1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years
1815 – Burned US Library of Congress re-established with Thomas Jefferson’s 6,500 volumes
1902 – Britain and Japan sign a treaty after months of negotiating which commits each country to supporting an independent China and Korea, although it acknowledges Japan’s ‘special interest’ in Korea
1933 – President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor of Germany who forms a government with Franz von Papen
1939 – Adolf Hitler threatens Jews during his speech to the German Reichstag (Parliament)
1948 – Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse
1965 – State Funeral of Winston Churchill at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Then world’s largest ever state funeral.
1972 – Bloody Sunday: 27 unarmed civilians are shot (14 are killed) by the British Army during a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland; this is the highest death toll from a single shooting incident during ‘the Troubles’
1989 – The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.
1992 – Inventor Ray Kurzweil publishes his first book “The Age of Intelligent Machines” on artificial intelligence, predicting the popularity of the internet
1993 – 100,000 Europeans demonstrate against fascism & racism
1995 – Car bomb explodes in Algiers, killing 42 and wounding 296
1995 – Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
2000 – Off the coast of Ivory Coast, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169.
2014 – 24 hostages are killed after 6 suicide bombers temporarily take over the Iraqi Ministry of Transportation in Baghdad
2019 – Scientists reveal discovery of cavity six miles long, 1,000 feet deep under Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, leading to fears it might collapse and raise sea levels by two feet
2020 – The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at a meeting in Geneva
Film & TV:
1931 – “City Lights”, American silent romantic comedy film directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring himself and Virginia Cherrill, premieres at Los Angeles Theater
Music:
1961 – “I Fall to Pieces” single released by Patsy Cline (Billboard Song of the Year 1961)
1969 – The Beatles perform their last live gig, a 42 minute concert on the roof of Apple Corps HQ in London
Sport:
1994 – Kapil Dev takes 2/41 as India beats Sri Lanka by an innings and 95 runs in 2nd Cricket Test in Bengaluru; equals Sir Richard Hadlee’s world record of 431 Test wickets
