On This Day

This Day in History

1. 2021Supporters of outgoing U.S. president Donald Trump attacked the United States Capitol to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election, causing five deaths and forcing the evacuation of the U.S. Congress.
2. 2014Channel 4 aired the first episode of the documentary series Benefits Street, which prompted discussion regarding welfare dependency in the United Kingdom.
3. 1994An assailant hired by the ex-husband of figure skater Tonya Harding struck Nancy Kerrigan, a two-time American Olympic medalist, on the leg with a police baton.
4. 1972A brawl involving players, police officers, and fans erupted during an ice hockey game between the St. Louis Blues and the Philadelphia Flyers in Philadelphia.
5. 1960En route from New York City to Miami, National Airlines Flight 2511 exploded in mid-air from a bomb planted by an unknown party, killing all 34 people aboard.
6. 1953The inaugural Asian Socialist Conference, comprising an organisation of socialist political parties, opened in Rangoon with 177 fraternal guests, observers, and delegates present.
7. 1941During his State of the Union address, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt presented his Four Freedoms as fundamental freedoms that every person ought to enjoy.
8. 1912German geophysicist Alfred Wegener presented his theory of continental drift, which served as the precursor to plate tectonics, to the German Geological Society.
9. 1907Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first day-care centre and school for working-class children in Rome, utilizing an educational philosophy that now carries her name.
10. 1839Ireland was struck by its worst storm in 300 years, featuring 100-knot (190 km/h) winds that damaged or destroyed over 20 percent of Dublin's houses.
11. 1725J. S. Bach directed the initial performance of Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, which is a chorale cantata composed for Epiphany.
12. 1540King Henry VIII of England wed Anne of Cleves as his fourth wife, though the marriage was annulled six months afterward.
13. 1536The Colegio de Santa Cruz, which stands as the oldest European institute of higher learning in the Americas, was established in Tlatelolco, Mexico City.
14. 1449Constantine XI Palaiologos ascended the throne to become the final Byzantine emperor, four years prior to the fall of Constantinople.
15. 1322Stefan Dečanski was crowned King of Serbia to succeed his half-brother Stefan Konstantin, whom Dečanski later defeated in battle.
16. 1066Harold Godwinson, who was the final Anglo-Saxon monarch prior to the Norman Conquest, was crowned King of England.