Thursday, January 31, 2013

Historical Events on 1 Feb

Historical Events on 1 Feb

1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
1411 - The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn, Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia).
1662 - The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
1713 - The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
1790 - In New York City the Supreme Court of the United States attempts to convene for the first time.
1793 - French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
1796 - The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
1814 - Mayon Volcano, in the Philippines, erupts, killing around 1,200 people; most devastating eruption of Mayon Volcano.
1856 - Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
1861 - American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
1862 - Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.
1880 - The first edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage is published.
1884 - Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1893 - Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
1896 - The opera La bohème premieres in Turin.
1897 - Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
1913 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
1918 - Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
1920 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begins operations.
1924 - The United Kingdom recognizes USSR.
1943 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
1946 - Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
1957 - Felix Wankel's first working prototype DKM 54 of the Wankel engine was running at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in Germany
1958 - Merger of Egypt and Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which lasted until 1961.
1960 - Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1965 - The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada is renamed the Churchill River in honour of Winston Churchill.
1968 - The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form ill-fated Penn Central Transportation.
1968 - Canada's three military services of Canada, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
1968 - Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan is videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams. This image helped build opposition to the Vietnam War.
1972 - Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
1974 - A fire in the 25-story Joelma Building in Sao Paulo, Brazil kills 189 and injures 293.
1974 - Kuala Lumpur is declared a Federal Territory.
1978 - Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
1979 - The Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
1979 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
1982 - Senegal and the Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
1989 - The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
1992 - The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case.
1996 - The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
1998 - Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne became the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
2004 - 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
2004 - Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to FCC censorship guidelines.
2005 - Nepal King Gyanendra exercises Coup d'état to capture the democracy becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.
2005 - Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act, making Canada the fourth country to sanction same-sex marriage.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Historical Events on 31 Jan

Historical Events on 31 Jan

1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon.
1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting against Parliament and James I of England.
1747 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
1814 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.
1846 - After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown unified as the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1849 - Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom (following legislation in 1846).
1862 - Alvan Graham Clark observes the first white dwarf star, a companion of Sirius, through an eighteen inch telescope at Northwestern University.
1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.
1867 - Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Karam leaves Lebanon on board of a French ship for Algeria
1876 - The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.
1891 - The first attempt of a Portuguese republican revolution brakes out in the northern city of Porto.
1900 - Datu Muhammad Salleh is assassinated in Kampung Teboh, Tambuan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion
1915 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russia
1917 - World War I: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
1918 - A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
1919 - The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland.
1929 - The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
1930 - 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.
1936 - The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
1941 - Layforce set sail.
1944 - World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1944 - World War II: During Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) was destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.
1945 - US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed, the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
1946 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
1950 - President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.
1953 - A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands.
1956 - Guy Mollet becomes Prime Minister of France.
1957 - Eight people on the ground in Pacoima, California are killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.
1958 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
1958 - Explorer program: Explorer 1 - The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.
1961 - Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 - Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
1966 - Luna program: soviet union's unmanned spacecraft Luna 9 is launched.
1968 - Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon.
1968 - Nauru declares independence from Australia.
1970 - A Saskatchewan Court convicts 17-year-old hippie David Milgaard of murder; he is sentenced to life in prison. He spent 23 years in jail until April 14, 1992 when DNA evidence proves him innocent of all charges.
1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 14 Mission - Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.
1971 - The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begin in Detroit, Michigan.
1980 - Thirty-nine people burn to death in the occupation of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala.
1990 - The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow, USSR.
1995 - President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
1996 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
2000 - Alaska Airlines flight 261 MD-83, experiencing horizontal stabilizer problems, crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 persons aboard.
2001 - In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
2003 - The Waterfall rail accident occurs near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia.
2007 - Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Historical Events on 30 Jan

Historical Events on 30 Jan

1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain.
1649 - King Charles I of England is beheaded.
1661 - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years.
1790 - The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
1806 - The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.
1820 - Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
1826 - The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales is opened.
1835 - In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson.
1841 - A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
1847 - Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
1858 - The first Hallé concert is given in Manchester, England, marking the official founding of the Hallé Orchestra as a full-time, professional orchestra.
1862 - The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.
1889 - Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling.
1911 - The destroyer USS Terry (DD-25) makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.
1911 - The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy.
1913 - The United Kingdom's House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill.
1925 - The Government of Turkey throws Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul.
1930 - The world's first radiosonde is launched in Pavlovsk, USSR.
1933 - Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
1943 - World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. TheUSS Chicago (CA-29) is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
1943 - Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine: The Nazi Gestapo commences mass shootings of Jews from Letychiv Ghetto. 200 surviving Jews from Letychiv slave labor camp are ordered to undress and are shot with a machine-gun into a ravine. Some 7,000 Jews were murdered i
1944 - World War II: United States troops land on Majuro.
1945 - The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest maritime disaster in known history, killing roughly 9,000 people.
1945 - World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: 126 American Rangers and Filipino resistance liberate 500 prisoners from the Cabanatuan POW camp.
1945 - World War II: Hitler gives his last ever public address, a radio address on the 12th anniversary of his coming to power. (A subsequent address on February 24 was not read by Hitler.)
1948 - Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
1956 - American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1962 - Two of the high-wire Flying Wallendas are killed when their seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.
1964 - Ranger program: Ranger 6 is launched.
1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam.
1969 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
1972 - Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
1972 - Bloody Sunday: British Paratroopers kill fourteen civil rights/anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland.
1976 - George H. W. Bush becomes the 11th director of the CIA.
1979 - Varig 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo.
1982 - Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner".
1989 - The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.
1994 - Péter Lékó becomes the youngest chess grand master.
1995 - Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
1996 - Gino Gallagher, the suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, is killed while waiting in line for his unemployment benefit.
1996 - Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake.
2000 - Off the coast of Ivory Coast, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169.
2003 - Belgium legally recognizes same-sex marriage.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Historical Events on 29 Jan

