This Day in History
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27 BC - Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years.

532 - The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I.

1435 - Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement by the Spanish of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands who had converted, or were converting to, Christianity, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.

1547 - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on
the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England.

1793 - Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.

1797 - French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.

1815 - War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.

1822 - The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.

1833 - United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.

1840 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.

1842 - Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

1847 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.

1849 - Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island.

1849 - Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs.

1888 - The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.

1893 - The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.

1893 - U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.

1895 - First Italo-Ethiopian War: The war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.

1898 - Emile Zola's J'accuse...! exposes the Dreyfus affair.

1900 - To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces.

1908 - The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.

1915 - The 6.7 Mw Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610.

1920 - The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history.

1935 - A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to no more being a "region occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France".

1939 - The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometres
(7,700 sq mi) of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

1942 - Henry Ford patents a soybean car, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.

1942 - World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

1950 - British submarine HMS Truculent collides with an oil tanker in the Thames Estuary, killing 64 men.

1950 - Finland forms diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

1951 - First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen begins.

1953 - An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.

1958 - The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the
Battle of Edchera.

1963 - Coup d'etat in Togo results in the assassination of president
Sylvanus Olympio.

1964 - Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, in response to anti-Hindu riots in East Pakistan. About one hundred people are killed.

1964 - In Manchester, New Hampshire, fourteen-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment case Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971).

1966 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member
when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

1968 - Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison.

1972 - Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

1977 - Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045, a Douglas DC-8 jet, crashes onto
the runway during takeoff from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, killing five.

1978 - United States Food and Drug Administration requires all blood
donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.

1982 - Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet,
crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.

1985 - A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in
the worst railroad disaster in Africa.

1986 - A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.

1988 - Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.

1990 - Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office as Governor of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

1991 - Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding around 1,000 others.

1993 - Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.

1993 - The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed.

1993 - Operation Southern Watch: U.S.A.F., U.S.N., R.A.F. and French Air
Force jets attack AAA and SAM sites in Southern Iraq.

1998 - Alfredo Ormando sets himself on fire in St. Peter's Square, protesting against homophobia.

2000 - A Short 360 aircraft chartered by the Sirte Oil Company crashes off
the coast of Brega, Libya, killing 21.

2001 - An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.

2012 - The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain Francesco Schettino's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.

2018 - A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii causes widespread panic in the state.

2020 - The Thai Ministry of Public Health confirms the first case of COVID-19 outside China.

2021 - Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is impeached for a second time on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the January 6 United States Capitol attack one week prior.

--- up 4 hours, 23 minutes
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2024 - Queen Margrethe II abdicates as Queen of Denmark and is succeeded by her son, Frederik X.

2019 - A Saha Airlines Boeing 707 crashes at Fath Air Base near Karaj in Alborz Province, Iran, killing 15 people.

2016 - Multiple explosions reported near the Sarinah Building, Jakarta, followed by shootout between perpetrators and the police, killing seven people. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility.

2011 - President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia seeks refuge in Saudi Arabia after a series of demonstrations against his regime, considered to be the birth of the Arab Spring.

2010 - Yemen declares an open war against the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

2004 - The national flag of the Republic of Georgia, the so-called "five
cross flag", is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.

1993 - Sinking of the MS Jan Heweliusz: In Poland's worst peacetime maritime disaster, ferry MS Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rugen, drowning 55 passengers and crew; nine crew-members are saved.

1973 - Elvis Presley's concert Aloha from Hawaii is broadcast live via satellite, and sets the record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.

1972 - Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ascends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederik or Christian since 1513.

1969 - USS Enterprise fire: An accidental explosion aboard the
USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 28 people.

1967 - Counterculture of the 1960s: The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco, California's Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love.

1960 - The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank and banknote issuing authority authorized by the 1959 Reserve Bank Act, is established.

1957 - Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher) after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars.

1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.

1953 - Josip Broz Tito is elected the first President of Yugoslavia.

1952 - NBC's long-running morning news program Today debuts, with host Dave Garroway.

