EVENTS:
- 526 – An earthquake kills about 250,000 people in what is now Syria and Antiochia.
- 1293 – King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.
- 1609 – Shakespeare’s sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
- 1875 – Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units.
- 1908 – Budi Utomo organization is founded in Dutch East Indies, beginning the Indonesian National Awakening.
- 1983 – First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier.
- 2013 – An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.
- 2014 – More than 118 people are killed in two bombings in Jos, Nigeria.
- 2016 – The government of Singapore authorised the controversial execution of convicted murderer Kho Jabing for the murder of a Chinese construction worker despite the international pleas for clemency, notably from Amnesty International and the United Nations.
- 2019 – The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete.
- 2022 – Russo-Ukrainian War: Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege.
BIRTHS:
- 1818 – William Fargo, American businessman and politician, co-founded Wells Fargo and American Express (d. 1881)
- 1822 – Frédéric Passy, French economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1912)
- 1851 – Emile Berliner, German-American inventor, invented the Gramophone record (d. 1929)
- 1860 – Eduard Buchner, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
- 1882 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
- 1886 – Ali Sami Yen, Turkish footballer and manager, founded the Galatasaray Sports Club (d. 1951)
- 1894 – Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Indian guru (d. 1994)
- 1900 – Sumitranandan Pant, Indian Poet, Jnanpith Awadee (d. 1977)
- 1913 – William Redington Hewlett, American engineer, co-founded Hewlett-Packard (d. 2001)
- 1918 – Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- 1982 – Imran Farhat, Pakistani cricketer
- 1983 – Manoj Manchu, Indian actor
- 1983 – N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Indian actor and singer
- 1995 – Brandon Zibaka, English footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Day of Remembrance (Cambodia)
- Emancipation Day (Florida)
- European Maritime Day (European Council)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Cuba from the United States in 1902.
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of East Timor from Indonesia in 2002.
- Indonesian National Awakening (Indonesia)
- National Day (Cameroon)
- World Metrology Day
