1938 – Nazi Germany bans Jewish children from public schools in the aftermath of Kristallnacht.

1967 – American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser.

1952 – The New Musical Express publishes the first regular UK Singles Chart.

1922 – The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom.

1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA.

1680 – German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope.

 Red_Dragon wrote:
Shhh, they might try and overturn this one next. 

2001 – War on Terror: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.

1956 – The Supreme Court of the United States declares Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery bus boycott.

1940 – Walt Disney's animated musical film Fantasia is first released at New York's Broadway Theatre, on the first night of a roadshow.

1922 – The United States Supreme Court upholds mandatory vaccinations for public school students in Zucht v. King.

1938 – Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.

1923 – Adolf Hitler is arrested in Munich for high treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.

2004 – Firefox 1.0 is released.

1979 – Cold War: Nuclear false alarm: The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.

1938 – Kristallnacht occurs, instigated by the Nazis using the killing of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan as justification.

1917 – The Balfour Declaration is published in The Times newspaper.

2016 – Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to receive a major party's nomination.

1994 – Republican Revolution: On the night of the 1994 United States midterm elections, Republicans make historic electoral gains by securing massive majorities in both houses of Congress (54 seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate, additionally), thus bringing to a close four decades of Democratic domination.