1525-Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union
1789-The first American novel, William Hill Brown's "The Power of Sympathy" is published by Isaiah Thomas
1793-Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for "high treason" by the newly created French Parliament (Convention nationale), during the French Revolution
1952-Jawaharlal Nehru's Congress Party wins India's first general election
1968-Battle of Khe Sanh begins at the Khe Sanh Air Base, one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War
1982-"Shaolin Temple" martial arts film released, first Hong Kong feature filmed in China, directed by Chang Hsin Yen and starring Jet Li in his debut role
2008-Fears of a possible U.S. recession cause a Black Monday for global stock markets, European stocks suffer their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15 percent