1. 37 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula) emperor.

2. 1068 - An earthquake in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula kills up to 20,000 people.

3. 1229 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, crowns himself King of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade.

4. 1241 - The Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city.

5. 1314 - Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.

6. 1438 - Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of the Romans.

7. 1571 - Valletta is made the capital city of Malta.

8. 1608 - Suse Nyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.

9. 1662 - The first public bus service begins in Paris, promoted by Blaise Pascal.

10. 1673 - Lord Berkeley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.

11. 1754 - Thomas Pelham - Holles becomes British Prime Minister on the death of his brother Henry Pelham.

12. 1766 - Britain repeals the Stamp Act, which had caused outrage in colonial America.

13. 1773 - Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" premieres in London.

14. 1781 - French astronomer Charles Messier rediscovers global cluster M92.

15. 1793 - The second battle at Neerwinden: the Austria army beats France.

16. 1793 - The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared.

17. 1813 - David Melville patents apparatus for making coal gas in Newport, Rhode Island.

18. 1818 - The US Congress approves the first pensions for government service.

19. 1834 - The first railroad tunnel in the US is completed in Pennsylvania.

20. 1834 - Six farm laborers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.

21. 1847 - The first Dutch public telegram is sent.

22. 1850 - Henry Wells and William Fargo form American Express in Buffalo.

23. 1859 - Vera Cruz is besieged by Miramon in the Mexican War of Reform.

24. 1865 - The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.

25. 1870 - The first US national wildlife preserve, Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, is established.

26. 1871 - The Paris Commune revolution breaks out.

27. 1874 - Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.

28. 1877 - US President Rutherford B. Hayes appoints Frederick Douglass marshal of Washington, D.C.

29. 1881 - Barnum & Bailey Circus debuts at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

30. 1882 - Morgan Earp is assassinated while playing billiards in Tombstone.

31. 1890 - The first US state naval militia is organized in Massachusetts.

32. 1890 - German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck resigns.

33. 1891 - Britain is linked to the continent by telephone.

34. 1895 - 200 African Americans leave Savannah, Georgia for Liberia.

35. 1899 - Phoebe, a moon of Saturn, is discovered by William Pickering.

36. 1900 - Ajax soccer club forms in Amsterdam.

37. 1902 - Turkey grants Germany the first concession to construct a railroad through Turkish territory to Baghdad.

38. 1903 - The French government dissolves the Catholic religious orders.

39. 1909 - Einar Dessau of Denmark makes the first ham broadcast.

40. 1913 - King George I of Greece is assassinated in Thessaloniki.

41. 1915 - The British attack in the Dardanelles fails.

42. 1921 - The world's first birth - control clinic opens in London.

43. 1926 - The "March 18th Massacre" occurs in Beijing.

44. 1942 - The Burma Campaign of the Chinese Expeditionary Force begins.

45. 1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established.

46. 1962 - The French and Algerians sign a cease - fire agreement.

47. 1965 - Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov conducts the first spacewalk.

48. 1997 - Israel forcibly builds the Har Homa settlement.

49. 2000 - Chen Shui - bian is elected president of Taiwan, breaking the Kuomintang's 55 - year rule.