1066 – Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
1500 – Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
1527 – Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, Switzerland, is executed by drowning.
1554 – A great fire occurs in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
1675 – Battle of Colmar: The French army beats Brandenburg.
1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1875 – The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, is inaugurated in Paris.
1882 – Charles J. Guiteau is found guilty of assassinating US President James A. Garfield, and is sentenced to death by hanging.
1895 – Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
1911 – Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's third oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University.
1913 – First Balkan War: During the Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday, but entitlement to the higher was subject to various restrictions.[1]
1919 – The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded.
1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
1945 – The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
1949 – United States President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
1950 – In the Sverdlovsk air disaster, all 19 of those on board were killed, including almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force – 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur.
1957 – In a speech given to the United States Congress, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine.
1968 – Alexander Dubček comes to power; "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
1970 – The 7.1 MwTonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 10,000–15,621 were killed and 26,783 were injured.
1972 – United States President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.
1974 – Warmest reliably measured temperature below the Antarctic Circle of +59 °F (+15 °C) recorded at Vanda Station
1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
1976 – The Khmer Rouge proclaim the Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea.
1976 – The Troubles: Gunmen shoot dead ten Protestant civilians after stopping their minibus at Kingsmill in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK.
1991 – Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, Georgia, opening the 1991–92 South Ossetia War.
1991 – The United States Embassy to Somalia in Mogadishu is evacuated by helicopter airlift days after violence enveloped Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War
1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
2000 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician Kumar Ponnambalam is shot dead in Colombo.
2005 – Eris, the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
2014 – A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV MK.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic engine.
Births[]
1209 – Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, English-German king (d. 1272)
1425 – Henry IV of Castile (d. 1474)
1530 – Gaspar de Bono, monk of the Order of the Minims (d. 1571)
1548 – Francisco Suárez, Spanish priest, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1617)
1576 – Anne Turner, English murderer (d. 1615)
1587 – Xu Xiake, Chinese geographer and explorer (d. 1641)
1592 – Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor (d. 1666)
1614 – Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (d. 1662)
1620 – Miklós Zrínyi, Croatian military commander (d. 1664)
1640 – Paolo Lorenzani, Italian composer (d. 1713)
1679 – Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, Italian organist and composer (d. 1750)
1717 – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1793)
1735 – Claude Martin, French-English general and explorer (d. 1800)
1767 – Jean-Baptiste Say, French economist and academic (d. 1832)
1778 – Zebulon Pike, American general and explorer (d. 1813)
1779 – Stephen Decatur, American commander (d. 1820)
1793 – Harvey Putnam, American lawyer and politician (d. 1855)
1808 – Anton Füster, Austrian priest and activist (d. 1881)
1834 – William John Wills, English surgeon and explorer (d. 1861)
1838 – Camille Jordan, French mathematician and academic (d. 1922)
1846 – Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German philosopher and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)
1846 – Mariam Baouardy, Syrian Roman Catholic nun; later canonized (d. 1878)
1855 – King Camp Gillette, American businessman, founded the Gillette Company (d. 1932)
1864 – Bob Caruthers, American baseball player and manager (d. 1911)
1865 – Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer, mathematician, and engineer (d. 1920)
1865 – Ban Johnson, American businessman, founded the Western League (d. 1931)
1867 – Dimitrios Gounaris, Greek lawyer and politician, 94th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1922)
1871 – Frederick Converse, American composer and academic (d. 1940)
1874 – Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
1876 – Konrad Adenauer, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of West Germany (d. 1967)
1879 – Hans Eppinger, Austrian physician and academic (d. 1946)
1879 – Marcel Tournier, French harp player and composer (d. 1951)
1880 – Nikolai Medtner, Russian pianist and composer (d. 1951)
1881 – Pablo Gargallo, Spanish sculptor and painter (d. 1934)
1882 – Herbert Bayard Swope, American journalist (d. 1958)
1882 – Dorothy Levitt, English racing driver and journalist (d. 1922)
1885 – Humbert Wolfe, Italian-English poet and civil servant (d. 1940)
1886 – Markus Reiner, Israeli physicist and engineer (d. 1976)
1892 – Agnes von Kurowsky, American nurse (d. 1984)
1893 – Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian-American guru and philosopher (d. 1952)
1895 – Alberto Massimino, Italian automotive engineer (d. 1975)
1897 – Kiyoshi Miki, Japanese philosopher and author (d. 1945)
1900 – Yves Tanguy, French-American painter (d. 1955)
1902 – Hubert Beuve-Méry, French journalist (d. 1989)
1902 – Stella Gibbons, English journalist and author (d. 1989)
1903 – Harold Gatty, Australian pilot and navigator (d. 1957)
1904 – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer and psychic (d. 1997)
1904 – Erika Morini, Austrian violinist (d. 1995)
1906 – Kathleen Kenyon, English archaeologist and academic (d. 1978)
1908 – George Dolenz, Italian-American actor (d. 1963)
1909 – Lucienne Bloch, Swiss-American sculptor, painter, and photographer (d. 1995)
1909 – Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician and computer scientist (d. 1994)
1910 – Hugh Brannum, American actor and singer (d. 1987)
1910 – Jack Lovelock, New Zealand runner and journalist (d. 1949)
1911 – Jean-Pierre Aumont, French actor and screenwriter (d. 2001)
1913 – Nejat Eczacıbaşı, Turkish-American chemist, businessman, and philanthropist, founded Eczacıbaşı (d. 1993)
1914 – Nicolas de Staël, Russian-French painter and illustrator (d. 1955)
1914 – George Reeves, American actor and director (d. 1959)
1915 – Arthur H. Robinson, Canadian geographer and cartographer (d. 2004)
1917 – Lucienne Day, English textile designer (d. 2010)
1917 – Francis L. Kellogg, American businessman and diplomat (d. 2006)
1917 – Wieland Wagner, German director and producer (d. 1966)
1917 – Jane Wyman, American actress (d. 2007)
1919 – Hector Abhayavardhana, Sri Lankan theorist and politician (d. 2012)
1919 – Severino Gazzelloni, Italian flute player (d. 1992)
1919 – Herb Peterson, American businessman (d. 2008)
1920 – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist and educator (d. 1995)
1921 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss author and playwright (d. 1990)
1921 – Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Luxembourgish soldier and aristocrat
1922 – Anthony Synnot, Australian admiral (d. 2001)
1923 – Sam Phillips, American radio host and producer, founded Sun Records (d. 2003)
↑Worstall, “The Story of Henry Ford’s $5 a Day Wages: It’s Not What You Think,” Forbes (March 4, 2012); the videos, “Detroit: Remember When,” Vols. 1 and 2 (1996)
