794 – Japanese Emperor Kanmu changes his residence from Nara to Kyoto.
1558 – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.
1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
1800 – Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.
1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.
1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.
1871 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
1933 – United States recognizes Soviet Union.
1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and more than 1,200 students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students’ Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic.
1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.
1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre.
1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors “I am not a crook.”
1993 – United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Births
AD 9 – Vespasian, Roman emperor (d. 79)
1755 – Louis XVIII of France (d. 1824)
1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer
1901 – Lee Strasberg, Ukrainian-American actor and director (d. 1982)
1904 – Isamu Noguchi, American sculptor and architect (d. 1988)
1928 – Arman, French-American painter and sculptor (d. 2005)
1942 – Martin Scorsese, director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
1944 – Lorne Michaels, Canadian-American screenwriter and producer, created Saturday Night Live
1944 – Tom Seaver, American baseball player and sportscaster
1945 – Roland Joffé, English-French director, producer, and screenwriter
1948 – Howard Dean, physician and politician, 79th Governor of Vermont
Deaths
1796 – Catherine the Great, of Russia (b. 1729)
1917 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor and illustrator (b. 1840)
2013 – Doris Lessing, British novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate