383 – Gratian (Flavius Gratianus), Emperor of Rome (375-383), murdered at 25
1248 – The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht.
1258 – Regent George Mouzalon and his brothers are killed during a coup headed by the aristocratic faction under, paving the way for its leader, Michael VIII Palaiologos, to ultimately usurp the throne of the Empire of Nicaea.
1530 – Ivan the Terrible, Russian ruler (d. 1584) was born.
1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1688 – Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer, pirate and admiral of the English navy (b. 1635) died.
1718 - Hundreds of French colonists arrive in Louisiana; New Orleans, founded
1768 – James Cook begins his first voyage.
1829 – President Jackson makes an offer to buy Texas, but Mexican government refuses
1835 – The New York Sun perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax.
1900 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher,(Zarathustra) dies at 55
1914 – World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts are lost.
1916 – The United States National Park Service is created.
1920 – Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends with the Red Army’s defeat.
1930 – Sean Connery, Scottish actor and producer was born.
1931 – Regis Philbin, American actor, singer, and television host was born.
1939 – The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power.
1942 – Nathen Deal, (Rep-D-Georgia)Present Governor – Born
1942 – Walter Williams, US, rock vocalist (O’Jays-Use to Be My Girl) Born
1942 – World War II: second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by an Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged.
1944 – Paris is liberated after more than four years of Nazi occupation by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division and General Charles de Gaulle who had been the leader of the free French forces enters Paris the next day.
1944 – Conrad Black, Canadian historian and author was birthed
1945 – John Birch, American intelligence officer and missionary (b. 1918) Dies
1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: “Confrontation
Day” between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
1945 – After nearly 4 years away from home children are being reunited with parents, some who were evacuated to as far away as America, these children and parents will have a lot of catching up to do as well as adjusting back to a very different life. Many of the children were evacuated to rural areas in England and America and are going back to large cities.
1949 – Gene Simmons,([Chaim Witz], Haifa Israel) Bass / Vocal (Kiss and Wicked Lester) was birthed.
1950 – President Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike.
1951 – Rob Halford, English singer-songwriter (Judas Priest, 2wo, Halford, and Fight) was born.
1952 – Puerto Rico becomes a US commonwealth
1954 – Elvis Costello, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer was born.
1958 – Tim Burton, American director, producer, and screenwriter was born.
1962 – Vivian Campbell, Irish guitarist and songwriter (Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Dio, Thin Lizzy, and Sweet Savage) was born.
1965 – Mia Zapata, American singer (The Gits) (d. 1993)Born
1966 – Derek Sherinian, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (Planet X, Dream Theater, and Black Country Communion) was born.
1967 – Jeff Tweedy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Wilco, Loose Fur, and Uncle Tupelo) was born.
1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, the leader of the American Nazi party has been shot and killed by a sniper at a shopping centre in Arlington, Virginia. George Lincoln Rockwell founded the American Nazi Party in 1959 which was originally known as the World Union of Free Enterprise and National Socialists.
1967 – The Beatles Go to Bangor in Wales to study Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi prior to the time spent on a training course in Rishikesh, India in 1968 where much of their White Album was written.
1968 – Spider One, American musician (Powerman 5000) Born
1970 – Claudia Schiffer, Rheinbach Germany, super model (Elle, Rolling Stone) Born
1984 – Truman Capote, American author (In Cold Blood), dies of liver cancer at 59
1985 – Samantha Smith, American actress and activist (b. 1972) died.
1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the second to last planet in the Solar System at the time.
1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.
2009 – United States Senator Edward Kennedy died on this day of brain cancer at the age of 77. Edward was the brother of assassinated US president John F. Kennedy and served as a Massachusetts senator for forty-seven years.
2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.
2012 – Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930) died.