1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744) was born.
1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned six and a half years later.
1851 – Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of “Bloody Week”, some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C.
1911 – President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
1917 – The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.
1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover’s severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan’s most notorious scandals.
1943 – Hilton Valentine, English guitarist and songwriter (The Animals) was born.
1947 – Bill Champlin, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Chicago and Sons of Champlin) was born.
1951 – Al Franken, American actor, screenwriter, and politician was birthed.
1952 – Mr. T, American actor and wrestler was born.
1955 – Stan Lynch, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) was born.
1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
1963 – Kevin Shields, American-Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (My Bloody Valentine, The Complex, and Primal Scream) was born.
1967 – Chris Benoit, Canadian-American wrestler (d. 2007, in double murder-suicide) was born.
1972 – Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (d. 1997) was born.
1976 – Deron Miller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (CKY, World Under Blood, and Foreign Objects) was born.
1978 – Adam Gontier, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Three Days Grace and Big Dirty Band) was born.
1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1980 – Chris Raab, American actor and stuntman was born.
1981 – The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
1981 – Patsy O’Hara, Irish activist (b. 1957) died (Hungry Strike)
1981 – Raymond McCreesh, Irish activist (b. 1957) died (Hungry Strike)
1988 – Sammy Davis, Sr., American actor and dancer (b. 1900) died.
1992 – After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
1998 – In Miami, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
2011 – Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.
2014 – A knife attack on a Taipei Metro train leaves four people dead and almost two dozen others injured.
2014 – The National September 11 Museum opens to the public.
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