In 1522, Martin Luther began delivering his Invocavit sermons in Wittenberg, in which he urged citizens to rely on God’s word rather than violence, helping to end the revolutionary phase of the Reformation.
In 1562, Naples imposed a strict ban on kissing in public, with violations punishable by death.
In 1776 Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, a groundbreaking work that laid the foundations of modern economics.
In 1841, the US Supreme Court ruled that the kidnapped Africans on the Spanish schooner Amistad were free, a significant victory for the abolitionist movement.
In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was appointed commanding general of the U.S. (Federal) Army, and led the final campaigns of the Civil War.
In 1895, at Montreal’s Victoria Rink, the Montreal Victorias regained the Stanley Cup as Montreal H.C. defeated Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) 5–1.
In 1914, U.S. Senator Albert B. Fall called for the “Cubanization of Mexico”, and advocated American intervention in Mexican affairs.
In 1925 the Pink War began, the Royal Air Force’s first independent military operation without army or navy support.
In 1935, Adolf Hitler officially announced the formation of Germany’s new air force, the Luftwaffe, in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1945, 334 American B-29 Superfortresses carried out a devastating bombing raid on Tokyo, dropping 120,000 incendiary bombs and causing massive destruction.
In 1945 Japan declared the “independence” of Indo-China, aiming to establish control while undermining French colonial rule.
In 1950, notorious bank robber Willie Sutton stole $64,000 from the Manufacturers Bank of New York City.
In 1951, Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam presented a classified paper at Los Alamos introducing a staged detonation design that made it possible to build a megaton-range hydrogen bomb.
In 1957, a powerful magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck Alaska’s Andreanof Islands, generating significant seismic activity in the area.
In 1961, the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 9 brought a dog named Chernushka (Blackie) as well as frogs and a guinea pig safely back from orbit.
