Today in HisStory – August 20

Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction. This is a possible astrological explanation for Star of Bethlehem. (2 AD)

The Hungarian state was founded. (1000)

Sixty Anabaptists leaders met for the Synod of Martyrs to discuss how to evangelize Europe. Within five years, all but three were dead, most by persecution. (1527)

First Dutch East India Company ships returned from the Far East. (1597)

First 20 known African Americans landed at Jamestown, Virginia. (1619)

Theocharis of Neopolis, an Orthodox Christian, was martyred. The governor of Nevsehir in the Ottoman Empire had offered him his daughter in marriage on condition he convert to Islam. Offended by Theocharis’ refusal, he tortured and executed him. (1740)

Alaska was first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering. (1741)

American Revolutionary War: George Washington began to move his troops south to fight Cornwallis. (1781)

US Civil War: US President Andrew Johnson formally declared Civil War over. (1866)

Tchaikovsky‘s 1812 Overture opened in Moscow. (1882)

Dial telephone was patented. (1896)

New York Times sent the first round the world telegrams. (1911)

Adolphe Pégoud of France became the first pilot to parachute from an aircraft. (1913)

First US commercial radio station, 8MK-WWJ, Detroit began daily broadcasting. (1920)

WW2: British PM Churchill said of Royal Air Force, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” (1940)

The Church of God of All Nations Pentecostal denomination was formed out of the Church of God of Prophecy. (1958)

US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion. It was the beginning of the massive welfare program. (1964)

During the night, 200,00 Warsaw Pact Soviet led troops invaded Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring. (1968)

Viking 1 launched to orbit around Mars and made a soft landing. (1975)

NASA launched Voyager 2 toward Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. (1977)

Mother Teresa was hospitalized with malaria. (1993)

Actor and fund-raiser for MDA, Jerry Lewis, died. (2017)

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Today in HisStory – August 19

Roman General Andrew and 2,593 Romans soldiers he’d led to Christ were tortured and executed for their faith. None recanted. (302 AD)

King James I of Aragon censored Hebrew writing. (1263)

Father Thomas Bilney was burned at the stake for preaching, “the just shall live by faith”, and for distributing Bibles to laymen. (1531)

Benjamin Banneker wrote a letter to the Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson using the United States Declaration of Independence to criticize Jefferson’s pro-slavery stance and to request justice for African Americans. (1791)

War of 1812: US warship Constitution defeated British warship Guerriere. (1812)

Details of Louis Daguerre’s first practical photographic process were released in Paris. (1839)

New York Herald reported gold discovery in California. (1849)

Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio. (1871)

The Christian Union, the oldest Pentecostal denomination now known as the Church of God, was founded in Monroe County, Tennessee. (1886)

American frontier murderer and outlaw John Wesley Hardin was killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas. (1895)

First electric taxis drove in London. (1897)

The one and only Olympic Cricket Match in Paris took place. (1900)

Indianapolis 500 race track opened. (1909)

WW1: In a message to the Senate, US President Woodrow Wilson urged the American people to be “neutral in fact as well as name.” (1914)

WW1: British liner SS Arabic, a passenger ship, was sunk by German submarine without warning after leaving Liverpool for New York. 44 were killed including three Americans.  This created a diplomatic incident and brought the US closer to entering the war. (1915)

Sunday benefit baseball game at Polo Grounds resulted in John McGraw and Christy Mathewson’s arrest for violating Blue Laws. (1917)

The first All-American Soap Box Derby was held in Dayton, Ohio. (1934)

WW2: Adolf Hitler became the president of Germany. (1934)

WW2: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers were killed, wounded or captured raiding Dieppe, France. (1942)

ABC began Saturday morning kid shows. (1950)

The first commercial atomic energy reactor, owned by the Yankee Atomic Electric Company, achieved a self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Rowe, Deerfield River, Massachusetts. (1960)

Soviet Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakov and Valery Ryumin returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 after a record 175 days in space. (1979)

Operation Iraqi Freedom: The last of the United States brigade combat teams crossed the border to Kuwait, ending the war. (2010)

