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Events

• 475 – Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople.
• 1349 – The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated.
• 1431 – Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.
• 1760 – Afghans defeat Marathas in the Battle of Barari Ghat.
• 1768 – Philip Astley stages the first modern circus in London.
• 1788 – Connecticut becomes the fifth state to be admitted to the United States.
• 1793 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.
• 1799 – British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon.
• 1806 – Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral.
• 1816 – Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery.
• 1822 – The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese king João VI, starting the Brazilian independence process.
• 1839 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.
• 1857 – The Fort Tejon earthquake of California occurs, registering an estimated magnitude of 7.9.
• 1858 – Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War".
• 1861 – Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.
• 1863 – American Civil War: the Battle of Fort Hindman occurs in Arkansas.
• 1878 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy.
• 1880 – The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow.
• 1894 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
• 1903 – Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.
• 1905 – According to the Julian Calendar which is used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Tsarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905.
• 1914 – Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., the first historically black intercollegiate greek-letter fraternity to be officially recognized at Howard University is founded.
• 1916 – World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula.
• 1917 – World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
• 1918- Battle of Bear Valley: The last battle of the American Indian Wars.
• 1923 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight.
• 1941 – World War II: First flight of the Avro Lancaster.
• 1941 – World War II: The Greek Triton (S.112) sinks the Italian submarine Neghelli in Otranto.
• 1945 – World War II: The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.
• 1947 – Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia, is last seen alive.
• 1951 – The United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.
• 1964 – Martyrs' Day: Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag on the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians.
• 1968 – Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebel group in Naivasha, Kenya.
• 2005 – Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.
• 2007 – Mile Post 398, the first featured film that an all-Navajo team wrote, produced, directed, filmed and starred in was released.
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