1784 US Congress of the Confederation ratifies the Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, ending the Revolutionary War, and forwards it to Great Britain.

1943 World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt travels from Miami to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill, becoming the first American president to travel overseas by airplane.

1943 World War II: Casablanca Conference begins between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other Allied representatives.

1960 US Army promotes Elvis Presley to Sergeant.

1970 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers patrol the Falls Road area of Belfast for the first time since 1969

1973 2 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are killed in Derry, Northern Ireland by a booby-trap bomb attached to their car by the Irish Republican Army.

1535 King Henry VIII declares himself head of the Church in England.

1870 Donkey first used as symbol of Democratic Party, in Harper's Weekly.

1902 Abdulaziz Ibn Saud leads 40 men over the walls of Riyadh and takes the city, marking the beginning of the Third Saudi State.

1940 German U-Boot torpedoes Dutch merchant ship Arendskerk (Eagle's Church)

1943 World's largest office building, the Pentagon is completed to house the US military.

1944 General Eisenhower arrives in England to take up his command as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

2001 Wikipedia a free Wiki or content encyclopedia is launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.

2009 Chesley Sullenberger lands US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in NYC. All passengers and crew members survive in what becomes known as the "Miracle on the Hudson"

1707 The Act of Union is ratified by the Scottish Parliament.

1780 Battle of Cape St Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats Spanish squadron under Don Juan de Lángara.

1913 British House of Commons accepts Home Rule for Ireland (but the Great War gets in the way of it happening)

1917 "Zimmermann Telegram" is sent from Germany to Mexico, stating in the event of the US entering World War I on the allied side, Mexico would be given Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Intercepted by British intelligence and partially deciphered by the next day. It's release in March shifts US public opinion in favour of war against Germany.

1939 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) begins a 14 month long bombing campaign in England.

1945 Adolf Hitler moves into the Fuhrerbunker, his underground bunker in Berlin, where he lives until his suicide April 30

2002 UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and freezes assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the members of the Taliban.

1773 Captain James Cook becomes the first to cross Antarctic Circle (66° 33' S)

1912 Captain Robert Scott's expedition arrives at the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.

1920 First day of prohibition of alcohol comes into effect in the US as a result of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

1945 Nazis begin evacuation of Auschwitz concentration camp to other camps in Austria and Germany as the Red Army advanced across Poland.

1946 United Nations Security Council holds its 1st meeting, at Westminster Central Hall in Westminster, England.

1991 Operation Desert Storm begins, with US-led coalition forces bombing Iraq, during the Gulf War.

1788 First elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony.

1943 Soviets announce they have broken the long Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege would not be fully lifted until a year later.

1957 3 B-52's set record for around-the-world flight, 45 hr 19 min.

1962 US begins spraying foliage in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas.

1812 Peninsular War: After a ten day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the Light and third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.

1915 World War I: 4 people in Norfolk are killed in the 1st German Zeppelin air raid attack on the United Kingdom.

1940 The Three Stooges film "You Nazty Spy!" about the Nazis released with the disclaimer "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle."

1942 Dutch Catholic priest and outspoken anti-Nazi Titus Brandsma arrested by German occupiers - later dies at Dachau concentration camp (canonized 2022 by Pope Francis)

1971 The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" is played at Charles Manson trial.

1977 US President Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (Tokyo Rose)

1993 Israel recognizes PLO as no longer criminal.

1841 China cedes Hong Kong to the British during the First Opium War.

1879 British troops under Lord Chelmsford make camp at Isandlwana.

1887 US Senate approves naval base lease of Pearl Harbour.

1921 British submarine HMS K5 (which was unusually equipped with steam turbines) sinks with 57 crew during exercises in the Bay of Biscay.

1942 Nazi officials hold the notorious Wannsee Conference in Berlin to organize the "final solution", the extermination of Europe's Jews.

1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn-in for an unprecedented (and never to be repeated) 4th term as US President.

