Today:
241 BCE – The Roman Republic defeated Carthage in the Battle of the Aegates, effectively ending the First Punic War.
1535 – Spanish explorer Tomás de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama, discovered the Galápagos Islands.
1629 – King Charles I of England dissolved Parliament, beginning the period of personal rule that lasted until 1640.
1785 – Thomas Jefferson was appointed the United States Minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.
1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was ratified by the U.S. Senate, officially ending the Mexican-American War.
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call, saying, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
1922 – Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in India for sedition, later receiving a six-year prison sentence.
1952 – General Fulgencio Batista led a coup in Cuba, overthrowing President Carlos Prío Socarrás and establishing a dictatorship.
1969 – James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
2000 – The Nasdaq stock index reached its all-time high during the dot-com bubble, closing at 5,048.62.