1521 - Martin Luther confronted the emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms and refused to retract his views that led to his excommunication.
1676 - Sudbury, Massachusetts, was attacked by Indians.
1775 - American revolutionaries Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode though the towns of Massachusetts giving the warning that "the British are coming."
1791 - National Guardsmen prevented Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
1818 - A regiment of Indians and blacks were defeated at the Battle of Suwann, in Florida, ending the first Seminole War.
1834 - William Lamb became prime minister of England.
1838 - The Wilkes' expedition to the South Pole set sail.
1846 - The telegraph ticker was patented by R.E. House
1847 - U.S. forces defeated the Mexicans at Cerro Gordo.
1853 - The first train in Asia began running from Bombay to Tanna.
1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee turned down an offer to command the Union armies during the U.S. Civil War.
1877 - Charles Cros wrote a paper that described the process of recording and reproducing sound. In France, Cros is regarded as the inventor of the phonograph. In the U.S., Thomas Edison gets the credit.
1895 - New York State passed an act that established free public baths.
1906 - San Francisco, CA, was hit with an earthquake. The orginal death toll was cited at about 700. Later information indicated that the death toll may have been 3 to 4 times the original estimate.
1910 - Walter R. Brookins made the first airplane flight at night.
1923 - Yankee Stadium opened in the Bronx, NY. The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1. John Phillip Sousa's band played the National Anthem.
1924 - Simon and Schuster, Inc. published the first "Crossword Puzzle Book."
1934 - The first Laundromat opened in Fort Worth, TX.
1937 - Leon Trotsky called for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1938 - U.S. President Roosevelt threw out the first ball preceding the season opener between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics.
1942 - James H. Doolittle and his squadron, from the USS Hornet, raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
Portal