On This Day
1947 - Moth
First case of a computer bug being found: A moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University.
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1776 - Political union
The Continental Congress officially names its union of states the United States.
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1499 - Lisbon Hails Vasco da Gama’s Return from India
When the explorer’s battered carrack slipped into Lisbon’s harbor, the city erupted in a celebration that echoed across an empire. The triumph marked the end of a two‑year odyssey and the birth of a sea lane that would reshape the world.
On This Day
1944 - V-2 rocket
World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
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1914 - World War I
World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
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1943 - Armistice of Cassibile
World War II: The Armistice of Cassibile is proclaimed by radio. OB Süd immediately implements plans to disarm the Italian forces.
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2021 - BBC News
Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador.
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1942 - Battle of Milne Bay
World War II: Japanese marines are forced to withdraw during the Battle of Milne Bay.
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1909 - Wright Model A
Eugène Lefebvre crashes a new French-built Wright biplane during a test flight at Port-Aviation (often called "Juvisy Airfield") at Viry-Châtillon, south of Paris, becoming the first aviator in the world to lose his life piloting a powered heavier-than-air craft.
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2018 - Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India decriminalises all consensual sex among adults in private, making homosexuality legal on the Indian lands.
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1914 - First Battle of the Marne
World War I: The First Battle of the Marne, which would halt the Imperial German Army's advance into France, begins.
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1522 - Ferdinand Magellan
The Victoria returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition and the first known ship to circumnavigate the world.