On This Day: A Compendium

•

1603: James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I.

•

1663: The Province of Carolina is granted to 8 lords Proprietor in reward for helping Charles II with his restoration, one of the main gainers was General Monck who was instrumental in the restoration.

•

1707: The Acts of Union is signed, the Unites the kingdoms of England and Scotland to create Great Britain.

•

1829: The Roman Catholic relief act is passed, this allows Catholics to serve in the U.K parliament

•

1837: African Canadain men are given the right to vote in Canada.

•

1854: Venezuela abolishes slavery.

•

1882: Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium that causes TB

•

1896: A.S Popov makes the first ever radio signal transmission

•

1922: In the Irish war of independence, Northern Irish policeman break into the home of a Catholic family and shoot all 8 males inside.

•

1923: Greece becomes a republic

•

1944: 76 Allied POWs break out from German camp Stalag Luft III, this would be dramatised in the great escape.

•

1965: Before it crash lands, NASA spacecraft Ranger 9 brings images of the moon to people's homes

•

1972: the U.K imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland

•

1976: In Argentina armed forces overthrow the Government of Isabel Peron, a military Junta led by Jorge Rafael Videla takes over.

•

1989: The Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 Barrels of petroleum in Alaska after running aground

•

1998: 5 are killed when 2 schoolboys fire upon teachers and students in Westside Middle school in Arkansas

•

1999: A fire in Mont Blanc tunnel kills 39. Meanwhile NATO begins a bombing campaign auto Yugoslavia, the firsr time NATO had done such a thing.

•

421: According to legend Venice is founded at 12 noon

•

1199: While fighting at a pointless siege in France, King Richard I is struck by an arrow, this leads to his death

•

1306: Robert the Bruce becomes king of Scotland

•

1555: The city of Valenica is founded in Venezuela

•

1584: Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonise Virginia, where there is no gold to be found

•

1807: The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing slavery in the British Empire

•

1911: A factory fire in New York kills 146

•

1918: The Belerussian people's republic is established

•

1924: On the anniversary of Greek independece (from the Ottomans) Alexandros Papanstasiou procliams the second Hellenic Republic

•

1941: By signing the tripartite act the Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers

•

1948: The first successful Tornado forecast predicts a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma

•

1957: The European Economic Community (EEC) is established by founder members: West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg

•

1965: Martin Luther King finishes his 4 days 50 mile march mentioned the other day

•

1971: The army of the Republic of Vietnam abandon an attempt to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos

•

1169: Saladin becomes emir of Egypt

•

1351: 30 Breton Knights defeat 30 English Knights in an event known as the combat of thirty

•

1808: Charles IV of Spain abdicates in favour of Ferdinand VII, his son.

•

1812: An earthquake destroys Caracas in Venezuela. Meanwhile a political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term gerrymander to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win.

•

1917: In the first battle of Gaza British forces are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance

•

1931: Swiss Air is founded

•

1934: The Driving test is introduced in the United Kingdom.

•

1939: Nationalists begin their final offensive in the Spanish Civil war.

•

1942: The First female prisoners arrive at the Auschwitz concentration camp

•

1953: Jonas Salk announces his Polio vaccine.

•

1971: Bangladesh declares its independence from Pakistan this starts the Bangladesh liberation wars.

•

1979: The Israel-Egypt peace treaty is signed in Washington DC

•

1995: The Schengen treaty comes into effect.

•

1996: The IMF approves a $10.2 bn loan to Russia

•

1997: 39 bodies are found in the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide

•

1998: 52 are killed in the Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria

•

2006: Scotland bans smoking in all substantially enclosed public places, meanwhile the military Junta running the show in Burma (Myanmar) moves the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw

•

1306: Robert the Bruce is crowned King of Scotland at Scone

•

1309: Venice is excommunicated by Pope Clement V and nobody is allowed to trade with it due to its seizure of Ferrara, a fief of the Patrimony of Peter.

•

1513: Juan Ponce de Leon sights Florida for the first time, he however mistaken it for another island

•

1613: The first English child is born in Canada

•

1626: Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title of King of France

•

1782: Charles Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham, becomes the UK Prime Minister

•

1794: George Washington and congress authorized the creation of the U.S Navy. Meanwhile Denmark and Sweden form a neutrality compact.

•

1836: Under the orders of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna the Mexican army butchers 342 Texas POWs in the Texas revolution

•

1854: The United Kingdom declares war on Russia in the Crimean War.

