845: Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving

1549: The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded

1901: Edmund Barton is elected Prime Minister in Australia’s first parliamentary election

1912: Captain Robert Scott, storm-bound in a tent near South Pole, makes last entry in his diary “the end cannot be far”

1961: After a 4½ year trial Nelson Mandela is acquitted of treason in Pretoria

1974: Chinese farmers discover the Terracotta Army near Xi’an, 8,000 clay warrior statues buried to guard the tomb of China’s 1st emperor, Qin Shi Huang

1999: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 – above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever

Source: Onthisday.com