69 – Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered at the Gemonian stairs in Rome.
401 – Pope Innocent I is elected.
856 – Damghan earthquake: An earthquake near the Persian city of Damghan kills an estimated 200,000 people, the sixth deadliest earthquake in recorded history.
1135 – Stephen of Blois becomes King of England
1769 – Sino-Burmese War: The war ends with an uneasy truce.
1790 – The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Alexander Suvorov and his Russian armies.
1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy(with Beethoven at the piano).
1851 – India’s first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
1891 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.
1921 – Opening of Visva-Bharati College, also known as Santiniketan College, now Visva Bharati University, India.
1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.
1939 – Indian Muslims observe a “Day of Deliverance” to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over their not having been consulted over the decision to enter World War II with the United Kingdom.
1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
1944 – World War II: The Vietnam People’s Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indochina, now Vietnam.
1963 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira, Portugal with the loss of 128 lives.
1968 – Cultural Revolution: People’s Daily posted the instructions of Mao Zedong that it is “The intellectual youth must go to the country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty.”
1978 – The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, withDeng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.
1989 – Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife flee Bucharest in a helicopter as protesters erupt in cheers.
1989 – Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
2001 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
2010 – The repeal of the Don’t ask, don’t tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama.
2015 – SpaceX lands a first stage Falcon 9 rocket on ground, after reaching Low Earth orbit at 1:40 UTC for the first time in history.