1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
1184 BC – The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date).
1066 – Halley’s Comet sparks English monk to predict country will be destroyed
1288 – Jews of Yroyes France are accused of ritual murder
1558 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
1731 – Daniel Defoe, English novelist (Robinson Crusoe), dies at about 70
1743 – Edmund Cartwright, English clergyman, invented the power loom (d. 1823) was born.
1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress”.
1867 – Black demonstrators stage ride-ins on Richmond Va streetcars
1872 – Volcano Vesuvius erupts
1877 – Last federal occupying troops withdraw from south (New Orleans)
1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire.
1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
1895 – Joshua Slocum completes around-the-world voyage in 11-m boat
1897 – 1st reporter, William Price (Wash Star), assigned to White House
1907 – Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.
1913 – The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened.
1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
1916 – Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett starts a rebellion in Ireland.
1920 – British Mandate over Palestine goes into effect (lasts 28 years)
1920 – Polish troops attack Ukraine
1922 – The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
1926 – The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
1933 – Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.
1945 – Doug Clifford, American drummer and songwriter (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and Don Harrison Band) was born.
1945 – Delegates of 46 countries gather in SF (to discuss UN)
1946 – Phil Robertson, American businessman, founded Duck Commander was birthed.
1950 – Pres Harry Truman denies there are communists in US government
1950 – Jordan formally annexes the West Bank
1951 – Nigel Harrison, English bass player and songwriter (Blondie and Silverhead) was born.
1952 – Jean Paul Gaultier, Arcueil France, French fashion designer, born
1952 – Hans [Hendrik A] Kramers, physicist (quantum mechanics), dies at 57
1953 – Eric Bogosian, Woburn MA, actor (Talk Radio) Born
1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1954 – Mumia Abu-Jamal, American death-row inmate, born
1957 – The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore
1957 – Boris Williams, French-English drummer (The Cure, Thompson Twins, and Babacar) was born.
1961 – JFK accepts “sole responsibility” following Bay of Pigs
1963 – Paula Frazer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Tarnation, Faith No More, and Frightwig) was born.
1963 – Joey Vera, heavy metal rocker (Armored Saint-Aftermath) Born
1963 – Billy Gould, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (Faith No More, Harmful, Fear and the Nervous System, and Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine) was born.
1965 – Military coup under Donald Reid Cabral in Dominican Republic
1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had “gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily.”
1968 – Leftist students take over Columbia University, NYC
1969 – Gen Lin Piao succeeds Mao, is seriously wounded
1969 – Paul McCartney says there is no truth to rumors he is dead
1972 – Chipper Jones, Deland FL, infielder (Atlanta Braves) born
1974 – Bud Abbott, comedian (Abbott & Costello), dies at 78
1980 – (US military operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails, 8 die) Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
The mission to rescue the 52 hostages from the US embassy in Iran ( Operation Eagle Claw ) was aborted due to equipment failure, The Iranian foreign minister warned that any attempt by the US would be considered an act of War. Eight US Servicemen lost their lives in the aborted attempt.
1981 – IBM-PC computer introduced
1984 – Tyson Ritter, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (The All-American Rejects) was born.
1986 – Wallis Simpson [Duchess of Windsor], British King Edward VIII abdicated for her, dies at 89
1987 – Howard Stern holds a free speech rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza NYC
1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Shuttle mission STS-31 lifts off, carrying Hubble into orbit.
1990 – Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the “anthrax disease” after 48 years of quarantine.
1990 – Security law violator Michael Milken pleads guilty to 6 felonies
1995 – Court orders MLB star Darryl Strawberry to pay back $350,000 in taxes
1995 – Package bomb, linked to Unabomber, blows up killing Gilbert B Murray
1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
1997 – Pat Paulsen, comedian (Smothers Brothers Show), dies at 69
1997 – Eugene Stoner, American engineer, designed the AR-15 rifle (b. 1922) died.
2004 – Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (b. 1906)
2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction. (paying attention Iran?)
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
2005 – Snuppy becomes world’s first cloned dog.
2006 – King Gyanendra of Nepal gives into the demands of protesters and restores the parliament that he dissolved in 2002.
2007 – Iceland announces that Norway will shoulder the defense of Iceland during peacetime.