- 1236 – King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence.[1]
- 1301 – Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Árpád dynasty in Hungary.[2]
- 1343 – Arnošt of Pardubice becomes the last bishop of Prague and, subsequently, the first Archbishop of Prague.
- 1539 – Spain annexes Cuba.
- 1639 – The “Fundamental Orders“, the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.[3]
- 1761 – The Third Battle of Panipat is fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marathas.
- 1784 – American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States – Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.[4]
- 1814 – Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes the Kingdom of Norway to Charles XIII of Sweden in return for Pomerania.[5]
- 1822 – Greek War of Independence: Acrocorinth is captured by Theodoros Kolokotronis and Demetrios Ypsilantis.
- 1858 – Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt made by Felice Orsini and his accomplices in Paris.
- 1907 – An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000 people.[6]
- 1911 – Roald Amundsen‘s South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.
- 1939 – Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
- 1943 – World War II: Japan begins Operation Ke, the successful operation to evacuate its forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
- 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.[7]
- 1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.
- 1952 – NBC‘s long-running morning news program Today debuts, with host Dave Garroway.[8]
- 1953 – Josip Broz Tito is inaugurated as the first President of Yugoslavia.
- 1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.[9][10]
- 1957 – Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher) after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars.
- 1960 – The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country’s central bank and banknote issuing authority, is established.
- 1967 – Counterculture of the 1960s: The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco, California‘s Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love.[11]
- 1969 – USS Enterprise fire: An accidental explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 28 people.[12]
- 1972 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ascends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
- 1973 – Elvis Presley‘s concert Aloha from Hawaii is broadcast live via satellite, and sets the record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.
- 1993 – In Poland’s worst peacetime maritime disaster, ferry MS Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen, drowning 55 passengers and crew; nine crew-members are saved.
- 2004 – The national flag of the Republic of Georgia, the so-called “five cross flag“, is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
- 2010 – Yemen declares an open war against the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
- 2011 – President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia seeks refuge in Saudi Arabia after a series of demonstrations against his regime, considered to be the birth of the Arab Spring.
-Source: wikipedia
