EVENTS:
- 1830 – The Great Fire of New Orleans begins.
- 1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.
- 1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
- 1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.
- 1913 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.
- 1915 – An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
- 1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.
- 1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.
- 2000 – Bill Gates resigns as CEO of Microsoft.
- 2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
- 2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are 32 confirmed deaths among the 4,232 passengers and crew.
- 2018 – A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii caused widespread panic in the state.
- 2021 – Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is impeached for a second time on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the storming of the Capitol one week prior.
BIRTHS:
- 1864 – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
- 1893 – Roy Cazaly, Australian footballer and coach (d. 1963)
- 1926 – Shakti Samanta, Indian director and producer (d. 2009)
- 1927 – Sydney Brenner, South African biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1938 – Shivkumar Sharma, Indian santoor player and composer
- 1948 – Gaj Singh, Indian lawyer and politician
- 1949 – Rakesh Sharma, Indian commander, pilot, and astronaut
- 1960 – Eric Betzig, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1982 – Kamran Akmal, Pakistan cricketer
- 1989 – Bryan Arguez, American footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
