Today:
1. 1862: During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia, an important step towards emancipation.
2. 1912: Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, a significant milestone in aviation history.
3. 1947: Bernard Baruch coined the term “Cold War” to describe the tense relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
4. 1963: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” while imprisoned for participating in civil rights demonstrations.
5. 1972: Apollo 16, the tenth manned mission in the Apollo space program, was launched by NASA, with astronauts John Young, Ken Mattingly, and Charles Duke aboard.
6. 1992: The Bosnian War began as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia, leading to years of conflict and ethnic violence in the region.
7. 2007: The Virginia Tech shooting occurred, one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history, resulting in 32 deaths and many injuries.
8. 2013: A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, caused 15 deaths, injured hundreds, and caused extensive damage to the surrounding area.
9. 2014: The South Korean ferry MV Sewol capsized and sank, resulting in the deaths of over 300 people, mostly high school students on a field trip.
10. 2019: The Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, suffered a devastating fire, causing significant damage to the historic landmark and leading to a global outpouring of support for its restoration.