1456 – A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death. The court declared her innocent on this date in 1456.
1534 – Jacques Cartier makes his first contact with aboriginal peoples in what is now Canada.
1798 – As a result of the XYZ Affair, the U.S. Congress rescinds the Treaty of Alliance with France sparking the “Quasi-War”.
1834 – In New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began.
1846 – American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the conquest of California.
1863 – The United States begins its first military draft; exemptions cost $300.
1865 – Four conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln are hanged. George Atzerodt (b. 1833), David Herold (b. 1842), Lewis Payne (b. 1844), and Mary Surratt (b. 1823)
1907 – Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
1911 – The United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Russia sign the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 banning open-water seal hunting, the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues.
1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor’s 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.
1946 – Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.
1947 – The Roswell incident, the (supposed) crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell in New Mexico.
1952 – The ocean liner SS United States passes Bishop Rock on her maiden voyage, breaking the transatlantic speed record to become the fastest passenger ship in the world.
1954 – Elvis Presley makes his radio debut with “That’s All Right.”
2005 – A series of four explosions occurs on London’s transport systemkilling 56 people including four suicide bombers and injuring over 700 others.
Births
1860 – Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1911)
1899 – George Cukor, American director and producer (d. 1983)
1927 – Doc Severinsen, trumpet player and conductor on The Tonight Show
1933 – David McCullough, American historian and author
1936 – Jo Siffert, Swiss race car driver (d. 1971)
1940 – Ringo Starr
Deaths
1304 – Pope Benedict XI (b. 1240)
1307 – Edward I of England (b. 1239)
1647 – Thomas Hooker, English minister, founded the Colony of Connecticut (b. 1586)
1930 – Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer (b. 1859)
2014 – Eduard Shevardnadze, 2nd President of Georgia (b. 1928)
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