238 – Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperors.
1508 – Ferdinand II of Aragon commissions Amerigo Vespucci chief navigator of the Spanish Empire.
1621 – The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.
1622 – Jamestown massacre: Algonquians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony’s population, during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.
1630 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
1638 – Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
1765 – The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act that introduces a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies.
1829 – In the London Protocol, the three protecting powers (United Kingdom, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.
1916 – The last Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne and the Republic of China is restored.
1945 – The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.
1960 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser. The term “laser” originated as an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”.
1972 – In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the United States Supreme Court decides that unmarried persons have the right to possess contraceptives.
1992 – USAir Flight 405 crashes shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, leading to a number of studies into the effect that ice has on aircraft.
1993 – The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
The original Pentium performed at 60 MHz and 100 MIPS. Also called the “P5” or “P54”, the chip contained 3.21 million transistors and worked on the 32-bit address bus (same as the 486). It has a 64-bit external data bus which could operate at roughly twice the speed of the 486.
2016 – Three suicide bombers kill 32 people and injure 316 in the 2016 Brussels bombings at the airport and at the Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station.
Births
1459 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1519)
1887 – Chico Marx, American actor (d. 1961)
1912 – Agnes Martin, Canadian-American painter and educator (d. 2004)
1923 – Marcel Marceau, French mime and actor (d. 2007)
1924 – Al Neuharth, founded USA Today (d. 2013)
1930 – Derek Bok, American lawyer and academic
1930 – Pat Robertson, founded the Christian Broadcasting Network
1930 – Stephen Sondheim, American composer and songwriter
1948 – Wolf Blitzer, American journalist
1948 – Andrew Lloyd Webber, English director and composer
Deaths
1454 – John Kemp, Archbishop of Canterbury
1958 – Mike Todd, American film producer (b. 1909)
2001 – William Hanna, animator, director, producer, and voice actor, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (b. 1910)
Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com Wikipedia and other internet searches