161: Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, an unprecedented political arrangement in the Roman Empire

1530: English King Henry VIII’s divorce request is denied by Pope Clement VII

1876: Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for the telephone in the US

1912: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen announces his team was the first to reach the South Pole (located 14 December 1911), 34 days before British explorer Robert Falcon Scott

1936: German dictator Adolf Hitler breaks the Treaty of Versailles by sending troops into the then demilitarized Rhineland

Source: Onthisday.com