Category: Historical Events

1652 – Cape Colony, the first European settlement in South Africa, is established by the Dutch East India Company under Jan van Riebeeck
1865 – Battle of High Bridge, fought near Farmville, Virginia (Appomattox Campaign), inconclusive result (US Civil War)
1889 – George Eastman begins selling Kodak flexible roll film for the first time
1941 – German bombardment of Piraeus (munitions ship explodes)
1957 – NYC ends trolley car service
1973 – Federal court rules in favor of the Smothers Brothers in breach of contract lawsuit against CBS-TV, awarding them $776,300 USD
1982 – Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center from White Sands
1991 – 145th Grand National: In Canadian distillery Seagram’s final year of race sponsorship, New Zealand-bred chestnut gelding Seagram wins, ridden by Nigel Hawke
1992 – British Radio Authority licenses Virgin and TV-AM radio licenses
2002 – France beats Ireland 44-5 at Stade de France, Saint Denis to complete a Grand Slam and win the Six Nations Rugby Championship; their 13th title

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1652 – Cape Colony, the first European settlement in South Africa, is established by the Dutch East India Company under Jan van Riebeeck
1865 – Battle of High Bridge, fought near Farmville, Virginia (Appomattox Campaign), inconclusive result (US Civil War)
1889 – George Eastman begins selling Kodak flexible roll film for the first time
1941 – German bombardment of Piraeus (munitions ship explodes)
1957 – NYC ends trolley car service
1973 – Federal court rules in favor of the Smothers Brothers in breach of contract lawsuit against CBS-TV, awarding them $776,300 USD
1982 – Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center from White Sands
1991 – 145th Grand National: In Canadian distillery Seagram’s final year of race sponsorship, New Zealand-bred chestnut gelding Seagram wins, ridden by Nigel Hawke
1992 – British Radio Authority licenses Virgin and TV-AM radio licenses
2002 – France beats Ireland 44-5 at Stade de France, Saint Denis to complete a Grand Slam and win the Six Nations Rugby Championship; their 13th title

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456 – Saint Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary bishop
1242 – Russian Prince of Novgorod Alexander Nevsky defeats the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice
1894 – 11 strikers killed in riot at Connellsville, Penn
1922 – WDZ-AM in Decatur IL begins radio transmissions
1967 – ’76er Wilt Chamberlain sets NBA record of 41 rebounds
1970 – WSNS TV channel 44 in Chicago, IL (IND) begins broadcasting
1984 – Galt MacDermot and William Dumaresq’s musical “The Human Comedy”, based on the novel by William Saroyan, opens at Royale Theater, NYC; runs for 13 performances
2009 – 44th Academy of Country Music Awards: Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley win
2009 – North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks
2021 – Italy scraps its 1914 film censorship law that could ban films on moral and religious grounds

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1737 – Anthony van Heim installed as Dutch pension advisor
1818 – Congress decides on the US flag: 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars
1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate Hungary from German occupation, establishing their own communist satellite state. This was celebrated as Liberation Day until 1989.
1957 – Heitor Villa-Lobos’ 10th Symphony premieres French Radio National Orchestra, conducted by the composer, in Paris
1964 – Deposed President João Goulart leaves Brazil under threat of arrest, moves into life of exile in Uruguay, and later Argentina
1973 – World Trade Center, then the world’s tallest building, opens in New York (110 stories). Later destroyed in 9/11 terrorist attacks.
1987 – “Always and Forever” second studio album by Randy Travis (Billboard Album of the Year 1988)
1996 – Revival of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s stage drama “Inherit the Wind”, starring George C. Scott and Charles Durning, opens at Royale Theater, NYC; runs for 45 performances
1999 – The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Graham Marsh of Australia wins his second Champions Tour major by 3 strokes from Larry Nelson
2011 – 73rd NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Connecticut beats Butler, 53-41; Huskies’ point guard Kemba Walker scores 16 points

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1924 – Istanbul’s Ottoman Topkapi Palace is converted into a museum on orders of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
1933 – 1st airplane flight over Mt Everest
1941 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warns Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that a German invasion is imminent
1955 – The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg’s book “Howl” against obscenity charges
1965 – 1st atomic powered spacecraft (snap) launched
1984 – Bombay beat Delhi on 1st innings to win Ranji Trophy
1996 – Cricketer Rahul Dravid makes his international debut for India in an ODI against Sri Lanka
2016 – ICC Women’s Cricket T20 World Cup, Eden Gardens, Kolkata: Hayley Matthews with 66 from 45 balls leads West Indies to 149/2; beat Australia 148/5 by 4 wickets with 2 balls to spare
2017 – 79th NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: North Carolina defeats Gonzaga, 71–65; Tar Heels point guard Joel DeWayne Berry II, 22 points
2022 – The Taliban government bans cultivation of opium in Afghanistan, with consequences for world supply as it produces 80%

