On this day in the year 1597 of the common era (CE) twenty-six Christians were condemned and crucified in Japan. This human sacrifice was meant to stave off the threat these Christians represented to Japanese society.
On this day in the year 1783 CE Sweden recognizes the independence of the United States; twenty-eight years later, prince George, the Prince of Wales (later to become king George IV of England), is appointed as prince-regent after his father king George III is found to be insane due to mental illness.
On this day in 1850 CE, D. D. Parmelee patents the first key-driven adding machine in New Paltz, New York; eleven years later the first Loop-the-Loop roller coaster opens on Coney Island, New York, built by Edwin Prescott.
In 1897 CE, Marcel Proust challenges literary critic Jean Lorrain to a duel with pistols in the Meudon forest near Paris. Both men fire but miss satisfying the demands of honor without injury.
In 1918 CE a separation of church and state is inaugurated in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; one year later in Hollywood, California, the film studio United Artists is founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith
In 1921 CE the New York Yankees purchase twenty acres in the Bronx for Yankee Stadium.
In 1924 CE the Greenwich time signal begins broadcasting from the Royal Observatory in England; this hourly chime becomes known as the "BBC pips."
In 1943CE Jake LaMotta defeats future multi-weight world boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson by unanimous points decision in Detroit, Michigan. It is the second of their six meetings and LaMotta’s only win against his arch-rival; thirty-four years later the future five-division world boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard makes his professional debut with a six-round unanimous decision over Luis Vega at Baltimore’s Civic Center in Maryland
1974 John Murtha of Pennsylvania becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the United States Congress.
In 1978 CE, Fred Newman makes eighty-eight consecutive basketball free throws while blindfolded; eleven years later Kareem Abdul-Jabar becomes the first NBA player to score 38,000 points.
In 1988 CE, André the Giant defeats Hulk Hogan in the first prime-time wrestling match to air on TV in thirty years.
In 1994 CE, in Jackson, Mississippi, Byron De La Beckwith is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Medgar Evers 30 years after the crime was committed; twenty years later archaeologists decrypt the 13th C Viking Jötunvillur-runic.
