EVENTS:
- 1880 – Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.
- 1913 – The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiated a period of almost four decades of independence.
- 1920 – The Negro National League is formed.
- 1931 – The British Raj completes its transfer from Calcutta to New Delhi.
- 1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
- 1983 – A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people.
- 2001 – An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
- 2010 – A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more.
- 2013 – A plane crash kills five people and injures nine others in Donetsk, Ukraine.
- 2017 – Kim Jong-nam is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
- 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
- 2021 – Former U.S. President Donald Trump is acquitted in his second impeachment trial.
- 2021 – A major winter storm causes blackouts and kills at least 82 people in Texas and northern Mexico.
BIRTHS:
- 1835 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Indian religious leader (d. 1908)
- 1879 – Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and activist (d. 1949)
- 1898 – Hubert Ashton, English cricketer and politician (d. 1979)
- 1910 – William Shockley, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- 1911 – Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Indian-Pakistani poet and journalist (d. 1984)
- 1919 – Eddie Robinson, American football player and coach (d. 2007)
- 1944 – Oduvil Unnikrishnan, Indian actor and composer (d. 2006)
- 1960 – Gary Patterson, American football player and coach
- 1972 – Charlie Garner, American football player
- 1977 – Randy Moss, American football player and coach
- 1982 – Michael Turner, American football player
- 1986 – Luke Moore, English footballer
- 1989 – Rhys Palmer, Australian footballer
