Events Pre-1600 536 – Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flees the capital. 730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami. 1432 – The first battle between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis is fought near the town of Oszmiana (Ashmyany), launching the most active phase of the Lithuanian Civil War. 1531 – The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.
1601–1900 1636 – The Qing dynasty of China, led by Emperor Hong Taiji, invades Joseon.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia. 1822 – French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.A. Fresnel, "Mémoire sur la double réfraction que les rayons lumineux éprouvent en traversant les aiguilles de cristal de roche suivant les directions parallèles à l'axe", read 9 December 1822; printed in H. de Senarmont, E. Verdet, and L. Fresnel (eds.), Oeuvres complètes d'Augustin Fresnel, vol. 1 (1866), pp.731–51; translated as "Memoir on the double refraction that light rays undergo in traversing the needles of quartz in the directions parallel to the axis", , 2021 (open access). 1824 – Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence. 1835 – Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio following the Siege of Béxar. 1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal. 1856 – The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces. 1861 – American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by Congress. 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps. 1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth. 1893 – National Assembly bombing by Auguste Vaillant during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).
1901–present 1905 – In France, a law separating church and state is passed. 1911 – A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines. 1917 – World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire. 1917 – World War I: The Kingdom of Romania signs the Armistice of Focșani with the Central Powers. 1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland. 1931 – The Constituent Cortes approves a constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic. 1935 – Student protests occur in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and are subsequently dispersed by government authorities. 1935 – Walter Liggett, an American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder. 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Yasuhiko Asaka launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanking. 1940 – World War II: Operation Compass: British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt. 1941 – World War II: China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan. 1946 – The subsequent Nuremberg trials begin with the Doctors' Trial, prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia. 1946 – The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India. 1948 – The Genocide Convention is adopted. 1950 – Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. 1953 – Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company. 1956 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board. 1956 – An Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes near Anadyr, killing all 12 people on board. 1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom. 1961 – Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain. 1965 – Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; with witnesses reporting something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh. 1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS). 1969 – U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970. 1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences. 1973 – British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. 1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (with rinderpest in 2011 being the other). 1987 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. 1992 – American troops land in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope. 1996 – Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada. 2003 – A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more. 2006 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station. 2008 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. 2012 – A plane crash in Mexico kills seven people including singer Jenni Rivera. 2013 – At least seven are dead and 63 are injured following a train accident near Bintaro, Indonesia. 2016 – President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is impeached by the country's National Assembly in response to a major political scandal. 2016 – At least 57 people are killed and a further 177 injured when two schoolgirl suicide bombers attack a market area in Madagali, Adamawa, Nigeria in the Madagali suicide bombings. 2017 – The Marriage Amendment Bill receives royal assent and comes into effect, making Australia the 26th country to legalize same-sex marriage. 2019 – A volcano on Whakaari / White Island, New Zealand, kills 22 people after it erupts. 2021 – Fifty-five people are killed and more than 100 injured when a truck with 160 migrants from Central America overturned in Chiapas, Mexico.
Births Pre-1600 1392 – Peter, Duke of Coimbra (died 1449) 1447 – Chenghua Emperor of China (died 1487) 1482 – Frederick II, Elector Palatine (died 1556) 1493 – Íñigo López de Mendoza, 4th Duke of the Infantado (died 1566) 1508 – Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (died 1555) 1561 – Edwin Sandys, English lawyer and politician (died 1629) 1571 – Metius, Dutch mathematician and astronomer (died 1635) 1579 – Martin de Porres, Peruvian saint (died 1639) 1594 – Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (died 1632)
1601–1900 1608 – John Milton, English poet and philosopher (died 1674) 1610 – Baldassare Ferri, Italian singer and actor (died 1680) 1617 – Richard Lovelace, English poet (died 1657) 1652 – Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (died 1723) 1667 – William Whiston, English mathematician, historian, and theologian (died 1752) 1717 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German archaeologist and historian (died 1768) 1721 – Peter Pelham, English-American organist and composer (died 1805) 1728 – Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi, Italian composer (died 1804) 1742 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish Pomeranian and German pharmaceutical chemist (died 1786) 1745 – Maddalena Laura Sirmen, Italian violinist and composer (died 1818) 1748 – Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist and academic (died 1822) 1752 – Antoine Étienne de Tousard, French general and engineer (died 1813) 1768 – Joseph Desha, American politician (died 1842) 1787 – John Dobson, English architect, designed Eldon Square and Lilburn Tower (died 1865) 1779 – Tabitha Babbitt, American tool maker and inventor (died 1853) 1806 – Jean-Olivier Chénier, Canadian physician (died 1838) 1813 – Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist and physicist (died 1885) 1837 – Émile Waldteufel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1915) 1842 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian zoologist, economist, geographer, and philosopher (died 1921) 1845 – Joel Chandler Harris, American journalist and author (died 1908) 1850 – Emma Abbott, American soprano and actress (died 1891) 1861 – Hélène Smith, French psychic and occultist (died 1929) 1867 – Gregorios Xenopoulos, Greek journalist and author (died 1951) 1868 – Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1934) 1870 – Ida S. Scudder, Indian physician and missionary (died 1960) 1870 – Francisco S. Carvajal, Mexican lawyer and politician, president 1914 (died 1932) 1871 – Joe Kelley, American baseball player and manager (died 1943) 1873 – George Blewett, Canadian philosopher, author, and academic (died 1912) 1875 – Harry Miller, American engineer (died 1943) 1876 – Berton Churchill, Canadian-American actor and singer (died 1940) 1882 – Elmer Booth, American actor (died 1915) 1882 – Joaquín Turina, Spanish-French composer, critic, and educator (died 1949) 1883 – Nikolai Luzin, Russian mathematician, theorist, and academic (died 1950) 1883 – Alexander Papagos, Greek general and politician, 152nd Prime Minister of Greece (died 1955) 1883 – Joseph Pilates, German-American fitness expert, developed Pilates (died 1967) 1886 – Clarence Birdseye, American businessman, founded Birds Eye (died 1956) 1887 – Tim Moore, American actor (died 1958) 1889 – Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish-American runner (died 1966) 1890 – Laura Salverson, Canadian author (died 1970) 1891 – Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet and critic (died 1917) 1892 – André Randall, French actor (died 1974) 1895 – Dolores Ibárruri, Spanish activist, journalist and politician (died 1989) 1895 – Conchita Supervía, Spanish soprano and actress (died 1936) 1897 – Hermione Gingold, English actress and singer (died 1987) 1898 – Irene Greenwood, Australian radio broadcaster, feminist and peace activist (died 1992) 1898 – Emmett Kelly, American clown and actor (died 1979) 1899 – Jean de Brunhoff, French author and illustrator (died 1937) 1900 – Margaret Brundage, American illustrator, known for illustrating pulp magazine Weird Tales (died 1976) 1900 – Albert Weisbord, American activist, founded the Communist League of Struggle (died 1977)
1901–present 1901 – Jean Mermoz, French pilot and politician (died 1936) 1901 – Ödön von Horváth, Hungarian-German author and playwright (died 1938) 1902 – Margaret Hamilton, American schoolteacher, actress and voice artist (died 1985) 1904 – Robert Livingston, American actor and singer (died 1988) 1905 – Dalton Trumbo, American author, screenwriter, and blacklistee (died 1976)