- 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now the United States state of Florida.
- 1755 – Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
- 1792 – The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
- 1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
- 1800 – The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: The British capture the Danish fleet.
- 1851 – Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.
- 1863 – American Civil War: The largest in a series of Southern bread riots occurs in Richmond, Virginia.
- 1865 – American Civil War: Defeat at the Third Battle of Petersburg forces the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate government to abandon Richmond, Virginia.
- 1885 – Canadian Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, killing nine.
- 1900 – The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
- 1902 – Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Marie Palace, Saint Petersburg.
- 1902 – “Electric Theatre”, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
- 1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country’s first national census.
- 1912 – The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.
- 1917 – World War I: United States President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
- 1921 – The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
- 1930 – After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
- 1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
- 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.
- 1973 – Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
- 1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
- 1976 – Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.[1]
- 1979 – A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
- 1980 – United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act.
- 1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
- 1986 – Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist, best known for the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door“, announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.
- 1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba, to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
- 1989 – ASUS corporation was founded.
- 1991 – Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
- 1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
- 1992 – Forty-two civilians were massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated.
- 2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted.
- 2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; Tennessee is hardest hit with 29 people killed.
- 2012 – A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured.
- 2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured.
- 2015 – Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.
- 2015 – Four men steal items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London’s Hatton Garden area in what has been called the “largest burglary in English legal history.”[2]
-Source: wikipedia
