781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji.
1492 – The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
1715 – Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.
1790 – The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce both countries’ stockpiles.
2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raul.
Births
1527 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1576)
1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, co-designed the USS Princeton and the Novelty Locomotive (d. 1889)
1867 – S. S. Kresge, American businessman, founded Kmart (d. 1966)
1875 – Jacques Villon, French painter (d. 1963)
1901 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
1912 – Milton Friedman, economist, academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
1919 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (d. 1987)
Deaths
1864 – Louis Christophe Francois Hachette, French publisher (b. 1800)
1875 – Andrew Johnson, American general and politician, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1811)
1981 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian general and politician, Military Leader of Panama (b. 1929)
2012 – Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1925)
2019 – Harold Prince, noted Broadway producer and director, who received more Tony awards than anyone else in history (b. 1928)[15]
Edited from various sources including Wikipedia,and other media outlets
from mainstream to extreme.