1951 - National Airlines Flight 83 crashes during landing at Philadelphia International Airport, killing seven passengers and crew.

1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.

1943 - World War II: Japan begins Operation Ke, the successful operation to evacuate its forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign.

1939 - Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.

1911 - Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.

1907 - An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000 people.

1900 - Giacomo Puccini's Tosca opens in Rome.

1899 - RMS Oceanic, the largest ship afloat since SS Great Eastern, is launched.

1858 - Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt made by Felice Orsini and his accomplices in Paris.

1814 - Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes the Kingdom of Norway to Charles XIII of Sweden in return for Pomerania.

1797 - The Battle of Rivoli is fought with a decisive French victory by Napoleon Bonaparte, marking the beginning of the end of the War of the First Coalition and the start of French hegemony over Italy for two decades.

1784 - American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States: Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.

1761 - The Third Battle of Panipat, the largest battle of the 18th century,
is fought in India between the Afghan Durrani Empire under Ahmad Shah
Durrani, and the Maratha Empire under Sadashivrao Bhau.

1301 - Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Arpad dynasty in Hungary.

1236 - King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence.

--- up 20 hours, 47 minutes
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2023 - Yeti Airlines Flight 691 crashes near Pokhara International Airport, killing all 72 people on board.

2022 - The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha?apai volcano erupts, cutting off communications with Tonga and causing a tsunami across the Pacific.

2021 - A 6.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia's Sulawesi island killing at least 105 and injuring 3,369 people.

2020 - The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare confirms the first case of COVID-19 in Japan.

2019 - Theresa May's UK government suffers the biggest government defeat in modern times, when 432 MPs voting against the proposed European Union withdrawal agreement, giving her opponents a majority of 230.

2019 - Somali militants attack the DusitD2 hotel in Nairobi, Kenya killing at least 21 people and injuring 19.

2018 - British multinational construction and facilities management services company Carillion went into liquidation - officially, "the largest ever trading liquidation in the UK"

2016 - The Kenyan Army suffers its worst defeat ever in a battle with Al-Shabaab Islamic insurgents in El-Adde, Somalia. An estimated 150 Kenyan soldiers are killed in the battle.

2015 - The Swiss National Bank abandons the cap on the Swiss franc's value relative to the euro, causing turmoil in international financial markets.

2013 - A train carrying Egyptian Army recruits derails near Giza, Greater Cairo, killing 19 and injuring 120 others.

2009 - US Airways Flight 1549 ditches safely in the Hudson River after the plane collides with birds less than two minutes after take-off. This becomes known as "The Miracle on the Hudson" as all 155 people on board were rescued.

2005 - ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the Moon.

2001 - Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, is launched (Wikipedia Day).

1991 - Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, signs letters patent allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own Victoria Cross in its honours system.

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.

1981 - Pope John Paul II receives a delegation from the Polish trade union Solidarity at the Vatican led by Lech Walesa.

1977 - Linjeflyg Flight 618 crashes in Kalvesta near Stockholm Bromma
Airport in Stockholm, Sweden, killing 22 people.

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

1975 - The Alvor Agreement is signed, ending the Angolan War of Independence and giving Angola independence from Portugal.

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

1970 - Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

1970 - Nigerian Civil War: Biafran rebels surrender following an unsuccessful 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria.

1969 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.

1967 - The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.

1966 - The First Nigerian Republic, led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown in a military coup d'etat.

1962 - Netherlands New Guinea Conflict: Indonesian Navy fast patrol boat RI Macan Tutul commanded by Commodore Yos Sudarso sunk in Arafura Sea by the Dutch Navy.

1962 - The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to
340 BC, is found in northern Greece.

1949 - Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist government.

1947 - The Black Dahlia murder: The dismembered corpse of Elizabeth Short was found in Los Angeles.

1943 - The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington County, Virginia.

1943 - World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.

1937 - Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republicans both withdraw after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road.

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

1934 - The 8.0 Mw Nepal-Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing an estimated 6,000-10,700 people.

