This Day in History
• 740 - An earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing damage to city walls and buildings • 1366 - Comet 55P/1366 U1 (Tempel-Tuttle) approaches 0.0229 AUs of Earth
• 1524 - Spanish troops give Milan to France • 1905 - Union of Sweden & Norway ends
• 1917 - World War I: Brazil declared in state of war with Central Powers.
• 1918 - Germany's supreme commander General Eric Ludendorff resigns, protesting the terms to which the German Government has agreed in negotiating an armistice
• 1922 - Italian government resigns under pressure from fascists & Benito Mussolini
• 1942 - Battle of Santa Cruz: Japanese naval offensive against US forces near Solomon Islands • 1950 - Mother Teresa founds Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India
• 1955 - British troops occupy Saudi Arabian oil field at Boeraimi
• 1962 - Nikita Khrushchev sends note to JFK offering to withdraw his missiles from Cuba if US closed its bases in Turkey: offer is rejected • 1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
• 1967 - Shah of Iran crowns himself after 26 years on Peacock Throne
• 1968 - Soviet Union launches spacecraft Soyuz 3 • 1971 - UN votes to replace Taiwan with China • 1973 - Israeli forces reach Suez, trapping Egyptian army
• 1973 - President Nixon releases first White House tapes on Watergate scandal
• 1975 - Anwar Sadat becomes the 1st Egyptian president to officially visit the United States • 1975 - China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC • 1976 - Trinidad & Tobago becomes a republic • 1977 - 5th & final test of space shuttle Enterprise • 1977 - Last natural case of smallpox discovered in Merca district, Somalia. Considered the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination
• 1978 - Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat named joint winners of 1978 Nobel Peace Prize
• 1978 - Independent Counsel Act is signed into law. • 1979 - Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is assassinated by KCIA head Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-ha becomes the acting President; Kim is executed the following May.
• 1982 - Steve Carlton became 1st pitcher to win 4 Cy Young awards
• 1982 - US budget deficit reaches more than $110 trillion for fiscal year 1982
• 1983 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/ Semipalitinsk USSR
• 1988 - Donald Trump bills Mike Tyson $2,000,000 for 4 months’ advisory service • 1988 - US-Soviet effort to free 2 grey whales from frozen Arctic, Barrow, AK
• 1994 - Jordan & Israel sign peace accord
• 1995 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki in his hotel in Malta.
• 1999 - Britain’s House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain’s upper chamber of Parliament.
• 2001 - The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
• 2002 - Moscow Theatre Siege ends: Approximately 50 Chechen rebels and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the rebels during a musical performance three days before • 2003 - The Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in Californian history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km²), destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego
• 2012 - 64 people are killed in West Burma after continued sectarian clashes