Today in History 16th of January

Sameer Medhekar (Student) (4140 Points)

16 January 2009  

 Events

§  27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate.

§  550 - Gothic War (535–552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.

§  1120 - The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

§  1362 - A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German city of Rungholt on the island of Strand.

§  1412 - The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.

§  1492 - The first grammar of a modern language, in the Spanish language, is presented to Queen Isabella.

§  1547 - Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.

§  1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.

§  1572 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restoreCatholicism in England.

§  1581 - The English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.

§  1605 - The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) byMiguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid.

§  1707 - The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.

§  1761 - The British capture PondicherryIndia from the French.

§  1777 - Vermont declares its independence from New York.

§  1780 - American RevolutionBattle of Cape St. Vincent.

§  1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.

§  1847 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

§  1864 - Second Schleswig War: King Christian IX of Denmark declares war on the German Confederation in order to occupy Schleswig.

§  1878 - Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.

§  1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.

§  1896 - Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGMNewport, Monmouthshire.

§  1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to theSamoan islands.

§  1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

§  1919 - Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizingProhibition in the United States one year after ratification.

§  1920 - Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. is founded on the campus of Howard University.

§  1938 - The famous jazz concert by the Benny Goodman Orchestra and special guests takes place at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the first jazz performance in that venue.

§  1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.

§  1956 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.

§  1968 - The Youth International Party is founded.

§  1969 - Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.

§  1970 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.

§  1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.

§  1986 - First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.

§  1991 - The United States goes to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War (U.S. Time).

§  1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City ending a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.

§  2001 - The First surviving wikipedia edit. (See UuU)

§  2001 - Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.

§  2001 - US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.

§  2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin LadenAl-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban.

§  2003 - The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.

§  2006 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.