1919 - Great Molasses Flood: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, Massachusetts, killing 21 and injuring 150.

1919 - Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent communists in Germany, are clubbed and then shot to death by members of the Freikorps at the end of the Spartacist uprising.

1911 - Palestinian Arabic-language Falastin newspaper founded.

1910 - Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 99 m (325 ft).

1908 - The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African American college women.

1892 - James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.

1889 - The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company,
is incorporated in Atlanta.

1876 - The first newspaper in Afrikaans, Die Afrikaanse Patriot, is published in Paarl.

1870 - Thomas Nast publishes a political cartoon symbolizing the Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion") for Harper's Weekly.

1867 - Forty people die when ice covering the boating lake at Regent's Park, London, collapses.

1865 - American Civil War: Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.

1822 - Greek War of Independence: Demetrios Ypsilantis is elected president
of the legislative assembly.

1818 - A paper by David Brewster is read to the Royal Society, belatedly announcing his discovery of what we now call the biaxial class of doubly-refracting crystals. On the same day, Augustin-Jean Fresnel signs a "supplement" (submitted four days later) on reflection of polarized light.

1815 - War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates.

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

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

1759 - The British Museum opens to the public.

1582 - Truce of Yam-Zapolsky: Russia cedes Livonia to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1559 - Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England and Ireland in Westminster Abbey, London.

1541 - King Francis I of France gives Jean-Francois Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (Canada) and provide for the spread of the "Holy Catholic faith".

69 - Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome,
beginning a reign of only three months.

--- Binbrook, ON: Light snow -13°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2020 - The United States Senate ratifies the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement as a replacement for NAFTA.

2020 - The first impeachment of Donald Trump formally moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate.

2018 - Myanmar police open fire on a group of ethnic Rakhine protesters, killing seven and wounding twelve.

2017 - Turkish Airlines Flight 6491 crashes into a residential area near
Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan, killing 39 people.

2016 - Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant.

2012 - The Mali War begins when Tuareg militias start fighting the Malian government for independence.

2011 - Syrian civil war: The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) is established with the stated goal of re-organizing Syria along the lines of democratic confederalism.

2006 - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.

2003 - The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would
be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.

2002 - War in Afghanistan: The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.

2001 - US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.

2001 - Second Congo War: Congolese President Laurent-Desire Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards in Kinshasa.

1995 - An avalanche hits the Icelandic village Sudavik, destroying 25
homes and burying 26 people, 14 of whom died.

1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.

1991 - Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.

1983 - Turkish Airlines Flight 158 crashes at Ankara Esenboga Airport in Ankara, Turkey, killing 47 and injuring 20.

1979 - Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.

1969 - Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.

1969 - Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.

1959 - Austral Lineas Aereas Flight 205 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean
near Astor Piazzolla International Airport in Mar del Plata, Argentina, killing 51.

1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Fuhrerbunker.

1942 - Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard.

1942 - The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins deporting Jews from the Lodz
Ghetto to Chelmno extermination camp.

1921 - The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Lubochna.

1920 - The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.

1919 - Nebraska becomes the 36th state to approve the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. With the necessary three-quarters of the states approving the amendment, Prohibition is constitutionally mandated in the United States one year later.

1913 - Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan writes his first letter to G. H. Hardy at Cambridge, stating without proof various formulae involving integrals, infinite series, and continued fractions, beginning a long correspondence between the two as well as widespread recognition of Ramanujan's results.

1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.

1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by Congress.

1878 - Russo-Turkish War (1877-78): Battle of Philippopolis: Captain
Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.

1862 - Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompting a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.

1847 - Westward expansion of the United States: John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruna.

1786 - Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.

1780 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.

1757 - Forces of the Maratha Empire are defeated by the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.

1716 - King Philip V of Spain promulgates the Nueva Planta decree of the Principality of Catalonia, abolishing the Catalan institutions and its legal system, being replaced by those of the Castile, thus putting an end to Catalonia as separate state and becoming a province of the new French-style Kingdom of Spain.

1707 - The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.

1605 - The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.

1572 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried and found guilty of
treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.

1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.

1547 - Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy becomes the first Tsar of Russia, replacing the 264-year-old Grand Duchy of Moscow with the Tsardom of Russia.

1537 - Bigod's Rebellion, an armed insurrection attempting to resist the English Reformation, begins.

1362 - Saint Marcellus's flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea.

1275 - Edward I permits his mother Eleanor of Provence to expel the Jews from the towns Worcester, Marlborough, Cambridge and Gloucester.

1120 - Crusades: The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

929 - Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III establishes the Caliphate of Cordoba.

550 - Gothic War: The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a
long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.

378 - General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacan.

27 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1458 BC - Hatshepsut dies at the age of 50 and is buried in the Valley of the Kings.

--- Binbrook, ON: Partly cloudy -11°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2023 - An avalanche strikes Nyingchi, Tibet, killing 28 people.

2017 - The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is announced to be suspended.

2016 - President Barack Obama announces the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement intended to limit Iran's nuclear program.

2013 - Shahzad Luqman is murdered by members of Golden Dawn in Petralona, Athens, leading the creation of new measures to combat race-based attacks in Greece.

2013 - Former cyclist Lance Armstrong confesses to his doping in an airing of Oprah's Next Chapter.

2010 - Rioting begins between Muslim and Christian groups in Jos, Nigeria, results in at least 200 deaths.

2008 - British Airways Flight 38 crashes short of the runway at Heathrow Airport, injuring 47.

2007 - The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea's nuclear testing.

2002 - Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.

1998 - Clinton-Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website.

1997 - Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: A Delta II carrying the GPS IIR-1 satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.

1996 - The Czech Republic applies for membership in the European Union.

1995 - The 6.9 Mw Great Hanshin earthquake shakes the southern Hyogo Prefecture with a maximum Shindo of 7, leaving 5,502-6,434 people dead, and 251,301-310,000 displaced.

1994 - The 6.7 Mw Northridge earthquake shakes the Greater Los Angeles
Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 57 people
dead and more than 8,700 injured.

1992 - During a visit to South Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.

1991 - Crown Prince Harald of Norway becomes King Harald V, following the death of his father, King Olav V.

1991 - Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning as aircraft strike positions across Iraq, it is also the first major combat sortie for the F-117. LCDR Scott Speicher's F/A-18C Hornet from VFA-81 is
shot down by a Mig-25 and is the first American casualty of the War. Iraq fires eight Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.

1981 - President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos lifts martial law eight years and five months after declaring it.

1977 - Capital punishment in the United States resumes after a ten-year hiatus, as convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah.

1969 - Black Panther Party members Bunchy Carter and John Huggins are killed during a meeting in Campbell Hall on the campus of UCLA.

1966 - Palomares incident: A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing seven airmen, and dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.

1961 - Former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is murdered together with former Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of the Congo Maurice Mpolo and former Senator from Kasai Province Joseph Okito in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments of Belgium and the United States.

1961 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex" as
well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending.

1950 - United Nations Security Council Resolution 79 relating to arms control is adopted.

1950 - The Great Brink's Robbery: Eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company's offices in Boston.

1948 - The Renville Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia is ratified.

1946 - The UN Security Council holds its first session.

1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while
in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.

1945 - The SS-Totenkopfverbande begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as the Red Army closes in.

1945 - World War II: The Vistula-Oder Offensive forces German troops out of Warsaw.

1944 - World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000
Allied casualties.

1943 - World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis captures the 200-ton sailing vessel Agios Stefanos and mans her with part of her crew.

1941 - Franco-Thai War: Vichy French forces inflict a decisive defeat over
the Royal Thai Navy.

1920 - Alcohol Prohibition begins in the United States as the Volstead Act goes into effect.

1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles take place between the
Red Guards and the White Guard.

1917 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

1915 - Russia defeats Ottoman Turkey in the Battle of Sarikamish during the Caucasus Campaign of World War I.

1912 - British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.

1904 - Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance
at the Moscow Art Theatre.

