On this day in the year 1401 of the common era (CE), Timur attacks the city of Damascus, making it the second city of the Mameluke Empire; scholar Ibn Khaldūn's life is spared, but the city is sacked and the Umayyad Mosque destroyed.
On this day in the year 1603 CE the Scottish king James VI, son of Mary queen of Scots, becomes king James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thereby uniting the English and Scottish crowns; one hundred and sixty-two years later, Britain enacts the Quartering Act, which requires colonists in America to provide temporary housing to British soldiers. One hundred and forty-one years after that, in 1906 CE the Census of the British Empire shows that the United Kingdom rules one-fifth of the world's landmass.
Another development in 1603 CE: Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title “shogun,” officially establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate which would rule Japan until 1867.
On this day in 1629 CE the first game law is passed in the American colonies by Virginia.
In 1828 CE the Philadelphia & Columbia Railway is authorized, becoming the first state-owned railway in the United States (U.S.); four years later, Mormon leader Joseph Smith is beaten, tarred and feathered in Hiram, Ohio.
In 1837 CE, Canada grants its black citizens the right to vote, sixteen years later, the Anti-slavery newspaper, The Provincial Freeman, is first published in Windsor, Ontario, edited by Samuel Ringgold Ward and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, who is the first black-woman-publisher in North America.
In 1868 CE the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company forms; twelve years later, the Tobacco Growers' Mutual Insurance Company incorporates in Connecticut.
In 1877 CE the annual boat race between Oxford University and Cambridge ends in a dead heat.
In 1882 CE, German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus, which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), thereby establishing germ theory; one yea later the first telephone call is placed between New York, New York and Chicago, Illinois.
In 1900 CE, New York City mayor, Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground on a new underground rapid transit railway linking Manhattan and Brooklyn; thirteen years later, the Palace Theater opens at 1564 Broadway.
In 1907 CE the first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published.
In 1916 CE, German submarines torpedo the Sussex, an unarmed French vessel, used as a cross-channel packet.
In 1920 CE the first U.S. coast guard air station is established at Morehead City, North Carolina, just a bicycle ride from where I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry point, in the 1990’s, and another bicycle ride down the road takes you to the U.S. Marine Corps Camp LeJeune, where my father was stationed in the 1950’s; forty-five years later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (N.A.S.A.’s) lunar probe, Ranger 9 strikes the moon ten miles (16 km) northeast of the crater Alphonsus and transmits high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface. Fourteen years after that, in 1979 CE, the Space Shuttle Columbia, flown from an aircraft carrier, lands at the Kennedy Space Center; seven years later, N.A.S.A. publishes, A Strategy for Safely Returning the Space Shuttle to Flight Status. Six years after that in, 1992 CE, the Space Shuttle STS-45, Atlantis 11, launches into space with Dirk Frimout, the first Belgian astronaut on board; twenty-three years later, N.A.S.A.'s Opportunity Rover becomes the first remote operated roving vehicle on the surface of Mars to complete a Martian marathon (to travel a distance of 26.2 miles).
In 1905 CE a group of Cretans dedicated to Crete's union with Greece led by Eleutherios Venizelos, meet at the village of Therisso and proclaim a union in defiance of the Great Powers; nineteen years later, Greece becomes a republic.
In 1926 CE the Beehive in The Hague opens the first escalator in the Netherlands; one year later, the Dutch First Chamber condemns the Belgian and Netherlands Wielingen Treaty.
In 1930 CE the first religious service is telecast in United States on W2XBS New York, New York; two years later, the first radio broadcast from a moving train in the United States.
In 1933 CE the Peter I Island is incorporated as a Norwegian dependency.
In 1937 CE the National Gallery of Art is established by the U.S. Congress.
In 1942 CE the U.S. government begins moving native-born citizens with Japanese ancestry into detention centers under Executive Order 9066, with intention of preventing home-grown espionage; two years later, seventy-six Allied officers escape Stalag Luft, in what is know as the Great Escape of WWII. Also on this day in 1944, eight hundred and eleven British bombers attack Berlin, during which Royal Air Force rear gunner Nicholas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber eighteen thousand feet over Germany without a parachute; his fall is broken by pine trees and soft snow and he suffers only a sprained leg; later that same day, the Nazis led by SS officers Herbert Kappler, Erich Priebke and Karl Hass execute three hundred and thirty-five civilians and political prisoners in occupied Rome, in retaliation for the previous day's Via Rassela bombing that killed thirty-three Germans. One year after that, in 1945 CE, in the largest one-day airborne operation of all time, British, U.S. and Canadian paratroopers land east of the Rhine in Northern Germany; on that same day, U.S. minesweepers reach Kerama Retto, on the south coast of Okinawa; four years later, the former SS police chief in the Netherlands, Hanns Albin Rauter's request for a pardon is denied and he is executed by firing squad.
