1755: Lisbon earthquake kills more than 50,000 in Portugal

1814: Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France, in the Napoleonic Wars

1894: Vaccine for diphtheria is announced by Dr. Émile Roux of Paris

1916: Paul Miliukov delivers in the Russian State Duma the famous “stupidity or treason” speech, precipitating the downfall of the Boris Stürmer government

1922: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk takes Constantinople from Mehmed VI, proclaiming the Republic of Turkey and bringing an end to the Ottoman Empire

1952:  “Ivy Mike”, the first thermonuclear weapon to utilize the H-bomb design of Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam, is detonated in the Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean

1993: The Maastricht Treaty comes into effect creating the European Union

2012: Scientists detect evidence of light from the universe’s first stars, estimated to have formed 500 million years after the Big Bang

Source: Onthisday.com