1492 - Columbus discovers Hispaniola (El Espanola/Haiti).
1496 - Jews are expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I.
1590 - Niccolò Sfondrati is chosen as Pope (Gregory XIV).
1757 - The Prussian army beats the Austrians at the Battle of Leuthen.
1766 - London auctioneers at Christie's hold their first sale.
1792 - George Washington is re-elected as U.S. President.
1798 - Government troops occupy Hasselt.
1804 - Thomas Jefferson is re-elected as U.S. President.
1813 - Lübeck surrenders to allied armies.
1831 - Former President John Quincy Adams takes his seat as a member of the House of Representatives.
1832 - Andrew Jackson is re-elected as U.S. President.
1837 - Canada faces an uprising under William Lyon Mackenzie.
1846 - C.F. Schoenbein obtains a patent for the cellulose nitrate explosive.
1848 - President Polk triggers the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming the discovery of gold in California.
1854 - Aaron Allen of Boston patents the folding theater chair.
1861 - The Gatling gun is patented.
1862 - Battle of Coffeeville, MS.
1876 - Daniel Stillson of Massachusetts patents the first practical pipe wrench; a fire at the Brooklyn Theater kills 295, either trampled or burned to death.
1879 - The first automatic telephone switching system is patented.
1881 - The 47th U.S. Congress (1881-83) convenes.
1892 - Anti-semite Hermann Ahlwardt is elected to Germany's Reichstag.
1893 - The first electric car, built in Toronto, debuts - it can go 15 miles between charges.
1905 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman becomes PM of England.
1908 - For the first time, numerals appear on football uniforms (University of Pittsburgh).
1918 - An oil refinery on Curaçao opens.
1925 - The German government of Luther falls.
1933 - At 5:32 p.m. EST, the 21st Amendment is ratified; it is the only amendment adopted to repeal an earlier amendment (18th Amendment - Prohibition).
1935 - The first commercial hydroponics operation is established in Montebello, CA.
1936 - The Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kirghiz become constituent republics of the Soviet Union.
1941 - Sister Elizabeth Kenny's new treatment for infantile paralysis is approved; a Russian counter-offensive in Moscow drives out the Nazi army; the U.S. aircraft carrier Lexington and five heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor.
1942 - Seyss-Inquart orders students in Nazi-Germany to go work; the West Indies chocolate/coffee drop occurs above the Netherlands.
1944 - German troops rob all the silver coin in Utrecht.
1945 - The "Lost Squadron" crashes east of Florida, in the Bermuda Triangle.
1946 - President Truman creates the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
1950 - Sikkim becomes a protectorate of India.
1952 - The worst smog ever in London kills more than 4,000.
1955 - The AFL and CIO merge, with George Meany as president; a historic bus boycott begins in Montgomery, AL.
1957 - NYC becomes the first city to legislate against racial or religious discrimination in housing market (Fair Housing Practices Law).
1960 - Ghana cuts diplomatic relations with Belgium.
1967 - Benjamin Spock and Allen Ginsberg are arrested protesting the Vietnam War.
1972 - The Australia Labour party wins the parliamentary election/
1974 - In Tehran, Iran, an airport terminal roof collapses, killing 17; the final episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" airs on the BBC.
1975 - NASA launches the space vehicle S-196; it fails.
1977 - Egypt breaks off diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen.
1978 - Pioneer Venus-1 begins orbiting Venus; the European Union establishes the EMS (European Monetary System).
1979 - Irish premier Jack Lynch resigns.
1982 - Seattle University Baptist Church declares sanctuary for Central American refugees
1983 - A car bomb shatters a nine-story building in Beirut, killing 12.
1984 - French colonists kill 10 Kanaken in New Caledonia.
1988 - The Shuttle Atlantis launches the world's first nuclear-war-fighting satellite; A North Carolina federal grand jury indicts PTL founder Jim Bakker on fraud and conspiracy charges.
1989 - The French TGV train reaches a world record speed of 482.4 kph.
1990 - Former Noriega aide Luis del Cid pleads guilty; Salman Rushdie, author ("The Satanic Verses" - he was ordered to death by Iran for blasphemy), appears in public for the first time in two years.
1991 - Charles Keating, Jr. (Lincoln Savings and Loan fraud), is found guilty; the "New York Daily News" files for protection under Chapter 11.
1993 - Astronauts begin the repair of the Hubble telescope in space; Rafael Caldera is elected President of Venezuela.
1997 - STS-87 (Columbia 24) lands.

Birthdays
1661 - Robert Haley, earl of Oxford / English premier (1710-14)
1782 - Martin Van Buren, 8th U.S. President (1837-41)
1824 - Titian James Coffey, Attorney General
1826 - John Benjamin Sanborn, Union Brevet Major General
1839 - George Armstrong Custer, U.S. Major General (of Little Big Horn fame)
1861 - Armando V. Diaz, Italian marshal/minister of War (1922-24)
1863 - Paul P. Painlevé, French PM (1917, 1925) / mathematician
1896 - Willem F.M. Lampe, Dutch ambassador of the Dutch Antilles
1901 - Walter Elias Disney, animator (Mickey Mouse); Werner Heisenberg, German physicist (Nobel 1932)
1902 - (Steve James) Strom Thurmond (Senator-SC)
1903 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, discovered pion (Nobel 1950)
1925 - Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle, President of Nicaragua (1967-79)
1927 - Rama IX (Bhumibol Adulyadej), King of Thailand (1946- )
1932 - Little Richard (Wayne Penniman), rocker (Tutti Frutti, Lucille)
1947 - Jugderdemidiin Gurragcha, first Mongolian space traveler (Soyuz-39)
1949 - Bruce E. Melnick, Commander USCG / astronaut (STS 41, STS 49)

Passings
1212 - Derek II of Are, Bishop of Utrecht (1197-1212)
1244 - Johanna of Constantinople, countess of Flanders (1205-44)
1355 - Jan III, duke of Brabant/Limburg
1560 - King François II of France (1559-60), at age 16
1594 - Gerardus Mercator, Flemish philosopher/cartographer
1791 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer
1870 - Alexandre Dumas writer (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo)
1891 - Pedro II of Alcantara, Emperor of Brazil (1831-89)
1951 - "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, of baseball's black sox scandal
1963 - Herbert H. Lehman (Governor-NY)
1992 - Sergei Aleksandrovich Yemelyanov, Russian cosmonaut
1994 - Ronald Ridout, school textbook author

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Dibble, Morris F., US Army (NY); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Eisenberger and Upner), body not recovered

Eisenberger, George J., US Army (OK); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Dibble and Upner), body not recovered

Hyde, Jimmy Don, USN (OK); KIA, body not recovered

Upner, Edward C., US Army (AL); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Dibble and Eisenberger), body not recovered

1966
Begley, Burris Nelson, USAF (KY); F105D shot down, remains ID'd December, 1993 (disputed)

Warren, Arthur Leonard, USAF (OH); RF101 shot down, remains returned September, 1986

1967
Russell, Donald Myrick, USAF (ME); F105D shot down, remains returned 1994 - ID'd June, 1996

1968
Berry, John A., US Army (CO); OH6A shot down (w/Evans), KIA, body not recovered

Evans, Billy K., Jr., US Army (VA); OH6A shot down (w/Berry), KIA, body not recovered

1969
Clark, John C. II, USAF (TX); F4E shot down (w/Harrold), remains returned November, 1997

Danielson, Benjamin F., USAF (MN); F4C shot down

Harrold, Patrick K., USAF (KS); F4E shot down (w/Clark), remains returned 1997