•

1886: Geronimo,an Apache warrior, surrenders to the U.S Army.

•

1915: Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of the disease, is placed into quarantine where she would remain for the rest of her life.

•

1941: The Yugoslavian Air Force topples the Pro-Axis government in a bloodless coup.

•

1958: Nikita Khrushchev becomes premier of the Soviet Union.

•

1964: The most powerful earthquake in U.S history, at magnitude 9.2, strikes central Alaska killing 125.

•

1970: Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.

•

1977: Two planes crash on a foggy runway in Tenerife, killing 583, the worst aviation accident in history.

•

1986: A car bomb explodes in Melbourne, killing a police officer.

•

1993: Jiang Zemin is appoint President of China

•

1994: The Eurofighter takes its first flight in Germany, meanwhile a large Tornado outbreak hits Southeastern United States

•

2002: A gunman opens fire in a town meeting in Nanterre, France, killing 8. Meanwhile a Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people partaking of the passover meal.

•

2009: A suicide bomber kills 48 at a mosque in Pakistan

•

37: Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the title of Principate

•

845: Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, who are paid to leave

•

1776: Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the presidio of San Francisco

•

1910: Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly by seaplane

•

1930: Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara

•

1933: The Imperial Airlines biplane City of Liverpool becomes the first plane to be lost to sabotage when a passenger sets a fire on board

•

1939: Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a 3 year siege.

•

1959: The government of Tibet is dissolved by the POC

•

1969: Greek poet Giorgos Seferis makes a statement to BBC world service opposing the military Junta

•

1970: A 7.2 magnitude Earthquake strikes western Turkey, killing 1086

•

1979: A vote of confidence against U.K Prime Minister James Callaghan passes by 1 vote precipitating a general election. (For those interested rep this post and ill give an interesting story about this vote. Meanwhile a coolant leak at the Three Mile Islan Unit 2 reactor causes a partial meltdown.

•

1999: Serb forces kill 146 Kosovo Albanians in the Izbica massacre.

•

1430: The Ottoman Empire under Murad II captures Thessalonica

•

1461: Edward, Duke of York defeats the Duke of Somerset at the battle of Towton, becoming Edward IV. This is the bloodiest battle in English history.

•

1549: Salvador da Bahia is founded, the first captial of Brazil

•

1632: The treaty of Saint-Germain returns Quebec to French control.

•

1638: Sweden establishes the first European settlement in Delaware

•

1809: The Grand Duchy of Finland pledges alegence to Alexander I of Russia and secseeds from Sweden.

•

1849: Great Britian annexes the Punjab

•

1867: The Dominion of Canada is established after royal assent from Queen Victoria

•

1871: The Royal Albert Hall is opened

•

1879: In the British Zulu war British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus in the battle of Kambula

•

1886: Dr John Premberton brews the first Batch of Coca-Cola in Atlanta,Georgia

•

1945: The German 4th Army is almost enitrely destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.

•

1947: An uprising against French Colonial rule in Madagascar occurs, it is not led by King Julian

•

1951: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspriacy to commit esipionage

•

1971: Charles Manson is reccomneded the death penalty, meanwhile William Calley is convicted of murder and arrested for life for his part in the My Lai massacre.

•

1973: The last U.S combat soliders leave South Vietnam

•

1974: Marina 10 flys past Mercury

•

1990: The Czechoslovak parliament can’t decide what to call themselves (The country) leading to the so called hyphen war

•

1999: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes in India killing 103

•

2004: the ROI bans smoking in all work places. Meanwhile Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia join NATO

•

2014: The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed

•

240 BC: First recorded passage of Halley’s Comet

•

1814 AD: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris

•

1822: The Florida creation is created in the United States

•

1842: Ether is first used as a form of anesthetic by American surgeon Dr Crawford Long.

•

1856: The treaty of Paris ends the Crimean war.

•

1858: Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with the eraser attached

•

1867: Alaska is purcahsed from Russia by the United States

•

1912: The treaty of Fez is signed, making Morroco a French Protectorate.

•

1940: Nanking is declared as the captial of a new Chinese puppet government by Japan.

•

1945: Soviet forces capture Vienna, while Soviet and Polish forces liberate Danzig

•

1965: A car bomb explodes outside the U.S embassy in Saigon, killing 22

•

1972: North Vietnamese forces cross the DMZ starying the Easter offensive.

•

1979: Conservative MP and former British Army Solider Airey Neave is murdered outside the Commons by a INLA car bomb.

•

1981: Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest in an attempted assasination.

•

2006: The Terrorism act becomes law in the U.K

•

1492: Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to become Christian or leave (The Reconquest of the Iberian pennisula having also ended this year)

•

1774: Great Britian orders the port of Boston to be closed

•

1822: The population of Chios (Greek Island) are massacred by Ottoman forced after a rebellion.

•

1885: The U.K establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland

•

1889: Gustave Eddel unfurls the French Flag from atop the Effiel tower to mark its completion

•

1899: Malolos, the Phillipine capital, is captured by American forces.

•

1909: Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia

•

1917: After paying $25m to Denmark, the U.S takes possession of the Danish West Indies, renaming it the U.S Virgin Islands

•

1918: 12,000 Azerbaijani muslims are massacred by the Armenian Revolutionary Federatiom and Bolsheviks

•

1931: An earthquake destroys Managua in Nicaragua killing 2000

•

1942: Japanese forces invade the British owned Christmas islands.

•

1964: A coup in Brazil establishes a military government under general Castelo Branco

•

1970: Nine Japanese Red Army terrorists hijack Japan Airlines flight 351 in Tokyo

•

1979: As the last British solider leaves Malta declares its Freedom day

•

1990: 200,000 protest against the poll tax.

•

1991: 99% of Georgian voters vote for independence from the Soviet Union.

•

756: Abd-al-Rahman I becomes emir of Cordova, Spain

•

884: Marinus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope

•

1004: Henry II the Saint crowned King of Italy

•

1252: Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition

•

1618: German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws his "harmonics law"

•

1869: National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

•

1940: McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California

•

1951: AT&T becomes the 1st US corporation to have a million stockholders after young car salesman Brady Denton purchases 7 shares worth $1,078

•

1988: USSR begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan

•

1453: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II (Mehmed the conqeurer) capture the Byzantine capital of Constantinople after a 53 day siege. The depleted Byzantine forces did well to hold on so well, partly thanks to Giovanni Giustiniani, a Genoaian commander. The Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, died in the ensuing melee. After over 1000 years the Eastern Roman Empire collapsed.

•

1660: On his birthday King Charles II of England is restored to the throne, this is partly down to help from General Monck.

•

1790: Rhode Island becomes the last of the Original US colonies to ratify the constitution.

•

1798: Between 300 and 500 Irishmen are massacred by the British Army in County Kildare

•

1867: The Austro-Hungarian Empire is established.

•

1868: Micheal A Obrenovich III, Prince of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.

•

1903: In the May coup, Alexander I, King of Serbia is assassinated by the Black Hand gang in Belgrade.

•

1918: Armenia defeats Ottoman forces in the Battle of Sardarabad

•

1919: Albert Einstein's theory of relativity is tested by Arthur Eddington, meanwhile the Republic of Prekmurje is founded, it would be broken up a week later.

•

1939: Albanian leader, Tefik Mborja, is appointed as a member of the Italian chamber of Fasces and Corporation.

•

1953: Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay reach the summit of Everest.

•

1972: 26 are killed when 3 Japanese gunmen open fire on crowds at Lod Airport in Israel.

•

1982: British Forces defeat the Argentines at the battle of Goose Green

•

1990: Boris Yeltsin is elected President of the RSFSR

•

1035: Boudouin V van Rijsel becomes earl of Flanders.

•

1431: Hundred Years' War: 19 year old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal in Rouen, France

•

1539: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovers Florida.

•

1848: Mexico ratifies treaty giving US; New Mexico, California & parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona & Colorado in return for $15 million.

•

1868: "Decoration Day", later called Memorial Day is first observed in Northern US states.

•

1913: Treaty of London signed by the Great Powers, the Ottoman Empire and the victorious Balkan League (Serbia, Greece, Kingdom of Bulgaria, and Montenegro) bringing an end to the First Balkan War.

•

1967: Egypt and Jordan unite against Israel.

•

1972: Official IRA declares ceasefire.

•

1981: Bangladeshi president assassinated.

•

1990: France bans British beef imports amid fears of "mad cow" disease.

•

2001: French ex-minister jailed over sleaze.

