Today:
1497 – The bonfire of the vanities took place in Florence, Italy, where followers of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola burned objects considered sinful, including books and art.
1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, restricting the ability of individuals to sue states in federal court.
1812 – The strongest earthquake in the series of the New Madrid earthquakes struck the Missouri Territory, causing the Mississippi River to temporarily flow backward.
1904 – The Great Baltimore Fire began, destroying over 1,500 buildings in central Baltimore, Maryland.
1940 – Walt Disney’s animated feature Pinocchio premiered in New York City.
1962 – The United States imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba, tightening restrictions following Fidel Castro’s alignment with the Soviet Union.
1971 – Switzerland voted in a referendum to grant women the right to vote in federal elections, decades after many other countries had done so.
1984 – NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first person to conduct an untethered spacewalk, using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
1992 – The European Union was formally established with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty by 12 member states.
2009 – Bushfires in Victoria, Australia, known as Black Saturday, killed 173 people and destroyed thousands of homes, becoming the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history.