Historical Events on 29 Jan

1595 - William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is probably first performed.
1676 - Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia.
1814 - France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
1834 - US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.
1845 - "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is published in the New York Evening Mirror.
1850 - Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
1856 - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
1861 - Kansas admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
1863 - Bear River Massacre.
1886 - Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
1891 - Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch.
1900 - The American League is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with 8 founding teams.
1916 - World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.
1936 - The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.
1940 - Three gasoline multiple units carrying factory workers crash and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi station, Yumesaki Line (Nishinari Line), Osaka, Japan, killing at least 181 people and injuring at least 92.
1943 - The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, U.S. cruiser Chicago is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.
1944 - USS Missouri the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy is launched.
1944 - World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy.
1944 - World War II: About 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.
1944 - In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio is destroyed in an air-raid bombing
1959 - Sleeping Beauty, an animated feature produced by Walt Disney based upon a fairy tale, is released.
1963 - First inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.
1966 - The first of 608 performances of Sweet Charity opens at the Palace Theatre, New York.
1978 - Sweden outlaws aerosol sprays due to their harmful effect on the ozone layer, becoming the first nation to enact such a ban.
1979 - Brenda Ann Spencer kills 2 and injures 9 in the Cleveland Elementary School shootings, inspiring the "I don't Like Mondays" song by Boomtown Rats.
1989 - Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making them the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so
1996 - President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.
1996 - La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire.
1998 - In Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic, killing one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.
2001 - Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
2002 - In his State of the Union Address, United States President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of Evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
2005 - The first direct commercial flights from the mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines carrier landed in Beijing.
904 - Sergius III comes out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Historical Events on 28 Jan

Historical Events on 28 Jan

1077 - Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted.
1521 - The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.
1547 - Henry VIII dies. His nine year old son, Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England.
1573 - Articles of Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland.
1624 - Sir Thomas Warner founds the first British colony in the Caribbean, on Saint Kitts.
1724 - The Russian Academy of Sciences was founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented in the Senate decree. It was called St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.
1754 - Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.
1760 - Pownal, Vermont created by Benning Wentworth as one of the New Hampshire Grants.
1813 - Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.
1820 - Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the Antarctic continent approaching the Antarctic coast.
1846 - Battle of Aliwal, India won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
1855 - The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway.
1871 - Franco-Prussian War: Siege of Paris ends in French defeat and an armistice.
1878 - Yale Daily News becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States.
1887 - In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.
1902 - The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
1909 - United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish-American War.
1915 - An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.
1916 - Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
1917 - Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco, California.
1918 - Finnish Civil War: Rebels seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland go underground.
1921 - A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honor the unknown dead of World War I.
1922 - Knickerbocker Storm, Washington D.C.'s biggest snowfall, causes the city's greatest loss of life when the roof of the Knickerbocker Theater collapses.
1932 - Japanese forces attack Shanghai.
1933 - The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
1934 - The first ski tow in the United States begins operation in Vermont.
1935 - Iceland becomes the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion.
1938 - The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by driver Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195.
1945 - World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1958 - The Lego company patented their design of Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Historical Events on 27 Jan

Historical Events on 27 Jan

1142 - Wrongful execution of noted Song Dynasty General Yue Fei.
1186 - Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, weds Constance of Sicily.
1343 - Pope Clement VI issues the Bull Unigenitus.
1593 - Vatican opens 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno.
1606 - Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, and ending in their execution on January 31.
1695 - Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his death in 1703.
1785 - The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
1825 - U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears."
1870 - The first women's fraternity, Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at DePauw University.
1888 - In Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Society is founded.
1909 - The Young Left is founded in Norway.
1918 - The first hostilities occurred in the Finnish Civil War.
1939 - First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
1944 - World War II: The two-year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
1945 - World War II: The Red Army arrives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.
1951 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on the Frenchman Flats.
1967 - Apollo program: Apollo 1 - Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of the spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.
1967 - More than sixty nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
1973 - Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde falls, becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.
1974 - Brisbane river has the largest flood in the 20th Century
1983 - Pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest subaqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō breaks through.
1996 - Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
1996 - Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Historical Events on 26 Jan

