Today:
1. 1702: The first daily English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London.
2. 1818: Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” is published anonymously in London.
3. 1918: The first confirmed case of the Spanish flu is reported at Fort Riley, Kansas, marking the beginning of the global influenza pandemic.
4. 1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act, providing military aid to Allied nations during World War II.
5. 1977: The Hanafi Siege begins in Washington, D.C., as three buildings are seized by 12 gunmen led by Hamaas Abdul Khaalis.
6. 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the leader of the Soviet Union.
7. 2004: Terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain, kill 191 people and injure over 1,800 others.
8. 2011: A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit northeastern Japan, leading to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
9. 2011: The Arab League calls for a no-fly zone over Libya in response to the government’s attacks on civilians during the Libyan Civil War.
10. 2020: The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a global pandemic as the virus spreads rapidly worldwide.