*43 BC* Cicero, considered one of the greatest sons of Rome, is assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius.
*983* Otto III takes the throne after his father's death in Italy. A power struggle between magnates ensues.
*1787* Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
*1808* James Madison is elected president in succession of Thomas Jefferson.
*1861* USS Santiago de Cuba , under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halts the British schooner Eugenia Smith and captures J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent.
*1862* Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
*1863* Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the "Innocents," robs and then kills Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.
*1917* The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress.
*1918* Spartacists call for a German revolution.
*1931* A report indicates that Nazis would ensure "Nordic dominance" by sterilizing certain races.
*1941* Japanese planes raid Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a surprise attack, bringing the US into WWII.
*1942* The U.S. Navy launches USS New Jersey , the largest battleship ever built.
*1946* The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, orders all striking miners back to work.
*1949* The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organize a non-Communist international trade union.
*1970* Poland and West Germany sign a pact renouncing the use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland's western frontier, and acknowledging the transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory.
*1972* *The crew of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, lifts off at Cape Canaveral, Florida.*
*1981* The Reagan Administration predicts a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion.
*1988* An earthquake in Armenia kills an estimated 100,000 people.
*1988* *Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat recognizes Israel's right to exist.*
*1995* Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter after a 6-year journey.
*1999* The Recording Industry Association of America files a copyright infringement suit against the file-sharing website Napster.
*2003* A tornado in Kensal Green, North West London.