364 – Roman Emperor Jovian dies after a reign of eight months. He is found dead in his tent at Tyana (Asia Minor) en route back to Constantinople in suspicious circumstances.
1600 – The philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive, for heresy, at Campo de’ Fiori in Rome.
1801 – An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
1819 – The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise for the first time.
1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva founded an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
1864 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
1865 – American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
1911 – The First Electric Self Start was installed in a Cadillac By GM. Up till this time and all cars needed to be started by cranking a starting handle which was hard work and caused multiple minor injuries when the car backfired during the starting process.
1913 – The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.
1933 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
1942 – Huey P. Newton, American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party (d. 1989) was born.
1944 – World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk Lagoon, Japan’s main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
1947 – With the start of the cold war following World War II America introduced the transmission of Voice Of America to the Russian People as part of it’s propaganda campaign against Communism and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
1963 – Larry the Cable Guy, American comedian and actor was born.
1964 – In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
1965 – Michael Bay, American director and producer was born.
1967 – The Beatles release the double A-sided single in the United States with Penny Lane ( Paul McCartney ) on one side and “Strawberry Fields Forever” ( John Lennon ) on the other side.
1972 – Billie Joe Armstrong, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and producer (Green Day, Pinhead Gunpowder, The Network, and Foxboro Hot Tubs) was born.
1972 – Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model-T.
1974 – Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.
1978 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant, near Belfast, killing 12 and seriously injuring 30.
1979 – As of the Vietnam War was not enough, the country of China had invaded Vietnam during this year, on this date. Tensions between these two countries had increased dramatically since the end of the Vietnam War. A major reason for the increased animosity between these two nations was because of the strengthening of the ties between Vietnam and the Soviet Union (China’s enemy at the time). The Invasion of Vietnam by China was in reaction to an invasion of Cambodia initiated by Vietnam. The worst and bloodiest of fighting occurred within the first nine days of this battle. However, these countries remained cold towards one another for ten years after this fierce battle. China invaded Vietnam with 90,000 troops supported by tanks, the invasion was short lived and China withdrew from Vietnam within 1 month.
1992 – Jeffrey Dahmer, was sentenced today to 15 consecutive life sentences and will never be eligible for parole by a Wisconsin court, he had practiced necrophilia and cannibalism on 15 young men and boys. On November 28th 1994 he was murdered by a fellow inmate, who bludgeoned him to death with a metal bar.
1996 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
2006 – Washington has asked the Palestinian Authority to return $50 million of American aid. The State Department has said that it is unhappy with the aid going to the Hamas-led government that refuses to recognise Israel. The State Department later said that Mahmoud Abbas’ caretaker government have agreed to return the money, which was given for infrastructure projects in the light of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
2007 – Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has called for a ninety-day deadline to start pulling American troops out of Iraq. Senator Clinton has been criticized by some members of her Party for supporting the war in 2002, and not renouncing her vote. ‘Now it’s time to say the redeployment should start in ninety days or Congress will revoke authorisation for the war,’ she said in the video that was on her campaign website. This is the second Democratic presidential hopefull to have called for a pull out of troops from Iraq following Barack Obama’s call for U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq earlier in the week
2011 – Libyan protests begin. In Bahrain, security forces launched a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.
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