1214 – The port city of Sinope surrenders to the Seljuq Turks.
1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage south of South America connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, is navigated by explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
1604 – William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
1611 – Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
1683 – The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
1755 – In Portugal, Lisbon is devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between 60,000 and 90,000 people.
1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.
1870 – In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast.
1894 – Buffalo Bill, 15 of his Indians, and Annie Oakley are filmed by Thomas Edison in West Orange, New Jersey.
1922 – The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates.
1944 – Donald Watson, an English animal rights activist, coins the term veganism.
1955 – The Vietnam War begins.
1960 – While campaigning for President of the United States, John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps.
1981 – Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
2012 – Scientists detect evidence of light from the universe’s first stars, predicted to have formed 500 million years after the big bang
Births
846 – Louis the Stammerer, Frankish king (d. 879)
1666 – James Sherard, English botanist and curator (d. 1738)
1838 – 11th Dalai Lama (d. 1856)
1849 – William Merritt Chase, American painter and educator (d. 1916)
1871 – Stephen Crane, poet, novelist, and short story writer (d. 1900)
1889 – Hannah Höch, German painter and photographer (d. 1978)
1940 – Barry Sadler, American sergeant, singer-songwriter (d. 1989)
1957 – Lyle Lovett, singer-songwriter
Deaths
1423 – Nicholas Eudaimonoioannes, Byzantine diplomat
1972 – Ezra Pound, poet and critic (b. 1885)
2005 – Skitch Henderson, pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1918)
2006 – William Styron, novelist and essayist (b. 1925)
2018 – Amal Hussain, Yemeni famine victim who raised world’s awareness, dies aged 7
