• In 49 BC, Julius Caesar defied the Roman Senate and crossed the Rubicon, uttering "alea iacta est" (the die is cast), signaling the start of civil war which would lead to his appointment as Roman dictator for life.

• In 69, Roman Emperor Galba adopted Marcus Piso Licinianus as Caesar.

• In 236, St. Fabian began his reign as Catholic Pope.

• In 381, Roman Emperor Theodosius issued an edict ordering all churches be surrendered to bishops of the Catholic faith as he saw it.

• In 532, Constantinople chariot racing green and blue supporters due to be executed escaped, prompting the Nika Revolt.

• In 1072, Robert Guiscard's Norman force conquered Palermo.

• In 1356, German Emperor Charles I promulgated the "Golden Bull", to regulate the election of a new king - the most important constitutional document of the Holy Roman Empire.

• In 1430, the Catholic Order of the Golden Fleece was founded in Bruges in celebration of the prosperous and wealthy domains of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.

• In 1475, Stephen III of Moldavia defeated the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.

• In 1642, King Charles I and family fled London for Hampton Court fearing for their lives, not to return for 7 years.

• In 1663, King Charles II affirmed a new charter for the Royal African Company granting it a monopoly over trade along the west coast of Africa in "redwood, elephants'teeth, negroes, slaves, hides, wax, guinea grains, or other commodities of those countries".

• In 1731, Charles Farnese became Duke of Parma and Piacenza.

• In 1776, "Common Sense" pamphlet by Thomas Paine was published, advocating American independence.

• In 1799, Friedrich von Schiller's "Die Piccolomini" premiered in Weimar.

• In 1801, William Henry Harrison was appointed the first governor of the Indiana Territory.

• In 1806, the Dutch in Cape Town surrendered to the British.

• In 1808, Herman Daendels succeeded Albertus Wiese as governor-general of Dutch-East Indies.

• In 1833, Felix Mendelssohn's cantata "Die erste Walpurgisnacht" premiered in Berlin, Germany.

• In 1839, the first tea from leaves of indigenous plants of Assam, India arrived in the United Kingdom (date approximate).

• In 1840, the uniform penny post mail system started throughout the United Kingdom.

• In 1861, American Civil War: Florida became the third state to secede from the union.

• In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway, the world's oldest underground railway, opened between Paddington and Farringdon, marking the beginning of the London underground.

• In 1870, John D. Rockefellor incorporated Standard Oil.

• In 1900, British generals Frederick Roberts and Herbert Kitchener reached Cape Town during the Second Boer War.

• In 1901, oil was discovered at Spindletop, Beaumont, marking the start of the Texas oil boom (gusher age).

• In 1902, Alphons Diepenbrock's "Te Deum" premiered in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

• In 1910, the 1st international air meet in the US was held, in LA.

• In 1916, World War I: Imperial Russia began the Erzurum offensive, leading to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire's third army.

• In 1920, the Treaty of Versailles took effect, officially ending World War I for all combatant nations except the United States.

• In 1946, the first United Nations General Assembly met in London.

• In 1966, Tashkent Declaration, a peace agreement between India and Pakistan signed that resolved the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965.

• In 1972, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returned to the newly independent Bangladesh as president after spending over nine months in prison in Pakistan.

• In 1980, The New England Journal of Medicine published the letter "Addiction rare in patients treated with narcotics", which is later misused to downplay the general risk of addiction to opioids.

• In 1984, Holy See–United States relations: The United States and Holy See (Vatican City) re-established full diplomatic relations after almost 117 years, overturning the United States Congress's 1867 ban on public funding for such a diplomatic envoy.

• In 1985, Sandinista Daniel Ortega became president of Nicaragua and vowed to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continued to support the contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

• In 1990, Time Warner was formed by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications.