Today in History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
1816 - Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state.
1816 - Citizens of Geneva, Switzerland repel attack by Savoy
1931 - Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland
1937 - Edward VIII’s abdication as King of the United Kingdom becomes effective
1941 - Germany and Italy declare war on the United States
1946 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established
1954 - The American Nuclear Society is founded
1971 - The United States Libertarian Party is formed
1972 - Apollo 17 lands on the Moon

Births
1725 - George Mason, U.S. patriot, "Father of the Bill of Rights" (d. 1792)
1781 - Sir David Brewster, physicist (d. 1868)
1803 - Hector Berlioz, composer (d. 1869)
1843 - Robert Koch, bacteriologist and 1905 Nobel laureate (d. 1910)
1863 - Annie Jump Cannon, astronomer (d. 1941)
1918 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, 1970 Nobel laureate

Deaths
1282 - Llywelyn the Last, Prince of Wales
1945 - Charles Fabry, physicist
1950 - Leslie Comrie, astronomer and computing pioneer (b. 1893)

Annual events
Tango Day, Buenos Aires