Today:
1606 – Guy Fawkes is executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the English Parliament.
1747 – The first venereal disease clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
1865 – The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.
1917 – Germany announces unrestricted submarine warfare, a key factor in the United States entering World War I.
1943 – The Battle of Stalingrad effectively ends as German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to Soviet forces.
1950 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announces that the United States is developing the hydrogen bomb.
1958 – The United States launches Explorer 1, its first successful satellite, into orbit.
1961 – The United States sends a chimpanzee named Ham into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2 as part of pre-human spaceflight tests.
1990 – The first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow, signaling a shift in East-West relations.
2020 – The United Kingdom officially leaves the European Union, marking the completion of Brexit.