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1884 – London prison for debtors closed
1921 – Albert Einstein lectures in New York City on his new “Theory of Relativity”
1963 – USSR launches Luna 4; missed Moon by 8,500 km
1972 – Tennessee Williams’ “Small Craft Warnings” premieres in NYC
1973 – CBS radio begins on the hour news, 24 hours a day
1986 – Paul Coffey of the Edmonton Oilers scores his 47th and 48th goals of the season in an 8-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks to break Bobby Orr’s NHL record for most goals by a defenseman
1995 – NY Police Department and NY Transit Police merge into one organization
2000 – Atlanta center Ray Ferraro scores a goal and added 2 assists as the Thrashers end an NHL record 17-game home winless streak (0-15-2) with a 5-4 win against the visiting New York Islanders
2001 – New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens becomes American League all-time strikeout leader, recording his 3,509th K in a 7-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals; Walter Johnson previous record 3,508 Ks
2022 – Ukraine liberates the entire Kyiv region from retreating Russian forces

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1724 – Jonathan Swift publishes “Drapier’s Letters” a series of seven pamphlets against a privately minted copper coinage Swift saw as inferior and corrupt
1900 – 1st edition of Dutch newspaper “The People”
1941 – Pro-German Rashid Ali al-Ghailani grabs power in Iraq
1966 – “Hold On, I’m Comin'” single released by Sam and Dave
1973 – Despite a final round, 5-3 loss to Montreal, Boston Bruins center Phil Esposito wins his third consecutive NHL scoring title with 130 points from 55 goals and 75 assists in the 78-game season
1976 – Conrail takes over operations from six bankrupt railroads in the northeastern U.S..
1978 – Philippine College of Commerce becomes the Polytechnic University of the Philippines by presidential decree
1982 – Quebec center Peter Šťastný scores 4th career hat trick and 4 assists, and his brother Marián adds 5 assists to lead the Nordiques to an 8-5 win at Boston
2007 – Kraft Nabisco Championship Women’s Golf, Mission Hills CC: Morgan Pressel wins by 1 from Brittany Lincicome, Catriona Matthew and Suzann Pettersen; youngest-ever winner of an LPGA major at 18 years, 313 days
2019 – Major archaeological site announced discovered on a reef in the middle of Lake Titicaca, in Andes, dated 8th and 10th centuries AD from Tiwanaku state

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1796 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s dramatic play “Egmont” premieres in Weimar
1865 – General Pickett moves to 5 Forks, abandoning the defense of Petersburg
1883 – 1st performance of Caesar Franck’s symphonic poem for orchestra “Le Chasseur Maudit” (The Accursed Huntsman) at the Salle Érard in Paris
1885 – Great Britain declares Bechuanaland a protectorate
1917 – The Danish West Indies are officially ceded to the US for $25 million and renamed the Virgin Islands
1923 – Occupying French soldiers fire on workers when surrounded at Krupp auto factory in Essen, Germany; 6 die, dozens wounded
1966 – USSR launches Luna 10, 1st lunar orbiter
1972 – Final day of the rum ration in the Royal Canadian Navy
1985 – WrestleMania I, Madison Square Garden, NYC: Hulk Hogan and Mr T beat Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorf
1987 – 49th NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Indiana beats Syracuse, 74-73; Hoosiers’ guard Keith Smart hits game-winner in final seconds, intercepts full court pass at the last second

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1916 – Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Canadiens (NHA) beat Portland Rosebuds (PCHA), 2-1 for a 3-2 series victory
1922 – KGY-AM in Olympia WA begins radio transmissions
1935 – Newfoundland changes time to 3½ hrs W of Greenwich, repeats 44 sec
1939 – First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway military aircraft
1961 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York
1970 – Columbia Records releases jazz artist Miles Davis’s influential double album “Bitches Brew”; it becomes his highest-charting title, wins a Grammy, and earns him his first gold record
1980 – Mark Medoff’s “Children of a Lesser God” premieres in NYC
1986 – PGA Tournament Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: John Mahaffey wins by 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Larry Mize
1991 – 1st exhibition baseball games at Joe Robbie Stadium (Yanks-Orioles)
2013 – North Korea declares it is at a state of war with South Korea

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1632 – Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, returns Quebec to French control after the English seized it in 1629
1864 – Union General Steeles troops reach Arkadelphia, Arkansas
1934 – Bank of Travail in Belgium, socialist workers’ movement bankrupt
1960 – Darius Milhaud’s 9th Symphony, premieres by the Fort Lauderdale Symphony Orchestra and with conductor Mario di Bonaventura
1971 – 1st Lt William L Calley Jr found guilty in My Lai (Vietnam) massacre
1981 – USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1998 – WrestleMania XIV, FleetCenter, Boston, MA: ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin’s wins his first WWF Heavyweight tile against Shawn Michaels
1999 – 61st NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Connecticut beats Duke, 77-74; Huskies’ first title in first title game
2013 – 23 people are killed by coordinated bombings on Shiite mosques in Iraq
2022 – BA.2 version of Omicron is now the dominant form of COVID-19 in America according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

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