537Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges begins the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii are almost cut off.
986Louis V becomes the last Carolingian king of West Francia after the death of his father, Lothaire.
1331Fall of Nicaea to the Ottoman Turks after a siege.
1444Skanderbeg organizes a group of Albanian nobles to form the League of Lezhë.
1458George of Poděbrady is chosen as the king of Bohemia.
1476Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy hands Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in Canton of Neuchâtel.
1498Vasco da Gama's fleet visits the Island of Mozambique.
1657The Great Fire of Meireki begins in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, causing more than 100,000 deaths before it exhausts itself three days later.
1776American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in and around the Savannah River by a small fleet of the Royal Navy in the Battle of the Rice Boats.
1791Claude Chappe demonstrates the first semaphore line near Paris.
1859The two-day Great Slave Auction, once thought to be the largest such auction in United States history, begins.
1864Ulysses S. Grant is promoted to lieutenant general, giving him command of all Union Armies.
1865East Cape War: The Völkner Incident in New Zealand.
1867The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act.
1877Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 U.S. presidential election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote.
1882Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick Maclean in Windsor.
1901United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion.
1901The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment limiting the autonomy of Cuba, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops.
1903In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
1917The enactment of the Jones–Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
1919The first Communist International meets in Moscow.
1932Finnish president P. E. Svinhufvud gives a radio speech, which four days later finally ends the Mäntsälä Rebellion and the far-right Lapua Movement that started it.
1933The film King Kong premieres in Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy in New York City.
1937The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry.
1939Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII.
1941World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joins the Axis Pact.
1943World War II: During the Battle of the Bismarck Sea Allied aircraft defeat a Japanese attempt to ship troops to New Guinea.
1949Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.
1955Norodom Sihanouk, king of Cambodia, abdicates the throne in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit.
1962In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d'état.
1965The US and Republic of Vietnam Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
1968Baggeridge Colliery closes, marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country.
1969In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
1970Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.
1972The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.
1977Libya becomes the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya as the General People's Congress adopts the "Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People".
1978Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Soviet or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.
1978The late iconic actor Charlie Chaplin's coffin is stolen from his grave in Switzerland.
1983Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan.
1986Aeroflot Flight F-77 crashes near Bugulma Airport, killing all 38 people aboard.
1989Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
2004War in Iraq: Al-Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.
2006In Monterrey, Mexico, a man identified as Diego Santoy Riveroll commits a double murder against two children, followed by an attempted murder of his ex-partner, Erika. The incident is popularly known as the Cumbres case.
2012A tornado outbreak occurs over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 tornado-related fatalities.
2014The Oscar Selfie, regarded as one of the most influential and important images of all time, is taken at the 86th Academy Awards.
2017The elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson are officially added to the periodic table at a conference in Moscow, Russia.
2022Russian forces capture the city of Kherson during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which subsequently began the start of the Russian occupation and military-civilian administration in Kherson. Kherson is the only regional capital in Ukraine that Russia captured.
2026The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launches several projectiles into northern Israel as a response to the assassination of Ali Khamenei, formally initiating the 2026 Lebanon War.
Nacimientos (222)
480Benedict of Nursia, Italian Christian saint (died 543 or 547)
1316Robert II of Scotland (died 1390)
1409Jean II, Duke of Alençon (died 1476)
1432Countess Palatine Margaret of Mosbach, countess consort of Hanau (died 1457)
1453Johannes Engel, German doctor, astronomer and astrologer (died 1512)
1459Pope Adrian VI (died 1523)
1481Franz von Sickingen, German knight (died 1523)
1545Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library (died 1613)
1577George Sandys, English traveller, colonist and poet (died 1644)
1628Cornelis Speelman, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (died 1684)
1651Carlo Gimach, Maltese architect, engineer and poet (died 1730)
1705William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (died 1793)
1740Nicholas Pocock, English naval painter (died 1821)
1760Camille Desmoulins, French journalist and politician (died 1794)
1769DeWitt Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of New York (died 1828)
1770Louis-Gabriel Suchet, French general (died 1826)