• 366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire.
• 533 - Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy.
• 1492 - Reconquista: Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.
• 1757 - The United Kingdom captures Calcutta, India.
• 1788 - Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
• 1791 - Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.
• 1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
• 1808 - The U.S. Congress bans the importation of slaves.
• 1818 - The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded.
• 1833 - Return of British Forces to the Falkland Islands.
• 1860 - The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.
• 1871 - Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.
• 1872 - Brigham Young is arrested on charges of bigamy for having 25 wives.
• 1882 - John D. Rockefeller unites his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.
• 1893 - Webb C. Ball of the General Railroad Timepiece Standards in North America introduces railroad chronometers.
• 1900 - John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
• 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China.
• 1905 - The American anarcho-syndicalist union known as the Industrial Workers of the World forms.
• 1917 - The Royal Bank of Canada takes over the Quebec Bank.
• 1920 - The Palmer Raids begin in the United States.
• 1923 - United States Interior Secretary Albert Fall resigns over the Teapot Dome scandal.
• 1929 - Canada and the United States agree on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.
• 1935 - Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.
• 1941 - World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales.
• 1941 - World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program to build freighters in support of the war effort.
• 1942 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history -- the Duquesne Spy Ring.
• 1942 - World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces.
• 1942 - The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
• 1946 - Unable to resume rule after World War II, King Zog of Albania abdicates but retains his claim to the throne.
• 1949 - Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
• 1955 - Panamanian president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated.
• 1957 - The San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange and Los Angeles Oil Exchange merge.
• 1959 - Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.
• 1969 - Luis Ferré becomes the first statehooder Governor of Puerto Rico.
• 1969 - Operation Barrier Reef begins in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
• 1971 - The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic football match.
• 1974 - President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
• 1993 - Leaders of the three warring factions in Bosnia meet to discuss peace plans.
• 1999 - A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, where temperatures plunge to -13°F (-25°C); 68 deaths are reported.
• 2001 - Sila Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico.
• 2002 - Eduardo Duhalde is appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly.
• 2004 - Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it'll return to Earth two years later.

Births