1884 - Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.
1886 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
1896 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.
1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
1913 - A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos during the First Balkan War, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.
1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
1916 - A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite stikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.
1919 - World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
1919 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.
1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
1944 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
1944 - Soviet forces liberate Leningrad, effectively ending a three year Nazi siege, known as the Siege of Leningrad.
1945 - Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army.
1958 - Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut.
1967 - Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler," is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life in prison.
1969 - United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay resulting in the loss of all 32 passengers and six crew members.
1974 - A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.
1977 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
1977 - Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney killing 83.
1978 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
1983 - The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.
1990 - Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
1991 - Eastern Air Lines goes out of business after 62 years, citing financial problems.
1993 - For the first time, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed in all 50 states.
1994 - The Cando event, a possible bolide impact in Cando, Spain. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute.
1997 - In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
1997 - Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
1998 - Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair story on his website The Drudge Report.
2000 - The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
2002 - Sierra Leone Civil War was finally declared over.
2003 - A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
2007 - The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people, Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Hurricane Kyrill, causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe. Other losses include the Container Ship MSC Napoli destroyed by the storm off the coast of Devon, England.
