1460 – University of Basel in Swizerland forms
1655 – Battle at Postage Farina, Tunis: English fleet beats Barbary pirates
1660 – English King Charles II sends Declaration of Breda (Freedom of Religion)
1686 – English king James II publishes Declaration of Indulgence
1687 – King James II orders his declaration of indulgence read in English churches
1814 – Napoleon abdicates for the first time in favour of his son.
1850 – City of Los Angeles incorporated
1866 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in the city of Kiev.
1887 – Susanna Medora Salter elected first US woman mayor in Argonia, Kansas
1896 – Announcement of Gold in Yukon
1905 – Earthquake in Kangra India, kills 20,000
1918 – Food riot in Amsterdam
1932 – George Bernard Shaw’s “Too True to be Good” premieres in NYC
1932 – Vitamin C first isolated
1933 – US Dirigible Akron crashes off coast of NJ, 73 die
1958 – First march against nuclear weapons in Aldermaston, England
1960 – Senegal declares independence from France
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs
1969 – Denton Cooley gets first temporary artificial heart
1972 – First electric power plant fueled by garbage begins operating
1974 – Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth’s home-run record by hitting his 714th
1975 – Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
1984 – Winston Smith in Orwell’s “1984” begins his secret diary
1990 – Security law violator Ivan Boesky is released from federal custody
2012 – German Nobel Laureat, Gunter Grass, publishes controversial poem that claims Israel is plotting to wipe out Iran
2013 – Poecilotheria rajaei, a giant tarantula with a 20cm leg span, is discovered in Sri Lanka
Birthdays
1821 – Linus Yale, US, portrait painter/inventor (Yale cylinder lock)
1823 – Karl Wilhelm Siemens, inventor (laid undersea cables)
1895 – Arthur Murray, NYC, dancer (Arthur Murray Dance Party)
1913 – Muddy Waters, aka McKinley Morganfield, American blues guitarist
Deaths
1406 – Robert III, King of Scots (1390-1406), dies
1883 – Peter Cooper, American industrialist, inventor and philanthropist
1900 – Edward VII, King, assassinated
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr, assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis Tennessee at 39
1972 – Adam Clayton Powell Jr, (Rep-D-NY), dies at 63
1979 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistani president, hanged in Pakistan at 51
Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com Wikipedia and other internet searches