1972 – Massacre at the Munich Olympics
A group of Palestinian militants belonging to the Black September terrorist group stormed the apartment Israeli athletes were staying at the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany several days after the XX Olympic Summer Games had begun. They killed 2 athletes and took 9 hostages, demanding the release of release over 230 Arab prisoners being held in Israel. The ensuing violence to release the hostages ended with the death of all 9 hostages and 5 militants. All Olympic events were suspended for a day to mourn and pay respects to the slain members of the Israeli delegation.
1198 – Philips of Zwabia, Prince of Hohenstaufen, crowned King of Germany and King of the Romans
1519 – Second Battle of Tehuacingo, Mexico: Hernán Cortés vs Tlascala Aztecs
1550 – William Cecil appoints himself English minister of foreign affairs
1590 – Alexander Farnese’s army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris.
1596 – Dutch fleet commander Cornelis de Houtman taken hostage in Java, is later ransomed
1622 – Bishop Richelieu appointed Cardinal under French King Louis XIII
1661 – Nicolas Fouquet, French Superintendent of Finances under Louis XIV is arrested for maladministration of state funds; he died in 1680, never seeing freedom again.
1666 – Great Fire of London ends: 10,000 buildings including St. Paul’s Cathedral are destroyed, but only 16 people are known to have died.
1698 – In an effort to move his people away from archaic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards
1717 – Britain’s King George I issues Proclamation “For Suppressing Pirates in the West Indies”, granting pirates who surrender a pardon (re-issued 1718)
1750 – Decree issued in Paderborn, Prussia allows for annual search of all Jewish homes for stolen or “doubtful” goods
1774 – The first session of the U.S. Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. The delegates drafted a declaration of rights and grievances, organized the Continental Association, and elected Peyton Randolph as the first president of the Continental Congress.
1793 – In France, the “Reign of Terror” began. The National Convention enacted measures to repress the French Revolutionary activities.
1795 – US-Algiers sign peace treaty
1798 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law.
1816 – Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable (“”Unobtainable Chamber””)
1836 – Sam Houston was elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
1844 – Iron ore discovered in Minnesota’s Mesabi Mountains
1877 – Sioux chief Crazy Horse was killed by the bayonet of a U.S. soldier. The chief allegedly resisted confinement to a jail cell.
1881 – The American Red Cross provided relief for disaster for the first time. The disaster was the Great Fire of 1881 in Michigan.
1882 – The first U.S. Labor Day parade was held in New York City.
1885 – Jake Gumper bought the first gasoline pump to be manufactured in the U.S.
1900 – France proclaimed a protectorate over Chad.
1901 – The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues was formed in Chicago, IL. It was the first organized baseball league.
1905 – The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed by Russia and Japan to end the Russo-Japanese War. The settlement was mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in New Hampshire.
1914 – US President Woodrow Wilson orders US Navy to make its wireless stations accessible for any transatlantic communications – even to German diplomats sending coded messages; leads to interception of the Zimmermann telegram, helping bring the US into the war
1914 – Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a professional player in the International League.
1914 – The Battle of the Marne began. The Germans, British and French fought for six days killing half a million people.
1915 – Tsar Nicholas II, distressed by increasing Russian losses, assumes personal command of his nation’s military forces; clearly a symbolic act and devastating for his leadership
1917 – Federal raids were carried out in 24 cities on International Workers of the World (IWW) headquarters. The raids were prompted by suspected anti-war activities within the labor organization
1932 – The colonie of Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, Mali, and Niger
1938 – Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are assassinated in the Seguro Obrero massacre.
1939 – The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality in World War II.
1940 – All 355 Jewish-owned businesses in Luxembourg become “”Aryan”” property.
1944 – “Mad Tuesday” 65,000 Dutch nazi collaborators flee to Germany
1945 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino was arrested. D’Aquino was suspected of being the wartime radio propagandist “Tokyo Rose”. She served six years and was later pardoned by U.S. President Ford.
1946 – Amon Göth, former head of Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, found guilty of imprisonment, torture, and extermination of individuals and groups of people, the first conviction of homicide at a war crimes court
1953 – The first privately operated atomic reactor opened in Raleigh, NC.
1953 – US give Persian premier Fazlollah Zahedi $45 million aid
1957 – Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” was first published.
1958 – Boris Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago” was published for the first time in the U.S.
1960 – Cassius Clay of Louisville, KY, won the gold medal in light heavyweight boxing at the Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. Clay later changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
1961 – The U.S. government made airline hijacking a federal offense.
1968 – 21 killed by hijackers aboard a Pan Am jet in Karachi Pakistan
1969 – My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
1972 – Chemical spill with fog sickens hundreds in Meuse Valley Belgium
1972 – The Olympic Games in Munich, Germany are marred by tragedy when PLO terrorists hold the Israeli delegation hostage; 11 Israelis are killed during the ordeal. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/massacre-begins-at-munich-olympics
1975 – Sacramento, California: a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson, Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford
1977 – Hanns Martin Schleyer, is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany by the Red Army Faction and is later murdered.
1977 – Voyager 1 (US) launched toward fly-by of Jupiter, Saturn
1978 – Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
1980 – The St. Gothard Tunnel opened in Switzerland. It is the world’s longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles long.
1983 – U.S. President Reagan denounced the Soviet Union for shooting down a Korean Air Lines. Reagan demanded that the Soviet Union pay reparations for the act that killed 269 people.
1983 – The “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) became the first hour-long network news show.
1984 – The space shuttle Discovery landed after its maiden voyage.
1985 – Rioting in South Africa spilled into white neighborhoods for the first time.
1990 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urged for a Holy War against the West and former allies.
1991 – US trial of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega begins
1991 – Soviet lawmakers created an interim government to usher in the confederation after dissolving the U.S.S.R. The new name the Union of Sovereign States was taken.
1992 – A General Motors Corporation strike ended with a new agreement being approved. Nearly 43,000 workers were on strike.
1996 – Following US cruise missile strikes on Iraq, crude oil prices rise as the market speculates when Iraq will begin exporting oil under UN Resolution 986
2003 – In London, magician David Blaine entered a clear plastic box and then suspended by a crane over the banks of the Thames River. He remained there until October 19 surviving only on water.
2007 – Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda are arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations.
2012 – 54 people are killed and 50 injured after a firecracker factory explodes in Nadu
2012 – Austerity measure requires Greece to increase its maximum working days to six per week
2014 – World Health Organization estimates 1,900 people have died from the Ebola virus out of 3,500 infected in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone
2015 – US health officials confirm a salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers from Mexico is responsible for 1 death and for making hundreds sick
2017 – Togo’s government shuts down the internet for a week to quell government opposition
2019 – South African women march on parliament to protest violence against women after a month when 30 were killed by their spouses
2020 – More than 50 arrested as Portland, Oregon, marks 100 days of protests against racism and police brutality
2021 – Coup by soldiers in Guinea headed by Colonel Doumbouya deposes President Alpha Condé and his government, claiming rampant corruption
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