In 1947 CE, John D. Rockefeller Jr. donates the site of the United Nations (U.N.), along the East River of Manhattan Island to the newly formed international organization; on this same day, the U.S. Congress proposes a two-term limitation on the presidency.
In 1949 CE, Hamlet with Laurence Olivier & Jane Wyman wins at the 21st Academy Awards; forty-eight years later, The English Patient with Geoffrey Rush and Frances McDormand wins at the 69th Academy Awards. Two years after that, in 1999 CE, The Matrix, a film written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss, premieres; three years later, at the 74th Academy Awards, A Beautiful Mind wins, with Denzel Washington and Halle Berry; Halle Berry becomes the first African-American woman to win the award for Best Actress.
In 1953 CE the U.S performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; forty years later, South African president F.W. Willem de Klerk announces to South Africa's Parliament the existence and abandonment of a secret nuclear weapons program.
In 1955 CE the British Army patrols withdraw from Belfast after 20 years…it was short lived; seventeen years later Great Britain imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland.
In 1955 CE the first seagoing oil-drilling-rig enters service.
In 1958 CE, Elvis Presley joins the US Army, he is given serial number 53310761; seventeen years later, aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, Rhythm & Blues piano player Professor Longhair, together with the Meters perform at a record release party for Paul McCartney and Wings' album, Venus and Mars. Five years after that, in 1980 CE, Capitol Records releases some rare Beatles tracks on the LP titled: Rarities.
In 1962 CE, welterweight Emile Griffith beats Benny "The Kid" Paret for the championship, winning by technical knock-out in the twelfth 12th round at Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. Paret dies ten days later; the match marks the first use of televised, slow-motion-replay. Thirteen years after that, in 1975 CE, Muhammad Ali beats Chuck Wepner by technical knock-out in 1ifteenth round for heavyweight boxing title.
In 1964 CE the Kennedy half-dollar is issued.
In 1966 CE the Selective Service announces a program for college deferments based on academic performance; one year later, the University of Michigan holds the first "Teach-in" after bombing begins in North Vietnam.
In 1980 CE, ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed, is renamed Nightline, premiering as it’s own show with Ted Koppel as anchor.
In 1998 CE, two students, ages 11 and 13, open fire on their classmates and teachers at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten wounded. Twenty years after that, in 2018 CE, tens of thousands attend “March for Our Lives” in Washington, D.C. and around the world to protest the continuing epidemic of gun-violence in America.
In 1999 CE, forces attached to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization commences an air bombardment against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War, it is the first attack by N.A.T.O. on a sovereign country in its history; seventeen years later, Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadžić is found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment.
In 2005 CE the U.S. version of The Office, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, developed by Greg Daniels and starring Steve Carell premieres on NBC.
In 2008 CE, Bhutan officially becomes a democracy with its first general election.
In 2014 CE, Ukraine withdraws its forces from the Crimean Peninsula.
In 2018 CE Hundreds of protesters shut down special meeting at Sacramento City Hall investigating police shooting of Stephon Clark.
In 2019 CE, two time American League Most Valuable Player, Mike Trout, signs the biggest contract in North American sports history, a $426.5 million, 12-year extension with the Los Angeles Angels…a record that would not last; also on this day, U.S. attorney general, William Barr summarizes the report submitted by special council Robert Mueller (also known as the Mueller Report) in a letter to Congress, stating: the "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities" and that "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense;" those findings should have been left to a jury to decide.
In 2020 CE, China's Hubei province, the original center of the COVID-19 outbreak, eases restrictions on travel after a nearly two-month lockdown; on this same day, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi orders a twenty-one-day lockdown for the country's 1.3 billion people to address COVID-19 fears, while Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, announces the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games until the summer of 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2024 CE, Brazilian police arrest two politicians and a police chief for the notorious murder, and its cover-up, of politician and activist Marielle Franco in 2018…demonstrating that justice delayed, is still justice.
In 2025 CE, The Atlantic publishes: "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans," claiming that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth included a journalist in a group chat detailing critical operational intelligence, in real time, concerning U.S. airstrikes taking place in Yemen.
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