1903 - El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.

1899 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.

1893 - Lorrin A. Thurston, along with the Citizens' Committee of Public Safety, led the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the government of
Queen Lili?uokalani.

1885 - A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.

1873 - A group of Modoc warriors defeats the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, part of the Modoc War.

1852 - The United Kingdom signs the Sand River Convention with the South African Republic.

1811 - Mexican War of Independence: In the Battle of Calderon Bridge, a heavily outnumbered Spanish force of 6,000 troops defeats nearly 100,000 Mexican revolutionaries.

1799 - Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, is executed.

1781 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cowpens: Continental troops
under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the battle in South Carolina.

1773 - Captain James Cook leads the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle.

1649 - The Second Ormonde Peace creates an alliance between the Irish Royalists and Confederates during the War of the Three Kingdoms. The
coalition was then decisively defeated during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

1648 - England's Long Parliament passes the "Vote of No Addresses", breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.

1641 - Reapers' War: The Junta de Bracos (parliamentary assembly) of the Principality of Catalonia accepts the proposal of establishment of the
Catalan Republic under French protection.

1608 - Emperor Susenyos I of Ethiopia surprises an Oromo army at Ebenat; his army reportedly kills 12,000 Oromo at the cost of 400 of his men.

1595 - During the French Wars of Religion, Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.

1562 - France grants religious toleration to the Huguenots in the Edict of Saint-Germain.

1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.

1377 - Pope Gregory XI reaches Rome, after deciding to move the Papacy back
to Rome from Avignon.

1362 - Saint Marcellus' flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea.

38 BC - Octavian divorces his wife Scribonia and marries Livia Drusilla, ending the fragile peace between the Second Triumvirate and Sextus Pompey.

--- up 3 days, 20 hours, 46 minutes
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2025 - The popular social media app, TikTok, is banned in the United States, after the passing of PAFACA.

2023 - A helicopter crash in Ukraine leaves 14 people dead, including the country's Interior Minister, Denys Monastyrsky.

2019 - An oil pipeline explosion near Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, Mexico, kills
137 people.

2018 - A bus catches fire on the Samara-Shymkent road in Yrgyz District, Aktobe, Kazakhstan. The fire kills 52 passengers, with three passengers and two drivers escaping.

2012 - More than 115,000 websites engage in an online protest against the
Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act in the US.[citation needed] The websites involved viewed the laws as infringing on the right to free speech and many of them temporarily shut down in protest.

2008 - The Euphronios Krater is unveiled in Rome after being returned to
Italy by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

2007 - The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people and Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Cyclone Kyrill causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe.

2005 - The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France

2003 - A bushfire kills four people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.

2002 - The Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over.

1993 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all 50 US states.

1990 - Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession
in an FBI sting.

1988 - China Southwest Airlines Flight 4146 crashes near Chongqing Baishiyi Airport, killing all 98 passengers and 10 crew members.

1986 - An Aerovias Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes on approach to Mundo Maya International Airport in Flores, Peten, Guatemala, killing all 94 people on board.

1983 - The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.

1981 - Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).

1978 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom's government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not
guilty of torture.

1977 - SFR Yugoslavia's Prime minister, Dzemal Bijedic, his wife and six others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1977 - Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney, killing 83.

1977 - Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announce they have identified a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.

1976 - Lebanese Christian militias kill at least 1,000 in Karantina, Beirut.

1974 - A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.

1972 - Members of the Mukti Bahini lay down their arms to the government of the newly independent Bangladesh, a month after winning the war against the occupying Pakistan Army.

1969 - United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay killing all
32 passengers and six crew members.

1967 - Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler", is convicted of numerous
crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

1960 - Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years.

1958 - Willie O'Ree, the first Black Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.

1945 - World War II: Liberation of Krakow, Poland by the Red Army.

1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.

1941 - World War II: British troops launch a general counter-offensive
against Italian East Africa.

1932 - Alt Llobregat insurrection breaks out in Central Catalonia, Spain.

1919 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.

1919 - World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.