Historical Events on 26 Jan

1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
1531 - Lisbon, Portugal hit by an earthquake--thousands die.
1564 - The Council of Trent issued its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
1565 - Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Islamic sultanates of the Deccan, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subco
1589 - Job is elected as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the west coast of the North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.
1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
1788 - The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Sydney Harbour to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Commemorated as Australia Day
1808 - Rum Rebellion, the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in Australia.
1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
1838 - Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
1841 - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China later formally ceded.
1855 - Point No Point Treaty signed in Washington Territory.
1856 - First Battle of Seattle (1856). Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.
1861 - American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
1863 - American Civil War: Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
1863 - American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
1870 - American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.
1885 - Troops loyal to The Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
1905 - The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.
1907 - The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III is officially introduced into British Military Service, and remains the oldest military rifle still in official use.
1911 - Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
1911 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
1920 - Former Ford Motor Co. executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company which he later sold to his former employer.
1930 - The Indian National Congress declares 26 January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) which occurred 20 years later.
1934 - The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.
1934 - German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed.
1939 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to nationalist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
1942 - World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
1950 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president. Republic Day.
1952 - Black Saturday in Egypt: riots burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
1958 - Japanese ferry Nankai Maru capsized off southern Awaji Island, Japan, 167 killed.
1961 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
1962 - Ranger program: Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
1966 - The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia.
1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
1988 - Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera has its first performance on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre in New York.
1991 - Mohamed Siad Barre is removed in Somalia, ending centralized government
1992 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
1998 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
2001 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
2004 - President Hamid Karzai signs the new constitution of Afghanistan.
2004 - A whale explodes in the town of Tainan, Taiwan. A build-up of gas in the decomposing Sperm whale is suspected of causing the explosion.
2005 - Glendale train crash: Two trains derail killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles.
2005 - Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
2006 - Western Union discontinues use of its telegram service.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Historical Events on 25 Jan

Historical Events on 25 Jan

1327 - Edward III becomes King of England.
1494 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.
1533 - Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.
1554 - Founding of São Paulo city, Brazil.
1573 - Battle of Mikatagahara, in Japan; Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.
1592 - Presumed date of victory of Siamese King Naresuan over Burmese Crown Prince Minchit Sra in a duel on elephant back; commemorated as Royal Thai Armed Forces Day.
1755 - Moscow University established on Tatiana Day.
1787 - American Daniel Shays leads rebellion to seize Federal arsenal to protest debtor's prisons.
1791 - The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.
1792 - The London Corresponding Society is founded.
1858 - The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia.
1879 - The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.
1881 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
1890 - Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
1909 - Richard Strauss' opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
1915 - Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service.
1917 - The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million.
1919 - The League of Nations is founded.
1924 - The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
1937 - The Guiding Light airs on radio for the first time. Also went to television making this show the longest running broadcast program in United States radio and television history.
1941 - Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.
1942 - World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
1945 - World War II: Battle of the Bulge ends.
1946 - The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.
1949 - The first Israeli election -- David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
1949 - At the Hollywood Athletic Club the first Emmy Awards are presented.
1955 - Soviet Union ends state of war with Germany.
1959 - Pope John XXIII proclaims upcoming Second Vatican Council.
1960 - The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the Payola scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accepted money for playing particular records.
1961 - In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.
1971 - Charles Manson and three female "Family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
1971 - Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president.
1971 - Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state.
1981 - Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death.
1986 - The National Resistance Movement topple the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.
1990 - Avianca Flight 52 crashes, killing 73 passengers.
1990 - Honduras becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1990 - The Burns' Day storm hits northwestern Europe.
1993 - Five people were shot outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia resulting in two murders.
1994 - The Clementine space probe launches.
1995 - The Norwegian Rocket Incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.
1998 - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth, killing 8 people injuring 25 others.
1998 - During a historic visit to Cuba Pope John Paul II demands the release of political prisoners and political reforms while condemning US attempts to isolate the country.
1999 - A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.
2001 - A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
2002 - Wikipedia switches to the new version of its software ("Phase II") aka Magnus Manske Day.
2004 - Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
2005 - A stampede at the Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi in India kills at least 258.
2006 - Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.
41 - After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Historical Events on 24 Jan

Historical Events on 24 Jan

1438 - The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
1679 - King Charles II of England disbands Parliament.
1742 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
1776 - Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga.
1826 - Mississippi College is founded in Clinton, becoming the first college in the state of Mississippi.
1848 - California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
1857 - The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia.
1859 - Political union of Moldavia and Wallachia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as ruler.
1862 - Bucharest proclaimed capital of Romania.
1878 - The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
1907 - Robert Baden-Powell founds the Boy Scout movement.
1916 - In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
1918 - The Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective from February 14(NS)
1924 - Petrograd, formerly Saint Petersburg, Russia, is renamed Leningrad.
1927 - Director Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England.
1936 - Albert Sarraut becomes Prime Minister of France
1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
1952 - Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada.
1966 - An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117.
1972 - Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
1977 - Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
1978 - Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
1978 - Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison in the history of the Republic of Ireland.
1984 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
1986 - Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus.
1993 - Turkish journalist and writer UÄŸur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara.
1994 - Turkey's First Satellite Turksat 1A falls into the ocean.
1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow.
2003 - The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
41 - Gaius Caesar (Caligula), known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Historical Events on 23 Jan

