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 -13øC, 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 -11øC, 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
-------------------

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 -10øC, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

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 -9øC, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States of America. He is currently the oldest person ever inaugurated.

2021 - Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America. At the time of his inauguration, he became the oldest person ever inaugurated. Kamala Harris became the first female Vice President of the United States.

2018 - Syrian civil war: The Government of Turkey announces the initiation of the Afrin offensive and begins shelling Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions in Afrin Region.

2018 - A group of four or five gunmen attack The Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, sparking a 12-hour battle. The attack kills 40 people and injures many others.

2017 - Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America.

2009 - A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start.

2009 - Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becoming the first African-American President of the United States.

2001 - President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent four-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

1992 - Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes into a mountain near Strasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board.

1991 - Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.

1990 - Protests in Azerbaijan, part of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.

1986 - Leabua Jonathan, Prime Minister of Lesotho, is ousted from power in a coup d'etat led by General Justin Lekhanya.

1986 - In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

1981 - Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th
President of the United States of America, Iran releases 52 American hostages.

1974 - China gains control over all the Paracel Islands after a military engagement between the naval forces of China and South Vietnam.

1973 - Amilcar Cabral, leader of the independence movement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, is assassinated in Conakry, Guinea.

1972 - Pakistan launches its nuclear weapons program, a few weeks after its defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War, as well as the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

1961 - John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States of America, becoming the youngest man to be elected into that office, and the first Roman Catholic.

1954 - In the United States, the National Negro Network is established with
40 charter member radio stations.

1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the
United States of America, becoming the first president to begin his
presidency on January 20 since the 20th Amendment changed the dates of presidential terms.

1945 - World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people
from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months.

1945 - World War II: The provisional government of Bela Miklos in Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.

1942 - World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials discuss the implementation of the
"Final Solution to the Jewish question".

1941 - A German officer is killed in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers.

1937 - Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President; it is the first time
a Presidential Inauguration takes place on January 20 since the 20th
Amendment changed the dates of presidential terms.

1921 - The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental
changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.

1921 - The British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 56 on board die.

1909 - Newly formed automaker General Motors (GM) buys into the Oakland Motor Car Company, which later becomes GM's long-running Pontiac division.

1887 - The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.

1877 - The last day of the Constantinople Conference results in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

1874 - The Treaty of Pangkor is signed between the British and Sultan
Abdullah of Perak, paving the way for further British colonization of Malaya.

1841 - Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British during the First Opium War.

1839 - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats an alliance between Peru and Bolivia.

1788 - The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay,
beginning the British colonization of Australia. Arthur Phillip decides that Port Jackson is a more suitable location for a colony.

1785 - Invading Siamese forces attempt to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, but are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong river by the Tay
Son in the Battle of Rach Gam-Xoai Mut.

1783 - The Kingdom of Great Britain signs preliminary articles of peace with the Kingdom of France, setting the stage for the official end of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War later that year.

1649 - The High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I begins its proceedings.

1576 - The Mexican city of Leon is founded by order of the viceroy Don
Martin Enriquez de Almanza.

1567 - Battle of Rio de Janeiro: Portuguese forces under the command of Estacio de Sa definitively drive the French out of Rio de Janeiro.

1523 - Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.

1401 - The Taula de canvi (Catalan: "Table of change"), described as Europe's first-ever public bank, began operations inside Barcelona's Llotja de Mar.

1356 - Edward Balliol surrenders his claim to the Scottish throne to Edward III in exchange for an English pension.

1320 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.

1265 - The first English parliament to include not only Lords but also representatives of the major towns holds its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament".

1156 - Finnish peasant Lalli kills English clergyman Henry, the Bishop of Turku, on the ice of Lake Koylio.

250 - Pope Fabian is martyred during the Decian persecution.

--- up 6 days, 20 hours, 47 minutes
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2025 - A fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the Kartalkaya ski resort in Bolu Province, Turkey, results in 78 people dead and 51 injured.

2023 - Huu Can Tran, 72, opens fire in a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, killing eleven people and injuring nine others before later committing suicide. It is the worst mass shooting in Los Angeles County since the 2008 Covina massacre.

2017 - Over 400 cities across America and 160+ countries worldwide
participate in a large-scale women's march, on Donald Trump's first full day as President of the United States.

2014 - Rojava conflict: The Jazira Canton declares its autonomy from the Syrian Arab Republic.

2011 - Anti-government demonstrations take place in Tirana, Albania. Four people died from gunshots, allegedly fired from armed police protecting the Prime Minister's office.

2009 - Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending a three-week war it had with Hamas. However, intermittent fire by both sides continues in the weeks to follow.

2005 - In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.

2004 - NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.

2003 - A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima,
killing 29 and leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless.

2000 - Ecuador: After the Ecuadorian Congress is seized by indigenous organizations, Col. Lucio Gutierrez, Carlos Solorzano and Antonio Vargas depose President Jamil Mahuad. Gutierrez is later replaced by Gen. Carlos Mendoza, who resigns and allows Vice-President Gustavo Noboa to succeed Mahuad.

