1616 – Roman Inquisition delivers injunction to Galileo demanding he abandon his belief in heliocentrism, which states the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun
1797 – Bank of England issues first £1 note
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte and his supporters leave Elba to start a 100 day re-conquest of France
1885 – Berlin Conference gives Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to Great Britain
1919 – The U.S. Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in northwestern Arizona.
1935 – RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) first demonstrated by Robert Watson-Watt
1951 – American novelist James Jones published From Here to Eternity, about the U.S. Army in Hawaii before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
1951 – Bread rationing in Czechoslovakia begins
1952 – PM Winston Churchill announces Britain has its own atomic bomb
1956 – Writers and poets Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes meet at a party in Cambridge
1962 – US Supreme court disallows race separation on public transportation
1979 – Last total eclipse of Sun in 20th century for continental US
1980 – Egypt & Israel exchange ambassadors for 1st time
1991 – Coalition planes bomb Iraqi forces retreating from Kuwait during the Gulf War, killing hundreds and creating the so-called ‘Highway of Death’
1993 – The World Trade Center in New York City was bombed in an act of terrorism, and Islamic radicals were later convicted for the crime.
2004 – The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
2005 – Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, orders the constitution changed to allow multi-candidate presidential elections, asking Egyptian parliament to amend Article 76
2012 – National debates about racism and racial profiling ensued after Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American teenager returning from a convenience store in Sanford, Florida, was fatally shot by a neighbourhood-watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, who later successfully argued that he had acted in self-defense.
2014 – Seth Rogen testifies about Alzheimer’s disease before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services
2018 – Cold weather nicknamed “the Beast from the East” hits Europe, killing 7 and covering Pompeii in snow
2018 – 7.5 magnitude earthquake in central Papa New Guinea kills at least 100
2019 – More than 4,500 complaints of child sexual abuse against migrant children received by US Health Department, Department of Justice received 1,300 more
2019 – City of Venice in Italy introduces a day visitors tax
2020 – Saudi Arabia bars overseas pilgrims from accessing religious sites of Mecca and Medina because of COVID-19 fears for 1st time in living memory
Births & Deaths:
1932 – Johnny Cash, one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 90 million records worldwide, was born.
Sport:
1839 – 1st Grand National steeplechase, Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool: Jem Mason wins aboard 5/1 favourite Lottery
Music:
1917 – 1st jazz records recorded – “Dixie Jazz Band One Step” and “Livery Stable Blues” by Original Dixieland Jass Band for the Victor Talking Machine Company
TV & Film:
1960 – Vera Miles stars in the famous “Mirror Image” episode of the classic CBS television series “The Twilight Zone”
