On This Day…

1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland
1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid in the Vatican by Pope Julius II
1775 –Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning the “regulars are coming!”
1783 – Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day when it began
1906 – San Francisco earthquake and fire kills nearly 4,000 while destroying 75% of the city
1945 – During the U.S. invasion of the Japanese island of Okinawa in World War II, American war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed on nearby Ie Island by Japanese gunfire.
1954 – Colonel Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power & becomes Prime Minister of Egypt.
1980 – Zimbabwe achieved its independence from the United Kingdom. 

Births & Deaths:
2012 – American television personality and businessman Dick Clark, who was the longtime host of American Bandstand (1957–87), died in California. 

Film: 
2018 – “Black Panther” is the first film shown at a commercial cinema in 35 years in Saudi Arabia as cinemas are reopened.

Music: 
1985 -Wham become the first western pop act to release an album in China. 

Via Britannica / On This Day