Some notable facts about this date, for more, visit http://www.onthisday.com
Facts
1138 Earthquake in Aleppo, Syria, kills an estimated 230,000
1634 Burchardi flood - "the second Grote Mandrenke" kills about 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany
1737 Earthquake kills 300,000 and destroys half of Calcutta, India
1797 Battle of Camperdown (Kamperduin): British navy defeats Dutch fleet
1945 Chinese civil war begins between Kuomintang government led by Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong's Communist Party
1962 Second Vatican Council (21st ecumenical) convened by Pope John XXIII
1986 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev open talks at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland
Deaths
1188 Robert I of Dreux, son of Louis VI of France
1779 Casimir Pulaski, Polish military leader (called the father of American cavalry), killed in action at 34
1809 Meriwether Lewis, (Lewis & Clark Expedition), commits suicide at 35
1971 Chesty Puller, the most decorated Marine in history (b. 1898)
1999 J. Franklin Hyde, American inventor (created silica), dies at 96
2007 David Lee "Tex" Hill, World War Two fighter pilot, flying ace, 1st American Volunteer Group (b. 1915)