Today:
1493: The Great Fire of Moscow, Russia, occurred.
1540: Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII of England, was executed.
1794: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were executed by guillotine in Paris, France, during the French Revolution.
1821: Jose de San Martin of Peru declared independence from Spain.
1868: The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.
1914: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, marking the beginning of World War I.
1932: President Herbert Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to evict the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans from their encampments in Washington, D.C.
1943: During World War II, a firestorm caused by Allied bombing killed 42,000 civilians in Hamburg, Germany.
1945: A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City, killing 14 people.
1976: A massive earthquake struck Tangshan, China, killing at least 240,000 people.