In 1609, the Sea Venture, an English ship part of the Third Supply for the Jamestown Colony in Virginia, was driven onto reefs near modern Bermuda following three days combating a storm upon the Atlantic. Parts of the ship from the wreck were used for the survivors to reach their destination, and would even be used by the future settlers of Bermuda, including two of the ship’s guns.
In 1861, the United States Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution. The sponsors of the bill were Representative John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, future President following Lincoln’s assassination. Both were slave owners from border states, the resolution stated the Union was fighting to restore the country and not to bring an end to slavery.
In 1979, Israeli military forces began to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula in accordance with the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty signed earlier that year. It would go into full affect in the following year, and would make Egypt the first Arab State to recognize Israel as a legitimate and sovereign state.
A Notable Birth
1901 – Mohammed Helmy (d. 1982) was an Egyptian doctor who studied medicine in Berlin and used his presence in Germany to save Jews from the Holocaust. Despite hostility between Israel and Egypt during his life, he would be the first Arab recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
A Notable Death
2019 – Beji Caid Essebsi (b. 1926) was a Tunisian politician who across his six decades of experience pushed for democracy until the eventual transition in 2011 following the Tunisian Revolution. He would serve as Prime Minster and then President before his death.