Historical Events on 23 Jan

1368 - In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.
1510 - Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.
1533 - Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
1546 - Having published nothing for eleven years, Francois Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.
1556 - The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
1570 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.
1571 - The Royal Exchange opens in London.
1579 - The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
1656 - Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.
1719 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
1789 - Georgetown College, first Roman Catholic college in the United States, was founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.)
1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.
1855 - The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
1870 - In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
1897 - Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
1899 - Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
1904 - Ã…lesund Fire: the Norwegian coastal town Ã…lesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.
1907 - Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
1912 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
1937 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
1943 - Jewish-led Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1943 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli in Libya from the Nazis.
1943 - Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
1943 - World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
1945 - World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.
1950 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
1958 - Overthrow in Venezuela of Marcos Pérez Jiménez
1960 - The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 m (35,798 feet)in the Pacific Ocean.
1964 - The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
1967 - The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast were established.
1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters while spying.
1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
1973 - [[A volcano eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.
1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's ozone layer.
1985 - O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
1986 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
1996 - The first version of the Java programming language was released.
1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
1997 - Antonis Daglis, a 23 year old Greek truck driver is sentenced to thirteen consecutive life sentences, plus 25 years for the serial slayings of three women and the attempted murder of six others.
2001 - The Chinese Communist Party stages a self-immolation in Tiananmen Square to frame Falun Gong and escalate the persecution.
2002 - Reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan. He was subsequently murdered .
2002 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in Federal Bureau of Investigation custody.
2003 - Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10
393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor.
909 - John of Rila aka Saint Ivan and the fable of two pies.
971 - In China, the war elephant corps of the Southern Han are soundly defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops. The Southern Han state is forced to submit to the Song Dynasty, ending not only Southern Han rule, but also the first regular war

Monday, January 21, 2013

Historical Events on 22 Jan

Historical Events on 22 Jan

1506 - The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrive at the Vatican.
1521 - Emperor Charles V opens the Diet of Worms.
1771 - Spain cedes Port Egmont in the Falkland Islands to England.
1824 - Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast.
1840 - British colonists reach New Zealand.
1863 - The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation of Russia.
1877 - Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift - 139 British soldiers successfully defend their garrison against an intense assault by four to five thousand Zulu warriors.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Isandlwana - Zulu troops defeat British troops.
1889 - Columbia Phonograph was formed in Washington, D.C.
1890 - The United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio.
1899 - Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation.
1901 - Edward VII becomes King after his mother, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, dies.
1905 - Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.
1906 - SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.
1917 - World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
1919 - Act Zluky is signed, unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic.
1924 - Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister.
1927 - First live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, bewtween Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.
1931 - Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
1941 - World War II: The United Kingdom captures Tobruk from Nazi forces.
1944 - World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle which was an assault on Anzio, Italy.
1946 - Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
1946 - Iran: Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chuwarchira Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He is the new president; Hadschi Baba Scheich is the prime minister.
1947 - KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood, California.
1952 - The first Jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet, enters service for BOAC.
1957 - The New York City "Mad Bomber," George P. Metesky, was arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and was charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
1957 - NHL super star Mike Bossy was born.
1957 - Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.
1962 - The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership.
1963 - The Elysée treaty of cooperation between France and Germany was signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.
1973 - The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in Roe v. Wade, allowing abortion
1973 - A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria killing 176.
1980 - Andrei Sakharov is arrested in Moscow.
1984 - The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, was introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial.
1987 - Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself at a press conference on live national television, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism.
1990 - Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.
1991 - Gulf War. Three SCUDs and one Patriot missile hit Ramat Gan in Israel, injuring 96 people. Three elderly people die of heart attacks.
1992 - Space Shuttle program: STS-42 Mission - Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space.
1992 - Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.
1995 - Israeli-Palestinian conflict: In central Israel, two suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip blow themselves up at a military transit point killing 19 Israelis.
1999 - Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.
2002 - Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2003 - Last successful contact with the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects.
2006 - Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.
2007 - The jury portion of the trial against Robert Pickton, accused of being Canada's worst serial killer, opens in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.
565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Historical Events on 21 Jan

