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1284 - The Venetian Council of Forty approves the gold ducat, the origin of the ducat coin.

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1517 - German priest and scholar Martin Luther nails a piece of paper to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. The paper contains 95 revolutionary opinions that begins the Protestant Reformation.

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1620 - Birth of John Evelyn British diarist (Life of Mrs Godolphin).

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1632 - Birth of Jan Vermeer Holland, painter (Procuress, The Astronomer).

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1641 - Spanish galleon Concepción strikes a coral reef off the Bahamas, breaking up, dumping its huge load of treasure.

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1759 - Earthquake in Safed Palestine kills hundred.

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1793 - Execution of the Girondins at Paris, during the Reign of Terror.

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1795 - Birth of John Keats London, England, romantic poet (Ode to a Grecian Urn).

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1815 - Birth of Karl Weierstrass Germany, mathematician (theory of functions).

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1815 - Sir Humphrey Davy of London patents miner's safety lamp.

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