•

1215: Zhongdu (Now Beijing) is captured by Mongol forces

•

1495: Friar John Cor records the first known batch of Scotch whisky

•

1533: Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England

•

1535: Forces loyal to Charles V HRE attack and expel the Ottomans from Tunis.

•

1792: Kentucky is admitted as the 15th State.

•

1794: The first Naval engagement between British and French forces occur in the French Revolutionary wars.

•

1796: Tennessee is admitted as the 16th State.

•

1812: President James Madison asks congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.

•

1831: James Clark Ross discovers the Magnetic North Pole

•

1855: Nicaragua is conqerued by William Walker.

•

1861: The first land battle occurs in the American Civil War.

•

1869: Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine.

•

1879: The last dynastic Bonaparte (Napoleon Eugene) is killed in the Anglo-Zulu war.

•

1913: The Greek-Serbian treaty of Alliance is signed, paving the way for the second Balkan war.

•

1916: Louis Brandeis becomes the first Jewish person to the appointed to the US supreme Court.

•

1918: The battle of Belleau Wood begins, Allied Forces engage Germans forces (The Germans led by German Crown Prince Wilhelm)

•

1929: The first conference of Communist parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires.

•

1935: The first driving tests are introduced in the United Kingdom

•

1938: The first issue of Action Comics, featuring Superman, was published.

•

1941: Crete capitulates to German forces.

•

1942: The Liberty Bridge newspaper in Warsaw publishes first news on concentration camps.

•

1946: Romanian WW2 leader, Ion Antonescu, is executed by firing squad.

•

1958: Charles de Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree.

•

1974: The Heimlich manvoure is published in the Emergency Medical journal

•

1979: The first black led government for 90 years takes power in Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwae)

•

1980: CNN begins broadcasting.

•

1990: George H.W Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapons production.

•

1997: Hugo Banzer wins presidental elections in Bolivia.

•

2001: Nepalese crown prince, Dipendra, shoots and kills several members of his family. Including the King and Queen.

•

2004: Oklahoma City bomber conspiritor, Terry Nichols, is sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms.

•

2005: The longest oil explosion in Houston, Texas area occurs. Meanwhile a referendum in the Netherlands rejects the European Constitution.

•

2007: Smoking is banned in public places in the United Kingdom.

•

2009: Air France 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 onboard.

•

455: Vandals enter Rome and plunder the city for 2 weeks.

•

1692: Bridget Bishop is the first person to go on trial in the Salem witch trials.

•

1780: The Derby horse race is first held.

•

1793: Francois Hanriot, leader of the Parisian national guard, arrests 22 girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat ,setting the stage for the reign of terror.

•

1851: Maine becomes the first state to enact a law that prohibits alcohol.

•

1896: Guglielmo Marconi receives a patent for his invention, a radio.

•

1910: Charles Rolls becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English channel by plane.

•

1924: Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship act, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in territorial limits of the US

•

1946: In a referndum Italains vote to turn Italy from a monarchy to a republic, King Umberto II is exiled

•

1953: Queen Elizabeth II is coronated, the first to be televised.

•

1955: The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration, normalising relations between the 2 countries.

•

1962: Police have to split up multiple fights between Italian and Chilean players.

•

1979: Pope John Paul II becomes the first Pope to visit a communist country.

•

1992: Denmark rejects the Maastricht treaty in a referendum, in 1993 they had another go

•

1997: Timothy McVey is convicted of 15 counts of murder.

•

2012: Former Egyptian Preisdent Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life in prison for his role in rhe 2011 revolution

•

350: Roman Usurper Nepotianus proclaims himself Roman Emperor, he enters Rome at the head of a group of Gladiators.

•

1326: The treaty of Novogrod delineates borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark

•

1539: Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain.

•

1620: Construction of the Oldest stone church in French North America begins in Quebec city.

•

1839: Lin Zexu dumps 2.6million Pounds of Opium and arrests 1700 Opium Deals in Hong Kong, leading to the Opium wars.

•

1850: Kansas City is founded

•

1937: The Duke of Windsor, previously Edward VIII, marries Wallis Simpson.

•

1940: The Battle of Dunkirk comes to an end with a German victory, however the Allies manage to complete a huge evacuation. Meanwhile Franz Rademacher proposes that Madagascar become a Jewish homeland.

•

1942: Japan begins the Aleutian Island campagin, larly forgotten due to a different battle a day later.

