[First opened to the public on this day in 1982, Graceland was was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in November 1991 and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 2006. It remains the second most-visited private home in America - after the White House.]
1099 - The
Siege of Jerusalem began; taking back the city from Muslim occupation had been the principal purpose of the
First Crusade.
1494 - Spain and Portugal signed the
Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the New World between the two countries, in keeping with a decree made by the Spanish-born Pope
Alexander VI.
1654 -
Louis XIV was crowned King of France.
1692 - The Jamaican town of
Port Royal was hit by a catastrophic earthquake, causing two-thirds of it to sink into the Caribbean; in just three minutes, 1,600 people were killed and 3,000 were seriously injured. The calamity caused a shift of legislative and commercial responsibility to
Kingston, which is still Jamaica's capital today.
1776 -
Richard Henry Lee presented the
Lee Resolution to the
Continental Congress; the motion was seconded by
John Adams, and led to the drafting of the
Declaration of Independence.
1863 - During the so-called
French intervention, Mexico City was captured by French troops.
1905 - Norway
dissolved its
union with Sweden.
1906 - The
Cunard Line's ill-fated
RMS Lusitania was launched at the
John Brown Shipyard in
Glasgow.
1919 - During the
Sette giugno riot four people - Ġużeppi Bajjada, Manwel Attard, Wenzu Dyer and Karmenu Abela - were killed in
Valletta; the event is still commemorated on this day in Malta.
1940 - Norway's King
Haakon VII,
Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government left
Tromsø aboard
HMS Devonshire (escorted by
HMS Glorious,
HMS Acasta, and
HMS Ardent) to go into exile in London; five years later to the day the King and his family returned to Oslo.
1945 -
Benjamin Britten's opera
Peter Grimes - based in part on 'Letter XXII' of
George Crabbe's 24 poem collection
The Borough (published in 1810) and with a libretto adapted by
Montagu Slater - was premiered at
Sadler's Wells in London, conducted by
Reginald Goodall. When it was broadcast in its entirety on the radio just ten days later it became the first to be thus transmitted by the BBC.
1948 -
Edvard Beneš resigned as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing a Constitution making his nation a Communist state.
1955 -
Lux Radio Theater signed off the air permanently; the show, first launched in New York on NBC's
Blue Network in 1934, featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.
1965 - The US Supreme Court issued its decision in the case of
Griswold v. Connecticut, effectively legalizing the use of
contraception by married couples.
1968 - The body of assassinated Senator
Robert F. Kennedy was flown to New York City, where it lay in state at
St. Patrick's Cathedral.
1981 - The
Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq's
Osiraq nuclear reactor during
Operation Opera; the facility could have been used to make
nuclear weapons.
1982 - Priscilla Presley opened Graceland to the public, although in an all-too rare display of good taste for the 23-room mansion the bathroom where Elvis Presley had died five years earlier was kept off-limits.
1991 - The Philippines'
Mount Pinatubo exploded, generating an ash column 7 km (4.5 miles) high.
2001 - British Prime Minister
Tony Blair's
New Labour Party won a second consecutive landslide victory in a
General Election.
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