• 217 - Roman Emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
• 1093 - The new Winchester Cathedral is dedicated by Walkelin.
• 1139 - Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated.
• 1149 - Pope Eugene III takes refuge in the castle of Ptolemy II of Tusculum.
• 1271 - In Syria, sultan Baybars conquers the Krak of Chevaliers.
• 1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de León declares Florida a territory of Spain.
• 1730 - Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
• 1767 - Ayutthaya kingdom falls to Burmese invaders.
• 1808 - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore was promoted to an archdiocese, with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII.
• 1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
• 1832 - Black Hawk War: Around three-hundred United States 6th Infantry troops leave St. Louis, Missouri to fight the Sauk Native Americans.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield - Union forces are thwarted by the Confederate army at Mansfield, Louisiana.
• 1866 - Italy and Prussia ally against Austria-Hungary.
• 1886 - William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons.
• 1893 - The first recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
• 1895 - The Supreme Court of the United States declares income tax to be unconstitutional in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.
• 1899 - Martha Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.
• 1904 - The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sign the Entente cordiale.
• 1904 - British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the first chapter of the Book of the Law.
• 1904 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• 1908 - Harvard University votes to establish the Harvard Business School.
• 1913 - The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law.
• 1916 - In Corona, California, racecar driver Bob Burman crashes, killing three and badly injuring five spectators.
• 1918 - World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York City's financial district.
• 1929 - Indian Independence Movement: At the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court arrest.
• 1935 - The Works Progress Administration is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
• 1940 - World War II: Great Britain and France announce that they've mined Norwegian territorial waters to prevent their use by German supply ships.
• 1942 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad - Soviet forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.
• 1942 - World War II: The Japanese take Bataan in the Philippines.
• 1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases to common carriers and public utilities.
• 1946 - The last meeting of the League of Nations, the precursor of the United Nations, is held.
• 1950 - India and Pakistan sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact.
• 1952 - U.S. President Harry Truman calls for the seizure of all domestic steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike.
• 1953 - Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya's British rulers.
• 1957 - The Suez Canal in Egypt is reopened.
• 1960 - The U.S. Senate approves the Civil Rights Act of 1960 despite Southern senators' marathon filibuster effort.
• 1968 - BOAC Flight 712 catches fire shortly after take off. As a result of her actions in the accident, Barbara Jane Harrison is awarded a posthumous George Cross, the only GC awarded to a woman in peacetime.
• 1973 - Thirty-two terrorist bombings in Cyprus take place.
• 1975 - Frank Robinson manages the Cleveland Indians in his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.
• 1985 - Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
• 1987 - Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid controversy over racially-charged remarks he'd made while on Nightline.
• 1989 - South Africa: The Democratic Party is formed from the merger of four parties.
• 1989 - The two Greek Communist parties, along with smaller left-wing parties, merge to form the Coalition of the Left and Progress in Greece.
• 1990 - New Democracy wins the national election in Greece.
• 1992 - Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces that he's AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
• 1999 - Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, merges with the Indian National Congress.
• 2000 - Nineteen Marines are killed when an V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashes near Marana, Arizona.
• 2004 - Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
• 2004 - U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice testifies before the 9/11 Commission.
• 2006 - Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight men, all shot to death, are found in a field in Ontario, Canada. The murders are soon linked to the Bandidos motorcycle gang.
• 2008 - Yi So-yeon became the first South Korean to fly in space.

Births