1451-Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire
1509-Battle of Diu: Portuguese Armada defeats a Mamluk Egyptian fleet in a naval battle at the port of Diu, India, establishing Portuguese trading control in the Indian Ocean
1863-Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise"
1870-Iowa ratifies the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing suffrage for all races and colors
1928-Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black reports his findings on the ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China, in the journal Nature and declares them to be a new species he names "Sinanthropus pekinensis" (now known as "Homo erectus")
1931-New Zealand's worst natural disaster, the Hawke's Bay earthquake, kills 256 and injures thousands, devastating Napier and the Hawke's Bay region
1966-First soft landing on the Moon, by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9