On this day in 1521, Martin Luther, German theologian and leader of the Reformation, was declared an outlaw by the Edict of Worms for his religious beliefs. He confirmed the Augsburg Confession in 1530,
establishing the Lutheran Church.
On this day in 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte of France was crowned king of Italy.
On this day in 1896, Dow Jones & Company, a financial publishing firm, began to publish an industrial average, using the stocks of 12 companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The average was a simple total of the prices of these stocks, divided by 12.
On this day in 1985, a cyclone and a tsunami hit the Bay of Bengal, killing 25,000 people and leaving some 300,000 others homeless.