On this day in the 1387 of the common era (CE) the city of Vilnius is granted a charter by Jogaila, king of Poland, allowing it to be self-governing.
On this day in the year 1621 CE the Dutch jurist and "father of international law," Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) famously escaped life imprisonment at Loevestein Castle by hiding in a large book chest. Aided by his wife, Maria van Reigersberch and a maid, he utilized the unchecked chest, then disguised as a mason he flees to France; one hundred and sixty-four years later a Dutch Republic leader named Quint Ondaatje (age twenty-six) demands democracy in a speech he delivers at Utrecht city hall.
On this day in 1622 CE the first Native-American massacre of Europeans takes place near Jamestown, Virginia; three hundred and forty-seven people are killed by the Powhatan…who were not able to foresee how many more Europeans would be coming in the ensuing years, decades and centuries.
In 1630 CE the first colonial legislation prohibiting gambling is enacted in Boston, Massachusetts, eight years later, religious dissident Anne Hutchinson is expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy and sedition, specifically for holding theological meetings that challenged the male-dominated clergy's authority. Her beliefs, termed antinomianism, prioritized grace over works; she moved to Rhode Island.
In 1764 CE a Dutch expeditionary corps launches an attack on a group of men and woman who had thrown off their shackles and formed an army, during what is knowns as the Bernice rebellion, this took place in modern Guyana, and it was the first major slave revolt in South America…sadly, it was put down; one hundred and nine years later, slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico, and now this day is celebrated as Emancipation Day. Forty-nine years after that, in 1922 CE the Rand Rebellion takes place in Southern Africa, which started as a strike by white mineworkers and became an armed rebellion against the state before being brought to a brutal end by the police.
In 1765 CE the first direct British tax on American colonists, the Stamp Act, is passed by the British Parliament led by Prime Minister George Grenville; ten years later, British MP Edmund Burke makes a speech to the English Parliament advocating for peace with the American colonies. Fifty-seven years after that, in 1832 CE, the British Parliament, led by Charles Grey, passes the Reform Act, introducing wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales, increasing the electorate from about 500,000 to 813,000 voters…a work in progress.
In 1784 CE the Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.
In 1790 CE, Thomas Jefferson becomes the first United States (U.S.) secretary of state under president George Washington; four years later, Congress bans U.S. vessels from supplying slaves to other countries.
In 1822 CE the New York Horticultural Society is founded.
In 1829 CE the three protecting powers: Britain, France and Russia establish the borders of Greece.
In 1841 CE a method for alkali starch extraction is patented in the United States by Orlando Jones, which is later applied to corn for the production of cornstarch; one hundred and nineteen years later, the first patent for a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation device (L.A.S.E.R.) is granted to Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes
In 1861 CE the first nursing school is chartered in the United States.
In 1865 CE, thirteen thousand calvary troops led by Union General James H. Wilson destroys most of Confederate Alabama and Georgia's arms-manufacturing and rail capabilities in what is known as Wilson’s Raid, it continues into mid-April.
In 1871 CE, William Holden of North Carolina becomes the first governor in the United States to be removed from office by impeachment; one year later, the State of Illinois becomes the first to require sexual equality in employment.
In 1895 CE, Auguste and Louis Lumière show their first movie to an invited audience.
In 1896 CE Charilaos Vasilakos of Greece wins the first modern marathon in 3:18 at the Panhellenic Games.
In 1917 CE the United States is the first nation to recognize the new government of Russia.
In 1929 CE a U.S. Coast Guard vessel sinks a Canadian schooner suspected of carrying liquor; four years later, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Cullen-Harrison Act, legalizing the sale of beer and wine with up to 3.2% alcohol.
In 1933 CE the first Nazi concentration camp opens at Dachau, ostensibly for the housing of political prisoners; six years later Lithuania is forced to give the Memel territory to Germany. Two years after that, in 1941 CE, James Stewart is inducted into the Army, becoming the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II; one year later, the Dutch SS police chief Hans Albin Rauter threatens to kill half of the Jewish children in the Netherlands, he then sets an extend work week for the Dutch, at fifty-four hours. Meanwhile, on this day in 1943, in Belgium, obligatory work for woman ends. One year after that, in 1944 CE, more than six hundred, 8th Air Force bombers attack Berlin. The American movie star James Stewart flies his 12th combat mission during this raid, leading the 2nd Bomb Wing in the attack; one year later, the U.S. 3rd Army crosses the Rhine at Nierstein.
In 1935 CE, blood tests are authorized as evidence in New York State Court.
In 1941 CE, Washington State, the Grand Coulee Dam goes into operation.
In 1945 CE the Arab League forms with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt; one year later, Britain signs a treaty granting independence to Jordan.
In 1946 CE the first U.S. rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere is launched, ascending fifty miles; thirty-five years later, the Soyuz 39 carries two cosmonauts, one Mongolian, to the Salyut 6 station. One year after that, in 1982 CE, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) launches its third space shuttle mission: Columbia 3; three years later N.A.S.A. launches Intelsat VA F-10. Nine years after that, in 1994 CE, Soyuz TM-21 lands; two years later, STS 76 (Atlantis 16), launches into orbit. Four years after that, N.A.S.A.'s “Spirit” Rover gets caught in a sand trap on Mars and ceases communications with Earth.
