Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1492

Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.

1851

Isaac Singer was granted a patent on his sewing machine.

1865

Joseph Lister, British surgeon and scientist, performs 1st antiseptic surgery.

1867

President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

1898

The peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed.

1898

The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ?Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States where it is formally recognized as Hawaii.

1914

The Battle of Halen a.k.a. Battle of the Silver Helmets a clash between large Belgian and German cavalry formations at Halen, Belgium.

1914

The United Kingdom and the British Empire declare war on Austria-Hungary.

1944

Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

1944

Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people are killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.

1948

About 600 unarmed members of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement are shot dead on the orders of the Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province, Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, on Babrra ground in the Hashtnagar region of Charsadda District, North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Pakistan.

1950

Bloody Gulch massacre: Seventy-five American POWs are massacred by the North Korean Army.

1952

Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

1953

The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.

1953

The 7.2 M_s&#8239; Ionian earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (<i>Extreme</i>). Between 445 and 800 people are killed.

1960

The first balloon satellite, the Echo 1, was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

1964

South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.

1966

John Lennon apologized at a news conference in Chicago for his remark that ''the Beatles are more popular than Jesus.''

1969

Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.

1972

The last American combat ground troops left Vietnam.

1976

Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War.

1977

The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating and then touching down in California's Mojave Desert. Astronaut Gordon Fullerton, pilot of the Enterprise

1977

Targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.

1981

The IBM Personal Computer is released.

1985

The world's worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people.

1990

Sue, the largest and most complete <i>Tyrannosaurus rex</i> skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.

1992

Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

1994

Woodstock '94 opened in Saugerties, N.Y.

1994

Major League Baseball players go on strike, eventually forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.

1998

Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to Holocaust survivors to settle claims for their assets.

2000

The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.

2000

The Russian Navy submarine <i>Kursk</i> explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, killing her entire 118-man crew.

2015

At least two massive explosions kill 173 people and injure nearly 800 more in Tianjin, China.

2018

Thirty-nine civilians, including a dozen children, are killed in an explosion at a weapons depot in Sarmada, Syria.

2021

Six people, five victims and the perpetrator are killed in Keyham, Plymouth in the worst mass shooting in the UK since 2010.

1925

Norris McWhirter, Scottish publisher and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (d. 2004)

1925

Ross McWhirter, Scottish publisher and activist, co-founded the Guinness World Records (d. 1975)

1965

Peter William Krause is an American actor, director, and producer. He has played lead roles in multiple television series.

1971

Yvette Nicole Brown is an American actress, comedian, writer, and host. She starred as Shirley Bennett on the NBC sitcom Community.

1975

Casey Affleck is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award.

1980

Matt Thiessen is a Canadian-American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer known for being co-founder, lead singer, guitarist, pianist, and primary songwriter for the Christian rock band Relient K.

1861

Eliphalet Remington, American inventor and businessman, founded Remington Arms (b. 1793)

1944

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England during World War II.

1964

Ian Fleming was a British writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. (b. 1908)

1982

Henry Fonda was an American actor whose career spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. On screen and stage, he often portrayed characters that embodied an everyman image. (b. 1905)

1988

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. (b. 1960)

1996

Mark Gruenwald was an American comic book writer, editor, and occasional penciler known for his long association with Marvel Comics. (b. 1953)

2000

Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)

2006

Victoria Gray Adams was an American civil rights activist from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was one of the founding members of the influential Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. (b. 1926)

2007

Mike Wieringo, who sometimes signed his work under the name Ringo, was an American comics artist best known for his work on DC Comics. (b. 1963)

2007

Merv Griffin was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later he hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show and created Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune game shows. (b. 1925)

2009

Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul. (b. 1915)

2010

Richie Hayward was an American drummer best known as a founding member and drummer in the band Little Feat. He performed with several bands and worked as a session player. (b. 1946)

2012

Joe Kubert was a Polish-born American comic book artist, art teacher, and founder of The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman. (b. 1926)

2014

Lauren Bacall was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2009 (b. 1924)