1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
1531 - Lisbon hit by Earthquake; about 30,000 die
1788 - Captain Arthur Phillip and British colonists hoist the Union Flag at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, now celebrated as Australia Day
1827 - Peru declared independence.
1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
1905 - World's largest diamond, the 3,106-carat Cullinan, is found in South Africa
1915 - Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the United States Congress.
1950 – India is formally declared as a Republic in British Comonvelt.
1978 - A rare severe blizzard with the lowest non-tropical atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the U.S. until October 2010, strikes the Ohio - Great Lakes region with heavy snow and winds up to 100 mph (161 km/h).