In 1954 CE the London bullion market reopens after being closed since 1939.
In 1957 CE the Republic of India adopts Saka calendar along with Gregorian, on this same day, the single All Shook Up is released by Elvis Presley. Six years after that, in 1963 CE, the Beatles release their first album, Please Please Me; one year after that, Barbra Streisand appears on the cover of the New York Times, Magazine section. Twenty-two years after that, in 1986 CE, Heart's single, These Dreams, goes to number one.
In 1958 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya U.S.S.R.; thirteen years later, the U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan. Four years after that, in 1975 CE, a fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes a dangerous lowering of cooling water levels; three years later, France performs nuclear test.
In 1965 CE, Nicolae Ceaușescu is elected General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party.
In 1967 CE Muhammad Ali knocks out Zora Folley in the seventh round to win the heavyweight boxing title; eighteen years later, HBO launches boxing's heavyweight-title-unification-tournament. One year after that, in 1986 CE, Jamaican boxer Trevor Berbick upsets Pinklon Thomas to win the World Boxing Conference’s heavyweight title, by unanimous decision in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1968 CE, U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson is ordered to get off of a San Francisco cable car for eating an ice cream cone.
In 1972 CE the U.S. Congress approves the Equal Rights Amendment, though it remains unratified; sixteen years later, the U.S. Congress overrides President Reagan's veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.
In 1979 CE the Provisional Irish Republican Army (P.I.R.A.) explode twenty-four bombs in various locations across Northern Ireland; twenty-seven years later, the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (E.T.A.), an armed Basque separatist group, declares permanent ceasefire. On this same day in 2006 CE, hostages from three Christian “peacemaker” teams are freed by British forces in Baghdad after one hundred and eighteen days in captivity.
In 1989 CE the United States Supreme Court upholds the “one person one vote” rule of the New York City Board of Estimates.
In 1993 CE, Intel introduces the Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS.
In 1994 CE the Dutch Ambassador to United States christens a new tulip, named for, then first lady Hillary Clinton; on this same day, Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid becomes the first woman to win architecture's Pritzker Prize.
In 1994 CE the South African government and the ANC take power in the Ciskei homeland.
In 1997 CE the Comet Hale-Bopp makes its closest approach to Earth (1.315 astronomical units)…stopping to pick up no-one for a ride.
In 2009 CE, Mount Redoubt, a volcano in Alaska begins erupting after a prolonged period of unrest.
In 2014 CE, Guinea confirms that an Ebola outbreak has already killed 59 people…it got much worse; also on this day, the United States and the European Union impose largely ineffective sanction on the Russian Federation for its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
In 2017 CE the United States wins the 4th Baseball World Classic, with an 8-0 win over Puerto Rico at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California.
In 2017 CE the tomb of Jesus, originally “discovered” by the Roman empress St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, reopens after restoration.
In 2018 CE oceanographers note that the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" between Hawaii and California has 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and increasing rapidly according to new research; four years later, microplastics are found in human blood for first time through new research conducted at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
In 2019 CE the discovery of a five hundred- and eighteen-million-year-old fossil site is announced, located near the Danshui River in Hubei province, China, with thousands of unknown fossils well preserved.
In 2019 CE, U.S. Special Council Robert S. Mueller submits his findings on the 2016 election, The Mueller Report, to Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and U.S. Attorney General William Barr…who largely ignore and or minimize the findings.
In 2020 CE, India puts one billion people under a daytime curfew to curb COVID-19; three years later, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson is grilled by the Government Privileges Committee over whether he intentionally misled parliament over COVID-19 rule breaches by his administration.
In 2021 CE, ten people are shot dead at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado by a twenty-one-year-old gunman; on this same day, Evanston, Illinois, in a move toward greater social justice, votes to become first U.S. city to pay reparations to Black residents for past discriminations and the effects of institutionalized slavery, giving $400,000 to each household who qualifies, noting that the problem of reparations is so great that only the federal Government can manage it, and that it is just to not only pay compensation to the progeny of the enslaved people who built the united states, but reparations should also be paid for every illegally obtained treaty, and broken treaty agreement with all Native American tribes, in the interest of justice, these remedies must take place.
In 2023 CE the Abel Prize for Mathematics, awarded to Argentinian–American Luis Caffarelli for his work on partial differential equations; on this same day, American software engineer Bob Metcalfe is given computing's Turing Award for developing Ethernet, a computer networking system now the industry standard. Also on this day in 2023 CE, Microsoft founder Bill Gates says that the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is the most important technological advance since the graphical user interface (GUI) in 1980; and later that day, the American Library Association says the year 2022 CE had highest number of calls to censor library books in the U.S. in over 20 years.
In 2024 CE British runner Jasmin Paris is the first woman and only the twentieth person to complete the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee, one of the world's hardest ultramarathons, she finished the course with one minute and thirty-nine seconds to spare.
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