The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, formed this day in 1922 with its capital in Moscow
The Detroit Lions became the first team in NFL history to lose all 16 games in the regular season in 2008.
In 1831 Charles Darwin set sail on the HMS Beagle, beginning the voyage on which he would formulate his theory of evolution.
On this day in 2004, a large earthquake shook the Indian Ocean floor west of the island of Sumatra, triggering a devastating tsunami that swamped coastal areas from Thailand to Africa and killed more than 200,000 people.
In 2013 Russian weapons designer Mikhail Kalashnikov—who invented the AK-47 (automatic Kalashnikov Model 1947), an assault rifle that became one of the most successful and ubiquitous firearms of the modern era—died in Izhevsk, Russia.
1989 - The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was reopened, signifying the reunification of East and West Germany.
2012 - The music video for South Korean singer Psy's humorous pop song Gangnam Style became the first video on YouTube to garner one billion views.
1999 - The United States launched Operation Just Cause, a military invasion of Panama, the initial attack focusing primarily on the Panama City headquarters of leader Manuel Noriega.
1966 - The United Nations General Assembly endorsed the Outer Space Treaty, an international treaty binding the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes.
2019 - President Donald Trump became the third U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives, which charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
1992 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the United States.
1653 - British soldier and statesman Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England.
1997 - Janet Rosenberg Jagan was elected president of Guyana, becoming the first elected female president in South America and the first white president of Guyana.
1979 Some 10 years after the World Health Organization began a global vaccination program against smallpox, the disease was officially declared eradicated.
1987 U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed a nuclear weapons reduction treaty.
2004 Afghan politician Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.
The British government and Irish leaders Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and others signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, establishing the Irish Free State as an independent member of the British Commonwealth this day in 1921.
1154 Adrian IV was elected pope, becoming the only Englishman to occupy the papal throne.
On this day in 1984, a gas leak from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, spread over a populated area, resulting ultimately in 15,000 to 20,000 deaths and leaving some half million survivors with chronic medical ailments.
2000 Vicente Fox was inaugurated as president of Mexico, ending the dominance of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which had ruled since 1929.
