1009: Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the church’s foundations down to the bedrock

1685: French King Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, canceling the rights of French Protestants

1867: US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, after paying $7.2 million in the Alaska Purchase

1931: Gangster Al Capone is convicted on five of the 23 counts of tax evasion against him, later fined $50,000 and sentenced to 11 years in prison

1962: James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK), and Maurice Wilkins (UK) win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA

Source: Onthisday.com