1386 – The Universität Heidelberg held its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.
1466 – The Thirteen Years' War ends with the Second Treaty of Thorn.
1469 – Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile, a marriage that paves the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain.
1512 – Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia).
1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte retreats from Moscow.
1904 – Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O'Reilley.
1912 – Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
1943 – Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
1960 – The United States government imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba, which remains in effect today.
1987 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22 percent, 508 points.
1988 – The British government imposes a broadcasting ban on television and radio interviews with members of Sinn Féin and eleven Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups.
2005 – Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
2005 – Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.
2007 – Philippines: A bomb explosion rocked Glorietta 2, a shopping mall in Makati. The blast killed 11 and injured more than 100 people.
2012 – Big Tex, a 52-foot statue and cultural icon in Dallas is destroyed by fire during the final weekend of the 2012 State Fair of Texas.
2013 – At least 105 people were injured in a train crash at the Once railway station in Buenos Aires.
2014 – Oort cloud Comet Siding Spring makes a close fly-by the planet Mars passing within 140,000 kilometers.
