EVENTS:
- 1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England.
- 1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
- 1983 – Pakistan successfully conducts a cold test of a nuclear weapon.
- 1990 – Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
- 1999 – Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
- 2004 – Madrid train bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain, kill 191 people.
- 2011 – An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
- 2012 – A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar.
- 2016 – At least 21 people are killed by flooding and mudslides in and around São Paulo, Brazil, following heavy rain.
- 2018 – A Bombardier Challenger 604 crashes into the Zagros Mountains near the Iranian city of Shar-e-kord, killing all 11 people on board.
- 2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the COVID-19 virus epidemic a pandemic.
- 2021 – US President Joe Biden signs the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law.
- 2023 – The Burmese military kills at least 30 villagers, including 3 Buddhist monks, during the Pinlaung massacre in Shan State, Myanmar.
BIRTHS:
- 1915 – Vijay Hazare, Indian cricketer (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1929 – Jackie McGlew, South African cricketer (d. 1998)
- 1931 – Rupert Murdoch, Australian-American businessman, founded News Corporation
- 1950 – Sam Kekovich, Australian footballer and sportscaster
- 1965 – Nigel Adkins, English footballer and manager
- 1973 – Martin Hiden, Austrian footballer and coach
- 1980 – Paul Scharner, Austrian footballer
- 1985 – Derek Schouman, American football player
- 1991 – Jack Rodwell, English footballer
- 2003 – Tristan Vukčević, Serbian-Swedish basketball player
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
