622 – The beginning of the Islamic calendar of either 354 or 355 days, during which the emigration of Muhammad from Meccato Medina, known as the Hijra, occurred. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and months begin when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. The current Islamic year is 1437 AH. In the Gregorian calendar, 1437 AH runs from approximately October 14, 2015 to October 2, 2016.
1054 – Three Roman legates break relations between Western and Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East–West Schism. Several attempts at reconciliation did not bear fruit. The efforts of the Ecumenical Patriarchs towards reconciliation with the Catholic Church have often been the target of sharp criticism from some fellow Orthodox.
1769 – Franciscan Father Junípero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego, California.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: Light infantry of the Continental Army under the command of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, seize a fortified British Army position in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point, NY, approximately 30 miles north of New York City.
1790 – The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act. The federal government was located in New York City at the time the bill was passed and had previously been located in Philadelphia, Annapolis, and several other locations.
1861 – The American Civil War: At the direct order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25-mile march into Virginia for what will become the First Battle of Bull Run (on July 21st), the first major land battle of the war.
1909 – The Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar is forced out as Shah of Persia and is replaced by his son Ahmad Shah Qajar.
1942 – Holocaust: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv): The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz. The roundup was one of several aimed at eradicating the Jewish population in France, both in the occupied zone and in the free zone. French President Jacques Chirac apologized in 1995 for the complicit role that French policemen and civil servants served in the raid.
1945 – World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island. Like Thin Man, it was agun-type fission weapon, but derived its explosive power from the nuclear fission of uranium-235. This was accomplished by shooting a hollow cylinder of enriched uranium (the "bullet") onto a solid cylinder of the same material (the "target") by means of a charge of nitrocellulose propellant powder. It contained 64 kg (141 lb) of enriched uranium, of which less than a kilogram underwent nuclear fission.
1945 – The Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Trinity was the code name of the first detonation. The code name "Trinity" was assigned by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, inspired by the poetry of John Donne. The test was of an implosion-design plutonium device, informally nicknamed "The Gadget", of the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. The test site was declared a National Historic Landmark district in 1965, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year.
1956 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closes its very last "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, due to changing economics all subsequent circus shows would be held in arenas.
1960 – The USS George Washington (SSBN-598), a modified Skipjack-class submarine, successfully test fired the first ballistic missile while submerged. George Washington was originally laid down as the attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589). During construction, she was lengthened by the insertion of a 130 ft (40 m)-long ballistic missile section and renamed; another submarine under construction at the time received the original name and hull number.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida.
1990 – The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.
1994 – Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collides with Jupiter. Impacts continue until July 22. The comet was discovered by astronomers Carolynand Eugene M. Shoemaker and David Levy. Shoemaker–Levy 9 had been captured by Jupiter and was orbiting the planet at the time. It was located on the night of March 24, 1993 in a photograph taken with the 40 cm (16 in) Schmidt telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. It was the first comet observed to be orbiting a planet, and had probably been captured by Jupiter around 20–30 years earlier. Its fragments collided with Jupiter's southern hemisphere between July 16 and July 22, 1994 at a speed of approximately 60 km/s (37 mi/s) or 216,000 km/h (134,000 mph). The prominent scars from the impacts were more easily visible than the Great Red Spot and persisted for many months.
1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. His wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are also killed. He was the only surviving son ofPresident John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. His father was assassinated three days before his third birthday.
2007 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock, along with associated tsunami, occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing eight people, injuring at least 800 and damaging the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. Severe reactor damage resulted in radiation emission that is still occurring to this day.
2015 – Four U.S. Marines and one gunman die in a shooting spree targeting military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee. On December 16, following an investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James B. Comey said that the shootings were "motivated by foreign terrorist organization propaganda" (also propaganda).
TODAY'S BIRTHS
TODAY'S BIRTHS
1872 – Roald Amundsen, Norwegian pilot and explorer (d. 1928)
From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.
From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.
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