Source: HistoryNet.com
1660: The first Shakespearian actress to appear on an English stage (she is believed to be a Ms. Norris) makes her debut as Desdemona.
1869: Timothy Eaton and his brother James open a small 24x60-foot dry goods and haberdashery business in Toronto at 178 Yonge Street on the corner of Queen Street.
1915: Canadian MD John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" is first published in Punch magazine.
1967: In the biggest battle yet in the Mekong Delta, 365 Viet Cong are killed.
1980: John Lennon is shot to death outside his Manhattan apartment building.
1982: The Washington, D.C., police shoot and kill a man threatening to blow up the Washington Monument.
1991: The leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine sign an agreement that dissolves the Soviet Union and establishes the Commonwealth of Independent States.
2005: Scientists say that the Great Lakes are losing their ability to cope with environmental stress and ward off a catastrophic breakdown.
2010: SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.