1999 - War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history,
the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board.

1997 - The U.S. House of Representatives votes 395-28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.

1986 - Conservative protestors attacked a mock shanty town that had been erected on the Green at Dartmouth College as part of anti-apartheid protests.

1985 - Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 crashes near Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada, killing 70 people.

1981 - Production of the DeLorean sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

1980 - Iran Air Flight 291 crashes in the Alborz Mountains while on approach to Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Iran, killing 128 people.

1976 - Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.

1971 - The current Emley Moor transmitting station, the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, begins transmitting UHF broadcasts.

1968 - A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area
after its nuclear payload ruptures. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.

1968 - Vietnam War, Battle of Khe Sanh: One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.

1963 - The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad ends operation.

1960 - A coal mine collapses at Holly Country, South Africa, killing 435 miners.

1960 - Avianca Flight 671 crashes at Montego Bay, Jamaica airport, killing 37 people.

1960 - Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.

1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.

1951 - The catastrophic eruption of Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea
claims 2,942 lives.

1950 - American lawyer and government official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.

1948 - The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Quebec Flag Day.

1943 - As part of Operation Animals, British SOE saboteurs destroy the
railway bridge over the Asopos River, and guerrillas of the Greek People's Liberation Army ambush and destroy a German convoy at the Battle of Sarantaporos.

1942 - The Jewish resistance organization, Fareynikte Partizaner
Organizatsye, based in the Vilna Ghetto was established.

1941 - Sparked by the murder of a German officer in Bucharest, Romania the
day before, members of the Iron Guard engaged in a rebellion and pogrom killing 125 Jews.

1932 - Finland and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty.

1931 - Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.

1925 - Albania declares itself a republic.

1919 - A revolutionary Irish parliament is founded and declares the independence of the Irish Republic. One of the first engagements of the Irish War of Independence takes place.

1915 - Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit.

1911 - The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.

1908 - New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.

1893 - The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, is formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana.

1854 - The RMS Tayleur sinks off Lambay Island on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Australia with great loss of life.

1824 - The Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast during the First Anglo-Ashanti War.

1793 - After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.

1789 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth by William Hill Brown, is printed in Boston.

1774 - Abdul Hamid I becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.

1749 - The Teatro Filarmonico in Verona is destroyed by fire, as a result of
a torch being left behind in the box of a nobleman after a performance. It is rebuilt in 1754.

1720 - Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.

1535 - Following the Affair of the Placards, the French king leads an anti-Protestant procession through Paris.

1525 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the
home of Manz's mother in Zurich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.

763 - Following the Battle of Bakhamra between Alids and Abbasids near Kufa, the Alid rebellion ends with the death of Ibrahim, brother of Isa ibn Musa.

--- Binbrook, ON: Light snow -11øC, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - Ram Mandir is inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh after 500 years of dispute.

2009 - U.S. President Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; congressional opposition will prevent it being implemented.

2007 - At least 88 people are killed when two car bombs explode in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq.

2006 - Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.

1999 - Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.

1998 - Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

1995 - Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid suicide bombing: In central Israel, near Netanya, two Gazans blow themselves up at a military transit point, killing 19 Israeli soldiers.

1992 - Space Shuttle program: The space shuttle Discovery launches on STS-42 carrying Dr. Roberta Bondar, who becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.

1992 - Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.

1987 - Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000-15,000 demonstrators at Malacanang Palace, Manila, killing 13.

1973 - In a bout for the world heavyweight boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica, challenger George Foreman knocks down champion Joe Frazier six times in the first two rounds before the fight is stopped by referee Arthur
Mercante Sr..

1973 - A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano
Airport, Nigeria, killing 176.

1973 - The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo Moon landing mission.

1973 - The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe
v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.

1971 - The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued.

1970 - The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.

1968 - Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnam begins installation.

1968 - Apollo Program: Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module
into space.

1967 - Between dozens and hundreds of anti-Somocista demonstrators are killed by the Nicaraguan National Guard in Managua.

1963 - The Elysee Treaty of cooperation between France and West Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.

1957 - Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.

1947 - KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.

1946 - Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

1946 - In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad; he becomes the new president and Haji Baba Sheikh becomes the prime minister.

1944 - World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio and Nettuno, Italy.

1943 - World War II: Australian and American forces defeat Japanese army and navy units in the bitterly fought Battle of Buna-Gona.

1941 - World War II: British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass.

1927 - Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

1924 - Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1919 - Act Zluky is signed, unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic.

1917 - American entry into World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

1915 - Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train
plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.

1906 - SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.

1905 - Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

1901 - Edward VII is proclaimed King of the United Kingdom after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.

1890 - The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.

1879 - The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also during the Anglo-Zulu War and just some 15 km (9.3 mi) away from Isandlwana, results in a British victory.

1879 - The Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War results in a Zulu victory.

1863 - The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia.

