- 241 BC – First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates: The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing the First Punic War to an end.[1]
- 298 – Roman Emperor Maximian concludes his campaign in North Africa and makes a triumphal entry into Carthage.[2]
- 947 – The Later Han is founded by Liu Zhiyuan. He declares himself emperor.[3]
- 1535 – Spaniard Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, discovers the Galápagos Islands by chance on his way to Peru.[4]
- 1607 – Susenyos I defeats the combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II at the Battle of Gol in Gojjam, making him Emperor of Ethiopia.[5]
- 1629 – Charles I dissolves the Parliament of England, beginning the eleven-year period known as the Personal Rule.[6]
- 1661 – French “Sun King” Louis XIV began his personal rule of France after the death of his premier, the Cardinal Mazarin.[7]
- 1735 – An agreement between Nader Shah and Russia is signed near Ganja, Azerbaijan and Russian troops are withdrawn from occupied territories.[8]
- 1762 – French Huguenot Jean Calas, who had been wrongly convicted of killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities; the event inspired Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform.[9]
- 1814 – Emperor Napoleon I is defeated at the Battle of Laon in France.[10]
- 1830 – The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army is created.[11]
- 1831 – The French Foreign Legion is created by Louis Philippe, the King of France, from the foreign regiments of the Kingdom of France.[12]
- 1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican–American War.[13]
- 1861 – El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Ségou, destroying the Bamana Empire of Mali.[14]
- 1873 – The first Azerbaijani play “The Adventures of the Vizier of the Khan of Lenkaran” prepared by Akhundov was performed by Hassan-bey Zardabi and dramatist and Najaf-bey Vezirov.[15][16]
- 1876 – The first successful test of a telephone is made by Alexander Graham Bell.[17]
- 1891 – Almon Strowger patents the Strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.[18]
- 1906 – The Courrières mine disaster, Europe’s worst ever, kills 1099 miners in northern France.[19]
- 1909 – By signing the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909, Thailand relinquishes its sovereignty over the Malay states of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu, which become British protectorates.[20]
- 1922 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation.[21]
- 1933 – The Long Beach earthquake affects the Greater Los Angeles Area leaving around 108 people dead.[22]
- 1944 – Greek Civil War: The Political Committee of National Liberation is established in Greece by the National Liberation Front.[23]
- 1945 – World War II: The U.S. Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting conflagration kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.[24]
- 1949 – Mildred Gillars (“Axis Sally“) is convicted of treason.[25]
- 1952 – Fulgencio Batista leads a successful coup in Cuba.[26]
- 1959 – Tibetan uprising: Fearing an abduction attempt by China, thousands of Tibetans surround the Dalai Lama‘s palace to prevent his removal.[27]
- 1966 – Military Prime Minister of South Vietnam Nguyễn Cao Kỳ sacked rival General Nguyễn Chánh Thi, precipitating large-scale civil and military dissension in parts of the nation.[28]
- 1969 – In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. He later unsuccessfully attempts to recant.[29]
- 1970 – Vietnam War: Captain Ernest Medina is charged by the U.S. military with My Lai war crimes.[30]
- 1975 – Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh Campaign: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Mê Thuột in the South on their way to capturing Saigon in the final push for victory over South Vietnam.[31]
- 1977 – Astronomers discover the rings of Uranus.[32]
- 1990 – In Haiti, Prosper Avril is ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup.[33]
- 2000 – The Dot-com bubble peaked with the NASDAQ Composite stock market index reaching 5,048.62.[34]
- 2006 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.[35]
- 2017 – The impeachment of President Park Geun-hye of South Korea in response to a major political scandal is unanimously upheld by the country’s Constitutional Court, ending her presidency.[36]
- 2019 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX, crashes, leading to all 737 MAX aircraft being grounded worldwide.[37]
- 2020 – The World Health Organization officially announces the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic.[38]
-Source: wikipedia
