Category: This Day in History

1867 Alaska Becomes a Part of the United States US had purchased the large and sparsely populated territory of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. The purchase was not seen as a positive acquirement by many American citizens who believed that adding…

1973 OPEC Declares Oil Embargo The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC led by Arab countries declared an oil embargo on any country that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War, which was fought between Israel and a coalition of…

1964 First Chinese Nuclear Test Codenamed Chic-1 or 596, the 22 kiloton uranium fission device was dropped at Lop Nur. With this test, China became the fifth nuclear power state in the World. The other four are the United States, Russia, the…

2003 Shenzhou 5, China’s first human space flight mission launched Launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the middle of the Gobi desert in northern China, this launch brought the Chinese into the exclusive club of countries that have achieved manned…

1994 Two Israelis and a Palestinian Share the Nobel Peace Prize The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize, which is annually awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee based in Oslo, with the President…

2012 Mauritanian President injured Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was shot at and injured. Official reports suggest that he was mistakenly shot by the military. 2010 Chilean Miners Rescued The last of the miners trapped in the San José copper-gold mine…

2008 Falcon 1 is launched Falcon 1, the first privately supported and funded spacecraft, was launched into space on its fourth attempt by SpaceX. 1995 Israel and PLO Sign the Oslo II Accords The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the…

1996 Taliban take over Kabul Following the take-over, the Islamic fundamentalist group established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. 1962 Establishment of Yemen Arab Republic Gamal Abdel Nasser declared the establishment of the Yemen Arab Republic after staging a coup that deposed the…

1959 Typhoon Vera hits Japan The category five typhoon is thought to be the strongest typhoon to impact the island country in recorded history. The resulting rain, landslides, and damage caused the deaths of about 5000 people in Japan. 1917 Battle of…

2008 China launches Shenzhou spacecraft with 3 astronauts This was the third human manned space flight mission of China’s Space Program. 1992 NASA launches the Mars Observer The robotic space probe’s main goal was to study Mars. Almost a year later all…