Today:
1437 – King James I of Scotland was assassinated in Perth by a group of conspirators led by Sir Robert Graham.
1613 – Mikhail Romanov was elected Tsar of Russia, marking the beginning of the Romanov dynasty, which ruled until 1917.
1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive, built by Richard Trevithick, made its first journey in South Wales.
1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, outlining the principles of communism.
1862 – During the American Civil War, the Battle of Valverde took place in the New Mexico Territory, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1916 – During World War I, the Battle of Verdun began between France and Germany, becoming one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war.
1925 – The first issue of The New Yorker magazine was published.
1947 – Edwin Land demonstrated the first instant camera, the Polaroid Land Camera, at a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
1965 – Malcolm X, the African American activist and minister, was assassinated in New York City.
1972 – Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit China, opening diplomatic relations between the two countries.