Events
of the day
National
Energy Conservation Day
557
– Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.
1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea
wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over
50,000 people.
1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen
of Scots.
1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded
as the first Military Academy in the world.
1782 – The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon
lifts off on its first test flight.
1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to
an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are
expelled from Russia.
1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control
of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends.
1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened
by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
1900 – Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck presents
a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation
law.
1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company
lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from
Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.
1903 – The Wright brothers make their first
attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty
Hawk, North Carolina.
1907 – The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground
and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within
the Scilly Isles in a gale. The pilot and 15
seamen die.
1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade
signed the Seat of Government Surrender Act
1909, formally completing the transfer of State
land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian
Capital Territory.
1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself,
Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel,
and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach
the South Pole.
1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last ship of the
Kongō-class, launches, eventually becoming one
of the Japanese workhorses during World War
I and World War II.
1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found
the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata
Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos
Aires.
1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince
elected by the Parliament of Finland to become
King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
1918 – President of Portugal Sidónio Pais is
assassinated.
1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled
from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
1941 – World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance
with Thailand.
1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes
to establish its headquarters in New York City.
1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia,
Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos,
Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sri
Lanka join the United Nations.
1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes
the first expedition to reach The Pole of Relative
Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
1961 – The United Republic of Tanzania joins
the United Nations.
1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft
to fly by Venus.
1963 – Baldwin Hills Reservoir wall bursts,
killing five people and damaging hundreds of
homes in Los Angeles.
1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart
of Atlanta Motel v. United States – The United
States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress
can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause power
to fight discrimination.
1971 – Over 200 of East Pakistan's (now Bangladesh)
intellectuals are massacred by the Pakistani
Army and their local allies.
1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the
last person to walk on the moon, after he and
Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final
Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo
17 mission. To date this is the last manned
mission to the moon.
1981 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset
passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli
law to the area of the Golan Heights.
1983 – The 3rd Congress of the Communist Youth
of Greece starts.
1988 – The ET3 television network is launched
in Thessaloniki, Greece.
1992 – War in Abkhazia: During the Siege of
Tkvarcheli, a helicopter carrying evacuees from
Tkvarcheli, Abkhazia, is shot down, resulting
in at least 52 deaths, 25 of which are children.
The incident catalyses more concerted Russian
military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.
1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges
Dam on the Yangtze River.
1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is
signed in Paris by leaders of various governments.
1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United
Nations.
1999 – Torrential rains cause flash floods in
Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands
of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes,
and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.
2003 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf
narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
2004 – The Millau viaduct, the tallest bridge
in the world, near Millau, France is officially
opened.
2004 – Cuba and Venezuela found the Bolivarian
Alliance for the Americas.
2006 – American spy satellite USA-193 is launched.
2008 – President George W. Bush makes his fourth
and final (planned) trip to Iraq as president
and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at
him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during
a news conference in Baghdad
Holidays
and observances
Alabama
Day (Alabama)
Christian Feast Day:
John of the Cross
Spyridon (Western Church)
Day of the Martyred Intellectuals (Bangladesh)
Monkey Day
For details, contact Datacentre
