Today:
1002: English king Æthelred II orders the killing of all Danes in England, known as the St. Brice’s Day massacre.
1093: Malcolm III of Scotland and his son Edward are killed at the Battle of Alnwick.
1775: American Revolutionary War forces under General Richard Montgomery capture Montreal.
1887: Protests in London’s Trafalgar Square lead to violent clashes with police, an event known as Bloody Sunday.
1927: The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic, connecting New Jersey and New York City under the Hudson River.
1940: Walt Disney’s animated musical film Fantasia premieres in New York City.
1956: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial segregation on public buses is unconstitutional, ending the Montgomery bus boycott.
1970: The Bhola cyclone strikes East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people in one of the deadliest tropical cyclones on record.
1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
1985: The Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts in Colombia, creating massive mudflows that bury the town of Armero and kill approximately 23,000 people.