1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany.
1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
1496 – King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree of expulsion of “heretics” from the country.
1775 – At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1782 – Martin Van Buren, American lawyer and politician, 8th President of the United States (d. 1862) was born.
1791 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian pianist and composer (b. 1756) died.
1831 – Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.
1839 – George Armstrong Custer, American general (d. 1876) was birthed
1847 – Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. senate, his first political post.
1848 – California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
1886 – Rose Wilder Lane, American journalist and author (d. 1968) was born.
1901 – Walt Disney, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1966) was born.
1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
1932 – Little Richard, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor was born.
1933 – Prohibition in the United States ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment. (This overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States.)
1936 – The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.
1941 – World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.
1943 – World War II: U.S. Army Air Force begins attacking Germany’s secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow.
1945 – Five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned. This area is known as the Bermuda Triangle and is renowned for causing instrument malfunctions including Compass and Radio Malfunctions. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.
1947 – Jim Messina, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Buffalo Springfield, Loggins and Messina, and Poco) was born.
1947 – Jim Plunkett, American football player and radio host was born.
1947 – Rick Wills, English bass player (Foreigner, Small Faces, Bad Company, Jokers Wild, and The Jones Gang) was born.
1949 – David Manning, English diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States was born.
1951 – Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player and manager (b. 1887) died.
1952 – Great Smog: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.
1952 – Bobby Barth, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Blackfoot) was born.
1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO.
1955 – E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1958 – Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.
1960 – Jack Russell, American singer-songwriter and producer (Great White) was born.
1962 – Nivek Ogre, Canadian singer-songwriter and actor (Skinny Puppy, ohGr, Ministry, and Rx) was born.
1964 – Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
1965 – John Rzeznik, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Goo Goo Dolls) was born.
1969 – The four node ARPANET network is established.
1971 – Kavus Torabi, Iranian-English guitarist (Knifeworld, Cardiacs, The Monsoon Bassoon, Guapo, and Chrome Hoof) was born.
1977 – In Hamilton, Bermuda British soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were called in to control race riots in the city. The riots went on for three days and caused $5 million in damages. Civilians and 5,000 tourists stayed hidden indoors. There had been two nights of fire bombing by youth, but severe rains quelled the violence.
1978 – The Soviet Union signs a “friendship treaty” with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1983 – Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina.
1987 – One hundred and fifty American embassy workers and diplomats were withdrawn from Haiti due to the unstable political situation. They were expected to be home by Christmas. Eighty embassy employees were left behind to take care of essential services. Sixty-four million dollars in aid was withdrawn by President Reagan and Haiti’s national elections were not held because voters were endangered.
1993 – The mayor of Vienna, Helmut Zilk, is injured by a letter bomb.
1996 – Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan questions whether the stock market is overvalued, saying in a speech in Washington, ”How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly inflated asset values? that is thought to have led Japanese stocks to fall 3.2%
1998 – Albert Gore, Sr., American lawyer and politician (b. 1907) died.
1999 – In Belfast the Protestant-Catholic government was new and fragile. The main issue left to establish peace in Ireland was the disarming of the IRA, however some IRA militants said they had enough weapons to keep on fighting for another generation. General John de Chastelain, a Canadian disarmament leader, was planning a meeting with a chief IRA leader – possibly Brian Keenan — to discuss where the IRA has its cache of weapons stashed.
2004 – The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.
2007 – Westroads Mall shooting: A gunman opens fire with a semi-automatic rifle at an Omaha, Nebraska, mall, killing eight people before taking his own life.
2008 – O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted for the well-known double murder in Los Angeles is sentenced for up to thirty-three years in prison for robbing a pair of memorabilia dealers. He will not be eligible for parole for nine years.
2012 – Sarah Kirsch, American singer and guitarist (Fuel, Pinhead Gunpowder, and Fifteen) (b. 1970) died.
2013 – Nelson Mandela, South African lawyer and politician, 1st President of South Africa, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918) died.
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