Today:
747 BC – According to the Ptolemaic canon, the epoch (starting point) of the Babylonian calendar is established.
1616 – Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Catholic Church from teaching or defending the heliocentric theory of Copernicus.
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from exile on the island of Elba and begins his return to power in France, marking the start of the Hundred Days.
1863 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Banking Act into law, establishing a system of national banks and creating a national currency.
1917 – The Original Dixieland Jass Band records “Livery Stable Blues,” the first jazz record ever released.
1929 – President Calvin Coolidge signs an executive order establishing the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
1935 – Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the Treaty of Versailles.
1952 – Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that the United Kingdom has developed its own atomic bomb.
1993 – A truck bomb explodes in the parking garage of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and injuring over a thousand.
2012 – Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American teenager, is fatally shot by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, leading to nationwide protests and discussions on racial profiling and self-defense laws.