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Events

527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.

1318 - Berwick-upon-Tweed is captured by the Scottish from the English.

1572 - The Watergeuzen succeeded in capturing Den Briel, effectively sealing off the Meuse River from the Spaniards.

1789 - In New York City, the United States House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.

1826 - Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.

1854 - Hard Times begins serialisation in Charles Dickens magazine, Household Words.

1857 - Herman Melville publishes The Confidence-Man.

1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks - In Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.

1867 - Singapore becomes a British crown colony.

1868 - Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute is established in Hampton, Virginia.

1873 - The British steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547.

1891 - The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.

1893 - The United States Navy rank of Chief Petty Officer is created.

 
 

1918 - The Royal Flying Corps is replaced by the Royal Air Force.

1924 - Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch." However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes the book Mein Kampf.

1924 - First revenue flight for Belgium's Sabena Airlines

1933 - The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in the series of anti-Semitic acts that will be known as the Holocaust.

1934 - Bonnie and Clyde kill two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.

1937 - Aden becomes a British crown colony.

1939 - Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announced the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered.

1941 - The Blockade Runner Badge for German navy is instituted.

1944 - Accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen. The bombers were lost.

1945 - World War II: Operation Iceberg - United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.

1946 - Aleutian Island earthquake: A 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands creates a tsunami that strikes the Hawaiian Islands killing 159 (mostly in Hilo, Hawaii).

1946 - Formation of the Malayan Union.

1948 - Cold War: Berlin Airlift - Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.

 
 

1948 - Faroe Islands receive autonomy from Denmark.

1949 - Chinese Civil War: Communist Party of China hold unsuccessful peace talks with the Kuomintang in Beijing, after three years of fighting.

1949 - The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland.

1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.

1955 - The EOKA rebellion starts in Cyprus, aiming at the island´s independence from Great Britain.

1963 - The debut of the long running soap opera General Hospital on ABC-TV which is still on the air today, while on rival NBC debuted The Doctors which last until 1982.

1967 - The United States Department of Transportation begins operation.

1969 - The Hawker-Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF.

1970 - Phil Spector finishes the orchestral overdubs for the upcoming Beatles album, Let It Be, including the songs "Let It Be", "Across the Universe", and "The Long and Winding Road". This causes controversy among Beatles fans who feel that Phil Spector has overproduced the album.

1970 - President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring surgeon general's warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States starting on January 1, 1971.

1970 - American Motors introduces the Gremlin.

1973 - Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India.

1974 - In the United Kingdom, new administrative counties come into being.

1976 - Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

1976 - Conrail takes over operations from six bankrupt railroads in the northeastern U.S..

1979 - Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.

1980 - New York City's Transit Worker Union 100 goes on strike, lasting 11 days.

1981 - Daylight saving time is introduced in the USSR.

1999 - Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.

2001 - An EP-3E United States Navy plane collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army fighter jet. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, People's Republic of China and is detained. See Hainan Island incident.

2001 - Former president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milo?evi? surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.

2001 - The first legal same-sex marriage in the Netherlands is celebrated.

2002 - The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia, becoming the only nation in the world to do so.

2004 - George W. Bush signs the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which makes an attack that leads to the death of a mother and her unborn child two criminal charges.

2004 - The first legal same-sex marriage in the Canadian province of Quebec: Michael Hendricks and René Leboeuf wed in Montreal.

2004 - Gmail, an email service from Google launches.

2006 - The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the 'British FBI', is created in the United Kingdom.

 

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