Today:
1028 – Future Byzantine empress Zoe marries Romanos Argyros.
1439 – Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.
1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined during the French Revolution.
1893 – The treaty of the Durand Line is signed, establishing the border between present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan.
1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his expedition members are found in Antarctica.
1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leading to Stalin’s full control over the USSR.
1936 – The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
1944 – The Royal Air Force sinks the German battleship Tirpitz.
1971 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is incorporated to establish a monument to honor U.S. military members who served in the Vietnam War.
1990 – Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor of Japan.