1173: Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury

1613: Michael Romanov, son of Patriarch of Moscow, elected first Russian Tsar of the house of Romanov

1804: 1st locomotive, Richard Trevithick’s, runs for the 1st time, along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

1916: World War I: Battle of Verdun begins with a German offensive, leads to an estimated 1 million casualties and becomes the longest battle of the entire war (9 months)

1922 Britain declares Egypt a sovereign state

1972: Richard Nixon becomes the first US President to visit China, normalizing relations between the countries in a meeting with Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing

Source: Onthisday.com