Today in HisStory – August 18

The oldest known Roman temple to Venus was founded. (293 BC)

Helena, first Christian archeologist and mother to first Christian Roman Emperor Constantine, died. (328 AD)

Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, died. (1227)

John White, the governor of the Roanoke Island colony in present-day North Carolina, returned from a supply-trip to England to find the settlement deserted. The colonists were never found. (1590)

John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, preached his last sermon. (1688)

Public was first admitted to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris. (1737)

United States Exploring Expedition, headed by Charles Wilkes, departed for the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica. (1738)

A lightning strike on the Bastion of San Nazaro in Brescia, Italy ignited 90 tons of gunpowder. 3,000 people were killed. (1769)

Meriwether Lewis, famous explorer of the US, was born. (1774)

George Washington signed Jay Treaty with Great Britain. (1795)

60-70 foot sea serpent sightings were reported offshore in Gloucester, Massachusetts. (1817)

United States Exploring Expedition headed by Charles Wilkes departed for the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica. It was the first marine expedition. (1838)

American Society of Dental Surgeons was founded in New York. (1840)

US Civil War: General Lee’s adjutant, Major Stuart, was captured. (1862)

French Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium in solar spectrum during an eclipse. (1868)

First mail-order catalog was issued by A M Ward. (1872)

US Congress created the Bureau of Immigration. (1894)

Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presented Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees. US President Taft decided to plant them near the Potomac River. (1909)

WW1: US President Woodrow Wilson issued the Proclamation of Neutrality delaying US involvement in the war. (1914)

Cameron Townsend sets off from home to do mission work. He later founded Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. (1917)

Anti-Cigarette League of America formed in Chicago, Illinois. (1919)

19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was ratified after Tennessee voted yes. (1920)

The Yangtze River in China peaked during a horrible flood that kills 3.7 million people. (1931)

WW2: The Battle of Britain became ‘the hardest day” when Luftwaffe attacked the RAF in largest ever air battle. The Luftwaffe lost 69 aircrafts. The RAF lost 68. (1940)

WW2: Adolf Hitler orders that the systematic murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end because of protests within Germany. (1941)

Chinese evangelist John Sung, who led thousands to Christ in China, died at 43 years old. (1944)

TV game show scandal investigation started. (1958)

First commercial oral contraceptive, Enovid 10, debuted in Skokie, Illinois. (1960)

Jerry Lewis appeared on Donahue to defend telethons after Phil Donahue’s attacks on them. (1981)

Ohio health care worker Donald Harvey was sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients. (1987)

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was placed under house arrest during a coup by high-ranking members of his own government, military and police forces. (1991)

Today in HisStory – August 17

Govenor John White returned to Roanoke, North Carolina to find no trace of colonists he had left there three years earlier. (1590)

English Puritan Preacher Richard Mather first arrived in Boston. (1635)

Two thousand Nonconformist pastors preached farewell sermons to their congregations in England, having been expelled from their pulpits by law. (1662)

Presbyterian pastor John Craig arrived in America, disembarking in Delaware. The first settled minister in western Virginia, he traveled the region preaching and baptizing. (1734)

Scottish preacher John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence, became the president of Harvard. (1768)

Tennessee Pioneer and Senator Davy Crockett was born. (1786)

Losantville, Ohio, now called Cincinnati, was founded. (1788)

Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont began its first trip up Hudson River. (1807)

American Movement for Christian Unity, now known as Disciples of Christ denomination, was founded. (1809)

Solymon Merrick patented the wrench. (1835)

Mrs. Esther Morris became the first US woman magistrate in South Pass, Wyoming. (1870)

Billy the Kid committed his first murder. (1877)

Richard Upjohn, an architect who had designed many Christian churches in the United States, died. He applied revived English Gothic architectural style, but he refused a commission to design a Unitarian church building, considering Unitarians anti-Christian. (1878)

First public bathhouse with showers opened in New York City. It was called the People’s Bath. (1891)

Electric self-starter for automobile was patented. (1891)

Joe Pulitzer donated $1 million to Columbia University to begin Pulitzer Prizes. (1903)

