• 1112 - Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
• 1377 - more than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops (Cesena Bloodbath).
• 1451 - Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1488 - Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.
• 1509 - The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.
• 1690 - The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
• 1706 - During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
• 1783 - American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
• 1787 - Shays' Rebellion is crushed.
• 1807 - A British military force, under Brig-Gen. Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the city of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire now capital of Uruguay.
• 1809 - The Illinois Territory is created.
• 1830 - The sovereignty of Greece was confirmed in a London Protocol.
• 1834 - Wake Forest University is established.
• 1867 - Emperor Meiji becomes the 122nd emperor of Japan.
• 1870 - The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, granting voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
• 1900 - Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel is assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky.
• 1908 - Foundation of Panathinaikos in Athens, Greece.
• 1913 - The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
• 1916 - Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
• 1917 - World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the former announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long.
• 1923 - The Alpha Zeta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia founded at Pennsylvania State University.
• 1930 - The Communist Party of Vietnam is established.
• 1931 - The Hawke's Bay earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.
• 1941 - World War II: Nazi Germany forcibly restores Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France.
• 1944 - World War II: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
• 1945 - World War II: The Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.
• 1945 - World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17's of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin.
• 1947 - The lowest temperature in North America is recorded in Snag, Yukon, Alaska.
• 1957 - Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).
• 1958 - Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
• 1959 - A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, also known as The Day the Music Died.
• 1966 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
• 1967 - Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
• 1969 - In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
• 1984 - Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission - Astronauts, Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make first untethered spacewalks using the Manned Maneuvering Unit.
• 1988 - Iran-Contra Affair: The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.
• 1989 - After a stroke, P.W. Botha resigns party leadership and the presidency of South Africa.
• 1989 - A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
• 1991 - The Italian Communist Party dissolves and splits into the Democratic Party of the Left and the Communist Refoundation Party.
• 1998 - Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
• 1998 - Cavalese cable-car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.
• 1999 - In Jammu and Kashmir the political party Democratic Janata Dal (Jammu and Kashmir) is revived.
• 2007 - A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.

Births