Today:
538 – Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome, retreating from the Byzantine army led by Belisarius.
1622 – Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Jesuits, are canonized as saints by Pope Gregory XV.
1664 – New Jersey is founded as a British colony when King Charles II grants the land to his brother, the Duke of York, who in turn gives it to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret.
1789 – The United States House of Representatives holds its first meeting in New York City.
1864 – The Red River Campaign, a major Union offensive during the American Civil War, begins in Louisiana.
1912 – The Girl Scouts of the USA is founded in Savannah, Georgia, by Juliette Gordon Low.
1930 – Mahatma Gandhi leads the Salt March, a nonviolent protest against British salt taxes in India.
1938 – Nazi Germany invades Austria in the Anschluss, leading to its annexation into the Third Reich.
1968 – Mauritius gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1993 – North Korea announces its withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, raising global concerns about its nuclear ambitions.