In the name of African American voting rights, 3,200 civil rights demonstrators in Alabama, led by Martin Luther King Jr., begin a historic march from Selma to Montgomery, the state’s capital. Federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and FBI agents were on hand to provide safe …read more

Democracy 30 | The Sharpeville 6 sentenced to death in 1985

In the Black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed Black South African demonstrators, killing 69 people and wounding 180 in a hail of submachine-gun fire. The demonstrators were protesting against the South African government’s restriction of nonwhite travel. In the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, protests broke out in Cape Town, and more than 10,000 people were arrested before government troops restored order.

The incident convinced anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to abandon his nonviolent stance and organize paramilitary groups to fight South Africa’s system of institutionalized racial discrimination. In 1964, after some minor military action, Mandela was convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison. He was released after 27 years and in 1994 was elected the first Black president of South Africa.

Source: history.com

1349 – 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany.

1556 – Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.

1788 – Almost the entire city of New Orleans, LA, was destroyed by fire. 856 buildings were destroyed.

1790 – Thomas Jefferson reported to U.S. President George Washington as the new secretary of state.

1804 – The French civil code, the Code Napoleon, was adopted.

1824 – A fire at a Cairo ammunitions dump killed 4,000 horses.

1826 – The Rensselaer School in Troy, NY, was incorporated. The school became known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was the first engineering college in the U.S.

1835 – Charles Darwin & Mariano Gonzales met at Portillo Pass.

1851 – Emperor Tu Duc ordered that Christian priests be put to death.

1851 – Yosemite Valley was discovered in California.

1857 – An earthquake hit Tokyo killing about 107,000.

1858 – British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.

1859 – In Philadelphia, the first Zoological Society was incorporated.

1868 – The Sorosos club for professional women was formed in New York City by Jennie June. It was the first of its kind.

1871 – Journalist Henry M Stanley began his famous expedition to Africa.

1902 – Romain Roland’s play “The 4th of July” premiered in Paris.

1902 – In New York, three Park Avenue mansions were destroyed when a subway tunnel roof caved in.

1904 – The British Parliament vetoed a proposal to send Chinese workers to Transvaal.

1905 – Sterilization legislation was passed in the State of Pennsylvania. The governor vetoed the measure.

1906 – Ohio passed a law that prohibited hazing by fraternities after two fatalities.

1907 – The U.S. Marines landed in Honduras to protect American interests in the war with Nicaragua.

1907 – The first Parliament of Transvaal met in Pretoria.

1908 – A passenger was carried in a bi-plane for the first time by Henri Farman of France.

1909 – Russia withdrew its support for Serbia and recognized the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Serbia accepted Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina on March 31, 1909.

1910 – The U.S. Senate granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.

1918 – During World War I, the Germans launched the Somme Offensive.

1925 – The state of Tennessee enacted the Butler Act. It was a law that made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school to teach any theory that was in contradiction to the Bible’s account of man’s creation.

1928 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh for his first trans-Atlantic flight.

1934 – A fire destroyed Hakodate, Japan, killing about 1,500.

1935 – Incubator ambulance service began in Chicago, IL.

1941 – The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, fell to the British.

1945 – During World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.

1946 – The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington. Washington was the first black player to join a National Football League team since 1933.

1946 – The United Nations set up a temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York City.

1953 – The Boston Celtics beat Syracuse Nationals (111-105) in four overtimes to eliminate them from the Eastern Division Semifinals. A total of seven players (both teams combined) fouled out of the game.

1955 – NBC-TV presented the first “Colgate Comedy Hour”.

1957 – Shirley Booth made her TV acting debut in “The Hostess with the Mostest” on CBS.

1960 – About 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired upon demonstrators.

1963 – Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, CA, closed.

1965 – The U.S. launched Ranger 9. It was the last in a series of unmanned lunar explorations.

1965 – More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL.

1966 – In New York, demolition work began to clear thirteen square blocks for the construction of the original World Trade Center.

1971 – Two U.S. platoons in Vietnam refused their orders to advance.

1972 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not require one year of residency for voting eligibility.

1974 – In London, an attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne on the Mall.

1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced to the U.S. Olympic Team that they would not participate in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

1982 – The United States, U.K. and other Western countries condemned the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

1984 – A Soviet submarine crashed into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.

1985 – Police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings. At least 21 demonstrators were killed.

1989 – Randall Dale Adams was released from a Texas prison after his conviction was overturned. The documentary “The Thin Blue Line” had challenged evidence of Adams’ conviction for killing a police officer.

1990 – Australian businessman Alan Bond sold Van Gogh’s “Irises” to the Gerry Museum. Bond had purchased the painting for $53.9 million in 1987.

1990 – Namibia became independent of South Africa.

1991 – 27 people were lost at sea when two U.S. Navy anti-submarine planes collided.

1991 – The U.N. Security Council lifted the food embargo against Iraq.

1994 – Dudley Moore was arrested for hitting his girlfriend.

1994 – Steven Spielberg won his first Oscars. They were for best picture and best director for “Schindler’s List.”

1994 – Wayne Gretzky tied Gordie Howe‘s NHL record of 801 goals.

1994 – Bill Gates of Microsoft and Craig McCaw of McCaw Cellular Communications announced a $9 billion plan that would send 840 satellites into orbit to relay information around the globe.

1995 – New Jersey officially dedicated the Howard Stern Rest Area along Route 295.

1995 – Tokyo police raided the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo in search of evidence to link the cult to the Sarin gas released on five Tokyo subway trains.

1999 – Israel’s Supreme Court rejected the final effort to have American Samuel Sheinbein returned to the U.S. to face murder charges for killing Alfred Tello, Jr. Under a plea bargain Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had overstepped its regulatory authority when it attempted to restrict the marketing of cigarettes to youngsters.

2001 – Nintendo released Game Boy Advance.

2002 – In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was charged with murder for his role in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Three other Islamic militants that were in custody were also charged along with seven more accomplices that were still at large.

2002 – In Paris, an 1825 print by French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce was sold for $443,220. The print, of a man leading a horse, was the earliest recorded image taken by photographic means.

2003 – It was reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 235.27 (2.8%) at 8,521.97. It was the strongest weekly gain in more than 20 years.

2016 – It was reported that the Kepler space telescope had captured the visible light of a “shock breakout” when the star KSN 2011a exploded. It was the first time an exploding star’s brilliant flash shockwave had been captured.

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