History Today : Washington establish has US capital, 1st crusaders

• 627 Battle at Nineveh: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius beats Sassanid forces during Byzantine-Sassanid War
• 1098 1st Crusaders capture & plunder Mara Syria
• 1408 Order of the Dragon: The Order of the Dragon was first created on December 12, 1408 by Emperor Sigismund, then King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje following the battle for possession of Bosnia.
• 1474 Isabella crowns herself queen of Castile & Aragon
• 1479 Jews are expelled from Schlettstadt Alsace by Emperor Frederick III
• 1524 Pope Clement VII approves Organization of Jewish Community of Rome
• 1527 Composer Adrian Willaert moves from Milan to Venice
• 1653 English "Barebones" Parliament ends
• 1677 Brandenburgs army occupies Stettin
• 1700Utrecht/Overijssel/Buren/Leerdam/Ijsselstein adopt Gregorian calendar
• 1715 Russian/Prussian troops occupy Stralsund [NS=12/23]
• 1769 Pope Clement XIV proclaims a universal jubilee
• 1800 Washington, D.C. established as capital of US
• 1812 French invasion of Russia comes to an end.
• 1822 Mexico officially recognized as an independent nation by US
• 1858 1st Canadian coins circulated (1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent & 20 cent)
• 1862 Battle of Dumfries, Virginia
• 1862 Naval Engagement at Yazoo River, MS (USS CAIRO torpedoed)
• 1870 Joseph Rainey (SC) became 1st black sworn into House of Reps
• 1871 Jules Janssen discovers dark lines in solar corona spectrum
• 1878 Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing "St Louis Dispatch"
• 1884 1st Test match played at the Adelaide Oval
• 1897 Anti-Jewish violence breaks out in Bucharest, Romania
• 1897 Rudolph Dirks' 1st Katzenjammer cartoon strip in NY Journal
• 1897 Belo Horizonte, the first planned city of Brazil, is founded.
• 1898 1st 1st-class game between NSW & Tasmania
• 1899 1st case of plague on Oahu, Hawaii
• 1899 George F Bryant of Boston patents the wooden golf tee
• 1903 Roger Casement completes report about abuses in Belgian Congo
• 1904 CMS McClellan's "Leah Kleschna" premieres in NYC
• 1906 Oscar Straus, 1st Jewish US government member, appointed Secretary of.                                 Commerce
• 1908 4th Australasian Championships: Fred Alexander beats Alfred Dunlop (3-6, 3-6, 6-                     0, 6-2, 6-3)
• 1911 Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
• 1912 R Friml/O Harbach's musical "Firefly" premieres in NYC
• 1913 Hebrew language officially used to teach in Palestinian schools
• 1914 The largest one-day percentage drop in the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average,                down 24.39%.
• 1915 1st all-metal aircraft (Junkers J-1) test flown at Dessau, Germany
• 1915 Aristide Briand forms French war government
• 1915 Russian troops overrun Hamadan, Persia
• 1917 French troop train derails in French Alps killing 543
• 1917 Rev Edward Flanagan forms Boys Town outside Omaha, Nebraska
• 1920 Maurice Ravels ballet "La Valse" premieres in Paris
• 1924 Spanish troops leave Morocco
• 1925 Arthur Heinman coins term "motel"; opens Motel Inn, San Luis Obispo
• 1925 Last Qajar Shah of Iran deposed; Rezā Shāh Pahlavi takes over
• 1926 Leningrad: premier of Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st Piano concert
• 1928 Nichols/Browne's "Wings over Europe" premieres in NYC
• 1930 Baseball Rules Committee greatly revises the rule book
• 1930 Baseball changes rule, ball bounces into stands not a HR, now a double
• 1930 Start of the 1st Australia v West Indies Test (at Adelaide)
• 1931 Japanese government of Imukai forms
• 1932 S N Behrman's "Biography" premieres in NYC
• 1932 USSR & China resume diplomatic relations
• 1936 1937 NFL Draft: Sam Francis from University of Nebraska first pick by Philadelphia Eagles
• 1937 NBC & RCA sends 1st mobile-TV vans onto the streets of NY
• 1937 Washington Redskins win NFL championship
• 1937 Japanese aircraft shell & sink US gunboat Panay on Yangtze River in China. (Japan apologized & eventually paid US $2.2M in reparations)
• 1937 1938 NFL Draft: Corbett Davis from University of Indiana first pick by Cleveland Rams
• 1939 Russ Indigirka capsizes in blizzard off Japanese coast; 750 die
• 1940 British troops conquer Sidi el-Barrani
• 1941 European reservists on Java mobilize
• 1941 German occupying army do a house search in Paris looking for Jews
• 1941 Russian 20th army recaptures Soljetsjnogorsk
• 1942 German offensive in South Western Stalingrad
• 1942 A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland, kills 100 people.
• 1945 Special Court of justice convicts Dutch Nazi leader Mussert to death
• 1946 Ice plant collapses, shearing a tenement building & burying 38
• 1946 Tide detergent introduced
• 1947 United Mine Workers union withdrew from AFL
• 1948 Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali Massacre - 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaysia allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
• 1949 AL votes 7-1 rejecting legalizing the spitball
• 1950 16th Heisman Trophy Award: Vic Janowicz, Ohio State (HB)
• 1950 Baseball owners vote to drop 4-year old bonus & high school rule
• 1952 Dallas Texans (former Boston Yanks) play last game, last original team
• 1953 Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A rocket plane
• 1955 1st prototype of hovercraft patented by British engineer Christoper Cockerell
• 1956 Commencement of the Irish Republican Army's Border Campaign.
• 1957 Maj Adrian Drew flies 1,943 kph in F-101 Voodoo
• 1957 US announces manufacture of Borazon (harder than diamond)
• 1957 Willem J Kolff and his team at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic removed the heart from a dog and replaced it with a pneumatic pump which kept the dog alive for 90 minutes, proving the viability of the artificial heart
• 1958 Dutch social democratic party-ministers/premier Drees dismissed
• 1958 Fergie Gupte takes 9-102 with leggies v W Indies at Kanpur
• 1959 UN Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space is established
• 1959 10th Formula One WDC: Jack Brabham wins by four points
• 1961 Ham radio satellite Oscar 1 launched with military Discoverer 36
• 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1963 Argentina asks for extradition of ex-president Juan Peron
• 1963 Frank Sinatra Jr returned after being kidnapped
• 1963 Kenya (formerly British East Africa) declares independence from UK
• 1964 Cleveland Browns' Frank Ryan sets club record of 5 TD passes
• 1964 Shooting starts for "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage" (Menagerie)
• 1965 The Beatles' last concert in Great Britain (Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales)
• 1965 Doug Walters makes maiden Test ton in 1st Test, goes on to 155
• 1965 Vivian Beaumont Theater opens at 65th St & Amsterdam Ave NYC
• 1966 US Supreme Courts votes 4-3 allowing Braves to move to Atlanta
• 1966 "A Man for All Seasons" based on the play by Robert Bolt, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Paul Scofield premieres in New York (Best Picture 1967)
• 1967 US launches Pioneer 8 into solar orbit
• 1968 Rolling Stones film TV show "Rock 'n Roll Circus"-never aired
• 1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1968 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill receives overwhelming support from Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs) at Stormont
• 1969 Bill Toomey achieves world record-score (8417 points)
• 1969 Bomb attack on bank in Milan, 14 killed
• 1969 Strategia della tensione: Piazza Fontana bombing - The offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, are bombed.
• 1970 Polish government proclaims price rise
• 1970 Small Astronomy Satellite Explorer 42 launched to study X-rays
• 1970 USSR performs underground nuclear test
• 1973 Canada begins selling Olympic coins ($5 & $10 silver coins)
• 1973 San Diego files anti-trust against NL (stopping Padres move to DC)
• 1975 Gas stove explodes & starts fire killing 138 (Mecca Saudi Arabia)
• 1976 QB Joe Namath last game as a NY Jet
• 1977 Yanks purchase Andy Messersmith from Braves
• 1979 Gold hits record $462.50 an ounce
• 1979 President of Pakistan, Zia-ul-Haq, confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam.
• 1980 US's copyright law amended to include computer programs
• 1981 "1st" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 37 performances
• 1981 Gambia & Senegal sign agreement to be known as Senegambia in Feb 1982
• 1982 "Herman Van Veen: All of Him" closes at Ambassador NYC after 6 perf
• 1982 $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in NYC
• 1982 Joanne Carner/John Mahaffey wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
• 1982 The "Snowplow Game": when a snowstorm holds a New England vs Miami game scoreless, Mark Henderson, a convict on work release, on Patriots coach Ron Meyer order, clears the path for John Smith's attempt, which wins the game for the Patriots, 3-0
• 1983 A truck bomb explodes at US Embassy in Kuwait
• 1983 5th ACE Cable Awards: The VII International Tchaikovsky Competition by Robert Dalrymple and Ken Locker
• 1985 248 US soldiers & 8 crew members die in Arrow Air charter crash
• 1985 DC-8 crashes near Gander, Newfoundland; 258 die
• 1985 NASA launches space vehicle S-207
• 1986 David Boon's fourth Test century, 103 v England at Adelaide
• 1986 James "Bone Crusher" Smith TKO's WBA champ Tim Witherspoon in Madison Square Garden
• 1986 Russian Tupolev-134 crashes in East Berlin, 70 killed
• 1986 South African journalist and activist Zwelakhe Sisulu arrested at John Vorster Square
• 1987 Mookie Blaylock sets NBA record of 13 steals in a game
• 1987 Okla's sets NCAA record of 33 steals vs Centenary
• 1987 Rollermania at Madison Square Garden, Eastern Express beats Midwest Pioneers
• 1988 3 trains collide in London, 40 die
• 1988 NYC Subway system adds new stations (Z line)
• 1988 PLO leader Yasi Arafat accepts Israel's right to exist
• 1990 US accuses Iraq of dragging its feet on dates for talks
• 1990 US ambassador to Kuwait, Nathaniel Howell, leaves Kuwait
• 1991 Maastricht Treaty signed to create a European Community
• 1991 NJ Nets set NBA record of 22 blocks beating Nuggets 121-81
• 1991 Orion Pictures filed Chapter 11 for bankruptcy protection
• 1991 Tampa Bay Bucaneer Dexter Manley, retires after failing drug test
• 1992 58th Heisman Trophy Award: Gino Torretta, Miami-Fla (QB)
• 1992 6.8-7.5 earthquake strikes Flores Island (tsunami kills 3,000)
• 1992 Japanese crown prince Naruhito announces engagement to Masaka Owada
• 1992 Julia Kurotchkina, 18, of Russia, crowned 42nd Miss World
• 1992 NY Giants lose 19-0 to Phoenix Cardinals
• 1993 "Any Given Day" closes at Longacre Theater NYC after 32 performances
• 1993 "Kentucky Cycle" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 34 performances
• 1993 WAQX 104.3 (Q-104) rock format replaces WNCN classic format in NYC
• 1995 CBC announces Radio Canada International service to end on March 31
• 1995 NBA referees return to work after striking
• 1995 Amendment to make it illegal to physically desecrate the flag turned down by senate 63-36 (need 2/3 vote)
• 1996 Assassination attempt on Uday (Iraqi's heir to Sadam Hussain)
• 1997 Carlos the Jackal, "professional revolutionary", goes on trial in Paris
• 1997 Florida releases Alex Arias, the last original Marlin
• 1997 Japanese train builders (Maglev) claim world speed record at 332 MPH
• 1997 Red Sox sign Pedro Martinez to record 6 year $69 million contract
• 1997 SWAT team shoots John E Armstrong in Fla, freeing 2 young hostages
• 1997 TWA 800 hearings end
• 2006 Peugeot produces its last car at the Ryton Plant signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry, formerly a major centre of the British motor industry.
• 2008 Andrei Klepach, a deputy economics minister of Russia, states that Russia has entered the recession, with two quarters of contraction expected, meaning Russia will fall short of reaching the 6.8% growth forecast for 2008
• 2011 77th Heisman Trophy Award: Robert Griffin III, Baylor (QB)
• 2013 The United States announces sanctions on the two dozen companies who assisted Iran with their nuclear program
• 2014 UN climate change talks in Peru continue past scheduled time as negotiations continue to stall
• 2014 Over 200 pro-democracy activists arrested in Hong Kong
• 2015 First women ever elected in Saudi Arabia in municipal council elections
• 2016 82nd Heisman Trophy Award: Lamar Jackson, Louisville Cardinals (QB), youngest player to win at 19