526 : A possible date for the Antioch earthquake in present-day Syria (then the Byzantine Empire) which killed 200,000 people

799 : Pope Leo III, aided by Charles the Great, returns to Rome

1349: Jews of Augsburg Germany massacred

1596: King Philip II devalues Spanish currency

1775:  Sir James Jay invents invisible ink

1781:  Crew of slave ship Zong murder about 142 African slaves by dumping them into the sea, to claim insurance

1812:  Napoleon's Grand Army crosses Berezina River in retreat from Russia

1847:  Indians kill Washington state pioneers Marcus & Narcissa Whitman, and 12 others in Walla Walla Ore

1870:  Compulsory education proclaimed in England

1872:  Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.

1877: US inventor Thomas Edison demonstrates his hand-cranked phonograph for the first time

1900:  General Horatio Kitchener assumes command of the British forces in South Africa from General Lord Robert

1915:  Fire destroys most of the buildings on Santa Catalina Island, California.

1916: US declares martial law in Dominican Republic

1935 Michael Joseph Savage becomes the first Labour Prime Minsiter of New Zealand

1944:  John Hopkins hospital performs 1st open heart surgery

1944:  The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas

1952: US President-elect Eisenhower visits Korea to assess war

1964: Roman Catholic Church in US replaces Latin with English

1989:  India president Rajiv Gandhi resigns

2001:  UN Security Council unanimously approves a resolution extending the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq for another six-month period

2005:  The new Croatian Communist Party (KPH) is founded in Vukovar.

2007:  The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to The Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.

2007:  A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurs off the northern coast of Martinique. This affected the Eastern Caribbean as far north as Puerto Rico and as south as Trinidad

2012:  30 people are killed and 100 are wounded by bombs in Hillah and Karbala, Iraq

2012:  The UN votes to approve Palestine’s status change from an observer to an observer state

2016:  Former NFL player Darren Sharper sentenced to 20 years in prison for a series of rapes

2017: American TV host Matt Lauer is fired from NBC's "Today" show after an allegation of sexual misconduct

2017:  Bosnian war criminal Slobodan Praljak commits suicide by poison in court at The Hague after 20 year prison term read out