Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1567

Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland.

1779

Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.

1836

The formation of the London Working Men's Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.

1846

The Papal conclave of 1846 elects Pope Pius IX, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.

1858

In a speech in Springfield, Ill., Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, ''A house divided against itself cannot stand.''

1884

The first American roller coaster debuted at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

1897

The government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.

1903

Henry Ford, along with 11 other investors, founded the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, becoming one of the first American automobile manufacturers.

1911

IBM was founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.

1933

President Roosevelt opened his New Deal recovery program, signing bank, rail, and industry bills and initiating farm aid.

1933

The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed in the United States, allowing businesses to avoid antitrust prosecution if they establish voluntary wage, price, and working conditions. Large portions of the law are later declared unconstitutional.

1944

At age 14, George Junius Stinney, Jr. becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.

1955

Pope Pius XII excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron, a ban that was lifted eight years later.

1958

Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed.

1961

Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West while his troupe was in Paris.

1963

The first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6.

1970

Kenneth A. Gibson of Newark, N.J., became the first black to win a mayoral election in a major Northeast city.

1976

A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa, turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd.

1977

Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was named president, becoming the first person to hold both posts simultaneously.

1978

President Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties.

1981

US President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979–81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.

1987

A jury in New York acquitted Bernhard Goetz of attempted murder in the subway shooting of four young blacks he said were going to rob him; however, Goetz was convicted of illegal weapons possession. (In 1996, a civil jury ordered Goetz to pay $43 million

1989

Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian prime minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.

1996

Russian voters went to the polls in their first independent presidential election; the result was a runoff between President Boris Yeltsin, the eventual winner, and Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov.

1997

Fifty people are killed in the Daïat Labguer (M'sila) massacre in Algeria.

1999

Vice President Al Gore announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

2000

Federal regulators approved the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp.,creating the nation's largest local phone company.

2010

Bhutan becomes the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco.

2012

China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.

2015

Donald Trump announced from New York's Trump Tower that he was running for President

2016

Shanghai Disneyland Park, the first Disney Park in Mainland China, opens to the public.

2019

An estimated 2 million people participated in the Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests, the largest in Hong Kong's history.

1829

Geronimo, American tribal leader (d. 1909)

1890

Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (d. 1965)

1917

Katharine Graham, American publisher (d. 2001)

1939

Billy "Crash" Craddock, American singer-songwriter

1971

Tupac Shakur, American rapper and producer (d. 1996)

1959

George Reeves was an American actor and director. He is best known for portraying Superman in the television series Adventures of Superman (1952–1958). (b. 1914)

1996

Mel Allen was an American sportscaster best known for his long tenure as the primary play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees. Mel Allen died in Greenwich, Conn., at age 83. (b. 1913)

2000

Empress dowager Nagako, widow of Japan's Emperor Hirohito, died in Tokyo at age 97.

2017

Helmut Kohl was a German politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1982 to 1990, Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. (b. 1930)