1849 - Second Anglo-Sikh War: The Siege of Multan ends after nine months when the last Sikh defenders of Multan, Punjab, surrender.

1808 - The Portuguese royal family arrives in Brazil after fleeing the French army's invasion of Portugal two months earlier.

1689 - The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688.

1555 - The Ava Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in what is now Myanmar.

1517 - The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Egypt at the Battle of Ridaniya.

1506 - The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.

871 - Battle of Basing: The West Saxons led by King AEthelred I are defeated by the Danelaw Vikings at Basing.

613 - Eight-month-old Heraclius Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.

--- Binbrook, ON: Overcast -4øC, UV Index: 0
* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)

This Day in History
-------------------

2024 - Northwestern Air Flight 738 crashes after takeoff from Fort Smith Airport, Northwest Territories, Canada, killing six people.

2022 - Mutinying Burkinabe soldiers led by Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba depose and detain President Roch Marc Christian Kabore amid widespread anti-government protests.

2018 - The China-United States trade war begins when President Donald Trump places tariffs on Chinese solar panels and washing machines.

2018 - A double car bombing in Benghazi, Libya, kills at least 33 people and wounds "dozens" of others. The victims include both military personnel and civilians, according to local officials.

2018 - A 7.9 Mw earthquake occurs in the Gulf of Alaska. It is tied as the sixth-largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States, but there are no reports of significant damage or fatalities.

2003 - A very weak signal from Pioneer 10 is detected for the last time, but no usable data can be extracted.

2002 - U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered.

2001 - Five people attempt to set themselves on fire in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, an act that many people later claim is staged by the Chinese
Communist Party to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution.

1998 - Netscape announces Mozilla, with the intention to release Communicator code as open source.

1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

1987 - Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan sends a "letter of death" to Somali President Siad Barre, proposing the genocide of the Isaaq people.

1986 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

1982 - World Airways Flight 30 overshoots the runway at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, and crashes into Boston Harbor. Two people are missing and presumed dead.

1968 - USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is attacked and seized by the Korean People's Navy.

1967 - Milton Keynes (England) is founded as a new town by Order in Council, with a planning brief to become a city of 250,000 people. Its initial designated area enclosed three existing towns and twenty-one villages. The area to be developed was largely farmland, with evidence of continuous settlement dating back to the Bronze Age.

1967 - Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established.

1964 - The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

1963 - The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence officially begins when PAIGC guerrilla fighters attack the Portuguese Army stationed in Tite.

1960 - The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.

1958 - After a general uprising and rioting in the streets, President Marcos Perez Jimenez leaves Venezuela.

1957 - American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the "Frisbee".

1950 - The Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

1945 - World War II: German admiral Karl Donitz launches Operation Hannibal.

1943 - World War II: Troops of the British Eighth Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German-Italian Panzer Army.

1942 - World War II: The Battle of Rabaul commences Japan's invasion of Australia's Territory of New Guinea.

1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

1937 - The trial of the anti-Soviet Trotskyist center sees seventeen
mid-level Communists accused of sympathizing with Leon Trotsky and plotting
to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime.

1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

1919 - The First Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is
held by the Makhnovshchina at Velykomykhailivka.

1912 - The First International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.

1909 - RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.

1904 - Alesund Fire: The Norwegian coastal town Alesund is devastated by
fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.

1900 - Second Boer War: The Battle of Spion Kop between the forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and British forces ends in a British defeat.

1899 - The Malolos Constitution is inaugurated, establishing the First Philippine Republic. Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as its first president.

1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: The Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.

1870 - In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women
and children, in what becomes known as the Marias Massacre.

1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.

1846 - Slavery in Tunisia is abolished.

1795 - After crossing the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of surrender of naval vessels to land forces.

1793 - Second Partition of Poland.

1789 - Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United
States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.) when Bishop John Carroll, Rev. Robert Molyneux, and Rev. John Ashton purchase land for the proposed academy for the education of youth.

1755 - Moscow University is established (12 January 1755 O.S.).

1719 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.

1656 - Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.

1579 - The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.

1571 - The Royal Exchange opens in London.

1570 - James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such.

1565 - The Deccan Sultanates defeat Rama Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire at the Battle of Talikota, resulting in over 100,000 casualties and the destruction of the capital Vijayanagara.

1556 - The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.

1546 - Having published nothing for eleven years, Francois Rabelais
publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.

1368 - Zhu Yuanzhang proclaims himself the Hongwu Emperor, beginning the Ming dynasty.

1264 - In the conflict between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, King Louis IX of France issues the Mise of Amiens, a one-sided decision in favour of Henry that later leads to the
Second Barons' War.

1229 - The episcopal seat is moved from Nousiainen to Koroinen (located near the current centre of Turku) by the permission of Pope Gregory IX. The date
is starting to be considered as the founding of Turku.

971 - Using crossbows, Song dynasty troops soundly defeat a war elephant
corps of the Southern Han at Shao.

393 - Roman emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year-old son Honorius co-emperor.

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* Origin: Northern Realms (618:400/23)