On This Day

This Day in History

1. 2011The Yemeni Revolution of the Arab Spring commenced when over 16,000 demonstrators gathered in Sanaa to demand changes in government.
2. 2011Astronomers documented the white dwarf star H1504+65 in Ursa Minor, which featured a surface temperature of 200,000 kelvins (360,000 °F), the hottest recorded at that time.
3. 2010Porfirio Lobo Sosa assumed the presidency of Honduras, resolving a constitutional crisis that originated in 2009 after Manuel Zelaya was forcibly ousted from office.
4. 2003The Library of Congress revealed its inaugural selections to be inducted into the United States National Recording Registry.
5. 1996Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara ousted Niger's initial democratically elected president, Mahamane Ousmane, through a military coup d'état.
6. 1980Assisted by Canadian officials, six American diplomats who had avoided capture during the Iran hostage crisis fled successfully to Zürich, Switzerland.
7. 1967A launch simulation fire at Cape Kennedy killed Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.
8. 1965Trần Văn Hương, the Prime Minister of South Vietnam, was ousted from power by Nguyễn Khánh's military junta.
9. 1945Roughly 7,000 prisoners abandoned by the Nazis at the Auschwitz concentration camp were liberated by the Soviet Red Army.
10. 1927A tainted diphtheria vaccine administered during an Australian immunisation program caused twelve children to die, resulting in the halt of immunisation initiatives across multiple nations.
11. 1869Former members of the ousted Tokugawa shogunate declared Hokkaido, the second-largest island in Japan, as the independent Republic of Ezo.
12. 1825Following advice from John C. Calhoun, President James Monroe requested that Congress establish Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, laying the groundwork for United States Indian removal.
13. 1799In the Macau Incident during the French Revolutionary Wars, French and Spanish warships met a British Royal Navy escort squadron in the Wanshan Archipelago, though commanders present disputed subsequent details, including who retreated.
14. 1785The University of Georgia was established, becoming the oldest state-chartered public university in the United States.
15. 1726J. S. Bach conducted the debut performance of Alles nur nach Gottes Willen, BWV 72, on the Third Sunday after Epiphany to conclude his third Leipzig Christmas season.
16. 1343Pope Clement VI promulgated the papal bull Unigenitus, defending the pope's authority and the practice of granting indulgences.