Projection in Paris of the very first animated cartoon, Fantasmagorie, took place. (1908)

Hurricane struck Galveston, Texas, an island with only one bridge inland, after weather service predicted clear skies. 275 were killed. (1915)

WW2: Hitler ordered a total blockade of Great Britain. (1940)

Korean War: Korea was divided into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel. (1945)

George Orwell published Animal Farm. (1946)

The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. was revealed. (1947)

Federal Constitutional Court banned the Communist Party of Germany in West Germany. (1956)

East German border guards shot and killed 18 year old Peter Fechter while he was attempting to cross Berlin Wall into western sector. (1962)

Woodstock Music Festival ended. (1969)

WW2: Rudolf Hess became the last of Hitler’s henchmen to die when he is found strangled to death in Spandau Prison in Berlin at the age of 93, apparently the victim of suicide. (1987)

US President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony he had an “improper physical relationship” with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. (1998)

Collision of two neutron stars was witnessed for the first time first by US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. (2017)

Today in HisStory – August 16

Hongwu Emperor of Ming China, Emperor Dong, heard a case of couple who tore money bills while fighting over them. This was considered an act of destroying stamped government documents punishable by 100 floggings. Hongwu Emperor decided to pardon them. (1384)

John the Constant died. He had been a leader of the princes who protested the measures taken by the Catholic-dominated Diet of Speyer and was the first to be named a “Protestant”. He signed the Augsburg Confesssion and helped organize the Schmalkaldic League which protected the Protestant Reformation. (1532)

John Campanius sailed from Stockholm with his family to minister in Delaware. There he learned the Lenape tongue and translated religious works into it, kept weather records, and consecrated the first Lutheran church built in the new world. (1642)

Yorktown, Virginia was founded. (1691)

American Revolutionary War: Militiamen defeated British forces at the Battle of Bennington near Vermont. (1777)

War of 1812: General Hull surrendered Detroit and Michigan territory to British forces. (1812)

Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker arrived in Boston to be exhibited. (1829)

Britain’s Queen Victoria telegraphed US President James Buchanan. (1858)

US Civil War: US President Abraham Lincoln prohibited Union states from trading with Confederacy. (1861)

US Civil War: Chickamauga campaign took place in Georgia. (1863)

Second Great Awakening Revivalist Charles Finney died at Oberlin. (1875)

Indian chiefs from the Sioux and Onondaga tribes met to urge their people to renounce Christianity and return to their old Indian faith. (1894)

Gold was first discovered in Klondike, Alaska. (1896)

Edwin Prescott patented the roller coaster. (1898)

Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was hit in head by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays. He died the next day in the only major league fatality. (1920)

US ended its occupation of Haiti. (1934)

WW2: Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, was captured by Soviet troops. He was a puppet ruler for the Japanese Empire. (1945)

Widespread riots erupted in Calcutta between Muslims and Hindus over whether Pakistan should be a separate state. 4,000 were killed, and 100,000 were left homeless. (1946)

Baseball player Babe Ruth died. (1948)

Author Margaret Mitchell died. (1949)

250,000 West Berliners demonstrated against East Berlin. (1961)

Elvis Presley died. He’s still dead. (1977)

IBM introduced software for artificial intelligence. (1988)

A solar flare from the Sun created a geomagnetic storm affecting micro chips. This led to a halt of all trading on Toronto’s stock market. (1989)

Uganda dictator Idi Amin died. (2003)

Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, was granted political asylum by Ecuador. (2012)

Today in HisStory – August 15

The proconsul of Africa proclaimed unity of the African church under Gratus after years of conflict between the Catholic Church and the stricter Donatists. Donatus withdrew into exile. (347 AD)

Arabs abandoned a thirteen-month seige of Constantinople on the day of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. They ascribed their victory to the mother of Christ. After forsaking the siege, many of the Arab ships involved were destroyed by a storm, and others were burned when ashes from the volcano of Santorini fell on them. (718 AD)

St. Stephen, first king of Hungary, died. Baptized and reared a Christian, he had founded many monasteries and churches and sent Christian missionaries throughout his realm. (1038)

