532 Nika riots begin in Constantinople, a revolt against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I that leaves half the city burned and thousands dead.

1099 The First Crusade: Crusaders set fire to Ma’arra, Syria. 

1404 The Act of Multipliers is passed by the English Parliament forbidding alchemists to use their knowledge to create precious metals.  It was feared that if any alchemist should succeed it would bring ruin upon the state

1610 Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th satellite of Jupiter

1630 Plymouth Colony Land Records: Letters about the Pilgrim Settlements in New England are issued to Plymouth Colony

1733 British officer James Oglethorpe and 130 English colonists arrive at Charleston, South Carolina

1742 The HMS Tyger runs aground on coral reefs near Garden Key, Florida.  It is rediscovered in 1993 and identified in 2024

1794 Congress changes US flag to 15 stars & 15 stripes

1830 The Great fire in New Orleans, then the third most populous city in the US at the time, is thought to have been set by rebel slaves

1840 The paddlewheel steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.  Commissioned by Cornelius Vanderbilt, it was one of the fastest and most luxurious steamers in operation

1842 Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for (reputedly) being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad

1863 The Chenille yarn making machine is patented by William Canter in NYC

1874 The Tompkins Square Park Riot was a battle between about 7,000 jobless people and 1,600 policemen in NYC leaving 100s injured

1874 The US Marines land in Honolulu to protect the king at the request of the Hawaiian government

1883 A fire breaks out in the Circus Ferroni in Berditschoft, Poland, killing 430 people

1888 The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. for "the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge"

1893 U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution and reinstating the Royal Monarchy

1908 Henri Farman becomes the first person to fly an observed circuit of more than 1km, winning the Grand Prix d'Aviation

1908 The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, kills 171 people

1912 -40°F, Oakland, Maryland (state record)

1913 Delta Sigma Theta, the world's largest Black Women's Sorority, is founded at Howard University, Washington, D.C.

1915 A 6.7 earthquake destroys the city of Avezzano, Italy, with a population of 13,000: 10,000 people were killed and 2,000 injured.  A total of 29,800 people were killed by the quake

1920 The NY Times editorial (falsely) reports rockets can never fly

1927 The US and Mexico verbally battle over oil interests resulting in the Calles-Morrow Agreement between the two countries

1929 The Humanist Society was established in Hollywood, California

1930 The "Mickey Mouse" comic strip appears and is the first published example of Disney comics.  The strip ran until July 29, 1995

1939 The Black Friday bush fires burn 12,400 square miles of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people

1942 Henry Ford patents a method of constructing plastic auto bodies

1942 World War II: The first use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter

1943 Adolf Hitler declares "Total War" against the Allies

1953 A gas explosion in a Belgium coal mine kills 14

1954 Egyptian President Nasser survived assassination, resulting in 318 Muslim Brotherhood members being arrested

1958 9,000 scientists of 43 nations petition the UN for a nuclear test ban

1958 The Chicago newspaper "Daily Worker" ceases publication.  It ran from 1919 to 1958

1964 Hindu-Muslim rioting breaks out in the Indian city of Calcutta - now Kolkata - resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people

1966 Robert C. Weaver, is the first African American selected for the cabinet by US President Lyndon B. Johnson to the newly created Department of Housing and Urban Development – HUD

1975 US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger hints at military action against oil countries in case of "actual strangulation of the industrialized world" in the wake of oil shock

1976 American inventor Ray Kurzweil and the National Federation of the Blind unveil the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first omni-font optical character recognition system

1978 NASA select its first American women astronauts; Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher and Sally K. Ride.  Resnik was killed in the Challenger disaster in 1986

1979 The YMCA files libel suit against the Village People's YMCA song

1982 Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737, took off in a snowstorm in Washington DC.  When it failed to maintain altitude it crashed into the 14th St Bridge in Washington, D.C., and then fell into the Potomac River, killing 78 people

1986 NCCA institutes eligibility requirements based on college exams

1987 Seven top New York City Mafia bosses are each sentenced to 100 years in prison

1988 The US Supreme Court rules (5-3) public school officials have broad powers to censor school newspapers, plays and other expressive activities

1989 Computers across Britain are hit by the "Friday the 13th"/Jerusalem virus

1989 The ancient ruins of Mashkan-shapir, occupied 2050-1720 BC, is found in Iraq.  It was a major urban center of 15,000 people

1989 NCY subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz begins a 1-year jail sentence

1990 Douglas Wilder, the first elected African American Governor is inaugurated in Virginia

1992 American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane

1993 French, British, and US fighter jets launch bombing raids in southern Iraq

1993 STS-54, Endeavour’s third flight, launches into orbit

2000 Microsoft chairman Bill Gates steps aside as chief executive and promotes company president Steve Ballmer to the position

2001 An earthquake measuring magnitude 7.6 strikes El Salvador, killing more than 840 people

2004 Harold Shipman, a British GP who is believed to have killed more than 200 of his patients in Manchester, is found hanged in his prison cell

2012 Italian cruiseliner Costa Concordia runs aground at Isola de Giglio, Italy, causing 32 deaths

2018 An early-morning ballistic missile alert sent across Hawaii in error was revoked after 38 minutes

2020 The oldest material existing on the earth at 7.5 billion years old is revealed by scientists studying the Murchison meteorite that fell to earth in Australia in 1960s

2021 The world's oldest known cave painting of an animal, a pig, dating 45,000 years old, is discovered in the Leang Tedongnge cave, on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia

2022 Britain's Prince Andrew stripped of his military titles and royal patronages by Buckingham Palace, amid continuing sexual assault allegations

2024 An arctic blast affects large parts of the US, with 44 million people under winter weather advisory.  Chester, Montana registers a continental US record low of 54 degrees below zero

2024 Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party is re-elected for the third time led by Vice President Lai Ching-te, amid Chinese warnings their election would increase a conflict with China