1542 – Mary Queen of Scots is born and became the monarch when she was 6 days old.
1881 – A fire at the Ring Theater in Vienna, Austria, kills between 620 and 850 people and injures hundreds more.
1941 – The United States declares war on Japan.
1969 – President Nixon announces that the Vietnam War is ending.
1980 – John Lennon is shot and killed outside his Manhattan apartment.
1987 – President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign their first treaty agreeing to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
