532: Nika uprising against Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople fails; 30,000 are killed by troops loyal to the emperor in the Hippodrome

1591: King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat, date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces Day

1788: First elements of the First Fleet, carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia, arrive at Botany Bay to establish a penal colony

1817: Argentine General José de San Martín leads a revolutionary army over the Andes to attack Spanish royalists in Chile

1871: Second German Empire is proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck

1943: Soviets announce they have broken the long siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege is not fully lifted until a year later

Source: Onthisday.com