1645 – English Long Parliament passes the Self-Denying Ordinance, limiting regional armies, significant step toward New Model Army.
1922 – Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party by an ailing Vladimir Lenin.
1948 – US President Harry Truman signs Marshall Plan ($5B aid to 16 European countries)
1973 – 1st mobile phone call is made in downtown Manhattan, NYC by Motorola employee Martin Cooper to the Bell Labs headquarters in New Jersey.
1974 – The Super Outbreak: 2nd largest tornado outbreak over 24hr period with 148 confirmed tornadoes in 13 US states, killing approximately 315 people and injuring nearly 5,500
1976 – France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
1981 – Race riots in London’s Brixton area, England
1985 – French government adopts equal electoral system
1995 – Howard Stern gets in trouble for disparaging remarks about Selena
2004 – Islamic terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves
2007 – Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards denies saying he smoked his father’s ashes in an interview with NME
2009 – Australia formally adopts the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
2012 – Spanish unemployment reaches record high, youth unemployment stands at 50%
2012 – Moscow fire kills 17 migrant workers
2012 – US President Barack Obama officially secures Democratic presidential nomination
2014 – Marie Louise Coleiro Preca is elected President of Malta
2016 – Panama Papers published – 11.5 million confidential documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca expose widespread illegal activities including fraud, kleptocracy, tax evasion and the violation of international sanctions by the world’s elite in the world’s largest ever data leak.
2019 – Brunei brings into force new Sharia laws punishing gay sex and adultery with death by stoning, prompting widespread condemnation
2020 – London’s Nightingale hospital opened by Prince Charles (remotely) after nine days with 4,000 beds to treat COVID-19 patients at the ExCeL Centre
Births & Deaths:
1922 – American singer and actress Doris Day was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1961 – American comedian and actor Eddie Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Film:
1953 – American magazine “TV Guide” publishes 1st issue, features on the cover the new born baby of actors Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz Jr.
Music:
1960 – Elvis Presley records ‘It’s Now Or Never’, ‘Fever’ and ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’ at RCA studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sport:
1975 – Bobby Fischer stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend it.
