• 27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate.
• 550 - Gothic War (535–552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
• 1120 - The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• 1362 - A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt.
• 1412 - The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.
• 1492 - The first grammar of a modern language, in the Spanish language, is presented to Queen Isabella.
• 1547 - Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.
• 1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.
• 1572 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
• 1581 - The English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.
• 1605 - The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid.
• 1707 - The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
• 1761 - The British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.
• 1777 - Vermont declares its independence from New York.
• 1780 - American Revolution: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
• 1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
• 1847 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
• 1864 - Second Schleswig War: King Christian IX of Denmark declares war on the German Confederation in order to occupy Schleswig.
• 1878 - Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
• 1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.
• 1896 - Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire.
• 1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
• 1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
• 1919 - Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.
• 1920 - Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. is founded on the campus of Howard University.
• 1938 - The famous jazz concert by the Benny Goodman Orchestra and special guests takes place at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the first jazz performance in that venue.
• 1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
• 1956 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.
• 1968 - The Youth International Party is founded.
• 1969 - Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
• 1969 - The Metroliner train enters into service.
• 1970 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
• 1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.
• 1986 - First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
• 1991 - The United States goes to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War (U.S. Time).
• 1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City ending a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
• 1996 - Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou resigns from office for health reasons.
• 2001 - Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
• 2001 - US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.
• 2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
• 2003 - The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
• 2006 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.

Births