888 - Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
1328 - Edward III of England marries Philippa of Hainault, daughter of the Count of Hainault.
1547 - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death.
1559 - Elizabeth I crowned queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London.
1605 - The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison.
1607 - The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th moon of Jupiter.
1733 - James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina.
1785 - John Walter publishes the first issue of the Daily Universal Register (later renamed The Times).
1822 - The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
1830 - The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins.
1832 - President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
1840 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
1842 - Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
1847 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
1869 - National convention of black leaders meets in Washington D.C.
1893 - The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting.
1893 - U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
1898 - Emile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
1908 - Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, PA killing 171 people.
1913 - Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University as the second Black Greek Letter Organization for Women. The mission was to make a move towards social activism.
1915 - An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
1934 - The Candidate of Science degree is established in the USSR.
1935 - A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
1938 - The Church of England accepts the theory of evolution.
1939 - The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
1942 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1942 - World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
1953 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen as President of Yugoslavia.
1958 - Moroccan Liberation Army ambushes Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
1964 - Hindu-Muslim rioting breaks out in the Indian city of Calcutta
1964 - Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Krakow, Poland.
1966 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
1972 - Prime Minister Kofi Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong.
1974 - Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
1982 - Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 737 jet crashes into Washington, DC's 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists. Coincidentally, a Washington DC Metro Rail train is derailed, killing 3 people.
1985 - A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428, where accident is the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
1986 - A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
1990 - L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
1991 - Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius.
1992 - Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
2001 - An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
2007 - Two thirds of the Venus's southern hemisphere suddenly brightened as something triggered aerosols to form at a furious rate.
2009 - Ethiopian military forces begin pulling out of Somalia, where they have tried to maintain order for nearly two years
