This Day in History

By Maxime Pocat

1504: Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th and last voyage.

1679: New Hampshire becomes a county in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1755: Fort Ticonderoga in New York opens.

1789: The first loan is made to pay salaries of United States President and Congress.

1793: US President George Washington lays the cornerstone of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

1809: Royal Opera House in London opens.

1810: Chile declares independence from Spain (National Day).

1850: US Congress passes Fugitive Slave Law as part of Compromise of 1850, requires slaves be returned to their owners.

1851: New York Times starts publishing (2 cents a copy).

1882: Pacific Stock Exchange opens (as Local Security Board).

1903. Phillies’ Chick Fraser no-hits Chicago Cubs, 10-0.

1905. Electric tramline opens in Rotterdam.

1906. A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.

1930. NY Yankee future Baseball HOF pitcher Red Ruffing hits 2 HRs to beat St Louis Browns, 7-6 at Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis

1939 William Joyce’s first Nazi propaganda broadcast

1943 Adolf Hitler orders deportation of Danish Jews (unsuccessful)

1944 WWII: British submarine Tradewind torpedoes Junyo Maru: 5,600 killed, including 1,377 allied POWs and 4,200 Javanese slave laborers

1944 WWII: Eindhoven, Netherlands freed by American and British troops (Lightly Day)

1944 WWII: US 266th division defeats German troops at Brest Bretagne in Brittany, France after a 7 week siege; 37,000 prisoners taken, ports rendered useless