On this date

1582 — Pope Gregory XIII issued an edict outlining his calendar reforms. (The Gregorian Calendar is the calendar in general use today.)

1761 — Boston lawyer James Otis Jr. went to court to argue against “writs of assistance” that allowed British customs officers to arbitrarily search people’s premises, declaring: “A man’s house is his castle.” (Although Otis lost the case, his statement provided early inspiration for American independence.)

1918 — Estonia issued its Declaration of Independence.

1920 — The German Workers Party, which later became the Nazi Party, met in Munich to adopt its platform.

1937 — Mexico observed the first holiday honoring its national flag.

1942 — The SS Struma, a charter ship attempting to carry nearly 800 Jewish refugees from Romania to British-mandated Palestine, was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea; all but one of the refugees perished.

1955 — The Cole Porter musical “Silk Stockings” opened at the Imperial Theater on Broadway.

1968 — “Fleetwood Mac,” the group’s debut album, was released in the United Kingdom on the Blue Horizon label.

1975 — The Congressional Budget Office, charged with providing independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues, began operating under its first director, Alice Rivlin.

1983 — A congressional commission released a report condemning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as a “grave injustice.”

1988 — In a ruling that expanded legal protections for parody and satire, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a $150,000 award that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had won against Hustler magazine and its publisher, Larry Flynt.

1996 — Cuba downed two small American planes operated by the group Brothers to the Rescue that it claimed were violating Cuban airspace; all four pilots were killed.