A.D. 959 -- Edgar the Peaceful begins his 16-year reign, giving England a bit of a break between wars and invasions.
1979 -- Pope John Paul II⁺ speaks out against torture to a somewhat uncomfortable crowd of U.N. delegates.
1990 -- East and West Germany merge and begin a process of centralization.
1582 -- European countries begin to adopt the Gregorian calendar, resulting in staggered ten-day spans with no history.
1966 -- Detroit, Mich. and surroundings escape premature disaster, after a partial nuclear meltdown at a nearby power plant has no official external effect.
1995 -- First exoplanet orbiting a distant Sun is found. It fails to capture popular interest, after it is established that nothing existing there is likely to invade Earth or vice-versa.
2001 -- The U.S. and Britain jointly launch a new overt war in Afghanistan.
2001 -- The Office of Homeland Security is established, its primary job being to keep the U.S. out of reach of terrorists, or failing that, help to clear up the mess.
2006 -- North Korea conducts its first nuclear test, a few days after an internationally novel act of giving prior notice.
1967 -- The Outer Space Treaty takes effect, prohibiting signing Earth nations from using the Moon or other celestial bodies for colonization or military use. Earth itself is still fair game.
1958 -- Launch of NASA's first spacecraft Pioneer 1, which would successfully gather important information about the atmosphere as it plummets back to Earth.
1492 -- Alleged first sighting of Christopher Columbus in the Bahamas.
1792 -- White House construction begins. Despite taking eight years to complete, an immediate expansion will be ordered by First Tenant Thomas Jefferson.
1066 -- The Battle of Hastings is fought between English and Norman forces, for the entire day during business hours with a break for tea.
2011 -- Over a million people attend protests worldwide to express their views against corruption and inequality, after which they depart for home or prison.
1846 -- Ether anesthesia is first demonstrated in the U.S., rendering nearly obsolete such time-honored methods as whiskey and blows to the head.
1973 -- Oil crisis begins, inflicted mostly upon Western countries by OPEC and leading to conservation measures, foreign policy changes and other rumored effects.
1867 -- The Russian flag is lowered for the last time in front of the Alaska governor's office.
1933 -- Germany drops out of the peacemongering League of Nations.
1947 -- The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its doomed attempts to root the Communists out of Hollywood.
1959 -- Needing to compete in the Space Race with the Soviets and their confined Nazi engineers, the U.S. sends its own set of Nazis to work for NASA.
A.D. 362 -- Antioch temple fire officially declared arson by Oracle at Delphi.
1951 -- During his successful election campaign, Winston Churchill assures the public that he is not a warmonger, a term considered pejorative at the time.
1795 -- The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is portioned out to several countries. Neither Poland nor Lithuania is among them.
1917 -- Civil unrest originating from Russian worker strikes culminates in the occupation of government buildings.
1881 -- Wyatt Earp on administrative leave pending outcome of corral shooting investigation.
1973 -- Meteorite lands in Cañon City, Colo. in violation of local ordinance.
1918 -- The nation of Czechoslovakia and its people are created from liberated remnants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1998 -- The Truth and Reconciliation Committee's report on human rights gives South Africa the grade of F-triple-minus; barely passing.
1938 -- Rumors of an alien invasion appear to have been nothing more than wishful thinking by the American public.
1992 -- The Vatican formally admits that Galileo might have had a point after all.
