Today in History in 1792 in Washington, DC, the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 79 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

54 – Roman Empire emperor Claudius dies after being poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Nero becomes Emperor.

409 – Vandals and Alans cross the Pyrenees and reach Hispania, present-day Spain.

1307 – All Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into "admitting" heresy.

1399 – Henry IV of England is crowned King. He founds the Royal House of Lancaster.

1582 – Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

1644 – A Swedish-Dutch fleet defeats the Danes and captures about 1,000 prisoners.

1710 – Port Royal, capital of French Acadia, falls in a siege to British forces.

1773 – Charles Messier discovers the Whirlpool Galaxy.

1775 – The United States Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later renamed the United States Navy).

1792 – In Washington, DC, the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid.

1803 – The first European settlement in Victoria, Australia, is started at Sullivan Bay, Victoria.

1812 – War of 1812: Battle of Queenston Heights – On the Niagara frontier in Ontario, Canada, United States forces under General Stephen Van Rensselaerof are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock.

1825 – Ludwig I of Bavaria becomes King.

1843 – In New York City, Henry Jones and 11 others found B'nai B'rith (the oldest Jewish service organization in the world).

1845 – A majority of voters in the Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution, that if accepted by the U.S. Congress, will make Texas a U.S. state.

1881 – First known conversation in modern Hebrew by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and a group of his friends.

1884 – Greenwich, London is decided as the place that the 0 degree longitude line will pass through.

1885 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is founded of Atlanta, Georgia.

1898 – British passenger ship Mohegan crashes into a reef off Cornwall, sinking within 12 minutes, killing 106 people.

1911 – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn becomes the first British royal to be Governor-General of Canada.

1914 – The Boston Braves complete a 4-games to 0 win over the Philadelphia Athletics at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts in the first such victory in Baseball World Series history.

1917 – "Miracle of the Sun" is said to have been seen by 70,000 people in Fatima, Portugal.

1918 – Talaat Pasha and the Young Turk (C.U.P.) ministry resign and sign an armistice, ending Ottoman participation in World War I.

1921 – The Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia sign the Treaty of Kars with the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to determine modern borders between Turkey and the Southern Caucasus states.

1923 – Ankara replaces Istanbul as capital city of Turkey.

1943 – World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.

1944 – World War II: Riga, Latvia is occupied by the Red Army.

1945 – The Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the main political party of Bavaria, is founded.

1946 – France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.

1958 – Debut of Paddington Bear fictional character, created by Michael Bond.

1960 – 1960 World Series: Baseball player Bill Mazeroski becomes the first person to end a World Series with a home run.

1962 – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on Broadway.

1967 – The first game of the American Basketball Association is played in Oakland, California, as the Oakland Oaks defeat the Anaheim Amigos 134-129.

1970 – Fiji joins the UN.

1972 – An Aeroflot Ilyushin-62 crashed outside Moscow killing 176

1972 – Andes flight disaster: Fairchild passenger plane transporting a rugby team crashes in Andes. They are found alive December 20 but they have had to resort to cannibalism to survive, as chronicled in the 1993 movie Alive: The Miracle of the Andes.

1976 – A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia killing 100 (97, mostly children killed on the ground)

1976 – The first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle was obtained by Dr. F.A. Murphy, now at U.C. Davis, who was then working at the C.D.C..

1977 – Four Palestinians hijack a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction.

1990 – End of the Lebanese Civil War: Syrian forces launch an attack on the free areas of Lebanon, removing Michel Aoun from the Presidential Palace.

1992 – An Antonov An-124 operated by Antonov Airlines crashes near Kiev, Ukraine, killing 8 people.

1995 – Microsoft releases Windows 95.

1999 – The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

2003 – The Public Library of Science commences publication of an open-access scientific journal, PLoS Biology.

2006 – Ban Ki-moon is chosen to succeed Kofi Annan as UN Secretary-General.

2006 – Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank win the Nobel Peace Prize.

2010 – Miracle of Copiapo: 33 miners, who survived for a record 69 days, trapped underground in the San José mine in Chile, are rescued, in a rescue operation that was followed by people around the world.

2016 – Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand, dies aged 88 after more than 70 years on the throne. He was the world's longest-serving head of state at the time of his death.

2016 – Bob Dylan becomes the first singer-songwriter to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

2016 – The Maldives announce their withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Nations.

2017 – The United States and Israel announce their withdrawal from UNESCO.

2019 – Simone Biles becomes the most-successful ever gymnast at the World Gymnastics Championships.