On This Day

This Day in History

1. 2018A ruling by the Constitutional Court legalized cannabis in South Africa.
2. 2017Toys "R" Us, a toy retail chain, filed for bankruptcy protection across Canada and the United States.
3. 2014Voters in Scotland cast their ballots against gaining independence from the United Kingdom.
4. 2001Anthrax spores were sent inside five letters mailed to various American media outlets.
5. 1981Belgian serial killer Nestor Pirotte was sentenced to death for murdering an antiques dealer in Brussels while pretending to be an aristocrat.
6. 1964Athens hosted the wedding of Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark and King Constantine II of Greece.
7. 1962Thirty-two people died when Aeroflot Flight 213 struck a mountain close to Chersky Airport.
8. 1961Sixteen individuals, among them United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, perished in a plane crash near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia.
9. 1918In World War I, the Central Powers were defeated at the Battle of Dobro Pole, contributing to Bulgaria's military withdrawal and the eventual liberation of Vardar Macedonia.
10. 1885Outside Pierce City in the Idaho Territory, five Chinese people were lynched.
11. 1879The initial lighting of the Blackpool Illuminations occurred in the English seaside town of Blackpool.
12. 1875After taking roughly eight hundred lives in Texas, the Indianola hurricane dissolved over Mississippi.
13. 1873During the Panic of 1873, the bankruptcy declaration of American financial institution Jay Cooke & Company triggered a wave of sequential bank failures.
14. 1851The New York Times, the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, was established.
15. 1048In the Byzantine–Seljuk wars, Byzantine troops defeated Seljuk forces on the flanks during the nighttime Battle of Kapetron, only to discover the next morning that their Georgian allies in the center were defeated.
16. 96Nerva assumed power as the first of ancient Rome's "Five Good Emperors" after his predecessor Domitian was assassinated.