TODAY IN HISTORY
1402
Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming dynasty of China.
1429 1771
Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, travelling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
1856
The Great Train Wreck of 1856 in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, kills over 60 people.
1867
Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the US that is affiliated with a university.
1902
Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York.
1917
King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor.
1918
The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.
1933
After successfully crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Lithuanian research aircraft Lituanica crashes in Europe under mysterious circumstances.
1936
An Armed Forces rebellion against the elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.
1938
Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the ‘wrong way’ to Ireland and becomes known as ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan.
1944
Two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, near the San Francisco Bay, killing 320.
1945 1948
The South Korean constitution is proclaimed.
1953
The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida killing 44.
1955
Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.
1962
Nuclear weapons testing: The ‘Small Boy’ test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.
1968
A revolution occurs in Iraq when Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba’ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
1973
King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
1981
Queen Elizabeth II opens the Humber Bridge in England.
1981
A structural failure leads to the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri killing 114 people and injuring over 200.
1989
First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
2015
At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Province, Iraq.
Hundred Years’ War: Charles VII of France is crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc.
The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman and Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.