On This Day

This Day in History

1. 2011Yak-Service Flight 9633, which was carrying the ice hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl's players and coaching staff, crashed while taking off near Yaroslavl, Russia, killing 44 of the 45 people aboard.
2. 2010A major diplomatic dispute erupted between China and Japan after a Chinese fishing trawler operating in disputed waters near the Senkaku Islands collided with Japan Coast Guard patrol boats.
3. 2004Hurricane Ivan made landfall on Grenada, where it devastated a minimum of 85 percent of the island's buildings.
4. 1999Following an earthquake in northwestern Turkey, a second earthquake struck Athens three weeks later, prompting Greece and Turkey to begin engaging in "earthquake diplomacy".
5. 1996American rapper Tupac Shakur sustained fatal gunshot wounds in Paradise, Nevada, and passed away six days later.
6. 1986Desmond Tutu assumed office as the first black leader of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
7. 1984Seven soldiers and policemen lost their lives off Gozo when illegal fireworks being disposed of at sea exploded aboard a Maltese patrol boat.
8. 1940During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe altered its Battle of Britain strategy by commencing bombings on London alongside other cities and towns.
9. 1936The final surviving thylacine passed away while held in captivity at the Hobart Zoo in Australia.
10. 1916During World War I, the Supreme War Command was created to direct and oversee the military forces of every Central Power.
11. 1901With foreign troops from the Eight-Nation Alliance occupying Beijing, Qing China was coerced into signing the Boxer Protocol, an unequal treaty concluding the Boxer Rebellion.
12. 1822Pedro I proclaimed Brazil's independence from Portugal, which established the Empire of Brazil (flag pictured).
13. 1778During the Anglo-French War, France invaded the Caribbean island of Dominica and seized its British fort after forming an alliance with the United States.
14. 1652Chinese peasants residing on Formosa (now Taiwan) launched a revolt against Dutch rule, which authorities quashed four days later.
15. 1642In the First English Civil War, Royalist forces engaged Parliamentarian troops at the Battle of Babylon Hill, leading both sides to assert victory afterward.
16. 1191During the Third Crusade, English Crusaders commanded by Richard I defeated Saladin's Ayyubid forces at the Battle of Arsuf in modern-day Israel.