MONDAY:
1977 South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana. The Republic of Bophuthatswana was never internationally recognized. In 1994, after a series of coups, it reintegrated with South Africa.
1865 Adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime.
1969 U.S.A. -- Altamont Rolling Stones Concert. A free concert organized by the Rolling Stones featuring Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and The Rolling Stones at the disused Altamont Speedway in Livermore, Calif., is marred by the deaths of four people, including a man who was stabbed by a Hell's Angel, The stage, which was only four feet high, was surrounded by the Hells Angels, who acted as security for the concert.
TUESDAY:
1703 The first Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703
1787 Delaware is the 1st state to ratify the US constitution
1804 Naturalist Alexander von Humboldt reports his discovery of the decrease in intensity of Earth's magnetic field from the poles to the equator
1877 Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph (gramophone) to the editors of "Scientific American"
1941 Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people
WEDNESDAY:
1776 George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from NJ
1813 Ludwig van Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A, premieres in Vienna with Beethoven conducting
1863 Abraham Lincoln issues his Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of the South
1864 James Clerk Maxwell's paper "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" is 1st read by the Royal Society in London (published by the Royal Society 1865)
1874 Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie Kansas
1941 China -- At War with Germany, Japan and Italy
In Chungking, Quo Tai-Chi, China's foreign minister confirmed that China was now at war with Germany, Japan, and Italy. The minister declared that the Chinese would back the allies, the U.S., and Great Britain one hundred percent.
THURSDAY:
1738 Jews are expelled from Breslau Silesia
1783 First execution at Newgate Jail in London (now the site of the Central Criminal Court also known as the Old Bailey), relocated from Tyburn (now the site of Marble Arch)
1793 Noah Webster establishes New York's 1st daily newspaper, the "American Minerva"
1868 The first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
1899 Boer War: During Siege of Ladysmith, Boers storm King's Post and Caesar's Camp - driven back
1900 President Paul Kruger of South Africa's Transvaal & Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands have a triumphant procession
FRIDAY:
1582 France begins use of Gregorian calendar
1652 Sea battle at Dungeness: lt-admiral Maarten Tromp beats English fleet
1672 New York Governor Lovelace announces monthly mail service between New York & Boston
1684 Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley
1810 English bare-knuckle boxer Tom Cribb beats African-American Tom Molineaux in 33rd of 40 round bout at Copthall Common, England; first interracial boxing match
1958 1st domestic (NY-Miami) passenger jet flight-National 707 flew 111