OTD:

In 216 BCE, the Battle of Cannae took place in Italy during the Second Punic War, where Hannibal's Carthaginian army achieved a decisive victory over the Romans using the double envelopment maneuver, significantly weakening Roman military power.

In 1922, Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, passed away in England, leaving a legacy that revolutionized global communication and laid the foundation for the telecommunications industry.

In 1923, Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, died of a heart attack in San Francisco, leading to Calvin Coolidge assuming the presidency and leaving behind a legacy tainted by scandals like the Teapot Dome scandal.

In 1934, Adolf Hitler became Führer of Germany, consolidating his power following President Paul von Hindenburg's death, establishing a totalitarian regime that led to World War II and the Holocaust.

In 1939, Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from New York City, warning about Nazi Germany's potential to develop an atomic bomb and urging U.S. research, leading to the establishment of the Manhattan Project.

In 1980, the Gdańsk Shipyard strike began in Poland, led by Lech Wałęsa, sparking the formation of the Solidarity movement, which challenged communist authority and contributed to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

In 1990, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm by a U.S.-led coalition to liberate Kuwait, significantly impacting the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East.

In 1997, Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in Stockholm for their work on the Black-Scholes model, profoundly impacting financial markets and investment strategies.

In 2007, the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during rush hour, resulting in 13 deaths and 145 injuries, highlighting the need for significant investments in U.S. infrastructure maintenance and safety.