• Wednesday, 25 December 2024
Today in history
November 2022 (MIA) 680 – The Sixth Ecumenical Council commences in Constantinople. 1426 – Lam Sơn uprising: Lam Sơn rebels emerge victorious against the Ming army in the Battle of Tốt Động – Chúc Động taking place in Đông Quan, in now Hanoi. 1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France. 1619 – Elizabeth Stuart is crowned Queen of Bohemia. 1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published. 1775 – John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, starts the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by issuing Lord Dunmore’s Offer of Emancipation, which offers freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters to fight with Murray and the British. 1786 – The oldest musical organization in the United States is founded as the Stoughton Musical Society. 1811 – Tecumseh’s War: The Battle of Tippecanoe is fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States. 1837 – In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot dead by a mob while attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time. 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Belmont: In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive. 1874 – A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party. 1885 – The completion of Canada’s first transcontinental railway is symbolized by the Last Spike ceremony at Craigellachie, British Columbia. 1893 – Women’s suffrage: Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, the second state to do so. 1900 – Battle of Leliefontein, a battle during which the Royal Canadian Dragoons win three Victoria Crosses. 1900 – The People’s Party is founded in Cuba. 1907 – Delta Sigma Pi is founded at New York University. 1907 – Jesús García saves the entire town of Nacozari de García by driving a burning train full of dynamite six kilometers (3.7 miles) away before it can explode. 1908 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia. 1910 – The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse. 1912 – The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opens in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg, with a production of Beethoven’s Fidelio. 1913 – The first day of the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, a massive blizzard that ultimately killed 250 and caused over $5 million (about $118,098,000 in 2013 dollars) damage. Winds reach hurricane force on this date. 1914 – The first issue of The New Republic is published. 1914 – The German colony of Kiaochow Bay and its centre at Tsingtao are captured by Japanese forces. 1916 – Jeannette Rankin is the first woman elected to the United States Congress. 1916 – Radio station 2XG, located in the Highbridge section of New York City, makes the first audio broadcast of presidential election returns. 1917 – The Gregorian calendar date of the October Revolution, which gets its name from the Julian calendar date of 25 October. On this date in 1917, the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace. 1917 – World War I: Third Battle of Gaza ends: British forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire. 1918 – The 1918 influenza epidemic spreads to Western Samoa, killing 7,542 (about 20% of the population) by the end of the year. 1918 – Kurt Eisner overthrows the Wittelsbach dynasty in the Kingdom of Bavaria. 1919 – The first Palmer Raid is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in twenty-three different U.S. cities. 1920 – Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow issues a decree that leads to the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. 1929 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public. 1931 – The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed on the anniversary of the October Revolution. 1933 – Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City. 1940 – In Tacoma, Washington, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge’s completion. 1941 – World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking. 1944 – A passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico from excessive speed when descending a hill. Sixteen people are killed and 50 are injured. 1944 – Soviet spy Richard Sorge, a half-Russian, half-German World War I veteran, is hanged by his Japanese captors along with 34 of his ring. 1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States of America. 1949 – The first oil was taken in Oil Rocks (Neft Daşları), oldest offshore oil platform. 1956 – Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to immediately withdraw their troops from Egypt. 1957 – Cold War: The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters. 1967 – Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city. 1967 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 1973 – The United States Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval. 1975 – In Bangladesh, a joint force of people and soldiers takes part in an uprising led by Colonel Abu Taher that ousts and kills Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf, freeing the then house-arrested army chief and future president Maj-Gen. Ziaur Rahman. 1983 – United States Senate bombing: A bomb explodes inside the United States Capitol. No one is injured, but an estimated $250,000 in damage is caused. 1987 – In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. 1987 – Singapore’s first Mass Rapid Transit line was opened. 1989 – Douglas Wilder wins the governor’s seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States. 1989 – David Dinkins becomes the first African American to be elected Mayor of New York City. 1989 – East German Prime Minister Willi Stoph, along with his entire cabinet, is forced to resign after huge anti-government protests. 1990 – Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland. 1991 – Magic Johnson announces that he is infected with HIV and retires from the NBA. 1994 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world’s first internet radio broadcast. 1996 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor. 2000 – Controversial US presidential election that is later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case. 2000 – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration discovers one of the country’s largest LSD labs inside a converted military missile silo in Wamego, Kansas. 2004 – Iraq War: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day “state of emergency” as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. 2007 – Jokela school shooting in Tuusula, Finland, resulting in the death of nine people. 2012 – An earthquake off the Pacific coast of Guatemala kills at least 52 people.