1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a
bid to increase its power in East Asia.

1913 - First Balkan War: A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.

1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in
San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

1896 - An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.

1886 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.

1871 - Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed Kaiser Wilhelm in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (France) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. Wilhelm already had the title of German Emperor since
the constitution of 1 January 1871, but he had hesitated to accept the title.

1866 - Wesley College is established in Melbourne, Australia.

1806 - Jan Willem Janssens surrenders the Dutch Cape Colony to the British.

1788 - The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.

1778 - James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".

1701 - Frederick I crowns himself King in Prussia in Konigsberg.

1670 - Henry Morgan captures Panama.

1586 - The magnitude 7.9 Tensho earthquake strikes Honshu, Japan, killing 8,000 people and triggering a tsunami.

1562 - Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.

1486 - King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of
Edward IV, uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

1126 - Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.

532 - Nika riots in Constantinople fail.

474 - Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later.

--- Binbrook, ON: Light snow -10°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
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2025 - Bytedance and sister companies were banned from the United States for "security concerns".

2024 - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's probe landed on the moon, making Japan the 5th country to land a spacecraft on the moon.

2014 - A bomb attack on an army convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26 Pakistani soldiers and injures 38 others.

2012 - The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by
the FBI.

2007 - Four-man Team N2i, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1965 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.

2007 - Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogun Samast.

2006 - A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes near Hejce, Hungary, killing 42.

1999 - British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.

1997 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

1996 - The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

1995 - After being struck by lightning the crew of Bristow Helicopters Flight 56C are forced to ditch. All 18 aboard are later rescued.

1993 - Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.

1991 - Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.

1990 - Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in Indian-administered Kashmir due to an insurgency.

1988 - Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 crashes in Bayfield, Colorado, killing nine.

1981 - Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

1978 - The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.

1977 - President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

1969 - Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest.

1966 - Indira Gandhi becomes India's first female prime minister.

1960 - Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871 crashes near Ankara Esenboga Airport in Turkey, killing all 42 aboard.

1960 - Japan and the United States sign the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty

1953 - Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are
tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

1946 - General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

1945 - World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Lodz Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, fewer than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

1942 - World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins.

1941 - World War II: HMS Greyhound and other escorts of convoy AS-12 sink Italian submarine Neghelli with all hands 64 kilometres (40 mi) northeast of Falkonera.

1937 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.

1920 - The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1917 - Silvertown explosion: A blast at a munitions factory in London kills
73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over GBP2,000,000 worth of damage.

1915 - German strategic bombing during World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at
least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

1915 - Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

1901 - Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, stricken with paralysis. She dies three days later at the age of 81.

1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1871 - Franco-Prussian War: In the Siege of Paris, Prussia wins the Battle of St. Quentin. Meanwhile, the French attempt to break the siege in the Battle
of Buzenval will end unsuccessfully the following day.

1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs: The Confederacy suffers
its first significant defeat in the conflict.

1861 - American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida,
Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States.

1853 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.

1839 - The British East India Company captures Aden.

1829 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance.

1817 - An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General Jose de San Martin,
crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

1795 - The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands, replacing the Dutch Republic.

1788 - The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay.

1764 - Bolle Willum Luxdorph records in his diary that a mail bomb, possibly the world's first, has severely injured the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Borglum Abbey.

1764 - John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for
seditious libel.

1639 - Hameenlinna (Swedish: Tavastehus) is granted privileges after it separated from the Vanaja parish as its own city in Tavastia.

1607 - San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is the oldest church still standing in the Philippines.

1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund and dies on February 3.

1511 - The Italian Duchy of Mirandola surrenders to the Pope.

1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England, completing his reconquest of Normandy.

649 - Conquest of Kucha: The forces of Kucha surrender after a forty-day
siege led by Tang dynasty general Ashina She'er, establishing Tang control over the northern Tarim Basin in Xinjiang.

379 - Emperor Gratian elevates Flavius Theodosius at Sirmium to Augustus, and gives him authority over all the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.

--- Binbrook, ON: Light snow -9°C, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)