EVENTS
362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
1245 - Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, was granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery.
1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.
1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
1613 - Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
1743 - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson".
1804 - The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.
1842 - John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
1848 - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.
1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
1878 - The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
1893 - Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device"
1907 - 125 people perish when the S.S. Berlin sinks near Hoek van Holland.
1912 - Ioannina incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
1916 - World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
1918 - The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
1945 - World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
1947 - In New York City Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
1948 - NASCAR is incorporated.
1952 - The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes Identity Cards in the UK to "set the people free".
1952 - In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) police opened fire on a procession of students, who demanded the establishment of Bengali as the official language, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which led to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day was later declared as "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.
1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
1958 - Peace symbol designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
1970 - Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
1971 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
1972 - President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
1972 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
1973 - Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.
1974 - The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal in carrying out a truce with Egypt.
1975 - Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
1995 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
2004 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.
2007 - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigns from office. His resignation is rejected by the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano.
BIRTHS
1983 - Braylon Edwards, American football player
1983 - Franklin Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player
1984 - Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby union player
1984 - David Odonkor, German footballer
1984 - Karina, Japanese model and actress
1985 - Bob Burton, American speedcuber
1985 - Georgios Samaras, Greek footballer
1986 - Charlotte Church, Welsh singer
1986 - Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
1987 - Ellen Page, Canadian actress
1987 - Anthony Walker, British murder victim (d. 2005)
1989 - Corbin Bleu, American actor and singer
1989 - Kristin Herrera, American actress
1989 - Josh Walker, English footballer
DEATHS
1982 - Murray the K, American impresario and disc jockey (b. 1922)
1984 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
1985 - Louis Hayward, British actor (b. 1909)
1986 - Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)
1986 - Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese sugarcane farmer, also the world's oldest man ever (b. 1865)
1989 - Alex Thépot, French footballer (b. 1906)
1991 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (b. 1919)
1994 - Johannes Steinhoff, German fighter pilot & NATO commander (b.1913)
1996 - Morton Gould, American composer (b. 1913)
1999 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
1999 - Wilmer David Mizell, baseball player (b. 1930)
2000 - Antonio Díaz-Miguel, Spanish basketball coach (b. 1933)
2002 - Harold Furth, Austrian-born physicist (b. 1939)
2002 - John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942)
2003 - Eddie Thomson, Scottish football player and coach (b. 1947)
2004 - John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)
2004 - Guido Molinari, Canadian artist (b. 1933)
2005 - Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b. 1930)
2005 - Gérard Bessette, Quebec novelist and poet (b. 1920)
2005 - Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b. 1929)
2005 - Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b. 1929)
362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
1245 - Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, was granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery.
1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.
1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
1613 - Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
1743 - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson".
1804 - The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.
1842 - John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
1848 - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.
1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
1878 - The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
1893 - Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device"
1907 - 125 people perish when the S.S. Berlin sinks near Hoek van Holland.
1912 - Ioannina incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
1916 - World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
1918 - The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
1945 - World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
1947 - In New York City Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
1948 - NASCAR is incorporated.
1952 - The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes Identity Cards in the UK to "set the people free".
1952 - In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) police opened fire on a procession of students, who demanded the establishment of Bengali as the official language, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which led to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day was later declared as "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.
1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
1958 - Peace symbol designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
1970 - Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
1971 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
1972 - President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
1972 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
1973 - Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.
1974 - The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal in carrying out a truce with Egypt.
1975 - Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
1995 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
2004 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.
2007 - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigns from office. His resignation is rejected by the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano.
BIRTHS
1983 - Braylon Edwards, American football player
1983 - Franklin Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player
1984 - Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby union player
1984 - David Odonkor, German footballer
1984 - Karina, Japanese model and actress
1985 - Bob Burton, American speedcuber
1985 - Georgios Samaras, Greek footballer
1986 - Charlotte Church, Welsh singer
1986 - Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
1987 - Ellen Page, Canadian actress
1987 - Anthony Walker, British murder victim (d. 2005)
1989 - Corbin Bleu, American actor and singer
1989 - Kristin Herrera, American actress
1989 - Josh Walker, English footballer
DEATHS
1982 - Murray the K, American impresario and disc jockey (b. 1922)
1984 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
1985 - Louis Hayward, British actor (b. 1909)
1986 - Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)
1986 - Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese sugarcane farmer, also the world's oldest man ever (b. 1865)
1989 - Alex Thépot, French footballer (b. 1906)
1991 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (b. 1919)
1994 - Johannes Steinhoff, German fighter pilot & NATO commander (b.1913)
1996 - Morton Gould, American composer (b. 1913)
1999 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
1999 - Wilmer David Mizell, baseball player (b. 1930)
2000 - Antonio Díaz-Miguel, Spanish basketball coach (b. 1933)
2002 - Harold Furth, Austrian-born physicist (b. 1939)
2002 - John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942)
2003 - Eddie Thomson, Scottish football player and coach (b. 1947)
2004 - John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)
2004 - Guido Molinari, Canadian artist (b. 1933)
2005 - Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b. 1930)
2005 - Gérard Bessette, Quebec novelist and poet (b. 1920)
2005 - Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b. 1929)
2005 - Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b. 1929)
