On this day in history
Print this Article | Send to Colleague
Source: HistoryNet.com
1014: The Byzantine Emperor Basil earns the title "Slayer of Bulgers" after he orders the blinding of 15,000 Bulgerian troops.
1801: Napoleon Bonaparte imposes a new constitution on Holland.
1847: Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre is published in London.
1866: The Reno brothers—Frank, John, Simeon and William—commit the country's first train robbery near Seymore, Indiana netting $10,000.
1927: The first "talkie," The Jazz Singer, opens with popular entertainer Al Jolson singing and dancing in blackface. By 1930, silent movies were a thing of the past.
1941: German troops renew their offensive against Moscow.
1965: Patricia Harris takes post as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, becoming the first African American U.S. ambassador.
1966: Hanoi insists the United States must end its bombings before peace talks can begin.
1969: Special Forces Captain John McCarthy is released from Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary, pending consideration of his appeal to murder charges.
1973: Israel is taken by surprise when Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, beginning the Yom Kippur War.
1981: Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated in Cairo by Islamic fundamentalists. He is succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak.
1987: Fiji becomes a republic independent of the British Commonwealth.
1995: Astronomers discover 51 Pegasi is the second star known to have a planet orbiting it.
2000: Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic and Argentina's vice-president Carlos Alvarez both resign from their respective offices.
2007: Explorer and author Jason Lewis becomes the first person to complete a human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.
