845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving
1549 – The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded
1901 – Edmund Barton is elected Prime Minister in Australia’s first parliamentary election
1912 – Captain Robert Scott, storm-bound in a tent near South Pole, makes last entry in his diary “the end cannot be far”
1961 – After a 4½ year trial Nelson Mandela is acquitted of treason in Pretoria
1974 – Chinese farmers discover the Terracotta Army near Xi’an, 8,000 clay warrior statues buried to guard the tomb of China’s 1st emperor, Qin Shi Huang
1999 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 – above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever
2004 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members
2010 – Two female suicide bombers hit the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, killing 40
2013 – Soyuz TMA-08M sets a new record of 6 hours in orbit before docking with the International Space Station
2017 – Ivanka Trump assumes an unpaid position as Advisor to the President, Donald Trump
2017 – Man’s body found inside a 7m long reticulated python in Sulawesi, Indonesia
2019 – Joe Biden accused of an inappropriate kiss by fellow Democrat Lucy Flores
2020 – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari orders a lockdown in the cities of Lagos and Abuja after the country records 97 COVID-19 cases and one death
Film & TV:
1959 – “Some Like It Hot”, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon, is released in NYC
Music:
1795 – Ludwig van Beethoven (24) has his debut performance as a pianist in Vienna
