222 – Alexander Severus becomes emperor of Rome, replacing his cousin, 18-year-old Elagabalus. The bodies of the assassinated emperor and his mother, Julia Soaemias, are dragged through the streets of the city and thrown into the Tiber.[1]
1641 – Guaraní forces living in the Jesuit reductions defeat bandeirantes loyal to the Portuguese Empire at the Battle of Mbororé in present-day Panambí, Argentina.[2]
1649 – The Frondeurs and the French sign the Peace of Rueil.[3]
1702 – The Daily Courant, England's first national daily newspaper, is published for the first time.[4]
1708 – Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.[5]
1784 – The signing of the Treaty of Mangalore brings the Second Anglo-Mysore War to an end.[6]
1845 – Flagstaff War: Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti and Māori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororareka, New Zealand.[7]
1848 – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government.[8]
1851 – The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice.[9]
1861 – American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.[10]
1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England.[11]
1872 – Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.[12]
1879 – Shō Tai formally abdicated his position of King of Ryūkyū, under orders from Tokyo, ending the Ryukyu Kingdom.[13]
1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.[14]
1917 – World War I: Mesopotamian campaign: Baghdad falls to Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Stanley Maude.[15]
1927 – In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre.[16]
1941 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.[17]
1945 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.[18]
1945 – World War II: The Empire of Vietnam, a short-lived Japanese puppet state, is established.[19]
1946 – Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops.[20]
1977 – The 1977 Hanafi Siege: Around 150 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations.[21]
1978 – Coastal Road massacre: At least 37 are killed and more than 70 are wounded when Fatah hijack an Israeli bus, prompting Israel's Operation Litani.[22]
1981 – Hundreds of students protest in the University of Pristina in Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia, to give their province more political rights. The protests then became a nationwide movement.[23]
1983 – Bob Hawke is appointed Prime Minister of Australia.[24]
1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union making Gorbachev the USSR's de facto, and last, head of state.[25]
1990 – Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.[26]
1990 – Patricio Aylwin is sworn in as the first democratically elected President of Chile since 1970.[27]
2004 – Madrid train bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain, kill 191 people.[28]
2006 – Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as first female president of Chile.[29]
2009 – Winnenden school shooting: Sixteen are killed and 11 are injured before recent-graduate Tim Kretschmer shoots and kills himself, leading to tightened weapons restrictions in Germany.[30]
2010 – Economist and businessman Sebastián Piñera is sworn in as President of Chile. Aftershocks of the 2010 Pichilemu earthquake hit central Chile during the ceremony.[31]
2011 – An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.[32]
2012 – A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar.[33]
2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares COVID-19 virus a pandemic.[34]