1216 – The Dominican order was sanctioned by Pope Honorius III. 1481 – The member states of the Swiss Confederation concluded the Diet of Stans, an agreement whereby civil war was averted. 1790 – Supposedly impenetrable Turkish fortress of Izmail stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92). 1877 – Thomas Edison’s Phonograph is announced by Scientific American. 1885 – ItōHirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan. 1894 – On the basis of specious evidence and anti-Semitism, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to life in prison for treason, sparking a controversy that divided France for 12 years. 1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Washington, D.C., to discuss World War II. 1989 – The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was reopened, signifying the reunification of East and West Germany. 1989 – After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Nicolae Ceausescu. 1990 – Lech Wałęsa sworn in as Poland’s 1st popularly elected president. 1990 – The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was promulgated, granting such classic civil rights as freedom of speech, religion, information, and association, as well as guaranteeing the equality of nationalities. 2001 – British Islamist militant Richard Reid attempted—by trying to ignite explosives hidden in the soles of his high-top basketball shoes—to blow up an airplane on which he and some 200 other passengers were travelling; he was restrained by other passengers, and a U.S. court later sentenced him to life without parole. 2010 – Repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy”, a 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the US military, signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Births & Deaths: 1856 – Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. secretary of state from 1925 to 1929 who negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928—a multilateral agreement designed to prohibit war as an instrument of national policy—and won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1929, was born. 1858 – Giacomo Puccini, one of the greatest Italian opera composers of all time, who is best known for works like ‘La bohème‘, ‘Madama Butterfly’, ‘Tosca’ and ‘Turandot’, was born.
Sport: 1894 – United States Golf Association forms in New York.
Music: 1894 – Claude Debussy’s first orchestral masterpiece “Prélude à l’apres-midi d’un faune” premieres in Paris.
TV & Film: 1932 – “The Mummy” directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff is released in the US – 1st Mummy horror film.
