Today:
1. 44 BCE: Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated by a group of senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, sparking a series of civil wars in Rome.
2. 1493: Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the Americas.
3. 1781: During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Guilford Court House took place in North Carolina between British forces under General Cornwallis and American forces under General Greene.
4. 1820: Maine became the 23rd state of the United States after separating from Massachusetts.
5. 1917: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated the throne, leading to the end of the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Empire.
6. 1939: Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement and further escalating tensions leading to World War II.
7. 1972: The United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations.
8. 1985: The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered by the Symbolics Computer Corporation.
9. 2004: The Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.
10. 2011: Protests against the Syrian government erupted in Damascus and other cities, marking the beginning of the Syrian Civil War.