Today:
235: Maximinus Thrax is proclaimed Emperor of Rome by the army, following the assassination of Alexander Severus.
1413: Henry V becomes King of England upon the death of his father, Henry IV.
1602: The Dutch East India Company (VOC) is established, becoming the first company to issue stock.
1727: Sir Isaac Newton, the English physicist and mathematician who formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, dies in London.
1815: Napoleon Bonaparte enters Paris after escaping from exile on Elba, beginning his Hundred Days rule.
1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
1854: The Republican Party of the United States is formally organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
1916: Albert Einstein publishes his groundbreaking paper on the general theory of relativity.
1956: Tunisia officially gains its independence from France.
1995: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas in the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 people and injuring thousands.