1178 – Frederick I (Barbarossa), Holy Roman Emperor, crowned King of Burgundy
1419 – First defenestration of Prague: anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, storm Prague town hall and throw the judge, mayor and several city council members out the windows. They die in the fall or killed by crowd outside.
1540 – Lutheran clergyman Robert Barnes was burned as a heretic after being used by Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII to gain European support for their antipapal movement in England.
1619 – House of Burgesses Virginia forms, 1st elective American governing body
1863 – Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, promising to stop harassing the emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah
1869 – The Charles, considered the world’s first “oil tanker”, departs from the United States headed for Europe with a bulk capacity of 7,000 barrels of oil
1921 – Insulin was first isolated as a pancreatic extract by the Canadian scientists Sir Frederick G. Banting and Charles H. Best.
1935 – 1st Penguin book is published, starting the paperback revolution
1937 – Russian Politburo issues NKVD Order no. 00447, to repress former kulak and anti-soviets, 269,100 to be arrested, 76,000 to be shot. Part of the Great Purge.
1956 – The phrase “In God we trust” legally became the national motto of the United States.
Births & Deaths:
1898 – Otto von Bismarck, who, as prime minister of Prussia (1862–73, 1873–90), used ruthlessness and moderation to unify Germany, founding the German Empire (1871) and serving as its first chancellor (1871–90)—died this day in 1898.
Sport:
1884 – Nonpareil Dempsey [John Edward Kelly] fights George Fulljames, possibly the 1st middleweight fight with boxing gloves
Music:
1954 – Elvis Presley joins the Memphis Federation of Musicians, Local 71
TV & Film:
1948 – Professional wrestling premieres on prime-time network TV (DuMont)
Via Britannica / On This Day
