On This Day

This Day in History

1. 2025For his involvement in a coup plot, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to serve 27 years in prison.
2. 2012A heavily armed group attacked the CIA annex and American consulate in Libya, killing U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other people.
3. 2001In a series of terrorist attacks against targets in New York City and the Washington, D.C. area, al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airliners and killed 2,977 people.
4. 1995Mir EO-19, which was the first expedition to the Russian space station Mir launched on an American Space Shuttle, landed back on Earth after roughly 75 days in space.
5. 1992As the most powerful hurricane on record to hit the Hawaiian Islands, Hurricane Iniki passed directly over Kauai, causing about US$1.8 billion in damage and killing six people.
6. 1978Janet Parker, a British medical photographer, became the final recorded fatality from smallpox, which sparked a debate over whether the virus ought to be preserved.
7. 1945The Australian 9th Division liberated the Japanese-run Batu Lintang camp in Borneo, preventing the scheduled massacre of over 2,000 Allied POWs and civilian internees by four days.
8. 1941In Des Moines, Iowa, American aviator Charles Lindbergh gave an antisemitic speech blaming Jews for controlling the media and manipulating the United States to enter World War II.
9. 1914During the First World War, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force invaded German New Guinea and prevailed in the Battle of Bita Paka.
10. 1897Forces belonging to Ethiopian emperor Menelik II captured Gaki Sherocho, which brought the Kingdom of Kaffa to an end.
11. 1893On the opening day of the first Parliament of the World's Religions held in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda delivered a speech introducing Hinduism.
12. 1857At Mountain Meadow, Utah, a legion composed of Mormon militiamen carried out a massacre of at least 120 Arkansas pioneers traveling toward California.
13. 1851Led by William Parker near Christiana, Pennsylvania, a group of free Blacks and escaped slaves fought off a federal posse trying to arrest the escapees and return them to slavery.
14. 1789Alexander Hamilton, who co-wrote The Federalist Papers, assumed office as the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
15. 1780During the American Revolutionary War, about ten American soldiers were killed in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, by Loyalists and their Native American allies during the Sugarloaf massacre.
16. 1776American and British leaders convened for a peace conference on Staten Island, New York, aiming to end the nascent American Revolutionary War.