1431 – Hundred Years’ War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
1485 – Catherine of Aragon (d. 1536) was born.
1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1775 – Jane Austen, English author (d. 1817) was born.
1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville – Major General George Thomas’s Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee.
1903 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to the guests.
1907 – The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.
1928 – Philip K. Dick, American author (d. 1982) was born.
1929 – Nicholas Courtney, Egyptian-English actor (d. 2011) was born.
1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a 200-strong posse, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.
1936 – Morris Dees, American lawyer and activist, co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center was born.
1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.
1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honor of the German Mother.
1942 – The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
1946 – Christopher Ellison, English actor was born.
1946 – Benny Andersson, Swedish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (ABBA and Hep Stars) was born.
1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
1949 – Billy Gibbons, American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and actor (ZZ Top and Moving Sidewalks) was born.
1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight in support of communist North Korea.
1960 – New York mid-air collision, the midair collision of a United Airlines flight with a TWA flight near Idlewild Airport that killed 133.
1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
1968 – Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.
1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India.
1971 – The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain’s independence. This is commemorated annually as Bahrain’s National Day.
1975 – Benjamin Kowalewicz, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Billy Talent) was born.
1978 – Cleveland, Ohio, becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.
1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.
1985 – Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of New York’s Gambino crime family
1989 – U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr.
2014 – The hostage crisis in Sydney comes to an end after a 13-hour siege—done by Man Haron Monis, killed by police—holding 17 hostage, including two killed.