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Events

867 - Adrian II becomes Pope.

872 - John VIII becomes Pope.

1287 - St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.

1542 - Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland.

1702 - The 47 Ronin (master less samurai), under the command of ÿishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master, Asano Takumi no kami Naganori, by beheading Kira Kozukenosuke Yoshinaka. Later the 46 surviving ronin would commit ritual suicide, seppuku (disembowelment), and would later achieve legendary status as the embodiments of the ideals of the samurai.

1769 - Dartmouth College is chartered by King George III of England.

1819 - Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.

1896 - The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.

1900 - Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.

1902 - The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.

1911 - Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.

1918 - Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.

1939 - Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations.

 
 

1946 - The UN General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.

1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.

1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first-ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.

1959 - The Motown record label is founded in Detroit, Michigan by Berry Gordy.

1962 - NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

1962 - The Mona Lisa is assessed at US$100 million, the highest insurance valuance for a painting in history.

1964 - American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States - The United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress can use its Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.

1977 - Releasing of Saturday Night Fever film.

1979 - First release of the album London Calling by The Clash.

1981 - Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.

1982 - Government of the 23rd Dáil first sits

1989 - Patricio Aylwin is elected President of Chile.

1995 - Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by President Slobodan Milo?evi?, President Franjo Tu?man, President Alija Izetbegovi?, President Jacques Chirac, President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister John Major, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

 
 

1999 - Charles M. Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, announces his retirement.

2000 - The "Texas 7" rob a Radio Shack store in Pearland, Texas, stealing police radio scanners.

2003 - The La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, rebuilt following arson, is reopened.

2003 - President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

2004 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, spanning the valley of the River Tarn near Millau, France and designed by British architect Lord Foster in collaboration with French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, is officially opened.

2005 - The Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales, Australia starts to issue NSW Photo Card.

 

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