TODAY IN HISTORY
1851
Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the US.
1862
American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside’s plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia.
1889
Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.
1990
Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first takeoff from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the
USS Birmingham in a Curtiss
pusher.
1918
Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
1922
The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the UK.
1932
Al Shorta SC, one of Iraq’s biggest football clubs are founded as Montakhab al Shorta.
1940
World War II: In England, Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed.
1952
The first regular UK Singles Chart is published by the New
Musical Express.
1957
The ‘ Apalachin Meeting’ in rural Tioga County in upstate New York is raided by law enforcement. Many high level mafia figures are arrested while trying to flee.
1960
Ruby Bridges becomes the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana.
1965
The Battle of Ia Drang begins - the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces.
1967
American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world’s first laser.
1969
NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.
1970
Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organisation.
1970
Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall University football team.
1971
Mariner 9 enters orbit around
Mars.
1973
In the UK, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.
1975
With the signing of the Madrid Accords, Spain abandons Western Sahara.
1979
US President Jimmy Carter issues executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the US in response to the hostage crisis.
1990
After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland.
1991
US and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.
1991
Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after 13 years of exile.
2003
Astronomers Michael E Brown, Chad Trujillo and David L Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object.
2008
The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, DC.