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Events

306 - Maxentius is proclaimed Roman Emperor.

312 - Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the only Roman Emperor.

1492 - Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba.

1516 - Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza.

1531 - Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia falls under Imam Ahmad's control.

1538 - The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established.

1628 - The Siege of La Rochelle, which had been ongoing for 14 months, ends with Huguenot surrender

1664 - The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot later to be known as the Royal Marines is established.

1776 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of White Plains - British Army forces arrive at White Plains, attack and capture Chatterton Hill from the Americans.

1834 - The Battle of Pinjarra occurs in the Swan River Colony in present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia. Between 14-40 Aborigines are killed by British colonists.

1848 - The first railway in Spain between Barcelona and Mataró is opened.

1864 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends - Union Army forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.

1868 - Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.

 
 

1886 - In New York Harbor, Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.

1914 - The single largest one-day decline in terms of percentage by the Dow Jones Industrial Average in recorded stock market history.

1918 - Czechoslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary.

1918 - New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe).

1919 - The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.

1922 - March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government with the assistance of the Catholic Church; pope Pius XI declares that "Mussolini is a man sent by divine providence."

1936 - US President Franklin Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.

1940 - World War II: Italy invades Greece through Albania and is the selected anniversary of Greece's entry into World War II. It is celebrated in Greece as Oxi (No) Day (???=No) Day.

1942 - The Alaska Highway is completed.

1943 - The Philadelphia Experiment supposedly occurred.

1948 - Swiss chemist Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

1949 - Georges Bidault becomes Prime Minister of France

1950 - The Jack Benny Show, starring Jack Benny, premieres (it ran for 15 years).

 
 

1958 - Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes Pope and takes the name Pope John XXIII.

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1965 - French foreign minister Couve de Murville travels to Moscow.

1965 - Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, is promulgated by Pope Paul VI; it absolves the Jews of the alleged killing of Jesus, reversing Innocent III's declaration from 760 years ago. In short, Pope Paul VI announces that the ecumenical council has decided that Jews are not collectively responsible for the killing of Christ.

1965 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall parabolic (catenarian) steel Gateway Arch is completed.

1970 - Land speed record set by Gary Gabelich in a rocket powered automobile called the Blue Flame

1976 - John D. Ehrlichman, former domestic policy adviser of President Nixon and convicted Watergate felon, arrives at the Swift Trail Camp minimum-security facility in southeastern Arizona.

1981 - The heavy metal band Metallica is founded in San Francisco.

1986 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor.

1986 - Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the murder of his parents, sister and twin nephews and is given five life sentences.

1988 - French manufacturer Roussel Uclaf states that it will resume distribution of the abortion drug RU-486.

1997 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains a record 337.17 points to close at 7,498.32.

1998 - An Air China jetliner is hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan.

2005 - Plame affair: Lewis Libby, vice president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is indicted in the Valerie Plame case. Libby resigns later that day.

 

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