1775 Patrick Henry proclaims "Give me liberty or give me death" in speech in favor of Virginian troops joining US Revolutionary war.
1918 Germany begins using long-range gun, the 'Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz' ('Emperor William Gun'), aka 'Paris Gun' to shell Paris from Crépy-en-Laonnais, 75 miles away; over several days, 303 rounds kill 256 and wound over 600
1919 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party re-establishes a five-member Politburo which becomes the center of political power in the Soviet Union. Original members Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Krestinsky.
1921 Germany announces it will be unable to meet its Great War reparation payments.
1933 German Reichstag hastily passes the Enabling Act and President Paul von Hindenburg signs it the same day, granting Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
1945 Battle of Okinawa: US Navy ships bomb the Japanese island of Okinawa in preparation for the Allied invasion; it would become the largest battle of the Pacific War in World War II
1957 US army sells last homing pigeons.
2019 Syrian Democratic Forces announce that the last Islamic State territory has been retaken raising flags in Baghuz, Syria and ending the five-year Islamic State "caliphate"
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