On this day in 1859, Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, VA (now located in West Virginia). He was hoping to instigate a wider slave rebellion.
"John Brown’s Fort" at Harpers Ferry.
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859)
On this day in 1987, Rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well that she had fallen into in Midland, TX. She was trapped for 58 hours.
On this day in 2001, former president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.
On this day in 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa during WW II.
Nazi Germany begins persecution of Jews by boycotting Jewish businesses on this day in 1933.
Nazis affix a sign to Jewish store urging shoppers not to patronize it.
On this day in 1984, Marvin Gaye, the Grammy-winning singer who topped the soul charts with such classics as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” was shot twice in the chest and killed by his minister father. The Rev. Marvin Gaye Sr. picked up a handgun during a family dispute over an “insurance matter”. The singers death was one day short of his 45th birthday.
Jessica Dawn Lynch is a former U.S. Army soldier who was serving as a unit supply specialist with the 507th Maintenance Company when her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi forces during the Battle of Nasiriyah. Lynch was seriously injured. Her subsequent recovery by U.S. Special Operations Forces on April 1, 2003 received considerable media coverage; it was the first successful rescue of an American prisoner of war since World War II and the first ever of a woman.
The above photo is from combat video footage of Jessica Lynch on a stretcher during her rescue in Iraq.
On this day in 1986, President Ronald Reagan and Attorney Gen. Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to rebels in Nicaragua. The National Security Advisor John Poindexter resigned and Oliver North was fired.
From left: President Reagan and Attorney Gen. Edwin Meese.
During the Revolutionary War on this day in 1783, the British evacuated New York. It was their last military position in the UnitedStates.
A group of fishermen from Florida spotted Elián Gonzales off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. He was completely alone, floating in an inner tube. He was rescued on this day in 1999.
The boat that Elian and his mother, and 10 other people had been traveling on to the United States from Cuba had been ripped apart in the rough seas, and he was one of the only survivors.
Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, 1954
Baseball’s Joe Dimaggio was born on this day in 1914.
On this day in 1859, Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA (now located in West Virginia).
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859)
During the French Revolution on this day in 1793, Queen Marie Antoinette (below) was beheaded after being convicted of treason.
Poland’s Karol Josef Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II on this day in 1978.
On Friday, October 16, 1998, police from Britain’s Scotland Yard entered a room in a small, private hospital in London and arrested former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte who was recovering from back surgery.
Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón had issued a request for Pinochet’s extradition to stand trial in Spain for crimes committed in Chile during extradition to stand trial in Spain for crimes committed in Chile during his brutal rule from 1973-1990.
On this day in 1987, rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well that she had fallen into in Midland, TX. She was trapped for 58 hours.
Jessica McClure Morales turned 31 in March.
James Albert Michener (February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997)
