2012: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.
2001: An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
1990: A seven-day pogrom breaks out against the Armenian civilian population of Baku, Azerbaijan, during which Armenians were beaten, tortured, murdered, and expelled from the city.
1986: A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
1985: A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
1982: Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.
1978: United States Food and Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.
1953: An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.
1942: World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
1942: Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1939: The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
1935: A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
1915: The 6.7 Mw Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978-32,610.
1910: The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the operas Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
1842: Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
1840: The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
1815: War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
1797: French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.