King Duncan I of Scotland was killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. He was not murdered in his sleep as in the Shakespeare’s play, and he was not succeeded by Macbeth. (1040)

Empire of Trebizond surrendered to forces of Sultan Mehmet II, the last Byzantine Empire remnant to fall. Emperor David was exiled and later murdered. (1461)

Agnes Prest of Exeter, England was martyred for her faith by being burned at the stake. She was a protestant. Her Catholic husband reported her. (1531)

First Christian missionaries to reach Japan landed at Kagoshima. (1549)

Agnes Prest was burned to death by Queen Mary’s government because of her rejection of the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. (1557)

Mayflower set sail from Southampton, England with 102 Pilgrims. (1620)

First recorded US hurricane hit the Plymouth Colony. (1635)

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born. (1769)

War of 1812: After watching the Battle of Baltimore all night, Francis Scott Key wrote Star Spangled Banner, America’s national anthem. (1814)

Freed American slaves established Liberia on the West African coast through the American Colonization Society. (1824)

National black convention met in Buffalo, New York. (1843)

M Waldo Hanchett patented the dental chair. (1848)

Regular mail service to the Pacific coast began. (1858)

US Civil War: Abraham Lincoln ordered reinforcements be sent to Missouri. (1861)

Transcontinental Railway was actually completed in Colorado. (1870)

US law removed Indians from Black Hills after gold was found there. (1876)

In China, the Empress and some of her family, the court, and retainers fled while foreign troops moved through Peking in an attempt to put down the Boxer Rebellion. (1900)

Procter & Gamble introduced Crisco shortening. (1911)

Panama Canal opened. (1914)

WW1: Dinant, Belgium was destroyed by German bombs. Lt Charles de Gaulle, future president of France, was injured. (1914)

WW1: Japan joined the side of the allies. (1914)

American philosopher, writer, and speaker Will Roger died. (1935)

The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. (1939)

WW2: Victory over Japan, the Japanese surrender, and the end of the war was announced in Japan. (1945)

India gained independence from Great Britain. It remained a dominion until 1950. (1947)

A truck-load of rebel soldiers took over the hospital compound at Nobobongo, Congo, which they occupied for five months. Among the women held by them was medical missionary Dr. Helen Roseveare who lived to tell a tale of severe abuse and terror. (1964)

Woodstock opened. (1969)

US President Richard Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices, and rents in an attempt to curb growing inflation. (1971)

North Korea created its own time zone. It moved its clocks back half an hour to GMT+8.5. (2015)

Scientists genetic study of the apple revealed its origin was in Kazakhstan. (2017)

Today in HisStory – August 14

During Kublai Khan’s Second Invasion of Japan, his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappeared in a typhoon near Japan. (1281)

Raymond Lull sails to evangelize Islamic countries. (1314)

Quakers William Penn, later founder of Pennsylvania, and William Mead were arrested in London for preaching. The jurors refused to convict him although a judge imprisoned, starved, and abused them. (1670)

First Welsh immigrants to the American colonies, Quakers, arrived in Pennsylvania. (1682)

Frontiersman Daniel Boone wed Rebecca Bryan in Yadkin River, North Carolina. (1756)

American Revolutionary War: Massachusetts colonists challenged British rule by an elm tree known as the Liberty Tree. (1765)

Suriname forbad selling slave mothers without their babies. (1782)

Russians settled Alaska. (1784)

Benjamin Abbott, American revivalist, died. (1796)

War of 1812: American patriot Francis Scott Key was held overnight as a British prisoner during their shelling of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. (1814)

First US eye hospital, the New York Eye Infirmary, opened in New York City. (1820)

James Strong, author of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, was born. (1822)

Henry David Thoreau was jailed for refusing to pay taxes. (1846)

Oregon Territory was created. (1848)

US Civil War: 79th New York troops mutinied. (1861)

US Civil War: Martial Law was declared at St Louis, Missouri, due to pro-secession sentiment which surged throughout Missouri after the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. (1861)

