Some notable facts about this date, for more, visit http://www.onthisday.com
Facts
54 Nero succeeds Claudius as Roman Emperor
1307 French King Philip IV has Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Knights Templar arrested and charged of idolatry and corruption
1884 Greenwich in London established as the universal time meridian of longitude
1943 Italy declares war on former Axis partner Germany
1944 US 1st army begins battle of Aachen, first German city captured during WWII
2010 Copiapó mining accident in Chile comes to a happy end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground
Deaths
54 Claudius, Roman Emperor, dies of poison mushrooms at 63
1282 Nichiren Japanese founder of Nichiren Buddhism (b. 1222)
1812 Isaac Brock, English general (conquered Detroit), dies in battle at 43
1905 Henry Irving [John Brodribb], British Victorian actor, 1st actor to receive a knighthood (knighted 1895), dies at 67
1945 Milton S. Hershey, American chocolate tycoon (The Hershey Chocolate Company), dies at 86
1974 Ed Sullivan, TV host (Ed Sullivan Show, Toast of the Town), dies at 73
1987 Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist (transistors, Nobel 1956), dies at 85
1996 Beryl Reid, actress (Yellowbeard, Psychomania), dies at 76
2012 Helmut Haller, German footballer, dies from Parkinson's disease and dementia at 73
Nice history I think.