1. In 837, the 15th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

2. In 1055, the famous statesman and litterateur of the Northern Song Dynasty, Yan Shu, died.

3. In 1526, Saxony and Hesse formed the League of Gotha.

4. In 1531, the evangelical German towns formed the Schmalkaldic League.

5. In 1557, the 1st Russian embassy arrived in London.

6. In 1563, British composer William Byrd was appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral.

7. In 1594, Henry IV was crowned King of France.

8. In 1626, Yuan Chonghuan was appointed governor of Liaodong.

9. In 1641, Li Zicheng's army captured Luoyang.

10. In 1665, at the Battle of Elmina on the Gold Coast, Vice-Admiral de Ruyter defeated the English.

11. In 1667, Abraham Crijnssen conquered Fort Willoughby in Suriname.

12. In 1670, Jews were expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I.

13. In 1678, the Earl of Shaftesbury was freed from the Tower of London.

14. In 1693, the 1st women's magazine "Ladies' Mercury" was published in London.

15. In 1696, English and Welsh nobles took the Oath of Association.

16. In 1700, English explorer William Dampier became the 1st British person to visit the Pacific island of New Britain.

17. In 1713, French troops bombed Willemstad, Curaçao.

18. In 1801, Washington, D.C. was placed under congressional jurisdiction.

19. In 1803, a great fire broke out in Bombay, India.

20. In 1812, the flag of Argentina was first raised at Rosario.

21. In 1813, the 1st federal vaccination legislation was enacted and the US Congress authorized the use of steamboats to transport mail.

22. In 1814, Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 in F major premiered in Vienna.

23. In 1816, the Dutch regained Suriname from the French after the defeat of Napoleon.

24. In 1827, the 1st Mardi Gras celebration was held in New Orleans.

25. In 1844, the Dominican Republic gained independence from Haiti.

26. In 1850, Chris Green won the 12th Grand National.

27. In 1854, German composer Robert Schumann was saved from a suicide attempt in the Rhine River.

28. In 1856, George Stevens won the 18th Grand National.

29. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln made a speech at Cooper Union in New York City.

30. In 1861, the Russians fired at Poles protesting Russian rule in Warsaw's Castle Square and the US Congress authorized the 1st stamped newspaper wrappers for mailing.

31. In 1864, the 6th and last day of the Battle of Dalton, Georgia (about 600 casualties) and the rebels opened a new POW camp "Camp Sumpter" near Andersonville, Georgia.

32. In 1865, a civil war skirmish took place near Sturgeon, Missouri.

33. In 1869, John Menard became the 1st African American to make a speech in the US Congress.

34. In 1871, the Alabama Claims Commission met.

35. In 1872, Charlotte Ray, the 1st African American woman lawyer in the USA, graduated from Howard University.

36. In 1873, Dutch socialist Samuel van Wooden demanded a law against child labor.

37. In 1874, baseball was 1st played in England at Lord's Cricket Ground.

38. In 1879, Russian chemist Constantin Fahlberg discovered saccharin.

39. In 1881, the Battle of Amajuba took place between the South African Boers and the British army under General Colley.

40. In 1882, Ding Richang, a famous military strategist and statesman in the late Qing Dynasty, died.

41. In 1883, Oscar Hammerstein patented the 1st cigar-rolling machine.

42. In 1890, D. Needham and P. Kerrigan boxed 100 rounds in San Francisco and the match was a draw.

43. In 1900, Bayern Munich was founded and the Battle of Paardeberg took place where Boer general Piet Cronjé surrendered to the British.

44. In 1901, a general committee of the National Liberal Federation met and the NL rules committee decreed that all fouls were to count as strikes except after two strikes.

45. In 1903, Chen Geng, a general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, was born.

46. In 1906, France and Britain agreed to joint control of the New Hebrides.

47. In 1907, psychiatrists Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud met for the 1st time in Vienna.

48. In 1914, Zhao Bingjun, the founder of China's modern police system, died.

49. In 1933, Hitler fabricated the Reichstag Fire.

50. In 1962, the 1st American entered space orbit.