Today in News History

On July 2, several notable moments in the history of News stand out. In 626, Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident. In 963, The Byzantine army proclaims Nikephoros II Phokas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea. In 1555, Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola. In 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide, Japanese samurai and warlord (born 1528) passed away. In 1840, A Ms 7.4 earthquake strikes present-day Turkey and Armenia; combined with the effects of an eruption on Mount Ararat, kills 10,000 people. In 1986, Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. In 1990, In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca. In 2010, The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people. In 2013, A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others. In 2024, A stampede during a religious event in Uttar Pradesh, India, leaves at least 121 people dead and 150 others injured. Together, these milestones provide historical context for today's news news and ongoing narratives.