History Today : 1st commercial bank, last day of Roman empire and more

• 754 Pope Stefanus II arrives in Ponthion
• 1325 Afonso IV succeeds Dionysius as King of Portugal
• 1558 Calais, last English possession in France, retaken by French
• 1566 Antonio "Michele" Ghislieri is elected Pope Pius V
• 1579 England signs an offensive & defensive alliance with Netherland
• 1584 Last day of the Julian calendar in Bohemia & Holy Roman empire
• 1598 Boris Godunov seizes Russian throne on death of Feodor I
• 1601 Robert, Earl of Essex, leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth
• 1608 Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia
• 1714 Typewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years later)
• 1761 Battle at Panipat India: Afghan army beats Mahratten
• 1782 1st US commercial bank, Bank of North America, opens in Philadelphia
• 1784 1st US seed business established by David Landreth, Philadelphia
• 1785 1st balloon flight across English Channel by Jean Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries
• 1797 The modern Italian flag is first used.
• 1817 2nd Bank of US opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1822 1st printing in Hawaii
• 1822 Liberia colonized by Americans
• 1830 1st US Railroad Station opens (Baltimore)
• 1835 HMS Beagle anchors off Chonos Archipelago
• 1842 Gioacchino Rossini's cantata "Stabat Mater" premieres in Paris
• 1861 Florida troops takeover Fort Marion at St Augustine (US Civil War)
• 1862 Battle of Manassas Junction, VA
• 1888 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Valley of Fear" (BG)
• 1890 W B Purvis patents fountain pen
• 1892 Mine explosion kills 100 in Krebs, Oklahoma; blacks trying to help rescue white survivors, driven away with guns
• 1893 Hermann Sudermanns "Heimat" premieres in Berlin
• 1894 Early 5 second film of Fred Ott sneezing shot by Edison Manufacturing - 1st ever copyrited
• 1896 Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book"
• 1899 Walter Camp publishes his 1st All-American football team in Collier's
• 1903 Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Blanched Soldier" (BG)
• 1903 Vincent d'Indy's opera "L'etranger" premieres in Brussells
• 1907 Clyde Fitch' "Truth" premieres in NYC
• 1908 England beat Australia by one wicket at the MCG
• 1910 Stanley Cup: Ottawa Senators sweep Galt (Ont) in 2 games
• 1911 1st airplane bombing experiments with explosives, SF
• 1911 Dutch Scouts Organization established in Amsterdam
• 1913 William M Burton patents a process to "crack" petroleum
• 1914 1st steamboat passes through Panama Canal
• 1916 German troops conquer Fort Vaux at Verdun
• 1916 In response to pressure from President Wilson, Germany notifies the US State Department that it will abide by strict international rules of maritime warfare
• 1919 The Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union of South Africa is founded, led by Clements Kadalie
• 1919 Montenegrin guerrilla fighters rebel, but fail to prevent Serbia's annexation of Montenegro
• 1920 Five duly elected Socialist assemblymen are denied by the New York State Assembly
• 1923 Baltimore Sun warns of Ku Klux Klan
• 1925 Musical "Big Boy" with Al Jolson premieres in NYC
• 1927 Commercial transatlantic telephone service inaugurated between NY & London
• 1927 Harlem Globetrotters play 1st game (Hinckley, Illinois)
• 1929 "Buck Rogers", 1st sci-fi comic strip, premieres
• 1929 "Tarzan", one of the 1st adventure comic strips, 1st appears
• 1930 Edwin Justus Mayer's "Children of Darkness" premieres in NYC
• 1930 Marguerite Perey discovers francium (Fr), the last naturally occurring element to be found
• 1931 Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
• 1932 1st game played at Orchard Lake Curling Club, Mich
• 1933 1st edition of People & Fatherland published in Netherlands
• 1934 "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts
• 1935 Zoe Akins' "Old Maid" premieres in NYC
• 1948 Thomas Mantell, a pilot for the Kentucky Air National Guard, crashes while pursuing a supposed UFO
• 1949 1st photo of genes taken at U of S California by Pease & Baker
• 1950 "Happy as Larry" closes at Coronet Theater NYC after 3 performances
• 1950 Hank Snow's 1st appearance on "Grand Ole Opry"
• 1950 Mental health wing of Mercy Hospital burns, kills 41 (Davenport Ia)
• 1952 French Plevin government falls
• 1953 US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb
• 1954 Georgetown-IBM experiment, the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
• 1955 Marian Anderson becomes 1st black singer to perform at Met (NYC)
• 1955 WCIQ TV channel 7 in Mt Cheaha, AL (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1956 Vinoo Mankad scores 231 v NZ, 413 opening stand with Roy
• 1958 USSR reduces army to 300,000
• 1964 Bahamas becomes self-governing
• 1964 Dick Weber rolls highest bowling game in air (Boeing 707)
• 1965 France announces it will convert $150 million of its currency to gold
• 1965 Twin brothers are in held in custody in London charged with abduction and murder
• 1966 Dance Theatre of Harlem debuts
• 1966 Gene Kiniski beats Lou Thesz in St Louis, to become NWA champion
• 1967 "Newlywed Game" premieres on ABC TV
• 1968 "GE College Bowl" quiz show premieres on NBC TV
• 1968 1st class US postage raised from 5 cents to 6 cents
• 1968 Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off
• 1969 US Congress doubles president salary
• 1984 Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
• 1985 "King & I" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 191 performances
• 1985 Japanese space probe Sakigake launched to Halley's comet
• 1985 KHQ-AM in Spokane WA changes call letters to KLSN (now KAQQ)
• 1985 Lou Brock & Hoyt Wilhelm, elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
• 1986 Netherlands Bank issues 250 guilder notes
• 1986 STS 61-C mission scrubbed at T -9m because of weather problems
• 1986 US President Reagan announces economic sanctions against Libya
• 1987 French airplanes harass Libyan positions in Duadi Doum
• 1992 AT&T releases video-telephone ($1,499)
• 1992 Last day of Test cricket for Imran Khan
• 1992 Tom Seaver & Rollie Fingers elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
• 1993 The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as President.
• 1993 Jerry Rawlings becomes President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana
• 1993 Bosnian War: Bosnian Army launches a surprise attack on Kravica, a village in Srebrenica
• 1994 South Africa beat Australia in the Sydney Test by 5 runs
• 1994 US female Figure Skating championship won by Tonya Harding
• 1994 United Express commuter plane crashes in Ohio, killing 5
• 1995 "Christmas Carol" closes at Richard Rodgers Theater NYC after 18 performances
• 1995 "Passion" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 280 performances
• 1996 "Crazy after You" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 1622 performances
• 1996 "Fool Moon" closes at Ambassador Theater NYC after * performances
• 1996 16th United Negro College Fund raises $12,600,000
• 2015 A car bomb explodes in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, killing 38 people and injuring more than 63