Belisarius enters Rome unopposed as Gothic garrison flees (536), and British forces take Bushehr, a Persian port on the Gulf (1856). Born on this day: John Milton, Fritz Haber and Kirk Douglas. Died: Nils Dalén, Pius IV and Anthony van Dyck.
27 events, 66 births and 64 deaths on this date.
Belisarius, the Byzantine commander serving Emperor Justinian, walked into Rome without a fight as the Gothic troops holding it pulled out. The city's recapture was a major gain in the wider campaign to win back Italy from the Goths.
Meister von San Vitale in Ravenna · Public domainDuring the Anglo-Persian War, British troops seized Bushehr, the main Persian Gulf port, after a short bombardment from the sea. The occupation gave Britain a foothold on Iran's southern coast and helped force Persia to end its siege of Herat.
Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, handed the holy city to British forces during the First World War. It marked a major loss of Ottoman territory in the Middle East.
Pinchback, a Black politician who had risen through Reconstruction-era Louisiana politics, took over as governor when Henry Warmoth was removed from office by impeachment. He became the first African American to lead a U.S. state, a milestone in a turbulent period of the state's history.
A commission of scientists convened by the World Health Organization officially certified smallpox as wiped out across the world. No other human illness has been fully wiped out to date, making smallpox a unique case in medical history.
A lorry packed with 160 migrants from Central America rolled over on a road in Chiapas, Mexico, leaving 55 dead and more than 100 hurt. The crash highlighted the dangers faced by people travelling north in trucks to escape poverty and violence.
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John Milton was an English poet and civil servant best remembered for Paradise Lost, his epic retelling of the fall of Adam and Eve. His essay Areopagitica, which argued against censorship before publication, remains one of the strongest defences of free speech in English.
anonymous · Public domain
German chemist whose process for making ammonia from air and hydrogen underpins modern fertiliser, feeding a large share of the world. He won the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, though his wartime chlorine gas work left a dark legacy.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Kirk Douglas was an American actor and producer who became a leading box-office star in the 1950s, known for intense dramas, westerns and war films. He was nominated for three Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe for playing Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life.
Unknown photographer · Public domain
Swedish engineer and inventor whose automatic regulators let gas-lit lighthouses and buoys switch on at dusk and off at dawn without keepers. He won the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physics for the work.
Atelier Jaeger · Public domain
Pius IV presided over the final sitting of the 16th-century gathering at Trent that set the direction of Catholic reform. He also governed the Papal States and started several building works in Rome, including a project to bring water into the city.
Circle of Scipione Pulzone · Public domain
Flemish painter who became the leading court portraitist in England, best known for his elegant portraits of Charles I and the aristocracy. His style shaped English portrait painting for more than a century and a half after his death.
Anthony van Dyck · Public domain
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