptures Dutch Ft Casimir from Swedish in Delaware
1665 – Height of the Great Plague of London as 7,165 people die throughout the previous week
1680 – Tax revolt in Gorinchem due to tax on cereal
1687 – City council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange’s invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution
1772 – New Jersey passes bill requiring a license to practice medicine
1777 – Philadelphia was occupied by British troops during the American Revolutionary War.
1783 – Fayette County, Pennsylvania created
1786 – Protestors shut down the court in Springfield, Massachusetts starting the Shay’s Rebellion, Named after the rebellion’s leader Daniel Shays, the revolt began as a response to an economic crisis where people who owed debt were imprisoned. After a bloody conflict, the Shaysites were crushed by the government. This was the first armed internal conflict in post-revolutionary America.
1789 – Thomas Jefferson was appointed America’s first Secretary of State. John Jay was appointed the first chief justice of the U.S. Samuel Osgood was appointed the first Postmaster-General. Edmund Jennings Randolph was appointed the first Attorney General.
1792 – Marc-David Lasource begins accusing Maximilien Robespierre of wanting a dictatorship for France
1810 – Swedish Act of Succession is passed, The Swedish Act of Succession, also known as the 1810 Act of Succession was adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates. This act is part of the Swedish Constitution and regulates the succession of the Swedish Royal family.
1872 – The first Shriners Temple (called Mecca) was established in New York City.
1884 – Suriname army shoots on British-Indian contract workers, 7 killed
1914 – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission was established.
1918 – During World War I, the Meuse-Argonne offensive against the Germans began. It was the final Allied offensive on the western front.
1925 – Italian sub “Sebastiano Veniero” lost off Sicily with 54 dead
1938 – Adolf Hitler issues ultimatum to Czech government, demanding Sudenten Land
1944 – World War II: Battle of Arnhem ends in Allied failure as German forces link up on both sides of the Lower Rhine river and mop up last British resistance
1949 – Groundbreaking ceremony for the Hollywood sign in Hollywood, Los Angeles; old Hollywoodland sign torn down, reconstruction of a replacement begins with just Hollywood
1950 – U.N. troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans during the Korean Conflict.
1951 – Prof Youngblood demonstrates artificial heart in Paris
1955 – The New York Stock Exchange suffered its worst decline since 1929 when the word was released concerning U.S. President Eisenhower’s heart attack.
1959 – Typhoon Vera hits Japan, The category five typhoon is thought to be the strongest typhoon to impact the island country in recorded history. The resulting rain, landslides, and damage caused the deaths of about 5000 people in Japan.
1960 – Cuban leader Fidel Castro delivers a 4 hour and 29 minute long speech at the United Nations
1960 – The first televised debate between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy took place in Chicago, IL.
1969 – Bolivia military coup under general Ovando Candia
1970 – A groups of Protestant youths attack the Catholic Unity Flats as rioting continues in the Protestant Shankill Road area
1973 – Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic (Washington, D.C. to Paris) in record-breaking time (3h33m).
1980 – Bomb attack on Octoberfest in Munich, 12 killed
1980 – The Cuban government abruptly closed Mariel Harbor to end the freedom flotilla of Cuban refugees that began the previous April.
1983 – Soviet military officer Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war by judging supposed missile attack from the US an error
1984 – Britain and China initialed a draft agreement on the future of Hong Kong when the Chinese take over ruling the British Colony.
1985 – Shamu was born at Sea World in Orlando, FL. Shamu was the first killer whale to survive being born in captivity.
1986 – William H. Rehnquist became chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court following the retirement of Warren Burger.
1989 – Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze calls for total destruction of Soviet & US chemical weapons
1990 – The Motion Picture Association of America announced that it had created a new rating. The new NC17 rating was to keep moviegoers under the age of 17 from seeing certain films.
1991 – Four men and four women began their two-year stay inside the “Biosphere II.” The project was intended to develop technology for future space colonies.
1991 – The U.S. Congress heard a plea from Kimberly Bergalis concerning mandatory AIDS testing for health care workers.
1993 – The eight people who had stayed in “Biosphere II” emerged from their sealed off environment.
1995 – The warring factions of Bosnia agreed on guidelines for elections and a future government.
1996 – Shannon Lucid returned to Earth after being in space for 188 days. she set a time record for a U.S. astronaut in space and in the world for time spent by a woman in space.
2000 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. The act states that an infant would be considered to have been born alive if he or she is completely extracted or expelled from the mother and breathes and has a beating heart and definite movement of the voluntary muscles.
2000 – Slobodan Milosevic conceded that Vojislav Kostunica had won Yugoslavia’s presidential election and declared a runoff. The declared runoff prompted mass protests.
2001 – In Kabul, Afghanistan, the abandoned U.S. Embassy was stormed by protesters. It was the largest anti-Amercian protest since the terror attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, on September 11.
2001 – Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres announced plans to formalize a cease-fire and end a year of fighting in the region.
2006 – Facebook was opened to everyone at least 13 years or older with a valid email address.
2012 – Syrian army massacres 40 civilians in Thiabieh, Damascus
2014 – 43 students from Ayotzinapa Teachers College go missing (and presumed murdered) in Iguala on their way to a protest – one of Mexico’s worst human rights cases
2017 – Fights break out in Uganda’s parliament during debate to raise presidential age limit
2019 – US Income inequality widest for over 50 years, worst in California, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana and New York, according to new census figures
2019 – Abortion is decriminalized in New South Wales, the last remaining Australian state to do so
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
