532 – Nika uprising against Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople fails, 30,000 killed by troops loyal to the Emperor in the Hippodrome
1591 – King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat, date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day
1788 – First elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony
1817 – José de San Martín leads a revolutionary army over the Andes to attack Spanish royalists in Chile
1871 – Second German Empire proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck
1943 – Soviets announce they have broken the long Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege would not be fully lifted until a year later
1944 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, 1960 – Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes in Virginia, killing all 50 people on-board
1974 – Israel & Egypt sign weapons accord
1990 – South Africa says it is reconsidering ban on African National Congress
1991 – Eastern Air Lines goes out of business after 62 years, citing financial problems.
1993 – Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observed in all 50 states of the USA for 1st time
1995 – Pope John Paul II begins visit to Australia
2000 – The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
2005 – The world’s largest commercial jet, the Airbus A380, is unveiled in France
2008 – The United Nations announce George Clooney as a UN messenger of peace
2012 – Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) blackout becomes the largest protest in the history of the internet
2018 – First drone rescue of swimmers by lifeguards in New South Wales, Australia
2018 – Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira rides the largest-ever wave by a female surfer at 20.72 m (68 ft) at Praia do Norte in Nazaréin, Portugal
Film & TV:
1974 – “$6 Million Man” starring Lee Majors premieres on ABC TV
Music:
1986 – AIDS charity record “That’s What Friends are For” hits #1
1980 – Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall” hits #1
Sport:
1983 – IOC restores Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals (Pentathlon & Decathlon victories) 70 years after they were taken from him for being paid $25 in semi-pro baseball
Via Britannica / On This Day
