EVENTS:
- 1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
- 1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
- 1948 – The Pakistan Socialist Party is founded in Karachi.
- 1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.
- 2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.
- 2006 – India’s Irfan Pathan became the first bowler to take a Test cricket hat-trick in the opening over of a match.
- 2013 – SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashes near the Kazakh city of Almaty, killing 21 people.
- 2013 – A gunman kills a school bus driver and holds a 6-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker in Midland City, Alabama.
- 2015 – Malaysia has officially declared the disappearance of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident and its passengers and crew presumed dead.
- 2017 – Quebec City mosque shooting: Alexandre Bissonnette opens fire at mosque in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, killing six and wounding 19 others in a spree shooting.
- 2020 – COVID-19 pandemic: The Presidency of Donald Trump.
BIRTHS:
- 1866 – Romain Rolland, French historian, author, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)
- 1925 – Harold C. Agerholm, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1944)
- 1926 – Abdus Salam, Pakistani-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
- 1932 – Raman Subba Row, English cricketer and referee
- 1932 – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (d. 1958)
- 1936 – Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 2010)
- 1947 – Linda B. Buck, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1953 – Ronnie Moore, English footballer and manager
- 1956 – Anton Otulakowski, English footballer
- 1964 – Andre Reed, American football player and sportscaster
- 1966 – Keith Dublin, English footballer
- 1990 – Nick Moody, American football player
