1258: Baghdad, then a city of 1 million, falls to the Mongols as the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, tens of thousands slaughtered, ending the Islamic Golden Age

1601: Fleet of five British East India Company vessels departs on their 1st voyage from London, led by Sir James John Lancaster commanding the “Red Dragon”; journey takes nearly 16 months

1689: Parliament of England adopts the Bill of Rights which establishes the rights of parliament and places limits on the crown

1942: Operation Sealion, Nazi Germany’s invasion of England, is cancelled by Adolf Hitler

1945: Allied planes begin bombing the German city of Dresden, resulting in a devastating firestorm that destroys the city and kills over 22,000 people

1945: Soviet forces capture Budapest after a 49-day battle with Nazi Germany that killed 159,000 people

1960: France becomes the 4th nuclear nation by exploding the 70 kilo-ton “Gerboise Bleue” atomic bomb in the French Algerian Sahara desert

Source: Onthisday.com