1991: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
1918: The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.
1891: The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world's first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).
1888: Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.
1874: A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.
1527: The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.
1204: Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
946: Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.
218: Julia Maesa, aunt of the assassinated Caracalla, is banished to her home in Syria by self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus. She declares her 14-year-old grandson Elagabalus to be emperor of Rome. Macrinus is later deposed.