Today:
1292: John Balliol became King of Scotland.
1558: Elizabeth I ascended to the English throne upon the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary.
1777: The Articles of Confederation were submitted to the American states for ratification.
1800: The United States Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C.
1869: The Suez Canal in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, was inaugurated.
1947: Scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observed the basic principles of the transistor.
1970: The Soviet Union landed Lunokhod 1 on the moon, the first remote-controlled robotic rover to land on another celestial body.
1973: U.S. President Richard Nixon, during a televised press conference, declared, “I’m not a crook.”
1989: The Velvet Revolution began in Czechoslovakia with a student demonstration in Prague.
2003: Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California.