2018
American politician George H.W. Bush, who was the 41st president of the United States (1989–93), died at the age of 94.
2007
American motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel—who was known for his death-defying stunts, which included a spectacular jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas (1968)—died at the age of 69.
2001
The hunt for the Green River Killer ended as Gary Ridgway was arrested in Washington, and he later pled guilty to killing 48 women, though he claimed to have murdered as many as 80; he was the deadliest convicted serial killer in the United States. Learn about seven of history’s most notorious serial killers.]
1999
Exxon and Mobil formally merged, becoming ExxonMobil, one of the world’s leading oil and energy businesses.
1996
A block of gray sandstone known as the Stone of Scone was returned to Scotland, 700 years after it had been taken to England as war booty by King Edward I.
1982
American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson released Thriller, which became the best-selling album in the world and won a record-setting eight Grammy Awards.
1979
The British rock band Pink Floyd released their 11th studio album, The Wall.
1939
After Finland refused to grant the Soviet Union a naval base and other concessions in the fall of 1939, Soviet troops totaling about one million men attacked Finland on several fronts, initiating the Russo-Finnish War.
1936
A fire virtually destroyed the Crystal Palace, the giant exhibition hall that housed the Great Exhibition of 1851.
1924
Politician Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress, was born.
1908
The United States and Japan signed the Root-Takahira Agreement, which averted a drift toward possible war through the mutual acknowledgment of certain international policies and spheres of influence in the Pacific.
1874
British statesman, orator, and author Sir Winston Churchill, who as prime minister (1940–45, 1951–55) rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory, was born in Oxfordshire, England.
1782
Britain and the United States signed the preliminary articles of the Treaty of Paris as part of the Peace of Paris, a collection of treaties concluding the American Revolution.
1718
Charles XII, king of Sweden, was killed during a siege of the fortress of Fredriksten, east of Oslo Fjord, ending Sweden’s “Age of Greatness.”
