A sea wall on the Zuider Zee broke, flooding 72 villages and leaving 10,000 dead in 1421. William Caxton published the first book in England to be printed on a printing press in 1477. St. Peter's Basilica was consecrated in 1626. Members of the People's Temple cult in Jonestown, Guyana, committed mass murder/suicide in 1978. Hours after members assassinated Congressman Leo Ryan, who had come to investigate the cult, they drank poisoned Kool-Aid on the orders of cult leader Jim Jones. There were 270 children amongst the 918 dead. A fire in the Kings Cross/St. Pancras tube station killed 31 people in 1987.
Born today: Margaret Atwood (1939), Graham Parker (1950), Kim Wilde (1960) and Peter Schmeichel (1963).
It is Buß- und Bettag in Saxony.
