1525: Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz’s mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union

1789: The first American novel, William Hill Brown’s “The Power of Sympathy” is published by Isaiah Thomas

1793: Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for “high treason” by the newly created French Parliament (Convention nationale), during the French Revolution

1952: Jawaharlal Nehru’s Congress Party wins India’s first general election

1968: Battle of Khe Sanh begins at the Khe Sanh Air Base, one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War

2008: Fears of a possible US recession cause a Black Monday for global stock markets, European stocks suffer their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%

Source: Onthisday.com