1479 – Treaty of Alcaçovas: Portugal gives the Canary Islands to Castile in exchange for claims in West Africa
1836 – Battle of the Alamo: After 13 days of fighting 1,500-3,000 Mexican soldiers overwhelm the Texan defenders, killing 182-257 Texans including William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett
1857 – Dred Scott Decision: US Supreme Court rules Africans cannot be US citizens
1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table of the elements to the Russian Chemical Society
1899 – “Aspirin” (acetylsalicylic acid) patented by Felix Hoffmann at German company Bayer
1902 – the Madrid Foot Ball Club is founded by a group of fans in Madrid, Spain. Later known as Real Madrid, the club would become the most successful European football (soccer) franchise of the 20th century.
1924 – The Egyptian government opened the mummy case of King Tutankhamen, ruler of Egypt in the 14th century , whose burial chamber had been discovered in 1922 by renowned British archaeologist Howard Carter.
1933 – FDR declares a nationwide bank holiday
1943 – Sukarno asks for cooperation with Japanese occupiers
1946 – France recognizes Vietnam statehood within Indo-Chinese federation
1953 – Malenkov becomes chairman of the USSR
1957 – Ghana (formerly Gold Coast) declares independence from UK
1959 – Farthest radio signal heard (Pioneer IV, 400,000 miles)
1964 – Constantine succeeds Paul I as king of Greece
1975 – Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement of their border dispute.
1984 – Twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry begins.
1991 – Iraq’s capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, US President George H. W. Bush told Congress that “aggression is defeated. The war is over”
1997 – Picasso’s painting Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery, and is recovered a week later.
1998 – British Union Flag begins to be flown full-mast over Buckingham Palace whenever British monarch not in residence, following change of protocol after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales
2012 – 9,000 residents are evacuated from Wagga Wagga, Australia, as the Murrimbidgee River threatens to overflow
2013 – Microsoft is fined €561 by the Euro Commission for the EU for not providing option to chose an alternative web browser
2017 – US President Donald Trump signs his second executive order barring travelers from 6 mostly-Muslim countries for 90 days but leaves out Iraq
2018 – 2018 Forbes names Amazon founder Jeff Bezos the world’s richest person for the first time at $112 billion, Bill Gates no. 2
2018 – World’s oldest message in a bottle found in Western Australia, thrown from German ship Paula 132 years ago (12 June 1886)
2018 – Pope Francis announces that murdered Salvadorean Archbishop Óscar Romero will be made a saint
2019 – 2019 Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg reveals plans to turn the social media platform into a more “privacy-focused platform”
2020 – Russia refuses to reduce oil production over COVID-19 fears, breaking with Saudi Arabia and OPEC and prompting a price war
Births & Deaths:
1475 – Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, is born in the small village of Caprese.
1968 – American painter Georgia O’Keeffe—whose well-known works include large-format paintings of natural forms, especially flowers and bones—died in New Mexico.
2016 – American first lady and actress Nancy Reagan—who was first lady during the 1981–89 administration of her husband, President Ronald Reagan, and was noted as his most trusted adviser and the most zealous protector of his reputation—died in Los Angeles.
Music:
1853 – Giuseppe Verdi’s Opera “La Traviata” premieres in Venice.
1970 – Beatles release “Let it Be” in UK
Via Britannica / On This Day