US Civil War: US President Abraham Lincoln received the first group of African Americans to confer with a US president. (1862)

Japan’s first patent was issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint. (1885)

The first claimed powered flight was by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21. (1901)

Clara Maass, a Lutheran nurse, allowed herself to be bitten by a mosquito to test a theory about Yellow Fever. She contracted the disease and died ten days later. (1901)

The first beauty contest was held in Folkestone, England. (1908)

WW1: China declared war on Germany and Austria. (1917)

Social Security Act became law. (1935)

Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States. (1936)

WW2: China declared war on Japan. (1937)

WW2: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the joint declaration that later becomes known as the Atlantic Charter. (1941)

WW2: Maximilian Kolbe died in Auschwitz after willingly taking another prisoner’s place. Before dying, he led the others condemned to death in hymns and prayers. (1941)

WW2: Dwight D. Eisenhower was named commander for invasion of North Africa. (1942)

WW2: V-J Day celebrated Japanese unconditional surrender and end of the war. (1945)

Vietnam War: US ended secret bombing of Cambodia. (1972)

Rainbow was seen in Northern Wales for three hours. (1979)

Space telescope Hubble photographed Uranus with rings. (1994)

A major outage knocked out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. (2003)

US President Donald Trump condemned racist violence. (2017)

Today in HisStory – August 13

Pontianus died after being exiled to the mines. He was the Apostle John’s great grandson and a leader of the church. His remains were returned to the church for a proper burial. (236 AD)

St. Maximus the Confessor, who had been a vigorous opponent of Monothelitism, died. He was tortured and had his tongue cut out and his right hand chopped off. Monothelitism was the heresy that Christ had a divine, but no human, will. (662 AD)

Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés captured Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan. This marked the end of the Aztec Empire. (1521)

Buddhist monks from Kyōto’s Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (1536)

Michael Servetus was arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic. (1553)

In Roanoke, Virginia, Manteo became the first American Indian converted to Protestantism, and was baptized into the Church of England by members of Sir Walter Raleigh’s expedition. (1587)

John Smith’s story of Jamestown’s first days was submitted for publication. (1608)

Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered the Martian south polar cap. (1642)

Litchfield, Connecticut was founded. (1651)

After a prayer meeting, the Moravian 100 year prayer meeting began ushering in a missionary age that is still going on today. Many, including me, believe this to be the starting date of the Philadelphia Church age in the book of Revelation and the precipice of the first Great Awakening. It is also known as the start of the Missionary Movement. (1727)

In the German village of Herrnhut, Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf organized first Moravian community. (1727)

British parliament accepted the East India Company Act 1784, bringing the East India Company’s rule in India under the control of the British Government. (1784)

French Revolution: Revolutionaries imprisoned French royals including Marie Antoinette. (1792)

Earthquakes killed 25,000 in Ecuador and Peru. (1868)

William Gray patented the coin-operated telephone. (1889)

Spanish American War: US forces under Admiral George Dewey captured Manila. (1898)

Ira D. Sankey, Dwight L. Moody’s song evangelist for three decades, died. He had written many hymn tunes. (1908)

Harry Brearley invented stainless steel. (1913)

WW1: France declared war on Austria-Hungary. (1914)

WW2: 45-48 German aircrafts were shot down over Southern England during the Battle of Britain. (1940)

US Court of Appeals ruled Congress must save all E-Mail. (1993)

American swimmer Michael Phelps ended his career at Rio Olympics winning 4×100 medley relay, his 23rd Gold medal. He is the world’s most decorated Olympian. (2016)

Today in HisStory – August 12

Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction. This could have been the Star of Bethlehem. (3 AD)

In the Battle of Otranto, Ottoman troops beheaded 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam. (1480)

Christopher Columbus arrived in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World. (1492)

First American police force formed in New Amsterdam which is now New York City. (1658)

First war between American colonists and the Indians ended in New England. (1676)

French Revolution: A decree ordered the evacuation of all religious houses still occupied by religious men and women, meaning monks and nuns. (1792)

Chicago was founded. (1833)

Isaac Singer patented the sewing machine. (1851)