Historical Events on 21 Jan

1189 - Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.
1287 - The treaty of San Agayz is signed. Minorca is conquered by King Alfons III of Aragon.
1525 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
1643 - Abel Tasman was the first European to reach Tonga.
1720 - Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.
1749 - The Verona Philharmonic Theatre was destoyed by fire. It was rebuilt in 1754.
1789 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
1793 - After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France was executed by the guillotine.
1861 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
1864 - The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
1887 - Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city.
1893 - The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, was formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate which is now Botswana.
1899 - Opel manufactured its first automobile.
1908 - New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.
1911 - The first Monte Carlo Rally.
1915 - Kiwanis International was founded in Detroit, Michigan.
1919 - Meeting of the First Dáil Éireann in the Mansion House Dublin, Sinn Féin adopts Ireland's first constitution. The first engagement of Irish War of Independence, Sologhead Beg, County Tipperary.
1921 - The Italian Communist Party was founded at Livorno.
1924 - Vladimir Lenin dies; a lengthy power struggle emerges between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin begins, culminating to the latter's consolidation of power c. 1928.
1925 - Albania declares itself a republic.
1941 - World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
1948 - The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time, over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Quebec Flag Day.
1950 - Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, then the First Lady of the United States.
1958 - The last Fokker C.X in military service, the Finnish Air Force FK-111 target tower, crashed, killing the pilot and winch-operator.
1968 - Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh - One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
1969 - An experimental underground nuclear reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
1972 - Tripura becomes a full-fledged state in India.
1976 - Commercial service of Concorde begins with London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.
1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.
1985 - Because January 20 had fallen on a Sunday, Ronald Reagan's public inaugural ceremony (for his second term as President) was moved to Monday, January 21. Due to bad weather, the ceremony was held indoors in the United States Capital Rotunda.[1]
1997 - Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.
1999 - War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kg (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board.
2002 - The Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
2004 - Canada: The residence of reporter Juliet O'Neill is searched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigating leaks concerning the deportation of Maher Arar.
2004 - NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
2005 - In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.
2007 - Awashima Marine Park in Japan catches a video tape of the rare frilled shark.
2008 - Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%.
2008 - The Eyak language in Alaska becomes extinct as its last native speaker dies.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Historical Events on 20 Jan

Historical Events on 20 Jan

1156 - According to legend, freeholder Lalli slays English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland.
1265 - In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now also known as the "Houses of Parliament".
1320 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
1356 - Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland.
1502 - The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored.
1523 - Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
1576 - The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almansa.
1649 - Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes".
1667 - The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to Imperial Russia in the treaty of Andrusovo.
1783 - The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the Revolutionary War.
1788 - The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides Botany Bay is unsuitable for location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson.
1801 - John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States.
1839 - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
1840 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
1840 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
1841 - Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.
1885 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
1887 - The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
1892 - At the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first official basketball game is played.
1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
1921 - The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.
1929 - In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking film filmed outdoors, is released.
1936 - Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.
1937 - Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first inauguration scheduled on January 20, following adoption of the 20th Amendment. Previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4.
1942 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin agree on the "final solution to the Jewish problem".
1944 - World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
1945 - Hungary ends its involvement in the Second World War, agreeing to an armistice with the Allies.
1954 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
1960 - Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
1968 - The Houston Cougars defeat the UCLA Bruins 71-69 to win the Game of the Century.
1969 - The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.
1981 - Iran releases 52 American hostages twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as U.S. President.
1986 - Martin Luther King, Jr., day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
1987 - Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.
1990 - Black January - crackdown of Azerbaijani pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku.
1991 - Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
1992 - Air Inter Flight 148 crashes near Strasbourg, France, killing 82 passengers and 5 crew.
1999 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafés.
2001 - Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in the EDSA II Revolution and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian was martyred. Afterwards the Donatist controversy over readmitting lapsed Christians disaffects many in North Africa.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Historical Events on 19 Jan

Historical Events on 19 Jan

1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy.
1511 - Mirandola surrenders to the French.
1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.
1607 - San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is currently the oldest church in the Philippines
1764 - John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
1788 - Second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.
1795 - Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands. End of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
1806 - The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.
1812 - Peninsular War: After a ten day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the Light and third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.
1817 - An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.
1829 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust Part 1 premieres.
1839 - The British East India Company captures Aden.
1840 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
1853 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs - The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.
1871 - Franco-Prussian War: Battle of St. Quentin is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.
1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
1893 - Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder premieres in Berlin.
1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
1915 - Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
1915 - World War I: German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
1917 - German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States.
1917 - Silvertown explosion: 73 are killed and 400 injured in an explosion in a munitions plant in London.
1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.
1920 - The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
1935 - Coopers Inc. sells the world's first briefs.
1937 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
1941 - World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
1945 - World War II: Soviet forces liberate the ghetto of Łódź. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived Nazi occupation.
1946 - General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.
1949 - Cuba recognises Israel.
1953 - 68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
1966 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India.
1969 - Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
1971 - The revival of No, No, Nanette premieres at the 46th Street Theatre, in New York City.
1975 - Triple J begins broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.
1977 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snowfall has occurred. It also fell in the Bahamas.
1977 - President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").
1978 - The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America would continue until 2003.
1981 - Iran Hostage Crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
1983 - Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
1983 - The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
1993 - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.
1997 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.
2006 - Terrorist blows himself up in Tel Aviv, killing only himself but injuring 20 people, one of them seriously.
2006 - A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes in Hungary.
2006 - The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.
2007 - Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink assassinated in front of his newspaper's office by 17 year old Turkish ultranationalist Ogün Samast.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Historical Events on 18 Jan

