ON THIS DAY
1520 Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg’s Elster Gate.
1684 Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley.
1768 The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is published. 1799 France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
1861 American Civil War: The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government’s pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
1868 The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps. 1877 Russo-Turkish War: The Russian Army captures Plevna after a 5-month siege. The garrison of 25,000 surviving Turks surrenders. The Russian victory is decisive for the outcome of the war and the Liberation of Bulgaria.
1884 Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.
1898 Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
1901 The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
1902 The opening of the reservoir of the Aswan Dam in Egypt.
1906 US President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
1909 Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
1932 Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy.
1936 Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
1941 World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya.
1941 World War II: Battle of the Philippines: Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on Luzon.
1942 World War II: Government of Poland in exile send Raczyński’s Note (the first official report on the Holocaust) to 26 governments who signed the Declaration by United Nations.
1948 The Human Rights Convention is signed by the United Nations.
1949 Chinese Civil War: The People’s Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
1953 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in literature.
1963 Zanzibar gains independence from the UK As a constitutional monarchy. 1978 Arab–Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.