1923 The private army of Blackshirts that had helped Benito Mussolini come to power in Italy was officially transformed into a national militia, the Voluntary Fascist Militia for National Security.
2020 The United Kingdom formally left the European Union, more than three years after the country voted for “Brexit.”
1948 Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi—considered the father of his country and internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest (satyagraha) to achieve political and social progress—was assassinated on this day in 1948.
1845 American author Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven was first published, appearing in the New York Mirror; a melancholy evocation of lost love, it became one of the best-known poems in American literature.
1912 American painter Jackson Pollock, a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism who received widespread publicity and serious recognition for the radical poured, or “drip,” technique he used to create his major works, was born.
1880 American inventor Thomas Edison patented the incandescent lamp.
On this day in 1788, Arthur Phillip, who had sailed into what is now Sydney Cove with a shipload of convicts, hoisted the British flag and established the first permanent European settlement on the continent of Australia.
1971 American criminal and cult leader Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted of a series of notorious murders; their crimes inspired the best-selling book Helter Skelter (1974).
1989 American serial killer Ted Bundy—who confessed to murdering 30 women, though many believe the number to be much higher—was executed at age 42.
1997 The Age of Aquarius dawned, some astrologers believe, because for the first time since 1475 a number of planets, the Sun, and the Moon were aligned in a perfect six-pointed star in the first degrees of Aquarius.
1905 On what was later known as Bloody Sunday, Russian workers marching on St. Petersburg were fired on by Russian troops.
1924 Vladimir Lenin, who led the Russian Revolution (1917) and later served as the first head (1917–24) of the Soviet state, died.
2012 The popular file-sharing computer service Megaupload was shut down by the U.S. government after several people associated with the site, including founder Kim Dotcom (Kim Schmitz), were charged with violating anti-piracy laws.
In 2003 by presidential decree, Christmas—this day on the Coptic Orthodox calendar—was celebrated for the first time as a national holiday in Egypt, an almost entirely Muslim country.
The U.S. Congress certified George W. Bush as the winner of the 2000 presidential election following a legal battle.