• 1002 - English king Ethelred orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St. Brice's Day massacre.
• 1160 - Marriage of Louis VII of France with Adele of Champagne.
• 1642 - At the Battle of Turnham Green of the First English Civil War the Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Patriot revolutionary forces under Col. Ethan Allen attack Montreal, Quebec defended by British General Guy Carleton.
• 1841 - James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnosis.
• 1851 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what would become Seattle, Washington.
• 1864 - The new Constitution of Greece is adopted.
• 1887 - Bloody Sunday clashes in central London.
• 1909 - Collier's magazine accuses U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields.
• 1916 - Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.
• 1927 - The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.
• 1941 - World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by U 81, sinking the next day.
• 1942 - World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal - U.S. and Japanese ships engage in an intense, close-quarters surface naval engagement during the Battle of Guadalcanal.
• 1950 - General Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, President of Venezuela, is assassinated in Caracas.
• 1954 - Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.
• 1956 - United States Supreme Court declares Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal; thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• 1961 - Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny succeeds Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin as head of the KGB.
• 1965 - The SS Yarmouth Castle burns and sinks 60 miles off Nassau with the loss of 90 lives.
• 1969 - Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, DC stage a symbolic March Against Death.
• 1970 - Bhola cyclone: A 150-mph tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people in one night. This is regarded as the 20th century's worst natural disaster.
• 1971 - The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet successfully, swinging into its planned trajectory around Mars.
• 1982 - A boxing match held in Las Vegas, Nevada ends when Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim. Kim's death on November 17 led to significant changes in the sport.
• 1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.
• 1985 - The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.
• 1985 - Xavier Suarez is sworn in as Miami, Florida's first Cuban-born mayor.
• 1990 - The World Wide Web first began.
• 1990 - In Aramoana, New Zealand, Resident David Gray shot dead 13 people, in what became known as the Aramoana Massacre.
• 1994 - Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
• 1995 - A truck-bomb explodes outside of a US-operated Saudi Arabian National Guard training center in Riyadh, killing five Americans and two Indians. A group called the Islamic Movement for Change claims responsibility.
• 2001 - Doha Round: The World Trade Organization ends a four-day ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar.
• 2001 - Philippine House Speaker Manuel B. Villar, Jr. passes the articles of impeachment against Philippine President Joseph Estrada.
• 2001 - War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.
• 2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
• 2002 - The oil tanker Prestige sinks off the Galician coast and causes a huge oil spill.
• 2004- Colin Olsen wins the NWA upstate tag team championships
• 2007 - An explosion hits the south wing of the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Quezon City, killing four people, including Congressman Wahab Akbar, and wounding six.

Births