9 – Publius Quinctilius Varus, Roman viceroy of Syria, suicide at 59
668 – Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse, Italy.
921 – Saint Ludmila is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law at Tetin.
1254 – Marco Polo, Italian merchant traveler (d. 1324) was born.
1683 – Germantown Pa founded by 13 immigrant families
1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at Kip’s Bay during the New York Campaign.
1789 – The United States Department of State is established (formerly known as the “Department of Foreign Affairs”).
1794 – Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1725)Dies
1812 – The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.
1812 – War of 1812: A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.
1821 – Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua gain “independence”
1830 – 1st National Negro Convention begins in Phila
1830 – 1st person to be run over by a railroad train (William Huskisson, England)
1857 – William Howard Taft, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 27th President of the United States (d. 1930) was born.
1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
1885 – Jumbo, P. T. Barnum’s circus elephant (hit by a train)
1889 – Robert Benchley, Worcester MA, humorist (My 10 Years in a Quandary)Born
1890 – Agatha Christie, Torquay, Devon, mystery writer (Murder on Orient Express), (d. 1976) Born
1904 – Wilbur Wright makes his 1st airplane flight
1916 – World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
1923 – Gov Walton of Oklahoma declares state of siege because of “KKK terror”
1926 – Failed attempt on Benito Mussolini
1935 – Nuremberg Laws deprives German Jews of citizenship & makes swastika official symbol of Nazi Germany
1938 – Thomas Wolfe, American author (b. 1900) Dies.
1940 – World War II: The climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Force shoots down large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft.
1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
1944 – Battle of Peleliu begins as the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Marine Division and the United States Army’s 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery.
1946 – Oliver Stone, NYC, director (JFK, Wall St, Good Morning Vietnam, Platoon)Born
1946 – Tommy Lee Jones, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter was born.
1947 – RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube.
1949 – “Lone Ranger” premieres on ABC-TV
1950 – UN lands at Inchon to drive North Korean troops out of the south
1952 – The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia.
1958 – Dr. Know, American guitarist (Bad Brains) Born
1959 – Soviet Premier Khrushchev arrives in US to begin a 13-day visit
1962 – The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1963 – 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: Four children killed at an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States
1964 – Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein, American guitarist and songwriter (The Misfits and Kryst the Conqueror) was born.
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
1971 – 1st broadcast of “Columbo” on NBC-TV
1976 – Paul Thomson, Scottish drummer (Franz Ferdinand) Born
1977 – Pres Carter meets with 15 record company execs (Quid Pro Quo)
1978 – Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft builder, dies at 80
1978 – Muhammad Ali outpointed Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title 3 times at the Superdome in New Orleans.
1980 – Bill Evans, US jazz pianist, dies of a bleeding ulcer at 51
1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1981 – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.
1984 – Henry Charles Albert David, Prince of Wales, 3rd in British succession
1985 – Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid concert
1987 – United States Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sign a treaty to establish centers to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
2004 – National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.
2004 – Johnny Ramone, American lead guitarist of the punk rock band The Ramones. Dies of Cancer
2008 – Richard Wright, English singer/songwriter (Pink Floyd), dies of cancer at 65
2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.
2013 – 27 people are killed after a coal mine collapses in Afghanistan
2013 – Japan switches off its last working nuclear reactor