1981 The US diplomats and citizens held hostage at the US embassy in Tehran are released and begin their journey home after 444 days.

1986 Chunnel announced (railroad tunnel under Channel)

1793 Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for "high treason" by the newly created French Parliament (Convention nationale), during the French Revolution.

1919 Irish militant nationalist party Sinn Féin creates its own parliament in Dublin and declares Ireland independent of Great Britain, sparking the Irish War of Independence.

1943 Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Royal Navy, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet.

1944 447 German bombers attack London.

1944 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg.

1968 The Battle of Khe Sanh - one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War - begins at the Khe Sanh Air Base.

1968 US B-52 bomber with nuclear bomb on board crashes in Greenland.

1831 Charles Darwin takes his Bachelors of Art exam at Christ's College, Cambridge, coming tenth out of 171 candidates.

1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift: British garrison of 150 holds off 3,000-4,000 Zulu warriors. Eleven Victoria Crosses and a number of other decorations were awarded to the defenders.

1879 Zulu warriors attack British Army camp in Isandhlwana, South Africa.

1973 In a landmark decision the US Supreme Court legalizes most abortions (Roe v. Wade), authoring the majority opinion Harry Blackmun states that the criminalization of abortion does not have "roots in the English common-law tradition"

1958 - I was slapped by a Doctor. :o

Happy birthday Jeff Groves!
 

1795 War of the First Coalition: French cavalry captures 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns near the port of Den Helder - rare instance of cavalry capturing a fleet.

1920 Dutch refuse to turn over ex-Emperor William II of Germany to allies.

1945 Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal to evacuate German soldiers and civilians from Prussia by sea.

1950 Israeli Knesset resolves Jerusalem is capital of Israel.

1962 British intelligence officer Kim Philby defects to USSR

1968 Spy ship USS Pueblo & 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by North Korea.

1973 US President Richard Nixon announces an accord has been reached to end the Vietnam War.

2020 China locks down the city of Wuhan and its 9 million people, in a belated but ultimately successful effort to control the city's COVID-19 epidemic.

1908 Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell publishes "Scouting for Boys" as a manual for self-instruction in outdoor skills and self-improvement. The book becomes the inspiration for the Scout Movement.

1915 German-British sea battle at Dogger Bank & Helgoland.

1916 The Military Service Bill, calling for conscription of men for war services, passes in the British House of Commons.

1943 Adolf Hitler orders German troops at Stalingrad to fight to the death.

1943 Jewish patients, nurses and doctors incinerated at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1958 After warming to 100,000,000 degrees, 2 light atoms are bashed together to create a heavier atom, resulting in 1st man-made nuclear fusion.

1918 Russia declared a republic of Soviets.

1939 1st nuclear fission experiment (splitting of a uranium atom) in the US, in basement of Pupin Hall, Columbia University by a team including Enrico Fermi.

1969 US-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris.

1981 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived back in US

1981 Mao's widow Jiang Qing sentenced to death as one of the "Gang of Four" (later commuted to life in prison)

1983 China's supreme court commutes Chiang Ch'ing's death sentence to life.

1998 Britain's Queen Mother gets an emergency hip replacement aged 97

1788 Captain Arthur Phillip and British colonists hoist the Union Flag at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, now celebrated as Australia Day. Referred to as Invasion Day by some First Nations people.

1838 Myall Creek Massacre: about 50 Wirrayaraay indigenous people killed by New South Wales Mounted Police (seven men later the first ever to be hanged for killing Australian Aborigines)

1841 Hong Kong proclaimed a sovereign territory of Britain.

1907 The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III rifle officially introduced into British Military Service, 2nd oldest military rifle still in official use.

1932 British submarine M-2 sinks in English Channel (60 dead)

1934 Nazi Germany & Poland sign 10-year non-aggression treaty.

1968 Israeli submarine Dakar sinks in Mediterranean Sea, 69 die.

1998 President Bill Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people; I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky"