Today:
1622 – The Jamestown massacre took place in Virginia, when Algonquian Indians killed 347 English settlers, a third of the colony’s population.
1765 – The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, imposing the first direct tax on the American colonies, sparking widespread protest.
1790 – Thomas Jefferson became the first United States Secretary of State.
1829 – The London Metropolitan Police Service was founded by then-Home Secretary Robert Peel.
1871 – William Woods Holden, Governor of North Carolina, became the first U.S. governor to be removed from office through impeachment.
1895 – Auguste and Louis Lumière held their first private screening of projected motion pictures for an audience.
1933 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Beer-Wine Revenue Act, paving the way for the end of Prohibition in the United States.
1963 – The Beatles released their debut album Please Please Me in the United Kingdom.
1993 – The Intel Corporation produced the first Pentium microprocessor.
2006 – The Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent ceasefire after decades of violence in Spain.