Today:
1302: Dante Alighieri, the famous Italian poet, is exiled from Florence due to political conflicts within the Guelf party.
1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most influential composers of the Classical era, is born in Salzburg, Austria.
1880: Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his electric incandescent lamp, a major milestone in the commercialization of the light bulb.
1888: The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C., with the mission of increasing and diffusing geographic knowledge.
1924: Following his death six days earlier, the body of Vladimir Lenin is placed in a permanent mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square.
1926: Scottish inventor John Logie Baird provides the first public demonstration of a working television system in London.
1944: The 872-day Siege of Leningrad by Nazi forces is finally lifted by the Soviet Red Army after nearly two and a half years of starvation and warfare.
1945: Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, an event now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
1967: Tragedy strikes the U.S. space program when astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee die in a cabin fire during a launch pad test for Apollo 1.
1973: The Paris Peace Accords are signed, establishing a ceasefire and marking the end of direct United States military involvement in the Vietnam War.