Historical Events on 18 Jan

1126 - Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.
1486 - King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.
1520 - King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Ã…sunden.
1535 - Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded Lima, the capital of Peru.
1562 - Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.
1670 - Henry Morgan captures Panama.
1701 - Frederick I becomes King of Prussia.
1777 - Representatives of the New Hampshire Grants declare the independence of the Vermont Republic from Britain.
1778 - James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
1788 - The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay.
1861 - American Civil War - Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.
1871 - Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the 'Hall of Mirrors' of the Palace of Versailles towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The empire was known as The Second Reich to the Germans.
1884 - Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.
1886 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
1896 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.
1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
1913 - A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos during the First Balkan War, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.
1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
1916 - A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite stikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.
1919 - World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
1919 - Bentley Motors Limited is founded.
1919 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.
1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
1944 - Soviet forces liberate Leningrad, effectively ending a three year Nazi siege, known as the Siege of Leningrad.
1944 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
1945 - Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army.
1955 - Battle of Yijiangshan occurred.
1958 - Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut.
1967 - Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler," is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life in prison.
1969 - United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay resulting in the loss of all 32 passengers and six crew members.
1974 - A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.
1977 - Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney killing 83.
1977 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
1978 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
1983 - The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.
1990 - Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
1991 - Eastern Air Lines goes out of business after 62 years, citing financial problems.
1993 - For the first time, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed in all 50 states.
1994 - The Cando event, a possible bolide impact in Cando, Spain. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute.
1997 - Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
1997 - In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
1998 - Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair story on his website The Drudge Report.
2000 - The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
2002 - Sierra Leone Civil War was finally declared over.
2003 - A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
2007 - The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people, Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Hurricane Kyrill, causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe. Other losses include the Container Ship MSC N
350 - Generallus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.
474 - Leo II briefly becomes Byzantine emperor.
532 - Nika riots in Constantinople fail.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Historical Events on 17 Jan

Historical Events on 17 Jan

1287 - King Alfonso III of Aragon invades Minorca.
1377 - Pope Gregory XI moves the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.
1524 - Beginning of Giovanni da Verrazzano's voyage to find a passage to China.
1562 - France recognizes the Huguenots under the Edict of Saint-Germain.
1595 - Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.
1605 - First publication of Don Quixote.
1648 - England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Addresses, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
1773 - Captain James Cook and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle.
1781 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cowpens - Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the battle in South Carolina.
1799 - Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots were executed.
1852 - The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal.
1873 - A group of Modoc warriors defeat the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, a part of the Modoc War.
1885 - A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.
1893 - The Citizen's Committee of Public Safety, led by Lorrin A. Thurston overthrows the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
1899 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
1904 - Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre.
1912 - Sir Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antarctic) reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
1913 - Raymond Poincaré is elected President of France.
1917 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
1929 - Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
1941 - Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek open fire at communist forces, resuming the Chinese Civil War after World War II.
1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappears in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
1945 - The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.
1945 - Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw.
1946 - The UN Security Council holds its first session.
1949 - The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, first airs.
1950 - The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car Company's offices in Boston, Massachusetts.
1961 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex".
1966 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping four 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea in the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident.
1973 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes "President for Life" of the Philippines.
1977 - Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States.
1982 - "Cold Sunday" in the United States would see temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.
1985 - British Telecom announces the retirement of the United Kingdom's red telephone boxes.
1989 - Stockton massacre: Patrick Purdy opens fire with an assault rifle at the Cleveland Elementary School playground, killing five children and wounding 29 others and one teacher before taking his own life.
1991 - Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
1991 - Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V.
1994 - 1994 Northridge Earthquake: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Northridge, California.
1995 - The Great Hanshin earthquake: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,434 people.
1996 - The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union.
1997 - A Delta 2 carrying a GPS2R satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.
1998 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
2001 - President Bill Clinton posthumously raises Meriwether Lewis' rank from Lieutenant to Captain.
2002 - Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
2007 - The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea nuclear testing.
38 BC - Octavian marries Livia Drusilla.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Historical Events on 16 Jan

Historical Events on 16 Jan

1120 - The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1362 - A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt.
1412 - The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.
1492 - The first grammar of a modern language, in the Spanish language, is presented to Queen Isabella.
1547 - Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.
1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.
1572 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
1581 - The English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.
1605 - The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid.
1707 - The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
1761 - The British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.
1777 - Vermont declares its independence from New York.
1780 - American Revolution: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
1847 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
1864 - Second Schleswig War: King Christian IX of Denmark declares war on the German Confederation in order to occupy Schleswig.
1878 - Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.
1896 - Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire.
1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
1919 - Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.
1920 - Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. is founded on the campus of Howard University.
1938 - The famous jazz concert by the Benny Goodman Orchestra and special guests takes place at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the first jazz performance in that venue.
1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
1956 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.
1968 - The Youth International Party is founded.
1969 - Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
1970 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.
1986 - First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
1991 - The United States goes to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War (U.S. Time).
1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City ending a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
2001 - Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
2001 - US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.
2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
2003 - The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
2006 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.
27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate.
550 - Gothic War (535-552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Historical Events on 15 Jan

