962: Under future Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, Byzantine troops storm the city of Aleppo and recover the tattered tunic of John the Baptist during the Arab–Byzantine wars

1688: King James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, flees to France from William of Orange

1783: US General George Washington resigns his military commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army to Congress

1888: Vincent van Gogh cuts off part of his left ear with a razor after an argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin and sends it to a female courtesan for safekeeping

1913: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act, establishing the modern central banking system of the United States to manage the money supply and promote financial stability

1920: Government of Ireland Act / Home Rule Act passes, partitioning Ireland

1954: First successful human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts

1968: Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders become the first people to orbit the Moon aboard Apollo 8

Source: Onthisday.com