1. 532 - The Nika riots break out in Constantinople, causing great destruction and loss of life.
2. 888 - Odo, Count of Paris, becomes King of the Franks.
3. 1328 - Edward III of England marries Philippa of Hainault.
4. 1547 - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason.
5. 1607 - The Bank of Genoa fails after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
6. 1793 - Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, a representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.
7. 1797 - French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle off the coast of Brittany between French and British ships results in the French ship Droits de l'Homme being captured.
8. 1830 - The Great Fire of New Orleans begins.
9. 1840 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
10. 1842 - Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
11. 1847 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
12. 1888 - The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
13. 1893 - The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.
14. 1898 - Émile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
15. 1908 - The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.
16. 1910 - The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the operas Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
17. 1915 - An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
18. 1935 - A plebiscite in the Saar Basin shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
19. 1939 - The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
20. 1942 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
21. 1951 - First Indochina War: The Battle of Vĩnh Yên begins.
22. 1953 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen as President of Yugoslavia.
23. 1958 - The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
24. 1963 - Coup d'état in Togo results in the assassination of President Sylvanus Olympio.
25. 1964 - Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths.
26. 1966 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
27. 1972 - Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
28. 1982 - Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 people.
29. 1990 - Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
30. 2001 - An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.