Historical Events on 15 Jan

1582 - Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to Poland.
1759 - The British Museum opens.
1777 - American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence.
1782 - Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
1822 - Greek War of Independence: Demetrius Ypsilanti is elected president of the legislative assembly.
1844 - University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.
1865 - American Civil War - Fort Fisher North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.
1870 - A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).
1889 - The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is originally incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
1892 - James Naismith publishes the rules for basketball.
1908 - The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African-American college women.
1919 - Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps.
1936 - The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio (the building was for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company).
1943 - World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.
1943 - World War II: The Japanese are driven off Guadalcanal.
1943 - The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
1947 - The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short ("The Black Dahlia") is found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California.
1949 - The Chinese Communist Party forces took over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.
1951 - Ilse Koch, The "Bitch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in West Germany.
1966 - The government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in Nigeria is overthrown in a military coup d’état.
1967 - The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles, California.
1969 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.
1970 - Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
1970 - After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.
1973 - Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
1976 - Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.
1977 - The Kälvesta air disaster kills 22 people, the worst air crash in Sweden's history.
1986 - The Living Seas opens at EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World, Florida.
1990 - AT&T's long distance telephone network suffers a cascade switching failure.
1991 - The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.
1992 - The international community recognizes the independence of Slovenia and Croatia from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
1993 - Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Sicily after three decades as a fugitive
1999 - The Racak incident: 45 Albanians in the Kosovo village of Racak are killed by Yugoslav security forces.
2001 - Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.
2005 - An intense solar flare blasts X-rays across the solar system.
2005 - ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon.
2007 - Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq.
588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah's reign. The siege lasts until July 23, 586 BC.
69 - Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but only rules for three months before committing suicide.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Historical Events on 14 Jan

Historical Events on 14 Jan

1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes.
1301 - Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Arpad dynasty in Hungary.
1501 - Martin Luther, age 17, enters the University of Erfurt.
1514 - Pope Leo X issues a papal bull against slavery.
1539 - Spain annexes Cuba.
1639 - The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.
1724 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne.
1761 - The Third Battle of Panipat was fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marhatas. The Afghan victory changed the course of Indian History.
1784 - American Revolutionary War: The United States ratifies a peace treaty with England.
1814 - Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden in return for Pomerania.
1822 - Greek War of Independence: Acrocorinth is captured by Theodoros Kolokotronis and Demetrius Ypsilanti.
1858 - Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt.
1907 - An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000.
1913 - First Balkan War: The Greek army defeats the Turks at Bizani.
1938 - Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
1943 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office He travelled from Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II.
1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.
1950 - The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.
1953 - President Josip Broz Tito is elected president of Yugoslavia.
1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.
1967 - Counterculture of the 1960s: The Human Be-In, takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love. Between 20,000 to 30,000 people attend.
1969 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 people.
1972 - Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ascends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
1975 - Teenage heiress Lesley Whittle is kidnapped by Donald Neilson, aka "the Black Panther".
1994 - President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin Accords.
1998 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
1998 - An Afghan cargo plane crashes into a mountain in southwest Pakistan killing more than 50 people.
2000 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
2004 - The national flag of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", was restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
2005 - Landing of the Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Historical Events on 13 Jan

Historical Events on 13 Jan

1328 - Edward III of England marries Philippa of Hainault, daughter of the Count of Hainault.
1547 - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death.
1559 - Elizabeth I crowned queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London.
1605 - The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison.
1607 - The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th moon of Jupiter.
1733 - James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina.
1785 - John Walter publishes the first issue of the Daily Universal Register (later renamed The Times).
1822 - The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
1830 - The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins.
1832 - President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
1840 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
1842 - Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
1847 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
1869 - National convention of black leaders meets in Washington D.C.
1893 - The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting.
1893 - U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
1898 - Emile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
1908 - Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, PA killing 171 people.
1913 - Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University as the second Black Greek Letter Organization for Women. The mission was to make a move towards social activism.
1915 - An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
1934 - The Candidate of Science degree is established in the USSR.
1935 - A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
1938 - The Church of England accepts the theory of evolution.
1939 - The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
1942 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1942 - World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
1942 - The United States begins Japanese American internment.
1953 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen as President of Yugoslavia.
1958 - Moroccan Liberation Army ambushes Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
1964 - Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Krakow, Poland.
1964 - Hindu-Muslim rioting breaks out in the Indian city of Calcutta - now Kolkata - resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people.
1966 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
1968 - Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison
1972 - Prime Minister Kofi Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong.
1974 - Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
1982 - Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 737 jet crashes into Washington, DC's 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists. Coincidentally, a Washington DC Metro Rail train is derailed, killing 3 people.
1985 - A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428, where accident is the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
1986 - A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
1990 - L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
1991 - Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius.
1992 - Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
2001 - An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
2007 - Two thirds of the Venus's southern hemisphere suddenly brightened as something triggered aerosols to form at a furious rate.
532 - Nika riots in Constantinople.
888 - Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Historical Events on 12 Jan

