1501 – Catherine of Aragon (later Henry VIII’s first wife) meets Arthur Tudor, Henry VIII’s older brother – they would later marry.
1677 – The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange; they later jointly reign as William and Mary.
1783 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria.
1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a Scottish physician, discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform.
1890 – City and South London Railway: London’s first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.
1921 – Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi is assassinated in Tokyo.
1922 – In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected the first female governor in the US.
1952 – The United States government establishes the National Security Agency, or NSA.
1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected the 34th President of the United States.
1962 – The United States concludes Operation Fishbowl, its final above-ground nuclear weapons testing series, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
1966 – The Arno River floods Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of 6.7 m (22 ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. Also Venice was submerged on the same day at its record all-time acqua alta of 194 cm.
1979 – Iran hostage crisis: Iranians, mostly students, overrun the US embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages (53 of whom are American).
1980 – Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th President of The United States, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.
Births
1640 – Carlo Mannelli, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1697)
1765 – Pierre-Simon Girard, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1836)
Walter Cronkite, “the most trusted man in America”
1916 – Walter Cronkite, American journalist (d. 2009)
1916 – Ruth Handler, American businesswoman, created Barbie (d. 2002)
1918 – Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)
Deaths
1847 – Felix Mendelssohn, German pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1809)
2011 – Andy Rooney, American author, critic, journalist, and television personality (b. 1919)