Events

• 1025 - Bolesław I the Brave was crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.
• 1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.
• 1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.
• 1775 - American Revolution: Two lanterns were hung in the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts, indicating British advancement by sea; Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
• 1797 - Battle of Neuwied - French victory against the Austrians.
• 1880 - A F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.
• 1899 - St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.
• 1906 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 destroys much of San Francisco, California.
• 1906 - The Los Angeles Times runs a front-page story on the Azusa Street Revival, launching Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
• 1915 - French pilot Roland Garros was shot down and glided to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
• 1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens.
• 1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.
• 1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
• 1942 - The Toronto Maple Leafs come back after a three game deficit to win the Stanley Cup against the Detroit Red Wings.
• 1943 - World War II: "Operation Peacock", Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over the Solomon Islands.
• 1946 - The League of Nations is dissolved.
• 1947 - Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, detonating 6800 tonnes of explosives, creating the largest non-nuclear explosion in history and changing the shape of the island.
• 1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.
• 1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
• 1958 - A U.S. federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound be released from an insane asylum.
• 1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.
• 1974 - Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port.
• 1974 - Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
• 1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.
• 1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
• 1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in retaliation for damage to the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58). The one-day action is the largest naval battle since World War II.
• 1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
• 1993 - President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses Cabinet.
• 1994 - Richard Nixon, former President of the United States, suffers a stroke and dies four days later.
• 1996 - In Lebanon, at least 106 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana (see Qana Massacre).
• 1999 - Hockey player Wayne Gretzky's number (99) is retired league wide in the NHL.
• 2007 - The US Supreme Court upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.
• 2007 - 32 Chinese steel workers burn to death in the Qinghe Special Steel Corporation disaster.

Births