Historical Events on 12 Jan

1528 - Gustav I of Sweden crowned king of Sweden.
1539 - Treaty of Toledo signed by King Francis I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
1773 - The first public Colonial American museum opens in Charleston, South Carolina.
1777 - Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded in what is now Santa Clara, California.
1808 - The organizational meeting that led to the creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.
1848 - The Palermo rising in Sicily rises against the Bourbon kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
1866 - The Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.
1872 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first imperial coronation in that city in over 200 years.
1875 - Kwang-su becomes emperor of China.
1895 - The National Trust is founded in Britain.
1898 - Ito Hirobumi begins his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.
1906 - Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet (which included amongst its members H.H. Asquith, David Lloyd George, and Winston Churchill) embarks on sweeping social reforms after a Liberal landslide in the British general election.
1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
1911 - The University of the Philippines College of Law is formally established; three future Philippine presidents are among the first enrollees.
1915 - The United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote.
1915 - The Rocky Mountain National Park is formed by an act of U.S. Congress.
1918 - Finland's "Mosaic Confessors" law went into effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens.
1932 - Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
1940 - World War II: Soviets bombs cities in Finland.
1942 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
1945 - World War II: The Soviets begin a large offensive against the Nazis in Eastern Europe.
1964 - Rebels in Zanzibar begin a revolt known as the Zanzibar Revolution and proclaim a republic.
1966 - Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
1970 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
1971 - The Harrisburg Six: The Reverend Philip Berrigan and five others are indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, D.C.
1976 - The UN Security Council votes 11-1 to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in a Security Council debate (without voting rights).
1991 - Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
1992 - A new constitution, providing for freedom to form political parties, is approved by a referendum in Mali.
1995 - Malcolm X's daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, is arrested for conspiring to kill Louis Farrakhan.
1998 - Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
2004 - The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, makes its maiden voyage.
2005 - Deep Impact (space mission) launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta 2 rocket.
2006 - A stampede during the Stoning the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims.
2006 - The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany declare that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have reached a dead end and recommend that Iran be referred to the United Nations Security Council.
2006 - The French warship Clemenceau reaches Egypt and is barred access to the Suez Canal. Greenpeace activists board the ship.
2006 - Turkey releases Mehmet Ali AÄŸca from jail after he served 25 years for shooting Pope John Paul II.
2007 - Comet McNaught reaches perihelion becoming the brightest comet in more than 40 years.
475 - Basiliscus becomes Byzantine Emperor, with a coronation ceremony in the Hebdomon palace in Constantinople.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Historical Events on 11 Jan

Historical Events on 11 Jan

1055 - Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire.
1158 - Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia.
1569 - First recorded lottery in England.
1571 - Austrian nobility is granted freedom of religion.
1693 - Mt. Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy. A powerful earthquake destroys parts of Sicily and Malta.
1759 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
1779 - Ching-Thang Khomba is crowned King of Manipur.
1787 - William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1794 - Robert Forsythe, a U.S. Marshal is killed in Augusta, Georgia when trying to serve court papers, the first US marshal to die while carrying out his duties.
1805 - The Michigan Territory is created.
1861 - Alabama secedes from the United States.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post - General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
1867 - Benito Juárez becomes the Mexican president again.
1879 - The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
1908 - Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
1912 - The Lawrence textile strike begins in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
1917 - The Kingsland munitions factory explosion occurs as a result of sabotage.
1919 - Romania annexes Transylvania.
1922 - First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
1923 - Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its reparation payments.
1935 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
1942 - Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
1942 - The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
1943 - The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
1946 - Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania with himself as dictator.
1949 - First recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.
1957 - Mass-murderer Jack Gilbert Graham is executed via the Gas Chamber.
1957 - The African Convention is founded in Dakar.
1962 - An avalanche on Huascaran in Peru causes 4,000 deaths.
1964 - United States Surgeon General Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., publishes a report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health. It is the first such statement ever made by the U.S. government.
1972 - East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh.
1986 - The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia is officially opened.
1990 - 300,000 march in favor of Lithuanian independence.
1994 - The Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin.
1996 - Haiti becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1998 - Sidi-Hamed massacre takes place in Algeria, over 100 people are killed.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Historical Events on 10 Jan

Historical Events on 10 Jan

1072 - Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.
1475 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.
1645 - Archbishop William Laud is beheaded at the Tower of London.
1776 - Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense.
1806 - Dutch settlers in Cape Town surrender to the British.
1810 - The marriage of Napoleon and Josephine is annulled.
1861 - American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.
1863 - The London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station.
1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
1901 - The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
1920 - The League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
1922 - Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Irish Free State.
1923 - Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.
1941 - Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.
1941 - World War II: The Greek army captures Kleisoura.
1946 - The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.
1962 - Apollo Project: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket booster. It became better known as the Saturn V moon rocket, which launched every Apollo moon mission.
1984 - The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations after 117 years.
1989 - Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.
1990 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
1999 - A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.
2005 - A mudslide occurs in La Conchita, California, killing 10 people, injuring many more and closing the Highway 101, the main coastal corridor between San Francisco and Los Angeles, for 10 days.
49 BC - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war.