1804: General Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of the French at the Notre Dame de Paris in a ceremony officiated by Pope Pius VII

1823: US President James Monroe declares the “Monroe Doctrine” opposing European colonialism in the Americas, arguing any European political intervention in the New World would be a hostile act against the United States

1845: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West, a widely held belief termed “manifest destiny” by newspaper editor John O’Sullivan

1929: First skull of Peking man found in the caves of Zhoukoudian, 50 km outside of Peking, China. Later dated roughly 750,000 years old.

1976: Communist revolutionary Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado

Source: Onthisday.com