43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated.
1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die.
1869 – American outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri.
1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The telecast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.
1941 – World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor – The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japan launched more than 350 fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes against the U.S. naval base in Hawaii. The attack began at approximately 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Standard Time, damaged all eight U.S. Navy battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers, and anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. Approximately 2,400 Americans were killed, and another 1,170 were wounded.
1972 – Imelda Marcos survives an assassination attempt using a bolo knife against her.
1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.
1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
1987 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
1993 – 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.
1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
1999 – A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.: The Recording Industry Association of America sues the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Napster, alleging copyright infringement.
Births
1302 – Azzone Visconti, Italian ruler, founded Milan (d. 1339)
1598 – Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor and painter (d. 1680)
Rube Goldberg
1892 – Stuart Davis, American painter and academic (d. 1964)
1915 – Eli Wallach, American actor (d. 2014)
1928 – Noam Chomsky, American linguist and philosopher
1956 – Larry Bird, American basketball player and coach
Deaths
43 BC – Cicero, Roman philosopher, lawyer, and politician (b. 106 BC)
983 – Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 955)
1970 – Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist, sculptor, and author (b. 1883)
1975 – Thornton Wilder, American novelist and playwright (b. 1897)
2006 – Jeane Kirkpatrick, American academic and diplomat, 16th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (b. 1926)
2012 – Saul Steinberg, American businessman and financier (b. 1939)