Today:
624 – The Battle of Badr, the first major battle in Islamic history, takes place between the Prophet Muhammad’s followers and the Quraysh tribe of Mecca.
1639 – Harvard College is named for John Harvard, a clergyman who bequeathed his library and half his estate to the institution.
1781 – English astronomer William Herschel discovers Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun.
1845 – Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, one of the most famous violin concertos, is first performed in Leipzig, Germany.
1881 – Tsar Alexander II of Russia is assassinated in St. Petersburg by members of the Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will) movement.
1930 – The city of Constantinople is officially renamed Istanbul as part of Turkey’s modernization efforts.
1969 – Apollo 9 returns to Earth after testing the Lunar Module in orbit, a crucial step for the upcoming moon landing.
1996 – A gunman kills 16 children and a teacher in the Dunblane school massacre in Scotland, leading to major gun control reforms in the UK.
2013 – Pope Francis is elected as the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church, becoming the first pope from the Americas.
2020 – The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic, marking a major global crisis.