Today:
193: Following the assassination of Emperor Pertinax, the Praetorian Guard auctions off the Roman Empire to Didius Julianus.
845: Viking raiders, led by Ragnar Lodbrok, sack Paris after sailing up the River Seine.
1774: The British Parliament passes the Coercive Act against Massachusetts to punish the colony for the Boston Tea Party.
1854: France and Great Britain formally declare war on Russia, marking the beginning of the Crimean War.
1898: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants is a U.S. citizen.
1910: Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane after taking off from water near Martigues, France.
1930: The Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora officially change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.
1939: The Spanish Civil War effectively ends as the forces of General Francisco Franco capture Madrid.
1969: Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, dies at age 78.
1979: A cooling system failure at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania leads to a partial meltdown, the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history.