1. 362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.

2. 1124 - Yelü Dashi of the Western Liao proclaimed himself emperor, establishing the Western Liao.

3. 1173 - Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.

4. 1245 - Thomas, the first known bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery.

5. 1431 - Joan of Arc's first day of interrogation during her trial for heresy.

6. 1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.

7. 1559 - Nurhaci, the Taizu of the Qing Dynasty, was born.

8. 1564 - King Philip II advises Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle to retire from the Netherlands to Franche-Comté in France.

9. 1574 - Spanish garrison of Middelburg, Netherlands, surrenders.

10. 1583 - Groningen, Netherlands, begins using the Gregorian calendar.

11. 1598 - Boris Godunov crowned Tsar of Russia.

12. 1613 - Michael Romanov, son of the Patriarch of Moscow, elected the first Russian Tsar of the House of Romanov.

13. 1645 - The Qing Dynasty changed the tablet of Confucius in the Imperial College to "Great Sage, the Most Holy and Cultured Teacher Confucius".

14. 1651 - The Qing Dynasty revised the currency system, stipulating that every 100 copper coins were equivalent to one qian of silver.

15. 1673 - Michiel de Ruyter appointed Lt-Admiral-General of the Dutch fleet.

16. 1675 - Prince William of Orange appointed Viceroy of Gelderland.

17. 1683 - The Qing Dynasty sent envoys to confer the title of King of Annam on Le Vi-chinh.

18. 1746 - Jacobite Rising 1745: British forces surrender Inverness Castle to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite forces.

19. 1763 - French mathematician Joseph Fourier was born.

20. 1764 - English House of Commons tries John Wilkes in absentia and finds him guilty of publishing a seditious libel for his "Essay on Women".

21. 1777 - British Ambassador Joseph Yorke demands the dismissal of Governor John de Graaff for saluting the US flag.

22. 1782 - US Congress resolves the establishment of a US mint.

23. 1788 - German composer Carl Maria von Weber was born.

24. 1791 - Austrian pianist, composer, and music educator Carl Czerny was born.

25. 1792 - US Congress passes the Presidential Succession Act.

26. 1792 - The French National Convention declared the founding of the First French Republic.

27. 1795 - Freedom of worship established in France under the constitution.

28. 1797 - Trinidad, a Spanish colony in the West Indies, surrenders to the British.

29. 1801 - France and Austria signed the Treaty of Lunéville, ending the War of the Second Coalition against France.

30. 1804 - Richard Trevithick's first locomotive runs for the first time along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

31. 1807 - US President Martin Van Buren (24) weds high school sweetheart Hannah Hoes (23) in Catskill, New York.

32. 1808 - Russia invades Finland, then part of the Swedish kingdom, with 24,000 troops.

33. 1819 - British colonists landed at the mouth of the Singapore River and began to establish the Port of Singapore.

34. 1821 - The Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire begins.

35. 1828 - The first American Indian newspaper in the US, "Cherokee Phoenix", was published.

36. 1828 - Japanese statesman Shigenobu Okuma was born.

37. 1832 - British physicist James Clerk Maxwell was born.

38. 1832 - British expedition discovered Greenland.

39. 1842 - The first known sewing machine was patented in the US by John Greenough of Washington, D.C.

40. 1846 - The first US woman telegrapher was Sarah G. Bagley of Lowell, Massachusetts.

41. 1848 - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published "The Communist Manifesto" in London.

42. 1852 - George Bancroft becomes the first president of the American Geographical Society.

43. 1853 - The US authorizes the minting of $3 gold pieces.

44. 1857 - Congress outlaws foreign currency as legal tender in the US. The US issues flying eagle cents.

45. 1858 - Edwin T. Holmes installs the first electric burglar alarm in Boston, Massachusetts. Italian painter Giovanni Segantini was born.

46. 1861 - The Navaho Indians elected Herrero Grande as chief. The Confederate States of America was established.

47. 1862 - Texas Rangers won a Confederate victory at the Battle of Valverde in Confederate Arizona (now New Mexico).

48. 1864 - The first US Catholic parish church for black worshippers was dedicated in Baltimore.

49. 1874 - Benjamin Disraeli succeeds William Gladstone as British prime minister. The Oakland Daily Tribune begins publication in Oakland, California.