EVENTS:
- 1868 – The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into law.
- 1889 – The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is established by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian, India.
- 1931 – Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar are hanged for the killing of a deputy superintendent of police during the Indian struggle for independence.
- 1956 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world. (Republic Day in Pakistan)
- 1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashes in Siberia when the pilot’s fifteen-year-old son accidentally disengages the autopilot, killing all 75 people on board.
- 2005 – Texas City Refinery explosion: During a test on a distillation tower liquid waste builds up and flows out of a blowout tower. Waste fumes ignite and explode killing 15 workers.
- 2009 – FedEx Express Flight 80: A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flying from Guangzhou, China crashes at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, killing both the captain and the co-pilot.
- 2019 – The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces declared military victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after four years of fighting, although the group maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells across Syria and Iraq.
- 2020 – Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the United Kingdom into its first national lockdown in response to COVID-19.
- 2021 – A container ship runs aground and obstructs the Suez Canal for six days.
BIRTHS:
- 1858 – Ludwig Quidde, German activist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
- 1881 – Roger Martin du Gard, French novelist and paleographer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
- 1881 – Hermann Staudinger, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
- 1893 – Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu, Indian engineer and businessman (d. 1974)
- 1894 – Arthur Grimsdell, English footballer and cricketer (d. 1963)
- 1907 – Daniel Bovet, Swiss-Italian pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
- 1907 – Daniel Bovet, Swiss-Italian pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
- 1948 – Wasim Bari, Pakistani cricketer
- 1951 – Ron Jaworski, American football player and sportscaster
- 1968 – Mike Atherton, English cricketer and journalist
- 1976 – Smriti Irani, Indian actress, producer, and politician, Indian Minister of Human Resource Development
- 1994 – Nick Powell, English footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Day (Azerbaijan)
- Pakistan Day (Pakistan)
- Promised Messiah Day (Ahmadiyya)
- World Meteorological Day
