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Events

588 BC - Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah's reign. The siege lasts until July 18, 586 BC.

69 - Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but only survives for three months before committing suicide.

1559 - Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey by Owen Oglethorpe, the Bishop of Carlisle, instead of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

1582 - Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to Poland.

1759 - The British Museum opens.

1777 - American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence.

1782 - Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.

1844 - University of Notre Dame receives its charter from Indiana.

1870 - A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

1885 - Wilson Bentley takes the first photograph of a snowflake.

1892 - James Naismith publishes the rules for basketball.

1908 - Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the first Greek-letter organization by and for Black college women is established.

1919 - The Boston Molasses Disaster kills 21 people.

 
 

1919 - Ignace Paderewski becomes Premier of Poland.

1919 - Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, were tortured and murdered by the Freikorps.

1936 - The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio (the building was for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company).

1943 - World War II: Japanese driven off Guadalcanal.

1943 - The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated (Arlington, Virginia).

1951 - Ilse Koch, The "Bitch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany.

1966 - First Military Coup in Nigeria, government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown.

1967 - In the first ever Super Bowl, the Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.

1969 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.

1970 - After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.

1970 - Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

1973 - Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President of the United States Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.

1974 - Happy Days premieres on ABC.

 
 

1975 - Portugal grants independence to Angola.

1976 - Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

1986 - The Living Seas opens at EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World, Florida.

1986 - The HBO and Cinemax pay cable television services initiate scrambling of their national satellite feeds on Galaxy 1 with the Videocipher II system.

1990 - AT&T's long distance telephone network suffers a cascade switching failure.

1991 - The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

1992 - The international community recognizes the independence of Slovenia and Croatia from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

1993 - Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Sicily after three decades as a fugitive

1995 - The first episode of Star Trek: Voyager airs.

1999 - The Racak incident: 45 Albanians in the Kosovo village of Racak were killed by Yugoslav security forces.

2001 - Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

2005 - Fishing boat "Big Valley" sinks in the Bering Sea. 5 people die.

 

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