1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
1613 – Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
1797 – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.
1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
1808 – Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish War, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.
1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
1866 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor becomes the first American woman to graduate from dental school.
1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
1878 – The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
1896 – An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
1913 – Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
1918 – The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1919 – German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.
1929 – In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.[1]
1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".
1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
1958 – The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated while giving a talk at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.
1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
1972 – United States President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceshipLuna 20 lands on the Moon.
1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.
1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney GeneralJohn N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
2013 – At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
Births[]
921 – Abe no Seimei, Japanese astrologer (d. 1005)
1397 – Isabella of Portugal (d. 1471)
1462 – Joanna la Beltraneja, princess of Castile (d. 1530)
1484 – Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1535)
1498 – Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, English Earl (d. 1549)
1541 – Philipp V, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1599)
1556 – Sethus Calvisius, German astronomer, composer, and theorist (d. 1615)
1559 – Nurhaci, Manchu emperor (d. 1626)
1609 – Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian military commander (d. 1680)
1621 – Rebecca Nurse, Massachusetts colonist, executed as a witch (d. 1692)
1705 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English admiral and politician (d. 1781)
1728 – Peter III of Russia (d. 1762)
1783 – Catharina of Württemberg (d. 1835)
1788 – Francis Ronalds, British scientist, inventor and engineer who was knighted for developing the first working electric telegraph (d. 1873)
1791 – Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1857)
1794 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and politician, 8th President of Mexico (d. 1876)
1801 – John Henry Newman, English cardinal (d. 1890)
1817 – José Zorrilla, Spanish poet and playwright (d. 1893)
1821 – Charles Scribner I, American publisher, founded Charles Scribner's Sons (d. 1871)
1836 – Léo Delibes, French pianist and composer (d. 1891)
1844 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
1860 – Goscombe John, Welsh-English sculptor and academic (d. 1952)
1865 – John Haden Badley, English author and educator, founded the Bedales School (d. 1967)
1867 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German banker and philanthropist (d. 1934)
1875 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian, oldest verified person ever (d. 1997)
1878 – Mirra Alfassa, French-Indian spiritual leader (d. 1973)[2]
1881 – Kenneth J. Alford, English soldier, bandmaster, and composer (d. 1945)
1885 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-French actor, director, and playwright (d. 1957)
1887 – Korechika Anami, Japanese general and politician, 54th Japanese Minister of War (d. 1945)
1888 – Clemence Dane, English author and playwright (d. 1965)
1892 – Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (d. 1949)
1893 – Celia Lovsky, Austrian-American actress (d. 1979)
1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
1894 – Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, Indian chemist and academic (d. 1955)
1895 – Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)