312 – Roman Emperor Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross
1795 – Pinckney’s Treaty [Treaty of San Lorenzo] signed by Spain and US, establishing the southern boundary of the US and giving Americans right to navigate the Mississippi River
1962 – Black Saturday during the Cuban Missile Crisis: An American spy plane is shot down over Cuba and the navy drops warning depth charges on Soviet submarines
1979 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, an island country lying within the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea, achieved its independence.
1982 – China announces its population has reached 1 billion plus people
1986 – British government deregulates financial markets in a “Big Bang”, enhancing London’s status as a financial capital while increasing income inequality
1992 – Great Britain issues postage stamp on 100th anniversary of JRR Tolkien
1995 – Latvia applies for membership in the European Union.
1997 – Microsoft argues it should be “free from government interference”
2005 – Riots begin in Paris after the deaths of two Muslim teenagers.
2012 – 46 people are killed and 123 injured in Iraq after a series of attacks and bombs
2012 – Thousands demonstrate in Madrid against proposed budget cuts
2000 – At a concert near Tel Aviv, the music of German composer Richard Wagner, which many associate with the Nazi regime, was played for the first time in public in Israel.
2017 – Catalonia’s parliament voted to declare the region independent from Spain, resulting in the central government’s dismissing that legislative body and calling for new elections, in which the majority of seats were claimed by the pro-independence movement.
Film & TV:
1955 – “Rebel Without a Cause”, directed by Nicholas Ray, starring James Dean and Natalie Wood, is released
Music:
1960 – Singer Ben E. King records “Spanish Harlem” & “Stand By Me”
2014 – American singer Taylor Swift released 1989, which she described as her first “official pop album”; it was a blockbuster hit and won the Grammy Award for album of the year.
Via Britannica / On This Day
