Some notable facts about this date, for more, visit http://www.onthisday.com
Facts
1009 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock
1685 French King Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes cancelling rights of French Protestants
1867 US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia having paid $7.2 million
1922 British Broadcasting Company (BBC) founded, later called British Broadcasting Corporation
1931 American gangster Al Capone convicted of tax evasion
1962 James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK) and Maurice Wilkins (UK) win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA
Deaths
707 John VII, Catholic Pope (705-07), of Greek ancestry, dies
1541 Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland (b. 1489)
1865 Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, British Prime Minister (1855-58 and 1859-65), dies of fever at 80
1931 Thomas Edison, American inventor (lightbulb, phonograph, motion picture camera), dies at 84
1978 Jacques Mornard, [Ramon Mercader], murderer of Trotsky, dies at 64
2005 Johnny Haynes, English footballer (b. 1934)
2008 Dee Dee Warwick, American soul singer (b. 1945)
2013 Tom Foley, American politician (Rep-D, 1965-1995) and speaker of the house (1989-95), dies from complications from a stroke at 84
Born on this day
1987 Zac Efron, American actor (High School Musical, 17 Again), born in San Luis Obispo, California,