Anthony Fass patented the accordion. (1856)

Joseph Lister performed the first antiseptic surgery. (1865)

US President Andrew Johnson defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. (1867)

Self-proclaimed Emperor Norton of the USA issued an edit abolishing the Democratic and Republican parties. (1869)

Thomas Edison invented the Edisonphone, a sound recording device. (1877)

The last quagga, a zebra subspecies, died at the Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam. (1883)

Hawaii was formally annexed to the US. (1898)

Spanish American War: Peace protocol ending the war was signed. (1898)

Edith Nathan, May Nathan, and Mary Heaysman, three women who had been working as missionaries in the Chinese city of Ta-ning, were captured by Boxers and executed the next morning. (1900)

Henry Ford’s company built the first Model T car. (1908)

WW1: Great Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary. (1914)

WW I: Allies defeated Germans at the Battle of Amiens. This was the last great battle on the Western Front. (1918)

Bolsheviks arrested the Orthodox spiritual father of the Belogorsk monastery, Hieromonk Vyacheslav, whom they executed. (1918)

WW1: Battle of Warsaw took place between Poland and Russia. (1920)

Wings, the only silent film to win an Oscar for best picture, opened starring Clara Bow. It won Outstanding Picture in 1929. (1927)

The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, premiered. (1939)

WW2: French Marshal Henri Petain gave full support to Nazi Germany (1941)

In Bolivia, four years after Dave Bacon, Cecil and Bob Dye, George Hosback, and Eldon Hunter were martyred by Ayore Indians, a group of Ayoré laid down their weapons and came out of the jungle. (1947)

East Germany began construction on the Berlin Wall. (1961)

For the first time, two people were in space. (1962)

Vietnam War: Last American combat ground troops left Vietnam. (1972)

Chuck Colson, Watergate Conspirator, Christian speaker, and author, was saved. (1973)

High Energy Astronomy Observatory, HEAO 1, was launched into Earth’s orbit by NASA. (1977)

Space shuttle Enterprise, the first space shuttle, made its first atmospheric flight. (1977)

IBM introduced its first Personal Computer – PC & PC-DOS version 1.0. (1981)

Ebola outbreak death toll exceeded 1,000. (2014)

American swimmer Katie Ledecky’s medal tally of 4 golds, 1 silver made her the most decorated US female athlete at one Olympics. She was the highest female of Rio games and the first swimmer to win 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle at same Olympics since 1968. (2016)

Today in HisStory – August 11

The Mayan Calendar began. (3114 BC)

This is the traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation. (2492 BC)

Philip Embury arrived in America to become first Methodist pastor in the colonies. (1760)

Francis II assumed the title of first Emperor of Austria. (1804)

First successful US silver mill opened in Virginia City, Nevada. (1860)

World’s first roller rink opened in Newport, Rhode Island. (1866)

Harvey Hubbell patented the electric light bulb socket with a pull chain. (1896)

SOS was first used by an American ship off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. (1909)

John Wray patented animation. (1914)

WW1: Jews were expelled from Mitchenick, Poland. (1914)

First newsreel pictures of US presidential candidates were taken. (1924)

Babe Ruth became the first to hit 500 homers. (1929)

Tempature reached 136°F, 57.8°C, at San Luis Potosi, Mexico. This set a world record. (1933)

First federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. (1934)

WW2: Nazis held a mass demonstration against German Jews. (1935)

WW2: Allies refused Japan’s surrender offer to retain Emperor Hirohito. (1945)

East Germany began building the Berlin Wall. (1961)

Watts race riots began in Los Angeles. (1965)

During a radio voice test, US President Reagan joked he “signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes.” (1984)

Al-Qaeda formed at a meeting between Osama bin Laden, Zawahiri and Dr Fadl in Peshawar, Pakistan. (1988)

Largest Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered was found in South Dakota. (1990)

NATO took over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history. (2003)

Largest ever outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease happened in New York. 12 died with over 100 cases reported in the South Bronx. (2015)

A Greenland shark was declared the oldest vertebrate animal in the world at 392 years by international team of scientists. (2016)