Source: HistoryNet.com
1570: A tidal wave in the North Sea destroys the sea walls from Holland to Jutland. More than 1,000 people are killed.
1789: The property of the church in France is taken away by the state.
1869: Louis Riel takes over Hudson's Bay Company headquarters in Fort Garry with a force of 120 armed men.
1903: London's Daily Mirror newspaper is first published.
1907: Creation of the Ottawa Royal Mint is announced.
1914: Russia declares war with Turkey.
1936: First day of broadcast for the CBC.
1947: Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose flies for the first and last time.
1959: Charles Van Doren confesses that the TV quiz show 21 is fixed and that he had been given the answers to the questions asked him.
1960: A British jury determines that Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence is not obscene.
1983: President Ronald Reagan signs a bill establishing Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
2000: First resident crew arrives at the International Space Station.
2012: Rogers Communications Inc. and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce launch the first payment system in Canada that allows retail credit card purchases through a smartphone.