•

1959: Singapore is delcared a self governing State

•

1962: An Air France plane crashes after takeoff, killing 130.

•

1979: An explosion at the Ixtoc oil well in the Gulf of Mexico causes 3,000,000 barrels ro be spilled into the water.

•

1982: Shlomo Argov, the Isreali ambassador to the UK, is shot in London.

•

1984: The Indian army storms the Golden temple, a sacred Sikh shrine.

•

1989: The Chinese Government sends troops to force protestors out of Tiananmen square.

•

2006: Montenegro declares independence

•

781 BC: The first historic Solar Eclispe is recorded in China.

•

1584 AD: Sir Walter Raleigh establsihes the first English Colony on Roanoke island.

•

1615: Forces under Tokugawa siege Osaka, Tokugawa was head of the Tokugawa Shogunate (The Military Government of Japan)

•

1769: A transit of venus is followed 5 hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history.

•

1783: The Montgolfier brothers demostrate their hot air balloon. 1 year later Elisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to fly in an untheathered Hot Air Balloon.

•

1794: British troops capture Port-Au-Prince in Haiti

•

1878: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyrpus to the UK.

•

1896: Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline powered automobile.

•

1913: Suffragette Emily Davison jumps in front of King George Vs horse, she later dies.

•

1916: Russia begins tje Brusilov offensive

•

1919: Congress garuntees sufferage to women.

•

1928: The President of the Republic of China is assassinated by Japanese agents.

•

1932: Marmaduke Grove leads a coup in Chile, establishing the Socialist Republic of Chile.

•

1940: The Dunkirk evacuation ends, meanwhile Churchill delivers his famous “we shall fight on the beaches speech”

•

1942: The battle of Midway begins. Admiral Nagumo launches an early morning attack on Midway Island, however his search aircraft is too limited and fails to spot the American aircraft carriers. On the first day of battle the U.S loose their carrier Yorktown, whereas the Japanese lose Soryu and Kaga, only Hiyru and Akagi (which Nagumo was onboard) remained in tact.

•

1943: Ramon Castillo is outed in a coup in Argentina

•

1944: Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis capital to fall.

•

1970: Tonga gains independence from the U.K

•

1973: A patent for the ATM is granted.

•

1979: Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana in a military coup, overthrowing Fred Akuffo

•

1989: Chinese forces end protests violently in Tianmen square, in Iran Ali Khamenei is elected new supreme leader, and in Poland Solidarity win the elecions sparking the Autumn of nations.

•

2001: After the massacre 3 days earlier, Gyandra becomes king of Nepal.

•

1257: Krakow in Poland receives city rights.

•

1832: The June Rebellion breaks out in Paris in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis Phillipe

•

1837: Houston is incorporated by the Republic of Texas.

•

1849: Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy.

•

1851: Harriet Breecher Stowe’s anti slavery serial, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, starts a 10 month run in the Natoional Era abolitionist Newspaper.

•

1883: The first regularly scheduled Orient Express departs Paris.

•

1900: British troops take Pretoria in the Second Boer War.

•

1915: Denmark allows women’s sufferage.

•

1917: Conscription begins in the US Army.

•

1942: The United States declares war on: Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania

•

1944: In preperation for D-Day more than 1000 British Bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German guns on the Normandy coast.

•

1945: The Allied Control Council takes power, this is the military body governing Germany.

•

1947: Secretary of State George Marshall calls for Economic Aid for the war-torn Europe.

•

1959: The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in.

•

1963: John Profumo resigns after a sex scandal known as the prumfuro affair, meanwhile in Iran the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoemeini causes protests which the Iranians use tanks to deal with.

•

1967: The Israeli Air-Force launches a pre-emptive attack on Egypt, Jordan and Syria begginging the 6 day war. The Egyptian Air-Force is bascailly destroyed.

•

1968: Robert F Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador hotel, Kennedy dies 26 hours later. The shooter Sirhan Sirhan is still in prison today.

•

1975: The UK holds a referndum on remaining in the EEC. Meanwhile the Suez Canal reopens for the first time since the 6 day war.

•

1977: The Apple II goes on sale, meanwhile a coup takes place in the Seychelles.

•

1981: The centre for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 5 people in Los Angeles have a rare form of Pneumonia.

•

1989: Tank man halts the progress of advancing tanks at Tiananmen Square.

•

2017: Monenegro becomes the 29th NATO member.