335 – Church of Holy Sepulchre initiated in Jerusalem
642 – Arabs conquer Alexandria, library destroyed
1394 – Jews are expelled from France by order of King Charles VI
1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.
1683 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek reports existence of bacteria
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Invasion of Canada begins with the Siege of Fort St. Jean.
1778 – The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed. It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware Indians).
1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.
1814 – Francis Scott Key finishes his poem “Defence of Fort McHenry”, later to be the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.
1835 – Charles Darwins lands on Chatham Galapagos-archipelago
1849 – Harriet Tubman 1st escapes slavery in Maryland with two of her brothers
1850 – Great fire in San Francisco
1858 – Dred Scott, US ex-slave who sought to sue for his freedom, dies of tuberculosis at 62 or 63
1859 – Joshua Abraham Norton, born in England but a resident of San Francisco, proclaims himself his Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States of America. Eccentric possibly, but 30,000 turned up for his funeral.
1862 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American military history.
1868 – Roman Nose (Wiquini), Cheyenne indian leader, dies
1883 – William Carlos Williams, American poet – Born
1900 – Commonwealth of Australia proclaimed
1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality.
1909 – Denis Peyrony and Louis Capitan discover the skull of an adult male Neanderthal (La Ferrassie 1) during excavations in a rock shelter near La Ferrassie, France
1911 – 1st transcontinental airplane flight, NY-Pasadena in 82 hrs 4 min
1916 – World War I: Manfred von Richthofen (“The Red Baron”), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
1920 – National Football League organizes in Canton Ohio 12 teams pay $100 each to join American Prof Football Association
1923 – Hank Williams, country singer (Cold, Cold Heart, Hey Good Lookin’)Born
1926 – Bill Black, rocker (Bass for Elvis!)Born
1928 – Roddy McDowall, English-American actor (Planet of the Apes), singer, and producer (d. 1998) was born.
1939 – World War II: The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
1939 – World War II: A German U-boat U 29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous.
1940 – World War II: Following the German defeat in the Battle of Britain, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.
1941 – World War II: A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch in the face of the Great Patriotic War, is issued.
1941 – World War II: Soviet forces enter Teheran marking the end of the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.
1943 – World War II: The Russian city of Bryansk is liberated from Germans.
1945 – Phil Jackson, Deer Lodge Montana, American basketball player and coach (Knicks/Bulls/Lakers)Born
1948 – The Lehi (also known as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations and Israel.
1951 – Cassandra Peterson, [Elvira], KS, actress (Echo Park, Elvira)Born
1952 – “I am an American Day” & “Constitution Day” renamed “Citizenship Day”
1956 – Television is first broadcast in Australia.
1960 – Cuba nationalizes US banks
1964 – “Bewitched” premieres on ABC TV
1965 – Yuji Naka, Japanese video game designer, created Sonic the Hedgehog was born.
1969 – Keith Flint, singer/musician (Prodigy) Born
1972 – “M*A*S*H,” premieres on NBC TV
1972 – BART begins passenger service in SF
1975 – Rollout of 1st space shuttle orbiter Enterprise (OV-101)
1978 – The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt.
1980 – Anastasio Somoza, former Nicaraguan Pres, assassinated in Paraguay
1986 – Bomb attack in Paris, 6 killed
1987 – Pope John Paul II embraces an AIDS-infected boy while visiting San Francisco.
1989 – Hurricane Hugo begins 4 day sweep through Caribbean, killing 62
1989 – Jay Stewart, annoucer on Lets Make a Deal, commits suicide
1991 – Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.
1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
1996 – Spiro Agnew, American soldier and politician, 39th Vice President of the United States (b. 1918) died.
1997 – Red Skelton, American actor, singer, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1913) died.
2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.
2006 – An audio tape of a private speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány is leaked to the public, in which he confessed that his Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election, sparking widespread protests across the country.
2007 – AOL, once the largest ISP in the U.S., officially announces plans to refocus the company as an advertising business and to relocate its corporate headquarters from Dulles, Virginia to New York, New York.
2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City.
2012 – United States and Japanese government officials agree to put a second missile defense system in Japan
2013 – Marvin Rainwater, American country and rockabilly singer, dies from heart failure at 88