Today:
1399: King Richard II of England abdicated his throne, and Henry IV was proclaimed the new king.
1789: The United States Congress created the U.S. Army.
1829: London’s Metropolitan Police, often called Scotland Yard, was founded by Sir Robert Peel. The officers became known as “bobbies.”
1918: During World War I, Bulgaria signed an armistice, ending its participation in the war.
1938: The Munich Agreement was signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.
1954: The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, was established.
1962: Canada’s first satellite, Alouette 1, was launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
1982: The first deaths from cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules occurred in the Chicago metropolitan area, leading to a nationwide recall and the development of tamper-resistant packaging.
1988: NASA resumed Space Shuttle flights with the launch of Discovery, the first mission since the Challenger disaster in 1986.
2008: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 777.68 points, the largest single-day point drop in its history up to that time, after the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion bank bailout plan.