This Day in History Class

On this day in 1985, police bombed the house where members of the MOVE organization lived in West Philadelphia. / On this day in 1861, Australian amateur astronomer John Tebbutt first observed the Great Comet of 1861.

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On this day in 1910, Nobel-prize winning chemist Dorothy Hodgkin was born. / On this day in 1941, civil engineer and inventor Konrad Zuse, who worked in Nazi Germany, unveiled the first full functional, programmable computer.

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On this day in 868, a copy of the Diamond sutra was published. It is the oldest surviving complete dated and printed book. / On this day in 1895, composer William Grant Still was born in Mississippi.

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On this day in 1849, a riot broke out at the Astor Place Opera House in New York. / On this day in 1919, a riot began when white sailors began attacking Black people in Charleston, South Carolina.

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On this day in 1893, the Kinetoscope had its first public demonstration at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. / On this day in 1671, Thomas Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

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On this day in 1945, the massacre of Algerian civilians by French authorities and European Algerians began in retaliation for anti-colonial demonstrations. / On this day in 1963, South Vietnamese soldiers and security forces fired into a crowd of unarmed Buddhist protesters, marking the start of the Buddhist crisis.

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On this day in 1994, one version of Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream" was recovered months after it was stolen from the National Gallery in Norway. / On this day in 1794, the Cult of the Supreme Being -- a cult established by Maximilien Robespierre -- was authorized by a decree of the National Convention.

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On this day in 1884, circus performer and strongwoman Katie Sandwina was born. / On this day in 1882, U.S. President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years, though Congress later extended it.

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On this day in 1832, the Indian Vaccination Act went into effect, providing for the vaccination of thousands of Native Americans from smallpox. / On this day in 1905, the Stratton brothers' trial began in England. It was the first recorded murder trial in England to use fingerprints as evidence.

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On this day in 1919, thousands of students gathered at Tiananmen Square in Beijing to protest the Paris Peace Conference. / On this day in 1886, a bomb set off at a peaceful labor protest in Chicago triggered a riot.

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