EVENTS:
- 1861 – The University of Washington opens in Seattle as the Territorial University.
- 1966 – The Arno River floods Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of 6.7 m (22 ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. Also Venice was submerged on the same day at its record all-time acqua alta of 194 cm.
- 1993 – The China Airlines Flight 605, a Boeing 747, overruns Runway 13 at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport while landing during a typhoon, injuring 22 people.
- 2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first person of African-American descent to be elected President of the United States.
- 2010 – Aero Caribbean Flight 883 crashes into Guasimal, Sancti Spíritus. All 68 passengers and crew were killed.
- 2015 – A cargo plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Juba International Airport in Juba, South Sudan, killing 37 people.
- 2015 – A building collapses in the Pakistani city of Lahore resulting in at least 45 deaths, at least 100 injured.
- 2020 – The Tigray War begins with Tigrayan rebels launching attacks on Ethiopian command centers.
BIRTHS:
- 1845 – Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Indian activist (d. 1883)
- 1884 – Harry Ferguson, Irish engineer, invented the tractor (d. 1960)
- 1887 – Janaki Ammal, Indian botanist and geneticist (d. 1984)
- 1908 – Joseph Rotblat, Polish-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- 1916 – John Basilone, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1945)
- 1929 – Shakuntala Devi, Indian mathematician and astrologer (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Charles K. Kao, Chinese physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1947 – Rod Marsh, Australian cricketer and coach
- 1953 – Mick Buckley, English footballer (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Alhaj Moulana Ghousavi Shah, Indian author, poet, and scholar
- 1975 – Orlando Pace, American football player
- 1980 – Richard Owens, American football player
- 1982 – Devin Hester, American football player
- 1986 – Suhas Gopinath, Indian businessman
- 1994 – Billy Stanlake, Australian cricketer
- 2000 – Sun Yingsha, Chinese table tennis player
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
