Today:
455 – Vandals entered Rome and began two weeks of plundering the city under King Genseric.
1098 – During the First Crusade, Crusaders captured Antioch after an eight-month siege.
1615 – The first Récollet missionaries arrived at Quebec City from France to begin their missionary work in Canada.
1692 – Bridget Bishop was the first person to go on trial in the Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts.
1835 – P. T. Barnum launched his first traveling circus, which would eventually become “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
1886 – President Grover Cleveland became the first U.S. president to marry in the White House, wedding Frances Folsom.
1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.
1946 – Italy held a referendum, and the Italian people voted to abolish the monarchy in favor of a republic.
1953 – Queen Elizabeth II was formally crowned monarch of the United Kingdom in Westminster Abbey.
1966 – The Surveyor 1 spacecraft successfully landed on the Moon, transmitting photos and data back to Earth.