660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.
1531 Henry VIII was recognised as supreme head of the Church of England.
1752 Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, opened.
1790 Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitioned U.S. Congress for abolition of slavery.
1794 First session of United States Senate open to the public.
1808 Anthracite coal was first burned as a fuel, experimentally.
1809 Robert Fulton filed a patent for improvements to steamboatnavigation.
1812 Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry “gerrymandered” for the first time.
1814 Norway‘s independence was proclaimed, marking the ultimate end of the Kalmar Union.
1826 University College London was founded under the name University of London.
1826 Swaminarayan wrote the Shikshapatri, an important test within the Swaminarayan faith.
1840 Gaetano Donizetti‘s opera La Fille du Régiment received its first performance in Paris.
1843 Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera I Lombardi received its first performance in Milan.
1847 Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor, was born (d. 1931).
1855 Kassa Hailu was crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III.
1861 United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
1864 Charles Heaphy was recommended for a VC for rescuing a soldier while under fire.
1873 King Amadeus I of Spain abdicated.
1904 Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister and Governor General of New Zealand, was born (d. 1983).
1905 Pope Pius X published the encyclical Vehementer nos.
1916 Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control.
1917 Sidney Sheldon, American author, was born (d. 2007).
1919 Eva Gabor, Hungarian-born actress, was born (d. 1995).
1919 Friedrich Ebert (SPD), was elected President of Germany.
1920 King Farouk I of Egypt, was born (d. 1965).
1929 Italy and the Vatican signed the Lateran Treaty.
1934 Mary Quant, English fashion designer, was born.
1936 Burt Reynolds, American actor, was born.
1938 BBC Television produced the world’s first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel CapekplayR.U.R., which coined the term “robot“.
1938 Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer, was born.
1939 – Bryan Gould, New Zealand-English politician
1939 A Lockheed XP-38 flew from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.
1941 The first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for “Chattanooga Choo Choo“.
1943 General Dwight Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
1948 John Costello succeeded Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach of Ireland.
1963 Julia Child‘s show The French Chef premiered.
1964 Sarah Palin, 11th Governor of Alaska, was born.
1969 Jennifer Aniston, American actress, was born.
1971 Eighty-seven countries signed the Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.
1973 Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam took place.
1978 – Censorship: China lifted a ban on works by Aristotle, Shakespeare and Dickens.
1979 Islamic revolution of Iran achieved victory under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
1987 Philippines constitution went into effect.
1990 Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, was released fromVictor Verster Prison.
1991 UNPO, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, formed in The Hague.
1997 Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
2006 Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney accidentally shotHarry Whittington in the face, neck, and upper torso while hunting quail.
2008 – Rebel East Timorese soldiers seriously wounded President José Ramos-Horta. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in the attack.
2011 – The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminated in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests.
2013 – Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the papacy, the first pontiff to resign in more than half a millennium.
2014 – A military transport plane crashed in a mountainous area of Oum El Bouaghi Province in eastern Algeria, killing 77 people.
2015 – A university student was murdered as she resisted an attempted rape in Turkey, sparking nationwide protests and public outcry against harassment and violence against women.
2016 – A man shot six people dead at an education center in Jizan Province, Saudi Arabia.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia
Homepaddock 