1. In 321 AD, Emperor Constantine the Great of the Roman Empire issued the Edict of Milan in Milan, Italy, declaring Christianity a legal religion and ending centuries of Christian persecution.

2. In 617, the Wagang Army defeated the Sui Dynasty army and occupied Xingluo Granary, opening the granary to distribute grain.

3. In 630, Byzantine Emperor Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem.

4. In 717, the Battle of Vincy was fought in Cambrai during the Frankish civil war; Charles Martel's forces defeated those of King Chilperic II and his mayor Ragenfrid.

5. In 927, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, was born.

6. In 1188, Emperor Antoku ascended the throne of Japan.

7. In 1349, between 100 and 3,000 Jews were killed in the Black Death riots in Erfurt, Germany.

8. In 1413, Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, became King Henry V of England upon the death of his father.

9. In 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II captured the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople (now Istanbul), marking the end of the Byzantine Empire.

10. In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was founded. It was the world's first multinational company and the first to issue stock.

11. In 1610, King James I of England and VI of Scotland addressed the English House of Commons.

12. In 1681, the 3rd Exclusion Parliament met in London.

13. In 1685, German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, the father of Western music, was born.

14. In 1702, Queen Anne addressed the English parliament.

15. In 1788, a fire destroyed 856 buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana.

16. In 1788, Olaudah Equiano, a freed slave, petitioned King George III and Queen Charlotte to free enslaved Africans.

17. In 1791, Captain Hopley Yeaton became the first commissioned officer in the Revenue Marine, later the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of the modern US Coast Guard.

18. In 1804, the Napoleonic Code was adopted in France, stressing clearly written and accessible law.

19. In 1807, the US Congress passed the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves, banning US citizens from participating in the African slave trade.

20. In 1821, the first revolutionary act in the Monastery of Agia Lavra, Kalavryta, took place, marking the start of the Greek War of Independence.

21. In 1821, the Hudson Bay Company and the North West Company merged, creating a monopoly of the fur trade in British North America.

22. In 1824, a fire at the Cairo ammunitions dump killed 4,000 horses.

23. In 1826, Beethoven's "String Quartet No. 13" in B - flat major (Op. 130) premiered in Vienna.

24. In 1844, the Baha'i era began; the Baha'i calendar starts from this year.

25. In 1844, the original date predicted by William Miller of Massachusetts for the return of Christ and the end of the world.

26. In 1859, the Scottish National Gallery opened in Edinburgh.

27. In 1859, the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the first in the US, was incorporated.

28. In 1860, English novelist George Eliot finished her novel "The Mill on the Floss" in Wandsworth, London.

29. In 1860, the US signed an extradition treaty with Sweden.

30. In 1863, a naval engagement took place at Havana, Cuba: USS Henrick Hudson vs Confederate blockade runner Wild Pigeon.

31. In 1864, the Battle at Henderson's Hill (Bayou Rapids), Louisiana, took place.

32. In 1865, the Battle of Bentonville ended, the last Confederate effort to stop Sherman.

33. In 1866, the US Congress authorized national soldiers' homes.

34. In 1868, the first US professional women's club, Sorosis, formed in NYC.

35. In 1871, journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his famous expedition to Africa.

36. In 1871, Otto von Bismarck was elevated to the rank of Fürst (Prince).

37. In 1885, the 2nd French government of Ferry resigned.

38. In 1888, Arthur Pinero's "Sweet Lavender" premiered in London.

39. In 1890, Austrian Jewish communities were defined by law.

40. In 1899, a British - French accord was reached over West Africa.

41. In 1907, the US sent troops to Honduras to halt the Nicaraguan army takeover.

42. In 1914, the US ladies' figure skating championship was won by Theresa Weld.

43. In 1914, the US men's figure skating championship was won by Norman M. Scott.

44. In 1916, J. P. van Limburg Stirum succeeded A. W. F. Idenburg as governor - general of the Dutch East Indies.

45. In 1917, Loretta Walsh became the US Navy's first female petty officer.

46. In 1918, World War I: Germany launched the Somme offensive.

47. In 1921, the Walter Kerr Theater (Ritz, CBS, NBC, ABC) opened at 223 W 48th St, NYC.

48. In 1922, KGW - AM in Portland, OR, began radio transmissions.

49. In 1931, the US ladies' figure skating championship was won by Maribel Vinson.

50. In 1933, the Day of Potsdam in Nazi Germany took place, a ceremony to open the new Reichstag after the fire in February; Adolf Hitler and Paul von Hindenburg shook hands in public.