Today:
1272: Prince Edward becomes King of England upon the death of his father, Henry III, while away on the Ninth Crusade.
1532: Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa at the Battle of Cajamarca.
1776: British and Hessian troops capture Fort Washington from the Patriots during the American Revolutionary War.
1904: English engineer John Ambrose Fleming receives a patent for the thermionic valve, the first vacuum tube.
1907: Oklahoma is admitted to the Union as the 46th U.S. state.
1914: The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens.
1933: The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.
1945: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is founded.
1959: The original Broadway production of the musical “The Sound of Music” opens.
2001: The first film in the series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (known as the “Sorcerer’s Stone” in the U.S.), is released.