1922: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed. The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics  was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991. See also @issue: The Resurgence of Russia.

1903: The Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 600. Although the theater was advertised at completely fireproof, numerous deficiencies were present including a lack of sufficient exits, extinguishers, water connections, sprinklers or alarms.

1972: Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes on approach to Miami International Airport, killing 101. See also TWA800 Crash.

1921: Mackenzie King sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada on the defeat of Arthur Meighen in the House of Commons. He is Canada’s 10th Prime Minister.

1978:  With the crew investigating a problem with the landing gear, United Airlines Flight 173 runs out of fuel and crashes in Portland, Oregon, killing 10 people and seriously injuring 24 of the 189 on board.

1908: The Messina Earthquake and Tsunami strikes Calabria and Sicily in Italy, killing over 72,000 and perhaps as much as 120,000, and destroying most of Messina and much of Reggio di Calabria. This is one of the worst natural disasters in European History. Buildings in the area were typically not built to withstand earthquakes.  See also Earthquake Simulation.

1979: The USSR invades Afghanistan. The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year proxy war during the Cold war involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Due to the interminable nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has sometimes been referred to as the “Soviet Union’s Vietnam War” or “the Bear Trap”.  See also @issue: The Resurgence of Russia.

1836: The deadliest avalanche in the United Kingdom occurs in Lewes, Sussex, killing eight people and destroying a row of workers’ cottages when a huge build-up of snow on a chalk cliff overlooking the town collapses into the settlement 100 metres below.    See also Learning from Past Disasters

2004: A 9.3 magnitude earthquake off Sumatra, Indonesia creates a tsunami that devastates Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and other areas on the Indian Ocean rim, killing over 230,000 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. See also Commentary on 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

1976:  A fire at a nursing home fire kills 21 elderly residents in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

1990: Tim Berners-Lee implements the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet. This marks the beginning of the World Wide Web.

1989: Nicolae Ceauşescu, former communist President of Romania, and his wife, First-Deputy Prime-Minister Elena are condemned to death and executed.

1953: In a highly unusual chain of events, a volcanic eruption in New Zealand causes a flood that sweeps away a train filled with passengers, killing more than 150 people. The charging lake water slammed into the Tangiwai Railroad Bridge and weakened it so much that when the train came to the bridge, it gave way, sending six cars of the train plunging into the flood water.

1906: Canadian physicist and inventor Reginald Fessenden transmits what is possibly the world’s first radio broadcast of entertainment and music to a general audience. He makes the broadcast from his station near Boston, featuring his wife singing and Fessenden himself playing ‘O Holy Night’ on his violin to sailors on ships in the Atlantic and Caribbean. He also sings carols, reads the Bible.

1947: The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories, later becoming the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices. The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is ubiquitous in modern electronic systems. Following its development in the early 1950s the transistor revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators and computers.

1900: Canadian physicist and inventor  Reginald Fessenden, whilst experimenting with a high-frequency spark transmitter, successfully transmitted speech via radio technology over a distance of about 1.6 kilometers, which appears to have been the first audio radio transmission.

1989: Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate crossing reopens for the first time since August 1961, a period of over 28 years, signalling the reunification of East and West Germany after the Fall of the Berlin Wall.          See also @issue: The Resurgence of Russia

1967: Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau, in presenting his Omnibus Bill reforming the Criminal Code, tells the House of Commons that “There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” His bill calls for decriminalization of ‘homosexual acts’ performed in private and making it legal for women to get an abortion if a committee of three doctors feels the pregnancy endangers the mental, emotional or physical well-being of the mother.

1963: Intercommunal violence in Cyprus between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots begins. See alsoTough Love at the Table – Would You Like That Super-Sized on Your Way Out of This Bunker

1946: An 8.1 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunamis hit Nankaido, Japan. 1,362 deaths, with over 2,600 people injured and 100 missing. Over 38,000 houses destroyed or severely damaged in all. See also An Ounce of Prevention: Earthquake Simulation