Category: This Day in History

2001 The Russian space station Mir plunges into the sea The legendary station was disposed of in a controlled crash after 15 years in space. 1980 Archbishop Óscar Romero calls on members of the El Salvador armed forces to stop killing their…

1997 Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest female figure skating world champion The American athlete won the 1997 World Figure Skating Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland at the age of 14 years and 10 months. 1993 The Intel Corporation produces the first Pentium microprocessor…

2006 Jack Dorsey sends the world’s first Twitter message, or tweet The microblogging service revolutionized the communication and social networking landscape. In 2012, about 340 million tweets were posted per day. 1985 South African Police kill at least 21 black people commemorating…

2003 The United States invades Iraq, assisted by the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland The Iraq War, which was termed illegal by then UN Secretary, Kofi Annan, caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths. 1995 Japanese terrorists release poisonous gas in the…

1962 Bob Dylan releases his first album Dylan is one of the world’s most influential music artists. His songs “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” became anthems for the anti-war movement. 1954 Willie Mosconi sets the world record…

1990 East Germany holds its first and only free parliamentary elections The election was held between the peaceful revolution leading to the demise of the German Democratic Republic in 1989 and the German reunification in 1990. 1971 A 100 feet (30 meters)…

1992 Apartheid in South Africa comes to an end In a referendum, 68.7% of white South Africans voted for abolishment of racial segregation in the country. 1973 The photograph known as Burst of joy is taken Photographer Slava Veder was awarded the…

1988 A poison gas attack kills 5000 civilians in the Kurdish town of Halabjah The war crime was in all likelihood executed on the orders of Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein. 1988 In Northern Ireland, an Ulster loyalist kills 3 people at a…

1990 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes President of the Soviet Union His economic and political reforms, as well as his advocacy of free speech, strengthened pro-democracy movements in other Eastern European countries and ultimately led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the…

1991 The Birmingham Six are released The 6 men had been wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 for the IRA Birmingham pub bombings. 1979 Factory Plane Crash in China At least 200 people are killed when a plane crashes into a…