Today:
1793: Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was guillotined during the French Revolution. Her execution was a major event in the overthrow of the monarchy.
1846: The first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. This revolutionized surgery by allowing for painless procedures.
1859: Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). He intended to seize weapons to arm a slave rebellion, but the raid failed and he was later executed.
1916: Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brooklyn, New York. This was a significant step in the movement for reproductive rights.
1923: The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which would later become The Walt Disney Company, was founded by Walt and Roy Disney.
1946: Ten high-ranking Nazi officials, convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials, were executed by hanging.
1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was shown photographic evidence of Soviet nuclear missile sites being built in Cuba. This brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
1964: China successfully detonated its first atomic bomb, becoming the fifth nuclear power in the world.
1978: Cardinal Karol Wojtyła of Poland was elected Pope, taking the name John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.
1995: The Million Man March, a large gathering of African American men, was held in Washington, D.C., to promote unity and family values.