Some notable facts about this date, for more, visit http://www.onthisday.com
Facts
1240 Mongols under Batu Khan occupy & destroy Kiev
1865 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery
1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty signed; Ireland receives dominion status; partition creates Northern Ireland
1998 Hugo Chávez is elected President of Venezuela
2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars
Deaths
343 Saint Nicholas [Nikolaos of Myra], Greek Bishop who became the model for Santa Claus, dies at 73
1889 Jefferson Davis, President of Confederate States of America (1861-65), dies at 81
1892 [Ernst] Werner von Siemens, German inventor and industrialist (siemens electrical conductance unit and Siemens corporation), dies at 75
1949 Lead Belly, [Huddie William Ledbetter], blues singer, dies at 64
1955 Honus Wagner, American Hall of Fame baseball player (Pirates), dies at 81
1966 Hermann Heiss, composer, dies at 68
1972 Janet Munro, actress (Crawling Eye, Swiss Family Robinson), dies at 38
1990 Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's founding father, 1st Prime Minister of Malaya (1957-63) and Malaysia (1963-70), dies at 87
1993 Don Ameche, actor (Cocoon), dies of prostate cancer at 85
2016 Peter Vaughan, British actor (Porridge, Game of Thrones), dies at 92
Born on this day
1977 Andrew Flintoff, English cricketer
1979 Tim Cahill, Australian footballer
A Couple of Pics from those no longer with us
Don Ameche
Peter Vaughan