- 138 – Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius as his son, effectively making him his successor.[1]
- 628 – Khosrow II, the last great Shah of the Sasanian Empire (Iran), is overthrown by his son Kavadh II.[2]
- 1336 – Four thousand defenders of Pilenai commit mass suicide rather than be taken captive by the Teutonic Knights.[3]
- 1836 – Samuel Colt is granted a United States patent for his revolver firearm.[4]
- 1843 – Lord George Paulet occupies the Kingdom of Hawaii in the name of Great Britain in the Paulet Affair (1843).[5]
- 1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress.[6]
- 1875 – Guangxu Emperor of Qing dynasty China begins his reign, under Empress Dowager Cixi‘s regency.[7]
- 1912 – Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.[8]
- 1916 – In the Battle of Verdun, a German unit captures Fort Douaumont, keystone of the French defences, without a fight.[9]
- 1918 – German forces capture Tallinn to virtually complete the occupation of Estonia.[10]
- 1921 – Georgian capital Tbilisi falls to the invading Russian forces after heavy fighting and the Russians declare the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.[11]
- 1932 – Hitler, having been stateless for seven years, obtains German citizenship when he is appointed a Brunswick state official by Dietrich Klagges, a fellow Nazi. As a result, Hitler is able to run for Reichspräsident in the 1932 election.[12]
- 1933 – Launch of the USS Ranger at Newport News, Virginia. It is the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned by the US Navy.[13]
- 1939 – As part of British air raid precautions, the first of 21⁄2 million Anderson shelters is constructed in a garden in Islington, north London.[14]
- 1941 – The outlawed Communist Party of the Netherlands organises a general strike in German-occupied Amsterdam to protest against Nazi persecution of Dutch Jews.[15]
- 1947 – The formal abolition of Prussia is proclaimed by the Allied Control Council, the Prussian government having already been abolished by the Preußenschlag of 1932.[16]
- 1948 – In a coup d’état led by Klement Gottwald, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia takes control of government in Prague to end the Third Czechoslovak Republic.[17]
- 1951 – The first Pan American Games are officially opened in Buenos Aires by Argentine President Juan Perón.[18]
- 1956 – In his speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, denounces Stalin.[19]
- 1980 – The government of Suriname is overthrown by a military coup led by Dési Bouterse.[20]
- 1986 – People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines‘ first woman president.[21]
- 1991 – Disbandment of the Warsaw Pact at a meeting of its members in Budapest.[22]
-Source: wikipedia
