1401. Mongol emperor Timur sacked Damascus.

1603. James VI of Scotland also became James I King of England following the death of Elizabeth I.

1837. Canada gave African men the right to vote.

1923. Greece became a republic.

1944. German troops killed 335 Italians in the Ardeatine Massacre in Rome. The massacre was a reprisal for a partisan attack which had led to the deaths of 33 German soldiers but the 335 victims included civilians pulled off the streets at random as well as prisoners of war.

1944. In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.

1976. Argentina's military forces deposed president Isabel Perón and started the National Reorganization Process. The former nightclub dancer and third wife of President Juan Perón had taken over in 1974 following his death. She was the first non-royal female head of state and head of government in the Western Hemisphere.

1989. In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of petroleum after running aground.

1999. 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

2003. The Arab League voted 21-1 in favour of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.